The Upside of Insomnia

[sirhugs]

I have suffered from severe and persistent insomniia for about eight years now. The doctors have tried everything, to no avail. SSo i'm just content with te extra hours I gain, and hope that they balance for the lack of energy.

A title idea I've had kicking around for some time (way back to when I wrote the The Upside of Smoking and its Ch.2 in fact - the first installment began as an effort to write about insomnia) is "the Upside of Insomnia". Still haven't crystallized where the story would start, let alone finish.

Starting to think that I ought to figure out a plot idea...

 

[Rob_Royale]

How about a Rear Window-esque voyeuristic story? Being up at 3am, you're liable to see and hear all sorts of things. Maybe a local dogging location has been near your home all the while and you didn't know. And you're stunned just who you find out there.

 

[PennyThompson]

Maybe MC goes for walks when they can't sleep?

They live in a small town or a suburb where there's essentially zero activity after 2am once the handful of bars have closed, the only thing you might see are a couple of cop cars on night patrol, maybe garbage collection and overnight package delivery... otherwise, completely silent.

MC has come to appreciate their solitary night walks, it's the only thing that stops their brain from spinning.

Until one night while they're out...

Mundane events:

• They meet another insomniac night walker?
• They help someone in distress?
• They see something in a window or hear something in a back yard?

Fantastic events:

• They turn a corner they've walked hundreds of times, but this time there's a tiny little restaurant on the corner that was never there before. The lights are on, the door is open, and food smells and music are wafting out. It's the Spirit Cafe, serving ghosts and goblins and local nature spirits!
  
  
• They are stalked by a cryptid or an urban legend-type ghost, and it's got only one thing on its mind...

 

[NuclearFairy]

They meet another insomniac night walker?

They could meet another insomniac night walker, who clues them into salacious gossip and strange goings on about town. Pretty soon our insomniac is also noticing these things and comparing notes with their new friend/eventual lover. Maybe they solve a mystery or two, or spy on people screwing around outdoors, maybe a bit of both, or maybe they simply bond.

 

[Carnevil9]

This idea might violate the premise of your story idea, but is it possible the insomniac finds something that helps them sleep? Such as a deviant sexual act?

Maybe while he's out on one of his midnight walks, he runs into some ruffians who make him suck their dicks and swallow their loads. After this, he falls fast asleep until morning. Now he spends the nights prowling the streets looking for cocks to suck off.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Or maybe when he thinks he's awake, he's actually dreaming but has been astral projected to a different plane of existence that looks very much like this one until he starts to notice a few strange discrepencies.

He could've sworn those old neighbors had moved out, and he didn't remember them looking so... pale.

A glowing pair of eyes following him some nights.

Things moving at the edge of his vision, shadows slinking away from his sight.

Eventually, he realizes he's been dreaming, and writes it off as a weird dream. He takes some meds that seems to help for a bit. Until one day he starts noticing those eyes and shadows during the day, when he's definitely awake.

They've hunted him back to this plane.

 

[sirhugs]

Thinking I might try it as a build out of the world of The Upside of Smoking, as further described in ch.2. As noted in the OP, those stories started from the insomnia idea over four years ago, then took a different direction.wondering if I could revisit the MC.
Maybe the daughter has moved away, and he is all alone with his insomnia. Does the daughter return for a visit? Or her BFF? Or both?
Or have I mined that vein enough?

 

[sirhugs]

while not sleeping last night, had a few ideas about this. Going to let them marinate before I decide whetherto write it.
Still ambivalent about whether the reunion includes the daughter, making this an incest story like Ch 2, or just the BFF, in which case it is Mature, or maybe Fetish if I work in the smoking angle again. would prefer to be more clear on that before i start,if I start.
Throughout ch 1, I had to resist veering into the incest angle. Ch.2 even started with the idea that Dad would just be a voyeur watching daughter & BFF smoing, then making out (which might get placed into Incest anyway), but the compulsion was overwhelming.

 

[sirhugs]

1000 words into the story. just finished the introduction and the first orgasm. The BFF is returning for a visit. Just the anticipation is climactic for our narrator. Still uncertain whether the daughter should make a surprise visit.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

I have suffered from severe and persistent insomniia for about eight years now. The doctors have tried everything, to no avail. SSo i'm just content with te extra hours I gain, and hope that they balance for the lack of energy.

A title idea I've had kicking around for some time (way back to when I wrote the The Upside of Smoking and its Ch.2 in fact - the first installment began as an effort to write about insomnia) is "the Upside of Insomnia". Still haven't crystallized where the story would start, let alone finish.

Starting to think that I ought to figure out a plot idea...

This is an interesting coincidence. I have a WIP with the working title of "Night Dwellers: Incestuous Insomnia" about a guy whose wife gets fed up with him never staying in bed with her and divorces him. His single sister, who also suffers from delayed sleep phase disorder, takes him to the all-night coffee and bake shop she frequents, and they eventually "bond" over both being unable to keep a normal schedule. It's currently stuck at the "is there really enough here?" stage, waiting for my muse to strike and give me more content, but yeah, that's the direction I took this concept.

