Writer's Corner, Characters, How to Create a Character, and Characterization

Writers Corner is an attempt by me to create some kind of aid or assistance for people who want to write. I am by no means a great writer, I barely qualify as a good one. I am simply trying to give people the chance to not make the same mistakes that I have, and hopefully help someone at least in some small manner. While I write erotica, much of the information posted will help people who are writing non-erotic works as well. I cannot be held responsible if my advice has an adverse effect on your writing, or if it improves it either.

Characters, How to Create Characters, and Characterization

Hey folks, back for perhaps the last writer’s corner of the year. This one will be about characters, how to create a character, and characterization; or how to best describe characters in a story.

Characters

The first and most important rule of a character is to avoid the most obvious of clichés. While I realize that there aren’t a whole heck of a lot of unique characters left to write, it’s best to not focus on essentially recreating a character. Something like the badass martial arts expert, the sexy female ninja, African-American inner city young gangster, shy studious bookworm schoolgirl, or effeminate homosexual male are all examples not just from literature, but from real life(some at least), of cliché characters. While I won’t try to pretend they don’t exist in literature, television, and movies, copying them is generally a poor idea. 

Why is it a poor idea, you might ask? Well there are a number of reasons. First off, the chance that you’re interested in creating a character from one of these, or other, stocks, is that you’ve seen it elsewhere. So you think, ‘Hey, what if I take Naruto and put him in the 21st century?’ or something else. But since Naruto might not fit exactly in the 21st century you copy much of the established character’s style and nuances, and change some details such as clothes, gender, height, hair color, etc, and essentially do the same idea. 

This means you have in essence copied a character. This copying of a character is something that will hurt your story on a number of levels. If someone isn’t familiar with the base story, and is reading your story, they won’t understand the motivation of the character. I’ll go more into that later. But if it’s something Naruto would do because he’s Naruto, then it’s explained in his back-story, and you might not do enough of an adequate job in relaying an equal or satisfactory back-story, because you may feel that it’s already there.

Aside from that, creating a stock character gets rather boring. It’s something that the audience has seen and done. A ‘ZOMG I’m the toughest guy ever!’ character is lousy. Superman isn’t interesting because of his powers. He is in essence undefeatable except by a choice few, and finding a villain for him is usually uninteresting and pointless. Batman is interesting because he doesn’t have powers. He’s just a normal man without special skills. Yeah he has tools and a nice car, but he’s still bones and skin. It makes him human and understandable. Batman wouldn’t be nearly as interesting of a character if he had flight, super strength, and invulnerability. It would fix all of his problems in moments and leave little left for interest, or doubt.

There are of course two exceptions to this idea. The first is if you are gifted, and willing to make the character truly unique. Sure some kids study just because it’s what they want to do, but maybe there’s a back-story to it? Perhaps the character has come from a working class family, and loathes his father and wants to grow up and become the best that he can be with his mind, instead of his muscle. Go into their story in depth, and don’t allow for small and easily understandable things. This is very hard to accomplish, and usually best done as an anti-stereotype. 

The second is if you’re creating a character to explore that character, either to insult them or to explain your own feelings on them. The character of the stage director in Club Vanilla is one example of my disgust for homosexual males that that go out of their way to act as flaming as possible. I have no problems with homosexuals or homosexuality, but those that act as flaming as possible annoy me to no end, not because of their life choice, but because of their choice to become a stereotype. I didn’t have anything bad happen to him, I didn’t insult him with any anti-homosexual slander, I simply had a character share my disgust for him.

How to Create a Character

There are more ways to create a character than there are characters, it seems. There’s a few prevailing ideas.

The first idea is to create a character sheet, and list the physical attributes. This method is can be done when you are unsure of the plot yet, and creating a character is a starting off point to how they can evolve, and how the world can as well. This can also work when you have the idea of a plot, but need to create a character that’s suitable for it. You start by making notes of things such as height, weight, age, hair/eye color, and so on. After you have the idea of what they look like, you can build up the back-story of what has led the character to have certain abilities, skills, etc. This follows up with things like a history, or simply likes/dislikes, preferences, hobbies, interests, and so on. This is often done with people who role-play, as they generally have to not just explain their characters to others but they have to explain their characters to others. Especially those who don’t have the time to really read a long an in depth piece just to understand that their character likes dogs, or is afraid of the dark because there was a fire when they were a child. While you can’t just simply state these things, you can see what your character is made of, and how you need to describe it.

The second idea is to create a list of attributes for that character. This is usually done when you are going to center the story on the plot, or that is to say that the character development is secondary to the development of the plot. This is similar to the first idea, and can be a possible step two, but it is slightly different. One of the key differences is that this is largely setting a series of lists for a character, and then attempting to find a way to insert that into a story. For example, instead of outright saying that your character needs to wear glasses or has asthma, show that they can’t read something without their glasses, or have them worried about running because they don’t have their inhaler. 

Another means of creating a character is to create a world for them to live in. This can be done if you have the idea for a new kind of world, and want to create a character that lives in the world to explain it. If you can imagine it this way, something like my Terraverse. A post limited nuclear war Earth and a fully colonized Mars in 507 years in the future, has the notion of nanobots introduced into society. Thus, Terra is my character for this world. She’s not indicative of the world, in fact very much the opposite. But you get to see and understand the world through her naivety, as the reader is uninitiated to the world at large, even if they understand things like pizza, or sex. 

