yo dawg i heard you liked writing so i wrote about writing so you can...do things.

[hoosierbitch]

You ever have one of those days where you're like "dangit, my writing's gotten so repetitive I just bored the heck out of myself trying to edit it," and then you read stuff by other people that's so good you can't even comprehend how they wrote such awesome shit, you just know you've never written anything close to that?

...and then you remember that you wrote pretty much this exact same post seven months ago, and got amazing, thorough, thought-provoking answers from really good friends who cared enough to take the time to help you out?

I'm still trying to figure out how to stretch myself. Since I made that post, however, I've written more "women having awesome sex" fics, and written two stories that broke the 20k barrier, which is really cool. I've also written in a couple of new fandoms, X-Men and Grimm, and inhabiting those different worlds and writing from the POVs of new characters has helped to free up my style.

(...I'm also on mental meds that have given me my first multi-week stretch of "good days" since I was around thirteen years old. It is so freaky y'all, I cannot even talk about it coherently yet. Suffice to say: I'm, like, happy! O.o Hopefully that will help me take my frustrated energy and channel it into "How can I challenge myself in new ways, and set better goals for myself?" and less into "WHY DO YOU INSIST ON SUCKING SO BAD ALL THE TIME, YOU DOUCHEY DOUCHE BAG?")

Things that would challenge me and would be fun to write:

1. Straight-up dubcon fic--probably Renard/Monroe/Nick, or even feral!Monroe/Nick.
2. The longfic about Neal/Peter/Elizabeth meeting each other's parents
3. Dark Angel service kink, which has been rolling around in my head for over a year, because service kink intrigues and perplexes me and I have researched it muchly.
4. Maybe the Kurt/Puck long-relationship fic, based on this essay about the eight stages of a relationship (playing within a pre-determined structure)

It's easy for me to fall back on just writing some random porn for an anon kink meme, because I know I will probably get some comments, and that always makes me feel really good. But when I gather that stuff together and think about reposting it, I just feel like...like it isn't worth the effort. Right now I'm not saying anything that I haven't already said in a dozen fics.

I'm going to repost a question that I asked in my original "help me be better at writing" post, because since June I've made a lot of new friends and (I hope) progressed some as a writer, and would like new input:

Do you have any suggestions for stories that I should try? An AU that brings up an issue I haven't dealt with before, an idea for a way impose an interesting structure on a story, a plotline/scene that you think I could write that is different from what I usually tackle? 

And a new question--I need to find ways to challenge myself with porn/sex scenes. Because I really really really like to write porn. I like BDSM, I like the mental aspects of sex, I like powerplay, I like the way the physical conversations can subsume the verbal ones. At this point though, I get kind of lost midway through a scene and just end up going through the motions. I signed up for a kink bingo card this round, and then realized that I'd written every single square already. I don't want to stop writing porn, so I need to find other ways to make it new and interesting.

Does anyone have any suggestions for plot ideas, narrative techniques, porn to read, new dynamics/people combinations, weird places to have sex in, tropes that intrigue you, or something else entirely that might help me shake things up?

Please don't feel obligated to respond (especially because these are pretty self-indulgent & complicated questions!). l'm going to keep trucking along with this on my own, it just really helps me sort it out when I write it all down. :-) 


Completely random footnote: I'm watching Portlandia with my sister, and she thinks Steve Buscemi is the sexiest man alive.

...also, DW, why don't you want to end my cut text where I tell you to? [note to DW part 2: and why did you screw up the indentations?] I even checked your html and everything. Goshdarn cut tags, never seem to do what I want 'em to...

Comments

[bandearg_rois]

you need to write #4 because then I might actually like Puckurt... Like for serious. I'm trying to like the pairing, and was trying to write something for it but I can't get into it. If you're even thinking about writing it, I'm there as soon as it posts. no joke.

(also, are we friends on here? I'm so not used to DW it's not even funny)

[bandearg_rois]

ahaha we so are lol. I'm a dork and didn't look on my reading page... *facepalm*

[hoosierbitch]

I love your icon so much.

