Finding Your Themes

[Stella_Omega]

I'd have to say my current in-progress novel quite closely resembles a train wreck in many ways. Does that make it an accident or just an unfortunate set of circumstances?

Shame your name isn't Lemony Snickett...

 

[slyc_willie]

Shame your name isn't Lemony Snickett...

You know, that strikes me as the perfect 'smut-writing' pen name. A shame it's taken.

Maybe . . . Lemony Lickit?

You'll have to forgive me . . . I'm in a weird mood tonight . . . .

 

[CharleyH]

I'd have to say my current in-progress novel quite closely resembles a train wreck in many ways. Does that make it an accident or just an unfortunate set of circumstances?

Every novel is plotted and planned. If not? It ends up as a train wreck, but never by accident. (unless of course you are writing about sex during a train wreck and well, that's been done by J.G. Ballard, sort of.

 

[CharleyH]

The problem with reading writing with no story is that you can read a helluva lot of a non-story dressed in prose until it slowly dawns on you that "hey, this dude has nothing whatsoever to say".

And that's royally anoying.

You calling me a Queen?

Well, how does "story" differ in an novel from a short story?

 

[neonlyte]

You calling me a Queen?

Well, how does "story" differ in an novel from a short story?

Freedom to meander (within reason). That's how I tell them.

 

[Liar]

You calling me a Queen?

Well, how does "story" differ in an novel from a short story?

Well, yer majesty...

A novel can be segmentized (Or is it segmented? Eh, I hope you get what I mean) in a way that a short story can't. You can do a Seven Samurais stunt in order to flesh out a basic plot that could have been a short story instead. Happens all the time in novels, when they are in fact a collection of chronologically linked short stories, contained by one larger story arch and common character development. A bit like a tv series season might be.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I don't think anyone writes from the Big Picture in. That's like starting with symbols and trying to make a story with them. It never works. You end up with some horrible sophomoric crap.

But one time we had a kind of interesting discussion about what kind of themes we saw in our erotic stories. It was pointed out that there are two Primal Erotic Story Archetypes that seem to show up again and again in all sorts of disguises: For women, it's Beauty and the Beast, the archetype for a lot of romance novels where some bad boy is tamed by a woman's love, and for men it's Sleeping Beauty, where a man's virility turns a woman into a raging nymphomaniac, as you see in all the countless Lit Hot Neighbor/Teacher/Secretary/babysitter/whatever stories.

I favor the sleeping beauty archetype myself with a BDSM twist. My women all have to be tied up and whipped a little and then they explode into sexual goddesshood. That's my theme.

Either that, or I keep on mucking around trying to tie sex to feelings about nature in some way I can feel but can't quite describe. Must come from beating off outside so much when I was young.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I don't think anyone writes from the Big Picture in. That's like starting with symbols and trying to make a story with them. It never works. You end up with some horrible sophomoric crap.

But one time we had a kind of interesting discussion about what kind of themes we saw in our erotic stories. It was pointed out that there are two Primal Erotic Story Archetypes that seem to show up again and again in all sorts of disguises: For women, it's Beauty and the Beast, the archetype for a lot of romance novels where some bad boy is tamed by a woman's love, and for men it's Sleeping Beauty, where a man's virility turns a woman into a raging nymphomaniac, as you see in all the countless Lit Hot Neighbor/Teacher/Secretary/babysitter/whatever stories.

I favor the sleeping beauty archetype myself with a BDSM twist. My women all have to be tied up and whipped a little and then they explode into sexual goddesshood. That's my theme.

Either that, or I keep on mucking around trying to tie sex to feelings about nature in some way I can feel but can't quite describe. Must come from beating off outside so much when I was young.

Those two seem to be particularly heterosexual themes-- now I'm wondering if there are variants of those themes that apply to same-sex stories. F/F and M/M should have slightly different dynamics after all...

 

[CeriseNoire]

I seem to write a lot about mismatched couples and slight misunderstandings.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I seem to write a lot about mismatched couples and slight misunderstandings.

That works -- in my stories, the misunderstandings can always be cleared up with a brisk spanking

 

[hmmnmm]

Often seem to gravitate towards the multiple planes of simultaneous existence idea, not that I think it really is that way, but it's fun to speculate and play with.
Still a long ways from pulling it off. Maybe someday...

 

[snake307]

I am a bit different.

I tend to be charictor driven. I first come up with a basic senario, one scene if you will. Then I try and imagine what kind of person would end up in that senario. Then I sit back, and play chess so to speak. If I move this way, what will the other person do?

My first posted story, Julie's Scar http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=314880 was driven by an idea. What would a facial scar, a bad one, do to a normal girls psyche? Then what kind of guy would look past that to see the woman inside?

I like twists in a story, mainly because twists do show up all the time in real life. Usually they are things we didn't consider when we started on a course of action. You are driving to the next city, and expecting to arrive at a certain time. Oh didn't know about the useless construction eh? Sucks to be you, cause you are going to be late. Did you plan a romantic evening with your significant other? Guess you didn't realize that fate had planed for your back to go out. Sorry, but you'll not be feeling real romantic pumped up on muscle relaxers and pain pills. Mainly you'll be drooling a lot.

 

[SesameStreet]

My theme is simple. All of my work is written to drive home the point that even people over 45 enjoy great sex and passion. You don't have to be in your twenties to enjoy those. That will always be my theme.

 

[CeriseNoire]

That works -- in my stories, the misunderstandings can always be cleared up with a brisk spanking

If only it were that simple in life, things would be a lot more fun.

 

[Stella_Omega]

If only it were that simple in life, things would be a lot more fun.

Yeah... that's why we write, I'm afraid...

 

[WRJames]

Here is the one passage that comes closest to explaining my themes

(from A Murder in Eden)

“Evil is the absence of good,” Noah murmured, remembering one of Paula’s sermons, one that he had failed to doze through. But he didn’t believe it. If good failed, if it was absent, it only let evil come rushing in. It was a tide, a pressure, not a vacuum.

“Evil is like entropy,” the headmistress said, “it is what captures us when we are not vigilant.”

So simple, so preventable, Noah thought, so easy to avoid. But what had made him start to rub against Paula’s inviting little rump? Entropy? And what had made her yield to him? Entropy. What was prompting that girl over there to sneak up to the main station and strut her stuff? Entropy, just entropy.

“God doesn’t care if we’re good or evil,” Sarah said. “He’s just bored with us. He’s ready to move on, and we’re in the way.”

“Does that mean,” the headmistress asked, “that you’re just going to give up?”

“Of course not,” Sarah answered.

 

[Frank Noir]

Most of my serious stories have the theme of "the universe is basically meaningless", which explains why I've never sold anything.

Hm. In fact, some of the great pessimists have sold quite a few copies. Vonnegut and Houllebecq are a few of my faves.

 

[hmmnmm]

Then there's the ol' Careful What You Wish For... or admitting what you wish for, and whether it should or should not remain fantasy.
Still working on that one, too.