Dealing with the same characters in stories

[DaddyAnal1966]

I am a deeply limited / slightly obsessed (delete as appropriate) writer / hack (delete as appropriate) and all of my stories centre on the same character. The main supporting character is also featured in all my published work (I have two stories in the works where he doesn’t feature). Several other characters make appearances in two or more stories.

So my problems are:

1. There are only so many ways of describing a blonde waif - in my latest story, I resorted to her saying (as narrator) “if you want to know what I look like, read one of my other stories“. I’m torn between extraneous repetition and leaving people who have never read another of my stories in the dark.

2. I find myself referencing events from other stories. This makes sense to me as the builder of this little world. It may make sense to people who have read my other stories (at least those who register anything beyond the amount of gratuitous sex in them). But it will totally pass by the new reader.

3. I also have a continuity challenge - especially as the stories don’t appear in chronological order. I could spend more time on that than on tying to have new ideas.

I realise that J K Rowling probably has the same problem, but what do you do in these areas?

DA66

 

[Voboy]

I do this all the time.

As long as each story is self-contained, nobody will have a problem with it. It does help to keep your character descriptions vague.

I maintain SEVERAL continuity documents that aim to help me keep my universe straight, but I'm sure I fuck it up relatively frequently. If your output is strong and frequent, nobody will complain. I doubt anyone but me knows that I screwed up once and put my Harborside Book and Tea on a hill overlooking the sea, instead of several blocks inland. Certainly it hasn't hurt my scores.

I do offer readers a "story order" document that attempts to make sense of most of my stories. It's unwieldy, far too much so to post to my author page. So I email it to them on request. I get about 6-8 requests a year.

 

[SimonDoom]

My advice is: try something different. Write about a different character. It can be a very similar character, if you get satisfaction writing about this type of character, but make it a character with a different name that is not tied to the same universe. Doing so will completely free you of all the concerns you have. You can still explore all the same erotic interests, but with none of the boundaries and limits.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

You could make the description of your main character something of your signature move, like the intro credits of a TV series.
"Hi, I'm Anja, and I'm the living proof that hotness can come in small packages. <description>
Now you won't believe what happened to me this time!"

 

[SamScribble]

My take (for what it's worth) is you do tend to overthink things. The best stories are seldom 'constructed' from checklist component parts. The best stories tend to be stories told by a storyteller. Sometimes the storyteller is part of the story; sometimes the storyteller purports to be a disinterested narrator. (Although, of course, some of the best narrators are the 'unreliable' narrators.)

My advice would be stop writing numbered lists and start writing a story. Write a story that arouses or amuses you. (I promise that if it arouses or amuses you, it will also arouse or amuse someone else too.) And when you reach the end of your story, stop. Keep doing this for the next ten years or so and one morning there will be a note in your inbox (or whatever we have for inboxes in ten years' time) saying: 'You, my friend, are a master storyteller. I just love your stories.'

Good luck.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

I do this all the time.

As long as each story is self-contained, nobody will have a problem with it. It does help to keep your character descriptions vague.

I maintain SEVERAL continuity documents that aim to help me keep my universe straight, but I'm sure I fuck it up relatively frequently. If your output is strong and frequent, nobody will complain. I doubt anyone but me knows that I screwed up once and put my Harborside Book and Tea on a hill overlooking the sea, instead of several blocks inland. Certainly it hasn't hurt my scores.

I do offer readers a "story order" document that attempts to make sense of most of my stories. It's unwieldy, far too much so to post to my author page. So I email it to them on request. I get about 6-8 requests a year.

I was thinking I needed a chronology document - at the very least when characters meet for the first time.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

My advice is: try something different. Write about a different character. It can be a very similar character, if you get satisfaction writing about this type of character, but make it a character with a different name that is not tied to the same universe. Doing so will completely free you of all the concerns you have. You can still explore all the same erotic interests, but with none of the boundaries and limits.

I’m sue I will do at some point, but now I have a lot of irons in the Emily fire

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

You could make the description of your main character something of your signature move, like the intro credits of a TV series.
"Hi, I'm Anja, and I'm the living proof that hotness can come in small packages. <description>
Now you won't believe what happened to me this time!"

I sort of do that, but without self-description. Maybe I should think about that.

If you have an erection, if nobody can help, and if you can find her, maybe you can fuck Emily.,,

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

My take (for what it's worth) is you do tend to overthink things. The best stories are seldom 'constructed' from checklist component parts. The best stories tend to be stories told by a storyteller. Sometimes the storyteller is part of the story; sometimes the storyteller purports to be a disinterested narrator. (Although, of course, some of the best narrators are the 'unreliable' narrators.)

