Constructing a Story

[Smuttyandfun]

A lot of what I write is based, even loosely in reality. Interesting people I've encountered from the time I was a kid, and whatever happened to make them stick in my head often shows up in my writing. And since I've got a long memory, I've got a lot to work with.

I might be watching the news and realize there's a story just waiting to be written about something I've just seen. Which means I have to sit down at the keyboard and get it done, even if it means that I stay up all night.

The twists and turns I incorporate into a story are usually something I've imagined but can also be based in real life. Because life really can be stranger than fiction.

Like most of the other authors have said, sometimes it only takes a little germ of an idea for a story to unfold.

 

[CyranoJ]

Where do you get your ideas for a story, something you've heard, read or experienced? There's one author on here that uses song titles, that had crossed my mind a few times when listening to certain music. For my last story it came from a newspaper article. Maybe you just dream up a scenario in your head and then put a title on it. If you would like to share with us, please do!!!

I used song titles for one of my fave stories on here, so that sounds familiar, although I'm not sure if I'm who you're referring to. Generally, I try to pick out certain scenes I want to execute and to find an organic path between them that integrates them into a coherent narrative. The connective tissue can be anything from music to modern digital culture to action show tropes to the typical beats of a detective story, it all depends on context. My Space Princess novellas were originally Literotica stories and were built around how the original Star Trek writer's bible in the Sixties structured episodes. In the best cases, the barrier between "scenes" and "connective tissue" will pretty much disappear to the point where I can't afterward tell which was which.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I based two stories on classic tales: Oedipus Rex and Pygmalion. It was fun to take inspiration from those famous sources.

Has there ever been a writer’s challenge for stories based on Greek tragedies or Shakespeare’s plays or other classic sources?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Has there ever been a writer’s challenge for stories based on Greek tragedies or Shakespeare’s plays or other classic sources?

Adds an erotic retelling of Taming of the Shrew to the plot bunny list...

 

[PennameWombat]

None of my stories here are built from any real sexual encounters nor relationships. While my earliest stories here are based around a couple of brief encounters with young ladies in my younger days, those were short and didn’t involve any actual sexual contact. Those were dumped into a vat into which many and varied chemicals were also tossed (aka, my skull) and marinated with long desire to write stories that include aliens.

There is also a long-ago dream that to this day remains a key factor.

I once worked at a municipal swimming pool, and that inspired a story. Again, the fact it’s at the pool is as much that came from that experience, no one actually threw up in the women’s changing room while I worked there . A couple of more recent dreams have inspired other stories. A request to write a mermaid story has triggered a couple. I build stories around conferences and computer programming because, well, I know the environments well for background.

The rest are from… well, it’s hard to pinpoint. Almost all of my characters are invented from whole cloth, as are the situations. I use a mixture of real and imagined locations.

As to building the full story, it depends. If a scene pops into my head, the process differs if it’s beginning, middle or end. If a character pops into my head, what are they doing? The various contests and events here are useful prompts. I also use various threads from my existing stories to build out from them.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I think the de Sade's philosophy, such as it is, is more clearly elaborated in "Justine" than in the "120 days of Sodom" (I think it's also a better literary work, such as it is).

I was assigned Justine by a college English professor (he was pretty eccentric) and I couldn't get far with it. For long thing, it's an extremely long book. This was a long time ago (about 48 years) so I'm not going to critique the book now, except to say I couldn't find a discernible plot. Others may disagree.

The professor was more interesting than the book. I used him once as a character in a story on another site.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

I was assigned Justine by a college English professor (he was pretty eccentric) and I couldn't get far with it. For long thing, it's an extremely long book. This was a long time ago (about 48 years) so I'm not going to critique the book now, except to say I couldn't find a discernible plot. Others may disagree.

Oh it's still very much a slog, even in the original French, I just think that's it better less bad as a literary work than the 120 days of Sodom.

The professor was more interesting than the book. I used him once as a character in a story on another site.

Seems like an interesting person. And he looks just a little mischievous in that picture.

 

[TheRedChamber]

It's really surprising the variety of ways in which a story can appear.

Some start with an image - a woman in a pink Ferarri pulling up at a gas station - and for months I'm trying to work out why she would be interested in the attendant in a way that's believable.

Others start with a concept - a woman who is still a virgin approaching her thirtieth birthday and being determined to do something before then.

