Finishing

[t_h_seacrest]

Aside from previous incarnations where I was given cause to consider how much to work on cutting back purple prose tendencies...

My biggest hurdle with this has always been consistently finishing works. Seems it isn't the kind of issue you can solve by consulting external sources of advice. It just has to be done. Just finish the thing. Then finish the next. Rinse, repeat, rinse repeat. And it sounds so simple when saying it here. But then go to a document, read here, read there... where was this thing wanting to go? Or reads like a jumbled mess. Do I sift or start all over? Say to self: hey this story is close. Just needs a little mopping here and there, and an ending. All you have to do is set aside 3-4 days and you could have a finished story. A few days. Nights. Put everything else away for just a few days. Just a few days. Just get over this hump.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Might be worth a try, but I have dozens of unfished stories for each one I have finished. Good luck!

 

[SimonDoom]

You, Millie, and I are all in the same boat on this one. I have no answers. But one thing that works for me is to set aside a story on which I'm stuck and move on to another story. Focus your energies in whatever direction the creative juices are flowing the most. Some of the more disciplined authors here might say just stick with it and get it done. Whether or not they're right, that's not what I do.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

and you

Might be worth a try, but I have dozens of unfished stories for each one I have finished. Good luck!

And you have quite a list of finished ones.
I've more like multiple restarts of a handful.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

You, Millie, and I are all in the same boat on this one. I have no answers. But one thing that works for me is to set aside a story on which I'm stuck and move on to another story. Focus your energies in whatever direction the creative juices are flowing the most. Some of the more disciplined authors here might say just stick with it and get it done. Whether or not they're right, that's not what I do.

Yeah, you know, it's another one of those things where one really is one's own.
I would be very curious and appreciative about the more prolific writers, like if they have other interests: music, painting, knitting, some kind of sport, etc. How these multiple competing interests are managed/juggled. Or is there single-minded committment to literature and only literature?

 

[SimonDoom]

Yeah, you know, it's another one of those things where one really is one's own.
I would be very curious and appreciative about the more prolific writers, like if they have other interests: music, painting, knitting, some kind of sport, etc. How these multiple competing interests are managed/juggled. Or is there single-minded committment to literature and only literature?

I doubt very much that any of Literotica's authors are single-mindedly committed to writing Literotica stories, because there's no money in it. Unless they are comfortably retired and it's their favorite thing to do, I suppose.

Some people are disciplined and good at multi-tasking.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I doubt very much that any of Literotica's authors are single-mindedly committed to writing Literotica stories, because there's no money in it. Unless they are comfortably retired and it's their favorite thing to do, I suppose.

Some people are disciplined and good at multi-tasking.

No truer statement has been made here. This place is a pleasure to me. I love to write and publish for Lit. because it's my guilty pleasure, and I write for myself when writing to post here.

 

[SamScribble]

When I sold my first short story (many, many years ago), I received a note from the editor of the magazine that bought it saying something like: 'Your story's ending is rather ambiguous. I like it.'

Since then, I have written literally hundreds of short stories - many of them with ambiguous endings. Sometimes the readers applaud. Sometimes the readers say: 'Hey, you didn't finish the story!'

It's a funny old world.

 

[SimonDoom]

When I sold my first short story (many, many years ago), I received a note from the editor of the magazine that bought it saying something like: 'Your story's ending is rather ambiguous. I like it.'

Since then, I have written literally hundreds of short stories - many of them with ambiguous endings. Sometimes the readers applaud. Sometimes the readers say: 'Hey, you didn't finish the story!'

It's a funny old world.

It is, and I like endings with some ambiguity and open-endedness because life is more like that.

 

[NotWise]

It is, and I like endings with some ambiguity and open-endedness because life is more like that.

Readers here often complain about ambiguous endings. Hell, you can make them pretty unambiguous and they'll still complain about it not being complete.

One thing you might do to complete a story is to know where you're going before you start. Don't let things wander off on you. I've had some success synopsizing stories in some detail, then writing off the synopsis. That way, your story is actually already done--it just needs some words filled in.

It also helps if you don't get over your head on complicated story lines (he says. . .).

