Voyeurism: a writers paradise

[CharleyH]

This thread is inspired by Sweetsubsarahh. Thank you.

Let's face it, sex writers can draw on their own lives and fantasies for a few years, but the well eventually runs dry, so where do we turn? To our neighbours, of course.

When I was 18, I read a manuscript of a writer-friend of mine and his characters were quirky, lively, colourful and interesting. I asked him where he got his inspiration and he replied, "I sat in the local (town of 10,000) strip club for a week. After that, I never went anywhere without a notebook.

In your opinion, is voyeurism a writer's paradise?

 

[Liar]

Not sure. I need clean, idealized situations and people to be able to write about them. Nuances are added later, for style.. I can't watch Real Life, with all the nuances already there, blurring the picture. Too disctracting.

My writing is at it's best when I write about what could happen, not about what actually does.

 

[CharleyH]

My writing is at it's best when I write about what could happen, not about what actually does.

I understand this, and I never meant to imply that my friend or I write about real people or what happens in real life. I mean to discuss inspiration for characters. He got his in a strip club and sometimes the muse comes to me from my voyeuristic look across my street.

 

[Handley_Page]

Ask any really good comedian, and he/she will likely tell you something which makes them out to be a damned good observer of humanity.

 

[TxRad]

Bars, strip clubs, anywhere that serves alcohol is a good place to observe people at their worst or best, according to how you want to phrase it. A lot of plot bunnies pop up and you can learn a lot about people in general when their inhibitions are down low.

If you saw my neighbors you'd cringe at trying to write anything sexy about them.

 

[CharleyH]

Ask any really good comedian, and he/she will likely tell you something which makes them out to be a damned good observer of humanity.

Exactly... they don't just look, they actually see and what they see is usually in front of them, no?

How do you spy with your little eye?

 

[slyc_willie]

I base a lot of my characters on guests and employees at the restaurant. There's no better place to see people at all stages of life and mood, from the shy young couples on their first date to the boisterous older couple celebrating their 30th anniversary. We get everything from kids to geriatrics, small parties and big groups of people. Once, I took care of a table of eight topless strippers who were celebrating a birthday. That almost got out of hand.

Every once in a while I'll get a comment on one of my stories that so-and-so is completely unrealistic. "They would never act like that." Too abd I can't show them who the character was based on.

 

[lance gt]

I get a lot of my inspiration from chat groups(Adult types) and listen to the things women ask men and vice versa. I also like to observe people in public and see how they interact with one another. Even in this site, there are so many stories being expressed by writers talikng back and forth openly. I wouldn't stoop to a level of depravity and 'spy', that's not right. That's invading someone's privacy, but what is public is fair game to exploit for story plots. As it was mentioned, you just have to look and not see, to find your next story. That and some artistic licence to spice it up for all of us to read, lol.

 

[lance gt]

Every once in a while I'll get a comment on one of my stories that so-and-so is completely unrealistic. "They would never act like that." Too abd I can't show them who the character was based on.

Truth can be stranger than fiction, right Slyc!

 

[slyc_willie]

Truth can be stranger than fiction, right Slyc!

No kidding. We had one character at the restaurant who was so bizarre in even the most casual things that no one would ever believe a character based off him.

Since everyone at the restaurant knows what I write, I get a lot of suggestions from them. Not just for erotic stories, but for mainstream books as well. At least two of my stories weren't my idea at all, but rather 'donated' by some of my employees.

 

[lance gt]

No kidding. We had one character at the restaurant who was so bizarre in even the most casual things that no one would ever believe a character based off him.

Since everyone at the restaurant knows what I write, I get a lot of suggestions from them. Not just for erotic stories, but for mainstream books as well. At least two of my stories weren't my idea at all, but rather 'donated' by some of my employees.

Which brings the other point of listening instead of just hearing

 

[slyc_willie]

Which brings the other point of listening instead of just hearing

Exactly. It's all about paying attention. Passing by a couple arguing in front of a store can provide a wealth of ideas. Why are they arguing? Did he cheat on her? She on him? Maybe she's about to get so angry with her boyfriend that she'll go back inside and proposition that cute hunk behind the counter, just to get even . . . or something like that.

Observation and imagination. That's all it is.

 

[JamesSD]

In your opinion, is voyeurism a writer's paradise?

I've certainly been tempted to "borrow" some of my friends and ex-girlfriends' stories. I tend to live my own life fairly low-drama, but I've had my share of friends who liked to attract crazy people or were themselves a little out there with regards to dating and such.

I also was on livejournal for a while and on the outskirts of the sexjournal community. Although you have to take the stories there with a certain grain of salt, there definitely is a voyeuristic thrill in reading some of the accounts.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've gotten a lot of inspiration and even some ideas from porno movies. I have also written a few stories based on videotapes or pictures. I have also based stories on friends and relatives, such as "My Cute Nieces" but they have never known about them.

 

[lance gt]

I've gotten a lot of inspiration and even some ideas from porno movies. I have also written a few stories based on videotapes or pictures. I have also based stories on friends and relatives, such as "My Cute Nieces" but they have never known about them.

I based a story, loosely, around the sweet thing in my profile pic. I looked at all her pics and vids and decided to put a story around what I had seen. Erica Rose Campbell is the woman's name, but I changed it so it didn't become a Celeb. story. I find so much of my detail in making out from them, well done ones of course, but it gives me the basics of describing the scene and setting it up. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 

[DeeZire]

...so where do we turn? To our neighbours, of course..

You mean like their bathroom window? I've done that. Faulty venetian blinds also help, as do loose curtains.

Years ago, there was a health club in town that must have been designed by a pervert. Sitting at the end of the juice bar, you could see clear down the hall and into the lady's clothing-optional jacuzzi. The exhibitionists, or the unknowing, would drop their towels for us. Yummy!

 

[McKenna]

In your opinion, is voyeurism a writer's paradise?

Yes.

I don't need to know the specifics of a conversation, an event, a situation; my mind readily supplies what I don't know. What I observe is the spark, and my imagination is the fan that feeds the flame.

I've based stories on people I know and people I've merely observed; a few of my characters are combinations of many people and their observed behaviors.

I can't write about what I don't know (at least not effectively), so observation is the missing key. I don't have to experience it, only observe it.

McK, Voyeur Extraordinaire

 

[LunaTigre]

I rarely just take people whole cloth and put them into my stories as characters, I don't know, that's just too concrete for me and my brain is much too loosey-goosey lol. Usually what ends up happening is that I take certain characteristics or conflicts from people and end up mixing them up with other characteristics and conflicts from other characters and make new characters. Usually, the verbal tics or physical characteristics of people survive, especially if they're really drawing, but by the time I get through with it, something that a 80-year old ex-Marine says could easily be coming out of the mouth of a 20-year old oversexed college girl. =)