I need a mentor!

[CeriseNoire]

You've certainly been kind and patient when it came to my poetry, so I'll be glad to help however you need. Thankfully, my prose is much better than my poetry.

As for character development (since you mentioned it was one of your worries), the easiest ways to start are dialog and actions. In other words, showing over telling, which you're already skillful in as a poet.

 

[Tarakin]

Just a hint about characers in erotic horror, maybe you'll find it useful.

For this genre I start with names. I take two things associated with horror in the broadest sense (not monsters) and combine them, i.e. "spidersoul". That's my main person. Then I chose which side he or she is on, horror tends to be good vs. evil. "Spidersoul" sounded male and evil to me. So he's a villain. But what gave him that name? An event? A prophecy? Something else? I built a history of this person, and then he develops his own character. How would someone like "Spidersoul" react to a wrong done to him for example? And so he unfolds and develops a life of his own...

Hope you can get something out of this ramblings

 

[emap]

3113 is right, your going to fast. The biggest key to writing good stories is to get the whole thing mapped out before you start otherwise you will spend time looking up things, looking back at what you have already and going oh no this should be like this.

Take your idea, if you have one to work with, and let it stew. Graph out where you are going with it, what happens first second third and so on. In your head or on a sheet if you wish. Get everything mapped out, go over your map take out the things that are silly or extra and then start writing.

If you find yourself unable to continue after a certain part, stop and go do something else let the desire to finish the story build up and let your mind mull it over in the back. The worst thing you can do is to force yourself to continue a story you have no interest in working on. The forced work will be worse than you have before, granted you can go back and alter it to fit, though it tends to nag at you and make you unable to work on the part you are doing. Well it does to me anyway.

As for idea's, yes you want to do things you know, but usually best to open your mind and look at everything. As an example, I got an idea for a zombie story where the zombies are sex addicts and create zombies from sex. One of the public comments I got from the part I have submitted led me to my current work in progress. Anonymous told me that when the car would not start he saw every zombie movie he has ever seen. Which actually stuck in my craw.

Because of that comment and then a few months ago they had The Birds on TV, I love that movie and watched it. Watching that movie I noted the timing and lapses before stark terror sets in for the characters. At which point it hit me, I am going to do a horror that is a horror, not a tongue in cheek zombie tale but an honest to goodness horror.

If I did not have an open to idea's mind I would never have thought of doing that. Actually took a while to set in that I would do this, rather took watching The Birds again to get me going on it. Not to mention all the other things I have stewing, a Dungeons & Dragons style adventure, came to me one night, thinking back on all those times playing it around a table and how it would be interesting to have been doing sexual things led to me working on getting it started. Same with a Science Fiction story I shall eventually finish, though that one is more along the lines of something I did after watching Return of the Jedi, and well sorta grew from there into a writing about a place inspired by Star Wars.

There is a story in everything if you think about it. For instance say yoru neighbor comes one night with a lady or guy depending on neighbor, they are so into each other they are making out and stripping each other at the door before getting the key into the lock and going in. That can lead to tons of stories. One word can lead to a story, a name, a title, an action.

There really is no end to the things that can lead to a story, the key is to come upw ith soemthing around that one word or thing that you did see or hear.

Just as example. Captain.

What does it make you think of? Doesn't have to be sex, just a person or thing. So continuing the example, captain leads you to think of a weathered older man with a white beard and a captains hat always slightly askew, from under the hat waving in the wind are strands and clumps of white hair.

From there you go to what is he doing. Let's say, he is leaning over the bow hands clenched on the railing watching the setting sun.

Next up, why is he doing that? Let's say, he is staring at the setting sun and remembering his love from long ago that he lost.

Which leads you on to other things, though I have gone on long enough.

 

[hmmnmm]

I steal my ideas from hmmnmm. Is he still around?

Here and there, wander by once in awhile.

Let me tell ya something, Ange.
If Doc offers his time and his incredible way with literary guidance, you'd best jump on that - if you haven't already.

When I first became curious about writing this stuff, and posted a few pieces and sought assistance, I ended up ignoring almost everything anyone advised. I'd nod my head behind the safety of this monitor, "yeah, right. you're right" which they were/are. But when they weren't looking I'd go back to the way I was already doing it.

Doc is the exception. Doc speaks, I listen. Doc shows, I look, and see. And try to apply what I hear and see, to the best of my understanding.

 

[t0nst3rs]

Aaaargh! You're doing it again! Look, far be it from me to tell a determined Gemini to slow down but SLOW DOWN!

You toss out questions about character, plot, setting to writers and they can't help but answer you...but that's like tossing requests off a menu into the kitchen. The kitchen brings out pancakes and a t-bone steak and quiche and pie and caviar and steamed carrots and stewed prunes and sushi and piles it all up in front of you.

Do you think you can eat all that? Yummy and delicious as it all looks, can you? In one sitting? Does it even go together? And in addition to that, you look at all this and say, "I wanna cook it all up, too!" You want to jump into the cooking challenges being offered that people are also telling you about?

Please, listen. I've taught writing, I know what you're feeling and wanting and trying to do. I understand your eagerness. But if you try to use and absorb all these good ideas at once, you won't end up with a story. Trust me. You won't. Because you're jumping from step to step. It's like learning musical notes on one hand yet also demanding that people show you complex cords on a piano and a flute and a violin. And this is all supposed to come out as music...how?

Idea. Remember? Lesson #1. Read stories. Come up with six ideas.

THEN post your ideas here in this thread. THEN we'll start to talk about the next step which is understanding character, plot and setting. All of which jump off from the idea and each other. All of which have to go together.

Ideas. That's your appetizer. Coming up with ideas. Enjoy the appetizer. Enjoy coming up with story ideas. Coming up with characters, plot and setting will wait till you're done. I *promise* you, it will wait and it will stay hot and delicious while you finish up this first course.

And if you ask, is this how we write stories? No. Not always. Sometimes they start with a character or setting instead of an idea. But we're pros, right? You don't say to someone, "Here's a dozen ways you can write a poem, now write one." You start with a single step to get them to see the idea of poetry writing, and when they get that idea, then they can do it however they like.

I have to agree with 3113, not only because I am a fan of his work, but because he draws an excellent comparison.

I have only had the time to write a couple of stories and post them up here, but I too started as a poetry writer many, many moons ago. I came on this site for entertainment. I read some excellent stories, and I read some stuff that was utter crap. It was the crap that motivated me to start writing to begin with.

I did as 3113 suggested. I started a file filled with ideas-whether they be plot points, the type of characters I wanted to write about (cops, vampires, whatever pleases you), types of sex acts, settings-pretty much anything that came to mind. As the list developed, your mind just seems to pick out various items from the list and puts them together-thus the rough basis for your story.

As far as character development goes, for me, my characters seem to take on a life of their own and almost become real people as I'm writing them. I personally feel that a character develops through dialogue. The more they say, the more we learn about them.

I'm sure that once you get into the process, you'll be fine Angeline. Your work is held in very high regard up on this site. I think you are buildng the whole transition up too much and you need to just get your feet wet!

Best of luck!

 

[champagne1982]

I'm going to follow Ang around and learn vicariously through her questions.

3113 - I'm working on my six ideas...

Liar - If I let my characters write their own stories I think they all may be sitting on a beach, drunk and looking at me with hate in their eyes when I tell them we're out of chocolate chip cookies.

Everyone - You're so helpful and entertaining. It's gonna be a fun Lit year.