Most interesting is when two half-baked concepts collide - realizing that a half-imagined story about dogging on the Yorkshire moors and a half-imagined story about witches on the Yorkshire moors are both happening in the same mental location, so why not put them in the same story (because it overcomplicated things, Red! you're always overcomplicating everything...)

The estimated 40k story I'm writing at the moment started with me thinking 'Hey that would be a neat title. I wonder what the story would actually be' and then deriving everything from the implications of four words.

Some start with a real-life story. Alas my own life has not been a great source of these, but I often hear other people's anecdotes or news stories and think there's the basis of a good Literotica story there somewhere.

Some just come from playing with tropes as if they were Lego blocks until you've got something that isn't quite following the usual assembly instructions.

I've even got one story that I'm excited about just from shooting the shit with other people on this board, and talking about i would have implemented their idea. The emotional beats and structure of what I came up with was very different from theirs and I'd need to work it into a different base context so as not to be plagiarising them.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I was assigned Justine by a college English professor (he was pretty eccentric) and I couldn't get far with it. For long thing, it's an extremely long book. This was a long time ago (about 48 years) so I'm not going to critique the book now, except to say I couldn't find a discernible plot. Others may disagree.

You found nothing interesting in a book written by the Marque De Sade, the man who gave us sado-masochism?

 

[Ezrollin]

"I tend to think about what I haven't seen done in a story, and if the notion interests me, I try to write it."

That's a tough one, as most anything you can think of has been done in one form or another."
I think the trick there is to put a different twist on it. I notice that a lot of stories go unedited and have some errors that can have been easily corrected. I had a few pointed out in my latest story. When I checked the publish version I realized that in my eagerness to publish I had submitted the unedited version. Still waiting for the edited version to replace it.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

You found nothing interesting in a book written by the Marque De Sade, the man who gave us sado-masochism?

Actually, it was Leopold Masoch who was responsible for that other part, but yes I am also appalled at him taking the book too lightly

 

[gunhilltrain]

You found nothing interesting in a book written by the Marque De Sade, the man who gave us sado-masochism?

One problem was that his sado-masochism in many places was not simply fun and games. The way I remember it, people were seriously injured and even killed during the sessions he depicted. It was pretty grisly at times. It was more like reading horror than erotica. If any body recalls it differently, or has different examples from other works, than let us know.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Oh it's still very much a slog, even in the original French, I just think that's it better less bad as a literary work than the 120 days of Sodom.

Seems like an interesting person. And he looks just a little mischievous in that picture.

Actually, I later removed the llnks directly to his name and position at the school. I felt like I was violating his privacy (well, he passed this summer) but really the privacy of his surviving family. That includes his children and grandchildren. I know, he's right there in the Times' obituary and the school directory, but still . . . something about mentioning him by name in a forum bothered me.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

One problem was that his sado-masochism in many places was not simply fun and games. The way I remember it, people were seriously injured and even killed during the sessions he depicted. It was pretty grisly at times. It was more like reading horror than erotica. If any body recalls it differently, or has different examples from other works, than let us know.

It breaks just about every Literotica rule.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It breaks just about every Literotica rule.

That is an understatement! It breaks every rule of human behavior. It's almost worse than what happened in the concentration camps and Gulags. Not to give a pass to the Nazis or Bolsheviks, but those guys imagined (or pretended, perhaps) that there are was some larger point to what they were doing. This is just cruelty for its own sake.

 

[XerXesXu]

I was assigned Justine by a college English professor (he was pretty eccentric) and I couldn't get far with it. For long thing, it's an extremely long book. This was a long time ago (about 48 years) so I'm not going to critique the book now, except to say I couldn't find a discernible plot. Others may disagree.

De Sade was a minor philosopher, he was anti-clerical, and an early exponent of moral chaos. His thesis was, both 'good' and 'evil' intentions result in 'good' and 'evil' consequences in equal measure, hence Justine, and Juliette. Otherwise, not worth reading for either, erotica, or literary merit.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I was assigned Justine by a college English professor (he was pretty eccentric) and I couldn't get far with it. For long thing, it's an extremely long book. This was a long time ago (about 48 years) so I'm not going to critique the book now, except to say I couldn't find a discernible plot. Others may disagree.

The professor was more interesting than the book. I used him once as a character in a story on another site.

What on earth was his reasoning for assigning Justine? Was he just a big old perv?

There is precious little plot. Justine wails 'oh no, my virtue, my virtue!' repeatedly and terrible things happen to her, often at the hands of priests, monks and nuns. Meanwhile her twin Juliette went off to fuck her way round France, makes a fortune, and pops in occasionally to say "wtf girl, why don't you have fun like me?" It's shock horror porn - nothing remotely erotic after the first rape scene, only you can't take it seriously.

