Why won't they just bump uglies?

[Wicked-N-Erotic]

What do you do when your characters refuse to have sex? Don't they realize they are in an EROTIC story and sex is expected of them, at least by me?


I had 2 pages of a story done and my characters just wouldn't even let me take them close to having sex. There was plenty of teasing and foreplay but when it came to actual intercourse they ran the other way. I had it all planned, the how's, where's and when's before I started writing and then when I began typing it they turned to prudes.

So, what do you do when this happens? Has it ever happened with your characters?


Wicked

 

[Colleen Thomas]

What do you do when your characters refuse to have sex? Don't they realize they are in an EROTIC story and sex is expected of them, at least by me?


I had 2 pages of a story done and my characters just wouldn't even let me take them close to having sex. There was plenty of teasing and foreplay but when it came to actual intercourse they ran the other way. I had it all planned, the how's, where's and when's before I started writing and then when I began typing it they turned to prudes.

So, what do you do when this happens? Has it ever happened with your characters?


Wicked

Occasionally my characters refuse to get physical. usually it's in the longer works, where I have built them up some and find my original reasoning for them getting together is blown away by the direction one or the other has taken.

Best advice I have is take a long look at them and see what the hang up is. Often it's something you have written into one of them. If you can discover the why of it, the fix is usually acomplished in a para or two.

Best of luck

-Colly

 

[Guest]

Emulate real life. Have him get her drunk.

 

[oggbashan]

I file the story in a folder marked 'Incomplete Drafts' and leave them there for months, peeking occasionally to see if they have changed their minds.

They usually don't.

Og

 

[TheEarl]

Unfortunately my solution tends to follow Ogg's. They generally don't change their minds, even if you leave them there for a really long time.

The Earl

 

[OhMissScarlett]

People who don't write seem to fancy the idea that writers are playing god with their characters. In fact, if they only knew the struggle we go through when a story and characters take on lives of their own.

Many a time, I've lost sleep and hair over characters that wont do what I want them to do. I'm going through it right now with my halloween story. It may never get posted in time because the story which needed to be told kept getting bigger and bigger.

What can you do? If it feels right, I indulge them. If it just isn't working and you're trying to force chemistry, I'd do a harsh edit back to the spot where it went off course and see if I could steer it in the right direction. Sometimes things get put on the back burner indefinitely. I too have a disk full of good ideas that didn't pan out.

 

[Weird Harold]

So, what do you do when this happens? Has it ever happened with your characters?

I think the problm is that any story needs a conflict of sorts -- if there's no "conflict" or "suspense" elsewhere in your story, the sexul tension just naturally fills the void.

In my first writing effort, (which has never and will never be published) I actually had an earthquake interrupt the first attempt at sex!

It took another 30,000 words, three years of failed plans to get laid, some restraints, and four more characters before I could deflower my main charcters.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Why won't they just bump uglies?

I actually had an earthquake interrupt the first attempt at sex!

Looking at the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco, it occured to me that probably somewhere in the city at the moment of the quake (5:03 PM when working parents are not yet home), somebody probably was losing their virginity at the moment.

Later, I did discover a co-worker was having sex at that moment for the first time with a new boyfriend.

So, your idea was not as odd as you'd think.

Poor kids: the earth probably never moved for them like that again.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

That is why I write so many non erotic stories.

It’s not my choice. Nor is it due to holier-than-thou snobbishness.

I just can't seem to make the little buggers horny enough.

I've got to begin employing much sleazier characters.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: Re: Re: Why won't they just bump uglies?

Later, I did discover a co-worker was having sex at that moment for the first time with a new boyfriend.

So, your idea was not as odd as you'd think.

Poor kids: the earth probably never moved for them like that again.

No, I never thought the idea was odd or improbable -- I have a dirty mind and think of the possibility whenever I hear of an earthquake.

The Earthquake was just one of a hundred or so ways my subconscious came up with to delay defloration.

In trying to salvage the story by editing it into something I'd be willing to share with anyone, I came to the conclusion that the only thing that made it remotely interesting was the continuing comedy of errors that provided some "conflict." I eventually consigned the story to the "dead stories folder" and gave up on it because it was just 250,000 words or so of a single "joke."

 

[Lauren Hynde]

My personal pet peeve, and the discussion that most often makes me feel like slapping people around. Things don't just happen, when you're writing a story. Every single word you write, every element of the plot, of the setting, every feature of every character must have a meaning and serve a purpose.

If your characters aren't doing what they are supposed to do, there are only two possible explanations: either they're the wrong characters for the story you want to tell, or they're living in the wrong story. The solution for both problems is the same: make sure you have something to say. Cut everything that doesn't fit. Ruthlessness.

If you really do know the hows, wheres and whens (and most importantly, the WHYs), and never ever forget that every word you write needs to put you closer to those objectives, then you have control over everything that happens, you are God, everything will fit together as if by magic.

 

[CharleyH]

I completely agree with Lauren, and not just because I have carefully pondered how to get into her story, but I am deliberately saying so and this had a lot of meaning to me.

Otherwise, every author must have control of their story. I am certain that CV could point us to some good (?) examples where the author has no control.

It seems to me Wicked, you already know where your characters disobedience to your 'will' is leading

 

[oggbashan]

Some of my characters take on lives of their own.

Once they do that, anything can happen despite all my planning and editing.

Sometimes I think the result is worthwhile. Sometimes the characters change the story out of all recognition and I write the story they want. Sometimes the characters destroy the story and cannot produce another. Those stories languish in the pending folder.

There are about half a million words in 'pending'. I dip into that heap from time to time and produce something from there but I have just added my first Halloween story into that folder. What I have submitted is stories 2 to 5. Story 1 was stillborn.

