Is it just me?

Does anyone else use like a dozen different references when writing a story? Like for example say you're writing a story about a threesome, so you go look up some porn videos about threesomes, you find a several 'good ones', maybe a few particularly seem to fit with what you want to write, the others give you ideas for other chapters maybe, then you also have a story or two you started reading and got to a particular part where there was a scene that resembled what you wanted to write, or just a particular line or word you really liked. Or maybe you were looking at some pictures in a series, or 'reading a pornographic comic'.

Or is that just me being ADD? Lol

Worse is that I am super ADD, have so many stories/chapters/versions incomplete that if I do go back to work on something I've usually forgotten all the references I was using for that one. :(
I don't know about a dozen but I definitely reference a few different sites when writing (usually Wikipedia plus one or two others). I've goe one rough draft that I've been working on that I've been having to read about a dozen websites and books on. Research is part of writing and if you feel a need to research a lot as part of your writing process, don't sweat it.

Of course, in my case, my problem is I usually think of things that I should have researched AFTER the story is posted...
 
Does anyone else use like a dozen different references when writing a story? Like for example say you're writing a story about a threesome, so you go look up some porn videos about threesomes, you find a several 'good ones', maybe a few particularly seem to fit with what you want to write, the others give you ideas for other chapters maybe, then you also have a story or two you started reading and got to a particular part where there was a scene that resembled what you wanted to write, or just a particular line or word you really liked. Or maybe you were looking at some pictures in a series, or 'reading a pornographic comic'.

Or is that just me being ADD? Lol

Worse is that I am super ADD, have so many stories/chapters/versions incomplete that if I do go back to work on something I've usually forgotten all the references I was using for that one. :(
Definitely not just you :). I sometimes spent 2 1/2 hours of a 2 hour slot trying to figure out if a situation will work and whether I've googled enough to bullshit my way through a topic I have no understanding of. I've even broken down and consulted ChatGPT a few times (though only when I can take my newly-minted guesses back to Google and validate them for myself.) Porn isn't very useful for much beyond mechanics, other than to understand what really doesn't work for me in romantic fiction. On the other hand, spicy romances can be both motivational and a source of relationship ideas.

I've wasted huge swathes of time figuring out what happened when in recent history to fit storyline to real-world happenings, even weather conditions, which is entirely pointless because no one other than me cares, and the setting is fictional. But yeah, OCD tendencies require it. For the last series I decided to completely ignore history and create the events when and where I wanted them. It was hard. I have a Google Sheets spreadsheet of all of the interconnected characters, and when I realize I want to do something different with one I spend many happy hours trying to tweak timelines without breaking existing stories.

I always write in Google Docs, and that makes it very easy to create a new doc where I can stuff links to anything I've been looking up. It helps a lot when I have to revisit an earlier section, because it's mostly tracked.
 
Does anyone else use like a dozen different references when writing a story? Like for example say you're writing a story about a threesome, so you go look up some porn videos about threesomes, you find a several 'good ones', maybe a few particularly seem to fit with what you want to write, the others give you ideas for other chapters maybe, then you also have a story or two you started reading and got to a particular part where there was a scene that resembled what you wanted to write, or just a particular line or word you really liked. Or maybe you were looking at some pictures in a series, or 'reading a pornographic comic'.

Or is that just me being ADD? Lol

Worse is that I am super ADD, have so many stories/chapters/versions incomplete that if I do go back to work on something I've usually forgotten all the references I was using for that one. :(
@Alice_Angel,
Good morning my dear colleague,
For my part it's not "visual", my inspirations come from real life (my history and experiences) reading (there are literally thousands of words in the 'Stories' section of Lit) or from general reading. I also get inspiration from 'people watching' - sit back with a coffee somewhere al fresco and just watch the general public go by.

Imagination is a powerful tool. Just seeing someone interacting with another person can create "imagined interactions".

I gave up watching porn when it all became the "same ol' same ol'" just with different faces :ROFLMAO:
Respectfully,
D.
 
I have been accused of writing too many references to my celebrity characters’ films, publicized quirks, and other details into my stories by multiple readers. But I am in no way ashamed of doing so. ;)
 
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