Writer's Block

[sirhugs]

Have a second or third project you're working on. When you're blocked, go write something else.

that is twice as hard

 

[sirhugs]

The Story is up.
Violet Loves Her Tentacle Monster
my thanks for all the support and suggestions
the next one is also going well, and I am off mornings all week, so have a good chance to finish it soon.

 

[SkyBubble]

that is twice as hard

I've found that having something else to write for a while clears my head.

 

[sirhugs]

I've found that having something else to write for a while clears my head.

Don't disagree, but I was having trouble finding any fresh ideas.

 

[SkyBubble]

That's a different problem.

 

[Djmac1031]

So I'm 4K words into a story when I realize I have no real direction for it moving forward.

I basically used a lot of fancy window dressing to put to people in a room and have them fuck. No slow burn, no sexual tension, no Will They / Won't they. They don't even know each other.

I thought I had a reason for it but ultimately none of it clicks.

I had high hopes; I've been struggling to write but I figured if I just pushed forward on an idea enough, the full story would fall into place.

It hasn't. I got so far then crashed to a halt.

I'm at a point I think I just need to stop trying. My stories used to just show up unannounced, usually late at night, and BEG ME to write them.

Now? It feels like Performance Anxiety but with words. I'm trying to force ideas and any writing that comes from it suffers as a result.

I mean seriously, I put my female lead alone in a cabin with a stranger she just met and she jumped his bones in 30 seconds. Why? Because i wanted them to fuck. No other reason given. ugh.

I think i just need a break in general.

 

[NuclearFairy]

So I'm 4K words into a story when I realize I have no real direction for it moving forward.

I basically used a lot of fancy window dressing to put to people in a room and have them fuck. No slow burn, no sexual tension, no Will They / Won't they. They don't even know each other.

I thought I had a reason for it but ultimately none of it clicks.

I had high hopes; I've been struggling to write but I figured if I just pushed forward on an idea enough, the full story would fall into place.

It hasn't. I got so far then crashed to a halt.

I'm at a point I think I just need to stop trying. My stories used to just show up unannounced, usually late at night, and BEG ME to write them.

Now? It feels like Performance Anxiety but with words. I'm trying to force ideas and any writing that comes from it suffers as a result.

I mean seriously, I put my female lead alone in a cabin with a stranger she just met and she jumped his bones in 30 seconds. Why? Because i wanted them to fuck. No other reason given. ugh.

I think i just need a break in general.

Maybe it was a weird underground gas leak that caused insane horniness. You could allude to this by weird smells and confusion in the participants.

 

[Djmac1031]

Maybe it was a weird underground gas leak that caused insane horniness. You could allude to this by weird smells and confusion in the participants.

I mean, I had a semblance of a plot, a germ of an idea of where it was going.

But try as I might, none of the pieces fit. Worse yet, to write it would be a lot of telling, not showing. And it would read like your great aunt trying to describe the soap opera she watches:

"Well you see, he was married to her but cheated on her with her, who got pregnant with his baby and..."

In other words, a convoluted, boring mess.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I mean, I had a semblance of a plot, a germ of an idea of where it was going.

But try as I might, none of the pieces fit. Worse yet, to write it would be a lot of telling, not showing. And it would read like your great aunt trying to describe the soap opera she watches:

"Well you see, he was married to her but cheated on her with her, who got pregnant with his baby and..."

In other words, a convoluted, boring mess.

Honestly I usually find someone telling me about a soap opera more entertaining than watching one. But, I get what you mean.

 

[Djmac1031]

Honestly I usually find someone telling me about a soap opera more entertaining than watching one. But, I get what you mean.

imagine trying to read it lol. I was boring myself trying to write it.

the sex scene was fire, though. I'm hoping to salvage it for something else somehow.

 

[gunhilltrain]

So I'm 4K words into a story when I realize I have no real direction for it moving forward.

