I'm HATE this.

[ZIP CODE]

Tell me if you hate this.

Sometimes when I start reading story, it begins with :

"So I've been having sex with her for two years now and I couldn't be happier. Some of you might think what I did to my sister was wrong, but having her in my bed is the hottest thing to ever happen to me. Here's my story........."

Jeeeezzzzzzz!!!

I don't care now! I don't need to read the damn story! You already told me that everything comes out hunky dory!

I don't want it spelled out for me in the first two paragraphs. That's insulting to me as reader. It's like the writer thinks I'm stupid and won't be able to figure it out. I want to READ the story to find out what happens. To me, that's the purpose of S-T-O-R-Y-T-E-L-L-I-N-G. Not a one paragraph synopsis that tells me the plot before I read it!

Come ON!!! I'm gettng sick of it!

Love ZipCode

 

[SexyChele]

I guess I haven't had the pleasure of reading these types of stories yet. But if I did, I think I would find it as frustrating as you obviously have.

 

[Quasimodem]

So, I've been reading this incest story, and I don't know why, but the author writes as if there were something wrong with his intellect.

Like he was inbred, or something!

Jeeeezzzzzzz!!!

 

[ronde]

"Presentation Stories"

I call this type story a "presentation story" because it follows the guidelines for an effective presentation, those being"

Tell them what you're going to say.

Say it.

Tell them what you said.

The point of the presentation is to transmit information quickly and reinforce the usually small amount of complex material in the listener's memory. The point of fiction is to make the journey through the words as enjoyable as possible.

Good writing should lure you in, make you think, and keep you guessing and reading for a while before the plot totally unfolds. Great writing may keep you wondering until the final page. It's a little difficult to do this on Lit, since we post in specific categories that more or less dictate the general plot, but it is still possible to draw the reader into the characters and plot and give him or her an enjoyable read. Presentation stories are like telling the punch line to a joke and then telling the lead in.

 

[Axeltheswede]

Irritations

You defined this issue perfectly, ronde. After back clicking out of many stories like the one above, I now realize why they reminded me of speech class. That's your presentation format.

My other rapid back click is that weird second person active voice. Reading disguised as work. The only thing interesting is finding the first mistake in verb tense. You know it's coming, then bang, there it is.

 

[Street0]

Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

I've been telling people that Shakespeare is a dunce for years. Finally, I've found someone who concurs.

 

[Quasimodem]

You are saying "A good wine needs no bush"?

I thought we had finished with the hairsuit - hirsute controversy?


Time was - and not so long ago - that every story needed a Prologue and Afterword. Especially fantasy and other 'fictions' needed a framing device, to explain how the author 'learned' of the story.

Over the last 60 to 70 years, framing devices were dropped.

Now, readers take their fantasy straight, no chaser.

 

[Axeltheswede]

Controversy?

Didn't know we had a hirsute - hairsuit controversy, Quasi. But, I'm game if you are.

Picked up my local alternative newspaper today. Adult classifieds have three ads looking for "hairsuit" webcam girls. I shit thee not. The ads even explain they mean "really hairy women" in case hairsuit isn't clear enough.

Interesting point, Street0. Not that anyone is likely to confuse the prologue to Romeo and Juliet with the first few graphs of an erotic story.

 

[karmadog]

Well the hairsuit would be penance.

I'm what now?

Oh yeah. I'm hate something or other.

 

[wildsweetone]

Tell me if you hate this.

Sometimes when I start reading story, it begins with :

"So I've been having sex with her for two years now and I couldn't be happier. Some of you might think what I did to my sister was wrong, but having her in my bed is the hottest thing to ever happen to me. Here's my story........."

Jeeeezzzzzzz!!!

I don't care now! I don't need to read the damn story! You already told me that everything comes out hunky dory!

I don't want it spelled out for me in the first two paragraphs. That's insulting to me as reader. It's like the writer thinks I'm stupid and won't be able to figure it out. I want to READ the story to find out what happens. To me, that's the purpose of S-T-O-R-Y-T-E-L-L-I-N-G. Not a one paragraph synopsis that tells me the plot before I read it!

Come ON!!! I'm gettng sick of it!

Love ZipCode

my edited with introduction and notes version of Wuthering Heights does the same thing too.

...wonder how it got to be a classic...

 

[Quasimodem]

Adult classifieds have three ads looking for "hairsuit" webcam girls. I shit thee not. The ads even explain they mean "really hairy women" in case hairsuit isn't clear enough.