These are just 3 ways of doing it, where there are more ways than can be counted. From my experience and opinion, these are the most frequently used ones, and some of the best ones to work with, particularly if you don’t have much experience writing. But as always, find something for you, and if it works, stick to it, at least until it stops working. 

Characterization

Characterization is probably one of the most important things in creating a character. It’s relating that character to the audience. This is naturally done through a number of ways, but essentially it boils down to information directly given to the reader, or information that the reader infers or determines through the narrative. 

To explain that point a little bit, much of the direct information is generally physical. This is of course natural, because we see people and can determine such things easily. I can tell you that a girl is a blond, redhead, what have you, even use poetic language to describe it. But it boils down to the fact that you can determine it easily enough via sensory descriptors.

When it comes to determining information through the narrative, this is best done through giving the reader something to consider. Say that a man is an assassin, but he’s thoughtful enough to not kill innocents, to feed a stray cat, or let a dog caught in a trap loose. You see that he’s not as cold blooded as the job makes him seem. Sure I can tell you that someone is kind, but then you absorb it like a plain fact, the same as if I told you that a person’s hair is blond. The audience doesn’t connect with that, not really, it’s just a fact. They absorb the notion of someone sparing an innocent, or kindness to animals. That tugs on the audience’s heartstrings and their own sensibilities. But more importantly, they understand that.

The important thing about characters is to create a character that the audience is able to understand and empathize with. THIS is what I meant earlier about creating stock or stereotypical characters. They are as plain and as boring as they seem to be. And the audience doesn’t have sympathy for them because they are a stereotype, because they’ve been in a hundred other stories, and because they aren’t interesting. If you create a different kind of character, you make it much more interesting, and accordingly, the audience will be more interested. 

The key to creating that interest is to create empathy, or sympathy, in the audience. But how does one accomplish this? The best means of doing it is to let the reader into the rational behind the character’s actions via his emotions. If the reader understands why the character is feeling something, then the reader can understand the course of actions undertaken by the character to resolve those feelings. Whether it’s remorse over killing, scorn after being dumped, a desire for love, feeling underappreciated, the reader will either understand the emotions from having felt them firsthand, or hopefully you will be able to paint enough of a picture to describe how it is that they are feeling adequately enough to move them. 

Now that the audience understands why it is that a character feels a way or another, move it to the next subject, the action that they take, due to the feelings that they have. 

No Motion Without Emotion

That statement means that the characters can’t do something unless the audience understands the reasoning behind their emotional situation. This is true of both heroes and villains. Heroes are often given cliché reasons to fight for good and decency, which is boring. Villains are even worse, they’re just there to be evil, as if every person comes out of a dozen or so Disney stock characters. (Smart, evil, good, fat, comic relief, etc)

You need to let your reader understand why it is that the character is doing something. Why are they wooing this individual? Why are they going to this place? Why are they fighting some grand evil? What was the motivation behind giving them some mystical power? 

Create interesting characters, and the audience will be interested. Create interesting characters, and let their emotions pour onto the page, and the audience won’t just be interested, they’ll understand and want to know more about the character. 

Conclusion

Know what you’re trying to do, and how to create the character. When you find a means of creating that character, don’t make it cliché. Know what is a stereotype, and avoid it. When you get down to writing it, make sure that you’re able to discern what the audience should be told directly, and what they should infer or determine through reading. Make sure that the audience understands what the characters feel, and why the character is going to act.

An Aside About Characters

The funny thing about characters is that the more that you create them, the better that you get at creating unique characters, but the harder it can be to stop creating them. Yeah, you might need a small part for a character, but you find yourself building up a back-story for them when it’s wholly unneeded. 

Not just that, but the characters that you do a good job of, you find yourself slipping into easily. In my example, some characters, such as Terra, David, Nadia, Yoshi, and especially right now because I’m working on Club Vanilla, Julie, they stick with you. I can jump into one of their voices easily, and start writing in their mindset. I’m not crazy. It’s just a writing thing. Characters are sort of a part of you. You create them from a different piece of your own mindset. I could do a whole WC on just that, but perhaps another time.

Still no timetable for updating on WC, most likely even less with the aforementioned reasons in the last post of the blog. Stay tooned.

Peace
SomeRandomBastard
http://www.asstr.org/~srb/
http://somerandombastard.blogspot.com/

Writer's Corner, The Language of Sex

Writers Corner is an attempt by me to create some kind of aid or assistance for people who want to write. I am by no means a great writer, I barely qualify as a good one. I am simply trying to give people the chance to not make the same mistakes that I have, and hopefully help someone at least in some small manner. While I write erotica, much of the information posted will help people who are writing non-erotic works as well. I cannot be held responsible if my advice has an adverse effect on your writing, or if it improves it either.

The language of sex

Hey, back here for another Writer’s Corner. In this episode I’m going to explore some of he language of sex and sexuality, and some ways of describing things.

First off, I suppose we should start with context. By context, I mean, what is the general tone and feeling of the piece.

For instance, if a story is romantic, some of the language of the piece should be written with more romantic terminology. If two lovers finally get together in bed, you want to make the language of the piece seem as romantic as the plot of story has build up their romance to be. Let’s take two statements, and we’ll use them as examples.

Bill’s penis got hard.
Amy’s vagina got wet.