I'm going to write whatever sounds good the next time I sit down at the computer--I'm trying not to, like, pressure myself, and just keep lists of things that are exciting close to hand. (Sidenote: I love that Puck is Jewish. I want him to take Kurt to temple so that all the old Jewish ladies can pinch his cheeks and give him cookies.)

We are indeed friends here! We have mutual subscriptions and access. (I hovered my mouse over the little person-icon next to your username, and that told me our info. WE ARE FRIIIIIIIEEEEEENDS.) I am doing my best to become DW savvy, but (as evinced by my utter fail with the DW cut tag) I am still learning. Let me know if you have any questions!

[bandearg_rois]

OH KURT WOULD GET ALL THE PINCHES.

Now I really want to write Puckurt... maybe if I just post it here on DW my Klaine family won't disown me? lol

[hoosierbitch]

DOOOOOO EEEEEET!

We can make a support group.

"Puckurt Attempters Anonymous"

[bandearg_rois]

but we're not anonymous... at least not yet.

[bandearg_rois]

also, check your reading page because I wrote PUCKURT and I'm so nervous that I didn't do a good job. *bites fingernails*

[thoitaxh]

I'm all for #1, though #2 sounds like that lovely kind of slow burn fic that stays with you for a long time.

I'm not sure if this is at all helpful, but I've been experimenting with POV a lot in my private writing. I've been reading Write Away by Elizabeth George (the crime novel lady) and she had me thinking about narrative and POV and character voice a lot in the past few days. So maybe changing up your point of view might help changing things up for you?

[thoitaxh]

Also, Steve Buscemi is pretty hot. I've thought so ever since Con Air. Which makes me a hell of a lot weird, but I guess I am that anyway.

[krait]

DISCLAIMER: Selfish comment is entirely selfishly motivated!

Okay, that's out of the way.

The longfic about Neal/Peter/Elizabeth meeting each other's parents

DO WANT DO WANT SO MUCH WANT!! I feel like I have read ALL THE WHITE COLLAR OT3 FIC now, and not only do I want more, I especially want more of the "difficult" things that many fics skip over, i.e. the fact tha this is a happy threesome going on in the middle of a world where most people are not going to take it well if they find out, and for multiple reasons. (Hughes's reasons will not be Peter's mum's reasons, but both are likely to have strong reactions!)

Oooh, and don't ask me about tropes! I spent half of last night stuck in TVTropes; I have tropes coming out my ears right now. :D

I guess if I were going to suggest a challenging kink/narrative trick... I've always been a bit baffled by the "vanilla kink" thing on kinkbingo, so I'd love to see someone make that work in a way that lets me "get" what it really is. (I read a fabulous vanilla-kink fic set in a BDSM-AU world; but that doesn't really give me an idea of what people in this world think of it as/perform it as/see it in.)

Other things I think are neat, in no particular order: relationships as seen from an outsider's perspective (who may or may not know the relationship exists); fics built from in-world documents (letters, emails, research papers) that present people in differing lights according to source; finding out what it takes to get a character to shift from 'polite/embarrassed' to 'completely wrapped up in sex and unashamed'; characters who are mismatched in some large aspect (one shameless and one very shy partner; two tops in love, an asexual and a sexual who love each other; people who can't be visibly together and who also don't have a convenient way of circumventing that and therefore have to deal with hiding/compromising/faking aspects of their love).

You may have done some or all of that already, though! I have not (yet) memorised everything you've done. :D

[shameless2shoes]

Ah, well. If you ever want a really rare kink you've never (or rarely) heard of, I'm the person to ask. *g*

But shaking up stories? I've admired your work for that. Damn, you ask hard questions.



I'd love to see you play around with character's relationships and whatnot, like defining the moment the love is gone, or how absolutely irredeemable people find love, or how being loved changes absolutely everything. Or how subjective our perception of ourselves and others truly is. Or someone disliking a very traditional and expected sex act. Or... I promise I know when I've been going on too long, it's just taking me a minute to shut up.

