Conscious or unconscious?

[rgraham666]

Because of some of the comments that I've received on my latest I've been thinking (I know, don't strain anything )

And I'm wondering.

Specifically people mentioned, I don't know what the word is, subtext maybe, but the little fillips that added depth to that story.

Specifically the mirror scene. I know, bad, mirror scene, ugh. But it obviously worked. The final scene, where all the sex was, was played out in front of a full length mirror. The woman often looked into it and could see the changes in herself as the act progressed.

Now when I wrote that, I didn't exactly think about it. It was more, 'I believe a mirror would work well here'. It wasn't a conscious decision, not really. The things people commented on weren't what I planned and I didn't really notice them until people pointed it out.

So how about you? Do you deliberately plan things to add depth to your stories? Or is it just a decision that seem right at the time you made it?

 

[impressive]

The story leads, I follow. (I'm a submissive author, apparently.)

 

[Guest]

The story leads, I follow. (I'm a submissive author, apparently.)

LMAO!!!

Rob, I loved the mirror scene in your latest. (Six pages, you devil. Excellent story - both versions. I voted even though I didn't leave public comments.)

That isn't a typical mirror scene, of course, and it is integral to the plot line.

Sometimes I sweat to find the proper ending, the proper line, the proper anything. Sometimes it falls right into play.

So for me I suppose it's a little of both.

 

[dizzylia]

I would say the story is in charge of me most of the time, not the other way around. I'm merely a conduit.

As for the mirror scene, using a mirror does not automatically detract from a scene. A device used properly is simply a tool, not a crutch. Now if you were being lazy and using the mirror because you couldn't find a better way to describe it, that would be another story.

Actually, that would be many other stories I'm sure we've all read.

Excellent story.


-dizzy

 

[neonlyte]

Haven't read it yet Rob, hoilday here tomorrow (today now) I'll treat myself to a read. As for your question, largely unconscious on short works... and I have no idea why.

Short works generally write themselves (for me) over a day or two, germ of an idea and the story spills out often with surprising direction / detail that I'm barely aware of before seeing the words. I added a sentence about the filming of the Hitchcock's Psycho to a story today - where the hell did that come from? It ties the story to a location, an observation a character makes that was otherwise floating. Now the conscious decisions... something quite different, much more difficult for me to write.

 

[S-Des]

Because of some of the comments that I've received on my latest I've been thinking (I know, don't strain anything )

And I'm wondering.

Specifically people mentioned, I don't know what the word is, subtext maybe, but the little fillips that added depth to that story.

Specifically the mirror scene. I know, bad, mirror scene, ugh. But it obviously worked. The final scene, where all the sex was, was played out in front of a full length mirror. The woman often looked into it and could see the changes in herself as the act progressed.

Now when I wrote that, I didn't exactly think about it. It was more, 'I believe a mirror would work well here'. It wasn't a conscious decision, not really. The things people commented on weren't what I planned and I didn't really notice them until people pointed it out.

So how about you? Do you deliberately plan things to add depth to your stories? Or is it just a decision that seem right at the time you made it?

For my romance story, I had an ending that just rubbed me the wrong way. Since it was my first try at the category, I wasn't sure if it was my insecurities or my subconscious telling me it was wrong. I eventually changed it and added about 10 MS Word pages to the story, making the resolution a little more challenging for the male lead. Everyone seemed to like it, so I'm glad I did it. It did add more depth to how the story played out, but you'd have to tell me what you think (hint hint ).

 

[Aurora Black]

So how about you? Do you deliberately plan things to add depth to your stories? Or is it just a decision that seem right at the time you made it?

Both.

 

[Liar]

Conscoius all the way. There isn't an action or item in my stories that I haven't pondered the meaning and implications of.

On the other hand, I've had readers commenting on the symbolic meaning of this or that, that I'd never considered. Sometimes they find allusions to things I don't even know about.

 

[CharleyH]

The woman often looked into it and could see the changes in herself as the act progressed.

I am sure that this sentiment (above) derived from your writing (emotions and other things surrounding that mirror moment) is what some people may have commented on, but I don't know since I did not read their comments. Still, you point it out and so I will stick with it for a second. You'll excuse me for saying that the mirror is such an overused symbol and we all have used it consciously or not. It's meaning is entrenched in a concept that goes back to the Renaissance, through Freudian psychoanalysis and into feminism. The implication of a mirror, particularly where women are concerned (looking and seeing), isn't always as positive as some believe, but that's a longer discussion than I'm wanting to put out right now.