I know it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but similar statements can be found just about everywhere. Now both are rather bland statements. In fact, the verb got is a very boring word. Things become wet, or start to harden. Got is something a child says. It’s fine to say ‘I got a soda at the store” or “I got a new haircut’ because it’s not attempting to be arousing, it’s just a plain and simple way of conveying information. But in an romantic and erotic context, do we want to simply say something?

The goal of writing is to make the reader keep reading, usually by garnering their interest. (Beating them over the head works too.) Write a boring and plain scene and people will get bored and go for something more interesting. This isn’t just for got. A word like is(or any conjugation of the verb to be[was are am are]) is boring as well. Fine for conveying information in a simple and straightforward manner, but not arousing by any means.

So, let’s take the two statements, and attempt to write them more romantically. For now we’ll use the filler verb became for the verb got.

Bill’s penis became hard.
Amy’s vagina became wet.

Now as I already said, let’s remove the verb got. But even before then, examine the words penis and vagina. Sure, you can use the words, but they sounds like something out of a medical book, and while accurate, it is not entirely interesting to read, or romantic. 

You can think about any other kind of synonym to use for the word penis or vagina. But few really carry the romantic language. Cock sounds dirty, in an erotic context. Dick sounds childish. Pussy is just as dirty. Cunt is usually a bad thing. Many other words for penis (cock, pecker, dong, knob, peter, prick, rod, tool, wiener, willy) and vagina (pussy, snatch, slit, twat) don’t carry much romance with them. Now certainly, you could use something like, phallus, manhood, which work quite well, or shaft, which are a more romantic substitutes. Or for a woman you could use womanhood, honey pot, or sex, and are more romantic substitutes.

And keep in mind that this is just in a general basis. Certainly the word pussy, or cock, could be used in a romantic setting, but the words themselves do not convey romance. Words like prick and cunt, on the other hand, specifically convey the opposite of romance.

But here’s an idea, DON’T use the word penis, vagina, or any synonym. If the two are romantically involved, the audience can imagine what on Bill is getting hard, or what on Amy is getting wet. It’s probably not his ear or her nose. So let’s try this.

Bill became hard.
Amy became wet.

Still kind of dry and boring. How about instead of just stating the fact, we go into some detail about it, or more specifically, add some emotion, some feeling behind the action?

Bill groaned, feeling his body harden from the touch of Amy’s soft, delicate hands.
Amy’s body reacted instantly to his touch, and she could feel herself become wet.

And just for shits and giggles, how about we add some poetic language?

Bill groaned with unbridled passion, feeling his body harden from the warm, sensual touch of Amy’s soft, delicate hands.
Amy’s aching skin reacted instantly to his touch, centered around the growing moisture on her body.

Now, if the story is written with the general attitude of wanton debauchery, the terminology could be less romantic. The terminology can be a little more loose, a bit more bathroom stall material. Now remember, I’m not talking about complete humiliation or degradation stuff, but just smutty sex. People who know each other, or just those who engage in dirtier sex is just as fine. But this might not be a good piece for a young and naïve teenage couple, or a romantic older couple.

Now taking our previous examples, let’s get past the first step and change the verb got.

Bill’s penis became hard.
Amy’s vagina became wet.

Unlike in romantic gestures, oftentimes focusing on explicitly saying the penis or vagina can be integral to the story. If the two lovers are depraved, or having depraved sex, some of the same words not appropriate for romance could be used for the sex act. But not all. I would recommend avoiding words like dick or cunt regardless of the story, unless it’s intended to describe an unsavory character, IE ‘That John is a real dick’ or ‘Jesse can be such a cunt sometimes’

Let’s try peppering up the language a bit.

Bills cock grew rock hard.
Amy’s pussy was soaking wet.

The language is better, and certainly more interesting then the initial statements, but nothing special yet. Let’s add some more sensual language to it, shall we?

Bill’s threw his head back in ecstasy, feeling his cock grow rock hard in Amy’s wet and warm mouth.
Amy moaned aloud passionately as Bill’s tongue glided expertly across her soaking pussy.

Now of course these are just two specific examples of broad types of story telling. There are a hundred different ways to say just about anything in the world, sex included. Sex needs to be geared towards the goal of the individual story, and language is a big part of it. 

Now, for some more general advice.

Penises are not steel rods, nor should they be called it. Don’t replace a name for any part of the body with anything. If it’s a penis, then it’s hard. It’s not a titanium rod. It’s not as hard as titanium. What makes more sense, that it’s as ‘hard as titanium’, or that it’s ‘achingly hard’? The audience can determine for themselves what hard is.

Remember there are five organs. I cannot stress this enough, most sex stories I see are entirely touch and sight. You can smell sex, believe me the air of sex fills the room, even if you haven’t added anything. You can taste sex, from the taste of genitals down to the taste of the skin. You can hear sex, not just groaning, but the wet sounds of sex, the sound of flesh smacking against each other. 

If you are a virgin, remember that sex isn’t like what is written in all erotic stories. Just because a mediocre Final Fantasy fanfic said something doesn’t mean that it’s a part of sex. In general, you can research just about everything on the internet these days, and I’m sure that you can use google just as easily as anyone else. 

I hope this all helps you in your endeavors. This can be a difficult thing to recall when you’re writing it, and it gets easier if you have someone proofreading your work, to give you an impression of whether or not you’re doing the job. 

Peace
SomeRandomBastard
http://www.asstr.org/~srb/
http://somerandombastard.blogspot.com/

(Still no established Writer's Corner schedule. It happens when it does. Maybe reply and it'll happen more often. Or maybe not. But still, reply. That'd be nice.)