I basically used a lot of fancy window dressing to put to people in a room and have them fuck. No slow burn, no sexual tension, no Will They / Won't they. They don't even know each other.

I thought I had a reason for it but ultimately none of it clicks.

I had high hopes; I've been struggling to write but I figured if I just pushed forward on an idea enough, the full story would fall into place.

It hasn't. I got so far then crashed to a halt.

I'm at a point I think I just need to stop trying. My stories used to just show up unannounced, usually late at night, and BEG ME to write them.

Now? It feels like Performance Anxiety but with words. I'm trying to force ideas and any writing that comes from it suffers as a result.

I mean seriously, I put my female lead alone in a cabin with a stranger she just met and she jumped his bones in 30 seconds. Why? Because i wanted them to fuck. No other reason given. ugh.

I think i just need a break in general.

The cabin? Not hopeless. Make her a prostitute in a mining camp, maybe the Yukon. Or on a railroad construction site. Remember McCabe and Mrs. Miller? (No one's seen Heaven's Gate.) Don't want to do the 19th Century? Give it a modern setting. The Canadian oil fields, a military base. Write it from the point of view of the the female. What does she think about being a sex worker, how did she get into it, how does she plan to get out out of it?

It's possible that she just has a sexual disorder, formerly called "nymphomania." That would probably have to be from the male point of view. I used that idea once, and it was more involved than you might think. I can point out an interview video of a woman who admits to that condition.

All of this is on the seamier side of sex, but that is what your plot bunny is pointing to.

 

[Djmac1031]

Write it from the point of view of the the female

it was her POV.

What does she think about being a sex worker, how did she get into it, how does she plan to get out out it?

Shes not a sex worker.

it was an idea for the Dark Fairytales Challenge @StillStunned set up.

The lead character is a Succubus character of mine; she was a minor character in a few other stories and I wanted to give her her own story.

It was sorta a play on the Big Bad Wolf; lost in the woods, meets a stranger in a cabin... I had an idea for WHY but ultimately none of it really works.

It's tough to explain exactly why without going into a ton of details on the character backstory.

Which it mainly why my idea fails; to flesh it out I needed a ton of boring backstory exposition, tons of telling with no showing.

 

[NuclearFairy]

it was her POV.



Shes not a sex worker.

it was an idea for the Dark Fairytales Challenge @StillStunned set up.

The lead character is a Succubus character of mine; she was a minor character in a few other stories and I wanted to give her her own story.

It was sorta a play on the Big Bad Wolf; lost in the woods, meets a stranger in a cabin... I had an idea for WHY but ultimately none of it really works.

It's tough to explain exactly why without going into a ton of details on the character backstory.

Which it mainly why my idea fails; to flesh it out I needed a ton of boring backstory exposition, tons of telling with no showing.

I have this big long epic fantasy story in my head that I'll never write down because it doesn't interest me enough. But there is one sex scene from the story that keeps coming back to mind, it's the only one in the whole thing, that I'm occasionally tempted to write. But... I never do because, would it even have the same impact if I don't write the rest of the story?

 

[gunhilltrain]

it was her POV.



Shes not a sex worker.

it was an idea for the Dark Fairytales Challenge @StillStunned set up.

The lead character is a Succubus character of mine; she was a minor character in a few other stories and I wanted to give her her own story.

It was sorta a play on the Big Bad Wolf; lost in the woods, meets a stranger in a cabin... I had an idea for WHY but ultimately none of it really works.

It's tough to explain exactly why without going into a ton of details on the character backstory.

Which it mainly why my idea fails; to flesh it out I needed a ton of boring backstory exposition, tons of telling with no showing.

That's more difficult. I don't think I've ever written a fairy tale or had a succubus as a character. I guess you've done some world-building for this? I always think of Tolkien first when I think of such fantasies, and I've never read him! He was a expert about Medieval Europe, languages, literature and much else, so he had a lot to draw on to create his worlds.

