Desiderius Price

Trying to figure out whether I should give some minor characters names.

I noticed recently in the last 3 stories that I wrote that I didn’t actually give several of the minor characters names. They just get referred to as “naval officer” or “personal trainer” or things like that.

They don’t necessarily matter because they aren’t important. But at the same time I kinda feel like it should work better if I can refer to actual people.
 

Spotted this on AO3’s reddit, an alignment chart for work titles, maybe it’ll help?

Link to post (to credit the artist) https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/16plpw3/i_made_an_alignment_chart_for_ao3_work_titles/

Spotted this on AO3’s reddit, an alignment chart for work titles, maybe it’ll help?

Link to post (to credit the artist) https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/16plpw3/i_made_an_alignment_chart_for_ao3_work_titles/

42725
Behold no palindrome, nor any truly witty extra remarks.

Well, depending on circumstances, you can have OTHER characters talking.  Maybe it’s the radio/TV in the background.  Maybe it’s others around the corner wondering why there’s underwear on the floor.  (Or in some of my works, the characters don’t mind giving a show.) Talking could be important or not, in the end, it’d help break up long descriptive paragraphs.

Wait, you’re telling me that a character shouldn’t be getting off while giving a book report?

Spotted this on AO3’s reddit, an alignment chart for work titles, maybe it’ll help?

Link to post (to credit the artist) https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/16plpw3/i_made_an_alignment_chart_for_ao3_work_titles/

Finish?  That’s heresy… 🤪   More seriously, been trying to focus on finishing things too, so far resisting the urge to start new stories.  Do need to consider if I want to break my writing streak to write up a Halloween story or not.

The long hiatus is something that happened with my potter fanfic.  For about a dozen years, no updates, then all the alerts started to flare up, I’m sure, people going “wait, I alerted on that?”.

42703
wow! good job! 

42701
 
sorry to hear that Des! 

Oh that’s me in so many ways. I’ve kinda gone the reverse.

My first story was supposed to be short and it ended up being a trilogy. But the story I just finished I basically dropped/abandoned probably 10+ years ago. Now I finished it. Gonna write more in the same universe, but not necessarily in this version of the thing.
 

Totally understand that. I’ve had things expanded on many occasions. But I’ve gotten better at actually finishing things.
 

Well, you can always go back and rewrite it! 
Now, I’ve got my originals all in the same universe, so serials, spinoffs, are a frequent thing so I usually do have a way to revisit characters that’ve grown on me.  Luckily on my Potter fanfic, the ending is years away, so I’ve got a while on that one.

Over the weekend I finished off a long term story and it feels really good.

But it’s also weird because I’ve been working on this story for years and took a decade long break in between to write other stuff. Now I’m working on the next piece and I feel weird about just moving forward to the next story and working on new things.

Anyone else feel this?
 

Maybe what they need is better training in things like tantric? This could help with speaking during sex.

In my case, a lot of my stories involve characters who are not directly involved. So there are people who can concentrate while enjoying things.
 

Wait, you’re telling me that a character shouldn’t be getting off while giving a book report?

It’s intriguing when stories/fandoms come up with unique alternatives to swear words too.  (BSG… the original, looking at you)
“Fade to black” is something I practice on my “cleaner” version of my potter fanfic, though you’ll typically find the full scenes in the explicit.  Very useful when you want to show the buildup/circumstances, but want/need to leave the details up to the reader.  Came up with a creative way on one Ron/Hermione date night, having Harry make commentary the next morning on the citations

I’ve done this… it’s fun….

I use profanity frequently in sex scenes, for two reasons:
--My sex scenes are more often about lust than love.
--I’m a great devotee of dirty talk in sex scenes.
On the second point, though, my friend and beta Jomahawk recently gave me some sage advice: If one or both of the characters are capable of speaking full, uninterrupted sentences during sex, it suggests that they aren’t having that good a time. So now I try to be mindful of that.

42674
Yeah, figured you’d fix that @Wilde_Guess.  I know @Melrick loves getting in those 69s!

Totally get where you’re coming from with this.

Personally, I try and avoid swear words and other stuff wherever possible. Usually because my fandoms are on network TV that don’t allow swearing. So I try to reflect the characters I write about as much as possible.

That being said, I have used it but I use it sparingly. Mainly because these type of situations, sex scenes, don’t usually show up in stories on network TV. There’s more often than not a “fade to black” so I can’t be sure they wouldn’t swear during sex.

But again, it’s all about making it work for the character.

An example I use is that I will do things like have an ongoing joke in some stories. Where a character is engaging in some kind of sex act, gets really turned on by what’s being done to them, and they will yell out “Fuck”, which then leads to the another character saying “That’s the idea”.
 

Counted… four orgasms in the last chapter I wrote.  Pretty rare to actually get curse words, or even anything sharply worded, in them.  Profanity’s kinda like a spice or flavoring, like garlic, cinnamon, or vanilla; a little bit goes a long ways.  (Though I do tend to overdo garlic, tend to switch “clove” => “bulb” when I add it in.)

If a writer needs to advertise it’s a sex scene in order to be a “sex scene”, then I’d think something is lacking in the writing.  Now, in certain contexts, a “fuck me” or “bang me” might be indicative of a character’s personality, or maybe there’s a scenario the two (or more) are roleplaying.  (Though, I suppose you could have it be solo, somebody watching a B/C grade porn film.) 
Now, in the sex scenes I write, if there’s profanity, something’s going seriously wrong for the characters, or a copper’s busting them.

Phone sex… or this Ron/Hermione scene I’m working on where I’ve got Ron trying to learn “healing” so becomes more of a “playing doctor” type of scenario.