I again suck/progress report

Yeah so been away from here, honestly considering just blowing the whole thing up. I don't know if it was just an ego trip that made me think people were going to actually be interested in my ramblings. I know that there's a small invisible amount of people on the blog, and I thank you for coming back and stuff, but honestly this blog is just a bunch of random 'I'll post this' or 'I'm working on that' but in the end, does anyone really read? Does anyone really care?

Now don't think I'm going all emo, but this was just a realization that I had that this is a small drag on my time and energy. If I really go at it it will drain more of my time and energy, and might make the place worthwhile, but as I had said, does it matter? I mean I'd rather write 1000 words in a story than write a blog post saying 'oh I'm going to write X' or what have you. And something more valid like the writer's corners were basically a nice idea, but nobody is really seeing them or paying attention, so it's hard to really want to care. It'd reach a bigger audience if I posted it on literotica, asstr, or stories online or another popular venue. And it is somewhat difficult to write, for, as I had said, little gain.

So I don't know, I'll probably continue to post something up here, but I don't really know if you're coming back, and when or why that might be, so I won't keep assuming that there is a great reason to expend a lot of time or energy in making a post like this. And the writer's corner's take up so much more time. It's not just the length, but it's the time needed to beta things, come up with ideas, map it out, prewrite it, write it, edit it, have people look at it, and then post it so...nobody is interested in it. Not saying it won't ever happen, I think once I finish CV I might have much more time, or at least it would be easier to take a week and work on one of that instead of bouncing between CV and Terra. And I'm thinking of just posting the chapters here, why not, y'know? 

Anyways emo whiny crybaby shit aside, released CV chapter 8. Working on Terra 23, 4700 words in it. Maybe a smaller chapter, we shall see. Baseball playoffs coming up, so that'll drain time away. Work sucks and now I'm down 400 bucks which is killing me. 

Writer's Corner, Structure of an Erotic Story

Yes I know that it’s been a long time coming. Apologies I’ve actually been writing and not focusing on this little known and little cared for section of my weblog. If you find any of this information useful please do let me know.

My focus on this Writer’s Corner is how to map out the literary architecture of a sex scene as compared to mapping out the architecture of a short story. While the terminology may seem complex, it’s easier than the long words may indicate.

Now let’s start off with the normal architecture of a short story. Below is an image I have copied from the following website.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/course/amlit/unit1/shortstory.shtml

It does the job well, let’s examine and map out each part, all right? I’m going to use a rather famous story that most people know well enough, I hope, Cinderella. I’m going to opt for the Disney film from the 1950s rather than the original text version, for two reasons. First it is more popularly widespread than the book, and secondly I have read the book once and barely recall the major differences, and I have seen the film many times as a child. It’s what I think about when I think about the story, and I’m sure that this is true for many people of my generation as well as generations before.

Exposition occurs the beginning of a story, it is the section of a story that lets the reader pick up on information pertinent to the conflict or goal of the story. Things like the setting, events that have already transpired, who is in the story, what they look like, how old they are, where they are, what time it is, this kind of information is important. This can be done in any number of ways, from outright explaining the subject, descriptions, to subtle dialogue to more complex schemes likeb flashbacks or allusions. This generally does little to further the plot, but instead establishes information about tone, setting, and the characters that the story could not otherwise progress without. 

The issue here can be what is called an information dump, where too much information is given, in an unnatural way. Try to say dialogue aloud and see if it sounds natural. In stories people talk the same way they do in real life. Try to say a descriptor out loud and then consider if it’s realistic. Describe something, you should describe something in real life the same way. Neither reveal too much nor too little at once in exposition, and always try to do things a piece at a time.

Of importance is the Inciting Act, that establishes the conflict and goal of the story, which usually sets up the Rising Action. The Inciting Action is usually when the audience begins to understand the point of the story. A mortal threat from an enemy, a need to save the girl, a desire to go home, the inciting act starts the piece into whatever the story is going towards, and can generally be seen as the line of demarcation between Exposition and Rising Action.

In using our example, Cinderella starts out without a mother, and her father remarries. Upon his death she is forced into a life of housekeeping, essentially as an unpaid maid, or slave. With little of the story actually being advanced we see a number of things about Cinderella. The prelude about her father doesn’t further the story, instead recaps the past actions. Her very name, Cinderella is taken from the word cinder, the fragments and dust left after a fire, and as a maid it would be one of her jobs to clean the fireplace. Her beauty becomes evident, particularly as her wicked stepsisters are envious of it and punish her because of it, being the one thing they couldn’t steal from her. Her kindness is evident, she helps save a mouse in a trap, and befriends him along with the other animals around the manor. Her humility is evident, because despite her father’s wealth and her birthright to live an easier and better life than what she is forced into, she doesn’t attempt to social better herself. If anything she accepts her forced job with little resistance. 

The Inciting Act is the King, upset with the Prince not having taken up a wife, setting up a ball to find a suitable wife for his son to produce an heir. 


Rising Action generally occurs as events in the story that shape the attitudes and actions of the characters, to build up suspense aiming towards the climax. Any secondary conflicts can be established here as well. However, the intended result is to complicate the goal or increase the conflict by adding obstacles, either in the shape of characters or in the shape of physical objects. This can be in the form of fights, either physical or verbal, it can be things as simple as winning a scratch ticket, going home from work early, staying late at work, finding a mythical dragon, learning to use the force, war being declared, anything that raises the tension after you know what is happening is included in the rising action. It can be positive or humorous things which often drive comedies. Much more often it is conflict, which often drives dramas, and some comedies. These actions shape the storyline and make the resulting climax make sense, because the reader has to understand and empathize and sympathize with the characters actions, emotions, and decision making.

