How You Approach Your Stories

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NotUv2
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I see there was an epic thread some years ago about how to write fanfiction. I'd be interested in a thread about how you, the writers on this forum, actually approach your fanfiction/fetish writing. I don't want this to be an advice thread -- those are hard to do without just turning them into a list of one's own pet peeves -- so much as just an opportunity to talk about what we put in our stories and, if one wants to go there, why.

One thing that the author of the original thread did provide that was useful was kind of a schema for thinking about this. I'm going to borrow that and adapt it a bit for my own use here. I'll start, hopefully others may wish to play.

Who I Am: Former denizen of these parts before a long absence of... probably seven years? At least? I've written general erotica and heroine-fetish erotica for about twelve years, sometimes for money, more frequently for kicks. Relevant for this discussion are the Space Princess books (easily my best selling) on Amazon and the superheroine and action-girl heroine stories at Mr. X's page; you can find those links in my sig.

My Approach to Fanfiction / Fetish Fiction:

PLOT: I tend to go pretty plot-heavy, which means my stories tend to involve complicated chains of events spinning out from what's usually a fairly simple antagonist motivation. I overdid this in an early series at Mr. X's site called "Fox Hunt," which wound up with so many characters and subplot strands that even I lost track of them and had to stop. I've learned better balance since, but even when I'm trying to keep the plot minimal, it creeps in there.

CONTENT: I write PORN without apology. Hardcore sex, both consensual and noncon/reluctance driven, is always a major part of the buffet. Mind control, drugging and bondage are also frequent themes for me. Monster sex is an occasional theme (my most recent parody is mostly an excuse to scratch this itch), and occasionally there's a hint or more than just a hint of bestiality in there (this is much rarer).

Violence is usually pretty brief, and extreme brutality rare. I don't make use of maiming, scat, vore, snuff, watersports or (for the most part) death-trap "perils." Not dissing them, they're just not kinks for me. Whatever else happens to the heroine, she'll arrive at the finish line alive.

Some other things I generally like to have:

- Heroines with distinct personalities, motives and reactions
- Villains with flaws for whom everything doesn't always work perfectly, even if they win
- The use of sex scenes to advance the plot or provide character information or development, along with the sex itself

"SERIOUS" VS. CAMP: I generally have a few campy hand-waving conceits in my stories.

- People don't find the scantily-clad heroines unusual (and scanty heroine costumes are usual).
- "Realistic rape" is out and sexy non-con where the heroine gets off is in.
- The stories take place in porn-friendly settings where horny people with prodigious equipment and staggering sex drives are commonplace.
- I don't worry about pregnancy. Presumably the heroines are on birth control, whatever, I simply do not care at all or even mention it, usually.
- The noncon proceedings don't usually traumatize anyone very deeply.

Those are all definite "camp" conceits, and they're prerequisites for me to write stories that are hot to me about this set of kinks. Within those parameters, though, I try to keep the story world consistent, have people who otherwise act more or less like people and so forth. So the stories are often kind of like high-camp concepts "played straight."

ENDINGS: I've written "bad" endings where the antagonist wins (baked into the "Miss Adventure" stories at Mr. X's site, where the heroine's current incarnation is always a fresh-faced newcomer -- also giving me an excuse to change up her look -- because the previous versions met "terrible fates as yet unknown"), and "good" endings where the heroines win (baked into the Space Princess stories, which directly parody the original series' style and structure right down to endings where the good guys gather round and have a laugh about all the horrific shit that just happened as they sail off into the sunset). I like them both.

ORIGINAL CONTENT VS. EXISTING CHARACTERS: I always use original heroines and settings, even if they're very obviously Star Trek or Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. For Space Princess this is because I'm selling the stories. For everything else it's because I don't want to cope with anyone else's Lore or argue with nerds about what their favorite canon character would "really" do. Having heroines that are unmistakably my own obviates all of that.

THE GOOD GUYS: The heroines are generally good people who try to do the right thing. If they lose it's often due to ill luck, personal foibles, inexperience or simply being more fully outmaneuvered by the villain than they realize. If they win, they do so because they have personal virtues, skills and inner strength the antagonist didn't count on. It doesn't make heroes more interesting for me to turn them into anti-heroes, and I generally avoid that. I want to like the heroines, and for the reader to like them: if things go badly it has more teeth that way, and if they win it feels better-earned.

THE BAD GUYS: All sorts. Sometimes the antagonists are petty and vain. Sometimes they're motivated by a sense of delusional privilege and entitlement. Sometimes it's revenge, sometimes it's about profit, sometimes they're just pervs, I wrote one in an early story series as an outright sociopath. Whatever they case, I don't need to make them "original" but I do like them to have a real character of their own, to exhibit flaws and experience fear and uncertainty, and in general to be something a bit more than just a power fantasy.
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Check out my stories (and in some cases, books):

Amazon
Literotica
Mr. X Homepage (NEW STORiES ADDED 4/8/21)
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lordgriffin
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You wrote Fox hunt??? (I wrote that epic how to write fanfic) I Watched and LOVES Fox Hunt...until like you said..you spun off...I would love to see that re done.

