I have a dear friend who is an inspiration to my writing on here. I doubt I would have continued writing if not for his encouragement and feedback.
He is one of the best authors I've ever read on here, and yet he doesn't post much. Mike McGifford. I've been a writing partner on some of his stories and published a few. I have one of his amazing stories to publish/polish for him after I finish up with my current stories.
He gave me feedback on "Dare Devil Mom" (and all of my stories) and it is really food for thought.
He's only up to chapter four of DDM and the story is about to take a left turn. I usually tease and establish characters in the first few chapters of every story I write.
In Dare Devil Mom, I wrote an unusual main character for me. She is selfless, patient, energetic and she loves and owns her own sexuality. She knows what she likes and she isn't ashamed of it.
She isn't a saint and she has her foibles and insecurities. Her constant need to augment the size of her tits (and she bleaches her hair) is probably on some level a great example.
His first comment is that the kids remind him why he hates kids - always bickering and complaining. That was intentional. I wanted to establish that Tracy's four kids while they get along at times - they also don't and there is some chaos around the house.
When the left turn hits, and she gives them something to bond over it is all going to make a lot of sense.
However, he started talking about the point of the story. What is the goal of the characters?
If you look at many of my stories, they don't have a goal or they start out with one and they don't end up with that goal by the end.
A classic example is Road to Redemption. The Main character feels she is such a nasty contemptible bitch that she wants to be kept under discipline to prevent her from behaving badly. Whether she gets what she asked for or not was never the point of the story. The point was the journey of discovery of whether she wanted it or not.
Another reader wrote to me recently with a fantastic idea. One of my most popular stories is "Do you have a Big Dick, why not?"
This is a direct quote a woman once asked me. She was an aged stripper that was a lot like Betty in the story.
She was basically asking if you don't have coke or money then you better have a big dick, or else why am I talking to you?
In her world, if men wanted her time they had to do something for her. I wrote a story ostensibly about this woman as a mother with two daughters she raised. She was no longer a stripper - she made more money doing webcam stuff with her daughter.
I am not giving anything away by saying that the start of the story is that the story is about a shy boy that has a crush on one of her daughters. He thinks she is shy just like him (and she is at school) but when he comes to her house his life changes forever.
The reader suggested that I write four years in the future where things went.
He said a lot can happen in four years. Think of Germany before WWII and after. This would be a story about AFTER the journey - where did they all end up?
What happened to Justin's little brother and sister who were sort of background characters, now that they are teenagers.
That intrigues me! There is so much that could have happened in four years - but still I am not as interested in what their goal is, as I am in their journey and how along the way - they even change the destination or don't care about getting there any longer..