Most of us mortals don't have that kind of background. If I even tried a fairy tale, I'd give it a modern setting perhaps. What is your setting like? What's going on in it?

 

[Djmac1031]

I have this big long epic fantasy story in my head that I'll never write down because it doesn't interest me enough. But there is one sex scene from the story that keeps coming back to mind, it's the only one in the whole thing, that I'm occasionally tempted to write. But... I never do because, would it even have the same impact if I don't write the rest of the story?

In retrospect, one of the other major problems was choosing a character with an established history.

@EmilyMiller and I have our shared Angels And Demons Universe that spans over multiple stories. So there's a lot of world building and a plethora of characters, all with their own histories etc.

My initial idea for this character was to expand on her heritage. Problem is, in order to do that I realized it involves writing a ton of exposition and catching readers up on her established history.

But unless readers have read the past stories, theyre not gonna know what the fuck I'm going on about, or care.

I was hoping it could stand on its own but its just too convoluted.

Im considering a more straightforward option that drops all the family drama backstory but I still need a REASON for things to happen.

 

[Djmac1031]

In retrospect, one of the other major problems was choosing a character with an established history.

@EmilyMiller and I have our shared Angels And Demons Universe that spans over multiple stories. So there's a lot of world building and a plethora of characters, all with their own histories etc.

My initial idea for this character was to expand on her heritage. Problem is, in order to do that I realized it involves writing a ton of exposition and catching readers up on her established history.

But unless readers have read the past stories, theyre not gonna know what the fuck I'm going on about, or care.

I was hoping it could stand on its own but its just too convoluted.

Im considering a more straightforward option that drops all the family drama backstory but I still need a REASON for things to happen.

@gunhilltrain see above

 

[NuclearFairy]

In retrospect, one of the other major problems was choosing a character with an established history.

@EmilyMiller and I have our shared Angels And Demons Universe that spans over multiple stories. So there's a lot of world building and a plethora of characters, all with their own histories etc.

My initial idea for this character was to expand on her heritage. Problem is, in order to do that I realized it involves writing a ton of exposition and catching readers up on her established history.

But unless readers have read the past stories, theyre not gonna know what the fuck I'm going on about, or care.

I was hoping it could stand on its own but its just too convoluted.

Im considering a more straightforward option that drops all the family drama backstory but I still need a REASON for things to happen.

This needs to be an available reaction.

That does sound tricky. I could probably be done without too much exposition and back story, but it would be difficult and without knowing the character in question, I can't offer any advice.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have this big long epic fantasy story in my head that I'll never write down because it doesn't interest me enough. But there is one sex scene from the story that keeps coming back to mind, it's the only one in the whole thing, that I'm occasionally tempted to write. But... I never do because, would it even have the same impact if I don't write the rest of the story?

I've got the same question here. Why do you like this particular epic fantasy? Tolkien I'd guess was thinking of an older Europe when he wrote. J.K. Rowling has no where near his erudition, so she struck to modern England. Well, not the real modern England, but she knew her limitations. Anyway, what we in the west call fairy tales are related to northern Europe in some way. There must be different settings in other the fantasies of other cultures, but I'm not really up on those.

 

[NuclearFairy]

I've got the same question here. Why do you like this particular epic fantasy? Tolkien I'd guess was thinking of an older Europe when he wrote. J.K. Rowling has no where near his erudition, so she struck to modern England. Well, not the real modern England, but she knew her limitations. Anyway, what we in the west call fairy tales are related to northern Europe in some way. There must be different settings in other the fantasies of other cultures, but I'm not really up on those.

Well, I don't like it as much as some of the others kicking around in my head. Hence why I'm pretty sure that I'll never write it down. (Unlike my merfolk and orcs, that stuff is getting written down.) But why I like this scene is because two people from literal different worlds take a pause from the frantic quest to keep his world from being devoured to have a tender, passionate, stress relieving moment, before taking a stroll through the virgin murdering unicorn forest.

