I mentioned in my last Monthly Report that I assumed the extra page views for 'Getting Clean' came from the short story I included with it. Honestly, the story wasn't much longer than what I've written for some caps... I just didn't have the images to make it into a good multi panel cap. But it was fun to write that way.
I've often been told that I could write a longer story that would sit on it's own laurels.... no pictures... no caps. I've pushed this idea to the back of my head for the most part as I just didn't feel that I could pull it off. But for a couple reasons, I think I'm ready to try. One reason is just simply that writing this way may help with my 'mood'. It will help me keep focused in on Caitlyn while not being stimulated by an image. The other reason.... well I hate to say it, but I'm kind of jealous by Smitty's "The Young Master/Sissy" story.
I was curious if his writing style would transfer from the shorter 'cap' format into the longer 'story' format... and from what I've ready (the first three chapters), I'd have to say that smitty has been VERY successful at it. So now that curiosity has turned back to myself... would my style of writing hold up well when unrestrained by length? Will I find my own wings and soar into true storytelling?
There's only one way to find out. Write a story.
So I'm going to give it a try. First things first... I do not guarantee that I'm going to succeed. I guess to really say that, I need to define what I consider a success. To me a successful attempt will result in a story that is both easy and enjoyable to read. To be a success DOES NOT mean that everybody will enjoy it. I know that many different people with many different desires come to this blog and can find some enjoyment in some of my caps. But some like the sissy caps, some like the mistress caps, some like the magic, some like the smut, some like the emotions.... in other words just as I know each cap will only please some of my audience, I know that a first story can't possibly please everybody. But the ease of reading should be universal.
You see, my biggest fear is that I won't hold on to the tone of the story throughout. That one day I'll write something hot and steamy, but the next day that scene will finish flat and dull. One day will be dramatic and emotional, while the next day I'll finish the scene prematurely so that I can write some action out. I believe that while reading a story, you should never know where the author left off or picked up. It should read like the author started kept writing until the final word. If it doesn't feel that way, its not easy to read. And if it's not easy to read, then it's not a success.
Now it's my feeling that this first story won't be all that good. Just like my first cap isn't as good as my more recent caps. I'm going to stumble, I'm going to make mistakes. But with that knowledge in mind, I want to set myself up with the best chance of doing well... and that means asking for your help. You see... I don't know WHAT I want to write. Maybe after I've stumbled through a few stories I'll get a feeling of what I enjoy writing (and more importantly what I write well) and will be able to start and finish without help... but to begin with I'd like some direction.
My first though was to ask for raw suggestions. But just as readers have their preferred subject matter, I obviously have mine. So instead of asking for an idea out of thin air I thought it might be better to write a story that I've already thought about... and luckily I have about 350 stories already. My caps.
Now obviously some of my caps aren't worthy of a full story. They're about a moment in time and wouldn't fit a long format. But I think a lot of my caps would fit this form. They've been shortened down to fit inside of a cap, but have a lot of room to grow. A longer introduction, a more detailed transformation, a longer transformation, a more complete ending.
Off the top of my head I can only think of two particular caps, and two set of caps that I won't consider writing. Both "I Name You Chloe" and "Oh, The Wicked Webs We Weave" were already born of grand story ideas. If I get good at writing in this form, I already plan on writing these out. I just don't want either of these to be my first foray. As for the sets of caps.... both "The Technologist" and "Living The Sissy Life" aren't ideal roads to take either. "The Technologist" already sits is smitty's "Smittyverse", while the "LtSL" caps are the barest of stories and wouldn't help me that much in choosing a direction.
So what I'm asking you for is this... what cap of mine do you think would make an interesting story? If I get any type of consensus on this, I'll take that story and go with it. If I get a lot of varied suggestions, I'll pick the one I think will be easiest to write and go with that. Even if I get only one suggestion, I'll go with it.
When I have a story to go with, I'll share my process with you. I imagine I'll think of an outline (A firm beginning a firm ending and several high points in between), along with the characters. I'll flesh out the characters before I begin writing the story, and I'll commit to writing at least an hour a day. I won't share all the bits that I write, but I'll summarize some of it in a weekly post. That way if I struggle, I can get some support and maybe some more help.
I'm so glad to hear you're taking the plunge into a picture free story. I can tell you from recent experience, it can be a challenge and a chore, but it's also very rewarding.
