Authors’ aide-mémoires

[LupusDei]

I found myself working on a eight generation family tree just to figure it out who is sitting where around a dinner table in an impromptu garden party.

Well, the table is described as five half-sections of pingpong tables in a row, so 34 seats very freely, and some places are getting tighter than others so there may be over 40 people present. And the age spread is from 14 to possibly 107+ but nobody knows the top number for sure, and yes, the younger is a sixth level daughter of the older, and not the only one. And there's only one girl who's not a blood relative of my MMC although she's possibly descendant from said Old Witche's brother.

 

[EmilyMiller]

No diagrams, but I helped another writer plot out an 8M-2F gangbang story using Excel.

How did Excel figure in the gang bang? We’re some people doing data entry while others anal entry?

Em

 

[yowser]

How did Excel figure in the gang bang? We’re some people doing data entry while others anal entry?

Em

At least employ something other than a Microsoft product.

 

[ChloeTzang]

https://imgur.com/a/EqfENOm

I came across the above yesterday when trying to find something else. I do most Lit-related work on my phone, but this was on my PC.

It’s to help me keep track of everyone in You Spin Me Round. While based on an amalgam of two actual events (with some made-up passages inserted), I still needed some help as there are a lot of people involved.

Do you ever draw diagrams like this for your stories?

Em

LOL. No. It's all in my head, except I use a postit note for names when there's more than 2 or 3 characters. And for tentacles it's #1, #2, #3, #4, etc, because while tentacles have autonomous brains, they're more of a collective of sub-brains with some autonomy feeding into a central brain which possesses the consciousness.

 

[alohadave]

How did Excel figure in the gang bang? We’re some people doing data entry while others anal entry?

Em

Excel wizards do it by the numbers.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've done a few anally retentive lists as part of my stories.

I've come to this was working out the dice game His Sister in His Lap.

A strip-club, six punters on 'extreme' corporate hospitality and six lap-dancers. John wants to avoid having a lap dance with his incognito sister - who he has just been shocked to discover has not been supporting 'merely' through acting jobs, but also wants to avoid offend his bosses and clients who have gotten the idea that he likes the sister.

They end up playing a dice game to decide who will get a lap-dance with whom. Each punter rolls two dice and choses which of the two girls they want and can steal them away from other punters.

At one point I had to sit down and work out a series of (I think) 8 different dice rolls each with girls moving from one customer to the next before finally endign in the conclusion I wanted. Unfortunately I deleted it from the file after I'd finished otherwise I'd share it.

Another thing I've done is researched exactly what would have been on in London cinemas on Friday 28th June 1963 and cross-references that with what someone who had just flown in from America would think was on and had my characters discuss it at length. My beta-reader, who is just as anal as I am about these things, still caught the fact that while The Great Escape had had it's premier in Leicester Square a few weeks earlier, it wasn't on general release at the time.

 

[tenyari]

Do you ever draw diagrams like this for your stories?

Diagrams no. But I have done some relationship outlines.

The problem for me is these actually hinder my writing.

I write best when I am in stream of thought mode. If I plan too much or think about it too long I plan myself into thinking about writer's block.

Funnily enough, I love public speaking and getting up in front of crowds, but I can only do it when I get up there with absolutely no idea of what I'm going to say until my mouth just hits 'go'. If I prepare a speech, I'll be lost. But if I just start talking I can stay on point, pull from things I know about, connect with the people I'm talking to (oh yeah, your story about XYZ is like my example of ABC here, lets realize how much we relate to each other because of that), and so on.

As long as I'm "driving blind" I can get where I want to go, soon as I have a map, I get lost.

Some years ago either here or on another site or maybe even so far back it was a G+ or Yahoo Group or something... I started a discussion on making outlines, and then posted this massive outline I had worked up chapter by chapter, scene by scene, character by character - detailing everything such that I just needed to fill the adjectives, dot the 'i's, and post for a finished story. That outline never went anywhere and that idea is still stalled...

By contrast my newest story hit me as a stray thought in the middle of writing a cafe scene of another story, I opened another window of Open Office and started typing. I had 20,000+ words within a few hours, and it was sent for publication a few days later. I had no idea what I was writing as I was doing it until it was done.

 

[Zootonius]

How did Excel figure in the gang bang? We’re some people doing data entry while others anal entry?

Em

Could have been worse. Coulda used MS Project. "Your orgasm is behind schedule."

 

[Rustyoznail]

How did Excel figure in the gang bang? We’re some people doing data entry while others anal entry?

Em

It was all about giving people a fair go. "I'm sorry Ravi, I see you've had your arse quota. You can either let Neha give you a blow job, or take a turn on the camera."