I have a need for a Muse to bounce story ideas off of. If this interests you, I would ask that you understand what I am asking for. Reading for inspiration and my own experiences often cause me to stagnate. I need a Muse to bounce ideas off of that understands the type of stories I write and to help me zig when I should zag. I need inspiration.
That's not an easy thing to do, so let me provide some background for this job description.
The pay = more stories from Eddie. If that's worthless to you, then you might want to pass on this opportunity. However, it may also inspire you to write. If you've thought about writing but never taken the plunge, the bonus compensation is that I may inspire you. We may mutually expand and benefit from each others experience.
If you are an existing writer and you have read my stuff, and want to collaborate. I am definitely open to that.
I do not expect to write a story back and forth round robin style. As fun as that can be, it can also turn out shitty and even cause problems in a friendship when the story goes off the rails.
I also do not expect you to write a story for me. I do not expect you to edit for me. That's an entirely different post and unrelated. I can always use a second set of eyes on my stories, but what I am asking for is more in the creative story crafting realm.
I do not do external email (for many reasons). I would paste as text into email on SOL and show you a draft of a story. Then I would ask for your feedback.
I told someone yesterday when providing feedback to them on their story "You have to decide who your story is going to be when it grows up."
What I meant by that is that it was all over the place. In an effort to avoid plodding exposition at the start of the story, it had gone the opposite route of just zooming past details that would serve as a foundation for the story. I try not to write like a book report from the 4th grade.
"Hello, my name is Daniel. I am 32. My hair is brown and one day..."
I usually try to pick the most interesting point in the story and begin then and then flashback to how it all began, or just pick a logical starting place that is going to hold a reader's interest. Then I start sliding details into the dialogue that are context clues so that I can tell you things without telling you them.
As an example:
"What's up Katie?"
"Your father and I have been married for 12 years, when are you going to call me Mom?" Katie brushed her long brown hair without looking away from her pretty face in the mirror at her vanity. "And while you are at it, learn to knock! Get out of here, David. I am naked."
Right there, you know that Mom's name is Katie, she's naked, she's pretty, shes been married 17 years and isn't the other character's biological mom. She doesn't want them seeing them naked but isn't freaking out about it. They just seem mildly annoyed.
I know how to tell a story. My general approach is to pretend I am sitting next to someone at a bar and talking to them as the storyteller. I like the "No shit, so there I was..." approach to starting a story.
I can always use help with the actual story telling techniques that I use but this role of Muse really isn't about teaching me to show instead of tell.
It is about helping me to decide what my story will be when it grows up.
It's also not the hardest job. The hardest job is editing.
The HARDEST part of providing content is related to editing. I had a lot of people respond to my request for an editor a few months ago. It was so reassuring. I don't do outside email services (for many reasons) and so i can either paste a draft in email or ask that you read my published story and send me back the chapter and title and the offending phrase with the correction.
Your going to school.
You're going to school.
It's tedious, but it works as a way to fix those things. It takes discipline to set aside time to polish turds and make them shine. I've used VBA, AI, MS Word, Grammarly, Quillbot etc, nothing beats old fashioned eye-ball and brain.
The problem is that I can read it a thousand times and since I know what's supposed to be there, I will miss some obvious things. It's the biggest time sink and creativity killer of them all. I have dozens of stories on what I guess is a story graveyard that will never get published simply because they are too exhausting to edit. I'll tell you my comma splice story in another blog post one day as an example.
So, while I can use help with story crafting techniques and editing, I want to be clear that's not the focus. The focus is creativity.
How to tell a story that is grammatically correct and filled with word pictures that takes the reader on a journey with me and make them see the sights I wrote, smell the aromas, feel the touch of the girl in the backseat for the first time, experience the emotions viscerally are all hugely important.
I could do those things super well and still have a problem. I told myself years ago that I would only write if I read as much as I wrote. This is not to steal ideas from other authors. I might get inspired by an idea and combined with my own experiences and stories I could craft a cool story.
My lifetime of perverted experiences ranging from failures to what-could-have-beens, to times I actually don't think anyone would believe they really happened to me has been my muse.
I worked in titty bars, I have been involved in local BDSM communities, I've been to naturist resorts, I've met hot wives and people who lead kinky lives and had conversations with them that inform my writing to this day. I sprinkle in crazy ex-girlfriends and strippers I used to know to add some authenticity to characters. I've known whores that lived in motels and their daughters and sons told me stories about the reality of what their "normal" is like. I love writing stories about someone's "normal" being different from my normal.
I don't do abuse or tragedy. I had a DEAR friend who has been a muse for years write to me and tell me a fantastic story that sounded familiar. He doesn't get to write very often but no one has been so bang on with their assessment of my writing than him. His story involved a girl who loved to fuck and often arranged scenarios where she'd end up butt ass naked on top of him "Oopsie" even though she was supposed to be a girlfriend. There was more to it, but it's a story I know very well.
