Comments | west_side: A fact is not the truth until you love it

west_side

A fact is not the truth until you love it

Feb 17, 2009 01:13

A fact is not the truth until you love it. I don't remember how exactly this phrase got stuck in my head, but it pops up to the surface, every time FFR goes into virgin smut frenzy ( Read more... )

Comments 12

glitterburn February 17 2009, 09:20:16 UTC

I skipped that one as I thought it had to be Troll of the Month beating that dead horse again. Sometimes people take 'write what you know' too literally and apply it in reverse.

One needs to have some sort of emotional bank to make withdrawals to compensate for the lack of experience.

Absolutely. Readers can spot duff romance and bad sex from 50 paces away.

west_side February 18 2009, 02:45:10 UTC

I believe it was a troll.

Speaking of good... Can I read TDS?

glitterburn February 18 2009, 19:56:36 UTC

TDS is a sort-of sequel that actually runs parallel to another story... different characters until they overlap at the end. It can be read out of sequence though... I think.

west_side February 20 2009, 01:08:01 UTC

You mean the happiness can be doubled? I haven't realized it was a sequel. Both?
*makes puppy eyes*

Thread 5

theo_harrison February 17 2009, 12:59:36 UTC

Rants like that leave me with a bad taste in my mouth, because there's a subtextual 'my experience = everyone else's experience' which makes me wonder about the ranter's ability to empathise (especially if applied to something as emotional as sex.)

I tend to put stock in imagination and empathy skills when it comes to writing ability, certainly over whether the author has bumped uglies with anybody else.

night_mare_chan February 17 2009, 14:32:14 UTC

Yeah. I read that one and knew there was just going to be wank about it. And you're right, writing with emotion is key. You have to get into the character's skin--or in the very least empathize with them to know, not only the sensations, but kind of the emotional impact. And, as with the lack of experience, if one of my characters is a murderous psycho, ala Soujirou from Rurouni Kenshin, does that mean I have to be one to understand it? Hell, I don't even have to think like one.

west_side February 18 2009, 03:20:34 UTC

Heh... I should really start sending you the second draft...

kazaera February 17 2009, 19:03:59 UTC

I wind up taking those rants very personally because I'm asexual. Even if I have sex, unless my sexuality spontaneously changes I will *never* have the experiences the ranter is thinking of, will *never* connect the emotions with sex that most of the characters I write about do. Does this mean I can't write sex? Hell no. It just means I do a bit of extrapolating from emotions I do have and other stuff I've read about people's reactions to the subject and then do my very best to get inside the character's heads ( ... )

akashathekitty February 18 2009, 06:17:30 UTC

I totally agree! It's just so stupid, because... (SUPER TMI TIME)

I've had sex. (Yeah, big surprise, that.) With more than one guy. I've had sex with someone I was in love with and with someone I wasn't, with someone I was in a relationship with and with someone where it was just for the night.

Now, the casual thing? Where I didn't care about the guy? NOT MY THING AT ALL! I felt awful and there was no enjoyment to be had from it and I decided that I wasn't going to do it again ever. There was no mental connection and no big physical connection, and I think the guy sensed I wasn't really into it, because it just got overall bad.

But if I write a one-night-stand PWP? I'm not likely to do it like that. It'll most likely be hot and spontaneous and it will rub all of the right spots for everyone (hey, you never know) involved.

So, in effect, I actively disregard the experiences I've had in order to write what I'll consider good smut. And I'll even be convinced that some people actually have good one-night-stands out in the real life. : ( ... )

nenya85 February 17 2009, 22:55:53 UTC

Hi! I am soooooo proud of myself because I saw that post with it’s 200+ comments and said “I absolutely refuse to waste (and after ages of ffrants, do you know how tempted I am to write “waist”?) two hours of my life reading this!” Admittedly I ended up wasting those two hours randomly looking up Jungian archetypes and trying to figure out which Yu-Gi-Oh! characters they matched and then searching the card wiki to find a duel monster that could glue together a falling tower… but I still figure that rates at least half a pat on the back ( ... )

west_side February 18 2009, 03:06:07 UTC

I only went there to look because one of my old rants was linked to it, but then I realized that I never posted a follow up to it.

I believe that generally memoirs are less truthful than fiction. If you 'write where it hurts', then giving your emotions to your characters distance you from it, but in a memoir you'd have to modify the experience.