 

[SimonDoom]

Readers here often complain about ambiguous endings. Hell, you can make them pretty unambiguous and they'll still complain about it not being complete.

One thing you might do to complete a story is to know where you're going before you start. Don't let things wander off on you. I've had some success synopsizing stories in some detail, then writing off the synopsis. That way, your story is actually already done--it just needs some words filled in.

It also helps if you don't get over your head on complicated story lines (he says. . .).

I almost always know exactly how I want to end a story before I'm 25% of the way into it. Sometimes I fast-forward and write the ending before I write the middle of my story.

My preferred ending is to finish on a definite note of some sort, but to leave open what comes next. I rarely end stories with a "they lived happily ever after" sort of ending.

I agree with your last point. My story lines tend not to get too complicated because I have a good idea where I want to finish before I get too far into it.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

That's interesting about the not-getting-complicated.
And what would be considered complicated (or not complicated)?
Too many characters? Covering too much of a time spread?

 

[SimonDoom]

That's interesting about the not-getting-complicated.
And what would be considered complicated (or not complicated)?
Too many characters? Covering too much of a time spread?

It all comes down to the story. What's the story? I always start with the story so before I write anything I have an idea of the arc of the story: who the main character(s) is/are; what their unfulfilled need/challenge is; what the kink is that I want to appeal to; and how I want things to end up. So things never get too far off the rails.

 

[NotWise]

That's interesting about the not-getting-complicated.
And what would be considered complicated (or not complicated)?
Too many characters? Covering too much of a time spread?

It's too complicated when it's more than you're prepared to write.

If you want to finish a story, then you should probably start out knowing (at the very least) how long it should be and how much effort you're willing to give it before you throw your hands up in dismay.

If you're set on writing a saga then you should be ready to put in a sustained effort, possibly without a lot a reward or feedback while you work on it.

If your goal is to write two Lit pages (say, 7K words) then your effort has to be focused. Longer, more complicated stories are usually about the journey, and shorter stories are more about the end. If you're prepared to write a 7k story and find yourself writing about the journey, then you've slipped off the path.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I'm very analytical about story structure. Supposing you're writing a simple heterosexual couple story. It's likely centered around a 'magical moment' - when the couple develop a deep bond or else just have a really pleasurable experience. Once that magic moment is over so is the story. You probably want a little bit of real life to reassert itself, enough to see how the characters lives are going after that but probably not too much. If the characters spent the night together, you might want them to discuss things over breakfast. If they're joining the mile high club, you probably don't need to write much about the visa entry procedures in the arrival country.


With this kind of story there's only a finite number of ways to end things. Either they stay together and 'give it a go' (which the reader might assume is happily ever after) or they split up (definitely or with hints that they meet again). Usually you'll have a gut feeling where things are going, it's a matter of deciding when to call cut on the story.


For longer works you might have a series of magic moments, but there'll still be a time when you've written enough that it's course can reasonably be inferred by the reader (even if thing are somewhat ambiguous).


I get the impression with a lot of series stories that authors end up thinking up sexual activities for their favourite characters without really have enough story progress to make it have a point. So what if Bob and Alice gave sex in an Ice-cream parlour this time if their sex and romantic lives have been settled for the past ten chapters? Sometimes the sex is written well enough that readers don't care and some writers can still make the drama work, but often the stories would be improved by the introduction of characters we don't know so well.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Might be worth a try, but I have dozens of unfished stories for each one I have finished. Good luck!

Somebody started a thread here about unfinished stories, and I realized I have more of them than I had initially thought about. On other sites I have a couple of series (something like six or seven chapters each) that I never finished because they didn't seem promising. (I'll keep them around, anyway.) Maybe I've been lucky, because the works I did start and eventually finished far outnumber the ones that I didn't finish.

Maybe this will help t_h_seacrest (what does that mean, anyway?), but it's okay to eventually go back and redo an old story in a new way. (Usually a year is a good amount of time to wait.) Some people are very much opposed to such a tactic, but it seems okay to me. Usually they get a new title on another site, but sometimes they appear again on Lit. Only once did I completely replace an old version with a new one on Lit.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Wow lots of great stuff to chew on here. Appreciate it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Somebody started a thread here about unfinished stories, and I realized I have more of them than I had initially thought about. On other sites I have a couple of series (something like six or seven chapters each) that I never finished because they didn't seem promising. (I'll keep them around, anyway.) Maybe I've been lucky, because the works I did start and eventually finished far outnumber the ones that I didn't finish.