I would give you advice on DW but I'm complete crap at troubleshooting what I don't have experience with so it'd go like this: are you using quotation marks from word? Are you sure you're HTML, not in the RTE? And then that would be it and we could stare cluelessly at it for a minute and agree that technology is fucked up and have cookies and it would be less like tech support and more like a tech savy-less-ness support group.

[ivorysilk]

Dude! I re-read your stuff all the time, because I think it is so good it makes me cry. And often, it is so good it makes me cry (unless it's happy, although the kid fic also almost made me cry). Now, admittedly, I don't read in all the fandoms you write (although I am tempted) but yeah, my point, I don't think it reads repetitively, even if maybe you feel that way, which I understand--I'm pretty convinced I keep writing the same fic over and over, although the difference is I pretty much do.

[hoosierbitch.livejournal.com]

Aw, thank you, bb! :-)

I am feeling much less fail-y than I usually do when I take stock of where I am as a writer, so it's not even that I think what I have written is particularly bad, it's just that I feel I've written it all before, and I want to try something new. It's just confusing and scary!

I'm really happy that what I have written doesn't seem repetitive to you. I have been trying to keep things new and interesting--just lately (and especially with the new fandoms!) I think I've been less successful than I could be.

Hopefully I'll get some good input, or come up with some new ideas, and I can pass them on to you, if you want 'em! :D

[ivorysilk]

I'm happiest when I feel like I'm experimenting while I'm writing--but its also scary. Writing the same old is often safer, but less satisfying ;-) It's sort of a toss up.

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

I have nothing coherent for you right now (hai, my uterus is attacking me), but I love you and your writing. -smushes you- While I think there is always room for improvement in every author, don't sell yourself short. You are amazing and gifted, and I wish I could write even a smidgen as well as you do.

I shall attempt to answer you better tomorrow.

[hoosierbitch.livejournal.com]

Back off, uterus!

*brandishes...chocolate!*

Thank you for the lovely encouragement. ♥ Like I told ivorysilk, I'm feeling much less like a failure than I usually do when I take stock of my writing (rereading the comments on that old post certainly helped!). I'm hoping that will help me use constructive ideas to keep progressing as I move forward, especially since (with the new semester starting up soon) the time that I do have to devote to writing will be so much more limited.

Thanks for the input, bb! :-)

[photoash.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about your fic and how your fics almost always end with Neal/Peter/El forever no matter how much adversity is in them.

I'd like to see you write something that didn't have a happy ending but not like some major angst/sad stuff unless you want to.. just like... a different take on how things can end and be okay even if you aren't all together.

[moluren.livejournal.com]

You are so good! I'm always happy to follow your talented writing to new fandoms -- most recently Grimm, most spectacularly Friday Night Lights.

One of the things I love most about your stories is the *effective communication* between characters. Your White Collar BDSM fics are scorchingly hot, and the more extreme kinks work so well in part because of how in tune the characters are with one another. That being said, if you're taking requests -- and you did mention wanting to write straight-up dubcon, which, YES PLEASE -- I'd love to see some miscommunication or unkindness in a powerplay scenario.

[jan-rea.livejournal.com]

I think we all have times when we feel disappointed in ourselves, feeling that we are not up to our own expectations, and falling in an emotional rut even as we try to find ways to gain back some self-confidence. I can't begin to fathom exactly what you're going through right now, but I hope that my following opinions can be of some help somehow.

I just adore and LOVE your writing to pieces. I first know of you because of the Glee fic you wrote, and when I finished reading that, I was just so in love and in awe by how you write that I searched through tags for other fics to read. And even though I wasn't involve/didn't know about the fandoms you wrote about then, I still found myself savouring every single fic that you wrote. (You actually hooked me onto the White Collar fandom before I even watched White Collar before)

And even now, I love to read your fics, even though it's about a completely different fandom that I know nothing about, I still find them amazing, and this is because you wrote them. And also, I feel that your fic aren't really repetitive at all, there may be similarities, but I always have different feelings for different fics.