In our example, a number of things happen to Cinderella that raises the action. When she wants to go to the ball her stepmother allows it if she does all of the chores, an almost impossible task, and has a gown, later crafted by her animal friends, which Cinderella’s wicked stepsisters rip apart. Cinderella’s fairy godmother comes to her aid, giving her a dress and carriage. The Prince falls for Cinderella. This sets up a desire for both Cinderella and the audience to see her work her way out of her sad life. Cinderella has to leave at midnight, and loses a slipper in her escape. The Prince begins a search for the woman who wore the slipper. Cinderella’s evil stepmother locks her in the attic. This establishes a concern for the audience that Cinderella won’t get out of her live of slavery. Then the mice find the key and free her, giving her and the audience hope that she may succeed after all. All of these acts heighten the anticipation that the two will fall in love, that Cinderella will leave her miserable life of servitude to her wicked stepmother and stepsisters, and have a storybook ending.


Climax is the height of the Rising Action, it is what the action has built up to. The turning point of the story, it sets up the resolution of the major conflict(s) of the story. This occurs near the end of the story generally. This can, and is oftentimes the showdown between the hero and the villain, or the two lovers finally confessing their love, either to one, the other, or each of them to each other. Whatever the story was building up to, it’s the part where the action has reached its apex and begins to come down.

In our example, Cinderella, at the top of the stairs, asks to try on the slipper, after her stepsisters and stepmother fail to put it on. Her stepmother knows that it is her and tries to explain away that she is just a simple servant girl. The grand duke interjects and says that all maids are to try shoeing it. The stepmother trips the servant carrying the crystal slipper, destroying it and Cinderella’s hopes of escaping her life of servitude. Cinderella notes that she has the other slipper, and returns with it, and the Prince is ecstatic about the proof of her identify.


Falling Action is what occurs after the apex of the action has turned, and the characters begin to deal with the changes. This is oftentimes larger in plays and dramas than in short stories and films, where the falling action generally is very short, and usually sets up a happy ending. The hero walks away from the villain, the town is set to normalcy, the two lovers kiss after sharing their love for one another. 

In our example, Cinderella and Prince Charming get married, with the King and Grand Duke celebrating. As I had eluded to the Falling Action is generally brief in this format of storytelling.


Resolution is the end. Literally, it’s the ending of the story, where ultimately, you are to feel that the story has been told fully, that everything that can be said about it has been said. Generally it’s happy, especially in American films, television, and literature. The lovers stay together, the hero begins life after overcoming the heroic deeds, usually with the love interest. 

In our example, Cinderella and Prince Charming kiss, with the narrator giving the fairy tale cliché, ‘And they lived happily ever after.’ The end. 


Now this is the standard means of mapping out or diagramming the structure of a narrative. This was created by Gustav Freytag, and is not without criticism. You can find a better synopsis of criticism for this structure of diagramming a story at various websites, so if you choose not to subscribe to it you are not alone. But I will continue on using this structure, so having a general working knowledge of the established concept will assist, if you are interested in paying attention to what I say. 


In erotic fiction

Exposition is important in almost all kinds of erotic fiction, the only exception to this is fan fiction, which assumes the reader already knows the universe, characters, and setting. Much of the same exposition applies, including location, time, place, etc. Usually in erotic fiction what is key is establishing the two (or more) who will make love, and generally the place that they will make love. Emphasis is generally placed on the physical attributes, age, oftentimes breast size, buttock size, legs, as well as hair color and length, makeup, and clothing. What helps make erotic fiction much more interesting is establishing character personality and quirks, which make the story much more interesting and personable to the reader. Just making a blond bombshell with large breasts and perfect makeup on, wearing a flimsy red dress and a breathy voice creates an attractive character, but not an endearing one. It seems too cookie cutter.

Do be just as careful in exposing a person’s attributes to not dump information just as you would not dump information in exposing normal information. 

The Inciting Act is usually the act that will spark the two(or more) lover’s romance. It can be a simple smile, a look, or a come on line. The line of change between Exposition and Rising Action can be different in erotic stories, oftentimes physical attributes can be explained as the two make love. 


Rising Action is usually identified with the goal of the lovers meeting, either for the first time or meeting up again. This can be as long or as short as the author wants it to be. Usually it is longer for first time lovers, as they have to establish an undercurrent of emotion behind the eventual coitus. This can be in the form of meeting at work, going on a date, meeting at a bar, being saved from the evil knight, blasting a spaceship to save the other lover, just as the Rising Action that builds for non erotic stories.

Of course this is added by the eventual fact that the two will need to begin making love. Generally this should begin with kissing, but unfortunately many male writers skip the kissing, which is a big mistake in my opinion, not just from a realistic point but from an emotional one as well. A good kiss can establish an open and caring relationship between two lovers better than simple foreplay or penetration. This leads to eventually removing the clothes, sometimes fully, sometimes partially, all subject to the storyline and the author’s wishes.

