How Playful Are You With Your Writing?

[THBGato]

I'm always trying to be playful with words and the way they sound. I'm still feeling smug about the phrase "too much wishful drinking and wistful thinking."

However, some stories/sections of stories are very serious. Whereas others are meant to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. Pygmalion 3.0 was based around the playful premise of a straight girl dating her gay best friend out of sheer jealousy. What a difference a day makes... was about trying to take the U-haul stereotype to the max in a deliberately over-the-top way while still attempting to remain credible.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

It depends. When I'm learning new stuff, I follow the instructions like a baker would follow a recipe. It is only after the first outcome that I stop behaving like a baker and start behaving like a cook.

I'm a plantser, so anything that I outline is very loose. Sometimes I end up drafting with one intention, and midway I switch to something completely different than what I originally thought it was going to be, because the story got better with that. This also happens during editing. Plenty of things I end up rewriting completely because the original draft was just boring or uninteresting.

I don't think I stick to a wheelhouse. Maybe before, but now... not so much... unless we're talking about structure, and even then I twist it.

Challenging myself to write about the same thing for an entire year does encourage you to experiment because of the restriction itself: it does get boring, and it took me 161 days for that feeling of boredom to set in. You may think schoolgirl erotica is just about 18-year-old seniors, but at this point I played with the trope so much without averting it that I not only ended up with many interesting characters and situations, with one character being picked to write about for NaNo next month, but I also did what Nevermore (the fantasy webcomic from webtoon) did: make the youngest of their students be in their early-to-mid 20s without sacrificing the high school tropes. I mean, the kink became an afterthought in many entries, yet the aesthetic was always there, lurking in the background.

Heck, I've even used this challenge as an opportunity to practice the doubt that I had a while back: how to write from 1P PoV with a narrator whose gender is unknown. I've seen it on 2P PoV here by removing the gender from the reader, but never from 1P. It actually worked out pretty good, and I think I have a chance to do something longer than 500-600 words. I've even had my shot at making epistolary fiction by writing letters, e-mails, journal entries, chat logs, text messages... I've written scripts too through this challenge. Experimenting with different formats sure is a lot of fun.

So yeah, when I write, I always try to give myself restrictions and challenges, and that's what I like the most. The challenges are there just for a dopamine hit, but the resitrctions are there so that I can both adapt to them, and twist them to my own advantage.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

with a narrator whose gender is unknown.

Hi, my name is Pat, and these are my friends Chris and Terry.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Hi, my name is Pat, and these are my friends Chris and Terry.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Hi, my name is Pat, and these are my friends Chris and Terry.

...and then we all fucked.

 

[StillStunned]

Heck, I've even used this challenge as an opportunity to practice the doubt that I had a while back: how to write from 1P PoV with a narrator whose gender is unknown. I've seen it on 2P PoV here by removing the gender from the reader, but never from 1P.

Love at First Sight

 

[madelinemasoch]

Allowing yourself to be playful adds emotional depth to your writing, especially if there are heavier tones in the work.

I have a wheelhouse; Pollyanna happy endings in the Trans space, but have tried a few different things in other categories and am working on a few more: fantasy, bdsm, etc. It’s always fun to spread your wings.

As for the process, yes, I find it very playful. I love getting into my characters heads and seeing things through their eyes. It’s exciting and fun even if some of what they’re going through is not. If I can feel it, if it makes me uncomfortable or happy or emotional, it will probably resonate the same way with my readers. Even Consequence to Recompense (thank you for that challenge, btw) was fun to write, and it is my darkest work by far.

You’re welcome! I enjoyed helping you with that one.

 

[dirk2024]

In the interest of garnering more discussion around writing itself, I want to pose the question, how playful are you with your writing? Are you open to trying a lot of new things or do you stick to a certain wheelhouse? Do you find the process of writing itself a playful thing? I’d like to foster that kind of fun back into my own process. I remember having a lot of fun with things before my mental health kind of collapsed. I’d like to get back into that vibe with things.

When I was first considering starting to write here, I was assuming that I would only be posting in the Erotic Couplings or Group Sex categories. I've published five stories, each in different category and none of them are EC or GS. I have WIP's that explore other categories as well.

My stories are primarily happily ever after tales, but my most recent story is in Erotic Horror, so I pushed that envelope too. I usually try to have at least one witty line in each story, though one person's wit can be another person's yawn.

So hopefully, that will keep me fresh, though I am so new to all this that I can't imagine stopping at this point.

 

[GuiltyCowboy]

To my surprise, I can only write stories if they’re not the sort of thing I would naturally write.

The only ones I actually finish are the ones in which I’ve given myself a sort of exercise or gimmick. I can see them more clearly and I keep having little epiphanies as I’m writing them. So, yes, it has to be playful.

If I feel like writing an idea, on the other hand, because it’s a fantasy or a memory, and it’s actually kind of important or personal to me, then it never gets finished. It dies on the page. And then it dies in my mind. So, I’ve learnt not to try those any more.

I thought it would be the other way around but it’s not.

I’m pretty sure I need to not know all the ins and outs of the story beforehand and so I get to enjoy discovering them as I write.

 

[iwatchus]

To my surprise, I can only write stories if they’re not the sort of thing I would naturally write.

The only ones I actually finish are the ones in which I’ve given myself a sort of exercise or gimmick. I can see them more clearly and I keep having little epiphanies as I’m writing them. So, yes, it has to be playful.

If I feel like writing an idea, on the other hand, because it’s a fantasy or a memory, and it’s actually kind of important or personal to me, then it never gets finished. It dies on the page. And then it dies in my mind. So, I’ve learnt not to try those any more.

I thought it would be the other way around but it’s not.

I’m pretty sure I need to not know all the ins and outs of the story beforehand and so I get to enjoy discovering them as I write.

Stephen King says the same thing. It ruins writing the story for him if he knows all the details.