Rated Y-7 for the acknowledgment of the existence of sex
I realize I'm blathering on (rather incessantly) these days about my writing projects. But...there's so much to tell! And I have to do some bragging, or I would be completely steam-rollered by the things that aren't going so well.
So. Today, like lightning, or something more sinister... Ukoku made his appearance in the mer-Gojyo story. And I use the term "made his appearance" rather loosely. I've been writing some parts of the story out of order, and I keep those in a separate file. This was one of those out-of-order scenes...I have a sneaking suspicion that most--if not all--of the scenes in that file are the out-of-the-blue sort.
Unrelated to the cloud of Saiyuki that surrounds me these days...I received a ridiculously flattering review of one of my AFF offerings. (Yes, I consider them offerings. It's like I'm kind of setting stories free over there, merely assuming that someone will read them and, if I'm really lucky, the readers will be all "hey, I saw your story running wild two streets over." But I don't expect that...i just expect the stories to prowl the neighborhood when one one is looking.) Anyway, said reviewer offered me their heart via Fed Ex. I'm obscenely pleased; it's my first body part offer, among other things.
I guess I'm so happy about it because I was really worried about how it might be received, given that half of it was fairly down-to-earth third-person-limited narrative, and the other half was pretty much entirely poetic (or perhaps it is better to say lyric?) metaphor and imagery dancing on the edge of stream-of-consciousness.
The other thing that struck me from that review is that I was informed that this story didn't deserve the label of PWP because there was so much going on between the lines. I admit, when I posted it, I had hesitated over designating it PWP, but I went with it in the end because, frankly, the only thing that happens in the story is that two characters have sex. (There may also be some romanticism...but I really don't get on well with over-the-top sap. I think this story is about as warm-fuzzy as I'm willing to get.)
I'm on cloud nine. I really am. But alas, one small success does not mean I can stop working. I feel awful admitting this, but I'm kind of dreading retooling a chapter of the fic-o-doom....and I shouldn't be because it should be a spectacular chapter to work on! I lack confidence, I know, I always do, but this chapter is extra difficult because it is the long-anticipated sex scene. I struggle so much with writing the sex! (Again, another reason I'm so happy about that other fic going over well.) And I realize that only writing more sex scenes will help. I don't write them often enough to feel confident, I think. And that's aside from the concerns about avoiding the common sex!fic traps, or making it too rote and boring.
And I continue to wrestle with vocabulary. It's weird. If I'm reading someone else's story, there can be all kinds of porn-y word choices for anatomical and dialogue purposes, and I don't care. But...I can't seem to put them in my own work. It just looks wrong and awkward. And the standard non-porn-y turns of phrase kind of suck even more and I won't use them on principle...which means I tend to repeat words like "nipple" a lot, which bugs the heck out me, but I refuse to call them "nubs" or "buds," and so I'm trying to learn to live with repetition.
Holy cow. I just lost a half an hour of my life to this conversation with myself. I must do other things and prepare for bed!
~ciao
So. Today, like lightning, or something more sinister... Ukoku made his appearance in the mer-Gojyo story. And I use the term "made his appearance" rather loosely. I've been writing some parts of the story out of order, and I keep those in a separate file. This was one of those out-of-order scenes...I have a sneaking suspicion that most--if not all--of the scenes in that file are the out-of-the-blue sort.
Unrelated to the cloud of Saiyuki that surrounds me these days...I received a ridiculously flattering review of one of my AFF offerings. (Yes, I consider them offerings. It's like I'm kind of setting stories free over there, merely assuming that someone will read them and, if I'm really lucky, the readers will be all "hey, I saw your story running wild two streets over." But I don't expect that...i just expect the stories to prowl the neighborhood when one one is looking.) Anyway, said reviewer offered me their heart via Fed Ex. I'm obscenely pleased; it's my first body part offer, among other things.
I guess I'm so happy about it because I was really worried about how it might be received, given that half of it was fairly down-to-earth third-person-limited narrative, and the other half was pretty much entirely poetic (or perhaps it is better to say lyric?) metaphor and imagery dancing on the edge of stream-of-consciousness.
The other thing that struck me from that review is that I was informed that this story didn't deserve the label of PWP because there was so much going on between the lines. I admit, when I posted it, I had hesitated over designating it PWP, but I went with it in the end because, frankly, the only thing that happens in the story is that two characters have sex. (There may also be some romanticism...but I really don't get on well with over-the-top sap. I think this story is about as warm-fuzzy as I'm willing to get.)
I'm on cloud nine. I really am. But alas, one small success does not mean I can stop working. I feel awful admitting this, but I'm kind of dreading retooling a chapter of the fic-o-doom....and I shouldn't be because it should be a spectacular chapter to work on! I lack confidence, I know, I always do, but this chapter is extra difficult because it is the long-anticipated sex scene. I struggle so much with writing the sex! (Again, another reason I'm so happy about that other fic going over well.) And I realize that only writing more sex scenes will help. I don't write them often enough to feel confident, I think. And that's aside from the concerns about avoiding the common sex!fic traps, or making it too rote and boring.
And I continue to wrestle with vocabulary. It's weird. If I'm reading someone else's story, there can be all kinds of porn-y word choices for anatomical and dialogue purposes, and I don't care. But...I can't seem to put them in my own work. It just looks wrong and awkward. And the standard non-porn-y turns of phrase kind of suck even more and I won't use them on principle...which means I tend to repeat words like "nipple" a lot, which bugs the heck out me, but I refuse to call them "nubs" or "buds," and so I'm trying to learn to live with repetition.
Holy cow. I just lost a half an hour of my life to this conversation with myself. I must do other things and prepare for bed!
~ciao