After the kissing, or usually during, there is generally heavy petting, or foreplay, that is to say stimulation of the penis or the vagina either directly or through clothing. Many first time writers don’t understand that there are more erogenous zones to a woman than her breasts, buttocks, and vagina. This is a mistake, largely I think due to it being somewhat boring to see in pornography. Another point that some less experienced writers do not begin to understand is that foreplay consists of a little bit more than rubbing a vagina three or four times. While it may be erotic to some, others may find it erotic to strive for realism. 

Next the author has their choice of how to go about it. Some will choose to go for oral sex, their sex scene may be finished after fully writing oral sex out to orgasm, or it may just be there for titillation or as a form of foreplay. Depending on the pairing things will change. Lesbian lovers will usually perform oral sex or require a dildo or strap on, or another phallic object. Homosexual male lovers may require to switch being a top or bottom. Straight lovers can proceed to vaginal or anal intercourse. 

This of course should increase the sexual tension of the story, raising it with each act, not only building up the anticipation that the characters will orgasm but building up the same anticipation for the reader that they too will orgasm. The action must continue building up, and use powerful language to describe physical motion and emotion. Do not get sidetracked, do not get into anything other than focusing on the raw sexuality of the moment.


Climax in erotic writing is a double entendre of sorts, it is where the participants climax, or orgasm. No matter the pairing the two or more individuals will orgasm, either one at a time or together. While I am a fan of simultaneous, or near simultaneous orgasms, some prefer to give each person their just due, which is fine. The point is, of course, to make all of the sexual tension and anticipation worth the wait. This can be accomplished via simultaneous orgasms, splashy money shots, and/or arousing exclamations of the impending orgasm, among various other means. Try to focus on both the physical and the mental. Explore the sensory organs, whether it’s a penis ejaculating, a vagina contracting, bodies buckling or trembling, and so on. Explore the mental aspect, the pleasure that is being felt. Make every orgasm mind shattering, even if it’s not in real life.

Now there is a big point to make is when the couples engage in multiple orgasms. Whether they are just horny buggers or whether they have oral sex, followed by vaginal and then anal or any instance where there are multiple orgasms. The big point is to make the last one the best one. In this instance, it can be anticlimactic, or less satisfying, for earlier orgasms to seem better than the last. The climax happens in a figurative sense before it happens in a literal sense. The climax is not only their orgasm, but is also the turning point in the story, their lovemaking, so keep that in mind.


Falling Action in an erotic story is usually denoted by the characters orgasms finishing. This usually involves them collapsing into bed, or a chair, couch, hot tub, or any other kind of place to rest. Depending on the place and the time, it could mean any number of things. If they were lovers in an office building during the day they may put their clothes back on, and return to work. If they were lovers at night in a bed, they may collapse under the sheet after some pillow talk. Of course they could stay, leave, put clothes on, shower, together or alone, or lay in bed and just talk, cuddle, spoon, etc. This is all of the post coitus stuff that should normally happen after two people make love. Usually put an emphasis on exhaustion, and that post orgasm glow.


Resolution in an erotic story is usually more of a plot point than anything else. Do they stay together, do they exchange numbers, plan another rendezvous, go to sleep together, etc. This can either follow up the idea of romance, of one being used, of one being deserted, or can be left ambiguous to continue the storyline. 


Thanks to the following wiki page for information on the Cinderella film I didn’t remember off the top of my head
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinderella_(1950_film)

And thanks to this webpage I ripped the picture off of.
http://www.glencoe.com/sec/literature/course/amlit/unit1/shortstory.shtml

I don't know what the future of Writer's Corner will be, but I'll try to do something once a month. Stay tuned for more.

No Writer's Corner this week

*shrugs* Sorry. 

Honestly, I wanted to do something, but I didn't wind up getting it done. I don't plan on doing a make up post this week, so don't expect it. Apologies.

In other news, the new chapter of Club Vanilla has gotten next to no replies, and after a week and a half I've basically given up on getting any replies. Shame that, but thanks for voting, those of you who have chosen to do so.

I've taken a bit of a break to write something that's not erotic, but is about futas. I don't know if I'll wind up posting it, I haven't decided yet. If you are here, your probably in my inner circle of people I would send it to anyway, but if not you could by like, replying, commenting, emailing, or just taking a general interest. Honestly my inner circle is comprised of four or five people who read my stuff and say something, it's not like you have to make a blood sacrifice...

Anyways, it's around 5500 words now, but it needs some tweaking, some improvements. It's just a short story, after taking the advice of Basil Jelly, I decided to write a novella, or short novel. You can visit his sizeplay blog here or just click on the link after reading the post. It's a story involving futas, but has no sex, and it explores the an issue in one futa's life. I might wind up doing a series of these novellas, but we'll see how it goes.

WolfDragonGod has posted her new story at Futanari Palace. You can read it here, it's chapter four, and it's an improvement on her story. She's getting better, her early story is about ten times better than my early stuff. Don't forget to reply.

In other news, I have vacation the week after next, starting with the fourth of July. I'm going away next week, probably Monday through Friday, so no writing, replying, or posting anything. The poll availability is going to expire during that time, so I won't know, or at least I won't be able to post the results until then. I don't want to go looking at porn websites where I'm going. 

I'll post something else in the near future, I dunno what so just keep your eyes open and maybe you'll find something worth reading.

