Letoria

Author: Letoria Title: Karen and Laci Summary: Can a 30something recently out lesbian find love with her teen daughter's troubled best friend?  Feedback: greatly appreciated. Fandom: Original! Pairing: FF Rating: Adult+ Warnings: Fingering Minor1 Oral WIP Solo story or chaptered story: Chaptered URL: http://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600107110

My writing process is complex and eclectic mix of sometimes this, other times that, occasionally that thing over there. My "magnum opus", the story I spend 95% of my writing time on, is an ever changing thing. I don't have an overarching design with a very specific end in mind. The whole thing started as a challenge from my wife, We enjoyed reading good lesbian erotica together (I'd read aloud to her, a kind of adult bedtime story), but the problem was, "good" and "lesbian erotica" seemed to be mutually exclusive terms. There were just enough good writers to keep us hoping we might find another diamond in the enormous slag heap if we shoveled enough crap. Finally, she dared me to try writing an erotic story. How hard could it be? I thought. Sure, I'll give it a go. How hard can it be indeed. It all depends in how seriously you take it, and once I got started, I found myself taking it very seriously.
Coming up with an idea wasn't especially difficult -- I've always had stories/fantasies run through my head in idle moments and long drives. I wrote out out Chapter 1 as a way of introducing the characters, how they knew each other, and how and why they found themselves about to become lovers. Once out of the immediate setting (briefly snowbound after a blizzard), I envisioned a series of erotic vignettes. Three Chapters in, the whole thing suddenly morphed into something I never expected. The logic of the thing demanded I go right when I expected to go left. If I went left, a few more chapters and my writing "career" would end, and I'd be able to say I lived up to my wife's challenge. If I went right, the muse Calliope made it quite clear I was getting myself into something I did not then comprehend. The sign at the right hand fork was very clear: "Warning: Here there be beastes and dragons." Going right would send me headlong into a world of mystery and wonder, teaching me harsh lessons on the Law of Unintended Consequences and other arcana. How hard can it be? I blithely said to myself. Ha! Ask a dumb question...
So I went right, and hard as it's been, I've never regretted it for a moment. I found my avocation.
I came into the story with no preconceived ideas of how a story "should" be written. I've pretty much made it up as I've gone along, going with whatever works for a given installment. I'm not, nor will I ever be prolific. I admire authors who can maintain a consistent level of excellence within a large oeuvre. My level of "excellence" is not for me to decide; my output is, and it will never be large. That being the case, I have the relative luxury of being able to write a story where the characters are primary, the plot secondary -- not so much secondary as subordinate.
Knowing my characters in minute detail is the single most important part of my writing process. If I know them intimately (and I do) and I treat them honestly (I try my damnedest), I have a fair amount of leeway in how the plot progresses. I rarely know more than a chapter or two ahead where things are going, except in the most vague sense, but if I trust my characters, I can trust they will show me where they need to go. I don't believe real life is predestined, so in a story driven by characters, I don't feel the endpoint should be predestined. The story's progression flows naturally from the choices the characters make and how they make them.
I tend to use a lot of sub-themes, some more prominent and important than others, but each crucial in its own way. I also like playing around with metaphors large and small.
I try not to lock myself into anything. Generally when I end a chapter, I know what's going to happen in the next one. That said, it's not unusual for me to discover what I thought was going to happen just doesn't work, so I have to be flexible enough to throw out 5,000 words of text if it isn't correct. On more than one occasion, I tossed an entire chapter because it turned out to be all wrong, and if you think that didn't hurt! In the process of writing, I try my best to avoid repeating a word unless I have no choice. Given that the story is at least nominally erotic, describing the sexual action is naturally paramount. I always try to do so with resorting to using F*** unless I have no choice, or if it's what one of the characters cries out in the throes of orgasm. I try to avoid the C word even more studiously, though there are times when, used in the correct context, it's simply the best word available. I tend to write very descriptive -- sometimes minutely so -- and explicit descriptions of what a character is seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, and hearing. I used to have the bad habit of shifting between the two characters views of the action rather than sticking with just one characters POV, unless very clearly delineated. I also have been in the habit of trying to describe what an orgasm feels like, and though I sometimes think I've an OK job, I ultimately believe it's pretty much impossible to do with any justice -- now I'm trying to find ways to break that habit without losing any passion.
These are challenges, and for me, the fun of the writing process is in learning to master the various challenges I set for myself.
Ultimately, to my mind, the most important part of the writing process is summed up in one word: editing. There are, for me, multiple types of editing, from reworking a paragraph during the course of writing, to working over a series of drafts, fine tuning until I'm reasonably satisfied with the end product, to the reading aloud of that end product to my wife. When she gives her editorial approval, I ship it off to two different editors, one for proofreading, the other for content, stylistic, and grammatical editing. Only when I've made my final decisions on whether to accept or decline an editors suggestions do I finally post a chapter on the various sites I use to get it out there to my small but loyal readership. I will generally do seven editing run-throughs before a chapter reaches the point I think it's ready for my wife's critical ear. She's the one editor who can and will be merciless with me, and tell me if something I've written is crap.
In the end, my writing process is whatever works for a given chapter. It rarely flows out of me without effort. I use different tacks whenever needed. Part of the fun -- and writing this story is almost always great fun -- is figuring out exactly what tack works best to achieve my goals.
Well now, I guess I took a relatively simple question and way over complicated it. Too late in the day to subject it to editing -- luckily it's the weekend and I don't have to be up at 5 AM to go to work.
Good night!

