The Enchantment

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Johnson says, probably in a fit of temporary pique over some trifling thing, 'the enchantment is gone.'

Is it though?

What would allow the enchantment back?

Sometimes 'enchantment' comes from only a tiny thing, something quite fleeting.

If some HUGE publishing house decided to turn their laser eyes over here and started to spend some real money on James and a few others - would it be 'enchanting?' Or just more bloody trouble and deadlines and 'reality check' lunacy that ever comes from accountant-led business?

Nothing against EVERY accountant - one of the absolute best red-gold/blonde (you know the kind; the AMAZINGLY coloured kind) fucks I had/have still??, is a woman accountant.

What would bring the enchantment back for you, James?

Anyone? Anyone?

Is enchantment sleight-of-hand - folding space around something there but not seen - or is it some kind of real magic; something from literally out of nothing...?

 

[oggbashan]

Johnson says, probably in a fit of temporary pique over some trifling thing, 'the enchantment is gone.'

Is it though?

What would allow the enchantment back?

...

It can be difficult to maintain enthusiasm when writing isn't working for you.

I think it is a feeling that many of us share who have been on Literotica for some years. It happens from time to time. The excitement of submitting a new story doesn't happen; the people you used to interact with have gone and although there are new people, you don't have the same rapport that you used to have with the missing ones. Then someone else comes along and the spark is back.

Like all activities, Literotica can pall for a while because it has become routine.

The solution? For me, one way is to take a break if only for a few days. Sometimes family and community matters force that on me anyway, and I come back to Literotica to relax. I will be without internet access for much of October unless I make a real effort to connect - which I won't do except for family matters.

Another solution for me is to enter one of the themed contests, but that doesn't always work. Writing a story can be a drudgery if the spark isn't there. I will keep writing but sometimes the story written when I don't really feel like writing can seem leaden. But some readers don't agree. They like stories that I thought were second rate when I was writing.

To get the enchantment back - do something else until you really want to come back.

 

[SecondCircle]

People usually grow complacent. That's how the enchantment fades. Think about any awesome thing you liked. When the idea was new, when the thrill was fresh, it was exciting, enchanting even. Love is this way. When you first meet someone you like and are into, it's so thrilling. For most cases, as you grow used to them, that initial rush kind of fades a bit.

A story series can do the same. When the idea is fresh, it's exciting and you stay interested. As this new idea settles and is around for a spell, it becomes an institution. The freshness kind of wears away. It becomes normal. The idea is the same, you just grow familiar with it. You get used to the enchantment like you would get used to cool pool water.

This is natural I think.

The key to keeping the enchantment is the passion. For anything. Romances and girlfriends/boyfriends come and go. The one you stay with/marry/retain enchantment with is the one that you're passionate about. You couldn't imagine anything without them. The story series you stick with, or the novel you see through, is the one that you are so passionate about that you don't wanna quit writing it. Even after the intitial enchantment (when the idea or experience is new), if you're passionate about it, it sticks with you. The enchantment won't leave in these cases. You just walk hand in hand with it.

I suppose what Mr. Johnson meant in his recent eh, observations, was that he caught a glimpse of the man behind the curtain and the thrill was gone for him. Like seeing a cook at your favorite restaurant drop the steak on the floor before serving it to you. Not that I condone or remotely even agree with that assessment, but sure, it's his if he wants to make it.

The enchantment of writing and reading (as well as doing both here) has not faded for me. Why? I guess because it's a hobby of mine. A hobby I really fuckin enjoy. I'll never forget the time I attended the Red Wedding. I had a blast bringing Sylvie's corpse to life. I love walking into Elysium, even if it kinda gives you the creeps and has you looking over your shoulder. I like me some fawcing FAWC. I like to cower looking at the "Jarssss of Dead Thingsssss" or staring in awe and wonder at some gorgeous and grotesque murderess that Hydra has dreamt up. The flames of Devil's Night, the twisted little brother of Lempo and his nasty temper.

No, I'm still enchanted I think. And I think the enchantment is always there and does not change. The only thing that changes, is us.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Most of what I do is successful, its successful because I aim for the outcome I want. I rarely waste time with what I don't want. Winners win and losers make excuses or let Jack Daniels talk shit for them.

When the way looks clear to win I feel enchantment. When my whole audience is Jack Daniels I do something else.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

The whole goddamn audience is Jack Daniels... lol. Thought that would have been right down the alleyway for a noir writer.

But then that's looking at things romantically. I get the point if the audience is all a bit too far gone beyond the limit.

And sometimes it could seem that way.

Jimmy boy... It's the calm before the storm; trust me.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Actually I'm collecting story ideas to write during the Winter months. Contests mean nothing to me, for the reason I cited, and I want to improve my wares.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

The enchantment comes from opportunities this website permits, and some rich Hong Kong playboys and girls with too much money who might trip over your last manuscript if I threw it hard enough at their feet.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The enchantment comes from opportunities this website permits, and some rich Hong Kong playboys and girls with too much money who might trip over your last manuscript if I threw it hard enough at their feet.

I hatched a story idea that has potential. Its action-noir where a starving writer picks up a young skank in need of cigarettes and a cheeseburger, and precipitates the total collapse of the US Government, because every subsequent response to the initial provocation (picking up a skank) is a worse scandal on a seismic scale of significance.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I'd like to make a movie, or maybe several of them.