By merely making the comment I have, you can see (chuckle) that I am with Liar on this one, even for a smut story. Even a gonzo act of sex is about something, if only about the power exchange of the act itself. If a character instantly appears naked, then that means something different than if they appeared fully clothed. Whether a female character is wearing something schoolgirlish or matronly immediately says something of her character. How a person gives or receives oral sex can not only say something about their character, but ultimately about the conflict in the narrative. This is how I approach a story.

Of course, it's quite impossible to construct absolutely everything in a piece of writing, artwork or film and certainly each different reader will have their own interpretations just as consciously or not as the writer him/herself.

 

[rgraham666]

Thanks Charley. Didn't even need my hip waders for that one.

I suppose my preference is for the unconscious.

This goes back to the first and only art form I seriously studied, the martial arts.

The martial arts are pretty much infused with the spirit of Buddhism, which searches for a state of unknowing. It's also practical as you don't usually have much time for conscious thought when you're fighting.

So you learn the techniques, practice them constantly, and they're available for you when you need them.

I'm much the same writing. Although I haven't studied, I have read a lot. So the techniques of writing are there, if subconsciously. When I'm writing, especially the first draft, I just go. I don't much 'consider' what I write, it just 'feels' right as I'm going.

On revision, I do spend a lot of time thinking about what I've written. But again this is driven not by technique but by feel. 'That paragraph doesn't work.' 'This doesn't catch the emotions properly.' 'Out of character.'

Seems to work for me.

 

[dizzylia]

Absolutely. The first draft for me is "come as you are". The second draft? "We'll just see about that."

 

[3113]

Unconscious when I start the story. However, somewhere along the line I absolutely need to figure out what my unconscious is telling me and bring it forward into consciousness. Otherwise, i won't finish the story or it won't be a very good story. For example Down to the Bone: a reader asked me for a story about a geek girl and a jock, and I agreed to give it a go. My unconscious immediately informed me that the jock was a football player. I argued with it. "How about a runner?" Nope. "Soccer?" Nope. "Baseball." NO!

Football. Why football? My unconscious also informed me that the geek was a palentologist (it would later allow me to modify this to anthopolgoist). Why? I dunno. And I argued with my subconscious, "How about a history major?" No. "Physics?" No. Law? NO!

When my unconscious makes up it's mind, it does so for a reason and it won't budge. Which is very frustrating because it means I have to work with those materials even if my conscious mind can't seem to make them work. I knew only one other thing: The Football player was going to have a knee injury. But I didn't know why (before the story? During? As the climax?). Finally, I started writing it. The girl kept talking about evolution. And a tv show I'd seen about football players kept floating to mind--the very serious injuries they took during the game. That's when the unconscious started to become conscious.

Somewhere before chapter 2, what the story was about, it's themes and symbols and such, came into focus. And that's when the unconscious writing became fully conscious, really woke up, and I started to do some very deliberate things. I revise a lot and I work very hard to put such elements in my story. And I'm always delighted when they're spotted by readers (in "Bone" it's no accident and hardly subtle that the geek takes the jock to a little crawl space nick-named "The Cave" for some R&R.).

The long and sort of it, I guess, is that my unconscious knows what it wants but not how to go about it--so all it can do is lay out the foundations of the story. It's up to my conscious mind to figure out a way to give the unconscious what it's after using the hints, clues and cornerstones that it's set down. It works, but it's a frustrating way to write a story. I'd much rather be one of those writers who either plots every little thing out down to the last detail...or a Kerouac, steam-of-conscious, go-where-the-road-takes-you-and-where-ever-you-end-up-is-right sort of writer.

I'm one of those stuck inbetween. Half-an'-half all the way.

 

[AchtungNight]

planning

I have an outline in mind at the start generally but then I leave the story itself mostly unscripted and let it spill out. It often flows better that way. So I guess I consciously choose characters and main codes, but then the action is unconsciously developed.

 

[Aurora Black]

Before I begin writing a story, I construct a general outline of what I want to happen in the plot. While I'm actually writing the story, if I suddenly get the urge to go off the beaten path, I don't fight it. Taking the occasional creative detour has served to improve my stories much more than I had ever imagined during the first "idea" phase of story development.