I read an edited edition (Penguin?) where the intro recommended not bothering to read the book and assuring you that the expurged third was just as much insane drivel and cruelty, only more incomprehensible.

Is Juliette any more fun?

Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs is much more coherent and readable and somewhat erotic.

 

[MillieDynamite]

One problem was that his sado-masochism in many places was not simply fun and games. The way I remember it, people were seriously injured and even killed during the sessions he depicted. It was pretty grisly at times. It was more like reading horror than erotica. If any body recalls it differently, or has different examples from other works, than let us know.

I've never read them, I have read excerpts, and they are both violent tales. Sade seems to believe that good intentions and conduct bring about evil results for a person. While those who do evil have nothing but good happens to them. Reverse Eastern Hinduism and Buddhism philosophies of Karma. De Sade was a nutter of the first order. And for the record, I said he gave us sado-masochism. It wasn't an endorsement of his writing. I just found it odd that his writing would bore someone.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

I've never read them, I have read excerpts, and they are both violent tales. Sade seems to believe that good intentions and conduct bring about evil results for a person. While those who do evil have nothing but good happens to them. Reverse Eastern Hinduism and Buddhism philosophies of Karma. De Sade was a nutter of the first order. And for the record, I said he gave us sado-masochism. It wasn't an endorsement of his writing. I just found it odd that his writing would bore someone.

It's like how 5 minutes of porn can be quite exciting but three hours of relentless pussy-pounding is boring.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

Also his philsophy is more one of absolute individual freedom, without constraints. Not even the one that may libertarians accept, that my freedom stops where yours begins.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Also his philsophy is more one of absolute individual freedom, without constraints. Not even the one that may libertarians accept, that my freedom stops where yours begins.

Everybody can't have absolute individual freedom, because conflicts arise among all those individuals. I think he was suggesting that in those situations, the stronger ones would prevail. When you think about it, that happens a lot in real life too, although it's not considered "proper" to mention it or especially brag about it too much. I don't know if I am making any sense, but in any case this thread has drifted a long way from the original intent.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

Yeah

<snip> but in any case this thread has drifted a long way from the original intent.

Yeah, thanks to the idiot that brought up de Sade in the first place.

 

[gunhilltrain]

What on earth was his reasoning for assigning Justine? Was he just a big old perv?

There is precious little plot. Justine wails 'oh no, my virtue, my virtue!' repeatedly and terrible things happen to her, often at the hands of priests, monks and nuns. Meanwhile her twin Juliette went off to fuck her way round France, makes a fortune, and pops in occasionally to say "wtf girl, why don't you have fun like me?" It's shock horror porn - nothing remotely erotic after the first rape scene, only you can't take it seriously.

I read an edited edition (Penguin?) where the intro recommended not bothering to read the book and assuring you that the expurged third was just as much insane drivel and cruelty, only more incomprehensible.

Is Juliette any more fun?

Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs is much more coherent and readable and somewhat erotic.

I don't know exactly why he assigned it. The course was actually about vampires and "certain ideas of evil in literature." He assigned Dante's Inferno, which I did read. I assume he must have assigned Bram Stoker's Dracula. After this much time, memories get a bit fuzzy. Anyway, he passed away last summer at the age of 83.

I've never read Venus in Furs but I should give it a try.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah

Yeah, thanks to the idiot that brought up de Sade in the first place.

Don't feel bad; some threads need to drift. The original thread title and premise seemed interesting, but I think it's been done a few times before - some version of, where do your story ideas come from? (No offense intended for original poster; sometimes it's worth a new take on that question.) For some reason, I decided to sit that one out until de Sade came up.

Maybe there should be a thread just about de Sade, but I wonder how many of us have actually read him. I had to buy both Justine and Juliette for that course, and I remember both being very long books. I probably read ten-percent of the first one. I long ago sold or gave away both of them.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

Don't feel bad; <snip>

Don't worry. I might take a lot of things quite seriously, but myself isn't one of them.

About de Sade, and specifically Justine, I think one's appreciation also depends on which version/edition one reads. As you describe it, I think you (started to) read La Nouvelle Justine, the third and last version, which differs in an important way from the first and second versions, in that Justine's experiences are not told by herself (and so much cruder language is used than in the earlier editions) and is also much longer. I myself read the second version (1791 edition).