I'm not a hirsute girl, but with the help of some "really hairy women" I can knit you a hairsuit for $149.95, plus applicable tax.

BTW: My spell checker claims there is no such word as "hairsuit". Of course, it claims the same thing about "classifieds" "webcam" and "shit," so don't forget to bring your salt lick.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Could be worse

Imagine being hairsuit and having to wear a HAIR-SHIRT.

RF

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Yeah, those stories sound more like essays than actual stories, which may work in some cases in the way of creating a realistic feel to the story, but usually, such advanced techniques fail in the hands of not so perfect writers.

My complaint has always been that we have too few stories without characterization/plot/meaning...basically too many are just a quick sex scene, almost out of a porno, where the characters are all perfectly built (huge titts and even huger cocks; six-packs and hourglass figures; no inhibitions or insecurities or even distinctive trais at all) that have no purpose other than to make us think of sex for one-thousand or so words...

Let me rephrase that, the good stories are plentiful, but the site is saturated with the "letters to Penthouse" style writing.

I can't complain too much, my work isn't perfect either (not even close!!!). I just mean that finding a quality, plot- and character-driven story gets difficult at times.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

So, I've been reading this incest story, and I don't know why, but the author writes as if there were something wrong with his intellect.

Like he was inbred, or something!

LOL...cute...nicely said.

 

[SlickTony]

As odd as it seems, though I am puzzled and repelled in real life by incest, and it's never happened in my family, I've enjoyed some of the incest stories I've read here, and odder yet, I've got 3 incest stories written which eventually I will have the nerve to turn loose in this site.

What really puzzles me, though, is the high prevalence of incest stories in which breeding, i.e., impregnation, is involved--not from the heat of the moment, but as a conscious decision. It would seem to me that there are sound evolutionary reasons why most cultures have a taboo against it. It's my impression that it doesn't even occur very much among the lower primates, who have never opened up a book that warned them against "uncovering the nakedness" of someone in their family. The necessity for exogamy, i.e., the introduction of fresh blood into a line, is probably involved in the human desire to be on the move and discover new territory. Or, for that matter, most beats'. I would venture to guess that even the she-bear who drives away her male cub when he's big enough to survive, when she goes into heat and accepts a male bear, even if it does happen to be one of her cubs, at least they've had time to forget about each other first. (if there are any experts on zoology out there who can either confirm or disprove my theory, I really want to hear from them).

 

[ronde]

The practice of inbreeding

Tony, I'm not a zoologist, but I think it is relatively common knowledge that male animals will tend to drive off their male offspring as soon as they become of breeding age. I think this is to preserve their dominance of the group rather than some instinct about incestual matings, although it serves the same purpose. Males seem to take no such actions against their female offspring, and I believe such matings probably do take place.

Incest is often forced in the world of domestic animals. Most champion bloodlines of cattle, dogs, and other domestic animals have close relations in their family tree, and father/daughter matings are common. Close mating accentuates dominant characteristics and is done in the interest of attaining perfection according to a breed standard. Often, "new" breeds are developed by selection of animals with certain characteristics and then inbreeding to develop a genetic trait. Of course, the undesired, and sometimes recessive genes become dominant in this process, and any cattleman can tell you the horrors of dwarfism in a herd. In the wild, such offspring are eliminated by natural selection, so we don't see them.

 

[Uther_Pendragon]

Like a lot of things, the story where you know the ending
can be done well. You have to remember that the Greek
tragedies which are famous classics were written to appear
in contests where everyone knew the story. All the authors
were judged on was how well they told it.
For that matter, historical novels are big sellers today.
Do you really spend your time in one of those books
wondering who won the civil war?
On the other hand, you need to write those stories in a
particular way. I think the original post had a point on
maintaining the suspense -- even if any reasonably smart
person knows how the stoey is almost certain to turn out.

 

[PetaTenna]

Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy get married at the end of Pride and Prejudice. Romeo and Juliet commit suicide. The boat sinks.

If knowing the ending spoils the story, that means it's only worth reading once. And that means it's not worth reading at all. Nothing against a surprise twist in a mystery story, but you have to be able to read it again or it's no good.

What happens isn't what's important in a story: it's how it's told. Is it well written?

But yes, I agree the story that starts off the way the thread orginator quotes, probably isn't very good, because it'll be predictable.