From Idea to Plot

[EarlyMorningLight]

Yuuuuup.

At a certain point, well-written characters aren't made-up anymore. They become people, with agency. At which point, the writer's role is to write what those characters would do, not what the writer THINKS they would do.

I love/hate the moment when a character becomes so well-developed that I lose control over them, and find myself saying “wait, why in the hell did you do that? What am I going to do now?” as I’m writing.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I write erotica to turn myself on and to enjoy myself. I don't write to have some sort of therapy session. *shrug*

Guess I'm depriving myself of angst thereby.

I'm betting you haven't been raped by your birth father. I'd also wager you never prostituted yourself out as a child. My work on some stories allows me to get my hate of what has happened to me, way back then, out of my system. All my writing gives me a sense of healing. It was the reason I started writing in the first place.

As you said, there is no set way to write fiction. There are no set reasons for writing, no set types of satisfaction derived from writing. I applaud the fact you have never had any significant life-shattering events to deal with. Others aren't as lucky as you.

 

[KeithD]

I'm betting you haven't been raped by your birth father. I'

Listen, I don't think you should be parading that here on an erotica story site. I think you should be seeking professional help if it's messed you up. I don't really have the time of day for you. As I've posted before, I don't think for a nanosecond that you are a professional ghostwriter. I don't even think you're old enough to be posting to this Web site.

 

[NewOldGuy77]

I'm schizophrenic, method-wise. Sometimes I know exactly what I want, sometimes I have a general idea but the story changes as I unfold it.

I got this from a scriptwriter. Sometimes I follow the advice, sometimes not:

When writing, ask these basic questions

• How do I tell this story - Perspective?
• Who’s it about?
• What do they want?
• Why can’t they get it?
• What do they do about it that doesn’t work?
• What do they finally do?
• How does it end?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Listen, I don't think you should be parading that here on an erotica story site. I think you should be seeking professional help if it's messed you up. I don't really have the time of day for you. As I've posted before, I don't think for a nanosecond that you are a professional ghostwriter. I don't even think you're old enough to be posting to this Web site.

I'll be 33 years old in about a month. My first story was published in 2012. I have had professional help, perhaps you might consider some for your own anger issues.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

To answer the question, once I have an idea - character(a), a scene, a setup or conflict - one of the first questions I ask myself is “why?”

What’s the purpose of the story? What do I want to convey to the reader? How do I want them to feel? What’s the emotional impact I’m trying to create? What’s an emotional truth I can explore with these characters or in this situation? What would be interesting about this story, or the telling of this story?

When you consider purpose and intent, it’s easier to find the right pieces and how to put them together. It’s kind of like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You have to know what the picture looks like before you can put it together.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yuuuuup.

At a certain point, well-written characters aren't made-up anymore. They become people, with agency. At which point, the writer's role is to write what those characters would do, not what the writer THINKS they would do.

I write a lot of what I call "urban erotica", based around chance encounters, the day to day musings of a commuter on a bus, a coffee in a café on the Square, looking up at the woman passing by, her shadow on the table, a dropped serviette.

Snippets of real life start my stories. Real life doesn't have a plot, so my stories mostly don't either, until later.

I see my job as a writer is to keep up with my characters. I sometimes stay ahead, but not often. With my tell of the Arthurian myth, for example, I knew I had to get my dead king to a boat on a lake, but I had no idea, when I started, how to get him there. He wasn't even born, when I started writing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You have to know what the picture looks like before you can put it together.

No, you don't.

You've never done a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box? You should try it some day, like I did one summer, stuck in Canberra with no ticket to get home. Lots of Lynyrd Skynyrd played loud, as I remember.

 

[Bubo_bubo]

Listen, I don't think you should be parading that here on an erotica story site. I think you should be seeking professional help if it's messed you up. I don't really have the time of day for you. As I've posted before, I don't think for a nanosecond that you are a professional ghostwriter. I don't even think you're old enough to be posting to this Web site.

Wow.
And people call me snarky and dismissive. Because I put "Goodbye" in a post.
Well...
Goodbye then.

 

[KeithD]

Wow.
And people call me snarky and dismissive. Because I put "Goodbye" in a post.
Well...
Goodbye then.

Bye..

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

No, you don't.

You've never done a jigsaw puzzle without the picture on the box? You should try it some day, like I did one summer, stuck in Canberra with no ticket to get home. Lots of Lynyrd Skynyrd played loud, as I remember.

Well, you can, but it’s a lot harder!

 

[KeithD]

I'll be 33 years old in about a month. My first story was published in 2012. I have had professional help, perhaps you might consider some for your own anger issues.

Your first story (of fifteen) published here was in June 2021. Anything else you claim is just you making an unverified claim. Beyond that, I work in the industry. I know what the market and credentials for a ghostwriter are--and that ain't you. It ticks me off each time you assert that false easy button credential.

And, beyond that, sure people can use this Web site to air their perceived (or claimed) sexual abuse history, but I don't find that erotic or the right place to do their therapy, so I don't give it the time of day. Tough.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Well, you can, but it’s a lot harder!

That's the point!

I turned one over, once, did it all by shape - I have a highly trained visual eye .

 

[MillieDynamite]

Your first story (of fifteen) published here was in June 2021. Anything else you claim is just you making an unverified claim. Beyond that, I work in the industry. I know what the market and credentials for a ghostwriter are--and that ain't you. It ticks me off each time you assert that false easy button credential.

And, beyond that, sure people can use this Web site to air their perceived (or claimed) sexual abuse history, but I don't find that erotic or the right place to do their therapy, so I don't give it the time of day. Tough.

