Finishing

[gunhilltrain]

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.

The only one of which I've heard the results was the one by Tommy Tutone. Everybody who had that number anywhere was immediately flooded with calls from kids, drunks, pranksters, the merely curious - even I tried it once (it was disconnected by then of course). Movies and TV shows are careful to always use 555 for exactly that reason.

So were there similar problems with the other numbers used as titles? 911; they have their own issues to deal with.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

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.

Might use this for reference-reminder.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'm black, but my adoptive parents are white. Their adopting me didn't turn me white or them black. It didn't lessen the bigotry that has been directed at me and only brought them into the cross hairs of the local bigots. But we are strong people and endured. I watched a special on the Bee Gees, sometime back, and in the 80s, that hate-filled movement hit me hard. I hope someday I'm just a person and not a black person. I hope I'm just a woman and not defined in others as a "LESIBAN" in that way that makes me less than others.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The only one of which I've heard the results was the one by Tommy Tutone. Everybody who had that number anywhere was immediately flooded with calls from kids, drunks, pranksters, the merely curious - even I tried it once (it was disconnected by then of course). Movies and TV shows are careful to always use 555 for exactly that reason.

So were there similar problems with the other numbers used as titles? 911; they have their own issues to deal with.

The 555 didn't thing, started in the 90s. In fact, laws now prohibit fiction from using actual numbers that can be dialed and get someone. I'm not sure about the 1-800 one because that's a newish song. An Australian band (I don't think it was the bee gees) lost a lawsuit and had to pay 200,000 dollars to a family who had the phone number they used in the 70s.

 

[MidnightRyder007]

867-5309......Jenny

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

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.

Advance warning: By most criteria, most of my writings for Literotica have not been successful. As a result, my advice may be worthless.

If what you have is a story with fully-developed characters, and more than a few events in which they have participated, the ending doesn’t have to be something that’s dreamed up. It’s probably one of a fairly small number of outcomes that can arise from the characters and events. Try going through what you’ve already written, and make lists of end-states that could follow from the written events, and make other lists of what you think the characters’ situations should be when the story ends. If you find an outcome that you like, try writing that as the ending. If you don’t like any of the outcomes, then you might face a whole lot more work, changing what you’ve already written. You’d then have to decide if continuing with this story is worth the effort.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Advance warning: By most criteria, most of my writings for Literotica have not been successful. As a result, my advice may be worthless.

If what you have is a story with fully-developed characters, and more than a few events in which they have participated, the ending doesn’t have to be something that’s dreamed up. It’s probably one of a fairly small number of outcomes that can arise from the characters and events. Try going through what you’ve already written, and make lists of end-states that could follow from the written events, and make other lists of what you think the characters’ situations should be when the story ends. If you find an outcome that you like, try writing that as the ending. If you don’t like any of the outcomes, then you might face a whole lot more work, changing what you’ve already written. You’d then have to decide if continuing with this story is worth the effort.

Hey thanks for contributing to my humble quest for answers.
Actually, come to think of it, one work I've lately reopened does have a loose idea for an ending. But if I roughly gauge what it will entail to get from here to there... or look back to earlier sections, seeing what a mess it's become... realizing this is not something that's going to be knocked out in a few days. Gonna require some sustained focus. There is a bit of overwhelment which tends to result in what is becoming a chronic inertia.

Then get the idea, well maybe go back and try to just write some shorts. Just to get back in the swing of completing. But that will mean another season away from all the ones that have remained incomplete, some for several years all of a sudden. Thing is, I like the ideas in them.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Advance warning: By most criteria, most of my writings for Literotica have not been successful. As a result, my advice may be worthless.

If what you have is a story with fully-developed characters, and more than a few events in which they have participated, the ending doesn’t have to be something that’s dreamed up. It’s probably one of a fairly small number of outcomes that can arise from the characters and events. Try going through what you’ve already written, and make lists of end-states that could follow from the written events, and make other lists of what you think the characters’ situations should be when the story ends. If you find an outcome that you like, try writing that as the ending. If you don’t like any of the outcomes, then you might face a whole lot more work, changing what you’ve already written. You’d then have to decide if continuing with this story is worth the effort.

I could have predicted this, because I've seen it before. I looked at your profile, and by my standards, you are doing very well. You've got twelve red H's I think - let's face it, you can't expect to get fifty out of seventy! Not everything went above 4.00, but many of them did. It's quite a good record overall.

So anyway, advise t_h_seacrest then; I kind of interrupted that. I have to think more about what his issues are. Maybe he does need an editor to work with him first-hand, although I'm not the person for that.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Maybe he does need an editor to work with him first-hand...

I get this picture of a stern-eyed woman holding my manuscript in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.
"You call this concrete imagery?"

 

[gunhilltrain]

I get this picture of a stern-eyed woman holding my manuscript in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.
"You call this concrete imagery?"

Sounds like a pretty good story right there. I know, you don't need any further distractions at this point. But I have done a group of stories that go in that general direction.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I get this picture of a stern-eyed woman holding my manuscript in one hand and a hairbrush in the other.
"You call this concrete imagery?"

More likely a bullwhip or paddle with the word bitch on it in raised metal studs.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Sounds like a pretty good story right there. I know, you don't need any further distractions at this point.

Hm yes it is isn't it? Oh nooooo!

 

[t_h_seacrest]

More likely a bullwhip or paddle with the word bitch on it in raised metal studs.

For curbing the purple prose?

 

[MillieDynamite]

For curbing the purple prose?

Maybe! Maybe not, could just be for fun!

 

[gunhilltrain]

Maybe! Maybe not, could just be for fun!

