Dark Erotica

Faery Tale ~ A Visual Novel

2011-06-17T02:24:00.004-04:00

Faery Tale
A Romantic Fantasy Visual Novel
Story & Graphics by Morgan Hawke

This is NOT a dating simulation game.

Click images for Full Size.

Faery Tales Featured
They are NOT true to the originals, by any means.

Red Riding Hood
The Nixie of the Millpond
Cinderella
The Red Shoes

Free to download. Free to distribute.

This is rated PG-16.
This contains NO adult content, but there is quite a bit of suggestive story content and a couple of nearly nude female images.

748 screens of dialogue
19 Menus
12,753 words.
8 possible endings.

Downloads available in Mediafire:
Folder --> http://www.mediafire.com/?58iw6ufp0vasw

Platforms available:
~~~~~~~~~~
Windows installer
Mac
Linux
Windows Zip

VERY image heavy.
This is a LARGE file: 183 MB.

All art was photo-manipulated and rendered in Photoshop by me.

The Characters:
They are all name-able.

The Fair Maiden

The Fae - Yes, my Faery Tale actually has Faeries!

The Nixie - A fresh water sprite

The Prince

The Sorcerer

The Big Bad Wolf

Screenshots:Click images for Full Size.

I would be VERY interested in your opinions and critiques.

Creative Narrative - A Description exercise

2011-05-17T16:39:00.002-04:00

Creative Narrative
A Description exercise.

DESCRIPTION is the key to fleshing out ANY scene, but especially Sex Scenes.

Don't just call it 'juice,' describe the glistening moisture that slides in slender rivulets down the inside of her thigh THEN describe how it feels physically, THEN how the character feels emotionally about the fact that they're dripping from excitement.

1. What it looks like.
2. What it feels like Physically.
3. How they feel about it Emotionally.

You have 5 senses -- USE THEM:
Texture, Flavor, Appearance, Sound, Aroma

The glistening moisture slid in slender rivulets down the inside of her thigh. The coolness of the moisture tickled in contrast to the wamth of her skin. Because her skirt was so short, her excitement was clearly visible to anyone who happened to be looking. Her cheeks filled with embarrassed warmth and she lowered her gaze, not wanting to know who might be staring at her, aware that she was aroused.

"So how do you DO that sort of writing?"

The same way you do anything, you PRACTICE.

For this exercise, you will need the movie Sin City. If you don't have it, The Matrix or Equilibrium will do.

WATCH the movie undisturbed from beginning to end. NO INTERRUPTIONS. This is Important!

Watch where the Camera looks. Sin City in particular is a brilliant example of how to describe using pictures. The movie is filmed in black and white with splashes of color here and there only where the viewer's eye needs to be.

When a character is first introduced, LOOK at how the camera starts in Close Focus on the character's face and then pulls back to reveal the character's body, lovingly showing the viewer exactly what the character looks like AND their distinguishing characteristics from top to bottom. THEN the view expands wider to disclose where that character is and what they are doing at that moment.

After those first few moments of sheer View, you get a narrative from the Point of View character -- which may Not be the character the camera is showing you. You get the narrator's opinions, their feelings, their delusions. THAT is how the viewer (the reader) learns about the character.

Once the movie is over, put on some music that fits the movie. (I actually have the soundtracks, to these.) Next! Break out your remote control and Watch The Same Movie AGAIN -- but this time, with the volume OFF.

Sit on your couch and Out Loud, Narrate what you are looking at. Do NOT write anything. Just talk to the TV screen Out Loud and describe -- in detail -- what you are looking at as though it was a book you were reading.

Describe the Characters.
Describe the Actions.
Describe the Fight Scenes.
Describe the Kisses.
Describe the Backgrounds and Setting -- including the rooms and weather conditions!

Use your remote control and STOP the scene where you have difficulty describing what you are seeing. Work at it until the words come to you. They don't have to be perfect -- close IS good enough for this exercise.

Do NOT write anything down.

Keep going until the movie is Over.

This should help loosen up a few things in your writing mind -- and give you some strong visuals to write from later.

Next!

-- Write a 1000 word Scene that introduces a character of YOURS. Make sure you picture the scene in your mind with the same dramatic camera angles and close-ups the movie and Describe it so that anyone Reading it can clearly see it.

Compare that scene with any introductory scene in a story you've already written and SEE the difference.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just so you know, this is an exercise I created to make my own writing more Visual back when I first started writing. The movie I used was "The Lost Boys", the original 1984 version. It really helped my ability to describe in my stories.

Enjoy!

Modern Fiction Story Structures

2011-04-08T22:37:00.005-04:00

Art by srulik24

Modern Fiction Story Structures

PLOT ARC - The events that happen while the characters make other plans.
CHARACTER ARC - The emotional roller-coaster that the character suffers in dealing with the Plot.

The PLOT ARC
If it does not forward the plot - it does not belong in the story.

When I set out to write a tale, I begin by blocking out the plot, listing what I want to happen:

Inciting Incident
Crisis
Reversal
Ordeal
Climax
Resolution

For a 100k novel that's 20 chapters at 5000 words each. I note what I want to happen in each chapter and that's the frame I work from. If I find a better way to twist the plot great! But a detailed outline or block keeps me from wandering all over the place and going over my word count.

Blocking or outlining is not the only way to build a story. It's just the easiest way.

Steven King does not Block. (Keep in mind - he is a master at his art.) He writes his opening chapter, then his closing chapter then writes almost pure stream of consciousness to get from one to the other.

What he does is write a bunch of character-based stories surrounding one event. What makes his books so huge is the size of his cast of characters. This is also why he ALWAYS goes way-way-way over his word count. *grin* But then, his publishers are not about to make him conform, there are too many other publishers dying for his work.

Plot & Character Integration

To make a cohesive whole, every single event must happen for a reason. Every single character must have a reason to be there and EVERYTHING must tie in together. Every scene in a story should either illustrate Character (Character Arc) or be an Event (Plot Arc).

The CHARACTER ARC
The Stages of Grief: Denial - Anger- Bargaining - Despair -Acceptance

Why Grief?
-- Because STORY needs ANGST to BE Story.

Stories are all about CHANGE; about Adapting and Overcoming circumstancing that should take them down. The hero and the villain change and develop as the story progresses to allow the hero a toehold chance - and no more - to win. This is where dramatic tension is generated.

The difference between the Hero and the Villain is the Villain's failure to change. The Villain fails to face his fears, which allows the hero to take him down. The rest of the cast may or may not have personal growth, but the hero and the villain must.

Changing takes suffering. Both the hero and the villain should suffer emotionally and physically to allow for their personal changes.

Think about how hard it is for YOU to change your mind about liking or disliking anyone. What would it take to change your mind? That's the level of suffering - of Angst - you need.

Plot Arc is all about what HAPPENS.
Character Arc is all about how the characters FEEL.

The Stage of Grief that character happens to be going through dictates how that character will React the event. If you plan it just right, every event will work Against the character's Stage of Grief.

The whole Idea being:

"That which does not kill me, makes me stronger." - Nietzsche

The plot movements combine both the Plot Arc (Events/Actions) and the Character Arc (Emotions/Reactions).

Flash Fiction / The Vignette
Under 1000 words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The climactic moment of a single event
1 Movement:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ordeal - Sacrifice
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 characters
2 main characters: Protagonist / Antagonist
1 POV character ~ 1st Person or 3rd Person Limited POV
~~~

The Short Story
5000 to 19,000 words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One Small Event in the Hero's life.
3 major movements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1- Crisis - Anger
2- Ordeal - Sacrifice
3- Climax - Acceptance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 chapter per movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 main characters: Protagonist / Antagonist
1 POV character ~ 1st Person or 3rd Person Limited POV
~~~

The Novelette
20,000 to 59,000 words
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A single event that changes the Hero's life
5 major movements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act One
1-Inciting event - Denial
~~~
Act Two
2-Crisis - Anger
3-Reversal - Despair
4-Ordeal - Sacrifice
~~~
Act Three
5-Climax - Acceptance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 chapters per movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 Main characters: Protagonist / Obstacle Character */ Antagonist
1 or 2 POV characters ~ 1st Person or 3rd Person Limited
~~~

*Note: The Obstacle Character is the Nay-sayer that possesses the opposing opinion. In a 3-character plot, the Emotionally-driven character tends to play opposition for both the Antagonist (Motive-driven character) and the Protagonist (Action-driven character).

The Novella ~ Category Novel
60,000 to 89,000 words
(Many publishers consider anything over 60k a novel.
However, most ePubs will not print a book under 80k.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A single that changes all the Main Character's lives
7 major movements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act One:
Set up - Something Bad has Happened
2- Inciting Incident -Denial
3-Crisis - Anger
~~~
Act Two:
4-Reversal - Despair
5-Ordeal - Sacrifice
~~~
Act Three:
6-Climax - Acceptance
7-Resolution - Acknowledgment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2-4 chapters per movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 Main characters: Protagonist / Main Viewpoint Character */ Antagonist
2 Support characters: Hero's Obstacle Character / Villain's Obstacle Character
1 to 3 POV characters - 1st Person or 3rd Person Limited
~~~

*Note: The Main Viewpoint Character is rarely the Protagonist or the Antagonist. In most stories, the Viewpoint Character is the one caught in the middle, if not completely lost, in the battle between the Protagonist and the Antagonist. (Neo, in The Matrix was the Viewpoint Character caught between Morpheus and the Agents of the Matrix.)

The Novel
90,000 to 125, 000 words
(Publishers rarely take manuscripts higher than 125k.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A collection of events that lead to a single Major Event that brings change in all the (main) character's lives.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
9 major movements:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act One:
1-Set up - Something Bad has Happened
2- Introduction - Innocence
3- Inciting Incident -Denial
~~~
Act Two:
4-Challenge - Anger
5-Crisis - Betrayal
6-Reversal - Despair
7-Ordeal - Sacrifice
~~~
Act Three:
8-Climax - Acceptance
9-Resolution - Acknowledgment
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2-5 chapters per movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3 Main characters*:
Protagonist / Main Viewpoint Character / Antagonist

3 Major Support characters:
Protagonist's Obstacle Character
Antagonist's Obstacle Character
Viewpoint Character's Obstacle Character

1 to 3 POV characters**
1st Person or 3rd Person Limited, or Omniscient
~~~

*Note: With casts of Characters - Less is more - ALL major character arcs must conclude to fulfill resolution. The larger the cast, the longer the story.

**Note: With Viewpoint Characters - LESS is definitely more. Hopping from Viewpoint to Viewpoint can get very frustrating to the reader who has to keep track of each of those different story threads. And then there's the Fatal Flaw of: Head Hopping.

Keep in Mind: Each POV character chosen, automatically becomes a Main Character. Woe betide the author that does not conclude all the issues raised with EACH Viewpoint Character - in addition to the Main Characters. Any more than 4 POVs and you're looking at a Massive undertaking to conclude them all, or make plot-holes you can drive trucks through.

Tragedy vs. Happily Ever After

The difference between a Tragedy and a Happily Ever After seems to be that in a Tragedy, the Protagonist FAILS at their Crisis Point in Act Two. Act Three is merely the death scene that fullfils their failure to change.

To make a Happily Ever After, the Protagonist still Fails their Crisis Point in Act Two, but then replays their Crises Point in Act Three and finally Wins at the end of the Act. The story then goes on to a whole new FOURTH act.

Additional Reading:

The Internal Journey - Premise Building

Developing the Dark Moment

Who Cares? Character Values and Conflict

Being, Doing, Becoming:
The Heroic Strength, the Heroic Flaw, the Heroic Journey

Starting Small and Building Plot

External Conflict Worksheet

Enjoy!

Periodic Table of Storytelling

2011-04-07T16:46:00.004-04:00

Click HERE for full size.

Created by ComputeSherpa at DeviantArt.com

If you are any kind of fan of fiction writing, whether it books, TV scripting, movie scripting, or even fan-fiction, THIS is the ultimate cheat sheet for story crafting -- especially if you are a fan of TV Tropes!

Enjoy!

Erotic Plot Generators

2011-03-15T10:06:00.008-04:00

Just for fun!
Erotic Plot Generators

Looking for a quick and painless way to get ideas for Erotic stories or Yaoi stories? Have I got the toys for you! One click and there you go!

Click: Generate me an Erotic plot!

Example of results:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As an apology, a socially inept yet sincere actress put on a strap-on and ass-fucked a submissive police detective in a narrow stall of a public toilet. This resulted in a business proposition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After catching the peeper red-handed--literally and figuratively, a naive and unsuspecting actress made tender love to a vivacious, red-haired erotica author in a high class hotel overlooking the bay. This resulted in the discovery of a hidden fetish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wearing only a towel, a dominant delivery girl called in some friends and had an orgy with a submissive college student in a seedy hotel in the bowels of the city. This resulted in a very sincere apology.

Click: Generate me a YAOI plot!

Example of results:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Having fallen hopelessly in Love, a petite, fair and delicate teacher had anal sex with an eccentric martial artist in the VIP room of a night club. This resulted in the loss of his underwear.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wearing only a towel, a vivacious, red-haired private detective was fucked by an attractive mail man in a seedy hotel in the bowels of the city. This resulted in the annulment of a debt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Caught masturbating, a submissive graffiti artist ass-fucked a friendly college professor in front of the fireplace of a Victorian mansion. This resulted in an invitation to live together.

The Java code is from Seventh Sanctum, but rest is all mine. Feel free to use any of the ideas generated for your own stories.

Writing Erotic HORROR

2011-02-09T07:12:00.007-05:00

Art by Royo

Writing Erotic Horror

What is Erotic Horror?

According to Wikipedia:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Erotic horror, alternately noted as Dark Erotica, is a term applied to works of horror fiction in which sensual or sexual imagery (or descriptions of the physical act of sexual intercourse) are blended with horrific overtones or horror story elements.

In other words:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
If Erotica is: They have sex and something happens.
Then Erotic Horror is: They know exactly what will happen if they have sex, and do it anyway.

Believe it or not, the basic principal is actually a left-over from the antique Victorian view of "If you have Sex, something bad will happen to you." Something still promoted in today's horror flicks, especially those featuring teens.

Erotic Horror takes it one step further with: Sex = Death, and occasionally Death = Sex.

Most Common Plotlines:

The new girlfriend is a real monster.
-- Commonly foreshadowed by the fact that none of his family or friends likes her. The male protagonist then ignores all warnings to meet her in some deserted and blatantly creepy spot. They have sex and her true monstrosity is finally revealed.

This ends in one of two ways:
- He dies in her embrace.
- He kills her in self defense, and regrets it

Far less often do you see the opposite:

The new boyfriend is a real monster.
-- In this style of story, the family usually approves as do her friends, while the heroine is the one with all the doubts. Eventually she gives in to family and peer pressure and goes on a date with this guy. By the end of the date, she decides he's not so bad after all. He then takes her to some deserted and blatantly creepy spot. They have sex and his true monstrosity is finally revealed.

This ends in one of two ways:
- She dies in his embrace.
- She kills him in self defense, and resents* it.

In an M/M story...

The new friend is a real monster.

-- None of his friends or family knows about the guy the protagonist is seeing because the protagonist is actively hiding or in denial about his attraction to this guy. The male protagonist then agrees to meet the guy in some deserted and blatantly creepy spot. The protagonist is seduced into sex and the other guy's true monstrosity is finally revealed.

This ends in one of two ways:
- He dies in his lover's embrace.
- He kills his lover in self defense, and actively tries to *forget it ever happened.

The new lover is a real monster to everyone except their lover.
-- In this style of story, the protagonist shacks up or marries their new love and realizes that their love is hiding some kind of secret. Meanwhile, the people around them are disappearing or dying. Completely ignoring the fact that people are dropping like flies round their love, the protagonist begins to suspect that their beloved is cheating on them. The protagonist follows their beloved and witnesses their lover seducing someone and then killing them in a particularly nasty way. Discovered, the beloved confesses their monstrosity and immediately goes all out to seduce their beloved.

This ends in one of three ways:
- The protagonist willingly dies in their beloved's embrace.
- The male protagonist kills their beloved in self defense, and regrets it.
- The female protagonist kills their beloved in self defense, and resents* it.
- The protagonist kills their beloved to save them, and then commits suicide to join them.

The new lover convinces their beloved to become a real monster.
-- In this style of story, the protagonist shacks up or marries their new love who then refuses to have sex with the protagonist until they prove their love by killing someone and bringing back a trophy. Sometimes it's an object, but usually it's a body part. Eventually, the protagonist realizes that they have become a mass-murderer, regrets what they've become and finally begins to question their lover's sanity.

This ends in one of two ways:
- The protagonist snaps and kills their beloved in a mad sexual frenzy, then commits suicide.
- The protagonist kills their beloved lovingly and then commits suicide.

In short,
Erotic Horror is when two lovers have Sex and Death is either the result or the cause.

Occasionally you'll see a story where two lovers have sex and then a monster comes out of nowhere and kills one or both of them. This kind of story is not Erotic Horror – it's ordinary Horror.

What's the difference?

In any Erotic story, the Erotic MUST turn the plot. In other words, Sex must make the story happen. If something else makes the story happen; such as the sudden appearance of a monster, then it's not an Erotic story. It's just a Monster story -- a Horror story.

In order to be a true Erotic Horror, both the Sex AND Death must turn the plot.

However, a simple 'raped to death' story isn't Erotic Horror either. That's just a Snuff tale. To be an Erotic Horror, the protagonist needs to be willing, eager, and enjoying the sex in order to be Erotic with Death as the result or the cause of the Sex.

In other words, no matter how many sex scenes you toss into a Horror story, if the sex is not directly related to the horror as the cause or result, then what you have is a plain ordinary horror story with a few extra scenes.

How can you tell if you've written an Erotic Horror?

If you can cut out the Erotic scenes without hurting the main Horror plotline – you did it WRONG.
If you can cut out the Horror scenes without hurting the main Erotica plotline – you did it WRONG.
If cutting out the Horror scenes or the Erotic scenes ruins the story – you did it RIGHT.

In Conclusion...

Tossing a random sex scene into a Horror story will not give you an Erotic Horror story. All that does is make a Horror story with erotic bits. To write a true Erotic Horror, both Death and Sex must carry equal weight in the plot line. Death and Sex must both make the story happen, preferably with one the result of the other: Sex = Death or Death = Sex.

*Note: Why does the female protagonist Resent losing their lover while the male protagonist Regrets losing their lover?

Basic psychology. Males have a tendency to regret losing anything they found pleasurable, where females tend to resent having made a bad choice (in lovers). In the case of two male lovers, Denial is the normal route; "That never happened," because most men hate to admit they made a mistake. However, as the author, you are entitled to write your character's feelings any way you like. Those were merely what I found in the Erotic Horror stories I read.

Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

The CHARACTER Arc

2011-01-23T13:47:00.007-05:00

Araragi from Bakemonogitari.
He used to be a vampire. He got better. Mostly.

Advanced Plotting:
The CHARACTER ARC

PLOT ARC: The events that happen while the characters make other plans.

CHARACTER ARC: The emotional roller-coaster that the character suffers while dealing with the Plot.

Understanding Plot

To make a story a cohesive whole, every single thing in it must be there for a reason. Every single character, object, location, and event must push toward the ending you have planned even if it doesn't look that way to the casual observer. In short, every scene in the story should either illustrate a characteristic attribute of a main Character or be an Event that makes your ending happen.

What the Character Arc does is map out the Emotional path your characters need to take to grow and change into the heroes and heroines your story needs to achieve your story's ending.

For the record, a Character Arc can be used all by itself as the plotline for a story or in addition to an actual Plot Arc such as The Heroic Journey, or any of hundreds of Plot Arcs found in books and on the 'net.

My personal choice is to use a Character Arc in addition to a Plot Arc, but that's just me.

The 7 Stages of Grief:
Shock &Denial – Pain &Guilt – Anger & Bargaining – Despair & Reflection – Precipice & Choice – Reconstruction & Adjustment – Acceptance & Hope

Why Grief?

Stories are about CHANGE; about adapting and overcoming circumstancing that should take the characters down physically AND emotionally -- and that takes Angst. In a solidly built story, both hero and villain change and develop emotionally as well as physically. Changing takes suffering. Both the hero and the villain should suffer emotionally and physically to make those personal changes happen.

Think about how hard it is for YOU to change your mind about liking or disliking anyone. What would it take to change your mind? That's the level of suffering - of Angst - you need.

However, the ultimate difference between the Hero and the Villain is the Villain’s failure to face his fears and make the final sacrificial emotional change. This inability to change and Mature is what allows the hero to take him down.

In short, in a battle between Maturity & Immaturity, Maturity always wins.

This isn't fiction. This is Fact. Without maturity, and the emotion of Compassion that comes with it, the human race would have wiped itself out in petty selfish squabbles ages ago. In fact, it almost did recently with WWII.

What causes ANGST?

“A change of circumstance of any kind (a change from one state to another) produces a loss of some kind (the stage changed from) which will produce a grief reaction. The intensity of the grief reaction is a function of how the change-produced loss is perceived. If the loss is not perceived as significant, the grief reaction will be minimal or barely felt. Significant grief responses which go unresolved can lead to mental, physical, and sociological problems. ” - Editorial - TLC Group, Dallas Texas

Everyone deals with one form of angst or another on a daily basis.

The Dead Battery

You're on your way to work. You go out to your car, put the key in the ignition and turn it on. You hear nothing but a grind; the battery is dead. Think about how you typically react: What's the first thing you do?

SHOCK & DENIAL: “Oh no! No! No! No! Not the battery!” You try to start it again. And again. You check to make sure that everything that could be draining the battery is off: radio, heater, lights, etc. and then try it again. And again…
PAIN & GUILT: "Damn it... Why does this crap always happen to me? Sure, I had problems starting it yesterday, but I didn't think it was this bad."
ANGER & BARGAINING: "Start damn it!" Perhaps you slam your hand on the steering wheel? Then you try it again. "Damn you! Start! Start! Start! Please car, if you will just start one more time I promise I'll buy you a brand new battery, get a tune up, new tires, belts and hoses, and keep you in perfect working condition…”
DESPAIR & REFLECTION: "It won’t start. Crap. If only I'd taken it to the shop when I had the chance."
PRECIPICE & CHOICE: "Crap, crap, crap... I need to get to work! Should I call in to work and tell them I'm not coming in, or just say I'm going to be late?"
RECONSTRUCTION & ADJUSTMENT: "I need the cash too badly to skip out of work; especially now with the car. I'll call a taxi or maybe my friend and see if they can get me to work?" You pick up the cell phone and start dialing numbers.
ACCEPTANCE & HOPE: "I'll call the mechanic from work and ask them to look at my car. Hopefully, it won't be too expensive to fix it."

STORY Stages of the Character Arc

1. Shock & Denial
“This can’t be happening to me!”

An Inciting Event has happened to ruin the Protagonist’s blissful ignorance. Rather than deal with it the Protagonist keep going as though it never happened: “I’m busy! Go away!”

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Ibn Fadlan is an Arab noble who is literally pulled into a Viking adventure he wants no part of.

2. Pain & Guilt
“If only I hadn't...”

The situation is no longer avoidable. It's right there staring them in the face and the Protagonist suspects that what happened is their own damned fault – even if it isn't.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Ibn knows for a fact that he'd been sent out into the far reaches of civilization because he'd fallen in love with a noble's wife. However, his own mouth is what gets him into trouble with the Vikings -- and why they decided to take him with them on their monster hunt.

