February 1, 2009
As I was responding to an email from one of my readers, I found myself explaining to him my method of writing. It got me thinking about the whole process I use to write my stories, so I decided to put up a page detailing it, just in case somebody finds it interesting. In particular, this page is meant for potential writers, to hopefully inspire you to finally get that novel written that you've been planning for the last six years. After all, if a scatterbrained person like me can write, anyone can. Of course, if you're an established writer or just a reader, you still might find this interesting just to understand how my mind works.
This is the same process I use for my erotic and non-erotic stories. And no, I'm not going to tell you where you can find my non-erotic stories online because I prefer to keep my Daddycums persona completely separate from the real me.
Every author works differently. Some can sit down and write a short story in one sitting. Some plan everything from the beginning to the end, so that by the time they type the first word of the story, writing it is just a matter of choosing which words to use to describe the action.
While I doubt I suffer from Attention Deficit Disorder, I have too many ideas constantly flowing through my mind to focus on one story or scene for a long time. However, I've found a system that works, and I'd like to share it. I'm not implying that this is the only way to write; in fact, I don't necessarily recommend it unless your brain works the same way as mine, a scary thought indeed. But aspiring or even accomplished writers might pick up a few tips.
There is only one universal rule that all writers follow: the first step of writing is to come up with an idea. In the case of erotica, this is usually some kind of sexual fantasy. We all have them, so there's always a story waiting to be written.
Once I have an idea in mind, I spend some time thinking about it. Is it a big idea or a small one? (This determines whether it will become a novel or a short story) Are there other ramifications that could make it even more interesting? For example, if it's a sex scene, how does the relationship between the characters affect it? In my case, I almost always find it sexier if the two characters are in the same family, because it adds the whole incest dynamic to it. Submissive Little Sister is a perfect example. It could have worked with an adoring neighbor girl instead of his sister. But the fact that she was his sister changes the relationship by automatically giving them a history. We only know the very basics of that history; they're siblings. But that implies years of living together, sleeping under the same roof, and eating at the same table. Amy's adoration is not just love at first sight, but a deep and very personal love based upon their past history, whatever it is.
In contrast, A Perfect Match could not have been done with related characters. It had to start with Leslie's need for an older man, any older man, and Roger's need for a young girl. They had to start from a point of unfamiliarity, because the story wraps itself around their mutual misunderstanding of one another.
I also find it more interesting if it's the first time between that particular set of characters, because it may have a big impact on their relationship. Sex between characters who have already had sex dozens of times before just doesn't have that raw, spontaneous feeling that you get when it's the first time.
I also expand the scene in my mind, imagining the circumstances leading up to it and what it means for the characters after it's finished. That allows me to flesh it out with some Before and After scenes.
Now here is where it gets tricky. If I were to write a story about every one of my sexual fantasies, the list of titles would itself be novel-length. So I have to trim it back. Some of my ideas I jot down so that I can come back to them later. Some ideas get thrown out. Some get thrown out but eventually creep back in, and that's okay. That makes the list more manageable, but I don't necessarily have to write one story for each of the ideas I have. Instead, I review all of my current projects and try to see if it will fit in with one of them already. No sense starting yet another project that may never get finished if I can instead squeeze it into something that's already in progress. A lot of the chapters in Allison and the Primdales started out like this. For instance, Jeff's first time with Rachael is a pretty typical "babysitter seduces the boy she's supposed to be babysitting" story. I could have written it as a standalone short story, but since I already needed to introduce a character to take Jeff's virginity, I had a convenient place to put this particular fantasy.
It's sometimes a difficult proposition, because if the scene changes the relationship between characters, then there are only limited places I can insert it. On the other hand, if it's just a sex scene with a bit of creativity, then I can place it anywhere where the characters already have a sexual relationship.
Sometimes, the scene is what I call a "false alarm." In other words, it's a compromising situation that might result in sexual intercourse between two (or more) characters, but not necessarily. The compromising situation itself is the fantasy, not the sex that results, so by cutting out the sex I can still maintain the fantasy. A little sister sleeping in her big brother's bed because she's scared of the storm, a game of strip poker, or a boy walking in on a girl while she's masturbating or having lesbian sex with one of her friends would all be examples. Just because some characters find themselves in compromising situations doesn't necessarily mean it has to end in sex. By eliminating the actual sex, I can squeeze quite a few of these scenes into a story, because they don't change the relationships all that much; they might give them a little push toward sex, but it takes a number of pushes before the characters actually get down to business. Almost the entire second part of Allison and the Primdales is like this, which you'll see once I post it. You could remove almost any of the chapters in this part and it wouldn't change the story.
So then, after I have the idea and I've decided whether it's a new (long or short) story or a scene in a current story, then what?
Simply put, I start writing it. With emphasis on the "start." The important thing is to get a sentence or two written. Until I commit it to paper, it's still just a fantasy. Once I begin to write it, I feel an obligation to finish it. The important thing is not necessarily to get it done right away, but to start. I can always come back to it later.
