Three hidden overlaying categories I wished someone had told me about ... (+Story Ideas)

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Hey folks,

I know the title is a little clickbaity sounding, but I honestly can say that these categories eluded me for over a year. Resulting in frustration and even asshole behavior on my part. I am especially pissed of because the categories are appearing so obvious. Yet I somehow I took ages to figure them out and react to stories accordingly.

So what are they:

1. Smut/porn
The obvious first choice and one that gave me a bit of a headache. Some stories are not meant to be deep in plot and story. Sex plays the main part and the TG potion is rather an added bonus.
Less common on FM and TBC the pure smut stories normally find their main outlet on TG related Tumblr caption sites. As with everything that values action (sex in this case) over plot the potential for serials are rather limited.

2. Stories as a fulfillment of a specific fetish.
Those gave me the most headache and brought out my inner asshole critic until I learned to recognize this category. This category has a lot in common with the first one except the action that is valued is not sex, but centers around a specific fetish. Whatever that might be. More often than not the plot takes here a backseat too. Bending it in shape to fit the requirements of the particular fetish. The result is often enough not quite typical-porno-logic, but close enough. One of the more annoying traits of this category is the limited potential for serials. The set up for most fetishes requires some plot (even if set up haphazardly). That plot can be extended to a serial. There lies not the problem. Soon or later a serial with a focus on a specific fetish will fulfill said fetish. If the author doesn't recognize this point they have the trouble to continue a plot that is based on said fetish. That can kill motivation of a writer and I think led to dozens of abandoned serials.

3. Concept-based stories.
The third category has the biggest potential for serials. Why? Concept-based stories put plot and setup first. They may borrow from many fetishes and may contain sex. But neither of those make up the foundation of the story. In fact, if a borrowed fetish loses its attractiveness it can be replaced as not the whole story hinges on it. Because concept-based stories have such great potential for serials they often anger or annoy people if they are used in short solo stories. I wholly admit I think I am a big offender in that area.

I recommend to other writers to keep these categories in mind when planning a story. Be it a solo or serial. In my opinion, each one has an ideal length to bring out the best possible outcome. Number one is best kept short. Two should be medium length and three ... well, go nuts in length.

I wonder what you all think of these categories? Too obvious? Did you overlook them yourself? Let me know.

On to another topic. I promised that I would write down story ideas in each my blog posts. Last week I was too busy to write one so this week I try to make up by posting ten instead of five story ideas. For those of you who aren't familiar why I write those down here let me explain again. I do have a big collection of story ideas. (Reached 175 yesterday -.-). Finding the story idea to write most readers want to read can be tricky. So I post them here to find out if one idea stands out so I can write that one. So if you see a concept you like please let me know.

6. The Coven Of Seven
There is a coven living in a big mansion. Lead always by seven witches. They collect people who have the potential to use magic - if they want to or not - and make them their apprentices. While these people are apprentices they are also expected to fulfill a servant role in the household. The seven witches aren't secure in their position. An apprentice can challenge a witch to a fight. Whoever wins is a witch in the coven and whoever loses will be an apprentice. Many apprentices strife to escape the mansion as the manor has a particular rule: no men. If a magically inclined man is found he will be made a woman first before being gang-pressed into being an apprentice. The question is can they become powerful enough to change themselves back and flee before they succumb to the feeling of being a woman or being drawn into the powerplay of striving for a witch spot in the coven?

7. The Recruiter
There is a woman known as the legendary recruiter. No matter who you need or for what job she can find the right person. Be it for domestic tasks or war. Her method to find these individuals is a carefully hedged secret. But I will tell you.
First, she finds a person who has the knowledge required. She will steal their soul and binds it to her. Making it undyingly loyal. Then she looks for a suitable host body. She switches the souls. The conditioned soul still has all the old memories and skills of their previous life. They also can access the memories and skills of their new body. A combination of both they see themselves as a new person and are rented out to the client as the requested specialist.
The recruiter still has the soul of the second person. This one she reshapes into a loyal whisp. A servant to roam the earth in search for new candidates. But what happens if the recruiter fails to bind the loyalty of a soul to her?

8. Timeshare Bodies
Two decades into the future a devastating plague strikes the earth. Contrary to other plagues this one takes years till it always ends in death. The small glimmer of hope: one-third of humanity seems to be immune.
When a company announces that they can scan and digitalize the human brain into a small chip the government takes action. Every citizen gets their brain scanned and the healthy bodies are to be shared between three people implanted into the body. Each person controls the body for a day before giving control to the next person. Inactive persons can still feel the body and chat with the active person (As well as access internet and such).
The story revolves around a small family. The sister of a boy will share the body of her best friend. Unwilling to be split the sister and friend invite the boy to share the same body with them. A female one. He accepts.