3. Anger & Bargaining
“Screw You!”

The main character does everything in his power to wiggle back out of the situation by way of threats, bribes, and outright begging. This is also where the Antagonist has his best chance of strong-arming the Protagonist into getting what they want by offering a quick solution – a bargain – that the Protagonist simply cannot refuse.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Ibn has finally arrived in the far distant land and learned the language of the Vikings. It is then that he finds out exactly what sort of barbarous monsters he and his 12 companions are expected to defeat – and that they are in the thousands. To make matters worse, the king of that land is old and his son power hungry.

4. Despair & Reflection
“We're going to die.”

This is where your characters realize exactly what they're up against and just how overwhelming the enemy truly is. Not only is their boat surrounded by alligators, a few more are in the boat with them disguised as friends.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Ibn and the Vikings learn that the monsters are undefeatable. The Great Hall can not be defended. There are just too many. Another solution must be found.

5. Precipice & Choice
"Give up or go down fighting?"

Quite literally trapped in a "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" situation, desperation forces the Protagonist to make a personal Sacrifice during an emotionally heavy Ordeal (often provided by the Antagonist) that removes the Protagonist's main debilitating fear and gives them the inner strength to deal with their situation.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – In the hopes of taking out the two leaders of the monster tribe Ibn and the Viking sneak into the Monsters' vast caves with the full knowledge that it’s a suicide mission. During this sneak attack, Ibn and the Viking face a number of their fears and conquer them.

6. Reconstruction & Adjustment
“Okay, so here's the plan...”

The Protagonist finally gives up and commits himself to what needs to be done. Home is so far away, it no longer matters. The problem at hand matters.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Ibn and the Vikings have succeeded in taking out one of the leaders, but the other still survives. An attack is coming and there is nothing they can do but defend.

7. Acceptance & Hope
“We'll make them regret messing with us!”

With nothing left to lose, they throw themselves into the fray.

In The Thirteenth Warrior – Knowing that they are vastly outnumbered, Ibn and the Vikings fully expect to die, leaving them nothing left to fear. However, there is still the chance that the final leader will show his face. If one of them can succeed in killing him, hopefully that will stop the invasion before the monsters kill every last man, woman, and child.

"Must I use Grief?
" Does my character’s arc have to be so…depressing?”

In the Stages of Grief, the word "Grief” is actually misleading. The stages aren't strictly about crushing depression. They merely map the cycle of someone under emotional pressure created by conflicts; and story conflict should create emotional pressure for your characters. Never forget: Stories need Emotional conflict to be fulfilling. However, the emotional conflict doesn’t have to be Horrific! The stages can be softened.

For example:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shock & Denial can become Indifference

- "So what?"

Pain & Guilt – Self-reproach

- "Okay, so maybe I could have...?"

Anger & Bargaining - Annoyance

- "You stay out of my way, and I'll stay out of yours. Okay?"

Despair & Reflection - Exasperation

- "How do I always get myself into these messes?"

Precipice & Choice - Aggravation

- "You know what? I don't need this crap!"

Reconstruction & Adjustment – Accommodation

-- "That's one less problem to deal with."

Acceptance & Hope - Relief

- "Oh, now I have time to do other things."

"Do these stages go in EXACTLY this order?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Denial ALWAYS comes First. Acceptance ALWAYS goes Last. The others can be juggled around as pleases. I listed the most useful and common order. Feel free to Experiment!

"Where the heck did you find these – Stages?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Human Psychology. You can look it up on Google by typing in: stages of grief.

"Are there Other maps for Character Arcs?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Absolutely! Any human behavior pattern can be used as a Character Arc map. “The Stages of Grief” is merely the easiest to work with and most commonly used.

In Conclusion...

Using a Character Arc is one of the best ways to enrich an otherwise dry event driven story. However, that's not the only function it serves.

Outlining a Character Arc for each of your three main characters (Hero, Ally, Villain) is your most powerful Secret Weapon toward keeping your characters from running all over you. Knowing your Characters' emotional Stage allows you to choose the events and situations that will Force your characters to make the decisions needed to make your ending happen.

After all, it's YOUR story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Memory Training

2011-01-14T05:09:00.001-05:00

How I trained myself to have a
Photographic Memory.

Shortly after I published my very first story, I was introduced to the phrase: "Write What You Know."

I was horrified.

I was horrified because I was still in high school and living with my Mother in a very small New England town. Other than a few encounters with a couple of ghosts, and what I had looked up in my local library, (keep in mind this was 1980, the internet hadn't been invented yet,) I knew Nothing. Seriously, I had no personal experience doing Anything.

What the heck was I supposed to write if I only wrote what I knew?

I had yet to learn how to drive a car, but that was okay. I was damned good at riding the bus. However, I still hadn't had my first kiss yet so relationship stories of Any kind were right out. Forget stories that had guns or weapons, though I could use a sling-shot and swung a mean baseball bat. (Don't make me break out my pocketbook!) Forget stories with horses in it, though I did know how to feed and train a dog.

I had three younger brothers so I had some experience with childcare, but having learned my techniques from a sociopathic parent (Not a Joke,) writing from those experiences would have landed that character in the villain slot, pronto. (The scary part was that I was aware of this back then!) I sucked at sports and had no friends, so those kinds of stories were out too.

In short, the sum total of my knowledge was strictly from books. Which was to say, Not Useful toward making a story realistic in even the vaguest sense.

Even worse, I discovered that my memory Leaked. I could remember things long enough to pass a test, but that was as far as it got.

Since moving out of my mom's house wasn't looking too close to happening, experiencing new things had to be put on hold. Instead I started working on my memory.

I tried a number of techniques but what worked for me was a type of Image Association.

In short, staring hard at something and then later, Drawing it. Or rather, trying to. I was an okay artist, nothing terrific, believe me, but I noticed right away that if I drew a picture whatever I was trying to remember stayed in my head better. Even doodling in the bottom corner of my notebook worked. The really interesting thing was that the picture didn't have to be related at all to what I was trying to remember! Though it worked better if it was.

Strangely enough, cutting pictures out of magazines worked too, though not nearly as well. I had to really stare at the picture and recite out loud what it was I was trying to remember.

This led to the next step: Recitation.

This meant quite literally, staring hard at a scene I wanted to write about later, such as the park during the height of autumn, or a thunderstorm, and describing it out loud -- without writing it down. Just spitting out adjectives that described what I was looking at, or what I was Feeling, such as what the brass handrail in school felt like sliding under my hand while walking down the stairs. After only a couple of tries, it didn't even have to be out loud. Saying it in my head or under my breath worked too.

I never did recall exactly what I said, but I recalled the experience Perfectly. In other words, Sensory Association.

By the way, the Schoolhouse Rock multiplication jingles saved my math grade, seriously. If I sang along with the cartoon, I remembered it. ALL of it. In fact, I still remember them. Recitation + Images.

About a month or two after I started doing all that, the flip-side of those exercises suddenly kicked in. I started Picturing what I was reading while I read it. In other words, I was playing a movie in my head of whatever I was reading. Though it was a bit more than that. My memory added the experiences I'd worked to remember. If the writer mentioned 'forest', my memory automatically added the sound of the wind, bird-calls, the smell of moldering earth, the specific colors of the leaves in sunlight, and the chilly brush of a breeze.

That doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it had one hell of a side effect.

I could remember anything I'd read. That included Text Books. If the text books had pictures it was even easier. I was actually able to remember the names and stories of any historical figure simply by picturing that person's portrait.

However, I was not remembering the Words, only the images I'd seen and the Stories that went with it. This actually worked well when I needed to answer essay questions.

However, my ability to remember things in a list; dates, names, phone numbers, groceries I needed to buy...dropped off the face of the earth. If I didn't have a picture to connect with what I was trying to remember, it left my head almost the moment it went in.

My last two years of high school saw a major lift in my grades in every subject except One: Math. I still suck at math. Numbers simply don't bring up images. I could remember my times tables, (thank you Schoolhouse Rock,) but that was IT. Geometry was fine because the formulas were all associated with shapes, but Algebra was right out.

One would think that Grammar would have been difficult to remember, but it wasn't. I was using it almost daily in my story notebooks. (When one is writing a story, one NEEDS punctuation to have it make sense to the reader.) Repetition saved me there.

Later on, I finally left home and gathered a great number of wildly varying experiences. I still can't recall all the names of the people I met, but their faces are all engraved on my mind along with everything I experienced down to the weather conditions on the day it happened.

Picture Association and Sensory Association

Those were the keys to how I trained my memory to recall anything I'd seen or done clearly enough to write it on paper. I'm still amazed by how much I haven't forgotten.

Enjoy!

Torrey & the Vampire

2010-10-27T05:01:00.004-04:00

Hello my lovelies,
-- In celebration of my favorite holiday of the entire year Halloween, I have a gift for you. A Visual Novel that I made myself!

Torrey & the Vampire
-- An Erotic Kinetic Novella --

Story & Graphics by Morgan Hawke
Powered by Ren'Py

Story: When Torrey's best friend insists that the gorgeous guy living in the upscale mansion is a Vampire, she simply had to go see for herself.

Content Warning: Ages 18+ for Soft-core Images and Explicit Text.
-- NOT yaoi!

A Visual (kinetic) Novel is a Story in the format of a Game. In other words, this is a Program that you download, install, and Play.

However, because this is a program --with an .exe file-- it may set off some peoples' virus protection. It's NOT a virus. (I coded the darned thing myself using the RenPy system.

Download from 4Shared - 60mb

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Windows: http://www.4shared.com/file/05bQaud6/torreyvampire_installer.html
-- Click exe file (icon) to run installation wizard. To start game, click the RenPy icon entitled: "Torrey & the Vampire" on your desktop.

Linux: http://www.4shared.com/file/Nyguo3TT/Torrey__the_Vampire-linux-x86t.html
-- Extract then click the exe icon in the main folder to start game.

Mac: http://www.4shared.com/file/Act1Pewe/Torrey__the_Vampire-mac.html
-- Extract then click the exe icon in the main folder to start game.

This VN is FREE to download & distribute to your friends.

Art Samples from the VN:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Main Character: Torrey

Vampire
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5907&g2_serialNumber=2

Backgrounds:
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5915&g2_serialNumber=4
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5910&g2_serialNumber=2

More screen shots from VN:
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5933&g2_serialNumber=2
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5936&g2_serialNumber=2
http://www.yaoi.ca/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5939&g2_serialNumber=2

Enjoy!

RESEARCH is your Best Friend

2010-08-28T02:04:00.002-04:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...for bigger fictions (maybe 10-20 chapters, or more) for a big fan fiction or OC fiction, how much do you plan out? Since you are an actual Author I was just wondering how you would fair on this idea?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~

How much do I plan out for one of my novels...?
-- I detail everything. Seriously.

I start with a basic plot formula and extrapolate on certain points as needed.
-- Romance needs extra doses of lover's angst, Gothics need psychological breakdowns, Horrors need room for monster attacks, Sci-Fi's and Fantasies need moments of wonder... This gives me a rough plot outline to work from.

Next, I break down each of the Three Main Characters: Hero/Ally/Villain.
-- This is to make sure that they are 'psychologically' in sync with the Plot and Each Other, so their actions/reactions will mesh in the way I intend. (Ahem... That their personalities will clash nicely.)

If I'm doing a Historical, I also look up the 4 years they were in High School (at ages: 15, 16, 17, 18) and check out what books, songs, movies, and/or TV shows were popular during that time. Believe it or not, those are the most common foundational points in most people's personality.

Think I'm kidding? Look up your own high school years and check out what books, TV shows, songs and Movies were out during that time. Now consider how much those things STILL influence you today? (If you're still in school, check out your Mom's or your Dad's high school years. The results will be shocking!)

Once I get my main characters down, I sketch out the major support characters.
-- I don't go into detail on them. Just names, jobs, physical descriptions, and what I've based their personality on, (Scorpio and an INTJ?) or who. (Riddick under a new name?)

Why not detail the Support characters?
-- Because I don't want to find myself attached to a character that ISN'T who the story is about.

Then, I map out the LOCATIONS I intend to use.
-- Location Research is especially important if I'm writing a Historical piece.

I begin by researching the NEWS local to that area. Did riots break out the summer my story happens? Was there a killing snowstorm that winter? Droughts? Floods? Fires, Quakes...? Weather and social conditions are vitally important because these conditions will make or break all the plot points caused by Setting.

In other words, if one location won't work-- "Oops, on that day, there's a riot on that street..." --I'll have to thrash out either a way around it or find a whole new location -- or a new Time Period.

Case in point, I seriously thought about writing a Meiji Era story--until I discovered that Japan was in and out of war with Russia and China that whole period because of WWI, plus a few other less than savory--and still hotly debated--skirmishes in Korea. Then there was the Kanto Earthquake and hundreds of massive city-wide fires. Also, their Justice system was NOT Just. (If you had money you were innocent. If you didn't...you weren't.) In short, it was waaaaaaaaay, too much work to thread my little story in the middle of that mess.

If I'm using a completely fabricated world or country, I suss out the political system and history for that country or set of countries for that last 200 years--or more. Then there's the time system: how many hours in a day, days in a week, a month... (Is there a moon on this planet--or two?) How long is a year? Education system, medical system, money system, invention or magic system, what occupations are available...etc.
If I'm doing a Sci-Fi or Steam Punk, next is Invention and Science research. It always pays to know what actually existed during a certain time period and what current science says is possible in the future! I normally find major inspiration during these research sessions.
If I'm doing a Paranormal or Fantasy story, Mythology, Magic and Paranormal research is next. Since I've got quite a home library on these subjects, this is just a matter of pulling a book from a shelf.

After all that is done, I take one last look at my plot outline then set it aside and begin to write.

I believe in a Total Immersion style of writing. In other words, I want to know the world so well I can simply step into the mind and skin of my main character and LIVE the story.

In the course of writing, some plot points will work and some won't. Some locations won't offer quite the right atmosphere I intended for a scene. Sometimes a whole new character will step onstage and become the Ally to the main character or the Villain INSTEAD of the one I mapped out.

When that happens, I take a few moments to extrapolate how such changes will affect the story. If the ending doesn't change--or a better one suddenly crops up, I go with it. I DON'T stick that hard to the plot outline. I change as needed to make the STORY better--not my ego, or worse, my Character's ego.

And...that's pretty much it. *Grin*

Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

The Pecular Popularity of sparkly vampires, Pokemon, and other fairy-tale Lovers.

2010-08-28T01:27:00.007-04:00

The Peculiar Popularity of sparkly vampires, Pokemon, and other fairy-tale Lovers.

I think I finally figured out why teenagers and housewives loooove the young adult vampire series "Twilight" so damned much. Well, to begin with, it was written as a Young Adult novel with blatant teenage (read: immature and childish,) views on Love.

The teenage view of love...?

It's ROMANCE with all the hearts, flowers, angst, and over-the-top statements of eternal devotion that one finds in the most popular of fairy tales -- and romance novels.

Specifically, a handsome and powerful man that sees her as the most beautiful girl in the world ('Cinderella',) who will do anything and everything to win -- and keep -- her love ('Princess on a Glass Hill'.) Add to this mix the Bad Boy image; the Monster who loves only Her and will tear apart any foe simply to see her smile, and you have the world's most beloved fairy tale -- and the blue-print for the only romance novels that actually sell: 'Beauty and the Beast'.

In short, the teenage view of love is a rot-gut fantasy that contains no resemblance to the reality of love what so ever. As in, birth control, morning breath, and hoping he calls you later for an actual date rather than just a quickie after work.

Where does 'Pokemon' come in?

Hmm, a story whose central theme is about adorable little monsters that love only their trainer, and who will attack anyone said trainer asks them to on command? Even I can see the appeal, but beyond that, can you say Pre-Teen 'Beauty and the Beast' for girls -- and boys?

Still not seeing the connection? Think: pet. A Pokemon is a magical Pet completely devoted to their 'owner'.

Now, consider this:

When one fantasizes about love, one thinks in terms of:

One who loves YOU -- no matter what.
One who will do whatever it takes to make you happy -- no matter what.
One who stays at your side at all times simply waiting for you to speak and/or command them -- no matter what.
One who is so sexually attractive, powerful, clever, etc.... that You are the envy of all who see them because they are the BEST.

See it now?

The fantasy of love says: lover = a visually attractive, adoring pet who will always come to our rescue, fetch us anything we want, and forgive all transgressions, including extreme selfishness.

*snort* Not even my childhood collie-shepherd dog was that devoted to me. Let me tell you, when danger reared its ugly head she was gone like a shot.

Anyway, I'm sure it's pretty easy to understand why teenagers adore the fantasy of love that is 'Twilight'. Teenagers who've never fallen in love simply don't know any better, but why housewives? Housewives do know better, right?

Yes, the average housewife knows the reality of love very well indeed. They know quite intimately that love isn't when someone falls in love with them. It's when they they do. It's the awful reality of finding oneself helplessly devoted to someone else's happiness whether that person actually deserves it or not -- often at the cost of their personal hopes and dreams.

That doesn't mean they Like it.

Knowing the reality of love doesn't mean that they don't wish with every fiber of their being that the fantasy was true and the reality a lie -- while washing dishes and changing dirty diapers at top speed, so they can get the kids to the daycare/school fast enough to get to their job on time.

Which would you prefer, seriously?

The fantasy of romantic love with someone utterly fantastic eternally devoted to only you?

Or...?

The harsh reality of love where You are the one eternally devoted to someone rather ordinary that may not even love you back?

Now you know why sparkly vampires and other fairy-tale lovers are so very popular -- especially with those who know the reality better than anyone else.

Keep in mind, women aren't the only ones with unrealistic fantasies about love. There are plenty of fantasies for guys about lover-pets out there too, but most call that porn or hentai.

At least, in my opinion.

-- Your mileage may vary.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Writing Adventures ~ A Summary

2010-08-28T00:52:00.010-04:00

Writing Adventures
~ A Summary ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: This is the summery of a huge article I found about seven years ago on the ‘net. Unfortunately, I didn’t bother to record the actual name of the article or the author’s name. I was more than a little lax about how I collected information back then. Worse still, the bulk of this has been removed, rewritten and/or paraphrased for brevity and easy grasping. If you happen to know where this came from, please let me know!

• The STORY is the single most important thing.

No one is going to read a book that doesn't have a bold, fast-moving story with a clear course of action that comes to a satisfactory conclusion without too many dangling ends. Any mystery has to be solved; any goals should be achieved; and most characters have to be given what they deserve.

• Don’t be BORING - for more than half a page (125 words) at most.

Ahem... A properly formatted manuscript page is 250 words.

NO: lectures on the rules of magic or astrology - for more than half a page

NO: artistic description - for more than half a page

NO: descriptions of machinery not necessary for the story - for more than half a page

NO: loving re-creation of how it felt to be in, say, 1920 AD or 2000 BC- for more than half a page. Unless this is demonstrated in narrative, it is just a history lesson.

NO: social documentary lectures - for more than half a page

NO: preaching - for more than half a page

NO: general ranting of any kind - for more than half a page

NO: extensive soul-searching - for more than half a page

NO: long exposition of ANY KIND that is unbroken by action - for more than half a page.

• What interests Kids – STILL Interests Adults

DO: cars

DO: guns

DO: computers

DO: gadgets

DO: expertise

DO: frightening things

DO: witches, wizards and magic, but don’t repeat what has already been done. It’s BORING the second or fifth time around.

Give the Reader an experience they can get no other way.

• Offer HOPE.

If your desire is to give a detailed account of bullying, or drug addiction, or parental abuse, fine, but it does no good just to do ONLY that. ‘Readers’ in these situations know all about them, better than you probably do, and will find such narratives boring, while ‘Readers’ who don't know are going to find them either glum or repulsive. You have to show someone handling these situations or, better, overcoming them.

We are programmed to like puzzles, and try for solutions. The best plot for (any) book distances the Reader from her or his problems, so that they become puzzles that the Reader can turn this way and that, and follow with the author to the solution. Do that, and you have made a blueprint for living.

• It is very unimaginative to discourage (anyone) from aiming as high as they can.

It is better to show someone aiming at the moon and only getting halfway than to show them trying to climb to the roof and only getting to the bathroom.

The PLACES where your story happens are as important as the story itself.

Visualize. See the place in your mind, as wholly and exactly as you can, as if you were standing in the place yourself, and then simply write the story that happens there.

Don’t foist on the Reader a loving description of something that has NOTHING to do with the story.

• Beware of making absurd random changes.

Unexplained random changes destroy any feeling of the reality of the story, such as Toad in The Wind in the Willows who is sometimes frog-size and sometimes human-size.

• Use DYNAMIC Characters

The people in your book make the story happen. It follows that they usually have to be fairly strong, dynamic characters, and some of them have to be people that the Reader would follow willingly into the action - likable, understandable, a lovable rogue and so on.

Before you start writing, you will need to know your characters so well that you can hear their voices - then what they say will come out right without you really trying - and see details that won't get into the book, like the way they walk and what they habitually wear.

• Never actually specify the character’s actual ages.

No one is more humiliated than the 12-year-old who eagerly follows the adventures of a strong character, only to find that this character is five years old.

• Make your Villains HATEFUL.

EVERYONE likes to have a good hate. Understanding the baddies may seem politically correct, but is not recommended. Children, rightly to my mind, regard this sort of milky tolerance with contempt.

You can ache with sympathy for your villain and delicately comprehend exactly what childhood trauma caused her or him to be such a nasty piece of work, so long as you also remind them that they are also really quite hateful.

Simple Words are NOT always the Better choice.

It is not necessary to limit yourself only to easily-understood words. After all, how else are the Readers going to learn new words unless they read them? On the other hand, almost anything worth saying can be said in short, simple words, and tends to make a greater impact if it is. The advice here is not to start your book with a string of unusual words, which will be off-putting, but to include them by all means when the context makes it clear what the words mean.

• Your sentences must be constructed so that readers will not lose their way in them.

If you are in any doubt, read the sentence aloud. This will almost infallibly show you if it is right or wrong, because you will get in a muddle if it is wrong.

• Clichés make your book very Ordinary.

Clichés are not only found in descriptive passages, but in whole Stories as well, such as when our romantic heroine dislikes a tall dark stranger on sight and then marries him in chapter 30.

Take the time to actually describe the actions and situations. Take the time to make your passages and story DIFFERENT.

• Watch for the Inner Squirm

Good enough is NEVER Good Enough.

• Don’t Leave Anything Out

Every story has to have reasons for the things that happen in it. Make SURE you include the Reasons for those happenings!

• When you End your story, make sure all the important facts are accounted for.

Like explaining why the villain did what he did, or making sure that Jack is not still buried alive in a mineshaft.

• Finally, Don’t end it as a dream.

That’s CHEATING.

Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Writing DIALOGUE ~ the Secret to Proper Paragraphing

2010-01-01T18:06:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer: This is how I was taught to structure dialogue for publication purposes. If you don't want to do it this way -- Don't. (Less competition for me.)

Rude & Reno from "Advent Children"

The Secret to
Proper Paragraphing.
(NOT a punctuation article.)

Once you know what your characters and doing and saying, how do you get all that down on Paper without ending up with a huge confusing mess?

Putting the Story on Paper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody knows that when a new speaker speaks they get a new paragraph, right? In other words, you DON'T put two different people talking in the same paragraph. Okay, yeah, so anyone who has written any kind of fiction learns this pretty darned quick, (usually from their readers.)

What nobody seems to get is that the same goes for a new character's ACTIONS. Seriously, when a new character ACTS they're supposed to get their own paragraph -- even if they don't speak!