The difference is that he pointed out what made her that way was trauma, and so the fun, fun loving nympho has a dark side. I don't do that. I don't get into those types of things. Life is currently way too shitty to write about shitty things.
I might write a blackmail story or some predicament for my characters to overcome, because you have to be willing to crack some eggs to make an omelets. The villain in a story has to get over on the main character initially to make it that much more satisfying when the tables are turned. In Karate Kid, if Ralph Macchio's character just kicks Johnny's ass because he knows Johnny is going to be a dick, it's a different movie entirely. Ralph's character had to get knocked down, so he could get back up. I am fine with that.
If you read my stories, you probably know I am as of light mostly about ENF/CMNF stories but I do other genres. I started a sort of Science Fictionish Twilight Zone story not too long ago. I didn't finish it and the reason is that the muse of my personal experience is not enough.
I also TRY to read as much as I write. SOL is my story home and has been for about a decade now, I think. The latest stories appear on the feed and the older stories get buried. All the great Vulgus stories are buried in the archives. All the amazing stories that would or could inspire me are often hidden away and maybe the story code isn't the right one I was using to find it.
I've drank all the ink, read all the stories that I can find on SOL from the past and currently that allow me to sustain a 50/50 ratio of reading to writing. As AI generated slop becomes more prevalent, I click on a kick ass idea only to read
Jerry Leaned Back, and didn't miss a beat - Ages ago. "It's not about shitty writing, it's about AI, Jerry" he said - with an em dash for no reason.
Hailey's eyes - widened. Breathing -slowed. "We looked upon the moonlight, hearts skipping beats and leaning back in our chairs."
It's just fucking gibberish, man. Fucking stop with the AI writing. Adding that slop to AI is like creating Christian Rock.
In the immortal words of Hank Hill, "You're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse."
I resigned myself to know that many stories will not interest me. I have a very specific taste in stories and I don't do magic, supernatural, or much science fiction. Even the stuff I should like, I do not like because it's quality is so low. The art of storytelling and the editing part is not even good.
I'd like to tap into what you have read for inspiration, your experiences and perhaps together the sum of the parts is more than they are when we work alone. I might say something that triggers a thought for you, or you may have an idea that I do not use but it sends me in a different direction.
I used to have a friend who didn't get BDSM at all. He thought of it more as punitive, and submission was sort of a mental illness. Anyone who gave up control seemed stupid to him or needing help. He assumed anyone who was dominant was a narcissistic villain.
He did not understand some people really get off on doing things for others.
He also did not understand some people are "Smart Assed Masochists". Their submission isn't protocol slavery. They don't want to wash your dishes for you. They want to goad you and tease you until you spank their asses good and hard because they get an adrenaline/endorphin rush and they may not even realize it or see what they are doing as submissive (because it's really not).
He did not understand that some people get off on humiliation. It's a legitimate kink and for those who aren't into giving or receiving it can seem confusing. ENF stories that involve red-faced reluctant nude females. He tends to think of that as cruelty.
I took his questions about the motivations of characters "Why do they get off on that" and wrote a story "The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves."
There were no beatings. I had seen this old Winnebago with that slogan in plastic mounted on the faux-wood walls. I thought it was a clever turn of phrase. He's on the RV with his naughty aunt and cousins and they like to play dirty games when they travel. They each came at it for different reasons.
His character's questions felt authentic. He asked them why they liked what they liked. It was a bit like the old Apple Jacks commercial for them.
DAD: "Why do you like Apple Jacks? They taste neither like Apple or Jack."
KID: "We just like them."
They hadn't questioned the reasons they played the game in a long time. At one point, the mom is jogging back to the RV, tits bouncing, ass hanging out and the girls timed her while she ran to get them an ice cream. She's sweaty and out of breath. "Sorry, the didn't have the flavor you wanted, I got you vanilla is that okay?"
"You should have it," her daughter takes the cone and turns it upside down on mom's head while the other girls laugh at her.
The next day, they take turns being the meanie butt who gives the orders, and the mom starts being assertive and a different girl is the do-bitch. They laugh, have no hard feelings, etc. I say all this to say that the Muse was him. His questions like "Why would they keep doing that?" helped me to make what I felt was a more authentic fish out of water story with him being the straight edge who asks questions and develops a better understanding.
At one point, the mom says "Different strokes for different folks, we all march to the beat of a different drum" and quotes from the old Different Strokes TV show, but her nephew being a naive intellectual type has never heard of the show before. He genuinely thinks she is full of homespun wisdom. I've actually met people like that, and so I mixed my own inspirations with his and I think the story was better for it.