ReplyDeleteNow if I were to pick a cap I'd like to see developed, it would be one of your dream caps. It allows total freedom, can be episodic or extended, and allows for stark contrast with the waking world.
Thanks Smitty!
DeleteA dream story would certainly give me a lot of room to work. My "It's Just a Dream" cap would work well with that. Every chapter could switch... one in the dream, the next in the real world.
My only concern would be keeping the action going long enough. This might be a shorter story.
Two suggestions:
ReplyDelete(1) You are afraid of making the story not consistent in tone, right? So how about a sort of "diary of a changed person" or "How I became a sissy" thing? That way you can focus on certain individual events that happened, doesn't have to be chronological either, where you have a humorous account, followed by something serious, something embarrassing, and then something hot and steamy. That way you can just fold your current mood into whatever fits into the story.
My other suggestion would be to submit it to Fictionmania. You are a known quantity here, and its probably your comfort zone. I can't imagine any of us would be particularly harsh, nor way over the top in praise. At FM, you might just get exactly what you need, both good and bad. I know whatever you write won't suck, so you shouldn't have to worry too much about that, and with what is posted there, I can see you getting a fair amount of praise from people that probably don't know who you are,
Thanks Dee!
DeleteI'm torn on the idea of making it a diary or journal style story. I love it as you're right... I could vary up the tone between entries and be more concerned with making each particular entry interesting instead of focusing too much on the longer story arch.
I don't like it though as I believe it would be difficult to write certain scenes this way. I think it would be easy to write those wonderfully squrim tales as it's happening to someone, but having them recant their experience would be odd...
I will eventually submit it to Fictionmania as well as other story sites. But I only want to do that when I'm certain that I can write the entire story out. With the first few chapters I'll publish it here (or maybe at the Haven) just to get a feel of how it's going from people I know and respect.
Going off of Dee's suggestion and the fact that is one of my favorite captions of yours, I'd suggest trying "Language Barrier."
ReplyDeleteIn that post you said there were parts of the story you had to cut out in order to fit it to a caption, so you know there is more story to tell there already. Plus if you take the diary approach, you can have larger swings in tone, as Dee pointed out already.
But no matter what you pick, the biggest piece of advice I can give you is wrote about a character you find interesting. If you're invested in the protagonist and want to see how he or she gets out of the predicament you've put them in, your readers will want to do the same.
Good luck, I can't wait to see what you come up with.
Thanks Rauk!
Delete"Language Barrier" would be an interesting choice as there would be plenty of 'characters' but really only one voice to focus on. I can picture doing that in a diary/journal style. Maybe even combining it with the back and forth writing of the dream style... one 'chapter' would focus on what the subject did 'today', while the next chapter focuses on how he/she got to this point.
I agree with writing about a character that I find interesting. You can bet that no matter the original story or spark, the character will be a classic 'good guy in the wrong place' type person. It's where I write from most often and should give a good sympathetic feel to it.
As someone who's here for the smut, I really like the captions which involve personal betrayal, e.g. a guy forces his best friend to become his sex slave, a wife sissifies her husband against his will, etc. Willing, sentimental and consensual stories are a no-go for me. The great thing about long-form TG fiction is that you get to slowly and maliciously develop the betrayal and the degradation of the transformed victim. I've read and enjoyed legitimately poorly written stories just because the character conflicts were too hot to turn away from.
ReplyDeleteThe best thing you can do, in my opinion, is defy expectations. If you find your idea starting to feel like something you already read, kick it in a different direction. And don't worry too much about tone until the rewriting stage. And rewrite the shit outa everything! Murder your darlings.
Thanks PapaDragon. I'm glad that you stop by for the smut as I do enjoy writing that. You certainly don't have to worry about me writing a willing/consensual story for my first try. It's not my most comfortable writing position, and I wouldn't want the difficulty of making those feeling feel right along with the difficulty of making a cohesive story.
DeleteI might try for that later (if I get good enough at writing), but it certainly won't be my first go.
As for sentimentality... well I do enjoy writing that. I like that conflicting feeling of "Oh I can't believe this is heppening to this guy" and "Wow that's hot... I wish it was happening to me!". I think any story without that sentimental tone will just quickly devolve into sex scene after sex scene.... hot? Yes. Enjoyable read? Probably not.