 

[Djmac1031]

Since both @NuclearFairy and @gunhilltrain have expressed interest in the conversation, ill try to sum it up in a nutshell:

Annej the Succubus finds herself alone, naked, and lost in a mysterious woods. She was on her way to visit her mother, Agrat, and found herself suddenly transported to the woods. A tempest is brewing.

She meets a talking owl that guides her to a small secluded cabin. Shortly after she arrives there's a knock at the door. A tall, mysterious, handsome, wolf like stranger, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm.

The two have an immediate chemistry and, Annej being a Succubus who loves sex, immediately offers to fuck him.

And that's where I'm at so far.

Now, my original ideas going forward was that the owl reveals herself to be the Demoness Lilith, who claims she is the true mother of Annej. And Lobo, her wolf lover, is her half brother.

Why? Well that's where it gets complicated. Annej's father was Asmodeus, a Dark Lord of Hell and major villain in Emily and my Angels and Demons Saga.

There's so much backstory, all told in OTHER stories. But to make this work I'd need to recap a lot.

Then, I still don't even have a WHY. Why did Lilith leave Annej with Asmodeus? Why does she reveal herself now? What was the point of leading her half brother to the cabin as well?

I have no answers for any of it. It's all just too convoluted and doesn't make for a compelling stand alone story.

My other option is to dump the family drama and just make Lobo the Big Bad Wolf Demon who brought her there.

But again, I need a WHY?

Is he a good guy? Bad guy? indifferent? What drew him to Annej? What was the point of him bringing her there?

Again I have nothing, and I cant move forward without something to make it work.

 

[gunhilltrain]

This needs to be an available reaction.

That does sound tricky. I could probably be done without too much exposition and back story, but it would be difficult and without knowing the character in question, I can't offer any advice.

An Angels and Demons universe sounds like it must have some basis in Christian theology? But you two wrote it anyway. I decided to expand on a character in an existing series, but she is a department store buyer in New York. That's very different, but I still had to figure out what to say about her. (She had only appeared once before.) So I didn't attempt to explain her back story in one go. It's more about what she does in the present. Her niece, a MC in the original series, never had a complete back story either because she didn't feel like talking about it much. Her parents are divorced, but she doesn't describe them or how she wound up living with her mother's half-sister.

 

[EmilyMiller]

In retrospect, one of the other major problems was choosing a character with an established history.

@EmilyMiller and I have our shared Angels And Demons Universe that spans over multiple stories. So there's a lot of world building and a plethora of characters, all with their own histories etc.

My initial idea for this character was to expand on her heritage. Problem is, in order to do that I realized it involves writing a ton of exposition and catching readers up on her established history.

But unless readers have read the past stories, theyre not gonna know what the fuck I'm going on about, or care.

I was hoping it could stand on its own but its just too convoluted.

Im considering a more straightforward option that drops all the family drama backstory but I still need a REASON for things to happen.

I kinda fell into this same trap (in the same shared universe) with my Pandemonium story, Emma Agonistes, last year (Pandemonium morphed into Dark Fairytales this year). I had to have a chunk of exposition at the beginning - and I wasn’t really looking to expand the mythos to the degree that @Djmac1031 is (more to plagiarize The Hobbit and Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass).

Then I think my she-demon, Emma, is a rather accessible archetype.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Since both @NuclearFairy and @gunhilltrain have expressed interest in the conversation, ill try to sum it up in a nutshell:

Annej the Succubus finds herself alone, naked, and lost in a mysterious woods. She was on her way to visit her mother, Agrat, and found herself suddenly transported to the woods. A tempest is brewing.

She meets a talking owl that guides her to a small secluded cabin. Shortly after she arrives there's a knock at the door. A tall, mysterious, handsome, wolf like stranger, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm.

The two have an immediate chemistry and, Annej being a Succubus who loves sex, immediately offers to fuck him.