I do not come here often but you can find me on Discord as notlordgriffin#7530 or e-mail me at [email protected]
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NotUv2
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lordgriffin wrote:
2 years ago
You wrote Fox hunt??? (I wrote that epic how to write fanfic) I Watched and LOVES Fox Hunt...until like you said..you spun off...I would love to see that re done.

I do not come here often but you can find me on Discord as notlordgriffin#7530 or e-mail me at [email protected]
Oh hey, man, glad you're still around, I wasn't sure. Always pleased to see a Fox Hunt fan, and yeah, now that you mention it, maybe a second run at it is what's needed. That's a thought. Good to see you, I'll def get in touch on e-mail.
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Check out my stories (and in some cases, books):

Amazon
Literotica
Mr. X Homepage (NEW STORiES ADDED 4/8/21)
Damselbinder

Thanks for starting this thread. It's always interesting to hear about people's methods and so on. I hope you don't mind if I more-or-less borrow your format.

PLOT: My stories are, generally, very plot and continuity heavy. "The Perils of Valora" is divided into five stories, but to a large extent it's one contiguous narrative. Even the individual stories are each the length of a novella, and focus as much on plot as on peril stuff - more, even, depending on the story. Not everything I write is like this: Valora's predecessor "The Perils of Enhancegirl" had a lot of plot and a large cast, but was heavier on the number of perilly/fetishy situations. So the ratio varies, basically. The exception is fanfictions - those tend to be much, much simpler narratives, and focus much much more on fetishy stuff, but they're also vastly shorter. No fanfiction I've written, certainly not for this site, is as long as any one Valora story.

CONTENT: My stories are not pornographic as such. Things will get racy, things will get steamy, a damsel may even get naked occasionally, but that is rare and it's as far as I push it. Mostly you'll see a lot of ladies getting tied up in various fashions, and a great deal of ladies getting drugged, chloroformed, sleeping-gassed, and so on. I created an entire superheroine specifically with a weakness to chloroform, that's how shameless I am. When ladies in my stories get captured there will very often be fondling and touching and so on, but nothing extreme. I have written exactly one consensual sex scene, and that was as graphic as it's gonna get from me. There's also a much, much greater emphasis on female villains than male ones. There ARE male villains, but far fewer, and they tend not to have their hands on the heroines as much (e.g.: the main villain of Valora's entire story is a male gangster, but after about 300,000 words he's yet to touch her).

My approach to characterisation is very psychological. There will often be long passages - sometimes entire chapters of stories - dedicated to exploring our heroes' psyches, and their issues tend to take centre stage as far as the ongoing plots go. A major villain or nemesis will not just be a nemesis because they're a powerful enemy, but because there's some specific button that they press that makes them a particularly difficult psychological hurdle.

I am also aware that I'm writing superhero fiction. Even in a fetish story, superheroines don't ALWAYS get captured, and I try to write good action scenes as well. Occasionally there is some faintly graphic violence, but the superheroines themselves do not get particularly bruised and battered. I just don't function that.

TONE: Generally the tone of my stories is pretty serious, but not - I hope - in a grim and gritty way. But people's lives are often at stake, and my characters tend to take that seriously. I hope it's not humourless, but it's played pretty straight. If a character is captured, they will tend to react reeeeeeeeelatively realistically both during and afterwards.

ENDINGS: For fanfictions they will sometimes end with the heroine conclusively defeated and captured, but generally in a cliffhangery sort of way rather than a definitive doom. OC stories always end with our heroine, if not triumphant, then at least able to fight another day.

HEROES: I am often drawn to characters who are both genuinely virtuous, but also have some kind of tragic or heroic flaw. If my heroines find happiness, it's through hard graft and fighting tooth and claw to get it. They also have a tendency to fall passionately in love with other noble, flawed heroines. Often they will win because they outsmart their captor; but often enough they just need someone to rescue them. None of my original heroines exist just to be sexy and be captured: I try (though I certainly don't always succeed) to make them all likeable, compelling characters. If, after a couple of stories, my reader thinks "if this were a non-fetish story I'd still at least consider reading it", then I've done what I've set out to do. I do not always get this right.

VILLAINS: Sometimes my approach to villain writing is relatively shameless: it's just some superhuman with an ability that will allow them to defeat and kidnap the relevant heroine. But even with those I try to invest some kind of character into them. With the more important villains, I try to have the same approach as to heroes, to make them genuinely convincing characters. Sometimes they may be morally ambiguous. Sometimes they may be really wholly evil - but they're still human even then.
Bert

I like videos and pics of superheroines fighting, struggling, sometimes losing. I write stories that explore that dynamic. A few people seem to like them.

I used to love the work of a particular writer. When he stopped writing heroine stories I found I really missed them. After a few years I decided to try writing myself. It's a laborious process for me, but it is satisfying to put something out there and give back a little to the community.
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