In short, you paragraph by change in CHARACTER -- not because they speak, but because they ACT. Ahem... Dialogue is an ACTION. In other words, the reason you don't put two different characters' Dialogue in the same paragraph is BECAUSE you don't mix two characters' Actions. Okay?

"Wait a minute, doesn't that cut everything into tiny bits, you know, when you cut all the dialogue away then divide up all those paragraphs?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No because Character A's dialogue is supposed to be IN Character A's paragraph of actions. Character B gets his own paragraph of dialogue AND actions. You divide up a story's paragraphs by individual Character -- not by individual lines of Dialogue OR Actions.

What you definitely don't do, is cut all the dialogue away from everything and mash all the different characters' actions together in one messy paragraph where no one can tell who did what.

"Where the heck did THAT rule come from?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strunk & White's Element's of Style, the grammar handbook.

To wit…
-- "In dialogue, each speech, even if only a single word, is a paragraph by itself; that is, a new paragraph begins with each change of speaker."

This is often misinterpreted as "Make a new paragraph at every new line of dialogue."

Um... No. The key phrase here is "a new paragraph begins with each change of Speaker."

As long as the Speaker is Acting, the Speaker HAS NOT CHANGED. However, every time a new character Acts, you ARE Changing Speakers -- even if they don't talk! Therefore, each new character ACTING gets a New Paragraph, whether or not they have dialogue.

How this works...

WRONG:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You named a stuffed animal?" Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised, and Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck. <-- Two Characters acting in the same paragraph.

Becky mumbled, "I wouldn't so much say named, as gave it an identifying word to distinguish it from all the other stuffed cute kitty plushies." <-- this whole line is Abandoned Dialogue.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RIGHT:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised. "You named a stuffed animal?"

Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck. "I wouldn't so much say named, as gave it an identifying word to distinguish it from all the other stuffed cute kitty plushies."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What's Missing?
-- 'Becky mumbled'. <-- This is an unnecessary Dialogue tag. Once you link a character's Dialogue to their corresponding Actions, you no longer need the Dialogue tags.

If you really, really want to add that Becky mumbled her words, describe it as an action. Don't TELL us that she mumbled, SHOW us.

Example:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck. Her voice dropped to barely a mumble. "I wouldn't so much say named, as gave an identifying word to distinguish it from all the other stuffed cute kitty plushies."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
"What if the next internals and action/dialogue are his, like:"

"You named a stuffed animal?" Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised, and Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck. Her reaction was adorable and he couldn't resist needling her some more. "I thought you hated stuffies."

"Then can you lump those actions together?"
-- Thanks in advance -- Jas
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Um... NO.
-- Remember this?

"…A new paragraph begins with each change of Speaker."
-- When a new character ACTS they're supposed to get a new paragraph.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You named a stuffed animal?" Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised, and <-- Toby's Actions / Becky's Actions --> Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck.

Becky didn't say anything, but she IS acting -- a blush is an action -- therefore Becky gets her OWN paragraph.

Adjusted:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised. You named a stuffed animal?"

Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck.

This is incorrect too:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You named a stuffed animal?" Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised.

Actions go BEFORE Reactions Toby was surprised so he commented: "You named a stuffed animal?" He didn't comment and THEN become surprised.

Adjusted:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised. "You named a stuffed animal?"

All together now!

Original:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"You named a stuffed animal?" Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised, and Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck. Her reaction was adorable and he couldn't resist needling her some more. "I thought you hated stuffies."

Adjusted:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Toby raised his eyebrows, surprised. You named a stuffed animal?"

Becky's blush grew brighter, creeping down her neck.

Her reaction was so adorable, Toby couldn't resist needling her some more. "I thought you hated stuffies?"

-----Original Message-----
"But when you do that, it looks so...choppy on the page. There's ton's of empty white space!"
-- Hates Empty Space
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, it looks choppy on the page, but its Far More Important that there is absolutely no doubt in anyone's mind as to who is acting and who is speaking.

Another Example:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Don't help me. I'm fine by myself," she told him, not bothering to be polite. He looked surprised and perhaps a little hurt. She heard another voice.

"Geez, you're pretty full of yourself, aren't you?" She got to her feet and brushed herself off, glancing in the direction of the newcomer. She nearly recoiled in shock. Another handsome guy. He crossed his arms over his chest. "He was just trying to help you." He told her. She readjusted her bag and said.

"I don't recall asking for help."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the way, once you separate each of your character's actions into new paragraphs and reconnect each character's dialogue to their actions, you won't need dialogue tags such as "said" because your character's actions are the identifiers for your dialogue.

With actions separated and dialogue attached.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Don't help me. I'm fine by myself." She didn't bother to be polite.

He looked surprised and perhaps a little hurt.

A new voice called out. "Geez, you're pretty full of yourself, aren't you?"

She got to her feet and brushed herself off, glancing in the direction of the newcomer. Another handsome guy. She nearly recoiled in shock.

He crossed his arms over his chest. "He was just trying to help you."

She readjusted her bag. "I don't recall asking for help."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you truly loathe all that white space, then fill it in with more actions, description, and internal narration observations.

-----Original Message-----
But what about when someone is watching someone else, or feeling someone do something to them? -- Concerned about Observation

This seems perfectly fine, right?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He watched her shake her butt.
He felt her skin move against his.

However, once you take this into account:

"…A new paragraph begins with Each Change of Speaker."

When a new character ACTS they're supposed to get a new paragraph.

Not so fine after all. You have two people acting in the same line -- in Both Cases.

The way around this little gem of a problem, is to SHOW the event by character rather than TELL it in one lump.

You begin by dividing the actions by Character:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He watched her.

She shook her butt and her skin moved against his.

He felt it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seems kind'a…short eh? That's because those lines TOLD you what happened, instead of Showing you what happened, so there are all kinds of details missing. Once you add enough details to paint a whole picture…

Adjusted:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From his seat at the edge of the stage, he watched her.

Tall, svelte, and in the skimpiest bathing suit he'd ever seen, she moved in close and shook her butt. The round, firm flesh jiggled enticingly against his face.

His cheeks were subjected to the most incredible, though slightly sweaty, facial massage ever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

KILL the Dialogue Tags. (Seriously.)

-- When you have an action with a line of dialogue, you don't need Dialogue tags, such as "he said" -- at all. You already know through their actions WHO is speaking.

Dialogue tags are only ever needed when you don't have any other way of identifying the speaker.

HOWEVER, if you have no other way of knowing who is speaking than dialogue tags, then you have committed the heinous crime of:

Dialogue in a Vacuum
- Also known as "talking heads syndrome."

A book with nothing but reams of dialogue marked only by dialogue tags means that while people may be talking, there is no PICTURE. The mental movie has stopped and only the sound-track is playing. Compare it to a Radio Show with no sound effects.

I don't know about you, but when I go to read a story, I want to SEE what I'm reading like a movie, not listen to a radio show.

Memorize this:

Readers always interpret what they read the way they want to see it -- unless you SHOW them what you envisioned.

In other words…

What CAN be misunderstood
WILL be misunderstood.

Leave Nothing to Misinterpretation.
-- Readers will ALWAYS make whatever assumptions come to mind about what they are reading. When a reader realizes that what they thought was going on -- wasn't, they'll get confused, and occasionally pissed off.

Unmarked blocks of dialogue are painfully EASY to get lost in.

I remember reading one whole page of un-tagged action-less dialogue only to find out that I had two of the characters reversed. Did I reread that whole page to figure out what was going on? Hell no! I tossed the book across the room. (In fact, it's still on the floor gathering dust bunnies.)

"But, isn't that's what 'said' and other dialogue tags are for?"

Just for the record...
-- Using dialogue tags is Not against the rules. Dialogue tags are a perfectly viable way to identify who is speaking -- it just makes that part of the story BORING. (I don't know about you, but I won't read something that bores me.)

I choose to write my dialogue without using "said" unless I am actually describing a change in voice, tone, or volume in the same paragraph. And even then, I try to avoid them. I use the speaker's actions to define who is speaking to whom.

I use ACTION TAGS.

"What the heck is an Action Tag?"
BODY LANGUAGE
Language is Visual not just a bunch of words. Watch the average conversation between two people. 90% of that conversation isn't in what's spoken, it's in what they are DOING as they are speaking. It's in their Body Language. Body-language cues the reader as to what is going on in a character's head – in ADDITION to dialogue and internal narrative.

Action and body-language tags on dialogue are Not just for decoration.
-- Stories are Mental Movies you play in your imagination. I don't know about you, but I HATE to be interrupted when I'm involved in a good movie. If I have to stop and reread a section just to figure out what the heck is going on, I've been interrupted. One too many interruptions and I'm switching to another story -- with no intention of continuing with something that's just too much work to get through.

Action tags keep the mental Movie rolling and the MEANING of what is being said crystal clear. A small simple action can tell you right away, what's going through the speaker's head.

Don't just SAY it! ~ SHOW IT!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  "I love you too." She rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. "Oh yes, I truly do love you."
  "I love you too." She dropped her chin and pouted. "Oh yes, I truly do love you."
  "I love you too." She glared straight at him. "Oh yes, I truly do love you."
  "I love you too." She turned away and wiped the tear from her cheek. "Oh yes, I truly do love you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHY I loathe the word "said."

- To be perfectly clear, it's not JUST the word 'said', I hate ALL Dialogue Tags inclusively. I utterly refuse to use them.

Why?
- Because they're wasteful. They clutter up dialogue while slowing down actions, and they use up word-count that could be far better used elsewhere.

I don't believe in putting anything in my fiction that isn't useful. If it doesn't add to the character or the plot, it gets eradicated. Dialogue tags are too easily replaced by something that actually adds to the story, such as an action, a facial expression, a spot of description, or a character's opinions.

Just for the record, I write extremely dialogue-heavy fiction. When I find that a dialogue tag is indeed needed in my story to identify who is talking, I see it as a red flag that indicates that all action has come to a screeching halt. Nothing is Happening other than talking; also known as: Talking Heads Syndrome.

When that happens, I find some way to fill that space with something useful to the story such as an action, a facial expression, a spot of description, or a character's opinions -- ANYTHING other than a dialogue tag.

But those are MY feelings on the subject.
-- Your mileage may vary.

Dialogue tags ARE a legitimate form of sentence structure. When there is no other way to identify a speaker, dialogue tags are indeed a viable option.

What about Punctuation for Dialogue?
- Go here:http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/dialogue.shtml Read that.

Paragraph Aesthetics

-----Original Message-----
"I suppose the issue I have is with the aesthetics of paragraphing. Though text is not comparable to a visual medium such as film, it is still something that we have to view with our eyes."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Actually, text aesthetics -- the way the words appear on the page -- seems to be a HUGE bone of contention.

-----Original Message-----
"...The way I see it, your example suggests that I break my text up into a lot of little paragraphs. Given this understanding, in a scene rich with alternating action, it looks like I'll be left with a lot of one-line paragraphs. ...I'd greatly appreciate it if you clarified this situation. I suppose that is the trouble with having to jot down the basics, you can't expand on the little details of the rule. ^_^
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Paragraph Aesthetics - Illustrated
-- The way a story appears on a standard 9.5 x 11 inch piece of paper is NOT the way to judge whether or not one's paragraphs are too long or too short. A story viewed on a browser page carries even less weight.

Why not?
-- Because Fiction is generally printed on pages HALF the size of a full sheet of paper. What appears to be a lot of short little paragraphs on the "internet page," are NOT so short or so little once you put them on the Printed page.

The standard sizes for printed Fiction are: paperback (4.25 x 6.75 inches), and trade paperback (5.5 x 8.25 inches.) Hard-cover books use the same size page as a Trade. Only coffee-table books possess printed pages anywhere near the size of a standard sheet of paper.

Visual Aids:
ALL examples are 12 pt. Times New Roman font with somewhat 1 inch margins.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Standard Paperback 6.75 x 4.25:

Trade paperback 5.5 x 8.25:

Standard paper 9.5" x 11":

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personally, I could care less what my text looks like on the page. As far as I'm concerned, making the story as clear and easy to read as possible is far more important to me than what the text looks like. If I have done my job well, no one will even notice the words - only the story unfolding in their imaginations.

As for internet reading, I'm completely baffled why anyone would care how it looks on the browser page. All you have to do is narrow the window and the text adjusts.

-----Original Message-----
"Also, I hope you don't mind, but did you come up with the rules yourself, through experience and trial and error, publisher's advice, or is there a handy guide I can employ? Obviously, I quite loyally follow Strunk and White, but I don't think it talks about this subject much. Is there a book that YOU use?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's start here:
"...did you come up with the rules yourself, through experience and trial and error, publisher's advice...?"

YES - to all of the above, plus editor hounding and long chats with a number of extremely well-established fiction authors. In addition, I've read a crap-load of how-to books. I'm pretty sure I own, and have practically memorized, just about every book "Writer's Digest" has put out.

My writing advice posts are the results of taking all the info I'd crammed into my head and condensing it into small bite-sized, chewable, pieces that are easy to remember and much easier to apply. Rather than waste people's time on theory, I focus on application.

As for recommended reads...
-- Unfortunately, there is no one guide that shows it all. Not One. However, there are two books I can't praise highly enough. As far as I'm concerned, they are VITAL reading for fiction writing.

SCENE & STRUCTURE by Jack. M. Bickham
THE WRITER'S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler
-- (Google is your friend.)

There are lots of other books I could recommend, but these are the two "Must Haves" if an author really, REALLY wants to write fiction well.

Enjoy!

Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Plot Devices: Deus Ex Machina or Chekhov's Gun?

2009-12-09T16:20:00.005-05:00

(Click image to enlarge)

Plot Devices:
Deus Ex Machina
or
Chekhov's Gun?

----Original Message----
"What are your thoughts on Good Deus Ex Machinas? I find them hard to pull off realistically in a plot." -- Puzzled Writer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Deus Ex Machina is when the Hero doesn't find the solution to the story's problem. The solution is handed to them, or taken care of, by someone or something far more powerful.

From TV Tropes:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Deus Ex Machina is an outside force that solves a seemingly unsolvable problem in an extremely unlikely (and, usually, anticlimactic) way. If the secret documents are in Russian, one of the spies suddenly reveals that they learned the language. If the writers have just lost funding, a millionaire suddenly arrives, announces an interest in their movie, and offers all the finances they need to make it. If The Hero is dangling at the edge of a cliff with a villain stepping on his fingers, a flying robot suddenly appears to save him.

The term is Latin for god out of the machine, and has its origins in Greek theater. It refers to situations in which a crane (machine) was used to lower actors or statues playing a god or gods (deus) onto the stage to set things right. It has since come to be used as a general term for any event in which a seemingly fatal plot twist is resolved by an event never foreshadowed or set up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good Deus Ex Machina only happen when they've been set up to happen all along and were simply overlooked--which means they're not really Deus Ex Machina...

--They're actually a Chekhov's Gun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."
— Playwright Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

Thornton Reed: "Take this, Dag."
Dr. Rick Dagless M.D.: "What is it?"
Thornton Reed: "Something that might come in handy."
— Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, "Scotch Mist"

"Honestly, what kind of situation would require the use of a pair of fake arms and a remote-controlled wheelchair? Only, I imagine, a completely ludicrous one!"
— Father Ted
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Example:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the beginning of the horror flick, the sheriff says he's gonna cruise by later that night to keep an eye on the troubled teen watching over the huge creepy mansion--because said teen is known for painting Graffiti.

Back in the big empty house, the radio and the TV blast out "Crazed Killer on the Loose in our area! Be on the look out...! News at Eleven."

Creeped out, the kid calls a few of his friends over to keep him company.

His friends try to get him drunk enough to graffiti the house.

Eventually, the kid decides, "Why the hell not?"

Right at that moment the monster strikes! It terrorizes the troubled teen and kills off his friends. Blood! Guts! Mayhem! Screaming...!

Finally, the monster corners the kid on the roof with no place else to go.

Out of nowhere, a police helicopter shows up to rescue the kid.

-- Deus Ex Machina?

The copter door swings open and it's the sheriff. He wasn't just keeping an eye on the kid, he was also watching out for the crazed killer that had been all over the news for days.

-- NOT a Deus Ex Machina -- a Chekhov's Gun! This was set up to happen from the beginning. However, this works even better if....

Before the kid can get up on the copter, the monster finds a way to drag the helicopter down from the sky.

With the judicious use of a can of spray paint and a lighter, the monster's eyeballs are fried goo. The kid makes his escape straight into the REST of the cops heading up the road.

The cops shoot down the crazed killer and the kid goes on National Television saying how Graffiti saved his life.

The End
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An example of a Chekhov's Gun that LOOKS like a Deus Ex Machina can be found in the closing scene to the game Final Fantasy VII where the heroes tried everything to save the world, but failed. Suddenly, the world saved itself using the Life-stream--the power that had been the focus of the story's main problem since the story's opening. This Deus Ex Machina power had been there from the very beginning, yet had been overlooked making it in fact, a Chekhov's Gun.

However, an even better ending came in the sequel game Dirge of Cerberus, where one of the least understood characters in the Final Fantasy VII cast proved to have had a monumental power sleeping inside him all along--that was again, overlooked.

Getting it on Paper...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you really want to use a Chekhov's Gun, it helps to think of a story as a Circle. It should End where it Began with the main problem at the beginning of the story being the last problem solved. This means you need to have the Solution to that main problem present at the beginning of the story--preferably in the opening scene, but discounted, or not thought of as anything special.

By the way, most Fairy Tales and Fables tend to have a Circular plot pattern -- ending where they began.

Enjoy!

Plotting: The Murphy's Law Method

2009-12-04T12:02:00.004-05:00

Plotting:
The Murphy's Law Method
"What Can go Wrong SHOULD go Wrong."

If you want an easy way to plot out a story that your readers can't guess the end to by the fourth chapter, then THIS is the method for you!

Basically, you begin with a character and something they desire. They go after their desire which immediately sparks complications which become a Problem that your character has to solve.

Once the character applies their chosen Solution to their Problem, Murphy's Law kicks in. The Solution triggers yet another problem.

This pattern continues--Problem > Solution > Problem--so on and so forth until All the problems are solved and your character either reaches their goal, or achieves an even better one--or dies.

This method is extremely effective when plotting out Adventure stories of any kind. In fact, Van Helsing, National Treasure, Inkheart, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, the James Bond movies, most RP video games, and almost all Horror stories and films follow this pattern.

Murphy's Law Adventures

Basically, the story begins with a Goal. Our hero goes after said goal which spawns a problem. Once our hero figures out a solution and gains the goal, the worst possible thing (or person) happens to snatch that victory right out of their hands.

This forces our hero to figure out a new solution to regain their goal, which delivers yet another problem--a worse problem. They find a solution to that problem and achieve said goal only to have Murphy's Law strike again to snatch their victory away, plus present them with a new and even worse problem to solve.

This is also known as "Impressive Failure".

From: Screenwriting Column 08 by Terry Rossio
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Consider Raisers of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones is perhaps the greatest action hero in the history of the movies, and in his debut film he flat-out fails from beginning to end.

• He loses the golden idol.
• Marian is kidnapped and he's unable to rescue her.
• He finds the Ark, but it is immediately taken.
• His bluff to destroy the Ark is called, and he gets recaptured.
• He can't even look upon the Ark when it is opened.
• And the government ends up with his long sought-after and much suffered-for prize.

This guy's an action hero?

Yup, because he fails so damn impressively from start to finish. Indy fails so well in fact, the audience is impressed as hell, and hardly aware of the fact that he's failing. The defeats are just setbacks that create more opportunities for heroism. As an added benefit, Indy wins the audience's sympathy -- the poor guy's trying so hard, you can't help but root for him."

In the Murphy's Law method, Impressive Failure happens over and over until the very end of the story where our hero is completely out of solutions--except the one thing they really, really don't want to do. This one last thing solves everything--usually with a casualty--and the story ends on an ironic note.

Sound like fun?

Murphy's Law Romance

The Murphy's Law Method is also surprisingly effective when plotting out an Angsty Romance!

Example: Romeo & Juliet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Set Up: Once upon a time, a boy and girl fell in love.
The Goal: Each other.

Problem: Their parents hated each other, and none of their friends liked the others' friends. No one approved--in fact, it was forbidden for them to see each other. (Insert Lover's Angst.)

Solution: Secret marriage

Next Problem: Their relationship is discovered and they are forcibly separated. (Insert Separation Angst.)

Solution: They meet in secret and plan to run away.

Next Problem: One lover is late to the meeting. (Insert Abandonment Angst.)

Solution: A sympathetic friend (who happens to be the priest that married them,) is waiting with the other lover (the one that isn't late.) They decide to go out and discover whether or not the late lover is going to show up.

Next Problem: The lover who is "marked for death" should he be found inside the city limits will be left alone and unprotected. (Insert Unfairness Angst.)

Solution: A potion that fakes death. If they were dead, no one would bother them.

Next Problem: The lover arrives and finds their beloved out cold from the potion. They immediately think that their beloved has committed suicide because they were late. (Insert "It's all my fault" Angst.)

Solution: They commit suicide.

Next Problem: The one out cold wakes up to find their beloved has committed suicide. (Insert more "It's all my fault" Angst.)

Solution: They commit suicide too.

Conclusion: The parents find the dead kids. (Insert Even MORE "It's all my fault" Angst.) They decide to stop the feud between their families

The End

Writing Murphy's Law

The key to using this method effectively is ONE Point of View, normally the Hero's. This keeps the reader firmly in the driver's seat and focused on what the Hero is doing. It also allows surprises to pop-up and Suspense to build. "Is he gonna get it this time?"

If the reader has been in the Villain's head, for example, and already knows what's going to happen next--where's the Surprise?

Memorize this:
Suspense can only happen when the Reader
DOESN'T know what will happen next.

So don't tell them by head-hopping, damn it!

The only real problem that one could face when using this method is the possibility of the author painting themselves into a corner by creating a problem the character Can't solve. This often triggers the heinous Deus Ex Machina--when something or someone comes out of nowhere to save the hero's butt.

The solution of course, is to make a LIST of the problems and their solutions--and STICK TO IT, unless of course, you find a better solution. Just remember to make a better problem to go with it!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Is your Special Character TOO Special?

2009-12-04T09:23:00.003-05:00

Is your Special Character
TOO SPECIAL?

Are you indulging in a few too many "special traits"? Is your story really an excuse to show off your Super Special Character? Is your story really an excuse to BE a Super Special Character? Are you committing a MARY-SUE/GARY STUE?

--> Dead give-away: Your favorite character is YOU only BETTER!

Who is Mary Sue/Gary Stue?

According to SubReality.com:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Mary Sue / Gary Stue is any original or deeply altered character who represents a slice of their creator's own ego; they are treasured by their creator but only rarely by anyone else. A Mary Sue/Gary Stue is a primadonna (usually, but not always badly-written,) who saps life and realism out of every other character around, taking over the plot and bending canon to serve their selfish purposes.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- For more details: www.subreality.com/marysue.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mary Sue/Gary Stue “Self-Insertion” in Fan-fiction:
According to Aestheticism.com:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The Mary Sue [Gary Stue], as someone said, is the highest form of fannish devotion to a series. You like it so much you want to come play in it yourself. Most fan writers are content to do this by sneaking in under cover of one of the canon characters.

Slipping on my Hakkai mask, I jump in the jeep and set out for the west with Sanzou and the guyz, pretending all along that it's Hakkai telling the story I'm writing and not me at all.