And that's where I'm at so far.

Now, my original ideas going forward was that the owl reveals herself to be the Demoness Lilith, who claims she is the true mother of Annej. And Lobo, her wolf lover, is her half brother.

Why? Well that's where it gets complicated. Annej's father was Asmodeus, a Dark Lord of Hell and major villain in Emily and my Angels and Demons Saga.

There's so much backstory, all told in OTHER stories. But to make this work I'd need to recap a lot.

Then, I still don't even have a WHY. Why did Lilith leave Annej with Asmodeus? Why does she reveal herself now? What was the point of leading her half brother to the cabin as well?

I have no answers for any of it. It's all just too convoluted and doesn't make for a compelling stand alone story.

My other option is to dump the family drama and just make Lobo the Big Bad Wolf Demon who brought her there.

But again, I need a WHY?

Is he a good guy? Bad guy? indifferent? What drew him to Annej? What was the point of him bringing her there?

Again I have nothing, and I cant move forward without something to make it work.

What if, Lilith the owl doesn't reveal who she is in this story. And what if, the wolf demon didn't want her to reach this cabin.

Maybe, he trapped her in this forest to try and undo her because he hates someone that loves her, but Lilith brought her to a place of sanctuary that would greatly reduce the wolf demon's powers. But, the wolf demon's powers might also keep Lilith from giving her much if any information

The wolf demon can't get her out easily, so he has to go in and try to trick her out, which could lead to Annej seducing him.

I mean, if you want to have the Lilith is her mother bit come out, it might mean a much longer story.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Since both @NuclearFairy and @gunhilltrain have expressed interest in the conversation, ill try to sum it up in a nutshell:

Annej the Succubus finds herself alone, naked, and lost in a mysterious woods. She was on her way to visit her mother, Agrat, and found herself suddenly transported to the woods. A tempest is brewing.

She meets a talking owl that guides her to a small secluded cabin. Shortly after she arrives there's a knock at the door. A tall, mysterious, handsome, wolf like stranger, seeking shelter from the oncoming storm.

The two have an immediate chemistry and, Annej being a Succubus who loves sex, immediately offers to fuck him.

And that's where I'm at so far.

Now, my original ideas going forward was that the owl reveals herself to be the Demoness Lilith, who claims she is the true mother of Annej. And Lobo, her wolf lover, is her half brother.

Why? Well that's where it gets complicated. Annej's father was Asmodeus, a Dark Lord of Hell and major villain in Emily and my Angels and Demons Saga.

There's so much backstory, all told in OTHER stories. But to make this work I'd need to recap a lot.

Then, I still don't even have a WHY. Why did Lilith leave Annej with Asmodeus? Why does she reveal herself now? What was the point of leading her half brother to the cabin as well?

I have no answers for any of it. It's all just too convoluted and doesn't make for a compelling stand alone story.

My other option is to dump the family drama and just make Lobo the Big Bad Wolf Demon who brought her there.

But again, I need a WHY?

Is he a good guy? Bad guy? indifferent? What drew him to Annej? What was the point of him bringing her there?

Again I have nothing, and I cant move forward without something to make it work.

You could always take the fast and loose approach @PennyThompson and I adopted for Plucky Penny and the Demon of Doom…

—

I was sitting on the edge of the bed, with Penny crossed-legged behind me. She was smoothing down my ruffled feathers as we spoke, for all the World as if we were two middle schoolers braiding hair during a sleepover.

"Right," said Penny, more calmly than I could have imagined. "So you're like a real actual angel, and your partner is a real actual demon."

I nodded. Maybe I was better at this than I thought.

"But I just came in your mouth. Would she be cool with that? She won't be jealous?"

I was thoughtful for a moment. "Well, she might be a bit jealous. Emma does get jealous sometimes. She can't help it really. She's a demon. But most likely, on this occasion, only as I didn't share the semen with her."