Peace,
SomeRandomBastard
http://www.asstr.org/~srb/
http://somerandombastard.blogspot.com/

Writer's Corner, Back in the Saddle

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Writer's Corner, Responses

Writers Corner is an attempt by me to create some kind of aid or assistance for people who want to write. I am by no means a great writer, I barely qualify as a good one. I am simply trying to give people the chance to not make the same mistakes that I have, and hopefully help someone at least in some small manner. While I write erotica, much of the information posted will help people who are writing non-erotic works as well. I cannot be held responsible if my advice has an adverse effect on your writing, or if it improves either.The main idea of this episode of Writer’s Corner is to talk about responses. This can come in the form of ‘Thanks’ buttons on forums, comments, replies, emails, PMs, IMs, or any other various means of communication on the internet.

Writer's Corner, Responses

No matter what form it comes in, chances are that responses won’t come as often as you want it to. I touched upon this earlier in my previous Writer’s Corner, about patience. 

Now let’s be honest, we all have an ego, at least I do. You might as well. When we spend hours working on something, coming up with something, we want attention, we want to be gratified with praise. We want acknowledgement on what it is we’ve done, we want someone to just make us feel better about what we feel good about. It’s hard to step away and honestly critique our own work, just as your own child you can sometimes be blind to their imperfections. You see all the greatness and none of the faults, and believe that someone else will as well. Maybe you don’t want someone to come over and kiss your ass, maybe you do. 

There isn’t much that can be done to garner more responses. I find that the best way is to form close (relatively for the internet) friendships with other people online that can come in and honestly give you positive or negative feedback. Naturally this isn’t something that can be forced to happen, this is something that has to naturally occur over the course of spending time on websites and forums. Other writers are usually a good place to try, as they have a sort of insight on writing and a desire for responses. 

Another big part is to seem accessible to responses, whether it’s a simple ‘Hey thanks’ a small spelling or grammatical edit, or a more in depth critique. Thank everyone who thanks you, and try to respond to them. If they gave their time to write something to you, you should take the time to write something to them. Should it be a spelling or grammar edit, then thank them and fix your mistake. If someone comes to you and critiques your work, you should take the time to respond to it intelligently. Don’t simply accuse them of being rude or attacking your work, honestly have a discourse. Don’t ignore them. Perhaps they are putting out something that you have missed, or something your betas didn’t pick up on.

But this post isn’t designed to help garner more responses, not really. I’m not the person to talk to about that. This post is designed more to be about responses and how they work.

Sometimes you are going to write a story, or a chapter of a story, and your going to think that this is a really good job. Then the results aren’t exactly pouring in, probably more like dripping in at best. It’s discouraging. Especially if you are on a forum, or a website, and see hundreds of views and two replies(and one is your own) 

Part of responses is getting your story to your target audience, if your audience likes female dominant stories, go to a femdom website. If they like futanari, go to a futanari website, and so on. If your posting stories on a website where people aren’t interested, well, you won’t get the same amount of replies.

Another part is putting it up on a larger number of places. The more places that you put your story up, the more responses that it will be likely to get, again, assuming that you’re sending it to appropriate websites. 

But honestly, the most important thing to do is to not expect responses. People won’t send them really. Sure, some folks will drop lines, and it’ll be really nice, especially at first, but as the story goes on, as things fall into place, the replies will get smaller and smaller, as people get turned off for some reason or another, as people have other things begin to take up their time, and various other reasons. 

That’s when the make of a real writer comes out, when you are there to do it for yourself. You’re not getting paid for it, not if you’re reading my advice, unless you find it amusing. You’re doing it for free, so why are you doing it? Because you have a story to get out, so get it out, and if people like it good, and if they don’t, or if they ignore it, or don’t post it, then just let them do whatever, and write the story because you want to finish it.

One last note, try to create a ‘dummy’ email account, because if you put your email out there, a lot of bots are going to find your email and send you spam, and in any case you might not want your ‘normal’ email to be mixed up with responses about your stories, erotic or otherwise. 

So remember for replies, post your story where it belongs, and be accessible to the person replying. But most importantly, don’t worry about replies, and just get the work done, honestly, it’ll be more rewarding, and less frustrating that way.


Apologies for the lateness of the post, I hope to not miss the next week.

Writer's Corner postponed/progress update

Writer's Corner postponed due to NBA Finals. And I'm lazy.

I don't know if I'm going to have time to do an entire part this week, honestly. I might on Tuesday, if I get that day off, or I may just save it up for next weekend. Either way we'll see, but I wanted to let you know what was happening.

If you object, I'll give you a full refund :P

As for the progress, I'm slowly but surely getting things done on the next chapter of Club Vanilla. Should get a beta out by the end of the week, hopefully get it out at the start of the next week, then the voting will begin. While I wait for the voting to finish, I'll hopefully get the new chapter of Terra out, then back onto CV. 

Writer's Corner – Patience as a Virtue

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Writer's Corner – Betas, Beta Readers, and Drafts

Writer's Corner – Betas, Beta Readers, and Drafts

Writers Corner is an attempt by me to create some kind of aid or assistance for people who want to write. I am by no means a great writer, I barely qualify as a good one. I am simply trying to give people the chance to not make the same mistakes that I have, and hopefully help someone at least in some small manner. While I write erotica, much of the information posted will help people who are writing non-erotic works as well. I cannot be held responsible if my advice has an adverse effect on your writing, or if it improves either.


Today I posted that I sent my work to my beta readers, and I thought for the initial Writer’s Corner I would talk about beta versions, beta readers, and drafts.

