When I started writing my fantasies I did it because I was amazed by the sense of seeing my own ideas becoming text, words on a paper, combination of letters that made up a story. It became real in a sense, like a real story and that is magic, I still think it is magic.
But there is one side of seeing it as a text, when it becomes a little more real, that is a little scary, too. Things that are ok in your imagination and even very exciting and nice can become more horrible when they become a text.
In my imagination some really harsh things can become quite exciting and even romantic when I disregard the grim reality they are similar too. There is something terribly romantic about being whipped by the grim sheik in his tent and imagining your body turning and moving under the lashes. His cruelty becomes a kind of overwhelming love and your whipping becomes a touch that excites and arouses.
That sort of thing can be quite nice in your imagination but when you write it down and then read it, you become a little removed from it. Sometimes I stumble on the imagery, getting too close to a reality that was never intended but still is there in the words, and I start to think about how cruel a real whip would be on a real body and how immensely brutal and wicked someone has to be to whip another person.
This happens with my own texts and it happens even more when someone else has written it. It doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes I am in the mood, I go with the flow, stay in the imagination, the romantic and arousing, and then it is alright, then it isn't too brutal or too cruel.
It is strange because I can sometimes find someone else's story too brutal when I am fully capable of being as brutal and harsh myself. Inconsistency seems to be the name of the game, when it comes to fantasies.
Does this ever happen to you, dear Reader? I don't think all of you write your own stories but you have your own fantasies.
As a reader, I am never shocked by what I read -- but I do find myself turned off at times, when the author (never you) goes too far, or takes the story in a direction that does not interest me.
ReplyDeleteAs a writer, however, I sometimes get comments that a particular tale or scene is too intense. and yes, sometimes the reader's own imaginings are more intense than my words/images. I ask my reader to take my hand (or to cross her wrists) and let me take her where I will. Control and trust are paramount -- not only in relationships, but in entering another's world through their words...
Janice, I do write a little, my fantasies tend to be gentle.
ReplyDeleteIn my imagination I can get somewhat overheated.
I find myself imagining actions way beyond my capabilities of doing, I often wonder where these images come from.
I suspect something like Freud's Id!!!
It's a cobwebby corner of my mind that I'd rather not visit too often.
Warm hugs,
Paul.
Dear Janice
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how we work through these things in our minds when crafting our stories. I often feel a need to justify things to have some correct reasoning to the situations and relationships and so try not to be tied to that way of thinking.
I find that what is in my imagination is often too dark to bring to the page and when I try I inevitably end up toning it down before posting. I worry of how it will be read, affect people and what might they think of me. Still, as you say it is magic to form the words and bring them together.
As a reader I, too easily, become part of the story, I have always been this way. It can make me have strong reactions and I have learned that when that happens it is best for me to wait a day or so and re-read; approach it in a calmer manner. This helps to be a little more objective.
Then there is my mood. How I am feeling, emotionally, can play a big part in how relate to what I read or write.
I rarely find anything too brutal, certainly not physically. Stories that contain emotional cruelty or injustice I have a hard time with but it doesn't stop me reading them and at some point I will write some if only to see how it 'feels' from the author's point of view.
Did I answer your question/s? Did you ask a question? Sorry, dear, I got a little lost but you know how I can be. *smiles*
Hugs
Mina
Dear Anonymous, thank you for those words. I am not sure I understand really what it means to take someone with me into a story (I loved the crossed wrists...giggles) but to some extent, I suppose, that is what we do. One thing you said made me think. Although stories of this kind are concerned with excitement and arousal and that sort of thing, I don't think that I am aiming at writing a story that is exciting. They are the stories I want to read and there is this added bonus that someone else likes it. I told you I was self centred!!
ReplyDeleteDear Paul, I think you put your finger on it. Although we like, generally, nice things, sometimes the imagination plays games with us and conjurers up things we didn't expect an perhaps are harsher and crueller than we wanted. I think there is power in those images too, though.
Dear Mina, not sure it was a question but I do value your words anyway. I agree that what roams in our heads are sometimes confusing, harsh and hard to understand and that, when writing a story, we tend to try to make sense of it, create an explanation, this is part of the magic, in a sense. Still it is nice to let it flow freely at times, be a little surreal, cruel and just plain strange. I love your words about becoming a part of the story. I do think you are right and I am amazed if that happens with my stories. It is great if someone becomes part of something I have written...smiles. Makes me feel important...grins!
Hugs
Janice
You're absolutely right Janice, as we share responsibility for what we create in the literary field ther is always scope for things to be not exactly as imagined.
ReplyDeleteI also block off the reality of a fantasy from its erotic effects.
This is why I think that written fantasies work, and more extreme things can be written than can be filmed for example.
No, we don't really want it for ourselves, but we want to thinkn that we want it.
You're absolutely right Janice, as we share responsibility for what we create in the literary field ther is always scope for things to be not exactly as imagined.
ReplyDeleteI also block off the reality of a fantasy from its erotic effects.
This is why I think that written fantasies work, and more extreme things can be written than can be filmed for example.
No, we don't really want it for ourselves, but we want to thinkn that we want it.
Dear Ollie, I think you are right, this idea that we want it and at the same time don't want it. I am sure I don't want most of the things that happen in my stories.
ReplyDeleteHugs
Janice