In my opinion, these things require a bit of subtly. A hairbrush is more than adequate. Also, the way I've done them, the lady in question is playing a game - that's not her real personality. And they guy in question (who discovers his own kinkiness in turn) is amply rewarded at the end. Well, she is too.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Maybe! Maybe not, could just be for fun!

Maybe it would create only more purple prose.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Maybe it would create only more purple prose.

Or long, lovely strips of purple, blue, and black flesh!

 

[t_h_seacrest]

In my opinion, these things require a bit of subtly. A hairbrush is more than adequate. Also, the way I've done them, the lady in question is playing a game - that's not her real personality. And they guy in question (who discovers his own kinkiness in turn) is amply rewarded at the end. Well, she is too.

Perfect example right here. Hairbrush or something else? How does the dynamic begin? Are they just playing or is it for real? How old is she? How old is he?

Here we go again.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In my opinion, these things require a bit of subtly. A hairbrush is more than adequate. Also, the way I've done them, the lady in question is playing a game - that's not her real personality. And they guy in question (who discovers his own kinkiness in turn) is amply rewarded at the end. Well, she is too.

Yeah, well, it was, you know, a joke!

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, well, it was, you know, a joke!

It's not quite a joke - well, in the sense that such a story (several of them actually) really exists. I wanted to avoid shameless self-promotion, but since everyone else here does it, and since t_h_seacrest asked about it (who knows, maybe he'll get some inspiration) this is one of them.

Chastised By Mrs. Harris

It's not about editors, but it does involve a couple of kinky mature ladies who like to role play domination games. It his one (the fourth story) the young narrator has already been involved with one of them, Holly, for a quite a while. At the beginning they are just having drinks in a Manhattan bar (the Cedar Tavern, which is gone now) when she talks about her similar friend (and former college roommate, no less) Tiffany. Holly has gossiped about him, and Tiffany wants to try a game too. The narrator agrees to go along with it.

Like Holly, Tiffany has a completely different personality that she reveals at the end when she's chatting with him about music. The location for the main event, a place called Queens Street in Long Island City, was exactly like it's described here. One little error in chronology is that Tiffany's real-life daughter is likely younger than eighteen, not older. (It's pretty irrelevant anyway since she doesn't appear and it's not important to the story.)

So, t_h_seacrest, does that satisfy your curiosity?

 

[t_h_seacrest]

It's not quite a joke - well, in the sense that such a story (several of them actually) really exists. I wanted to avoid shameless self-promotion, but since everyone else here does it, and since t_h_seacrest asked about it (who knows, maybe he'll get some inspiration) this is one of them.

Chastised By Mrs. Harris

It's not about editors, but it does involve a couple of kinky mature ladies who like to role play domination games. It his one (the fourth story) the young narrator has already been involved with one of them, Holly, for a quite a while. At the beginning they are just having drinks in a Manhattan bar (the Cedar Tavern, which is gone now) when she talks about her similar friend (and former college roommate, no less) Tiffany. Holly has gossiped about him, and Tiffany wants to try a game too. The narrator agrees to go along with it.

Like Holly, Tiffany has a completely different personality that she reveals at the end when she's chatting with him about music. The location for the main event, a place called Queens Street in Long Island City, was exactly like it's described here. One little error in chronology is that Tiffany's real-life daughter is likely younger than eighteen, not older. (It's pretty irrelevant anyway since she doesn't appear and it's not important to the story.)

So, t_h_seacrest, does that satisfy your curiosity?

Read it. I appreciate your way with details and establishing/maintaining sense of time & place.
Also saw how you brought the characters to their respective doings.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Read it. I appreciate your way with details and establishing/maintaining sense of time & place.

Thank you. The time and place idea: they are all very prosaic, I guess. The first story with Holly is in Sunset Park, Brooklyn ("Isn't this the location for Last Exit to Brooklyn?," she asks as they emerge from the tunnel, thus the title of the story), then the second one is in The Bronx (he knows the location from a 1973 movie, The Seven-Ups), and so forth. Yet the story has to be happening somewhere, so I used these seemingly random places I knew. Maybe it worked.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I could have predicted this, because I've seen it before. I looked at your profile, and by my standards, you are doing very well. You've got twelve red H's I think - let's face it, you can't expect to get fifty out of seventy! Not everything went above 4.00, but many of them did. It's quite a good record overall.

So anyway, advise t_h_seacrest then; I kind of interrupted that. I have to think more about what his issues are. Maybe he does need an editor to work with him first-hand, although I'm not the person for that.

Thanks for the kind words, but I have to stand by what I wrote, including the waffling term "most criteria." I, of course, think all my stuff is spectacular. Now back to the thread, maybe.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thanks for the kind words, but I have to stand by what I wrote, including the waffling term "most criteria." I, of course, think all my stuff is spectacular. Now back to the thread, maybe.

Just one more thing. Actually, I don't think all of my own stuff is spectacular! Over time, some of it seems to hold up quite well, and I've gotten few low scores (like a 2.67) that may have been more about the subject matter than the writing quality. But, yeah, nobody sets "most criteria," except for the authors themselves.

I hope t_h_seacrest is getting some benefits from these various digressions. He's asked some difficult questions that are not as easy as they first appear.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Well being plagued with doubt, that's nothing new, and I'm guessing rather common. Sometimes forge onward and sometimes set it aside. Maybe the title to this thread could be aptly retitled to something like Momentum. More of a personal matter than strictly literary. But it does seep into the literary, as in opening up a document from so-many years ago and thinking, "hey that was getting pretty good. Why oh why did you put it away!" Because at the time it didn't appear to be going anywhere. Or some other interest called with a stronger pull. Or... Or....