When you first create something, your first instinct is to naturally show it to people. You’ve done it, you want to get some kind of a response, whether it’s something for school, whether it’s from your friends and family, or whether your going to post it online, the natural desire is to get it out there and show people.

You have to suppress that urge to do it, trust me. When you write something, there’s a great chance your going to make a mistake. Whether it’s a simple ‘to, too, two’ or ‘where, were’ ‘who’s whose’ kind of error, up to whether your creating an out of character instance, you are likely going to make some kind of error. Hell, I make tons of them. Spelling and grammar checker included in Word and other processors are great tools certainly, but they can only achieve so much.

Now just to let this be known, I did not invent this nor do I claim to, this is just a method that works for many people. But when I write, once something is completed, it enters into a beta, or what I term a raw beta.

What is a beta? What is a beta reader?

The word itself is literally the second letter in the Greek alphabet, you may recognize it if you’ve been a member of a fraternity or sorority. In computer programming a beta is an unfinished version of the product, a version that is somewhat stable but still needs to be worked on, to have the bugs taken care of, and to be tested greatly. Depending on the state of the unfinished program, it may also be called an alpha, which is the version preceding the beta (alpha preceding beta in the Greek alphabet). Beta testers test a program, if it’s a video game they are sometimes called game testers.

The concept is essentially the same, a work that is in beta is considered to be an unfinished version of a piece of work that requires people to come in and work on it, notice errors and problems. A beta reader is someone who helps the writer in working on that beta.


Drafts

Oftentimes, a story should go into at least two drafts. After all, finishing it and looking at it once is two drafts. Some people will want to do more, it all depends on how much work the author has already put in on it, how much he or she needs to put in on it, how long the piece is, and whether or not the author is a perfectionist or not.

The first version of a story is the rough draft. Its name is appropriate, everything hasn’t been smoothed out, as the kinks have yet to be worked on. This is generally the beta I discussed earlier. The author may go over it him or herself, trying to correct the problems themselves. If I have just written something and not had a chance to go over and read it, then I call it a raw beta, as I haven’t even personally taken care of small things yet.

Once I read through the raw beta and I’m satisfied enough to send it out, this is the time to send it off to the beta readers.


How to get the best from beta-ing

Betas don’t just find places where commas should be periods, or where names need capitalization. They also help have a guiding hand steering the story, telling you where a sentence sounds wrong, where it doesn’t come off right. They can tell you if you seem to be breaking a character from their normal actions. They can say if a scene is confusing, or unnecessary.

One of the most important things about a beta is to keep an open mind, to not be defensive of your work, and to have an open form of communication with your beta readers. They have to be able to tell you about a flaw, or a bad point in the story, honestly. They cannot be afraid that if they leave a comment to you, that you will get upset, that you won’t be able to take their critique in stride. That kind of communication is very important. I find that sometimes I have to distance myself from the critique if I find it to be too harsh and return to it later, when I can take the emotionality of the instance out of it.

Another thing that is important is to ask your betas specific questions as to what you want them to keep an eye out for. Depending on the story that your writing, you might want them to look for clues, you might want them to look for descriptions of people, you might want them to find Waldo, but you have to let them know that. If you perceive something to be weak in the story, then say what it is. Ask ‘is scene x weak, is it needed?’ or ‘does scene y read alright?’ or ‘does scene z seem rushed?’ or another specific question.

Wait to edit your work until you have read the critiques and input of the betas. That way when you do you’ll have the criticisms in mind, if you change a scene and then read it’s confusing for whatever reason, you may wind up later finding out that you only made things worse. (Or possibly you corrected the mistake)

Most importantly, appreciate the help they are giving you, and be sure to thank them for their help. They aren’t doing it for pay, generally, and just as you want a response for the work you’ve done, be sure to leave a kind word to the people who have worked for you. Make their job easier, if they prefer a certain type of document to read, send them that kind of document, if they’d rather chat with you about a story instead of email their comments, then find some time.


How to get beta readers

Well, oftentimes, ask! It’s usually that simple. Beta readers are usually people who are friendly to you, who want to help you out. Only send work to people your comfortable with, don’t send it to just some random bastard who you don’t know. There are a lot of people out there, some are positive people, and some are negative ones. This can be a friend and family for pieces that you are comfortable to share them with, or this can be someone you meet on the internet. But the bigger question is where to ask, where to find people there to help you. Generally, the best place to find help is where you plan to post it. Do you plan on writing an erotic story? Then wherever you post it, is wherever you should ask for help.

Many forums are a good place to find people who are willing to help lend a hand, particularly in a story section. Many forums for story sites have areas for beta readings, or work in progress areas where you can find people to help.

If you aren’t going to post it online, much of that information is still applicable. Oftentimes you can meet people in real life who are interested in reading your piece easier than if it was erotic, and you can keep yourself from blushing as you show it to them. If you’re in college many places have writing areas, or teacher’s aides that can offer up ideas and constructive criticism.

Do not just email or PM (private message) someone a story expecting a beta, even if they have beta read other stories for other people in the past. Ask first, it’s just the polite thing to do. Do not lay out a time table, do not expect them to get things done by a certain time. Everything takes time especially free things. Do not be rude to them if they point something out. Explain and discuss to them why you have done what you have done, and why you feel it’s important to the piece. It’s okay to defend something; it’s not okay to be defensive. There has to be a give and take between the two of you.

I hope this helps everyone out, and I hope to make this a regularly occurring feature on the website. Please feel free to leave any civil comments.