Does the writing kill the fantasy or give it life?

[GuiltyCowboy]

Like right now I am working on two stories

As you say, this a completely different thing. I’m talking specifically about capturing the delicate and unique quality of a fantasy on the page.

Working out character and constructing plot points for a narrative are something else. Though I suppose one might argue that one can have a ‘fantasy’ of what that narrative could be and struggle to capture it.

Longer answer: No, and I think that's because of the characters. I'm more interested in them than the sex

Right, I get that for sure. I suppose I’m more interested in the sexual quality of certain situations.

Characters can determine a large part of situation but they’re not the whole thing, or even main thing: Place, social conventions, clothes, power dynamics are key in a fantasy, perhaps even more so than character.

A good story, on the other hand, can barely survive if it’s not built primarily on character.

 

[Texienne]

Do you find that the process of writing ruins or elevates the initial fantasy?

I’ve found, frankly, that many of my finest fantasies burn brightly in my mind (slash loins) but the drudgery of writing takes all the fun out of them sometimes.

What made the fantasy so ineffably hot gets lost as I build all the scaffolding - the scene set-up, the depth of character, complexity of relationships - that’s necessary to make the damn thing stand up. To make it work on the page.

And sometimes, admittedly, it does the exact opposite: the need to put them into words is extremely hot and invigorates the fantasy itself.

It’s a little mysterious to me which way it’s going to go. What makes one fantasy die on the page and another come to life?

Do you have this? Is this the mark of a writer who’s still green? Have you worked through this? Any thoughts on managing the dynamic?

Anyway, here’s to all those fantasies that were killed by the writing process…

Some simple advice.

1. Don't stop having your fantasy in a context other than writing. Keep it alive the way we all keep our fantasies alive (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, to quote Monty Python)

2. Type with two hands. I'm not going into details what I mean, except don't multitask writing with item 1, above. If you multitask, then writing is the chore getting in the way of item 1, above, instead of a fun way to explore it.

3. Make the fun of writing about extending or expanding the fantasy and passing it along to your readers.

4. In the interest of item 3, think about how cool it is to cause the readers to perform item 1, above, while reading or remembering your story!

Frankly, if you think about it, it's almost like having sex with them. Or sexting, at any rate.

This is my secret in how to make writing my fantasies and daydreams a fun escapade rather than a chore. Fuck chores. I'm a parent; I have too many of those already.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

As you say, this a completely different thing. I’m talking specifically about capturing the delicate and unique quality of a fantasy on the page.

Well in the case of writing a sex scene, I am using my imagination to create it and in that sense I am fantasizing. this would be the closest approximation between what I do and what you are asking I would think. In this case, I always remind myself of the satisfaction of getting it right, or getting it as good/hot/steamy/immersive as it can be before hitting publish, or conversely, remind myself of the disappointment that I will have if I cut corners and rush it and publish something that will be inferior forever.

 

[AG31]

As you say, this a completely different thing. I’m talking specifically about capturing the delicate and unique quality of a fantasy on the page.

ell in the case of writing a sex scene, I am using my imagination to create it and in that sense I am fantasizing. this would be the closest approximation between what I do and what you are asking I would think. In this case, I always remind myself of the satisfaction of getting it right, or getting it as good/hot/steamy/immersive as it can be before hitting publish, or conversely, remind myself of the disappointment that I will have if I cut corners and rush it and publish something that will be inferior forever.

Interesting! I find it worthy of it's own thread, but I'm probably in a small minority. But here I'd ask people to opine on the difference beteween a sex scene that is imagined for the purposes of a story, and a fantasy that appears for purposes of personal arousal. In my own case they're very different, as the fantasy appears on its own. Once it gets started, I guide it a bit, and immerse myself in it. If I were to invent a sex cene for purposes of including it in a story, I'm afraid I'd suffer writer's block. I wouldn't know where to begin. That's why I've said, more than a few times here, that I don't consider myself a writer. I'm a recorder of fantasies.

What about the rest of you?

 

[iwatchus]

Most of the sex scenes I write arise organically from the situation in the story. It's really a spectrum: some are planned out by me, some have a structure I have pre-determined, some fill in a <sex happens here> blank in a story, and some arose completely spontaneously. I know one scene happened because a character made a joke about expecting to see an orgy going on. which inspired the others to start one to meet the joke. Before I typed that, I had no idea a sex scene was coming.

The sex I write then is to fit the needs and desires of my characters, not my own fantasies. Male or female, almost all of my characters have at least some of me in them, including some of my sexual desires. But they also have desires I don't have -- otherwise the stories would become repetitive. I have to feel every desire they have, even if I don't actually have it. It means I need to understand any kink, not the mechanics, but the desire, the real need. I have been trying to understand tentacle porn recently; I might actually use it in a story once I do.