My advice would be stop writing numbered lists and start writing a story. Write a story that arouses or amuses you. (I promise that if it arouses or amuses you, it will also arouse or amuse someone else too.) And when you reach the end of your story, stop. Keep doing this for the next ten years or so and one morning there will be a note in your inbox (or whatever we have for inboxes in ten years' time) saying: 'You, my friend, are a master storyteller. I just love your stories.'

Good luck.

Sound advice I am sure

 

[Voboy]

I was thinking I needed a chronology document - at the very least when characters meet for the first time.

It's nothing that profound. As I say in my profile, any of my characters can meet with any other character at any time.

I've got around 70 contemporary stories. That's waaaaaaay too many characters to track. For a short time I kept a list of names I'd used, just so I'd avoid reusing them, but I soon realized it was going to get very big, very fast. And it doesn't matter anyway. Names repeat in real life; if they do it in my stories, who cares? Also, I write in FP mostly: I can always claim an unreliable narrator.

As long as every story stands alone, my experience is that internal consistency matters very little. It's much more important in chaptered works, but in a loosely-linked universe like I think you're talking about? Nope.

Just make every story good.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's okay if you have a favorite character in a series, and then you later add an "event" (another "chapter") in the middle, although of course you can't use the numbering. It has to be a stand-alone story, although you can link it at the top of the story for readers who want to know where it fits. It's also possible to add an additional chapter, or even stand-alone sequels. I have a female character I've all of that with, on three different sites. It basically covers four years of her life, but there is one story set ten years in the future.

By the way, adding links to other stories within the site in HTML is fairly easy to do. I could tell you how to do it if you wish, unless you already know it.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

I’ve been coding HTML for one or two years

 

[Bisexguy70]

I believe having a link to the other stories is critical. So what if the stories arent chronological. If you watch movies, the time is always jumping around. Flashbacks etc. when we relive our own memories, are they in order? No, we jump around. You get to be creative, explore and challenge our minds. Im not into incest but i like the older/younger stuff. Im an older male but i like kink. Your writing seems very good, got my cock hard! Thats what its all about. To get aroused. Im more into reading about the act of sexual exploration, not the details of the story line.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

I believe having a link to the other stories is critical. So what if the stories arent chronological. If you watch movies, the time is always jumping around. Flashbacks etc. when we relive our own memories, are they in order? No, we jump around. You get to be creative, explore and challenge our minds. Im not into incest but i like the older/younger stuff. Im an older male but i like kink. Your writing seems very good, got my cock hard! Thats what its all about. To get aroused. Im more into reading about the act of sexual exploration, not the details of the story line.

Thanks for the advice and the encouraging feedback

 

[Bisexguy70]

Thanks for the advice and the encouraging feedback

No. Thank you for providing hot erotic stories for guys like me to read. My first story was rejected. Writing erotica is a unique talent. I respect anybody who writes good enough to get their work published. Im bisexual and crossdress so i like roleplay and played daddies little gurl a few times. So Emily kinda turns me on imagining I'm her with her Daddy.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I’ve been coding HTML for one or two years

I learned a fair amount of HTML/CSS a while back, but that is mostly good only for static sites. When it came to actual "programming " like PHP . . .

About the only HMTL I've ever used on Lit is for italics, bold once in a while, and links. A couple of other things will work but I've never used them. Some people here would like to do more elaborate formatting, but the site basically controls most of that.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

I have an ordered list in my latest story!

I tried to see if LaTeX was supported for a laugh.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have an ordered list in my latest story!

I tried to see if LaTeX was supported for a laugh.

Oh yeah, I didn't realize that was done with HTML. I had to look up LaTeX. A lot of people on Lit favor different writing programs/apps. Some of them seem more complicated than is really needed here. I only use Grammarly because another site made me get it. They actually proofread everything over there (it's a smaller site) and I was making too many typos. It's a quirky but useable program.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I am a deeply limited / slightly obsessed (delete as appropriate) writer / hack (delete as appropriate) and all of my stories centre on the same character. The main supporting character is also featured in all my published work (I have two stories in the works where he doesn’t feature). Several other characters make appearances in two or more stories.

So my problems are/

1. There are only so many ways of describing a blonde waif - in my latest story, I resorted to her saying (as narrator) “if you want to know what I look like, read one of my other stories“. I’m turn between extraneous repetition and leaving people who have never read another of my stories in the dark.

Ask yourself how often you actually need to describe her.

Some of your readers will already have read your earlier stories and seen her described there, some new readers might be capable of realising that they could learn more about her from reading those earlier works (or you could nudge them with a brief note, a.g. "for Jane's first appearance, see [link]"). And quite a few readers don't need much physical description, if any, though I can't tell you whether those are your readers.