First, this isn't the first or second site I've published on. Why does it please me so much that I piss you off? It's strange how much anything I post can piss off someone like you. After all, if you're so much better than everyone here, you should be piss off proof. I also have other pen names besides this one. OH, that probably just pissed you off as well.

Volume doesn't mean quality, you should know that with as many stories as you have published.

Now, if you want, talk to the wall. I have other things, which require my attention.

 

[KeithD]

The universal easy button response. I have other account names and lives elsewhere that prove my credentials here.

 

[EarlyMorningLight]

First, this isn't the first or second site I've published on. Why does it please me so much that I piss you off? It's strange how much anything I post can piss off someone like you. After all, if you're so much better than everyone here, you should be piss off proof. I also have other pen names besides this one. OH, that probably just pissed you off as well.

Volume doesn't mean quality, you should know that with as many stories as you have published.

Now, if you want, talk to the wall. I have other things, which require my attention.

It’s hilarious to have him on ignore and see the responses to his shitty, know-it-all comments. It’s like he has a folder of them and just copies and pastes them into any thread where people are talking about craft.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

Some years ago, I was invited to give a talk at a Readers’ & Writers’ Festival on the subject of Creating 3-D Characters.

The speaker before me was a very well-known, very successful short story writer who spoke on ‘Getting Started’. At the end of his chat the moderator asked the audience if there were any questions. A woman in the audience asked pretty much the question of this thread: How do you get from idea to plot?

The writer thought for a moment or two and then said: ‘I don’t know. It just happens.’ And then he added: ‘Although sometimes it doesn’t.’

<snip>

I love this advice! I will point out problems with "just winging"

• It often requires a lot of re-writing when you find yourself at a dead end you didn't see coming
• It often requires a lot of re-writing/editing to take out all the spurious stuff you added along the way that doesn't really service the plot
• Most of us are lying - we probably have a general sense of the story we're telling before we start writing, we're just not as methodical about mapping it out as others.

For me, if I do a detailed outline, the story feels told and I struggle with keeping it fresh and urgent.

 

[KeithD]

I do have a general sense of the story before I start writing (I don't start writing before I do). It's general, though, and can change. But, no, I don't do hardly any rewriting at all. I just add detail with each review. My muse knows more about what is going to be in the story than my consciousness does. All I have to do is sit down and start to write. My muse does the rest--and no, I do not have to take anything out nor do I have to have an extensive written outline. My mind manages all of that just fine.

It's fine with me if others have different capability/patterns, but my methods don't entail any lying to myself or anyone else, I don't think.

 

[lovecraft68]

Your first story (of fifteen) published here was in June 2021. Anything else you claim is just you making an unverified claim. Beyond that, I work in the industry. I know what the market and credentials for a ghostwriter are--and that ain't you. It ticks me off each time you assert that false easy button credential.

And, beyond that, sure people can use this Web site to air their perceived (or claimed) sexual abuse history, but I don't find that erotic or the right place to do their therapy, so I don't give it the time of day. Tough.

I can't begin to describe the irony of you talking about unverified claims and false button credentials.
You're so obtuse, and such a bad liar you don't realize one of your BS posts a few days ago totally disproves most of your other claims.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm a total panster, from short story to full length novel I wing just about everything so I'm never good at these things because my method works for me, but doubt it would for a lot of other people. I'm wired to thrive in disorganized free falling chaos, organization and structure screws with me.

 

[KeithD]

I do understand what a sad little sick puppy you are, LC. Such a sucky life. A failure as a family member (but living your dream of what you wanted to do with your half sister by writing about it), violent enough to have been thrown in the slammer, a failure in marriage, a failure in business, stuck in a warehouse job that three years ago you said you were ditching to make a living writing but there you are, still there. Reduced to a life of bitterness in attacking a Web site you no longer contribute stories to and attacking other writers here because you are just a sick little puppy who wants to be worshipped for leading a marginal life. Sorry, you'll have to be what you are because you obviously can't be any better. So sad.

And now, just let the bitterness bubble up and spout all over the discussion board one more time. Be the bitter and frustrated little marginal sick puppy you are.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm betting you haven't been raped by your birth father. I'd also wager you never prostituted yourself out as a child. My work on some stories allows me to get my hate of what has happened to me, way back then, out of my system. All my writing gives me a sense of healing. It was the reason I started writing in the first place.

As you said, there is no set way to write fiction. There are no set reasons for writing, no set types of satisfaction derived from writing. I applaud the fact you have never had any significant life-shattering events to deal with. Others aren't as lucky as you.

I'm big on catharsis writing as well which is what led me from erotica into horror-although even before that my SWB series features a lot of violence and dark material

 

[KeithD]

Yes, LC, you told us years ago about your obsession with your half sister. It's obviously what has led to your chosen genre of writing. You're really good at obsession. That connection you made years ago is quite possibly why I couldn't read your stories--too much tying in with real obsession for the subject matter. I can read and write incest in its fantasy/arousal mode. Once the author has connected it with his/her real obsessions, I see it as a sickness and am out of there.

Come on, go ahead and explode. You know you want to. You know you subject us to it regularly. You'll feel better. Let all of the bile and bitterness of your unsatisfying life laced with failure bubble out. You'll probably consider it cathartic. And we've all become used to from you. Do it and get it over for a couple of more weeks before you do it all over again. Then tell us again how you are moving on from here.

 

[thomas1965]

Thanks for all the replies.
Plenty to think about.