I would like to occasionally send you a draft of an idea.
Often it's sort of a doodle. It's just a vignette or a synopsis of an idea that I am playing with.
All the job entails is actually reading it and giving me some ideas that I may not have considered.
I do not need you to agree with me. I need you to be prepared for me to disagree and be okay with that.
I will do the same in return for you. If you want my help, I will help you whether you are starting out or established.
I may be slow in my responses, but this how I enjoy myself. I try to check the site daily. I may not have a long reply immediately.
I may have to write several chapters and go different directions. I need you to be okay with the fact that I am trying to decide what the story needs to be when it grows up. There are times I want a story to be plausible and feel very grounded in reality. There are times i end up making it over the top (Sailor Moo, I am looking in your direction).
Only a fan of my stories could help me with this. If you aren't into my stories, your suggestions will be more like the guy who doesn't really like my themes.
I also need you to understand, I am not going to ever write trauma or emotional distress. I've met and married crazy bitches. I am aware of crazy bitches. They come in all shapes and sizes. In many cases, it is seriously not their fault at all. However, I Am not interested in writing about human trafficking or anything that makes me feel sick inside.
I will write tough luck, tough love, hard breaks, unfair parents who have different rules for girls than guys all day long.
I won't write suicide or shit like that. I wanted to put that out there.
The reason I wrote this ad in general has to do with a recent story to enter the graveyard.
I wrote a story last night that was good (IMHO). Jeff answered Diane's personal ad "Must Love Dogs" and we discover early in the story that she felt anyone who loved dogs, would be loved by dogs back. Dogs only love good people.
She can't have a dog at her apartment because she lives in NYC and her lease forbids it. I won't spoil it for you in case I do publish it but I will just say that Diane is a home nudist and she has been reluctant to allow a man she is dating to meet her kids (For what should be obvious reasons).
However, one fine July day, it's been six months of casual dating and Diane staying arms-length from Jeff. Jeff is also a single parent with a son (Who is the story teller) that he shares custody with. The storyteller's mom is the anti-diane - very conservative, very vanilla. Doesn't like "too much flavor" in her food. You know the type?
Diane offers to introduce Jeff to her daughters and son, and meet his son at the same time. She suggests the NYC Body Painting day in Times Square.
My plan was to have them think this is a bit odd/extreme but Diane's reasoning is that as a home nudist, if Jeff and son react maturely to nudity it will be safer to bring them over to her house. Storyteller just thinks maybe they should have tried to eat pizza first and go from there, but Diane likes being adventurous because her ex-husband was kind of a dick and anti-adventurous.
I start writing what I think is a fun walk to Father Duffy Square where the event is taking place. I add some bonding moments, and they see Desnudas taking pictures with tourists. This is a real thing at Time Square. It's usually hispanic ladies, big titties, wearing mostly body paint, maybe Statue of Liberty themed. People will often come up and proposition them, offer to buy their sweaty panties, grab their butts while they take pictures, ask to sign their tits. They aren't as common as pigeons but they are as iconic as Naked Cowboy.
Who incidentally, is not naked. He wears underwear with cowboy hats and boots, and one of Diane's daughters points out that is very New York, to say something is one thing but its not when you get there.
I realized as I was writing all this that it's not super exciting and in fact, might bore you. I tacked a short portion from when they first arrive at the festival to the start of the story so that I begin with an exciting and provocative place. You don't know these characters yet and their motivations but it gives me a chance to offer some forshadowing, grab you by the balls and make you realize "Oh, this is going to be an ENF/CMNF story!! nice."
Then I say "It was hard to believe I was being painted by my Dad's girlfriend's oldest daughter just thirty minutes after meeting her."
I transition back to their meeting at 42nd Street station, and start the story proper after giving you a taste of the story.
Once I come full circle to where the story began, I had to jump forward again so that I don't repeat all that. I started to fall out of love with Diane and her life. The reason is that I've written Diane or women quite like her in a dozen other (mostly) unpublished stories and I wasn't feeling it. I lost interest.
The story will likely live on my hard drive in stasis forever.
I actually had a blueprint for this story. It wasn't by the seat of my pants. I wasn't building a house a room at a time and hoping it all fit together. However, as I followed my plan, by morning I woke up uninterested in finding out what happened next.
Stories that I never finish are ones that I lost interest in finishing. I'd have to not only finish it, but edit it, illustrate it, and that is a time sink that prevents me from writing things I do want to experience again through the eyes of the storyteller.
I am not the best writer. I'll never have great and broad appeal. I do not do this for money. I have no interest in selling my stuff. I have interest in writing to enjoy the creation of the story, and to share it with you. I hope that people may one day take my stories like I have with authors like Hooked6, Vulgus, MaryS, Mike McGifford and be inspired to write the way they inspired me.