How much pre-planning do you do?

[Guest]

You're not alone, Jonathon_Swiftly. I do very little preplanning, because for the most part, it's largely a waste of time for me.

My original story ideas change radically before the final draft, so my style is to open up the word processor and record any initial thoughts I have for the storyline and rudimentary plot, then I let the editing process take over my soul from there. (Well, it's really my muse that forces me to write, when she wants to, demanding bitch , but I love her dearly.) After the skeleton of a plot is organized, I’ll create copious little notes to myself, like digital yellow and green Post-Its, then spend the vast majority of my writing time trying to convert those little scraps into themes, paragraphs, re-writes—or I'll toss them in the bit bucket.

Over the years, I have found I’m most satisfied “working” the editing phase, forcing the story and its parts into a fluid state of flux, creating many opportunities for revision, enhancement, and change (and I have to review everything with my muse). It is the point in the process I find myself the most inspired, in conflict, nervous, anxious, and driven—and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

[Jonathon_Swiftly]

yup, sometimes me too

Sometimes writing as you go keeps the energy flowing--but then, it also takes me a week to write something, so...
lol

 

[Guest]

Re: yup, sometimes me too

Sometimes writing as you go keeps the energy flowing--but then, it also takes me a week to write something, so...
lol

______

Want to feel better?


It takes me one to two months to write a story.

 

[Guest]

I've done outlines, wrote with the flow, and wrote in snippets then connected them later. All techniques have their time and place.

To me it feels better writing in the moment where the energy and ideas stream out on paper naturally. I've done that three stories in row one right after another. Than nothing. The energy is tapped out and I hate that. It's frustrating.

Snippets are also fun to write in. I use them when I'm having a bit of writer's block. I usually write with a snippet right in the middle of the story. I write to the end, turn around and write the beginning.

The stories I write with an outline are usually complex stories. It's easier to have a map to follow and I keep focused. The stories I've done with an outline tend to be the stories end up being the ones that I'm most happy with. So ya, kudos to using outlines.


|neonurotic|

 

[Otus de la Nuit]

I'm just a dreamer (don't think and drive)

So I'm driving along broadway at lunch hour and get stopped at a light. Red car passes. 50 year old man in a business suit. Forest green car passes. 30-ish lady looking much too relaxed for this time of day. Large U-haul moving van passes with three very happy looking young guys inside. Three guys, hmm? I wiggle my left boot-covered foot. Interesting story there.

The vision begins, and suddenly the 3 new guys upstairs recieve a visit from a sexy little...um, dom. Horn honking...

Oh, yes. Green light. Ok, so plot-forming and driving do not mix. They may even be illegal, I don't know. Point is, I get some tiny bit of a plot in my head and it won't go away. This usually happens when i'm NEARLY finished with one story. I'm convinced my brain does it merely to distract me from completing what I've begun.

So it sits in my brain and grows and bubbles and makes life difficult until finally I'm done with everything else and can write it down. All the details are there, down to the colors of the wall and what kind of mineral water my character is out of.

Speaking as one who writes for her own amusement, wanting to do the best job of it she can of course, I've never actually tried anything BUT this method for short stories. When I over-think, anything I try to write gets bogged down and sounds forced. But maybe an outline would be different. Or maybe what I have trying desperately to escape my head does the same thing.

Not really sure...

 

[johngalt47]

I rarely outline the sex scenes, except make notes about some plot twist that needs to occur with the characters as a result of the sex scene.
--posted by Pookie

I wondered how others handled the sex scenes. Those are almost always the last ones that I write.

I do create notes and a list of events including the sex before I start writing the story. The notes always include the resolution. As I write I’ll expand the notes and write paragraphs for parts of the story that interest me more than others. I almost always finish the final scene before I’m done with half the rest of the story. Then I go back and expand the notes and perhaps change any paragraphs that need to be made consistent.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

I confess that I do no background work, I rarely make revisions except to correct typos, and I usually finish a story in one or two marathon writing sessions, late at night.