I have several stories up here with little or no description of the protagonist and/or their lover/s, and readers seem to cope with it.

2. I find myself referencing events from other stories. This makes sense to me as the builder of this little world. It may make sense to people who have read my other stories (at least those who register anything beyond the amount of gratuitous sex in them). But it will totally pass by the new reader.

If those events are essential to understanding the current story, it's important to give some explanation. But otherwise, not every reader needs to catch every reference.

3. I also have a continuity challenge - especially as the stories don’t appear in chronological order. I could spend more time on that than on tying to have new ideas.

My approach to continuity stuff is to plan out what I'm going to write - just enough to avoid contradicting myself or lose my way halfway through a story, not so much as to stifle creativity. For complex works, I use Scrivener to help myself look things up afterwards - e.g. tag every scene where the protags are discussing their relationship, so I can easily find those scenes if I need to double-check what I've already established.

I realise that J K Rowling probably has the same problem, but what do you do in these areas?

If you're spending more time writing new stories than yelling at people on social media, you're doing better than JKR these days.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

Ask yourself how often you actually need to describe her.

Some of your readers will already have read your earlier stories and seen her described there, some new readers might be capable of realising that they could learn more about her from reading those earlier works (or you could nudge them with a brief note, a.g. "for Jane's first appearance, see [link]"). And quite a few readers don't need much physical description, if any, though I can't tell you whether those are your readers.

I have several stories up here with little or no description of the protagonist and/or their lover/s, and readers seem to cope with it.




If those events are essential to understanding the current story, it's important to give some explanation. But otherwise, not every reader needs to catch every reference.



My approach to continuity stuff is to plan out what I'm going to write - just enough to avoid contradicting myself or lose my way halfway through a story, not so much as to stifle creativity. For complex works, I use Scrivener to help myself look things up afterwards - e.g. tag every scene where the protags are discussing their relationship, so I can easily find those scenes if I need to double-check what I've already established.



If you're spending more time writing new stories than yelling at people on social media, you're doing better than JKR these days.

You make many valid points - especially the last one!

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's nothing that profound. As I say in my profile, any of my characters can meet with any other character at any time.

I've got around 70 contemporary stories. That's waaaaaaay too many characters to track. For a short time I kept a list of names I'd used, just so I'd avoid reusing them, but I soon realized it was going to get very big, very fast. And it doesn't matter anyway. Names repeat in real life; if they do it in my stories, who cares? Also, I write in FP mostly: I can always claim an unreliable narrator.

Lol. I am forever repeating names. It's got to the point where I'll read an old story and think, fuck me, look at that, I'd completely forgotten I'd used that name before.

I don't think it makes a shred of difference - as you say, plenty of people with the same name in real life, happens all the time. Only the stories are different.

 

[DaddyAnal1966]

Lol. I am forever repeating names. It's got to the point where I'll read an old story and think, fuck me, look at that, I'd completely forgotten I'd used that name before.

I don't think it makes a shred of difference - as you say, plenty of people with the same name in real life, happens all the time. Only the stories are different.

I want to create a vaguely coherent world. Call it my Tolkien complex.

 

[Voboy]

I want to create a vaguely coherent world. Call it my Tolkien complex.

Speaking from experience, I would emphasize "vaguely."

You will make mistakes, and there will be areas of your universe you simply cannot reconcile. You'll enjoy the experience more if you can accept that.

Tolkien worked like a dog for many, many decades editing, re-editing, and re-re-editing in order to try to ensure continuity, and still he ended up with ambiguities. For my part, my mind thrives on ambiguities; it's part of what makes this kind of writing fun. Plus, it allows you the freedom to do what you wish in the confines of your world.

I'd suggest fixating not on Tolkien, but on Irvine Welsh. His "shared universe" is much more accessible.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You make many valid points - especially the last one!

You don't have a true series, so it's kind of up to you how often you want to describe her. There are many levels of detail that could go into a character description. Usually, among the pros, novels go into greater depth than short stories. Different authors have different styles for handling that. Take a look at what they do for examples. There are a few authors that use the same character in several connected books, which might be helpful to look at.

I find that I usually describe the female characters in more detail than the male ones.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've never used Scrivener to keep track of things. Money is pretty tight with me, so I don't want to buy it right now.

I've had a couple of continuity errors at times. Once I mistakenly had a character going to Fordham University when I had previously placed her at Manhattan College. (Despite the name, both are in The Bronx, about two miles apart.) It was on another site that allows for quick corrections, so I changed it.