Havers. *Of course* it's me and not Hakkai…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- For more details: www.aestheticism.com/v····ndex.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Too many Special traits spoil the Character
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While not every "super-special!!!" character is actually a Mary-Sue/Gary Stue, they fall under the same rules because when one makes a "larger than life" character, they tend to be unbalanced and quite frankly, no fun to read. Think Superman without Kryptonite. When you have a character that never loses, you might as well write:

• Hero meets bad-guy.
• They fight.
• Hero wins. The end.

Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the challenge? Where’s the surprise? Where’s the suffering?

This is also known as Godmoding.

According to Burning Dumpster:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- Godmoding: “Take the Mary Poppins slogan "Practically Perfect in Every Way" and remove the 'practically'. They're perfect little characters with no real flaws that can do whatever the hell they like. No one can contradict them or oppose them because they're always right. In fan-fiction, they're boring. In PBEM, they are a royal pain in the ass. Also known as an ‘avatar’.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- For more details: www.kalime.com/burn/index.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How many ‘special’ traits does YOUR pet character have?
Let’s find out!

• Take this test: www.katfeete.net/writi····sue.html

Despite all this, God-mode Mary Sue/Gary Stue characters AREN’T necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Mary Sue/Gary Stue is an excellent way for a beginning writer to experiment with story-telling. In fact, it’s the most common way a writer begins writing anything at all.

Key word: Begin -- not End.

God-mode, Mary Sue/Gary Stue (especially under the thin veneer of a favorite Manga character) only becomes a problem when one posts them on the Fan-Fiction sites where Readers can see them and Flame them for being too unbelievably perfect to identify with and/or too Out of Character (OOC).

So what do you do to keep your characters from falling into the black hole of Mary Sue/Gary Stue-ism?

Exercise your experience - but don’t fall in!

A Story is nothing without good strong characters, but if you can’t use yourself, how do you write about the feelings of someone else? You Empathize -- you recall how you felt under similar circumstances -- but you don’t BECOME that character.

Examples…

The Lost Boys:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael is watching the girl of his dreams climb onto another guy’s motorcycle. She doesn't look happy about it, but she does it anyway.

The other guy, David turns to Michael and invites him to come along.

Michel’s motorcycle is only a dirt bike. There’s no way in hell his bike can surpass David’s.

David smiles. "You don't have to beat me. You just have to keep up."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is Michael feeling through all this?

The Matrix:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neo has just received a Fed Ex package with a cell phone in it. He's looking at it when it starts to ring in his hand. He answers it.

"Neo, this is Morpheus. You have to get out of there. Now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is Neo feeling through all this?

Underworld:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael has had one hell of a day. There was a shooting at the train station, and crap at his hospital job, and then when he goes home, he finds a really beautiful and incredibly strong girl who immediately tries to strangle him in his apartment.

Moments later, he's running for his life from things galloping after him on the walls and ceiling. He escapes into an elevator and the door closes. Then it opens.

A guy he's never seen before in his life smiles and says: "Hello Michael." Suddenly, bullets rip into the guy right in front of him. The guy falls forward onto Michel and bites him.

Out of nowhere, the strong girl comes back and drags the weird guy off of him.

The weird guy bursts into laughter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is Michael feeling through all this?

Making the Characters work WITH the Plot.

There are roughly three essential characters in every story:

• A Protagonist with character traits designed to work AGAINST the plot.
• A sidekick to add complications and make matters worse.
• A Villain that the hero absolutely Cannot beat when the hero first enters the fray.

The hero and the villain should change and develop as the story progresses to allow the hero a toe-hold chance, and no more, to win. The rest of the cast may or may not have personal growth, but the hero and the villain must. This is where dramatic tension is generated.

Changing takes suffering. Both the hero and the villain should suffer emotionally and physically to allow for their personal changes. Think about how hard it is for YOU to change your mind about something important to you. That's the level of suffering you need.

If this seems a little formulaic, remember, it’s not what you HAVE it’s what you DO with it.

Let’s look at two different movies:

The Matrix -- Urban Fantasy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• A Protagonist with character traits designed to work AGAINST the plot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neo is a quiet computer hacker. He deals in facts, not fantasy. He's not an action kind of guy, but everyone thinks he's supposed to save the world. He thinks they're wrong.

• A sidekick to add complications and make matters worse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Both Morpheus and Trinity believe in him, to the point that they keep risking their lives so he has to keep saving them.

• A Villain that the hero absolutely Cannot beat when the hero first enters the fray.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Matrix is a sentient mega-verse. Mr. Smith is a replicating Virus. Both are bound and determined to keep all of humanity deaf, dumb, and blind to what’s being done to them.

The Lost Boys – Vampire
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
• A Protagonist with character traits designed to work AGAINST the plot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael desperately wants to fit in with a motorcycle gang that rules the entire town because he likes the girl that hangs with them. Michael does not believe in Vampires.

• A sidekick to add complications and make matters worse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael has a nosy younger brother who is terrified of vampires.

• A Villain that the hero absolutely Cannot beat when the hero first enters the fray.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Michael absolutely positively cannot defeat an entire gang of Vampires.

In Conclusion…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Make your Characters part of your story, not the Excuse for your story. Give them pain, give them heartache, and make them face their fears. Anything less cheats the reader out of some good healthy angst!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Yaoi Writers: Are your Male characters MASCULINE?

2009-12-04T08:56:00.006-05:00

Yaoi Writers:

Are Your Male Characters MASCULINE?
Is your favorite Yaoi character YOU as a guy -- only BETTER?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Are you committing a MARY-SUE/Gary Stu?

According to Aestheticism.com:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Mary Sue ... is the highest form of fannish devotion to a series. You like it so much you want to come play in it yourself. Most fan writers are content to do this by sneaking in under cover of one of the canon characters.

Slipping on my Hakkai mask, I jump in the jeep and set out for the west with Sanzou and the guyz, pretending all along that it's Hakkai telling the story I'm writing and not me at all..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Except for one BIG problem...

-- Hakkai shows Female Behavior -- not Male.

A common error that every beginning Female writer makes is that they assume that their male character will feel and react in the same way they would. They show them talking, thinking and behaving not as guys, but as they would react if facing the same situation -- as females.

Unfortunately, while the female writer may miss this, their Readers WON'T -- especially if those readers are Guys.

When a female writer’s male characters think, act, and talk in a feminine way, her audience will get annoyed - even if they don’t understand why. The same is true if a male writer’s female characters don’t think or act or talk like real women. (And I know you've all seen examples of that!)

So how do you keep this from happening to Your characters?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Check-List:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A convincing masculine character WILL:

Be direct

Be issue-oriented

Be analytical

Act casual even in serious discussions

Interrupt

Make statements

Use short sentences

State his preferences clearly

Talk about concrete issues

Verbalize only things that he sees as important

Give advice

Ask specific questions

Choose to sit at angles from the person he’s talking to

A convincing masculine character will NOT:

Ask lots of questions

Ask leading questions

Turn statements into questions

Invite a "just talk” situation

Speak in euphemisms

Use understatement

Downplay his ideas

Let his sentences trail off

Make agreeing noises

Volunteer his reasons

Hold eye contact for significant periods

Say “I’m sorry” unless he really means it

Tell stories about his failings

Use personal anecdote to make a point, especially in a professional setting

Get bogged down in introspection or self-doubt

Ask for help, especially with emotional issues

Volunteer information about his feelings

Ask about others’ feelings

Ask for validation

Now that you have your answers, here are the reasons behind them.

The REAL differences between Males & Females:

Men see life in competitive terms.
Women see it in cooperative terms.

-- Men see compliance (going along with what someone else wants) as submission; women see compliance (going along with what someone else wants) as cooperation.

Men focus on action.
Women focus on emotion.

-- Men don’t like to ‘just talk.’ They see conversation as a way to relay information, to show independence, and to illustrate status. Their conversations tend to be brief, episodic, and focused on concrete issues and events.

Men make decisions.
Women form a consensus.

-- Men state what they want; women make their preferences known and often add reasons for their requests in an attempt to convince the other party. Men don’t volunteer reasons, and when asked for reasons, they often feel they’re being challenged or checked up on. They feel as if the other party doesn’t trust them.

Men try to solve problems.
Women talk about problems.

-- Women listen to other people in order to give support. Men listen to other people in order to give advice.

Men are direct.
Women are indirect.

-- Men tend to make statements; women make suggestions. Women use understatement and speak in euphemisms; men are blunt.

Men’s actions and body language often do NOT reflect their feelings.
Women’s usually do.

-- Men are direct when talking about concrete things, but indirect in talking about emotional issues. This is because being affected by one’s emotions is not considered masculine. When forced to discuss emotions, men may attempt to distance themselves by avoiding eye contact, slouching, or turning away.

Men see themselves as protectors of women.
Men see Women as protectors of children.

-- When a man is protective toward a woman, it is to show that he feels responsible for her safety; he’s taking care of her. When a woman is protective toward a man, it is to show that she cares about him. Unfortunately, he’s likely to interpret a protective act as condescending, as though he’s a child.

Men see eye contact as challenge.

Women see eye contact as concern.

-- Women sit closer and look at people directly while talking to them, especially about serious subjects. Men sit at angles to each other and look at other things, almost never directly into each other’s faces.

Men interrupt.
Women wait their turn.

-- Men interrupt in order to change the subject or to express their opinion; women interrupt with supporting noises or to avert conflict.

Men ask questions to get information.
Women ask questions to further the conversation.

-- Men see talk as information; women see talk as interaction. Women are more likely to make a telephone call just to talk; men make a telephone call to accomplish a specific purpose.

Women make agreeing noises when they’re listening.
Men listen in silence.

-- “I know”, “I understand”, “Really?”, “Yes,”, “Uh-huh” are all feminine mannerisms. Women nod and smile and make agreeing noises to show that they’re listening and to invite further conversation, not necessarily to indicate agreement. Men don’t nod or smile or make agreeing noises unless they actually agree.

Men avoid discussion of emotional information.
Women invite it.

-- Women express emotion relatively easily, even in public - - except for anger, which they tend to repress at all times. Men generally do not express any emotion other than anger in public.

----- Original Message -----

"Men have no less need to deal with emotions just because they're not allowed to admit they exist, and so men have interactions that are ostensibly about something else but really about that. A casual observer won't notice, and even an insightful observer would not notice because that singular interaction/conversation ... will appear as one of the other allowed competitive (safe) interactions. But viewed in the wider context of how those two men interact previously and after ... the interaction will seem off-topic, unusual, almost as if one (or both) men isn't the same person as in the other encounters."

-- Literary Guy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Men figure out how they feel - by thinking about it.

Women figure out how they feel - by talking about it.

-- Women are more likely to sit down and think through the whole history of a problem. Men are more action oriented, thinking what he’s going to do about the problem.

Men say “I apologize.”
Women say “I’m sorry.”

-- “I’m sorry” implies taking responsibility, while “I apologize” indicates regret that there’s a problem without necessarily accepting responsibility for causing it.

Men are more approving of their self image.
Women are more critical.

-- Men tend to boast publicly; women to boast privately, if at all. Women tell stories about their failures; men tell stories that make them look good.

Women are more specific with information.
Men generalize.

-- She'll tell you a dress is robin’s egg or teal or aqua or periwinkle. He'll say it’s blue.

Women are most comfortable talking when they feel safe and close.
Men are most comfortable talking when they need to establish and maintain status.

-- She tells him everything. He tells her what is important to him.

Men are more able to compartmentalize and separate issues.
Women are more likely to let feelings in one area spill over into another area.

-- A man can go from angry to amorous much faster and more believably than a woman. An argument or a bad day will be more difficult for a woman to set aside when getting into bed.

Men hide secrets to maintain status.
Women share secrets to build rapport.

-- Women see talking to outsiders about their relationships as part of friendship. Men see talking to outsiders about their relationships as disloyalty.

Men see challenge as constructive.
Women see challenge as destructive.

-- Women see disagreement as threatening; men do not. Women find raised voices and arguments upsetting; men see the ability to fight as a sign of intimacy, because only those who are intimately involved with each other argue.

Men react literally--word for word--to the message.
Women interpret the meaning.

-- Both men and women have a tendency not to answer the question that was actually asked, but they have different justifications for doing so. Men see it as a protective measure to get to the real point of the question. Women intend it as a helpful and caring measure to get to the real point of his question.

In Conclusion...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Before anyone starts screaming about it being sexist--it IS. I'm showing the differences between the genders, not their similarities. Also, this is not a check list YOU should compare yourself to! This is merely a list of Traits for the Adult Male ARCHETYPE intended for Fictional Characters NOT real people. NO man or woman acts 100% this way. Teen-aged boys in particular are are considerably more emotional -- until they learn to control it.

Consider this a basic model to build upon. What you add to that base -- motives, dreams, fears, likes and dislikes -- is what will make your characters unique.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

REFERENCES:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Men are from Mars Women are from Venus" - by John Gray, Ph.D

"Straight Talk to Men and Their Wives" - James Dobson

"Men, Women and Sex" - Margaret Paul, Ph.D

"Yes, Biologically Speaking, Sex Does Matter" - Karen Young Kreeger

"Gender Differences Are Real" - Frank York

~ * ~

BASIC Plotting

2009-08-31T17:33:00.003-04:00

Art by Ayame Kojima

BASIC Plotting

A plot is the pattern a story follows, the most common being:

-- Beginning
-- Middle
-- End

All successful (read: popular) stories have patterns. Sometimes it’s simple, sometimes it’s complex, but all of the stories read or told often enough to remain in the popular mind of any culture have a pattern, a plot.

Here are some examples of simple plot patterns…

Traditional:
• He came.
• He saw.
• He conquered.

American Dream Version:
• He came.
• He conquered.
• He became very rich.

The Heroic version:
• He conquered.
• He became the leader of his people.
• He died in the middle of a glorious battle to defend his land, and became a legendary figure that would never be forgotten.

Erotic Version:
• He saw.
• He conquered.
• He came.
Aristotle’s Elements of a Greek Tragedy - simplified:
• Act One: He rose to glory.
• Act Two: His pride drove him to make a foolish but costly mistake.
• Act Three: He crashed and burned.

Aristotle’s Elements - American version:
• Act One: He rose to glory.
• Act Two: His pride drove him to make a foolish but costly mistake.
• Act Three: He crashed and burned.
• Act Four: He fixed his mistake and rose again.

Your basic Romance plot:
• The lovers are thrown together.
• The lovers are forced apart.
• The lovers go against the odds to get back together.

Your basic Yaoi Romance plot:
• One lover seduces the other.
• A misunderstanding drives one lover away.
• The lover that misunderstood chases the other lover down to beg for forgiveness.
Your basic Adventure plot:
• Hero meets Villain.
• They fight and the Villain wins.
• The hero rises from his defeat to battle the Villain again, and wins the war.

Your basic Manga Adventure plot:
• A group of friends meet a Villain.
• The villain corners them individually and defeats each one.
• The friends rise from their individual defeats to team up on the Villain and win the war.

I can already hear the whining…

“But that’s so…formulaic! Where’s the creativity?”
Creativity is Overrated.

Ever hear the phrase: “It’s not what you have, it’s what you do with it,”? This is especially true when writing stories. It’s not the plot, but what you do with the plot that makes it creative.

No matter what those Creative Writing classes teach, for a story to be enjoyed by the widest possible audience, it needs to have some sort of structure, a pattern -- a plot.

Why?

Because a story without some sort of plot pattern reads…wrong. Everyone, in every culture, has been trained from childhood to EXPECT a story to follow some sort of pattern to take it from Here to There, and make some sort of point too. In fact, some of the hottest blockbuster movies including ‘Star Wars’ follow one of the oldest plot patterns in human history -- the Heroic Cycle, as codified by William Campbell.

The Heroic Mythic Cycle:
(Paraphrased to avoid copyright issues.)

Act One - Chosen

Humble Beginnings
Destiny Comes Knocking
Shoved into Adventure
Sagely Advice ~ Paramours & Sidekicks

Act Two - Challenge

Leaving the Known World behind
Challenges, Friends & Foes
Battle at the Crossroads

Act Three – Crisis

Into the Labyrinth
Temptation & Betrayal
Anger ~ Despair ~ Sacrifice
Inheritance / Blessing / Curse
Treasure & Celebration

Act Four – Climax

Escape / Expelled from the Labyrinth
The Hunter becomes the Hunted
Rescue & Loss of Paramour / Side-kick
Battle at the Crossroads to Home
Death / Rebirth
Delivery of Treasure & Just Rewards

A great many people who write quite successfully ‘by the seat of their pants,’ may tell you that they don’t need to plot, they just…write it from beginning to end. That doesn’t mean their stories don’t follow a pattern. It’s merely that the plotting pattern they use is so ingrained into their subconscious they follow it instinctively -- without even knowing they’re doing it.

Unfortunately, that’s not a talent I possess. I have to work everything out on paper or I get lost in a hurry.

How to Use a Plot
“What is plotting good for anyway?”

Well, the best use of a plotting pattern is so you don’t get lost in the story. Think of the plot outline as a road map marking out the most direct route from Here to There. This doesn’t mean you can’t take side trips to sight-see or visit friends along the way. It’s merely a way of keeping track of where you are, and where you should go next, by knowing where you intend to end up. Knowing your basic route ahead of time also makes it much more difficult to get lost on a back road or trapped in a cul-de-sac.

In short, if you know where you’re going when you start out, sooner or later, you’ll actually get there.

A note on Japanese stories…

From:
‘Eight Ways to say You ~ The Challenges of Translation’
By Cathy Hirano

The most obvious differences between Japanese and English writing styles are organization and tone.

My English composition classes in high school taught me that English is supposed to flow in a linear fashion, from introduction to body to conclusion, and that a statement should be supported by a logical explanation. Even in literature, a book works toward a climax and then a conclusion. In contrast, Japanese composition appears almost circular, and although it has its own logic and organization, it is very different from how I learned to write in school.

In English, we stress clarity.

In Japanese subtlety is preferred. The Japanese writer dances around his theme, implying rather than directly stating what he wants to say, leaving it up to readers to discern that for themselves. He or she appeals to the reader’s emotions rather than to the intellect, and tries to create a rapport rather than to convince. The Japanese reader, in turn, is quite capable of taking great leaps of imagination to follow the story line.

Cathy Hirano is the translator of The Friends, winner, for Farrar, Straus & Giroux, of the 1997 Batchelder Award.
Go HERE to read the whole article.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Conclusion…
-- By using even the most basic of plot patterns, the writer can keep track of not only where they are in their story, but where they intend to end up. This makes it very easy to avoid the most common pitfall of fiction writing: “The story’s halfway done and I have no idea how to end it!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

The Secret to BOOK PROMOTION

2009-07-14T18:49:00.008-04:00

Zombie-Loan by Peach-Pit

-----Original Message-----
> Just for the record, I don't promote my work. I did a great deal of target marketing to generate readers before I published my first full novel. These days, my books promote themselves. *wink*
-- Morgan Hawke

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I'm a newbie to all this, I'd be interested in hearing what you did exactly. I'm sure others could benefit, as well. Care to share?
-- Christina

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don’t mind telling you, but I should warn you that I have never had any desire to write anything other than adult fiction. I started writing with the INTENT to be an Erotica/Romance author so those readers are who I targeted. However, the techniques I used could very well work for other genre authors.

Morgan’s Secret to Selling Books
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To begin with, I have an unfair advantage. I worked in the marketing department of a internet Porn corporation. They bought, rented, and marketed Adult Content – exactly what I was trying to sell and market only in book form.

The number one way a Porn company gains buying viewers is exactly the same way a Food seller gains buyers – free samples. In the porn industry, it’s called a Thumbnail Gallery Post or TGP where they offer one minute snippets of the movies they want you to rent. A food seller puts out a table and offers bite-sized portions of what they want you to buy. A free sample from a book is called an EXCERPT.

Take a look at my website. EVERY story no matter how short has an excerpt. You’ll also see that they’re NOT Teasers. They’re two to four whole chapters. Why so big?

It has been my experience that Teasing (a single page blurb,) only goes so far. It may indeed build an appetite, but not necessarily for what YOU have to offer. It’s all too easy to go to one’s own bookshelf and find something close – something you KNOW is satisfying.

I use a whole chapter or more because I want to thoroughly hook the readers into My Story. I want to make them so hungry for the rest of what I wrote that no other story will satisfy them but That One.

I didn’t stop at posting excerpts only on my website! I posted excerpts on message boards, internet magazines, in Yahoo groups – any place that didn’t cost me anything to join or post. After posting, I paid attention to the reader comments. What the readers liked, and didn’t. I then adjusted my new stories accordingly -- to make them absolutely addictive.

However, that’s not where I gathered my very first readers.

I began gathering my very first readers by posting my earliest short stories (5-10k words) on Literotica.Com an erotic story site – along with every other erotic story site I could find. (Remember, I intended to be an erotica author all along.)

Overnight I had THOUSANDS of people looking at my work, voting on it, and commenting.

For those of you who write in other genres, I can pretty much guarantee that there are story sites out there for whatever you write. I can also guarantee that they would LOVE to have you post free short stories. Sites are always looking for free content to entertain their viewers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: On the Importance of NAMES...!
-- Even on the porn sites, I used a name that looked and sounded like an Actual NAME: Morgan Hawke. I did not use an internet log-on.

If you plan to go further than amateur internet publication, Crystal Vampyrss, Bloody Kiss, or StudHunter68 is NOT how you want your readers to know you! A name like that screams "Porn-writing Grammatically-challenged Amateur!" The last thing any buyer wants is something written by someone that looks like they came from a cheap Porn site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wasn’t paid for any of my stories, but the comments from so many readers were invaluable. In a matter of months (5 stories later,) I knew exactly what types of characters my readers preferred, what types of sex scenes and how detailed, preferred locations, settings, themes, what types of relationships and that head-hopping was NOT appreciated. However, the most common and consistent complaints were that my stories were too short. Good news for someone that wanted to write novels.

18 short stories later, I had hundreds of dedicated readers and an invitation to publish with my very first ebook publisher. I also had a half completed manuscript for a novel.

When my first novel was released from that ebook publisher, my readers crashed the server trying to download that ebook. That was without spending money on any sort of advertising or promotional gimmicks: toys, pens, postcards, or bookmarks. The reviews, awards, interviews, and invitations from two other publishers and the agent came later. (They contacted me. I didn’t contact them.)

By the time I published my first book with Kensington, I had been living job-free on my ebook royalties for two whole years – without paying a cent for advertising.

“All money flows TO the author.”

I’m sure you’ve heard that before. Believe me, it’s TRUE. I live it every day. The only money that goes to promoting my work is my website, which costs me 15 dollars a YEAR and I maintain it myself. I don’t bother with magazines or internet ads and I certainly don’t waste my money on promotional stuff that’s only going to get tossed anyway.

I also don’t waste my money mailing books to reviewers. If they want to review my book that badly, they can ask the publisher to send them a copy. By the way, RT Magazine reviewed two of my books despite the fact that I never sent them a copy. I’m not about to pay their sky-high price for the advertising that’s supposed to guarantee a review.

Most importantly, I only go to book signings and conventions when someone else is paying the hotel and travel expenses. (I’ve been to the RT convention three times, by the way.)

I don’t pay One Cent for advertising anywhere. I don’t need to. My readers know where to find my books. It doesn’t even matter who I publish with. My readers will buy them no matter who puts the book out.

Why is that?

The number one rule in advertising is:

“If you have a good product,
it will practically sell itself.”