But -- I usually won't even start writing until I've played with the idea in my mind for a week or two. If a story idea keeps me awake at night, half-dreaming and half-thrashing, at least once before I've ever set a word down on paper, then I'll probably write it down and finish it.

Lately I've been bombarded with ideas, though, and I've been so overwhelmed that I haven't finished anything I've started. And when I do try to take notes to get myself organized, the notes look like this:

M/F/F... huge cock, slightly curved... pounding rainstorm... funny bit with a dog wearing a scarf... "Fuck my ass, you fucking fuck"... rainstorm too obvious?... tears, sobbing... restraints... spanking... kissing... mmmm.

 

[Jonathon_Swiftly]

Yep, all good methods I think. Sometimes, for me, it's no more than a line that needs a story, like, "And as if it too were a long lost friend, my smile returned." I was even lucky enough to get a reader give me feedback mentioning they liked that line--I was stoked.
The only other rules I try to live by are those I've borrowed from Elmore Leonard: One, if it sounds like writing, re-write it; two, cut out the parts people are going to skip anyway.
well, I try, anyway.

 

[MathGirl]

Preplanning

Confession:
I'm afraid that about all the preplanning I usually do is to get my panties off.
MG

Am I on the right thread here?

 

[Jonathon_Swiftly]

"Confession:
I'm afraid that about all the preplanning I usually do is to get my panties off.
MG
Am I on the right thread here?"


I'd tell you if I could remember what we were talking about before that note, lol.

 

[Svenskaflicka]

MG, I heard about the woman who was so stupid that she had to take off her bra to be able to count to two, but why do you take off your panties when you're going to write a sexstory? Just how are you holding that pen?

 

[MathGirl]

Huh?

why do you take off your panties when you're going to write a sexstory?

Story? What story? Who said anything about writing? I knew I was on the wrong thread. May as well put my panties back on and go home.
MG

 

[Guest]

.
.
.
M/F/F... huge cock, slightly curved... pounding rainstorm... funny bit with a dog wearing a scarf... "Fuck my ass, you fucking fuck"... rainstorm too obvious?... tears, sobbing... restraints... spanking... kissing... mmmm.

_____


Hmmm...

Oh, now I see, openthighs_sarah!

Then it's just a simple matter of replacing all of those ellipsis points with phrases, sentences, and dialogue?

 

[Wantonica]

I am so new here, but still have to stick my nub out and say:

Mathgirl... I didn't know you were also Durtgurl until you accidentally hit the wrong persona. Giggles.

Proofread... the picture on your posts drives me wild. I am so glad a have a soulmate to take care of me.

Hugs and kisses,
Lascivious Wanton

 

[The_old_man]

As I have explained in several other threads, I write jerk-off stories when I need to do so. There is little advance planning, no outlining, and the characters develop themselves.

I write until there is no more need. Next time I read what I have written and make changes as I feel are needed. This process may continue for many iterations.

When I feel the story is presentable, I Spell-check it, give it to my wife to proof it for Cramer and punctuation, then post it.

All of the stories I have posted have been in the loop for several years.

 

[openthighs_sarah]

Then it's just a simple matter of replacing all of those ellipsis points with phrases, sentences, and dialogue?

Yes. I plan to leave more and more of the ellipses in the stories over time, until eventually my readers will be pushed to the brink of orgasm simply by reading...

 

[Guest]

Yes. I plan to leave more and more of the ellipses in the stories over time, until eventually my readers will be pushed to the brink of orgasm simply by reading...

_______

*Grunting*

*Gasping*

*Gritting teeth*

"Oh, fuck ... "





*Long exhale*

(Boy, you're good.)

 

[Croctden]

Define the word "is" please

I write different ways, often I start out with a particular scene in my head. I write that and maybe some other pieces, I don't necessarily mean sex, sometimes it's just dialogue or description of a view out a window. Then once I have the good parts I connect the dots and viola the last Dee masterpiece. Or masterpiss.

 

[Dirt Man]

Depends on what I'm writing...

For poetry, and erotic short stories I do very little research, and no outline other than in my head, but for a book I go the whole hog with plotting, character bios, outlinning, and months of researching before hand.

As Always
I Am the
Dirt Man