| Story | "Lucky Tickets" |
| Author | JiMC <jimc-author@excite.com> |
| Size | 852K (text) |
| Story Codes |
The characters engaging in sex in the story are all teenagers and are under the age of eighteen. |
| Formats
available |
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| Quick
summary |
A teenage boy stumbles upon a roll of "lucky tickets." This is a "coming of age" story about this lucky boy. |
| Longer
summary |
What would you do if you found a roll of special tickets that grant wishes? Jim, a fourteen-year-old boy, finds such a roll and decides to use them to educate himself in the mysteries of sex. Along the way, Jim learns a few lessons in life. He learns that the people he tries to control are real people with real feelings. He realizes that the power that those tickets represent requires self-control and the need to think before doing something rash. In short, the boy starts to grow up. This is the first story in what I anticipate to be a series of stories about Jim and his friends and family. |
I wrote this story over a period of five years, although I admit that I wasn't actively writing it the entire time. It all started back in 1998, when I visited an erotic mind control site on the web on a suggestion from a friend. The genre intrigued me, and as a writer, I was curious to see if I could actually write a story within that genre. I was currently working on a short story (one of a series of "first time" vignettes that I refer to collectively as my "Helen stories") and changed things around considerably to add the MC plot device. A couple of days later, I had close to three thousand lines written (about three chapters). I showed what I had written to my friend, who liked what I had written.
I found that in writing the story, I had some basic problems with the genre. For instance, if a person is super powerful, then what's to stop him or her from conquering the world? Indeed, quite a few stories in that genre present have such protagonists. I think this is a generic problem with the MC genre that turns some people off.
I let the story rest. In all honesty, I actually forgot about the story. I continued to write other stories, some within that same genre... or as close as I could get comfortably. For instance, in my stories "Lunch Break" and "Following Orders," I made the MC ability a fluke between two people, which takes care of the all-powerful problem.
A year and a half ago, I stumbled over the story again and reread it. I realized that as a story, it had a lot of potential and that it contained some good character development. I uploaded it to Stories Online with a humorous disclaimer that the story was unfinished although it stood on its own, and that "The 'sex' in this story doesn't conform to the Clinton definition of the word." I was curious to see what other people thought about my story.
The amount of favorable response this story received surprised me considerably. Of course there were requests for me to finish the story, which would be difficult since after those first three chapters, I didn't see any way that such a story could actually end. I continued to sit on the story for about a year. During that time, I continued to receive positive feedback about the story, along with additional requests to finish the story.
Earlier this summer, I hit a writer's block with my story "Dream State," having written the fourteenth chapter about four times and still not being satisfied with it. In frustration, I decided to get my mind off that story, and start working on a different one. Since I was still receiving email about "Lucky Tickets," I decided to give that story another shot. If I couldn't make a real story out of it, at least I could write another "episode" in its universe, which resulted in the fourth chapter. I was quite surprised how quickly I was able to write that chapter--new characters and situations just sprang into my mind. It turns out that I was really enjoying the story.
Happy that I was able to write again, I spent the next week working on an outline, and finally came up with some sort of way to give the story direction. With a good outline and some plot ideas I had scribbled into my notes for the story, I started churning out chapter after chapter until I had about twenty-five chapters written, as well as dossiers on all the main characters. Even then, the story wasn't even half finished--at least, according to my master outline.
I was approaching my annual Sabbatical that I take from writing (from early September through the end of the year), and I now found myself in a quandary. Do I publish what I've written, and keep the story in progress until I pick it up again next year? Personally, I hated doing that. The story was pretty good, and my readers didn't deserve to be kept "on hold" waiting for the ending of the story.
I looked at what I had written very critically. I realized that after chapter twenty, the plot takes on a new turn. It didn't take me long to decide to end the story at chapter twenty. In addition, since I still had a lot of material left over, I could use the remaining five chapters for the start of a sequel.
This story is probably my best accomplishment in the MC genre. I tried to make the story as believable as possible within the limits of the plot device (those "magic" tickets), and from the feedback that I have received to date, people seem to really like the story.
This is only the second story that I submitted to USENET on alt.sex.stories.moderated. The first story I submitted was "Rental Property," which I submitted in May 2000. That particular story had little sex but was heavy on romance. These two stories, as well as the other ones that I've mentioned, are all available on Stories Online and I hope to start making them available on asstr.org as well.
I try to answer any personal messages sent to my email address JiMC <jimc-author@excite.com>, so feel free to comment. I really like hearing from readers, whether it be criticism, praise, jeers, or whatever.