Maybe this will help t_h_seacrest (what does that mean, anyway?), but it's okay to eventually go back and redo an old story in a new way. (Usually a year is a good amount of time to wait.) Some people are very much opposed to such a tactic, but it seems okay to me. Usually they get a new title on another site, but sometimes they appear again on Lit. Only once did I completely replace an old version with a new one on Lit.

I started a thread
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see
That the thread was about me, oh no

Yes, I'm weird!

 

[SimonDoom]

I started a thread
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see
That the thread was about me, oh no

Yes, I'm weird!

We don't get a lot of the Bee Gees in this forum.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, I’ve been listing to them all "All Around My Clock" even when I got the call from "855-7019" which was “Above And Beyond" what the "Angel Of Mercy" said I had to do. But I’ve had so many "Bad Bad Dreams" lately, I wanted to run off to a "Blue Island" with my "Bodyguard" and "Breakout" with my "Boogie Child." I could go on, but I won't.

I have noted that my mum came from Australia, haven't I?

 

[gunhilltrain]

We don't get a lot of the Bee Gees in this forum.

I'm a little light on the Bee Gees, so I had to look it up. "I Started a Joke." There is a 1968 version online (they've been around longer than I had thought). Sorry, about a minute of that and - "I think I've got this."

By the way, what does "The New York Times effect on man" mean? That is a song of theirs I can listen to. Not that it hasn't been played to death by now.

 

[gunhilltrain]

855-7019? Are 855 numbers like 555 - not "real?"

When Tommy Tutone tried that ("867-5309") they caused a huge mess in area codes all over the country. I don't think the band itself suffered any ill consequences.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm a little light on the Bee Gees, so I had to look it up. "I Started a Joke." There is a 1968 version online (they've been around longer than I had thought). Sorry, about a minute of that and - "I think I've got this."

By the way, what does "The New York Times effect on man" mean? That is a song of theirs I can listen to. Not that it hasn't been played to death by now.

By the time this song came out, the New York Times branded the Bee Gees' music as Disco, and this played into the stereotypical miss conception that their music was a mixture of black and gay. In essence, the Bee Gees were on the verge of being outcast for the next ten years, and they knew it was due to that article. A hysteria gripped people in the early 80s, basically centered in Chicago, of homophobic bigots, burning disco songs in bonfires. And disco died! The Bee Gees were R&B, not disco. Their music has always been highly danceable.

Insecure white incles are nothing new.

 

[MillieDynamite]

What do the following phone numbers have in common what is their ranking?

"1-800-273-8255," "867-5309," "634-5789,"
"Beechwood 4-5789," "853-5937," "911," "777-9311,"

Actually, they are all phone numbers in the title of songs. These numbers are the top seven songs ranked by Billboard, with phone numbers in the title or are the title.
"1-800-273-8255," Logic feat. Alessia Cara & Khalid, 2017; #3 (to date)
"867-5309/Jenny," Tommy Tutone, 1982; #4
"634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," Wilson Pickett, 1966; #13
"Beechwood 4-5789," The Marvelettes, 1962; #17
"853-5937," Squeeze, 1988; #32
"911," Wyclef Jean feat. Mary J. Blige, 2000; #38
"777-9311," The Time, 1982; #88

There are a dozen or more songs that featured phone numbers out there.

 

[gunhilltrain]

By the time this song came out, the New York Times branded the Bee Gees' music as Disco, and this played into the stereotypical miss conception that their music was a mixture of black and gay. In essence, the Bee Gees were on the verge of being outcast for the next ten years, and they knew it was due to that article. A hysteria gripped people in the early 80s, basically centered in Chicago, of homophobic bigots, burning disco songs in bonfires. And disco died! The Bee Gees were R&B, not disco. Their music has always been highly danceable.

Insecure white incles are nothing new.

Thanks, I never heard that before. R&B, Disco - hard to believe that it could cause such hate. But, obviously it did.