 

[sirhugs]

This is an interesting coincidence. I have a WIP with the working title of "Night Dwellers: Incestuous Insomnia" about a guy whose wife gets fed up with him never staying in bed with her and divorces him. His single sister, who also suffers from delayed sleep phase disorder, takes him to the all-night coffee and bake shop she frequents, and they eventually "bond" over both being unable to keep a normal schedule. It's currently stuck at the "is there really enough here?" stage, waiting for my muse to strike and give me more content, but yeah, that's the direction I took this concept.

simply proving that no idea is truly unique, but what we do with them makes the stories unique. Hope the plot bunnies are kind to you and allow you to finish the story soon.

Anything over 750 words might be enough, if it stops at the logical spot. Forcing it to go longer without areason to do so weakens the story.

But in erotic writing, you can almost always figure out a transition to another sex scene. Do they "bond" right at the coffee shop"? well, then it is simple to involve the counterman or waitress, or baker, or another customer. A group sex or voyuer scene would make it fresh.
Or do they go to someone's home, where they discover that they are not alone? Maybe the ex-wife, who reveals she has always dreamt about the sister?

 

[sirhugs]

Back to thinking bout my story. The more I think about it (and reread the prior stories, espeially the first one, where I had forgotten how prominent a role the daughter plays without being directly involved in the sex) it just seems inevitable that the daughter make an appearance in this story.

But what sort? Is it going to be just a cameo (even a walk on right at the end?), or do I overcome the squick factor and write a full blown incest scene or scenes (beause inevitably, there would be not just Dad/daughter sex but also either or both of group sex or lesbian sex while Dad watches).

what do you think?

 

[Rob_Royale]

I'm always going to lean away from incest, though I have dabbled there before. Considering all the options avaliable to you with this idea, I'd avoid the low hanging fruit.

 

[sirhugs]

I'm always going to lean away from incest, though I have dabbled there before. Considering all the options avaliable to you with this idea, I'd avoid the low hanging fruit.

nothing wrong with the daughter's fruit, as established in the prior stories. I have more than dabbled in incest stories, sad to say, but am alwys looking for ideas that I can fit into other categories. Thus the first precursor story ended up in fetish. But the sequel was clearly going to involve the daughter, once i decided to write a sequel. Both stories have done well, but the sequel is one of my top rated efforts.

 

[sirhugs]

The story is unfolding nicely. knock on wood. Don't want the writing of it to becometedious like the last one.

The smoking fetish has clearly wormed its way back in. nota shock, even though i don't think i've explored that fetish since te last story 4 years ago.

What is still unclear to me/undecided is whether or not the daughter remains an "off stage" entity or makes an appearance, and if so, how detailed an appearance. I've mentioned that the incest angle, though something I have explored extensively in the past, is giving me the squicks just now.

Adding the daughter as a material element would likely roughly double the length. I'm 2600 words in and just getting started. Is it worth it?

 

[sirhugs]

Almost 11K in. Finished the key sex scenes with the BFF.
now at the first transition where the daughter might appear.
does she?
if she does, is it the cameo at the end of the story, or do I add threeway sex?
Maybe I'll just toss a coin a few times. Not kidding. That is often how i resolve plot dilemmas, not by obeying the results, but because my feeling about the result often reveals my true desires.

 

[sirhugs]

I don't know, just feeling extra icky about incest these days, moreso than usual. I mean, I've written a lot of incest stories, some of which have done well, so what's one more? and it kind of make sense for the story...thus the dilemma.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I don't know, just feeling extra icky about incest these days, moreso than usual. I mean, I've written a lot of incest stories, some of which have done well, so what's one more? and it kind of make sense for the story...thus the dilemma.

If you feel icky about it, don't force the issue. Whatever your previous stories and inclinations, your current mindset is the only one that really matters at this point in time. Even if it kind of makes sense for the story, if you're not going to feel good writing it, why should you include it? It's a different matter if it's the only path forward, but it sounds like you have options, so why not try exploring a couple of those first?

 

[sirhugs]

If you feel icky about it, don't force the issue. Whatever your previous stories and inclinations, your current mindset is the only one that really matters at this point in time. Even if it kind of makes sense for the story, if you're not going to feel good writing it, why should you include it? It's a different matter if it's the only path forward, but it sounds like you have options, so why not try exploring a couple of those first?

what kind and thoughtful response. Thank you. Still undecided which way to try first, but this helps.

 

[sirhugs]

Not surprisingly, the daughter showed up. Time to have Daddy relive the prior joy, with new twists, see where it ends up.if I don't like where it goes, I can delete and revise a short ending based on what I had through yesterday.

 

[sirhugs]

It is published