9. The Curse Of The Teenage White Girl
- Claimed by crazypagangirl -

10 Nano-Mayhem
A company is developing nano-tech for plastic(+genetic) surgery. Once a nano-mod is ingested it transforms not only the target area but changes the DNA of the person so the mod is even on a genetic level stable. Then the mod goes to a passive mode for a month. Checking then in if it needs to adjust more or deactivates itself permanently. To fulfill this target the nano-mod can replicate itself by using food the host ingests or even waste products.
One night a group of activists storms the lab. They think these mods are against nature. They want to destroy them all. The servers are easily destroyed. The data lost. However, they run into trouble on how to dispose of the already manufactured mods. Simply pouring them out might be dangerous.
They turn onto the two poor nightguards that got caught up in the raid. Both are made to drink all the nano-mods. The first mod immediately goes to work and changes their body. Leaving the other mods inactive because they lack resources. To go active once they gathered enough. Worse is that the mods block each other. Once one goes active it destroys the work of another mod.
Because the emergency about codes got destroyed the two guards now have to live their lives with constantly changing bodies. They also have a choice to make. Go on a diet to maybe starve out the mods for a time to slow down the changes or eat ravenously to speed over unwanted changes?

11. Copy And Paste
One boy is the successor in a long line of special mages. Those mages can trap (and later release) people in paintings. When they have someone trapped they can repaint them how they like. However, this boy sucks at drawing.
Everything changes when he finds out that opened pictures on his PC count as a canvas. He can't draw for shit, but copy and paste he can do easily. Time to get some revenge on some people.

12. Duel of changes
A powerful being grants two people certain powers to change people. Both have to decide each on a specific stereotype they want to see. The goal: change as many people to be their chosen stereotype.
Of course, both chose different stereotypes and starting powers. If they think a person is ready they can try claiming them. If it works the person is locked into the stereotype for good and can't be changed by the opponent. Each claimed person strengthen the powers they have or grant new ones. Trouble finds them both when they find out they can cheat as powers work on the opponent as well.
Stereotypes could be: sixties-housewife; rocker/punk-girl; goth; bimbo; slut; cosplayer; bdsm (sub or domina); playboy-bunny; and so on ....

13. Dressing up for the government
A man finds out he has a special gift. If he wears clothes of another person he slowly learns things about that person. Skills and knowledge. Even memories. Of course, the government learns about him and he is "hired". Soon he finds out that not every suspected serial killer or terrorist is male. Throw in some co-workers who think it is funny to throw in some red-herrings of the female gender and the dilemma for him is complete.

14. The fifth child
In a fantasy world, a villainess has five children. Four are known for their own evil deeds.
When heroes storm the palace of the villainess they are in for a surprise. Hidden a prison cell they find a fifth child.
She rebelled at her mother because the mother wanted warriors and aged her daughter against her will. While looking like sixteen, in mind she is six. As every child of the villainess, she has a special ability. In her case, it is to control blobs and slimes.
Her ability goes beyond giving them directions. She can make them change shape or color. Even let them camouflage themselves.
Thinking they have found a willing traitor and inside woman the heroes decide to "rescue" her.
However, soon doubt start to blossom. Not only if she is as innocent as she claims, but also if she is female at all.

16. Tricking a witch
A boy desperately wants to be a girl. When he finds out there is a teenage witch (think Sabrina) hiding at his school he comes up with a plan. He goes to her and tells a tall tale. He was a girl but one of the witches enemies changed 'her' into him and the reality along. First, he succeeds. The teenage witch believes him and he is changed into a girl. Success! But what happens when the truth comes out?

Comments

Your List...

...goes from 14 directly to 16. (Made me think of the Holy Hand Grenade sketch in Monty Python and the Holy Grail...)

Getting back to the first part of your note, the middle part really seems to depend on one's definition of "fetish". Does Bikini Beach qualify? Plenty of stories there. There are chains of body-suit stories; Charlotte's Seacombe series comes readily to mind. And then there's Bill Hart's SRU Wizard. There are so many versions of him out there that it's not quite as cut-and-dried, but our trickster in the bathrobe taking advantage of men looking for solutions to problems by selling them props that turn them into large-breasted women seems to be at the core of most of them. At what point a concept like these "jumps the shark" and severely diminishing returns set in obviously varies. (It'd seem the Wizard has done so, and speaking for myself I'm glad to be relatively rid of him.)

The first and third parts of your analysis seem straightforward enough, though I suppose the first one is sort of self-defining. Any attempt to justify a long piece of erotica would usually require some semblance of a plot. (Ricky, who posts here occasionally, has some old X-rated serials elsewhere, but he decided eventually, from what he has said, that his sex scenes got in the way of his plots and stopped writing them that way.) And as I read it your third one simply says that plot-based stories can be any length. Uh, yeah.

Regarding your story ideas, #14, told (as described there) from the POV of the heroes, seems intriguing.

#11 strikes me as a nice basic idea, but not one that I'd want to sustain for long. The need there, in my view, is to have enough victims changed in different ways to justify the concept, without having so many that the encounters become too similar.

Best, Eric

To answer some of your questions ...