I'm convinced that I would read anything you ever wrote, regardless of the fandom. <3

On another note, I'm positively squealing over the idea that you might write a Puckurt fic! But I'm sorry that I've not much idea on what to suggest in reply to both of your questions...I should really read up on more kinky things in order to supply porny ideas....O///O

Hope that you will feel better soon!! <3

*cuddles you*

you are awesome, but here is an idea!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, anonymous here!

I love your fic. Your porn is some of the hottest out there, but also, your writing is just amazing. You have incredible powers of characterization!

That said, I do have a slightly challenging fic idea for you. I loved your X-men awkward gay threesome series a lot. And I LOVED your Grimm knotting fic. (amazing that you write in so many fandoms that I read in!) It would be really interesting to read knotting in a threesome situation, and I think that could be really well done with the threesome you established in your Xmenverse, especially with a post!Beast Hank. The dynamics there could be fun to play with. Does he bond more with one of them? Can one of them not submit? Is he really nervous to even do this in front of them? Interesting.

Anyway, you are awesome. Keep doing what you are doing, but hopefully some ideas on here will help you to feel that creative spark!

[asimaiyat.livejournal.com]

I totally love the way you write BDSM.

I'm weirdly not in a place where I feel like talking about this stuff publicly, but I remember us having some good conversations about it ages ago, so if you want to talk about it, shoot me an email.

[rabidchild67.livejournal.com]

You should never, NEVER doubt your abilities to write affecting stories - even your PWP includes some of the most sensitive writing I have ever read from anyone anywhere, and I include novelists, playwrights and essayists in there. Seriously, you are very talented.

That said, I certainly know what it's like to feel like you're in a rut. I have felt like that lately myself; it's funny, now that I'm in the Grimm fandom, all of the stuff that had come up in WC over the years is new and unexplored. Gosh, I WANT to write a Nick hypothermia fic, but I've already written like FIVE in WC - what am I doing? How do I not repeat myself? The answer is that I fear I am, but I will amuse myself by delving into new characterizations and nailing their voices. And as it turns out, Ficmas has broken the rut by challenging me to come up with new stuff everyday, and to keep it holiday/winter-themed.

So, you say you want to stretch yourself? I’d say you’re already doing it. Kid!Neal and teen!Nick are genres I don’t think you’ve written before, and each represent some of your best writing (particularly the latter – do you mean to continue that story by paralleling the season’s eps? Cuz, like, I’d PAY you to continue…). Perhaps your way out of your rut is to take a break from writing porn.

*pauses for shocked gasps*

Yes, I can’t believe I’m suggesting this to the queen of scorching hot porn, but maybe your porn muscle is a little fatigued, and that’s why you feel you’re repeating yourself. Try giving it a rest. Just for a while.

So then, suggestions for stuff to try: I’d say to come up with challenges for yourself that might get your creative juices flowing. Certainly a new fandom would do that, but you could also try new genres. Teen!Nick is some of the best h/c I’ve read in a while…maybe some more straight-up h/c? Or maybe some more crack like kid!Neal, like, IDK – wing!fic or kitten!fic?

Although…winged sex might be interesting to figure out the blocking for – just saying.

Maybe try a new style? Write an all-dialogue story, or one without any. I have done both in the last six months, and they were fun challenges. Maybe a new pairing in one of your established fandoms? (there is NOT enough Neal/Jones, IMHO; but hey – why not Hank/Wu? Or Nick/Monroe/Juliette?). Or maybe a third party’s observations of an established pair? Maybe some femslash? Baseball AU. Porn industry AU. Pirate AU. Or take a favorite movie or play and reimagine it in any of your fandoms – the Capulets and Montagues become Grimms and Blutbaden.