I think stream of consciousness as a style refers to the style of writing where you literally record your thoughts without attempting to instill order or conform to normal rules of grammar. Sort of like when you;re thinking to yourself and something totally unrelated pops in before you return to your original train of thought. Kerouac might be an example of that sort of narrative flow, or even James Joyce. It's actually not a bad technique to add some drama with a good internal monologue in that form, and it can make a character really come to life.

You are a wise woman.
I remember as a kid, Dad bought a top end TV (this would be the mid to late 70s), and he still had the thing down in his work shop so he could watch baseball or hockey while he puttered up until he died in the early 2000s. When Mom died a couple of years later, it fell to my wife and I to clean and empty the house. When we got to the cellar, I tried turning it on for the hell of it, and yup, it still worked. Now we treat TVs as just another ho-hum purchase, new model every couple of years, nothing lasts.
And BronxWench, I still have a good many of my old LPs, some of which I'm ashamed of (Leif Garrett?), others are still OK (Journey, Van Halen). There's a very distinct sound a stylus makes when the tone arm drops it onto vinyl that MP3s just can't replicate. Wistful sigh.

Yup, I also managed to figure out the backdoor method you posted previously, which is quite an achievement for someone who until recently thought Android Galaxy was a Star Trek destination. (Ladies and gentlemen, she can be taught! )

Please, accept my condolences on your losses. Losing two loved ones to cancer in one year is a cruel and difficult thing to deal with. Truly, my heart goes out to you. I hope you avail yourself of Hospice follow-up services when you need them.
I very often get asked how I can deal with a job that's all about death. The thing most people don't understand is that it isn't about death, it's about life, a life lived, and a life to be celebrated and embraced. It's about reflecting on the lessons of life, which can then be used to pass on one's accumulated wisdom. It's a wonderful job, and I am most assuredly the one who is blessed for being given the opportunity to be a part of people's lives. May I always remember that.

I took Freshman Comp 101 in nursing school 25+ years ago. That's the sum total of my formal writing education. I'm a pretty good writer. At least I know what a semi-colon is and how it's used, and I know all about paragraphs.
After I graduated nursing school and entered the real world, I immediately learned Comp 101 was utterly useless in writing nurse's notes, which consists of a highly specialized form of writing that values writing in a specific form of shorthand. I also learned that Comp 101 notwithstanding, very few of my peers could write a complete sentence without spelling errors. I used to laugh at the astonishing errors -- things they should have known in 7th grade -- of the nurses who graduated from the four year Bachelor of Science program, which requires several advanced writing classes.
So, does Comp 101 have any value? It all depends on the student's level of motivation and interest, and whether or not the professor/instructor actually expects students to learn. In my case, it was pointless. I learned to write by reading and writing. There are no better teachers.

I imagine what a woman experiences is much the same as what a girl might experience, with less giggling, so I'm game.
First kisses are fun, because you're sort of exploring each other. It's all new and fascinating, to discover the way the other person kisses. Do they thrust with their tongue, or is it a gentle sort of exploration? That sort of thing...
As you kiss, you can feel a lovely tingling working its way through you. Nipples become more sensitive, and begin to peak a little. There's a warm feeling pooling low in your belly, and you might begin to experience a little wetness as your arousal grows. I'll assume hands are busy exploring as well, and those touches are going to intensify what you're feeling. Gentle teasing or rubbing of the nipples, hands tracing the curves of hips and buttocks, or wrapping around a slender waist...
I don't imagine the gender of your partner is going to affect the way you feel as you grow aroused, but given that I have no interest in or desire to sleep with another woman, I can't help you there. But it's your story, and your fantasy, so I say go with it.

Hi,
I'm seeing a couple of things going on. You've posted the second chapter as a separate story, and I'm not sure that's going to work well for you, since the stories won't be linked. Readers will have to go from story to story for each chapter.
We have a FAQ on how to add a chapter here. I'd suggest going into your original story here and adding the second chapter based on the steps in the FAQ. Then you can delete the second story altogether.
Now, on to disclaimers. For Original fiction, we need to see two things. We need you to state that it's a work of fiction, and we need what's called a resemblance clause, something like "Any resemblance of characters to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental." Those are the only two thing we require. You've got that in your second chapter posted as a new story, but the first chapter doesn't have either part, so that would need to be fixed.
I use the following on my Original works: "This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is unintentional. All rights reserved by the author." You can feel free to use that if it works for you as well.