A question for fellow authors.

I consider myself to be a writer who wants to be an author. The transition from writer to author is much, much harder than I thought. I never took a creative writing course in school. However, some of these threads, when considered in aggregate, serve the same purpose.

If I read between the lines, the most important advice, for ME, seems to be to write a story, not a diary entry. A story can use your personal experiences but don't make it personal. That may help the "deprivatizing issues" and subsequent language translation problems. Maybe start writing a story in the common tongue, instead of your own stream of consciousness.

I wonder if it's better to view yourself as a member of your audience, instead of one of your characters. Maybe you have to learn to do both.

Something else that was pointed out in this thread, and I'm paraphrasing, is that indulging in your own private peculiarities may reduce your potential readership much more than you would really like. Something for me to think about.

This particular thread is rife with good advice. This thread has also generated another thread dealing with "crowbarring." I would rather that there was one thread, or even better, one active "Wellred" article we could follow. But if one thread leads to another, than I, along with the rest of the "bourgeoisie", will follow.

Like sbw1900, I want to thank Alef, and all the participants who've taken the time to.offer advice. In the future, I hope to be able to thank many others

Here's how I see the separation:
Write a two page story about a teenager being spanked for coming home after curfew - a spanking story,

Write eight pages about a teenager having a great time.
Insert the two pages about the spanking.
Write five pages about the teenager getting on with life.
That's a 15 page story that has a spanking in it.

I think Goodgulf has given good advice. But it might be easier to apply to what have been described as "Spanking Stories" and "Stories with Spanking". It seems to be a workable template. A way to not get hung up on the process.

I don't know if it works quite as well for "Stories about spanking". Especially for stories dealing more with the emotional or psychological aspects of spanking. Some stories focus on a moment in time. Others may not even have a spanking.

But Goodgulf's advice may still apply. Break the story into parts. Focus (start) on what's important. Build around that. And don't get hung up on the process.

I think this is an interesting observation, and in one sense the answer is easy: You have to do both. The more tricky question is how do you do both.

Writing a story is an act of both creating and communicating. Creating is a personal thing, regardless of whether you invent or recount, and the emphasis is usually on getting things right for you. The problem is that getting things right for you, doesn't necessarily get them right for the reader - there may be too much background material that is only known to you, or (in a story of the kind we are discussing here) too much "special material" that only speaks to people who share your very specific kinks. Still the personal part of the story is important; if you can't get it to work for yourself, it's unlikely to work for anybody else.

So in addition to being a creator, you have to be a storyteller - you have to have an audience in mind. I don't know how specific that audience has to be; in fact, I don't think I know what my audience is, and probably it differs from story to story. Anyhow, the purpose of the audience is to make you aware that you have to communicate - you have to make them see what you see and make them hear what you hear. And here a new problem appears, because it may not be such a good idea to insist that your readers should hear and see everything you hear and see; through the senses we can take in much more that there is really room for in a story. So pick the most significant - the things that make the readers think "Oh, that is really how it is". And if that means leaving out things that you would really like to keep, just remember that you have more stories to write, and that nobody will complain if you take an observation from one scenario and insert it into another story!

Alef is right, you need to be a storyteller, and a creator. I can tell a story, but, I'm not that creative. Something has to hit me just right for me to see the possibilities, and I never know what it might be. A few days ago I saw a video of a group of performers doing the song, "Circle of Life" from "The LIon KIng." I've always loved that song, and this time it gave me an idea for a mother to come full circle as a disciplinarian. So, I'm working on that story now. I think it has promise, which probably means no one will like it.

That brings up another point, the story has to be something you like, that you enjoy. I've written things I thought others would enjoy that didn't really do much for me, and they bombed. So, I've learned, I have to enjoy it first, and take the chance others will or won't.

I tend to work somewhat differently. Mostly, I to get an image of a reason for a spanking, or just the spanking itself, popping up in my mind, from having seen a picture, something on the news or a discussion, or just a thought that surfaces in my head. Then I try to dress up a story around it, painting a plot which leads up to the spanking and then the aftermath. Sometimes it's a bit complicated to find an even remotely reasonable background and then I go for only the spanking in a short story instead. I don't think I've ever in my 400+ stories on site have written a story and then injected a spanking into an already partly completed storyline. But I guess it works differently for all authors. Then again, I experience myself more of a hack than being a real author.

Gloup/glagla

When I first read this, I was rather puzzled as it came from one of the most prolific contributors to the site. Then I read the continuation

and thought "Isn't that what creativity is?" At least it is what creativity is to me; I never write stories out of nothing - there has to be something there to get them started. The creative part for me is taking this little thing that got it started, combining it with other things, welding them together until I get something that looks like an organic whole (sorry for mixing metaphors). It's strange what this welding process can do: I remember one of the Challenges where we started from four images and were supposed to make a story out of them, and where I somehow ended up writing the closest description of my own childhood that I have ever made.

Still I think I can see where Steven's impression comes from, because there seems to be another kind of storywriter that weaves stories out of nothing. I don't think they do, but their inspiration may be of a different kind. A distinction that is sometimes made is between "plot based" and "character based" stories. Like Steven, I mainly write character based stories, and I sometimes look with awe at writers of plot based stories who seem to able to come up with one incredible plot after the other. I can't do that (perhaps because I never try), but I'm sure that even these stories do not come from nothing. There is almost certainly an inspiration there too, although that inspiration may be closer to the inspiration of a chess player or a composer than that of an earthbound character-plotter.

Alef, I understand what you are saying. I have people who tell me that I'm creative, my older brother for example. I don't really see it. I marvel at the things people do. I'm a music lover, nearly all genres have something I'm drawn to. I never tire of hearing the stories of how songs, stories, poems got written. Don Henley of the Eagles tells of he and Glenn Frey sitting at a bar after a concert watching an older gentlemen and his young lady friend as she is just all over him, Henley says Frey looked at him and said, "Just look at those lyin' eyes." Poof, a song, a major hit was born, a song that told a story. I marvel at the ability to do that.

My difficulties stem from authoring a story from one of my fantasies.
When I fantasize, I consider many character and plot possibilities, looking for the right buttons to push and the plot direction to push those buttons from. Then I set the story aside (in my head) and see if the same story comes back to me.
My rule-of-thumb: If I don't remember the story, it's not worth authoring.
An essential element of story writing is that I must be "living" the story as I author it. No stopping for any technicality whatsoever.
So I get stuck in the "possibilities" cycle, but I'm okay with that. I am having a grand time regardless.
Note that I have not posted any of my stories here (or anywhere on the internet) for a couple of decades now. There is your grain of salt.

This is the cycle I would like to be stuck in. Enjoying pleasant fantasies. Unfortunately, getting there is not so easy. My cycle begins with real life. It's usually an event that did not turn out so well. I write it down in all its heartbreaking details. It's usually bitter, terse and sometimes vicious.

Then the "what if" cycle begins in my mind. Even if underserved, I'm looking for a happy ending. It may take me a long time, and a lot of convoluted thinking, to find it. If I'm trying to turn these thoughts into a sharable story, a fiction, I need to make changes.

I may change the location, the time, and the "precise" nature of the conflict. I usually make everyone younger. I move the location to a point in the past that I am familiar with. The names need to be changed to protect the not so innocent. I may change so much, the original impetus is unrecognizable. The end result is that I've used a lot of words, but I've said nothing.

At this point, I'm writing, but not sharing. Except, obviously, on these forums. If Gourmet is adding his grain of salt, allow me to throw some into the open wound.