And even though I recommend laying off porn for a bit (like, a WEEK – GOD, I’m not crazy!), here are some pornisheh suggestions/prompts: a man’s first time with a man (you pick the pairing); just some nice, sweet frottage; figging; more bodyswapping (like – switch Nick and Monroe and Nick can’t control the wolf OR what’s it feel like when he transforms?); speaking of Grimm, some dub-con when Monroe wolfs out in the middle of sex with Nick, who is hurt as a result – let’s see some gentle, guilt-stricken aftercare.

OK, I’ve taken enough of your time. Just know that ruts, blocks and slumps always pass! See you soon! CHICAGOOOOOOO!!!

[daria234.livejournal.com]

I love your fic - it is spectacularly good on multiple levels, and you already know I feel that way! But it's supercool that you're always looking for a challenge.

I really love that DA fic idea btw :)

lol this may not be what you are asking for, but i tried to think about possiblities that would be challenging and not exactly what you've done but still things that would play to many of your wonderful strengths


Okay, how about:

you could swap characters' upbringings - that could make for an interesting AU. Like, what if Peter were brought up the way Mozzie was? What if Neal were brought up the way Diana was? Or just switch Peter and Neal's upbringing/mix and match. It would be interesting to see how that played out in plot/relationships but also really interesting if that makes a difference in what each is looking for in the bedroom/sexehtimes


Neal realizes he is falling in love with El much more than Peter, and he doesn't want to cause problems, so he writes them separate dear john letters. what does he say? (I really enjoy epistolary, and Neal might actually leave a letter if he couldn't say good bye, and he would take the time to do an old-fashioned sort of letter).

neal gets off on being told that his fantasies are dirty wrong and they make him a terrible person, but Peter won't say that and insists on making neal feel more positively about his kinks. Neal is annoyed. or he is emotionally touched and loves it but sexually he still wants to be berated and judged. (this could be hard but would be really interesting?)

structural experiment: combine your favorite opening to a novel/play, your favorite subtexty/UST-y scene from a novel/play, and a favorite closing or ending from a novel/play, put them all in one fandom and try to see how much you have to change it to make it work. wc or chuck would make me so happy lololol

porn experiment: maybe you will not like this but it would be interesting to see if you could write a fic from a character's pov who describes it all metaphorically and doesnt mention specific acts or parts. I don't mean metaphors for dicks, I mean ways of describing sensations, the rhythm of pain and pleasure, that are hard to convey in literal terms. like, even a short piece that goes through the SENSE of what is happening without telling. lol that sounds so hard, but if anyone can do it...

au where hardison can read people's memories (but no one knows he can). so during hardison/eliot sexytimes, he can feel all the things eliot remembers (damien moreau angst yumminess). would work for charles/erik more easily, but also alec/logan. It's interesting to think that sometimes people don't want to know everything about their partner's past and really don't want to know what they think about during sex. But they can get past it :)

new combinations of characters:

Peter/Diana, AU where once in a while, with both spousal permissions, they go at it. because Diana wants to occasionally, and she likes peter but trusts that they will both keep it scratching-an-itch. if the premise offends, make Peter a woman.

Moz/Sally/third, anything

location:
high speed elevator, the kind where it feels like one is falling on the way down, and they keep going up and down

sex underwater, coral reef?, just the breathing apparatus not full scuba gear.

sex. up a tree. maybe some kind of robin hood au where they are hiding in the trees. lol idk, just climbing a tree and having careful sex. maybe sex up a tree at one of those observation posts they attach to trees would be more practical. i know this is cracky, but you asked :)

plus, I would LOVE to see something where all the acts that are considered toppy/bottomy are reversed in connotation. I don't mean topping from the bottom exactly, I mean, like if Peter got on the floor to kiss Neal's feet but did it in a way that it was an act of dominance over Neal. Neal bending Peter over and yanking his hair while Neal fucks him, but maybe Peter is 'making' him do this after Neal's dick has been punished and so it hurts Neal, and also Neal will be punished more if he lets go of Peter's hair. Just as an example -- like that would be interesting imho, to see how much you can play with the power dynamics in any given "act" or movement.