By now you should have figured out that I never, I repeat, never write a story from beginning to end. That goes for short stories and novels alike. For instance, the first chapter of Island For Three was actually one of the later parts I wrote, because I needed to do some research on sailing in order to not make a complete fool out of myself. So I wrote the more fun scenes first and went back to finish the sinking of the ship.
Basically, I write every story piecemeal, sticking the scenes together in order with some kind of marker to tell me that I need to write something in between. In the case of short stories or within a chapter, a single line filled with asterisks is a placeholder for the stuff that needs to fill in the blanks. In the case of long stories, I'll put each scene in a separate file at first. Then as the overall shape of the story starts to solidify in my mind, I'll plan the sequence of chapters. I'll then create one file per chapter, and copy the scenes into their correct locations. Usually each scene will get its own chapter, because the complete scene is, in a sense, a complete short story, an isolated part of the greater whole. I can always go back and reorganize the chapters later if I need to.
In the case of novels, I usually have a beginning and ending planned, but the disjoint scenes come somewhere in the middle. For instance, in New Daughter I planned a story with a father meeting the daughter he didn't know he had, falling in love with her, and eventually ending up in a sexual relationship with her. The sleeping together, the nightmares, the breakfast in bed, the bath, and the conversation about her wanting to be his girlfriend were all just a means to an end, a steady buildup from that first scene in the Department of Social Services to the sex at the end. None of them were necessary; they were in one sense just filler, but together they define the tone of the story, which in the end is really more important than the plot for that story in particular.
I only start outlining the story after I've written several scenes like this. I imagine a context around those scenes, figuring out how they work with the motivations of the characters to move the story along to the end. That often gives me ideas for other scenes, which I'll jot down to remember them later. As I write more and more of those scenes, eventually the plan becomes a synopsis of chapters. But it's still not final; sometimes I combine two chapters because there's not enough content in the scenes to justify giving them their own chapter. Sometimes I'll split one chapter into two. Or three. My record so far is five chapters out of what was originally planned to be one. The important thing is that by the time I plan out the chapters, I now have a concrete plan and a good estimate of how much effort it will take me to write it. I may be way off. For instance, all three of my novellas that I've finished so far were originally supposed to be short stories, while Ghostly Consummation and Empathic Twins were originally planned to be novellas. But that doesn't matter because once I have a target to shoot for, the distance from where I'm standing is no longer infinite.
Sometimes after I've planned out the rest of the story, it's changed so much from my original idea that some of the scenes just don't fit anymore and I have to discard them. Sometimes I even abandon the project they were based on. But I never delete a scene once it's written. With computer storage so gigantic these days, there's no problem filing away a discarded scene or two that I might rework later into a different project.
Once the grand design of the story is more or less formulated, I just fill in the blanks. That's all just a matter of getting from Point A to Point B. I write the link between scenes, eliminating the placeholder lines one at a time. Every time I clear a line of asterisks, I get a feeling of accomplishment because I've brought the characters from one scene to the next. Sometimes this is the tedious part of the work, but sometimes for whatever reason I get in the mood to write the linking parts instead of the more interesting scenes.
After I've finished the short story or chapter, I do a text search for an asterisk just to make sure I've eliminated all of the placeholders. It's a quick and easy way to check and make sure I haven't forgotten anything.
Since I am so scatterbrained, I usually don't try to force myself to write a part of a story that I don't want to. I just sit down and write whatever I happen to be in the mood for. Even if it's just a clever comment by one of the characters, I'll insert it in its proper spot and then go on to something else. I've been known to stop writing right in the middle of a sentence because I have a sudden inspiration for how I want to say something in a different part of the story, or even in a different story. As long as I leave those placeholders in, that's not a problem because it's a way of telling myself that I need to come back to it later.
That's not to say that sometimes I don't have to write something I'm not in the mood to write. With Allison and the Primdales in particular, I knew that there would be times when I would have to finish an earlier chapter because the time to post it was approaching. Chapters 5 and 6 for instance, I finished less than a week before I had to upload them. On the other hand, I've had Chapter 74 written since last summer, and at the current rate I won't post that one until sometime next July (although I plan to finish the whole story before then and post the rest of it all at once).
Finally, after I finish the last link and erase the last placeholder, the story is complete. I still have to go back and proofread and revise it, but essentially the work is done. Sometimes there are internal consistency problems that need to be fixed. Sometimes I need to change the pacing. Once I've fixed these, I run it through a spellchecker one last time to catch all the words I missed, then I convert it to HTML with a special external program. Finally I upload it.
So that's it. Yes, I make it sound easier than it really is. I've been writing since grade school, so a lot of my skill comes from hard work and experience. You can't just sit down at a computer and expect to crank out a masterpiece your first try. But I don't think there's anyone out there who's not capable of writing something fun and entertaining. If the technique I've outlined above helps you, that's great, but keep in mind that this is just one technique, and it may not work for you. I'd love to hear from other authors about their own methods and processes. Maybe I'll pick up a few pointers myself.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.