As for defying expectations... my only expectation is to make a story that doesn't suck (you know what I mean!). Something that is interesting and doesn't make someone want to stop reading half way through. I'll more than likely follow some paths that are already well tread as I'm trying to build up some writing chops. Making something new and great will come later.
And yes... re-writes (both big and small) will be part of the process. I'll re-write each section/chapter/scene to make sure it reads well, as well as re-writing everything to make it all flow as a single story.
I found a cap of yours that I think exemplifies the best of what I was rambling about.
ReplyDeletehttp://caitlynsmasks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/wronged-by-him-and-wronged-by-her.html
Double-dip betrayal, interesting characters, a wealth of smuttiness and a subversion of the predictable happy ending with a much hotter bad ending. That's my jam right there.
"Wronged by Him and Wronged by Her" would certainly make a good first story. It's a scenario that I already like (office/secretary setting), it was written both for me and for Petra, whom I share a lot of preferences with, and it starts with a good guy getting in to deep.
DeleteThe only issue I have in writing that story out in long form is that I almost feel that it would have to dip toward some willingness toward the end. Either that, or it wouldn't have a proper ending at all... it would just stop telling the story. I love the conflict, but I don't think that style of conflict can go on forever... either the heroine would decide that letting other's know and even jail would be better than her current life, or she accepts it and goes along learning to love it.
I'll still consider it... the first half or even three quarters of the story would be a blast to write.
Caitlyn,
ReplyDeleteYou are a writer. I suggest you think of a fantasy of yours and put it to a story you could play off of a cap, or you could begin fresh. I suggest beginning when you have time to get the bulk of your story written. Having said that, I love the idea of it being about a sissy. But whatever you write,I look forward to it.
Kisses,
Leeanne
Thanks Leanne,
DeleteThis will really be the test to see if I'm a writer. Right now I consider myself more or less an artist who writes very short stories. To be a writer or even an author, I need to see if I CAN write long form.
I think the problem of writing from a particular fantasy of mine is that my fantasies are merely 'scenes'. They aren't full blown stories. Most of my fantasies could (and more than likely WILL) be dropped into any of these proposed stories.
What I'm really looking for is a framework to build the story around. Then I can drop in all the scenes that will make me (and hopefully anybody reading it) squirm and smile.
As for getting the bulk of the story out... that's one of the questions I'm going to have to answer. Do I have the ability to write large tracts of story and keep my interest going. I don't feel that the writing process will work like that for me. Instead I imagine this taking months to get enough together to form a single story. If I can get halfway through that timeline, I'll know that I can complete it and start publishing it.
As for it being about a sissy... I guess that depends on the story arch/framework. If it's set in anything near a 'real' setting, it will almost certainly be a sissy story. I think they give more opportunities for on going transformations. But if it's a fantasy/dream story, it would probably be a complete transformation into womanhood. I'll just have to see where I end up.
Thanks everybody for commenting and helping me out. So far I'm glad I've taken this first step as it's forcing me to continue. About an hour after I initially posted this I was ready to delete it. The entire mood to write out a full story had left me... but now that it's hear and I feel like there are people looking forward to my attempt... I feel obligated to continue. And that's a good thing... I often need a push like that to get me into something new.
ReplyDeleteFrom what's been talked about so far, here is what I'm considering. Writing the story as a dream sequence interspersed with chapters of reality. Writing the story in a diary or journal style. Making the story smutty and dark. Including my own personal fantasies into the story. Publishing the story here to begin with but ultimately publishing it to more traditional story outlets like Fictionmania.
For a framework to the story I'm considering "It's Just a Dream", "Language Barrier" and "Wronged by Him and Wronged by Her". I believe any of these would make a good story arc, but am still open to other suggestions. I don't have a concrete timeline laid out in my head... certainly not a an actual start date. But I'm thinking of getting at least these initial ideas down and firmed up in about a week. So if you have more suggestions or caps that I could base the story off of, I'm all ears (eyes?).
I think once I get going on the writing, I might start up another blog for it. That way I can make a lot of posts about this without taking away the "Captioned Image" focus of this blog. Maybe it will change in the future, but right now I'm still a cap artist and I don't want this project to pull me completely away from that.
Thanks again for your continued help!
I will watch you give this new venue a shot. I have also taken ideas to make actual stories, but the caveat is that I haven't flushed out a deeper backstory or more approriate text than I would in a cap. I have definitely tried to expand multi-cap stories into a piece of fiction. Best wishes, babe :)
ReplyDelete