I've been approaching half a dozen rich guys and companies that I know. My business partner just knocked back one of them last week but it wasn't ever going to be a 'good deal' anyway so that's okay. But we did get a formal offer at least, a stupid one, but one nonetheless.

If I could have seen ANY way to manipulate their offer into something workable I would have but it was riddled with clawbacks and pre-payments and all kinds of difficult items. Impossible items, really.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'd like to make a movie, or maybe several of them.

I've been approaching half a dozen rich guys and companies that I know. My business partner just knocked back one of them last week but it wasn't ever going to be a 'good deal' anyway so that's okay. But we did get a formal offer at least, a stupid one, but one nonetheless.

If I could have seen ANY way to manipulate their offer into something workable I would have but it was riddled with clawbacks and pre-payments and all kinds of difficult items. Impossible items, really.

I sold a story to an indie movie producer who makes slasher films.

I got my idea from news reports of Detroit auto recalls. In old horror films cars stall when the victim tries to flee from the monster, in mine the convertible top folds back into the pocket when the victim turns the key in the ignition switch.

The scenes were few and simple. The service department of an auto dealer, a spot on a street where the car goes spastic, and a cemetery where the top folds up exposing the victim to the vampires. The victim was a reporter investigating occult groups.

Some suggest I missed a chance back in the 50s and 60s when writers like Robert Bloch and many others wrote short episodes for the popular fantasy tv shows like THRILLER, OUTER LIMITS, TWILIGHT ZONE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I'm having fun with the new story idea tho its likely too political for the site. Maybe if I do like they did to Tom Clancy's book and make all the bad guys Aryan Fanatics in place of ragheads. But I could fool folks by making all the evildoers Argentinians with German names....Jose Schmidt, Carlos Bormann, Pedro Goering.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Hehehe. And the heroine, Dolly Barbie

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

What is indie these days anyway?

I just saw a little bit of a Scarlett Johansson movie - the one with Bill Murray in it as well - and it was basically filmed with a handheld digital camera and a portable stabilizer arm.

Ridiculous and I don't go along with this kind of thing. I think Bruno Aveillan just sacked himself off a studio film (won't say which one) because they were going to deny him even just the ordinary basic set-up he uses in his European commercial advert clips.

Personally I wouldn't consider someone like Empire Group in Hong Kong indie, for example, just because they are not a Hollywood major. They book Jackie Chan (currently on set in Moscow) and the stunning Gong Li, who in my own opinion is the top actual 'film star' in the whole world today.

Certainly a whole lot of actual indie movies are heaps better as stories than a good deal of the studio majors' work these days. Indie is okay with me as long as the budget is workable. I don't want to do 'self-expression' on a low budget. I could that on my own today. I'm looking to put together around ten. Yes, ten. Of those sets of dollars. (aka a 'Sherpa.')

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

What is indie these days anyway?

I just saw a little bit of a Scarlett Johansson movie - the one with Bill Murray in it as well - and it was basically filmed with a handheld digital camera and a portable stabilizer arm.

Ridiculous and I don't go along with this kind of thing. I think Bruno Aveillan just sacked himself off a studio film (won't say which one) because they were going to deny him even just the ordinary basic set-up he uses in his European commercial advert clips.

Personally I wouldn't consider someone like Empire Group in Hong Kong indie, for example, just because they are not a Hollywood major. They book Jackie Chan (currently on set in Moscow) and the stunning Gong Li, who in my own opinion is the top actual 'film star' in the whole world today.

Certainly a whole lot of actual indie movies are heaps better as stories than a good deal of the studio majors' work these days. Indie is okay with me as long as the budget is workable. I don't want to do 'self-expression' on a low budget. I could that on my own today. I'm looking to put together around ten. Yes, ten. Of those sets of dollars. (aka a 'Sherpa.')

Based on my interactions INDIE is one guy with a camera whose wife sells his movies online to people who like gory movies. My producer made a few chainsaw movies, and it occurred to me that good, simple stories might appeal to such folks. Generic scenes available for little or no cost.

Someone once asked Frank Lloyd Wright why he didn't design homes for average people, he said NO ONE EVER ASKS ME TO.

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

I think I like your mindset, JBJ. That comment about FLW was deep, in context of this thread...

Bear Run is happening again...

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think I like your mindset, JBJ. That comment about FLW was deep, in context of this thread...

Bear Run is happening again...

I like FLW because he usta bludgeon his colleagues with a drafting T-square.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://cdn.dickblick.com/items/556/82/55682-2418-3ww-l.jpg



AH POSTERS HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A T-SQUARE IS.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Hatched another story idea. It involves teen computer hackers who access a government database that offers worse consequences than getting in credit cards. They take the jackpot to their mentor, who murders them and sells the info to organized crime for a nice payday. Except things aren't as they seem and the bureaucrats haven't updated all files lately.

It happens. With the state we usta get criminals who disguised their identities to learn where their victims lived. So we left the old address info as is with a note to call the investigator supervisor when address info was requested. Down the road the law required folks to go to sheriff records with photo ID to get the info. If youre on a complaint or report you get a copy.