I smiled happily. "We both love semen, like a lot. It's one of our favorite things. You know, like in the song...? 'Raindrops on roses...'"

"Not really," said Penny, doubtfully. "But anyway... So Heaven and Hell are totally real places, but they aren't complete enemies? There's um... collaboration between them? Like group projects?"

"Uh-huh," I replied.

"And The Devil is actually a woman? And she has a daughter with an archangel, who lives with you and... Emma, that's right...? Here on Earth?"

This was very impressive recall by my friend. "Yup, you've got it."

"And you and Emma... and Satan's daughter... and... others...?"

"Mostly Elena, she's half human, half angel. And a few human friends of course."

"Of course. So you're like a supernatural Powerpuff Girls?"

I frowned. "No, not really, we're not cartoon characters. I'd say we're more like a..."

I searched for a phrase that might connect with a twenty something human, "...a SWAT team, maybe."

"Oh... My girlfriend would have some strong feelings about me fooling around with a cop. She's an anarcho-syndicalist and..."

This was getting complicated. "No, I'm not a..." I decided that it wasn't so very important after all. "It's just a metaphor, or a simile, or maybe a synecdoche, something like that. Let's move on, OK?"

"And you're here on a mission, to rescue... let's get this right... another female demon, who used to be Emma's sworn enemy, but is now your friend."

"Cozbi, that's right. She's actually kinda sweet, once you get past the snark, and the biting the tongues out of rapists' mouths. Well, when I say sweet..."

"Another metaphor?" asked Penny.

"Huh?" I replied in confusion.

"She doesn't really... you know... bite...?"

I blinked at Penny, unsure how to respond.

"Oh... I see... Well, I'm sure they must have deserved it," she said, clearly wondering what type of people she was associating with.

A thought suddenly struck my young friend. "Wait, so God is definitely real? My parents would be happy to hear that. Oh gosh, I hope he's not mad at me, I stopped going to Sunday school a long time ago..."

"Um... I should maybe mention that Lucy helped him with that whole creation shit, you know, a woman's touch. And... anyway..."

"And what...?" pressed Penny, seeming very interested.

"Well, he's kinda... missing... Cozbi saw him once recently, but other than that..." I shrugged.

"O... K...," said Penny, clearly digesting this latest nugget. Then she went on. "But... and here I get confused... this Coz-whatever has been trapped here by...?"

"Marchosias," I replied, "right hand demon to that scum Asmodeus."

"And Asmodeus is like this mega awful guy, right? Who did some really really bad things to Emma, and Emma's mom, and your mom, and... Oh gosh, Lily are you okay? I have a therapist friend, and..."

"You're sweet, Penny. Angels don't really do therapy. Well, apart from when Em ties me up. She calls that therapy sometimes."

Penny seemed to ignore this observation and continued. "And Asmodeus is in prison, but his friend...?"

"Marchosias," I repeated.

"Yeah, him. He's trapped Cozbi in this convention as payback for her role in defeating his master, right?"

"Yeah, simple, right? You sure your major isn't literary criticism and not art?"

"Definitely art," smiled Penny rather weakly. "And," continued my young friend, "the convention is actually..."

She stopped suddenly as the external lock of the suite whirred and the door was flung open. We both immediately wished that we had closed the bedroom door.

 

[gunhilltrain]

What I'm trying to say is that not every character needs a complete backstory, or maybe not all at once. Even though the main male character in that series has appeared elsewhere, on different timelines, and is partially but not completely based on myself, there is a lot about him that has yet to be described. Maybe it never will be. His earlier family life is not that crucial, so I left most of it out. He's kind of an ambitious white working or lower middle class baby boomer. He narrates most of these stories, and that's what he thinks of himself, but he never explicitly describes himself that way. I guess people act like that in Angels and Demons universes too, even succubi. The reader kind of figures out a character from what they do, which may not be as easy as it sounds.