As an experimental author (I say experimental because I'm not sure if I'd exactly classify myself as an author just yet because as of now I'm just messing around with the writing thing) I find that I get lots of messages from people giving me "suggestions" on how the next installment of my stories should play out. Or even ideas for spin-offs for my existing stories. I try not to be a bitch about it, but I find it extremely annoying when everyone is bursting with so many ideas for MY stories. And it's usually from people who don't write stories themselves. I mean I understand and appreciate the enthusiasm and all the support and positive feedback I get. But sometimes I really want to just tell people "Back off! This is MY thing! If you have such great story ideas, write them yourself!".
Am I the only one that gets peeved about it? Or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill and should just take it all with a grain of salt??
░P░U░S░S░Y░ ░I░N░ ░B░I░O░
I remember being extremely creeped out once, when I had someone write to me saying how much they were enjoying my Sex Rehab Diaries series and saying that they had a great idea for a chapter instalment and "would I mind" if they wrote it and published it themselves. Aaaack!!!
He was really nice about it, and definitely said he wouldn't do it without my permission, but it still unnerved me. I'm pretty territorial about my stories and I don't think I'm ready for the fanfic element to come into play. It was flattering on one level, but I definitely didn't feel comfortable letting someone else piggyback on my original idea.
As far as suggestions go - I used to get them (not so much anymore though). I just try to reply back and be gracious about it. I figure if someone has taken the time to read my stories and give me any kind of feedback, let alone thinking about it enough that they came up with their own plot ideas I should be grateful. Having said that, I don't recall a time when requests have ever factored into my writing plans. I'm pretty specific and deliberate with sketches for sequels and series and I tend to do what I feel is right for the storyline.
I must be doing something wrong or sending out a vibe that says I wouldn't welcome suggestions. I don't get any. I don't get that many comments, but most of them are just compliments and encouragement to continue. I probably would get peeved if it happened routinely.
I have had a few people suggest a few ideas, but none I took seriously. Right now, I have a number of stories in various stages of completion. And a list of other possible stories. I have a few stories that are complete as they stand, but I left them open to expansion, one could easily become a book, the other a short story of maybe 10 - 12,000 words. It doesn't really annoy me for people to make suggestion. If I hear a good one, I'll add it to my list
I've had people give me ideas that I do appreciate. At the same time, I'm very territorial and very possessive about my characters and what I write for them. I'm off the wall possessive about the detective I write about. I think when people make suggestions, they are looking to custom the fantasy (which is all good by me). But in the end, the words decide where they will go.
your story..YOURS...i love that u said go write it yourself
exactly
but like i have said..it takes guts to write a story & put yourself out there
so delete the msg's sugar....& keep writing
i for 1 love all the authors here & think you all are very courageous!!
Well, I just posted my first story and poem. I'm curious to see if I get any "suggestions" as I wonder what they would even say. Right now I'm just eager to read a comment... fingers crossed.
I'm new to Lush so please be gentle with me!
Interesting subject which I'll certainly take on board of it it ever happens to me. My own opinion is that it is a bit off if a suggestion is made in the middle of a story/series, as no doubt the writer will have a plan already set out for that story or series.
However, if it is a "from scratch" suggestion then it can only be regarded as a compliment from somebody who likes your work but maybe can't put the idea into words themselves. Whether you would take up that suggestion of a story would be entirely your decision.
Personally I've done stuff for a bondage site where the photographer who runs the site has sent me a set of pictures from a shoot and basically said to me "Put a story to that lot, please" And I had a great deal of fun doing it that way, using my imagination to put a situation to the pics.
On a another level I wrote some stories for an amazing exhibitionist lady called Scarlet Cat, she loved the stories and adventures but we just didn't know what to do with them. Again, those came from her saying to me "OK, I Start off in a bar and meet and old freind and her husband.......go for it"
I would definitely take suggestions as a compliment. The worst case scenario is simply saying "No thanks", on the other hand they could have sowed the seeds in your head for a blockbuster!
Sometimes it's flattering, sometimes it's weird.
I once got a message from someone who wanted me to introduce a character to one of my series, (complete with name, eye colour, pet peeves and turn-ons).
i had someone ask if he could write a kitty girl story, obviously fictional, i said yes, mostly cause i'm too nice... it was weird. in retrospect, i wish i had said no, not cause it wasn't a nice gesture, or bad, just cause it's really sort of... those, of all my stories are so personal. thing was, he was really very polite about it and at the time, after dealing with some messy plagurism issues, i was grateful that he'd at least asked. i just checked, it's still up, tho he hasn't been on the site for 199 days. live and learn. now that i know how i feel about it, i'd politely say NO.
as for suggestions, they don't bother me unless someone keeps pushing them, and i never use them. like Doll says, my stories remain true to themselves, my characters, and what is in my head and i'm flattered that people like them well enough to want imagine them for themselves, but i can't ever see me using those suggestions or ideas.
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
That my dear is called "Fanfiction" when people get so involved with "YOUR" characters they want to play with them for their own mental mind fuck.
Fanfiction is now best known because a certain number one best seller aka "Mommy Porn" was originally a fanfiction story from Twilight.
"Sexual pleasure in woman is a kind of magic spell; it demands complete abandon; if words or movements oppose the magic of caresses, the spell is broken."
Simone de Beauvoir
No, it's terribly annoying.
I haven't had that problem on Lush as I've not yet attracted that much attention, but in my more professional life I find it incredibly tedious. I'll be stage managing a show and one or two of the actors get wind I'm also a writer... oi. Even strangers. I don't even tell people I'm a writer half the time anymore, when they ask about me, and I consider my love of words to be one of my defining features. I get a bunch of ideas for things I should do from people who can barely spell their name, and just as many from other writers. Really good writers sometimes, and I just wonder why they aren't working on their own projects. Then it comes to me: they don't know how. Even good writers have a hard time getting started, and it's easy to have a lot of ideas with other people's work because there's already a framework.
I get that though. I had a somewhat... altering experience some years back and wound up watching a bunch of Harry Potter movies. Then I watched them all (that were out at the time) again after discovering some guy on the internet extended them using the deleted scenes from the DVDs. My whole world became about harry potter for the next month or so. I read all the books (which I had never bothered to do), and had all these great ideas for fanfiction. Got about fifty pages of notes and outlines before I realized I'd lost my mind and floated back toward sanity. The fact that I did that, though, doesn't mean I felt I needed to share all those ideas (which I still think are decent fanfiction material) with J.K. Rowling, nor did I ever attempt to write or publish it. Unfortunately, people deal with those impulses differently. My suggestion is either delete them on sight, or stick them in a special folder of your inbox and come back to them when you're running short of ideas, and issue a "thank you" to a username if you borrow from them.
Sometimes I get suggestions from people who have no idea what the characters are like, what their motivations are, what their habits are, and what their weaknesses are. They make suggestions that just plain don't fit the story. I love suggestions. Even if I never use them, they might give me ideas in other stories, or even an idea for a fresh, new story. When these people take my characters and try to turn them into something they're not, though... that irritates me. Fortunately, I don't have to take their suggestions.
" and "so when are we going to see part 2" and while I cant say I would be pleased with someone taking my story into their own hands, or whether I would use a recommendation that was given, I think I would still be flattered that someone was invested in my story enough that they had thought of directions they would like to see it go.