This is TRUE. No matter how good the packaging or marketing strategy, if the book under that spectacular cover is Crap that author has slit their own throat.

Readers talk to each other. Always have – always will.

I use Large excerpts to prove to my readers that what they’re about to spend their hard-earned money on ISN’T crap. It’s well written and entertaining. It has characters they’ll like, exotic places, and steamy situations. It’s everything they want to read.

And that’s all the advertising I need.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net
www.DarkErotica.Blogspot.com

Writing FETISH Fiction

2009-04-08T15:41:00.005-04:00

Writing Fetish Fiction

-----Original Message-----
"Could you do a guide on how to make a decent PWP (porn without plot) revolving around fetishes with things like 'Add detail,' and 'Don't make it choppy?' -- Furry Fan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What makes Fetish fiction unique from any other kind of fiction?

Actually, this same question can be applied to any genre of fiction. What makes ANY genre of fiction unique from any other?

The DETAILS or more specifically, what is being detailed.

~ In a Romance, the Drama is detailed.
~ In a Mystery, the Puzzle, or rather the clues to the puzzle are detailed.
~ In a Sci-Fi, the underlying Theory or Technology is detailed.
~ In Erotica, the Sex is detailed.
~ In Pulp Fiction, the Adventure is detailed.
~ In Fetish Fiction, the featured FETISH is detailed.

Okay, that seems rather simple -- until you realize that not only does the key element to each genre need to be detailed, it needs to turn the PLOT too! That key element must not only be there and detailed, it must be what makes your story HAPPEN.

Why?

To forward any story's plot you need Dramatic Tension. If all the dramatic tension in your Fetish story comes from somewhere OTHER than the Fetish scenes, then the Fetish scenes aren't necessary to tell the story. If the Fetish scenes aren't necessary to tell the story then you're NOT writing FETISH fiction, you're writing whatever else is turning your plot.

In fact, if the Fetish scenes aren't necessary to tell the story then they don’t belong in the story. ANYTHING that isn’t necessary to tell the story doesn’t belong in the story!

Memorize this:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If it CAN be pulled out - it SHOULD be pulled out.

It's the basic law of fiction in any genre.

Azimov codified it for Science Fiction:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you can remove the Science from the Science Fiction and still have a viable story in another genre - you did it WRONG!"
_{(He does not consider space operas to be science fiction. He considers them high-tech Westerns.)}

Edo Von Belkom said it in his book “Writing Erotica”:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you can remove the Sex from the Erotica and still have a viable story in another genre - you did it WRONG!"

For Fetish Fiction this means:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If you can remove the FETISH from the Fetish Fiction and still have a viable story in another genre - you did it WRONG!"

In ANY genre of fiction, that genre’s main element MUST drive the plot to BE that genre.

~ In Romance - The Relationship drives the plot.
~ In Mystery - Unanswered Questions drive the plot.
~ In Science Fiction - Scientific Ideas and/or Technology drives the plot.
~ In Fantasy - Magic drives the plot.
~ In Historical Fiction - Historical Figures or Events drive the plot.
~ In Paranormals - Paranormal Creatures or situations drive the plot.
~ In Erotica - Sex drives the plot.
~ In Fetish Fiction -- The FETISH drives the plot.

So, how do you make your Fetish drive the plot?

HOLD IT right there!
-- Before we go any further, make sure you know WHAT you're writing! Are you writing Fetish fiction or Kink fiction?

Fetish ISN'T Kink.

A Kink is something that makes sex exciting, also known as Slap & Tickle. No matter how many whips and chains are used, no matter how much blood is spilled carving your name into someone's back Kink is a form of sexual Play, pure and simple.

A Fetish ISN'T Play. It's a very personal, very individual, and a very private APPETITE. Fetishes are something one NEEDS like food, water, or air to breathe -- to get off, and that 'getting off' ISN'T always Sexual. When a Fetishist has access to what gratifies their needs, they can reach fulfillment without orgasm because their need is more than merely sexual. According to many Fetishists that I know personally, fulfillment grants a euphoria they swear is better than orgasm.

A sexual sadist with a Fetish for screams that plays Slap & Tickle with a lover isn't doing it because they want to f~ck their lover. They're playing Slap & Tickle to feed their true hunger. Once they get the screams they're after, they may not even want to f~ck at all because they HAD their gratification already - the screams.

A sexual sadist with a Kink for screams DOES want to f~ck the screamer, preferably WHILE they're screaming.

Someone with a Fetish for women's feet, or boots, or uniforms, or bondage gear doesn't need to have sex with those in such garb. Observing the wearer, touching the objects, smelling the material, hearing the sounds associated with them, and sometimes even tasting them is more than enough to completely satisfy a Fetishist. <-- THIS is why detail is so vitally important in Fetish Fiction.

On the other hand, someone with a Kink for women's feet, or boots, or uniforms, or leather bondage gear DOES want to f~ck those in such garb.

In short:
~ A Kink is when you use a feather to cum.
~ A Fetish is when Touching the feather will make you cum.

Whether you are writing Fetish, or Kink, make sure you Label your story properly! This way, the readers seeking your particular kind of story can find you and appreciate what you've written! Okay, back to the lecture...

-- So, how do you make your Fetish (or Kink) drive the plot?

Making the Fetish MATTER!
Show something. Prove something. Make something Happen.

Show something:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What can a Fetish show? It should at the very least reveal something about the base personality of the character that is focused on it: tender, sweet, attention to detail, aggressive, controlling, power-hungry, humorous, serious…

Prove something:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fetish scenes can prove domination, or submission, but rarely does a scene like that involve a true Fetish. Fetishes are about HUNGERS and such needs make excellent metaphors! What does your character's Need say about life, or love, or hate, or anger, or devotion?

Make something Happen:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This one is the easiest of all. How can you're character's drive to fulfill their Fetish get them into deep trouble -- or out of it?

WRITING Fetishes
DETAIL ~ DETAIL ~ DETAIL

The rest of your story can be a bare bones sketch if you like, but the Fetish MUST be executed in exquisite loving detail. Your story is there to feed a NEED, so ALL the senses must come into play: Sight, Scent, Sound, Sensation, and Flavor.

Your story can be so simple that the characters don't even have names. However, where the Fetish comes into play, every thought, feeling, and sensation that focuses on that fetish MUST be written in loving detail.

What it looks like, what it sounds like, what it smells like, what it feels like, what it tastes like... What does it do? How does it affect your characters? How does it make them feel physically, emotionally, and possibly spiritually? Do they like the fetish? Hate it? Wish it would go away? Try to fight it? Revel in it? Try to convert others into liking it too?

All-righty then, here's the hardest part of writing Fetish Fiction:

How do you plan to END your Fetish story?

Where will this Fetish take your main character? What will become of them because of this Fetish? Will it make their lives better -- or worse? Will they find a safe outlet to satisfy their Fetish, or make a terrible error in judgment that destroys them? Do you want a happy ending, or a tragic one?

REALITY CHECK! ~ There is NO CURE for a Fetish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A Fetish isn't something that goes away. A Fetish is NOT an addiction -- though a Kink can be! Fetishes are rooted deep in the psyche and while a shrink might be able to find the cause, there is No Cure. The only treatment is to find a safe outlet that feeds the need. The only other options are becoming a Victim or a Predator.

Make sure you understand this BEFORE you write your ending. Those of us that have fetishes really appreciate it when someone actually tells the Truth.

In Conclusion:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Whether you're writing serious Fetish Fiction or merely Kink Fiction, the key to writing either one is Detail and Focus. However, what makes it satisfying is how you conclude your tale.

Enjoy!

Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Structure of the GOTHIC Tale

2008-07-30T15:19:00.013-04:00

Art by Ayame Kojima
Structure of the
GOTHIC Tale

NOT your average Horror story.

What is the difference between a Gothic tale and a Horror story? Intent. Seriously.

Both Horror stories and Gothic tales delve into the realm of emotional trauma such as revenge, abuse, and hate--including, if not especially, sexual trauma. However, the darkness in a Gothic tale is not expressed or defined by graphically detailed, and gruesome, violence as it is in a Horror. Though violence is often featured in the Gothic, it is NOT the main focus of the story. The drama of Despair is the vehicle of the Gothic where a Horror story is driven by the action of Violence.

In a nutshell...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Horror = Action story
Gothic = Drama Story

While both Gothics and Horror are tales of the spiritual and/or psychological reality of the human psyche, Horror stories deal with the monsters that can lurk within our friends and neighbors. Gothics, however, deal with the monsters within ourselves; the hidden, self-destructive side that we don't want to admit exists within ourselves.

This means that the unlike the Horror plotline which is simply a gory adventure story that follows the common Heroic Cycle plotline, the Gothic plot is far more complicated -- emotionally complicated.

The Gothic Plot

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Act 1. Rise

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Character is Valued/not Valued
  - Leading to Underestimated Talent
  --- Triggering Pride/Shame
  ----- Which causes an Emotional Issue to form.

2. Incidental/Accidental Accomplishment
- a - Draws the wrong kind of attention
--- The Monster
- b - Also creates Envy in someone close
--- Friend / Family member / lover / coworker

3. Encounter with the Monster (symbol of Emotional Issue)
--- Contamination / Gift

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Act 2. CRASH

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. The Sincere Mistake
--- Pride represents an irresistible Challenge.
- a - To the Envious
- b - to the Monster

2. CRASH > Monstrosity unveiled
--- Anger leads to a Ruinous Victory
----- They win the battle, but their monstrous nature is Exposed.
--- a --- to their loved ones
--- b --- to their enemies
--- c --- to themselves

3. Departure from Society
--- Regret triggers Escape / Removal from Society

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Act 3. Fall ( Stages of Grief & Transformation)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Dangerous territory
--- Denial = belief that they are an Outcast / Abandoned.
----- Belief that they Deserve to be an Outcast / Abandoned.

2. Meeting with the True Monster
--- Anger = Love-Hate Relationship
- a - with the Monster
- b - with the Envious
- c – with their own monstrous nature

3. Threats & Promises
--- Negotiation = Temptation & Persuasion
- a - from the Monster
- b - from the Envious

4. Surrender & Sacrifice
--- Despair = Submission & Adaptation
- a - to the Monster
- b - to the Envious
- c - to their own monstrous nature.

5. Escape / Rescue
--- Acceptance = Deliberate release of the Beast Within
- a - They rescue themselves, but at the cost of their humanity.
----- Giving birth to a new core Value. (Pride / Shame)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Act 4. Return to Society - as a Monster

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Unfinished Business with Envious
--- Hiding in plain sight

2. Confrontation with the Monster
--- Deliberate Transformation
- a - to Protect
- b - for Revenge

3. Conclusion
--- Willing sacrifice to take down Monster
----- Which ends in a New Life / Heroic Death
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Fall of the House of Usher’ by Edgar Allen Poe, is a Classic Gothic tale. However, at first glance the story doesn’t appear to fit this pattern at all, until you realize that the point of view character, the narrator, ISN’T who this story is about. In fact, he barely affects the plot at all. The story is about Roderick Usher, the last heir to an old decrepit family mansion. The narrator is merely a witness to Usher’s struggle against madness (Acts 3 and 4).

Oddly, ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexander Dumas, is also a Gothic! It follows the plot pattern perfectly and it covers the most common and devouring psychological monster of all -- revenge.

The Gothic is about Transformation

In the average Horror story, the main character usually gains some form of outside help and / or finds a weapon to defeat their monster. In a Gothic, the main character must transform themselves into a weapon. They must become a monster to defeat their monster, then learn to live with the aftermath of their transformation.

This is why ‘Phantom of the Opera’ is simply a Horror story. None of the characters transform. Christine Daea, the main protagonist does not change herself to deal with her monster. She gains outside help, a protector who basically does all her fighting for her.

On the other hand, the movie ‘The Matrix’ is very much a modern Gothic. Neo must transform himself into someone and something completely alien to his original geeky character in order to survive the Agents hunting him.

Another Gothic movie, though it appears to be a Western, is ‘Ravenous’. In this story, the cowardly Cavalry officer protagonist must accept full transformation into a wendigo, a Native American cannibal in order to have the physical strength to defeat the wendigo Colonel stalking him.

The Monster Within...

The other key difference between Horror stories and Gothic tales are the monsters. Unlike Horror monsters which are simply opponents to be defeated, each and every Gothic monster is in fact a metaphor for a spiritual or psychological issue. In most cases, the Setting is too.

Forbidding Locations & their Hidden Meanings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Old Mansions = Inheritance issues
2) Abandoned Houses = Forgotten Family issues
3) Antique Shops = Curiosity (nosiness) issues
4) Modern Corporations = Job / Business issues
5) Old Factories = Unemployment issues
6) Modern Suburbia = Adult Peer pressure issues
7) Quaint Little Towns = Hidden Community issues
8) Schools & Colleges = Childhood / Peer-pressure issues

Monsters of the Psyche
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1) Ghosts = Guilt
2) Vampires = Addiction
3) Witches = Wishes gone bad
4) Sorcerers /Scientists = Insanity
5) Werewolves = Rage
6) Urban Faery = Rebellion
7) Man-made monsters = Personal Mistakes
8) Zombies = Peer Pressure
9) Ogres / Trolls / Giants = Bullies

The Gothic Hero

The main character, the one telling the tale always starts out as a fairly nice, normal, and decent person. Why is that?
Because Gothics are about how the individual deals with being transformed into their own worst nightmare. In other words, how they deal their own monstrous issues. It's all about the battle within. The climax of the Gothic isn't the battle with the monster that needs to be slain, it's how the main character chooses to deal with their own monstrosity.

The Ending of a Gothic Tale

There are only two options when facing a dark issue of the psyche. Interestingly enough, both options can lead to either Destruction or Redemption.

1) Acceptance
- a - Empowerment
- b - Addiction to power = Insanity
- c - Coexistence / Balance of dual nature

2) Rejection
- a - Search for release / escape / *cure = Insanity
- b - Search for control = Empowerment
- c - Denial / Ignoring it = Insanity

*Note: There is NO CURE for a Psychological Issue in real life. You either Adapt to it, or Succumb to it. Medicating it only Represses (covers up) the issue. It does not Fix it. Sooner or later the medication WILL stop working and that issue WILL resurface. Ask any psychologist.

In Conclusion…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gothic tales are metaphors, proverbs, and fables of goodness versus evil that describe the spiritual and psychological challenges of the human soul. They are modern-day, un-sanitized, fairy tales filled with the horrific punishments that the original fairy tales held:

- Punishment for the wicked...
- Empowerment for those trapped in darkness...
- Redemption for those who have learned to adapt to the living, breathing shadows, within themselves...

They also conclude exactly like any other fairy tale. The Brave save the day, the Foolish die, and the Guilty are Punished, usually horribly.

"But real life isn't so neatly tied. Bad people get away with doing bad things."

True. Real life ISN'T so neatly tied. Bad people DO get away with bad things. That does not change the fact that Evil IS Bad and the Wicked SHOULD be punished, even if it only happens in a story.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Writing Stroke-Fiction Erotica

2008-07-28T01:41:00.011-04:00

Art by Luis Royo

-----Original Message-----

“I would like to write erotica and some of the stuff that you only read in an adult book store while wearing a raincoat and dark sunglasses. LOL! Could you tell me how to get into that market? I see all the ePublishers out there so that's not too much of a problem. But how do you get to write for the "pushing the envelope" stuff?”

-- Enthusiastic about Erotica

So you wanna write the Hard-Core stuff?

The easiest way to find an Adult Book publisher is by buying adult books and looking up the publishers’ contact information inside their covers. Look for a website, most have them, and read their Submission Guidelines! Some publishers will allow some things that others will not.

Case in point: Lush Stories does not allow any type of Non-Consensual sex scene where most publishers allow Forced Seduction scenes.

Note: The difference between a Forced Seduction and a Rape is that a Forced Seduction is Not a Brutal Attack designed to hurt the recipient. That's Rape. A Forced Seduction is meant specifically to make the protesting recipient cum. Also, it's written entirely from the Seduced's point of view, not the Seducer's. This is to make it crystal clear that the one being seduced really Does want to be seduced, but is protesting from Moral or Social reasons -- not out of FEAR.

Interested in knowing what types of stories are currently popular? READ the top ten favorite stories on your favorite erotic story site. Also, be sure to look at the reader’s comments. They will tell you right away what they liked -- and why.

WRITING Stroke Fiction

Okay, first you need a sex scene. No really…! Think of what kind of sex you want FIRST. The sex is what’s driving the whole story so you need to know what you’re aiming for in order to make the story go there.

To borrow from my friend Toonces:

“What do you find hot? Write a short list.”

I did a poll on what sex scenes my readers liked and this is what I discovered…

My Readers' preferred Smut Scenes: in this order.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Ravished! ~ "Oh no! Don't...! Stop...! Don't...stop!"
2. Captured! ~ "I have you now!"
3. Threesome ~ Sharing the love.
4. Romantic Fluff ~ Wine & Roses
5. Lower Education ~ “Teacher, I was a naughty boy.”
6. Domination & Punishment & Whips & Chains ~ "You've been a bad, bad boy."
7. Bribes & Blackmail ~ "You owe me. Drop your pants!"
8. Strip Tease ~ "Oops! I'm naked!"
9. Self Gratification ~ "When I think about you, I touch myself."
10. Cosplay ~ Leather & lace & ears & tails…
11. Orgy ~ "The more the merrier!"
12. Voyeurism ~ "I spy with my little eye..."
13. Exhibitionism ~ "Here? In front of everyone...?"
14. The Professional ~ "You can have me--for a price."
15. Beautiful Stranger ~ "He saw. He conquered. He came. He went."

Write each scene IN DETAIL!
As in, every sight, every sound, every scent, every sensation. Describe the setting where the humping will happen, then focus on the characters and stay focused on the characters.

Pick ONE Point of View and stick to it per scene!
This will keep your readers from getting confused over who did what and who felt what especially when it gets hot and heavy.

Take it easy on the emotional stuff.
The people who read 'Stroke Fiction' are not reading them for anything more than to Get Off.

Most importantly...

Write it in Chronological Order:
1. He did this.
2. She reacted this way and did that.
3. He reacted this way and did the other…
4. Etc.

Cheat Tip for writing Sex Scenes: Make a list of actions First, then add all the adjectives and dialogue. If your sentences end up short and choppy, it means you didn’t add enough description, body-language, sound-effects, or internal thoughts. Don't Forget...! ONLY the POV character gets internal thoughts and opinions! If you add anyone else's, you've just committed the heinous crime of HEAD-HOPPING.

One more thing: Write what you KNOW.
-- Avoid hate-mail: Do Your RESEARCH! If you write something anatomically impossible or something you’re totally ignorant about, at least one your readers will most definitely let you know, believe me!

Characters:

Next, you need (at least) two characters to make your sex scene happen:
Lover and Beloved

For a novel-length story, you ought to have a third character that tries to interfere. Classically, these three characters are known as: Hero ~ Victim ~ Villain.

In ordinary erotica, and romances:
Lover ~ Beloved ~ Rival

In M/M stories:
Top ~ Bottom ~ Jealous Ex-Lover or Rival

In BDSM stories:
Dominant ~ Submissive ~ Interfering Goody-Goody

Always DESCRIBE the Characters!

Make the men manly and handsome and the women full-figured and gorgeous with glamorous occupations. Feel free to use favorite movie characters, famous actors, or musicians as models for your characters, just make sure you change their names!

Use detailed descriptions with lots of enthusiastic adjectives - hair, eyes, body, and clothes, but for pity’s sake, don’t write measurements! (“She was a 32 double-D.”) Use comparisons as in:

* “Her breasts were two ample handfuls each.”
* “He stood an arm’s length away.”
* “Her hair draped to her waist.”

Plot:

Short story:
1. They meet.
2. They hump.
3. What happened after.
The end.

Novel or Novella:
1. They meet.
2. They hump.
3. Complications make them part.
4. They meet secretly and hump again, or they hump someone else. (This is NOT a Romance! Exclusive partners are rarely part of these stories.)
5. Secondary people meet and hump -- and plot against the main characters at the same time.
6. Complications and/or the secret plot force the main characters back together.
7. They hump in secret or in front of an audience, or with the audience.
8. The climactic moment where a secret is uncovered, (“It was all a misunderstanding!”) or a confession is made. (“I like humping you best of all!”)
9. Complications are resolved.
10. Everybody humps.
The end.

To make the story longer, just add more humping.

Things to AVOID at all cost!

* NO Underage participants: All participants should be 18 or older -- especially virgins. I realize that this is Not Realistic, but the Law cannot be argued with.
* NO Bestiality: No Animals ever. Were-people and Furries don’t count, as they’re people that LOOK like animals.
* NO Snuff: Fucking people to death is Right Out.
* NO Watersports or Scat: Most publishers will not accept pee or poop used in a sexual context.
* NO Gore: Blood is okay if used tastefully and in limited amounts.

Words to AVOID:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-- MEMBER: It's a dick, a prick, or a cock, and sometimes a ‘length’--NOT a 'member' and NEVER a 'Manhood.' 'Member' and 'Manhood' are words used by ancient granny romance authors and under-aged fan-fiction writers. If you're too shy to write dick, prick, or cock, you're not ready to write sex scenes.

-- PENIS: This is word that should only ever come out of a doctor's mouth.

-- VAGINA: This is another word that should only ever come out of a doctor's mouth.

-- WOMANHOOD: It's a pussy, a sex, a cunny, or a cunt, and sometimes a core or a center. 'Womanhood' is another word used by ancient granny romance authors and under-aged fan-fiction writers too embarrassed to write the proper terms.

-- APPENDAGE: Whether it's an arm, a dick, an ear, or a foot name the frikkin limb!

-- LOCKS: Locks are tiny portions of hair that tend to curl. Children have locks, not grown adults. Adults can finger a single lock or a tendril, but what they have on their heads is hair, and if it's really long, a mane.

Getting into the Mood:

* Have sex with your significant other, watch porn, or read your favorite erotica just before you sit down to write.
* Put on some music that suits your story while you write.
* Close the door and shut off the phone! Interruptions will make it hard to maintain that…special mood.

Last but not least…
Enjoy yourself! If it’s not fun for you to write, it won’t be fun for anyone to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DISCLAIMER: As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.

Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

~~~~~~~~~~~

Writing the LOVE scene -- as opposed to the Sex scene.

2008-02-03T12:31:00.001-05:00

-----Original Message-----
“…How exactly I would go about writing a 'romantic/love' scene?”
-- Curious about Loving

I believe what you’re actually asking is the same question asked by everyone in the entire world:

“How can you tell when you are loved?”

First of all, don’t confuse Romance with Love. They are two completely different things!

Love vs. Romance
There IS a difference!

Romance – a manipulation technique designed to make someone receptive to Sex. The source of Romance is LUST.
Love – when someone’s happiness means more than your own. The source of Love is CARING.

To many people, Romance means ‘showing love’. That’s not true. You show love by Protecting the ones you care for with the intent to ensure their lasting happiness. That doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re nice to them.

"How do you write a LOVE scene
-- as opposed to a SEX scene?"

Exactly the same way. The real difference is the MOTIVE.

Lust’s motive is ORGASM.
Love’s motive is CARING.

"How do you SHOW the difference?"
-- It’s easier than you think, because you probably already do it regularly without realizing it.

Think in terms of your Pet...
-- When you want to show how much you care, you stroke them, cuddle them, and play with them. You also feed them, clean up their poop, and make sure they have vet check-ups. You do all of these things to keep them happy and healthy. You do these things to keep them from suffering in any way.

You do the SAME THING with people you love whether they are your parents, your friends, or your children – you hug them, play with them, joke around with them, make sure they’ve eaten, make sure their colds are taken care of, you make sure they are not suffering in any way –- physically or emotionally. You also bitch them out when they’ve done something that could harm them or result in misery.

The difference between these people and a Lover, is that when you are showing that you care for a lover, you use sex to bring them the greatest physical pleasure you can.

Point Blank:
Sex is just another form of PETTING.

LUST is a whole other bowl of kimchee.

LUST is a physical urge, like eating when you’re hungry, seeking warmth in the cold, or needing to pee. It is an urge that seeks relief just like all your other physical urges.

If the urgency is great enough, LUST will attempt every dirty trick in the book to get their hands on their object of choice to gain some relief. If that particular object gives them exceptional pleasure, whether it be a dildo, a rubber doll, a super soft sock, or a person, they’ll make sure that the toy is cared for, and in some cases, jealously guarded – so that the toy will still be there (and receptive) when they want to use it again.

The key word here is USE.

Lust USES others for selfish physical gratification.
Love doesn’t use, it GIVES.

Love gives affection to make the one loved happy.
-- If something should happen to cause hurt to the one loved, the one who cares is devastated by their FAILURE stop suffering from happening.

Lust takes affection to make themselves happy.
-- Toys have PHYSICAL value, not Emotional value. If their toy should break or refuse to be used, they will be FRUSTRATED and ANGRY, but they won’t think they failed. They’ll think the TOY Failed -- and just go out and get another toy.

"What's the real difference between
a Love scene and a Lust scene?"

Very simply:

Lust Takes pleasure.
Love Gives it.

Jealousy is NOT a sign of LOVE.

Jealousy a sign of possession, of ownership; of FEAR that their object will be taken from them and no longer be theirs to USE.

When one is in love, and their lover sleeps with someone else, that one does not feel jealousy they feel FAILURE. “I wasn’t enough to make my loved one happy in bed. I did something wrong!”

If their feelings are strong enough, they will ALLOW their lover to keep their toy -- because it makes them happy.

Why do some married women allow their husbands to have a mistress?
-- Because they LOVE their husbands and want them to be happy. If having a toy makes them happy, they’ll even arrange to get a good quality toy for him.

Note: This happens far more often than you might realize. I have several very good friends who were personally invited to be a paid mistress by the wife of a corporate husband.

Why do married men ALWAYS return to their wives?
-- Because they LOVE their wives. Anyone else is just a toy to relieve their physical urges.

Think on that while you write your love scene. I swear the difference will show through.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Post Script...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
"I'm not sure I agree with the last bit about mistresses, but that's mostly because I find myself unable to justify anyone 'in love' ever cheating on their loved one - again, because it's hurtful and selfish, and a way of making yourself feel good, even as it hurts your husband/wife."
-- Not Fond of Cheaters

-- That bit about Mistresses was merely a point to show that someone who is in love will allow their loved one damned near anything, even if it hurts them -- not an endorsement.

Love can be a real b!tch.

Once you love someone, no matter what they do to you, you can't stop loving them. You can only endure it as long as you can, until either they straighten up, or they drive you away.

I learned my lessons through cold hard experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-----Original Message-----
"Wow, I always thought Romance was about Love...?"
-- Prefers Romance

EVERYONE thinks Romance is about love -- because we really, really WANT it to be.

Romance tells us that the Other Person gives up everything for Us, when in fact, the opposite is true. Real Love makes us give up everything for THEM.

When you think about it, Love is a very scary emotion. It makes us give up everything we want, everything we are -- for someone else. If they are not worthy of such a sacrifice, it doesn't matter because we LOVE them and want them to be happy at any cost.

Real Love comes in many different shapes and colors.

A love that looks destructive from the outside, such as Bondage and Domination, could in fact be perfectly supportive and exactly what both lovers need from each other. A good movie that illustrates this perfectly is "Secretary".

On the other hand, what an outsider may think is positive and supportive might in fact not be love at all. Case in point, stalking was once thought of as being an expression of love. Angry possessiveness can look an awful lot like love when in fact it is a terror tactic designed to isolate the one supposedly beloved.

When a lover asks their beloved to choose between them and anything else, a friend, a pet, or even a hobby, they not interested in their significant other's happiness. They are ensuring that their toy has no outside distractions and is available for their convenience. A good movie that illustrates this is "Sleeping with the Enemy".

A lover that yells at their beloved for their destructive habits, such as over-spending, drugs, booze, gambling...is more likely to be showing real love, than a lover that sweetly begs their beloved to drop their plans for going out with their friends for a romantic dinner date with them.

How do you tell the difference?
-- Measure each action by this question: "WHO benefits from the results?"

I am firmly of the opinion, that if one is going to write about Love, one should really know what it is -- and what it isn't.

Morgan Hawke
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DarkErotica.Net

Writing Emotions VISUALLY

2008-01-05T09:41:00.000-05:00

Writing Emotions VISUALLY

Visual writing is when the reader can SEE your story unfolding in their imaginations just like a movie.

Non-visual: It was a dreary day.
Visual: Icy rain slithered down the window glass from an iron gray sky.

This is more commonly known as SHOWING vs. TELLING.

Telling: It was a dreary day.
Showing: Icy rain slithered down the window glass from an iron gray sky.

“What’s wrong with just…Telling them?”
The problem lies with Reader interpretation. Abstract (poetic) words and ideas rely on the readers’ interpretation of what those words mean to them personally.

For example:
She was woefully depressed.

Consider:

How does Big Bird act when he’s woefully depressed?
How do YOU act when you’re woefully depressed?

Is there a difference?
-- Well yeah, birds molt, lose all their feathers, when they’re depressed. When you were woefully depressed, did you lose all your feathers? (Do you have feathers?)

If your definitions and the reader’s definitions don’t match -- you're screwed. In other words, the moment you and the reader come to a strong enough 'difference of opinion', they'll stop reading and put the book down, never to pick it up again. Do it too much and the reader will stop reading ANYTHING by you.

Think I'm exaggerating?
-- Get on one of the book/author fan-lists and ASK. (I did.)

So, how do you SHOW emotions in writing?

According to Dianna Dorisi-Winget in “Let’s Get Physical!” “... fiction writers must employ description that accurately expresses a character’s feelings.”

She’s not talking about flowery, sentimental, poetic words, AKA: purple prose, she means describe the physical characteristics of the emotion you’re trying to convey.

How does one DESCRIBE feelings and emotions?

Emotions appear as Body Language. It’s as simple as describing the character’s body language in addition to describing what they feel physically. Don’t say: “she was sad,” describe the way her tears feel as they run down her cheeks, and the way her heart feels in her chest.

According to James Scott Bell in his article “Leave Them With Hope”: “…the author must experience the emotion and describe (the emotion felt) with the five senses, write it as he “feels” it”.

“The trick,” Dorisi-Winget says, “is tapping into your ‘emotion memory.’ Get beyond the pounding heart and clenched fist.”

Emotion Memory is simply remembering how you felt when you were experiencing the emotion your character is going through.

Let’s go back to Depression…
Do you remember what you felt like physically when you were depressed? That’s what you write. Now consider what depression looks like… What did you do when you were depressed?

Hold that thought because this is where characterization gets tricky!

While depression pretty much feels the same for everyone, how people react to it is another whole bowl of kimchee. Depression affects different people very differently. Some get very quiet, some get violent, and hurt others, (picking fights) some only hurt themselves, (cutting). Some eat a lot of food, some stop eating altogether. Some throw loud temper tantrums, yelling at anything that gets too close, and others refuse to say even one word.

How would YOUR character react?
Describe the feelings AND the actions. Show them being depressed in all their torrid glory.

Don’t TELL it: She was woefully depressed.

SHOW it: She leaned to one side against the wall with her shoulders slumped, staring at nothing at all. Her eyes burned with tears that wouldn’t fall. Every beat of her heart seemed to take more effort than it was worth, but somehow, it just kept beating. She was long past pain and well into numb. If only she could stay there, and never feel anything at all, ever again.

Believe it or not, TELLING the reader what the character is feeling is not nearly as effective or powerful as SHOWING them.

Exercise:

Write a scene where you tell what the character is feeling and doing using as many flowery words as you can.
Write the same scene describing what the character is doing and feeling.

By the way, it’s perfectly okay to use one or two flowery decorative words in addition to your physical descriptions, and in Dialogue – internally, or out loud. When used to flavor descriptions, it gives what you are describing emotional impact. When used in Dialogue, it gives your characters flavor.

Hand both versions to your beta readers and see what they think.

Looking for a Cheater’s Guide to the physical characteristics of emotions?
The Non-Verbal Thesaurus

More on Writing Emotions?
Emotion: The Bite That Hangs On

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following is for those looking to get published.
If you’re just writing for fun and not profit, feel free to skip this part.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Is this advice
Cramping your Literary Style…?

“What about all those flowery literary phrases that everybody else uses?”
AKA: “But Anne Rice does it, why can’t I?”

Who is everybody else? Are they alive and still publishing books, or dead?

Once upon a time, literary writing was how one got published, so naturally that’s what they teach in college. I got news for all you literary students going to class to become fiction authors: That stuff won’t get you published any more.

Outside of poetry, and high-brow literary journals, the only stuff in the Literary style being bought by the general public -- and publishers today, are Classics. We’re talking stuff that were originally called Torrid Romances, (Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre…) Pulp Fiction, (Sherlock Holmes, HG Wells’ novels, Dickens’ novels…) and Penny Dreadfuls (Dracula, Frankenstein, Edgar Allen Poe’s works…) Stuff that was published a hundred years ago or longer; stuff that was NOT considered Literary in their day; stuff by authors that are currently DEAD.

"But! But! But what about the great literary authors still alive today...?"

London Times
Publishers toss Booker winners into the Reject Pile
Jonathan Calvert and Will Iredale

"...Typed manuscripts of the opening chapters of Naipaul’s In a Free State and a second novel, Holiday, by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents.

None appears to have recognised them as Booker prizewinners from the 1970s that were lauded as British novel writing at its best.

Of the 21 replies, all but one were rejections.

Only Barbara Levy, a London literary agent, expressed an interest, and that was for Middleton’s novel. She was unimpressed by Naipaul’s book. She wrote: “We . . . thought it was quite original. In the end though I’m afraid we just weren’t quite enthusiastic enough to be able to offer to take things further.”

The Rest of the story...

As I said before...
-- Outside of poetry, and high-brow literary journals, the only stuff in the Literary style being bought by the general public -- and publishers today, are Classics.

So, how come Anne Rice can get away with her florid and rather literary style of writing? Consider this, no matter what she writes, or how she writes it, she’s going to sell a million copies -- because she’s ANNE RICE.

Is your name Anne Rice?

No? Then, you’re just going to have to follow the publishing house rules just like the rest of us not-quite-famous authors.

When you can sell a million copies on just your name alone, you’ll be able to write any gosh darned thing in any gosh darn way you care to because absolutely no one is going to argue with an author that can sell a million copies with their name alone. Don’t want an editor? No one will argue that either; just ask Steven King.

In short, if you want to be published in this day and age, forget the expensive literary writing courses. Take a nice cheap class on commercial copywriting because that is the style of writing publishers are looking for today.

“Copywriting…? Isn’t that for Advertising…?”
Yes it is. Think, what does Advertising do? It delivers its message with as much emotional impact and persuasive power as it can jam into One Sentence or less. “Got milk?”, “The incredible, edible, egg.” Copywriting teaches you to deliver the most amount of information in the least amount of words.

Just think what that style of writing could do for your fiction! (It’s done wonders for mine.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Parts unashamedly raped from:
Create Emotion, Not Sentimentality, in Fiction
By Vivian Gilbert Zabel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
DarkErotica.Net

Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Romance?

2007-06-24T12:23:00.000-04:00

Science Fiction and/or Fantasy
and ... Romance?

-----Original Message-----
How many pages are too many to wait for the hero/heroine to meet for the first time in a Sci-fi Romance? Are 50 pages or three chapters too long? Don’t you have to do a set up to show the worlds before they meet?
-- A Sci-Fi Romantic
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Any time you market a book as a "Romance" no matter the sub-genre, (SF, Fantasy, Suspense, but most especially Erotic Romance,) the Romantic Couple should meet by the end of the first chapter, roughly 2500 words in.

Why so soon?

"57% of new books are not read to completion. Most readers do not get past PAGE 18 in a book they have purchased."
-- Jerrold Jenkins

This means you only have 18 pages, (4500 words) to grab your reader, an agent, or an editor, and interest them enough to Keep Reading.

When writing a Romance you have to get the reader interested in the heroine, AND the hero by page 18.
If you're writing a Romantic Suspense, a Romantic Fantasy, or Romantic Sci-Fi, you have to get the reader interested in the heroine, the hero AND the plot by page 18.
If you're writing an Erotic Romance of ANY sub-genre you have to get the reader interested in the heroine, the hero, the plot, AND the sex by page 18.

"Does establishing my couple early really matter to the readers?"

While there ARE Romance publishers that will let you take longer to establish your couple and their setting, if you’re writing a Romance your reader EXPECTS to be grabbed and their attention held by your romantic couple BEFORE the 18th page. That's why they're reading your book -- for the Romance. Everything else is gravy.

-----Original Message-----
…I just finished a book today that took 30+ pages to get the hero and heroine together, it was filled with back-story about the heroine, things that could have been worked into the narrative at a later point. I honestly wouldn't have finished it except I had doctors appointments and no other unread books. I'd have missed a good read too.
-- A Romance Reader

-----Original Message-----
…I have a rather short attention span. Only when I'm forced by circumstances beyond my control will I finish a book that doesn't grab me right away.
-- Another Romance Reader

Of particular concern here is...

Establishing the setting of a Sci-Fi universe.

-- Setting up a world isn’t like setting a stage. You don’t need to show every single thing in place before the actors walk on. All you need are the immediate surroundings with an occasional stray thought to elucidate what's being viewed, or used. Fantasy & Sci-Fi thrive on ACTION, therefore, instead of Info-Dumping at the beginning, sprinkle your set up in while something is happening…

Examples:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The opening lines from LOST STAR – (Coming Soon to Loose Id)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Look you rusting pile of antique junk! I’m trying to save your ass here! Let me in!” Aubrey grabbed his throat, gasping for breath, and choked. The air on the freighter’s sub-engineering deck was thick and foul with smoke from melted metal and fused wiring. “Morris! Are you listening to me?” He slammed his bruised fist against the control console, nearly knocking over the small light he’d rigged. Most of the lights had gone out in the first hit from the marauders. He didn’t want to think about how close they had come to losing all life-support too.

“I hear you tech-engineer.” The ship’s tired and masculine mind-voice shimmered with a touch of annoyance across the wire jacked into the back of Aubrey’s skull. “You do not have clearance for access. You are not the nav-pilot.”

Aubrey fought to calm his beating heart, not that his heart was listening. “Morris, your nav-pilot is dead. He’s dead with everyone else that was on your bridge. If you don’t let me in, we’ll be boarded, and you’ll be torn apart for scrap!”

“I am already scrap…” Crushing depression and electronic interference colored the electronic mind voice.

“I know you’re old, Fate, damn you! But you’re not dead yet!” Aubrey scrubbed a hand through what little hair he had left, nearly dislodging the jack in the back of his skull. Damned military-issue buzz-cut, freaking itched. He leaned over the panel. “Morris, please! Let me in! There isn’t anybody else with an array to talk to you and I’m not fucking ready to die yet!” His breath hitched. Fate, he hadn’t even reached the legal age to drink yet. He closed his stinging eyes and took a deep breath. “And neither are the rest of the men on this ship. If you want to die, then fine, die! But let me save the ones who want to live first!”

Anger flickered deep in the ship’s sentience. Anger that his tech engineer would even think he would allow his people to die.

Aubrey held his breath. If the ship still had a temper then there was still a chance. If he could get access to the ship’s controls, he could use the freighter’s fully functional pulse cannons to clear a hole and try for a jump. If the ship didn’t kill him with a power burst instead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
The opening lines from VICTORIOUS STAR (Loose Id Books)
~~~~~~~~~~~~

First Lieutenant Victoria Stark grimaced at the image on her holographic display. “So, this is where the captain has seen fit to abandon me.” The small orbital way-station looked like a floating heap of crumbling junk that had somehow fallen together, but had yet to drift back apart. Trash and debris from wrecked ships trailed its orbiting wake. The moon it circled didn’t look much better. The surface was pocked with craters and crashed ships.

She snorted. “I’ve seen worse.” She had, but not by much. She shut down the holographic transmission and stroked the instrument panel. “I’m going to miss you, lady,” she said with sincere regret.

The lights in her cabin dimmed just a few degrees.

A slight smile curved Victoria’s lips. The Adamant would miss her too. Her ships always missed her, just as she always missed them.

A knock came at the door.

Victoria sighed. This was it; this was good-bye. “Come,” she called out.

The door opened and a white-uniformed yeoman snapped a sharp salute. “We’re ready for you, Senior Nav-Pilot Stark.” He stared at her austere black coat. “Nav-Pilot?”

“Former senior nav-pilot. They relieved me of duty, remember?” Victoria smiled grimly. “I get to wear civilian togs.” She pulled on her supple black gloves. There was no way in hell she was going to walk onto that station in a burning white, screaming target of a uniform, especially on the wrong side of the Imperial border. She wasn’t suicidal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
The opening lines from FALLEN STAR (Loose Id Books)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fallon stared up at the deeply shadowed towering steel walls of the alley’s dead end and ground her teeth. The door that was supposed to be at the end of this alley was nowhere to be found. “Damn it all, this isn’t where I’m supposed to be!”

Most of the lights in the station’s industrial deeps had gone out, or been shot out, so it was hard to see as a rule, even with her night-sight eye augmentations. The worst part was that everything down in this steel maze of pipes and installations looked pretty damned uniform, right down to the corrosion stains. There was no telling how far off course she actually was.

She needed directions, and fast.

In three steps she reached the steel wall of the alley and a long pipe with a faded and peeling telecommunications logo. She lifted her knee and selected a slender tap from the array of small, delicate tools tucked into the battered leather of her tall boots. A swift punch with another one of her tools broke the pipe’s casing and then it was just a matter of uncoiling her hotwire, jacking the tap into the communications wires, and shoving her wire into the data port at the base of her skull.

Her internal communications program spat code into the wire.

She looked down at the grimy steel floor, sweeping a gloved hand down her black skin suit. She cringed in disgust. The suit was smeared with filth and the seams were torn in a number of places. All the pipes she had crawled through and the roofs she had nearly fallen from to avoid her pursuer had really taken a toll on the once-sleek leather. It was going to cost a fortune to replace the damned thing, but she didn’t have much of a choice. She needed it for work.

“Station Master, spit it out and make it quick.” The voice was electronic and annoyed.

She grinned. “Hey, Peter, this is the Fallen Star.”

“Izzie! Where in fury have you been, wench?”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I miss you too, but right now, I’m in a jam. I need directions and quick.”

“Stand by for subliminal download.”

“Standing by.” A trickle of white noise was introduced over the line. Fallon nodded. “Receiving download; thanks, Peter.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All too often, really good books never get finished because the reader gets distracted and puts the book down BEFORE they reach the Good Parts, the parts worth reading. This is why you really ought to hook your reader as soon as you can, preferably the first line of the first page, with an additional hook at the end of each chapter. In a Romance, that hook is traditionally the romantic couple.

However, your hook doesn’t have to be your Romantic Couple! There are other ways to hook your reader.