Og

 

[Svenskaflicka]

Re: Re: Re: Why won't they just bump uglies?

Looking at the aftermath of the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco, it occured to me that probably somewhere in the city at the moment of the quake (5:03 PM when working parents are not yet home), somebody probably was losing their virginity at the moment.

Later, I did discover a co-worker was having sex at that moment for the first time with a new boyfriend.

So, your idea was not as odd as you'd think.

Poor kids: the earth probably never moved for them like that again.

I hope they weren't religious types, or they'd never have sex again. Imagine overcoming your fear of committing a sin, giving in to your lust, only to experience an earth quake in the middle of the act. Talk about God giving you a sign!

 

[shereads]

This thread has the best title ever. What wouldn't I give to own stock in the company that distributes the movie.

 

[killallhippies]

i'm a cutter, too. the story i'm currently working on has gone from ten pages to four to ten again and back down to eight and now it's at nine. i'm sure it'll go up and down a couple more times before i'm done. they are my creations. they will do what i say or else.

 

[Just_John1]

If you really do know the hows, wheres and whens (and most importantly, the WHYs), and never ever forget that every word you write needs to put you closer to those objectives, then you have control over everything that happens, you are God, everything will fit together as if by magic.

I usually know the whys... that's why I write, to tell them, the problem is... when I get to the hows and the wheres is when my characters take over. I find, at times, that it takes me 10,000 words to tell the whys. The magic happens but I don't always have control. I've been going through a period where the whys have taken over but I can't really put the where's and hows together that make sense. I've definitely thrown away more than I've posted the past year or two. I never stopped writing, I just feel like I've lost control of my characters.

It really pisses me off when they decide to be recalcitrant after 10,000 words but for some reason, even though it is godlike to erase any semblence of evidence that they ever existed, it isn't as fun as I thought it would be.

Just my two cents

JJ1

 

[Liar]

I don't understand the question. They are my characters. I decide what they do, think and say. If I want them to have sex, they have sex.

#L

 

[Liar]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Why won't they just bump uglies?

I hope they weren't religious types, or they'd never have sex again. Imagine overcoming your fear of committing a sin, giving in to your lust, only to experience an earth quake in the middle of the act. Talk about God giving you a sign!

What if the sign is ROCK ON!!!

?



#L

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

What early post?

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

I'm quasi with Liar. Even though I tend for character-heavy stories and usually flesh out the characters more than the plot (sometimes I wait till the scenes themselves to decide what happens, which has introduced some interesting subplots in the past.

Still, I have never had them truly derail the main story. Usually they are able to morph into the situation fairly seemlessly. It may be because of the fact that my characters are eccentric or unlikely some inner talent of mine that won't allow utter collapse of story.

My main problem stems from other problems. First and chiefly, the attempt to keep the porn aspects of a story from utterly swathing tone and style. I've got a few pieces that have perfect pace and tone and I'm loving it and all of a sudden I'm at a big fuck scene and it starts devolving into standard description and pace goes to Hell.

I have a similar problem describing action scenes, so unfortunately it's not just a problem in my wank stories.

Second, something I call spontaneous stupidity. It's where you have written about 1,000 words and then realize that everything you've just written is not only completely stupid but antithetical with the emotion or tone you want overriding the scene. A worse problem of this is where you've written a section that makes you realize that the full story is in a pit of stupidity and you need to go back and rewrite the tone or main plotline.




Anyone else got those two problems?

 

[carsonshepherd]

Second, something I call spontaneous stupidity. It's where you have written about 1,000 words and then realize that everything you've just written is not only completely stupid but antithetical with the emotion or tone you want overriding the scene. A worse problem of this is where you've written a section that makes you realize that the full story is in a pit of stupidity and you need to go back and rewrite the tone or main plotline

That's happened to me twice, two out of the last two stories I wrote. The character interaction was all wrong. Thank God I had some very smart friends/editors who pointed it out to me! (Thanks ladies.)

I usually pick a point I want to get to, and then let the characters tell me how they want to get there. My best stories are the ones where I let them have all the time they need to develop. When I re-read the stories months later, sometimes I'm amazed, and I can't even remember how I arrived at these thoughts all on my own.

That also happens sometimes when I had too much to drink the night before...

 

[BlackShanglan]

You're worried about being two pages in? Count your blessings

My latest took 25 pages and 17,000 words to get to the kiss. I believe actual intercourse first occurs around the 25,000 word / 40 page mark.

Oddly enough, it's had the best intial reviews of anything I've written. (Private readings; it's not posted at the moment). And I like it much better than the one where - with unusual alacrity for me - I managed to get the physical fun and games underway by page seven.

Sometimes the story is the thing to go with and not the sex. Of course, I do at times wish that I could get to the point a little more quickly. If nothing else, it would spare me a lot of time in writing. But when I really feel for the characters as people and have a sense of their depth and complexity, they become more interesting to me. The obstacles that I throw at them try their faith and desire; it takes them quite a while to get over them, but when they do the release of tension (ideally; theory rather than perhaps my own weak practice) can be quite powerful .

I have my own personal pet project. The Story that Cannot be Told. It's strange, transgressive, and quite possibly incomprehensible. It is in some ways my favorite piece.

I'm on page 35. I've just moved back the sex scene again.

That's just the way it is. I can't be true to the characters any faster.

Shanglan

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I don't understand the question. They are my characters. I decide what they do, think and say. If I want them to have sex, they have sex.

#L

You've never met Robin Shore-Snape.

 

[Liar]

You've never met Robin Shore-Snape.

No. And because I haven't: Huh?