My favorite and My Oh Ugh

[Guest]

In doing the reviews every thursday I have come to the conclusion that many times we as authors don't know what stories others liked and why.... and what stories of ours others disliked and why.

This is not a oh you are wonderful thread nor is it a oh you suck thread....

The format...

Pick any and as many authors as you feel...
List your favorite stories and or poems by them and state WHY you like them... what made you like them was it the style the plot or was it just a hot romp....
List your least favorite stories and or poems by them as well and state WHY you didn't like them were they boring did they not showcase their talent well was there just something missing.

I think that this would be a wonderful thing... it helps authors be able to critique others and thereby helping themselves understand and be able to critique themselves and hopefully become better authors.

 

[Aurora Black]

I'm not good at this sort of thing, I'm afraid. So my contribution is just a bump.

 

[FallingToFly]

Count me out. I'm on enough shit lists these days.

 

[3113]

I'm gonna make it easy and just list one story at a time. Starting with one of my favorites:

When Petey Met Yuri

Amazing story by Stella_Omega. Tale of a Lesbian who satisfies a bi-guy's need for a session of BDSM. I'll give four reasons why this story amazes me--and none of them will be about how good and powerful the sex scene is, though it is beautifully, awesomely done:

(1) Mystery: Yuri needs the pain and domination. We are never told why, though it's clear that it needs it to forget something, to keep him free of whatever is tormenting him in his own head. This makes the story strong because there is nothing we could be told that would be more potent than our own ponderings. That bit of mystery is both intreguing and real. People don't always confess why they need what they need--including sex or any variation on that.

Most importantly is that we don't need to know. In this case, keeping the why a mystery doesn't frustrate, but rather allows the reader to consider their own needs and desires--and why we have them--and understand and emphathize with Yuri that way. A specific reason would not only lessen the potency, but might alienate us from him.

(2) En Medias Res: there is a feeling that these characters have lives outside this story. Some writers feel we need to know everything about a character--they frontload, as it were, their entire childhood as if we can't understand them if we don't know everything before the story starts.

But real stories (IMHO), are ones that really do start "en medias res" in the middle of things. That doesn't just mean in the middle of the action, but in the middle of these people's lives. They have friends, relationships, jobs, relatives--which get mentioned or not as needed. We know Yuri is from Russia, but we never find out what his life was like there. We know bits and pieces of Petey's life as well, but only bits and pieces. We feel that these two have lives outside the story, lives before the story started--and lives that will continue on after the story, however much those lives may be changed by the story.

This gives characters a third dimension, it makes them pop off the page.

(3) Apt descriptions: descriptions shouldn't (IMHO) be long so much as precise, resounding, clear. They should tell us as much about the p.o.v. character and the feeling of the story (theme, for example) as the item described. For example: a whip which "Time has mellowed it to a warm clear brandy color." I can *so* see that. And it tells us so much--not just what the whip looks like, but how Petey regards it. This is a woman who likes whips and sees beauty in them. More, it makes the whip warm, sexy and alive, and gives it a history, a personality. It is not just a cold tool.

(4) Plot and Style: The style uses a poetic language that matches it's subject. For example this paragraph:

His humanity hits her like a fist, his homesickness, the terrible trivial pain he bears, and the huge exaggerated cure he chooses, but in spite of her pity, Petey is near an orgasm herself. What she feels will shock her, but at some other time. The fact is, this little earthbound, male, ape-god is the best fuck she can remember.

Notice how raw the language and sentiment is (ape-god/best fuck), yet how very human (terrible trivial pain/pity/shock). This reflects the roughness of the BDSM scene that Stella is presenting--this is not sweet or formal or make-believe scene with some elegant dominatrix in stockings and corset calling the guy "Slave!" and him calling her "mistress"--this is crude; a biker dyke who shares a glass of Jack Daniels before she gives the guy the brutality he wants and needs and requests. The style reflects this.

The rules of the BDSM scene are taken for granted--both sides know what it's all about and they dive straight in, the submissive providing the tools needed, and trusting the Dominant to know how to use them and help him out. The consequenses are real (blood), the human needs very real, and the emotions they ellicit very powerful.

Plot-wise, the scene builds, rests, then builds again to a powerful climax, then rests, then finishes things off and adds on a coda. Again, poetic in rhythm, a match for the sexual tension building to the end.

All in a all, an amazing story.

Was this the sort of analysis you were looking for?

 

[zeb1094]

Hell, I don't want to be called a bigot again, no thank you.