Milieu, Idea, Character, & Event
The OTHER Elements to a Sci-Fi/Fantasy

~~~~~~~~~~~~

All stories contain four elements that can determine structure: Milieu, Idea, Character, and Event. While each is present in every story, there is generally one that dominates the others.
From How to Write Science-fiction & Fantasy by Orson Scott Card
(This book is available in just about every bookstore, and Amazon.)

Milieu – A strange, new world.
Idea – Questions in need of answers
Character – Characters with troubling human issues
Event - Disruptions in the world’s balance

Any one of these four can be used as the hook to keep your readers reading.

The M.I.C.E. Quotient
Shamelessly stolen from a lecture by Dr. John L. Flynn

Milieu story: Milieu stories always follow the same structure: a stranger who sees things as we would see them is somehow stranded in a strange place, sees interesting things, is transformed by what he sees, and goes back home a new man. The Stranger is the viewpoint character. The Milieu is seen through his eyes, since he will be interested in, and surprised by, the same strange and marvelous (and terrible) things that surprise and interest the audience.

The character is transformed by his experiences in the strange new world, but he does not stay--and attempts to return home. Other stories are told along the way, but however much we care about those events, the closure we expect at the end of the story is the main character’s departure.

Examples:
"Planet of the Apes"
The “Harry Potter” series

Idea story: These stories deal with the exploration and / or a quest for answers. Idea stories start as close to the point where a question is first raised and end soon after the question is answered. Most mysteries stories follow this structure, but a great many science fiction stories employ this structure to explore large questions about man's transformation and relationship to science and the rest of the cosmos.

Examples:
“The Matrix”
"2001 A Space Odyssy"

Character story: These stories show the personal transformation of a character with an internal conflict or issue. This is most often reflected by a change in their role in their community. The Character story is more about dealing internal conflicts, facing personal issues, rather than facing external conflicts, or enemies.

The story begins at the point when something happens to MAKE the character begin the process of facing a deep and troubling issue, and ends by successfully dealing with it or failing to deal with it. To complicate matters, a person's role in their community often defines, and is defined by, their relationships with others. A change in the main character’s role will change their roles too, therefore much of the plot can come from the other characters' resistance to change.

Examples:
“Shaun of the Dead”
"Flowers for Algernon

Event story: These stories focus on the restoration of the proper order of the universe. The traditional Adventure tale, this is the most common, and most popular form of story. Joseph Campbell defined this as the monomyth -- the common story pattern that most myths, legends, and fairy tales follow.

Something is wrong in the fabric of the universe; the world is out of order. In the ancient tradition of the Romance (as opposed to the modern publishing category), this can include the appearance of a monster (as in Beowulf), the unnatural murder of a king by his brother (as in Hamlet), or the reappearance of a powerful ancient adversary who was thought to be dead (as in Lord of the Rings). In all cases, the "golden age" has been disrupted, and the world is in a state of flux.

The Event story ends at the point where a new order is established, or the old order is restored. The story begins, not at the point where the world becomes disordered, but rather where the character (the chosen one) becomes involved in the struggle.

Examples:
“Independence Day”
"Lord of the Rings"
"Star Wars"

In Conclusion…
KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE!

Any time you market a book as a "Romance" no matter the sub-genre, (SF, Fantasy, Suspense, but most especially Erotic Romance,) the Romantic Couple should meet by the end of the first chapter, roughly 2500 words in. (Yes, I'm repeating myself, but it bears repeating.)

If you are writing a Fantasy or Sci-Fi with Romantic Elements, you are free to hook your reader with something else:

Milieu -- Exploration of a strange, new world.
Idea -- The quest for Knowledge
Character -- The inner transformation of a character & their relationships
Event -- Repairing the disruption of the world’s balance

BUT…!
-- No matter how wonderful your world is, no matter how fantastic an idea you present, no matter how cool your characters are, no matter how perilous your world-shaking event is, you STILL have only 18 pages to catch that reader and hold them if you want them to finish your story!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Erotic vs. Erotica - More than just Sex

2007-03-14T13:49:00.003-04:00

-----Original Message-----
"...I don't think erotica can support an entire novel by itself, but I think it can be a very effective element in larger works.
-- N

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This just begs the question: Why not?
-- Why do you think Erotica Can't support an Entire Novel?

-----Original Message-----
"... The main reason that erotica can't sustain an entire novel is the same reason that action or description or any other element can't sustain an entire novel. People want some buildup, they want rising tension and denouement and resolution and all those other fancy literary things. There has to be something more than just a related series of sex scenes. The sex scenes can be strung together like pearls on a necklace, but there still has to be a thread to hold it together."
-- N
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ah, I think I understand.
-- You're saying: 'A string of sex scenes does not a novel make'. If so, then I agree.

Erotica is not defined by
how many sex scenes a story has.

However, from what I can surmise, you see 'erotica' as merely "an element", something that decorates a story, and/or flavors it; rather like an exotic spice added to plain chicken soup, or frosting added to a cake.

This leads me to think that you build your stories first and then add erotic elements where they suit the storyline. Sex is the Results of your scenes, actions and character interactions. This also means that you could quite easily remove all the sex and still have a viable story.

That may make an erotic story -- but not Erotica.

"If you can remove the Sex from your Erotic Fiction and still have a viable story in another genre -- then you did it WRONG."
-- Edo Van Belkom

To make Erotica, the "erotic" should be the thread that holds the pearls of action, setting, and character together. Rather than being the Result of action, setting, and character, it should be the Motivation, the WHY all those actions, settings, and characters happen. In Erotica, Sex is the driving force that makes the story happen -- not something tossed in as flavoring.

Don't add Sex Scenes to the story,
Add Story to make the sex scenes happen.

Sex & Plot
People talk about 'forwarding the plot' or 'intrinsic to the plot', but not a whole lot of people talk about what those actually mean.

"Forwarding the plot" means: Motivational Force, nothing happens without this reason to push events into happening.
"Intrinsic to the plot" means: Important Element, the story needs this to fulfill its plot.

The statue 'The Maltese Falcon' is intrinsic to that story's plot. It is absolutely necessary to fullfil that story, but it's not what makes the plot happen. You could pull out that statue and replace it with just about any other object and the story wouldn't even flinch. (The interchangeble object is commonly known as a macguffin.)

The Pursuit of this object is what forwards the plot -- not the object itself.

An element 'intrinsic to the plot' can be REPLACED.
Something that 'Forwards the Plot' can NOT.

This is why I say:
-- A story with sex in it is Erotic -- but not Erotica.

It's not just Sex...
-- It's what the Sex Does.
-- If you can take out your sex scenes and replace them with another action, such as a single kiss or even an act of violence - it's 'intrinsic to the plot', but not something that 'forwards the plot'.

For example, if we make the Maltese Falcon a Maltese Dildo and every single person in possession of said object has sex with it, the story become erotic, but it still wouldn't be Erotica.

Why not?

Because the Pursuit of the Object is still the motivational factor. The plot would not actually need to change. In fact, you can still leave out the sex completely with no harm to the story's plotline what-so-ever.

On the other hand, CHANGE the Motivational Factor to the "Pursuit of the Ultimate Sexual Experience" with this object as the key to said experience, and the plot Would change, and so would ALL of the main characters -- into nymphomaniacs.

SEX becomes the Reason to chase the Maltese Dildo. In addition, the main characters would have to have sex more than once to discover that the object was the key to the "ultimate sexual experience", instantly making Sex Scenes absolutely necessary for the plot to move forward -- making the story Erotica.

You can STILL swap out the Maltese Dildo with any other object your heart desires, but as long as the reason you want it remains SEX -- it's Erotica.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Conclusion...
Coming up with a viable reason to make sex important to a story's plot can be a tough challenge. Most stories tend to be goal-driven toward an accomplishment (save the world, save my family, escape the bad-guys...) or toward a prize, (if I do this I get the kingdom, I get the girl, I get the Maltese Falcon...)

Making sex part of a story's plot is MUCH harder. An easy way is to make sex necessary to get to their goal. However, the Best way is by making Sex the CAUSE or the RESULT of everything that happens in the story.

Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ENDING the Story

2006-11-05T16:34:00.000-05:00

Sephiroth by Yubinbasya

"When will you make an end?"
- The Pope on the painting of the Sistine Chapel

"When I'm finished."
- Michelangelo.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so you got this GREAT Idea for a story!
This Great Idea...that births chapter after chapter...
This Great Idea...that you can't seem to finish. (WTF?)

Crap.

So what do you do now?

HOW do you make an End?

Fairytales and Myths were my foundational reading, so they became my base model for how a story should finish. Fairy Tales have Symmetrical Closure, they end where they began, making a nice tidy 'Karmic' loop.

The lost find their way.
The wicked are punished.
The weak become strong.

This doesn't mean ending a story in the location it began, or that full irrevocable transformations don't happen, but that the story ties the knot to the Emotional or Karmic place they began. Monsters are faced, emotional hang-ups are dealt with, and problems are solved. What is begun - finishes.

It sounds perfectly simple, and it can be, however I despise stories I can guess the ending to, so naturally, I refuse to write them that way. (Insert evil snicker.)

The Wrong direction is the Right direction!

I prefer to write stories that throw the reader completely off the obvious path, straight through the center of the village, and force them into the deep dark woods. I deliberately make every straightforward solution unbelievably problematic!

The obvious answer is the wrong answer.
The simple solution is impossible to accomplish.
What seems to be a easy task has impossible if not fatal complications.

Once the reader has been sent careening off into territory they never expected to go, and gotten utterly wrapped up in a plot they never expected - that's when I start tying up ends by way of pulling rugs out from under the reader's feet.

Characters reveal motives that change how their base characters are perceived.

The obvious bad-guy isn't the bad guy, he's AFTER the bad-guy. However, he's completely ruthless in his hunt, which is what made him seem like the bad-guy in the first place.
The bumbling fool that merely wants to help improve his fellow man, is in fact completely deranged sociopath that likes to do his improvements with a scalpel.
The person the main character is trying to rescue, not only doesn't want to be rescued, but in fact resents the intrusion.

Random events and objects are revealed to have unexpected connections.

The gun on the mantelpiece wasn't merely a decoration.
The strange recluse neighbor turns out to be the one person who actually knows what's really going on.

What was accepted as fact is revealed to be something else entirely.

"We're all living in a computer generated dream-world."

And in the process of dealing with all that...

Monsters are faced.
Emotional hang-ups are dealt with.
Problems end up solved.
What was begun - finishes.

The END

"But the story is already halfway written and I have no idea where to go from there!"

Go back to the beginning and figure out what your MAIN Character's Problem was Internally (emotionally) & Externally (plot/quest). If you haven't solved them yet, then that's all you need to do -- solve the quest & fix their emotional issue.

Note: Your main character is the Point of View character most of the story is told from.

"But what do you do if you've come to the end, but you wanna keep going?"

That's what Sequels are all about.
Very simply: Same cast - New Problem -- and new title!

"...too many good books, book series, anime, etc. suffer from
Bad Endings."

Most often, this happens when:
-- A) The author didn't know how they wanted to end the story before they started writing. They just wrote...until they couldn't write any more. (AKA: Writing by the seat of their pants.)

-- B) They planned the end, but painted themselves into a corner by tossing in a major (head/heart/sex) problem they didn't know how to fix before they could get to the end. (AKA: Bit off more than they could swallow.)

How do you
FIX the Problem?

1) Written by the Seat of your Pants.

-- When you've written something by the seat of your pants, the only way to fix it is by stopping cold and figuring out where you want it to end - then adjusting the whole story to suit your ending. This means extensive rewrites.

This also means making a decision.

What's more important to you as an author?
A) The hours you spent writing all those words that got you nowhere?
- OR -
B) Making a story your readers will swoon over, and demand all their friends read too?

2) Bit off more than you can Swallow.
-- I've noticed that this shows most frequently when you have an ANGST plot. Oddly, it also shows up when someone wants to write a sex scene, but never had sex before.

Fixing Sex
- This is actually really easy. READ smut stories. (Watching porn movies gives you what it looks like, but not what it FEELS like.) Make damned sure you read the warnings on each story! Some of this stuff might make you wanna hurl.

Hetero smut - I recommend reading books by author Angela Knight for excellent graphic detailing without making you wanna hurl, and a solid romance with her adventures.
Yaoi smut - go here: Minotaurs Sex Tips for Slash Writers. Read that.

Just, for God's sake, don't copy someone's smut scenes word for word - that's plagerism. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is perfectly acceptable.

Fixing Angst
- This one's tough. If you're trying to fix a serious problem like Grief over lost loved ones begin by Googling 'stages of grief', so you know what your character is supposed to be going through, and follow the advice given for getting over it. If you're trying to fix a heart-ache like a break-up between lovers, the stages of grief still works.

If you're trying to get them back together again - then you have a real problem.

Here in the West, getting back together rarely ever happens in real life because it's just easier to end the relationship completely and not deal with it anymore.

In the East, it's another story entirely. People do get back together because they are tought from childhood that Family and personal Honor is far more important than personal feelings.

Enemies WILL put their personal vendettas on hold until a common enemy is vanquished.
Wives will go back to their husbands for the sake of keeping the rest of the family safe from harm; giving those husbands a chance to make their wives fall in love with them again.

In conclusion...
-- When you have come up with the most diabolical problem known to man (or beast) the only way to fix it is by finding out how other people did it and applying that to your characters. Ahem, RESEARCH. There are literally thousands of help sites for dealing with relationship problems, and even more on how to deal with grief, loneliness, and other emotionally devistating issues.

Hint: Google is your friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net

Plotting Causes & Effects

2006-06-28T01:13:00.000-04:00

Edward Elric
Full-Metal Alchemist

-----Original Message-----
Could you tell me more on "... plotting story points? I can get the big story idea well enough, but I run into a snag deciding the whole causality thing -- A leads to B, leads to C, …etc."
-- Jasmine R

Ah, so you wanna know how to put all the theories together to make a story, do you? (Gee, you couldn’t pick the easy stuff could you?) Okay...

A story’s Causes & Effects, the triggers that lead from one event to the next, comes from your Premise.

The Premise is the theoretical / emotional problem that your story is trying to illustrate and answer. It's the glue that holds the whole thing together. It's the Purpose of your story.

In 'The Full Metal Alchemist':
Edward decided to bring his mother back to life – against the laws of Alchemy. He learned the hard way exactly why you Didn’t do that. His entire story revolves around this massive Wrong Decision that looked like the right decision when he decided to do it.

The Premise for the entire series is Right vs. Wrong.
All of the characters throughout this long and convoluted story are involved in dilemmas of right actions verses wrong actions, and then dealing with the consequences of their decisions.

How to Use this:

Each pivitol Character should represent a different reflection of the Premise - the Story's theoretical / emotional problem.
Each Cause is an event where your characters make a decision in an attempt to Fix their individual theoretical / emotional problem.
The Effect is the results - whether or not their action / solution works, works temporarily, or doesn't work at all.
Those results lead to the Next Attempt at trying to solve their Problem.

How it works:
In 'The Matrix':

Each Character is a different reflection of the Story's theoretical / emotional problem.

Each character is a representation of the story's Premise, Knowledge vs. Ignorance. The meanings behind their Names are the biggest clue as to what facet of Knowledge each character represents.

Each Cause is an event where one your characters makes a Decision in an attempt to Fix their individual theoretical / emotional problem.

Neo the main character, is faced with one problem after the other. Each one forces him to make a Decision. "Do I want to Know, or do I want to Ignore it?" < -- the Premise

The Effect is whether or not their solution works, works temporarily, or doesn't work at all.

When the entire cast is caught in a trap set by the agents, each character makes a different choice on how to deal with the problem.

Neo just follows along. His name means 'New' and he stands for complete ignorance. He has no clue what so ever about what's going on around him.
Morpheus's name means 'Dream', and his dream is that he will find 'the One' whom he thinks is Neo. He sacrifices himself so Neo can escape, choosing to follow his Faith in his dream blindly.
Trinity, named for the great Triple Goddess, (AKA Mother Nature,) makes her choices based on her emotions. She is emotionally attached to both Neo and Morpheus. Unable to choose between them, she freezes in momentary indecision when Morpheus makes his sacrifice.

Those results lead to the Next Attempt at trying to solve their Problem.

To solve the problem of Morpheus's sacrifice, Neo makes a decision based on the Knowledge that the Oracle had given him. He takes responsibility for losing Morpheus and decides to go get him. Trinity also feels responsible for Morpheus's loss, and as second in command of the ship (mother figure to the crew,) she is determined to bring him home. Together, they run to the rescue.

And so the story continued with the next dilemma.

-----Original Message-----
"I know you said you work backwards from your climax, but I don't know how to settle on the climax either. So how do you do it?"

The Climax is where you Apply the RIGHT Answer to the story's Premise, the theoretical / emotional problem.

This works best if you make it the LAST thing anyone wants to do.

In 'The Full-Metal Alchemist':
The last thing Edward wants to do, is leave well enough alone. He is determined to use Alchemy to fix the problem he caused by using Alchemy in the first place.

More on Premise:
The Mysterious and Maddening PREMISE

-----Original Message-----
"What questions do you ask yourself to get yourself moving in the right direction?

To generate a basic Plot, I set up my three main characters...

Adversary –(Antagonist) the one making the most trouble.
Proponent – (Protagonist) the one trying to keep things the way they are.
Ally - Companion to one or the other who is at odds with both.

And I ask each one Three Questions:
1 Who am I, what am I, and what do I do?
2 What do I want?
3 What's the worst possible thing that could happen to me?

The 9 answers to these questions give me the Major turning points for the story. In order for the plot to be water tight, each character must Demonstrate the answers to each of these questions. Leaving any of these out of the story gives you a Plot Hole.

How it works:

In 'The Full Metal Alchemist':
1 Who am I, what am I, and what do I do?
I am Edward Elric and I became the Full Metal Alchemist because I made a major mistake, and now I have to deal with it.

2 What do I want?
I want to restore my brother back to his human body, and get back my missing arm and leg.

3 What's the worst possible thing that could happen to me?
I could find out that the cost to reverse my mistake is measured in human lives.

More on the Three Questions and how to use them:
High Speed Plotting!

More on the Three Characters and how they function together:
When the Hero is NOT a Hero

-----Original Message-----
"I get frozen by the unlimited places I could go to from the start..."

Hell, so do I. LOL! I try to choose the one direction no one expects, the one thing that hasn't been done, or the one action that seems most likely to fail. I like surprising my readers.

-----Original Message-----
"What's the specific place that's the most exciting and most engaging for the reader?"

The Darkest Moment - the story's Reversal.

This is the place where everything falls completely apart and the Main Character crashes and burns. It is the character's moment of total failure that forces them to face the real solution to their emotional / theoretical problem -- and make a decision:

Give up & die...
Refuse to admit that they were Wrong -- and ignore the solution to their emotional / theoretical problem.
Admit they were Wrong -- and act on the solution to their emotional / theoretical problem.

In 'The Matrix':
This story's darkest moment is when Morpheus sacrifices himself to let Neo escape. The rest of Neo's decisions and the story's entire plot, hinges on this one moment.

In 'Constantine':
This story's darkest moment is when the leading heroine decides to reawaken her denied psychic abilities -- instantly making her a target for the story's main villain. If she hadn't awakened her latent talents, she would have been useless to the villain.

In 'Leon the Professional':
The story's darkest moment is when young Mathilda realizes that she can't shoot the villain dead, she just doesn't have it in her to kill -- and then the villain recognizes her as the one that got away.

The Answer to the Premise -- is the story's actual pay-off. This is what the Reader has been waiting for.

Everybody is looking for solutions to their personal issues.

"How do I deal with a sucky job, and a boss I seriously loathe?"
“How do I know if someone is worthy of of my love?”
"How do I handle my family issues?"
“How do I deal with the monster in my closet?”

Ever hear the phrase: “People are People”? No matter who they are or where they live, human issues Never change. "People are People." Embrace this phrase, love this phrase, use and abuse this phrase! THIS is the key to fiction people WANT to read.

Sure you could be writing a Horror or a Fantasy, but the people in your horror or fantasy should STILL be dealing with the same issues everybody else deals with:

Sucky bosses - How do you think Saruman really felt about working for Sauron?
Love interests - Arwen's dad did not approve of her scruffy human boyfriend.
Family issues - Eowen of Rohan had to deal with a senile dad PLUS several bossy older brothers.
Monsters under the bed - Ringwraths & Orcs. Need I say more?

No matter how fantastic or unusual, people STILL suffer from the same issues.

That's what the Darkest Moment of the story does, it forces the Main Character to realize the answer to their personal problems -- offering a solution to your Readers' problems too.

Caution! Don't leave anybody Out!
All three characters (Proponant, Ally, Villain) should have a Dark Moment that occurs in somewhere in the story. That dark moment is what leads them to a pivitol decision which then rolls straight downhill into the Climax - the big confrontation between ALL the main characters.

The Climax's deciding factor?

The Villain’s INABILITY to Change enough to make the Right Decision is the reason WHY they LOSE.

The Hero Crashes, Burns, Learns from his mistakes, and Rises Again.
The Villain merely Crashes and Burns. He does NOT learn from his mistakes. He does Not rise again.

And the Ally?
Traditionally, the Ally knew the right answer all along. Because of this, they were often instrumental in triggering the Crash & Burn for both the Hero and the Villain, as the victim of one or the other's bad judgment. (Sometimes the victim of Both.)

In 'The Full Metal Alchemist':
Aphonse Elric knew all along that some things should be left alone, but his devotion to his brother Edward allowed him to join in on his brother's Bad Decision to raise their mother from the dead with a forbidden spell. And so he became a victim of the story's Hero -- his brother Edward.

This of course, triggered Edward's next decision -- to rise from his ashes and become the Full-Metal Alchemist.

Hope that helped Jaz!

Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crossing Genres

2006-04-29T17:33:00.001-04:00

(Sin City ~ A perfect example of a Romantic Horror)

When it's MORE than Just a Fantasy

Every genre has core elements that make that genre that genre. In order to Cross Genres properly, you need to know each of your genre’s distinctive elements and make them Equally Important in the story.

Simple, no? However...

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in every genre of fiction: IGNORANCE.

“Most of the common mistakes come with any writing that isn't so good—bad characters, bad plots, bad writing. The ones which are peculiar to alternate histories (fantasy and sci-fi) are bad research and bad extrapolation.”
-- An Interview with Harry Turtledove

How do you expect to cross genres properly if you don't even know the genres you're working with? Contrary to popular belief, even if you're writing pure Heroic Fantasy, just making it up as you go is NOT good enough!

On writing Heroic Fantasy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“…The consequence of making that assumption [research is not necessary for a completely made-up world] is, inevitably, a sleazy product. It may be bought by an editor hard up for material, but it will carry none of the conviction, the illusion of reality, which helps make the work … memorable. At best, it will drop into oblivion; at worst, it will stand as an awful example. If our field becomes swamped with this kind of garbage, readers are going to go elsewhere for entertainment and there will be no more…”
-- On Thud and Blunder by Poul Anderson

Genre Ignorance

Genre ignorance is where the author writes a story in a genre they know nothing about.
Examples:

Someone writes a Historical Romance, when they’ve never read any Romances.
This shows up as a beautifully detailed Historical with barely a drop of real Emotional Passion. They would have been better off writing a Historical Adventure.

CLUE: It’s all about the Relationship. Really.

Someone writes an Erotica story, when they’ve never read any real Erotica.
This shows up as a sloppily detailed journal entry written in first person POV, and present tense, with lousy grammar, and no emotional content beyond amazement. Even worse, the descriptions involve actual numbers and letters. "She was 5'6" and a DD." They would have been better off writing a Xenthouse Letter.

CLUE: It's not: "The characters had SEX." It's: "The CHARACTERS had sex."

Someone writes a Sci-Fi, when they’ve never read any Sci-Fi’s.
This shows up as a beautifully detailed Adventure, with hardly a drop of real Science anywhere. These stories are normally labeled Futuristics, as the only Sci-Fi they have going for them is the Setting. They would have been better off writing a Western, or a High Seas adventure, a historical War story, or just about any other kind of Adventure you can think of.

CLUE: “If you can take the Science out of the Fiction and still have a viable story in another genre, you did it WRONG.” -- Isaac Azimov

Someone writes a Gothic, when they’ve never read any Gothics.
This shows up as a beautifully detailed Romance, with hardly a drop of deep dark Emotional Issues anywhere. They would have been better off writing a Historical Romance.

CLUE: It’s all about the Angst. Really.

Someone writes a Mystery, when they’ve never read any Mysteries.
This shows up as a beautifully detailed Adventure, with a barely real criminal and hardly a drop of a real Investigation anywhere. Or worse, the readers KNOWS “whodunit” by the end of the fourth chapter because the author was foolish enough to give “whodunit”, a Point of View.

