For the good of your readers

[BlackSnake]

What did your readers learn from your last story? Shouldn't your stories educate as well as entertain?

 

[BlackShanglan]

Hopefully, they learned that Alexander Pope is worth reading, that those bitten by Fate should hang together, and that biology is not destiny.

Damnit. It all sounds so preachy put that way. I don't think it's preachy in the story.

Shanglan

 

[Guest]

I hope they learned that married people can still have incredibly hot and wild sex.

Yes, with each other.

 

[rgraham666]

I taught them that sex can be a hell of a lot of fun, if it's done right.

 

[minsue]

That poetry is a good outlet for the mentally ill

 

[cantdog]

There were some technical tidbits about oboes. Seriously.

cantdog

 

[minsue]

There were some technical tidbits about oboes. Seriously.

cantdog

Damn, that's sexy

 

[BlackSnake]

That poetry is a good outlet for the mentally ill

Hey! I'm trying to take poetry seriously for a while, anyways...gotta finish the friggin class

Do you do it with the intention of teaching your readers a lesson?

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

My last one was a little more preachy than fun. In its own fashion it made statements on the normalization and lack of distance between us all and evil, the nature of true all consuming love, the nature of revenge, and a bit of continuation of the theme from the work before it about the existence of eternal justice.

However, that's not usually the driving force for me the writer in making a story. I'll pay attention to some theme, what I want the big picture to say and all and even decide little themes on the fly, but my main focus is always on making the characters likeable and the storyline unique and interesting.

 

[Guest]

There were some technical tidbits about oboes. Seriously.

cantdog

It's all about the reed, baby. Both of them. Seriously.

Firmness, endurance, overall strength, how well they fit in your mouth, and how well you can blow.



(great oboe story)

 

[DMaximo]

It's all about the reed, baby. Both of them. Seriously.

Firmness, endurance, overall strength, how well they fit in your mouth, and how well you can blow.



(great oboe story)

Damn! That sounded like a blowjob

 

[Guest]

Damn! That sounded like a blowjob

I'm a musician. Sometimes it's difficult for me to tell the difference.

 

[BlackSnake]

I'm a musician. Sometimes it's difficult for me to tell the difference.

Do you add your musical talents into your stories, to teach the reader about rhythms, maybe in the stroke?

 

[cantdog]

It's all about the reed, baby. Both of them. Seriously.

Firmness, endurance, overall strength, how well they fit in your mouth, and how well you can blow.



(great oboe story)

How did you manage to get hold of the oboe story so quick?

I only finished it at seven or so this evening. You guys passing it around?

 

[cantdog]

It was cool to write a 2100-word short with so many unusual words in it. They just kept cropping up.

 

[Guest]

How did you manage to get hold of the oboe story so quick?

I only finished it at seven or so this evening. You guys passing it around?

You left it on the bed, cant.

Of course I read it.

 

[cantdog]

But in order to answer your question, blacksnake, I don't think the oboe stuff was the point, and I didn't do that for the readers' edification. I did it to establish the bona fides of the musician character. I wanted him to seem like he really was a musician, of a certain kind, and also I wanted to do a takeoff on the term embouchure, which is the way you hold your mouth. It's important in brasses and in woodwinds. With oboes and bassoons (and cor anglais, but who really cares about cor anglais) the reed is actually in your mouth and you lip pressure and control is critical.

I wanted the reader to see enough of that to realize how funny it is to carry the skill over to oral sex.

The part I was actually trying to teach was about the tension between the old hand at sex and the debutant (no -e on purpose, it's a guy), and also I wanted to have them empathize with a young man coming to terms with his attraction to men. The oboes were incidental, the subtle call to empathy with youth and the tenderness of beginnings was central and intended.

Actually. And there's the embouchure joke, too, of course. But that's not educational.

 

[Guest]

Do you add your musical talents into your stories, to teach the reader about rhythms, maybe in the stroke?

Nahhh, some people have no rhythm.

 

[cantdog]

You left it on the bed, cant.

Of course I read it.

Shit, that's right.

Okay, no harm done. Cut my address of the top sheet and distribute ad libitum. I trust your judgement.

 

[Guest]

Shit, that's right.

Okay, no harm done. Cut my address of the top sheet and distribute ad libitum. I trust your judgement.

Maybe you shouldn't.

Do you wanna know a bad cor anglais joke?

What's the difference between an English horn solo and wetting your pants?

Both give you a warm feeling but no one else cares.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Fiction, especially the erotic/porn variety, is entertainment. Any educational aspects is secondary and should be there to enhance the reading enjoyment, not to uplift the reader.

Some fiction contains a lot of info but no message, while for other works it's just the opposite. Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War taught me how to create a fake identity and overthrow small countries, but was otherwise just a fun action/adventure. To Kill A Mockingbird taught me nothing but contained a powerful theme and message.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

No oboes?

 

[BlackShanglan]

To Kill A Mockingbird taught me nothing but contained a powerful theme and message.

Actually, the part about making a dirt snowman came in handy one year.

Shanglan

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Actually, the part about making a dirt snowman came in handy one year.

Shanglan

You didn't already know that!

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Weird Harold]

Shouldn't your stories educate as well as entertain?

Nope, my stories are escapist and only incidently realistic.

The only thing that my readers might learn is acceptable grammar and spelling by osmosis.

I do sometimes write with a moral or lesson in mind, but it's entirely secondary to telling a good story and I don't really care if the readers get the moral point.