HELLO ~ ! The point of a Mystery is to keep the Reader guessing the answer to “whodunit” all the way to The End!

Why? Mystery readers read Mysteries to match their wits against the Author’s. If they guess the answer too quickly, the author has done the worst thing they could possibly do to their reader – DISAPPOINT them. They would have been better off writing a Suspense adventure.

CLUE: The easiest way to keep the reader guessing is by staying in ONE POV from the beginning of the story all the way to the End.

Planning to write a Vampire Romance or Vampire Erotica?

WARNING! ~ Most hard-core vampire readers won’t touch a Vampire Romance or a Paranormal Romance, or a Gothic Romance for that matter, with a 10-foot pole and they're damned choosy with their Vampire Erotica too.

Why not?
~ The Vampire reader is a Purist, and more often than not, Goth. To the hard-core Goth crowd, Vampires are more than mere entertainment they’re an Icon, and very often, represent a personal obsession with DEATH.

To put it bluntly, these readers have read just about everything there is to read about them – fiction and non-fiction, as well as the classic Gothics. These folks have VERY intimate knowledge about anything and everything to do with vampires and Gothics, so it’s blatantly obvious to them, when an author hasn’t done their research on Vampires, or know what Gothics and Horrors are really about.

CLUE: To a vampire obsessed Goth, a vampire has meaning, and ANGST. They want their vampires to be VAMPIRES brooding over the nature of Life and Death, not just a hot guy with Teeth.

On the other hand, the die-hard Romance reader is perfectly happy with a romantically inclined hot guy with Teeth – but you better get the Romance right! Erotica readers are also cool with hot guys (or girls) with teeth, but they're reading to Get-Off, so the characters had not only better be attractive, the sex had better be explicit.

And that’s just Vampires. Fantasy and Science-fiction have their share of fanatical purists too.

The easiest way to FIX the Ignorance problem?
RESEARCH!

There’s no excuse for Lack of Research. If you think the readers won't notice, you are sadly mistaken. I can't tell you how many readers have come to me because they looked up an obscure little fact I tossed into a story and were astonished that I was Accurate. Avoid hate-mail, do your damned research, and do it BEFORE you write.

The advent of the Internet has made looking anything up a freaking breeze. Anything you could possibly want to know is up on somebody’s website somewhere. Google.com is your friend, seriously. USE IT.

"What has all this to do with Crossing Genres?"

Well, before you can combine two genres, you need to KNOW the two genres you're working with because BOTH of them must be equally important in the story to BE a Cross-Genre.

The Rule of Cross Genre Fiction:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“When you Cross Genres, if you can take either genres’ identifying elements out of the Fiction and still have a viable story in the genre that’s left – you did it WRONG.”

The Genres
(Broken down to their simplest common denominators)

Character driven = Drama
Gothic – mysterious circumstances caused by repressed/hidden issues
Romance – intimate circumstances caused by love issues
Horror – life and death circumstances caused by despair/madness/hate issues

Premise driven = Consequence
Science Fiction – scientific elements and human values
Fantasy – fantasy elements and mythic values
Paranormal – supernatural elements and Karmic values
Erotica – sexual elements and emotional values

Setting driven = Exploration
Contemporary – set in the present-day
Historical - set in the past
Futuristic – set in the future
High Fantasy – set in the Mythic past

Plot driven = Action
Mystery – a crime and investigation quest
Suspense - a contemporary heroic quest
Adventure – a heroic quest
Sci-Fi - a futuristic heroic quest (space opera)

Okay, there you go. You now know what makes each genre tick. What’s next?

Let’s play: Mix and Match!

Take any genre from one of the four drives, and another genre from any of the Other three drives, and put them together.

Plot driven = Action
Setting driven = Exploration
Premise driven = Consequence
Character driven = Drama

“What if I wanna use two genres from the SAME drive?”
Go ahead, be my guest, but you’re going to find it a little tough to match some of them. On the other hand, the three DRAMA drives work fine paired up with any of the other DRAMA drives. Go figure.

All right, once you’ve picked your two genres, simply use ALL the elements of BOTH and you’ve got a perfect cross genre.

Premise driven = Consequence - Science Fiction: scientific elements and human values
+
Character driven = Drama - Gothic: mysterious circumstances caused by repressed/hidden issues

= The Matrix - A Gothic Sci-Fi

Let’s define The Matrix:
Scientific elements = Computer Generated Reality and Villains
+
Human values = Knowledge verses Ignorance < -- Premise
+
Mysterious circumstances = Strange coincidences that couldn’t possibly be Natural
+
Repressed/hidden issues = The True nature of Reality

Get it? Wanna do it again?

Premise driven = Consequence - Paranormal: supernatural elements and Karmic values
+
Character driven = Drama - Gothic: mysterious circumstances caused by repressed/hidden issues
+
Setting driven = Exploration - Contemporary: set in the present-day

= Constantine - A Paranormal Gothic

Let’s define Constantine:
Supernatural elements = Demons and Angels
+
Karmic values = Actions verses Motive/Intent < -- Premise
+
Mysterious circumstances = A sudden increase in demonic activity.
+
Repressed/hidden issues = Faith
+
Set in the present-day = New York City

One more time!

Premise driven = Consequence - Romance: intimate circumstances caused by love issues
+
Premise driven = Consequence - Horror – life and death circumstances caused by despair/madness/hate issues

= Sin City - A Romantic Horror

Let’s define Sin City:
Because we used Two Premise driven genres, we ADD the premises together, as well as the circumstances.

Intimate circumstances + Life and death circumstances = Sex and Murder
+
Love issues + despair/madness/hate issues = The insane lengths one will go to when in Love. < -- Premise

Got it now?

Ruling Elements

Many cross genres are ruled by one genre or the other. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it frequently is. For example, Romance tends to outweigh any other genre its paired with. Why? Publishers' insistence. Romance readers outnumber all other readers ~ EXCEPT Mystery readers!

By the way, the genre Romantic Suspense was originally an attempt to grab some of the Mystery readers. (Increased Readers = Increased Profits) Unfortunately, Mystery readers tend to be Purists. They read Mysteries for the Puzzle the story represents and for no other reason. While they don’t seem to mind a bit of hanky-panky in their stories, they will NOT put up with a story that they can guess in a few chapters, or a story that isn’t actually focused on the Mystery to be solved.

Romantic Suspense failed at grabbing the Mystery readers completely BECAUSE their stories weren’t True Mysteries. See what I mean about Genre Ignorance?

However, adding a PLOT to a Romance made the genre a hit with the Romance readers, who had gotten very, very bored with only Historicals or Contemporaries to read.

Oddly enough, this discovery of adding a fully functional plot to a Romance, plus the rise in interest in Women's Erotica via the "Black Lace" novels and the Red Sage's "Secrets" anthologies, led to the birth of another whole genre:

Erotic Romance

The big secret behind the overwhelming popularity of Erotic Romance is neither the Romance nor the Erotic elements, but the fact that there’s a THIRD genre in the mix. This third genre is the PLOT that ties the Romance and the Sex together.

Which genre? Any of them, each of them, ALL of them. Erotic Romance is a genre of Cross-genres.

Romance + Erotica + Genre = Erotic Romance

Romance + Erotica + Sci-Fi = Erotic Sci-fi
Romance + Erotica + Fantasy = Erotic Fantasy
Romance + Erotica + Mystery = Erotic Suspense
Romance + Erotica + Pulp Fiction = Erotic Romance
Romance + Erotica + Horror = Erotic Horror

What made this Genre of Cross-genres so hot a sale? Contrary to popular (Publisher) belief, Romance readers are NOT purists. As long as there’s a sexually-explicit Romance and a vaguely Happy Ending they’ll take any genre it comes in.

At this point in time, the only deciding factor between one cross-genre of Erotic Romance and the next is the Author’s Skill, seriously. A skilled Erotic Romance author can make ANY cross-genre of Erotic Romance profit.

In Conclusion...
-- To creature a true Cross-Genre, ALL the genres involved must be equally important in the story to BE a Cross-Genre. However, doing it Wrong doesn’t mean it won’t get published. It just means you “missed the point” of crossing your genres.

I’m firmly of the opinion that if you’re going to do something, do it RIGHT. Why? Because if you do it Wrong, and someone else does it Right, guess who’s gonna grab all the readers?

Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: As with all advice, take what you can use and throw out the rest. As a multi-published author, I have been taught some fairly rigid rules on what is publishable and what is not. If my rather straight-laced (and occasionally snotty,) advice does not suit your creative style, by all means, IGNORE IT.
Morgan Hawke
www.DarkErotica.Net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Morgan ~ a Cover Letter?!?

2006-04-29T03:03:00.000-04:00

Morgan Hawke
~ Mad, Bad, and Dangerously in the Know!

----- Original Message -----

"Dear Morgan,
-- The submission guidelines specifically request that you include your writing background in the cover letter.

What should you say when you have NO writing background? Do I just say: "I have no writing background, this is my first book." Or should I write something flowery that sounds good, but pretty much states the same thing?"
-- Aspiring Author

Dear Aspiring...
-- What do you tell your potential Publisher?

The blunt TRUTH.
Beating around the bush may be polite in some circles, but it's not a good idea when you're dealing with an Editor. They don't have time to plow through a hunk of text to find out if you're a Name Brand author or just fresh new talent.

Your cover-letter is, in fact, a snap shot of YOU, as much as it is the book you want them to look at. Polite never hurts, but flowery will only make the editor reading your letter expect a very verbose novel -- something that's going to take a ton and a half of editing to weed out all the extra fluff.

Honesty is Always the Best Policy.
Padding, or Embroidering your credentials is also a Bad Idea. This is the Age of the Internet. The truth about your publishing credits, or your lack of them, is not something you can hide for long.

Also, the person reading your manuscript is an Editor. Whether they work for a magazine or a publishing house, you can be rest assured that YOUR Editor has seen THOUSANDS of manuscripts from rank beginner to polished professional. They will know in One Glance how much writing experience you actually have.

The last thing a potential Publisher wants working for them is a Lia... Ahem... Someone that is Less than Honest.

Cover Letter Format:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Good afternoon Mr. (LAST name of the editor you are (e)mailing, this letter to),

This is who I am, and where I live. This is where I heard about you.

I would like to offer you my book, My title, at this word-count length/this many pages. Whether or not it's ever been published before.

This is how much experience I have writing. (Newspapers, magazine articles, story post sites, fan-fiction, and contests count.)

My book in detail:

My title
The story's genre
My log-line

My book blurb.

My first three chapters and my detailed plot synopsis can be found on the following/attached pages.

This is how much I would like to work with you, and how willing I am to take what editing help I am offered.

Very Sincerely,

My REAL Name
My Pen Name (if you're using one)
My email
My phone number
My websites (ALL of them)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(And for Pete's sake -- Don't forget to SPELL CHECK your Letter!)

Okay, what DIDN'T I put in there?
My life history, my family life, my job, anything embarrassing, anything self-loathing, anything that might make them think I wouldn't be absolutely positively devoted to writing for them, anything that might make them think I wouldn't have the TIME to write for them.

In short -- Only what they ASKED FOR in as short, and tight, and Professional a fashion as possible. If they want anything Personal, they'll ASK.

Think of your Cover Letter as a Job Interview cuz guess what? That's exactly what it is.

Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smut-Writer - and Damned Proud of it!
Want answers to YOUR questions about writing & publishing?
Ask: Dear Morgan
(Fair Warning ~ Don't Ask if you don't want to know!)

An opening Hook?

2006-04-05T00:56:00.000-04:00

(cover to Assassin Apprentice)

-----Original Message-----
"We constantly hear people talk about a hook. I was just wondering, how important is an opening hook? How close to the opening does it have to be? Seriously, how many people pick up a book or story and put it back down after the first sentence or paragraph? Do we have some forgiveness here? I would think that a published, well known author might not need one."
-- Writer in Waiting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let’s break this down and tackle each, one at a time.

"I was just wondering, how Important is an Opening Hook?”

How important? Vitally important.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"57% of new books are not read to completion. Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased."
--Jerrold Jenkins
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This means you have 4500 words to hold your reader -- AFTER they buy your book.

However ~ in order to GET someone to buy your book, most potential readers decide what books they’ll purchase by:

Cover Art*
Back Cover Blurb
Inside Excerpt
First Page (first 150 words)
Last page (A LOT of buyers will not buy a book with an Unhappy Ending no matter how good the meat of the story is.)

-- In that order.

If your first page is dull and boring, you’re more or less screwed.

Note on Cover Art – Although it is the first thing assessed by a potential buyer, Cover Art actually carries far less weight in the final purchasing decision than any of the others. Cover Art is merely a tool to catch the eye and make the buyer pick up the book for consideration.

Most readers have learned that few covers actually have anything to do with what the book is about, so if the cover art stinks, but the rest is interesting, they’ll buy it.

“How close to the opening does it have to be?”

To GET them reading, your hook should be on the first line of the first page.

To KEEP them reading, you should have a hook at the end of every single chapter.

“Seriously, how many people pick up a book or story and put it back down after the first sentence or paragraph? Do we have some forgiveness here?”

Survey says…!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“As a reader I generally give a new book (before I've bought it) the first paragraph to get my interest, sometimes less. I'll almost always put down a book that starts with a description of landscape, as lots of fantasy seem to.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“As a reader, I always open the book to the first page and start reading (in a book shop before I buy the book). If the writing style is awkward, or the wording is boring, I'll put the book down and keep looking.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Weather report beginnings are a turn off for me. But something subtle, interesting, or thought provoking, in the first paragraph is enough to keep me reading, for a while.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“I'll only grant ‘forgiveness’ to an author who has entertained me in the past, and even then I'm not all that lenient.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most if not ALL potential buyers have only one interest when buying a book to read: PERSONAL ENTERTAINMENT. If the reader is not grabbed on the first page, your book goes back on the shelf in favor of one that DOES grab them.

The only books allowed to be dull and boring on the first page, are text books designed strictly for education. (They’re expected to be dull and boring.)

“…I would think that a published well known author might not need [a hook]."

Being published and well known does NOT mean that a reader won't put a book down that doesn't interest them, and there are ALWAYS people that have never heard of you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If a book is going nowhere after initially getting my interest, I'll stop reading, and never pick up another book by that author again.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“If I'm not ‘into’ it after 15 pages I usually give up.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It's the author's job to keep me interested from the very first line to the very last, because if they can't, there are plenty that can and I'd rather be reading their books.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Never forget! Your book is in direct competition with every other book in that store, therefore you should avail yourself of every trick you can think of to Get that Reader – and then Keep that Reader.

“What is a HOOK anyway?”

Very simply, it’s what makes the reader turn the page. It’s the Mysterious Circumstance, the Precarious Situation, the Horrible Turn of Events, etc. that drives the Reader to Keep Reading to discover: “What will happen NEXT?” More commonly known as: SUSPENSE.

There is a Reason why MYSTERIES are the Number One selling genre – they keep the reader guessing right up to the last page.

“But I’m not writing a Mystery!”

So what? I don’t write mysteries either, but I do have a Mysterious Circumstance, a Precarious Situation, a Horrible Turn of Events -- a hook -- at the end of every chapter. And I never give anything away until the last possible second.

“But what if I'm writing Literature?
They rarely (if ever) have hooks?”

Once upon a time they didn't, (like 10 years or more ago.) They DO NOW or they don't get past the publication editor. A book without an opening hook certainly won't make it past an agent.

These days agents and editors ask for Partials manuscripts, that's 60 pages - 4 chapters - not whole manuscripts. Not a whole lot of room to impress someone. What they DON'T tell you, is if you don't hook them on the First Page, they won't even bother reading the REST.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Publishers toss Booker winners into the reject pile
They can’t judge a book without its cover.
-- Jonathan Calvert and Will Iredale
The Sunday Times, London UK, January 01, 2006
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Publishers and agents have rejected two Booker prize-winning novels submitted as works by aspiring authors.

One of the books considered unworthy by the publishing industry was by V S Naipaul, one of Britain’s greatest living writers, who won the Nobel Prize for literature.

The exercise by The Sunday Times draws attention to concerns that the industry has become incapable of spotting genuine literary talent.

Typed manuscripts of the opening chapters of Naipaul’s “In a Free State” and a second novel, “Holiday”, by Stanley Middleton, were sent to 20 publishers and agents.

None appears to have recognized them as Booker prizewinners from the 1970s that were lauded as British novel writing at its best. Of the 21 replies, all but one were rejections.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read the Entire Article

In Conclusion:

If you expect your manuscript to get past an agent, or a publishing editor, you need to make your story engaging, and compelling to read at the Opening Line.

If you want to make your READERS ask for More, you you need to make your story engaging, and compelling to read, from Opening Line to the Closing Chapter.

Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raping Plots!

2006-03-06T08:51:00.000-05:00

(A Gothic Romeo & Juliet)

Originality is Overrated

When designing a car, why stop to reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done all the research and done it better?

Why work when you don’t have to?

Why struggle trying to find a good story, and interesting characters, when the data on what people already like is right there in front of us?

When it comes to figuring out what is popular in a story, Hollywood has streamlined just about everything: plot, setting and character. A quick perusal of the top box office hits tells us point blank what stories the general public liked Best.

TOP 10 AMERICAN FILMS
(of all time)

1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
2. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. E. T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
5. The Ten Commandments (1956)
6. Titanic (1997)
7. Jaws (1975)
8. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
9. The Exorcist (1973)
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

The TOP 10 AMERICAN FILMS
for 2006

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Historical Fantasy PG-13)
Night at the Museum (Suspense/Fantasy PG)
Cars (Contemporary Fantasy G)
X-Men: The Last Stand (Contemporary Fantasy PG-13)
The Da Vinci Code (Mystery/Suspense PG-13)
Superman Returns (Contemporary Fantasy PG-13)
Happy Feet (Fantasy - G)
Ice Age: The Meltdown (Historical Fantasy G)
Casino Royale (Action/Suspense PG-13)
The Pursuit of Happyness (True-Life/Inspirational PG-13)

What does this list tell you?
In 2006, the viewers preferred Fantasies and Happy Endings; specifically with clearly defined Good-Guys that did good things for bad reasons & Bad-Guys that did bad things for good reasons. People wanted ESCAPISM and HOPE.

Why Not take advantage of all that plotting & character foot-work and write what people are already looking for -- only Better?

Ransacking & Renovation

Take a look at your personal DVD movie shelf. I bet there’s a whole bunch of movies that are (in your personal opinion,) ALMOST perfect. Stories that Could have been perfect but fell just a bit short; stories with tons of potential just waiting to be told properly.

Plots that could have used one more twist.
The tragic ending that could have been happy.
Secondary characters that should have had their own story.
The Heroine the Hero should have preferred.
The Regency Romance that would have made a better Sci-Fi.
The Hero from one story that would have done better with the Heroine from another story entirely.
The TSTL Heroine that should have been Kick-ass.

So, DO IT. Yank them off your movie shelf, and write them better. Figure out the flaws in all those stories, and FIX them. Once you've changed the setting, the genre, the characters’ appearances and their personal backgrounds… Voila! ~ Instant Brand New ORIGINAL Story!

How simple can you get?

“Wait a minute!
Isn’t that STEALING?”

-----Original Message-----
I'm sorry but I think that's just wrong. Apart from copyright infringement issues it seems creatively sterile to me. I realize that every story ever told has already been written but to deliberately steal other people's ideas leaves me with a very nasty taste in my mouth.
-- Concerned about Copying
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Concerned,
- What is so terrible about finding a way to make what’s been proven to work, something already popular, something “Tried & True” – into something fresh?

Borrowing whole plots didn’t stop WEST SIDE STORY the Broadway play, (a direct and unashamed ‘Romeo & Juliet’ rip-off,) from being a tremendous hit, or the Broadway play CAMELOT, (a rip off of TS Elliot’s ‘Once & Future King’) or MY FAIR LADY, (a rip off of the Greek myth ‘Pygmalion’.)

Seriously, Hollywood ransacks and renovates all the time! There must be a million and one Frankenstein, Dracula, Phantom of the Opera, and Sherlock Holms adaptations. The movie "UNDERWORLD" was openly marketed as a gothic ‘Romeo & Juliet’.

STAR WARS is a carbon copy of Kurosawa’s Samurai/Ninja movie ‘The Hidden Fortress’– including the comedic antics of two highly recognizable ‘Laurel & Hardy’ characters. (For goodness sake, they’re Still in Japanese costumes!)

In case you haven’t spotted it, Walt Disney ransacks and renovates EVERYBODY, and makes a ton of cash doing it too! Just about every single Walt Disney Adventure movie, from BEAUTY & THE BEAST to THE LION KING to HERCULES to MULAN to TARZAN was ransacked from elsewhere. TREASURE PLANET is a very unashamed rewrite of ‘Treasure Island’ – and one of my favorite movies.

The Original Romance?
NOT!

Romance, erotic or otherwise, has only TWO plotlines, so it's kind of hard NOT to follow in someone else’s footsteps. In fact, how can you AVOID it? Really?

The “Happily Ever After” Romance Plotline
(Used in 1001 paperbacks)

The Lovers meet -- and have Issues.
The Lovers' Issues drive them apart.
The Lovers realize that they can't live without each other. "Oh no, it's Love!"
The Lovers battle odds to get back to each other -- fixing their Issues along the way.
He's forgiven, she's forgiven, everybody's forgiven... "I love you!" -- and they shack up together.

The “Romeo & Juliet” Tragic Romance Plotline

The Lovers meet -- and have Issues.
The Lovers' Issues drive them apart.
The Lovers realize that they can't live without each other. "Oh no, it's Love!"
The Lovers battle odds to get back to each other.
He dies, she dies -- and everybody cries over the cruelty of True Love.

The trick to making the well-worn Romance plot original is to ADD another whole Plotline (pick a genre, any genre,)!

Romeo & Juliet + horrific disaster from old newspapers = TITANIC
Happily Ever After + High school in the American 50’s = GREASE

To be Perfectly Clear...
I am NOT saying you should copy anyone else's work.

I am merely suggesting a way to jump-start a story by modeling it after a story that's already been proven to work, through popularity, then make extensive changes to disguise the original source.

As long as you shift genres, change the characters around a bit, and don't use any trademarked names or designations, you won't step on any copyrighted toes.

It’s not what you HAVE.
It’s what you DO with it.

When it comes to making Original Fiction, it’s NOT how unique the plot is, it’s Your VISION of that plot that makes it fresh and different!

Alice in Wonderland + CyberPunk = THE MATRIX
Treasure Island + James Bond = NATIONAL TREASURE
Robinson Caruso + Space Aliens = ET
Romeo & Juliet + the Old South = GONE WITH THE WIND

Hollywood ransacks and renovates, then mixes and matches whole plotlines all the time. Look at all those box-office smashes. What other proof do you need?

In Conclusion:
If ‘ransacking and renovating’ is not something you want to do, GOOD! Less competition for me. If you think I’m a hack for doing so, that’s okay too, but just so you know, I’m crying all the way to the bank – along with just about every top author in the writing biz, and in the movie biz.

It all boils down to your personal choice:

Do you really want to spend your whole life searching for, and perfecting, something Original?
Or do you wanna make money?

I don’t know about you, but I need the cash. I don’t have the time to waste ‘reinventing the wheel’ when so many others have already spent their lives perfecting it. I have books to write and bills to pay.

Morgan Hawke
www.darkerotica.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dark Erotica

Faery Tale ~ A Visual Novel

Creative Narrative - A Description exercise

Modern Fiction Story Structures

Periodic Table of Storytelling

Erotic Plot Generators

Writing Erotic HORROR

The CHARACTER Arc

Advanced Plotting: The CHARACTER ARC

Understanding Plot

The 7 Stages of Grief: Shock &Denial – Pain &Guilt – Anger & Bargaining – Despair & Reflection – Precipice & Choice – Reconstruction & Adjustment – Acceptance & Hope

Why Grief?

What causes ANGST?

The Dead Battery

STORY Stages of the Character Arc

1. Shock & Denial“This can’t be happening to me!”

2. Pain & Guilt“If only I hadn't...”

3. Anger & Bargaining“Screw You!”

4. Despair & Reflection“We're going to die.”

5. Precipice & Choice"Give up or go down fighting?"

6. Reconstruction & Adjustment“Okay, so here's the plan...”

7. Acceptance & Hope“We'll make them regret messing with us!”

"Must I use Grief? " Does my character’s arc have to be so…depressing?”

In Conclusion...

Memory Training

Torrey & the Vampire

RESEARCH is your Best Friend

The Pecular Popularity of sparkly vampires, Pokemon, and other fairy-tale Lovers.

The Peculiar Popularity of sparkly vampires, Pokemon, and other fairy-tale Lovers.

Writing Adventures ~ A Summary

Writing DIALOGUE ~ the Secret to Proper Paragraphing

Plot Devices: Deus Ex Machina or Chekhov's Gun?

Plotting: The Murphy's Law Method

Is your Special Character TOO Special?

Yaoi Writers: Are your Male characters MASCULINE?

BASIC Plotting

The Secret to BOOK PROMOTION

Writing FETISH Fiction

Structure of the GOTHIC Tale

Writing Stroke-Fiction Erotica

Writing the LOVE scene -- as opposed to the Sex scene.

Writing Emotions VISUALLY

Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Romance?

Erotic vs. Erotica - More than just Sex

ENDING the Story

Plotting Causes & Effects

Crossing Genres

Dear Morgan ~ a Cover Letter?!?

An opening Hook?

Raping Plots!

Advanced Plotting:
The CHARACTER ARC

The 7 Stages of Grief:
Shock &Denial – Pain &Guilt – Anger & Bargaining – Despair & Reflection – Precipice & Choice – Reconstruction & Adjustment – Acceptance & Hope

1. Shock & Denial
“This can’t be happening to me!”

2. Pain & Guilt
“If only I hadn't...”

3. Anger & Bargaining
“Screw You!”

4. Despair & Reflection
“We're going to die.”

5. Precipice & Choice
"Give up or go down fighting?"

6. Reconstruction & Adjustment
“Okay, so here's the plan...”

7. Acceptance & Hope
“We'll make them regret messing with us!”

"Must I use Grief?
" Does my character’s arc have to be so…depressing?”