With a specific fetish, I mean really really specific. Like market niche specific. Boy gets feminized by aunt against will. Man loses not only company but also his age as he gets diapered by wife or business partner. Those are just two examples. And I was surprised how often this very premise is revisited. (More so on FM than on TBC)

Bikini beach and SRU are more concepts. There most parts can be exchanged for different ones as long as the core concept stands.
I mean just think about the many different ways and artifacts the SRU wizard pushed onto unsuspecting customers. No matter what fetish of the day is satisfied - be it bodysuit, bimbofying potions or other stuff - the core concept remains.

As for number 15: damn you noticed. For 15 I wrote so much down that it would spoil the whole story if I just copied and pasted it here. I would have to actually trim the idea to get to synopsis level. Well, I never said I would post all my story ideas ;P Sometimes skipping one or another might and will happen.

Your list

Your list (which I just typoed as Your Lust) presents a number of problems for other writers on BC. Basically, it prevents anyone else from using those plot outlines, and could cause any number of problems from writers who have already used them, or are part-way through writing stories using similar ideas. Heck, there may even be stories already here (or elsewhere, of course) using those plotlines!

This is a matter of copyright and is usually taken very seriously in the general literary world as well as in e.g. the music sphere.

If you are going to persist in doing this, you should put a disclaimer against them to show that the ideas and plotlines are available for others to use, or put some other notice explaining whether they are reserved or not.

Penny

Seriously?

You aren't kidding, right?
The hardest part of any story is to evolve a story idea to a complete story.
Give any of these ideas out to five random authors and each one will produce a different story.
I also didn't put any claim on these story ideas. They are ripe for the taking.
Heck, I tried to pawn them off to other authors before. No takers.
I figured if someone will write any of these it will probably be me.
Heck, in part I write down these to inspire other writers.

But fine. Just in case. Here is your disclaimer:
I do not claim copyright for any these story ideas as long as they are included in my blog posts and can be viewed publically!

If I chose to start writing on any of these I will:
1. Edit the blog post to exclude said story idea.
2. Announce in a later blog post that I have claimed said idea.

If by some miracle another author wants to take a shot at any of these ideas:
1. Please send me a PM stating which story idea you wish to write.
2. I will remove said idea from my blog post.
3. Will announce in a later blog post that the story idea is taken.

Annnnd just in case by some other miracle I described someone else's story by mistake:
1. Please send me a PM stating which story idea by accident describes your story.
2. I will remove said idea from my blog post.
3. Will announce in a later blog post that the story idea is not available and why.

Plots and story ideas can’t be copyrighted

erin's picture

Plots and story ideas can’t be copyrighted. Neither can jokes or recipes. It’s more complicated than that but essentially it is not a real risk. Depending on how you count, there are only about fourteen plots; all the others are variations.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

My ideas - my stories

Every story I write has to be my idea. I’m never certain where these ideas come from but originality is important to me. I also feel that story ideas are like weeds; they may be pretty but they grow everywhere you don’t want them to. You’re part way through a story and up pops a new idea which won’t stop growing. You have to abandon that story and start writing the new idea. Partway through that story, another idea pops up, and the same happens.

So when your blog turned to story ideas, I skipped over them since I don’t want my mind to be influenced by your ideas. Or my current stories to be highjacked by your ideas.

Anyone can scatter ideas around; it’s producing a story from them that is time consuming and demanding of skill.

I didn't know them before

And, I'll likely just ignore them in the future. I don't think I'll allow someone to box me in that way. Are you somewhat OC?

In my opinion, punishment stories usually involve guilt on the part of the author. Lots and lots of high power executives love to be put in harnesses, berated mercilessly, and often beaten, and they'll pay handsomely for it. As to fetishes, there is nothing to be ashamed of there because we come by them in mostly not understood ways. Most of my stories include my female protagonist getting a light spanking, um because I like it. I really like Corsets, but in my fat old age, can't really wear them any longer.

Generally I ignore the Universes of others; instead preferring to let my own brain cells make my own. I've only lately understood that many of these special Universes come from video games, an activity that I have mostly eschewed so far.

My own Universe involves lots of chaos brought on by disobedience, and snottiness. And, I likes it.

Gwen

Story ideas.

WillowD's picture

I like ideas 9 and 11 but I absolutely adore 16, Tricking A Witch. This plot very much reminds me of Wizards of Waverly Place, season 2 episode 15 Art Teacher, where the art teacher tries to convince Alex that she is actually a 16 year old girl who had been turned into a 40 year old teacher by another wizard. Needless to say it is a very funny story.

If it’s good for you...

...then use it, although I’m not certain many authors would want to constrain their thoughts in this way.

I think one of the reasons the only novel I ever wrote was never published (apart from it being rubbish) was that it didn’t fit into a genre that could go in a specific place on a bookstore shelf. If you wanted to write professionally, I’d certainly advise looking seriously at genres.

But writing for this site, I prefer to let my mind be unconstrained by categorisation, apart from trying to uplift the mind of the reader.

I like #9

I can think of several possibilities that could happen, from fun to farce to horror and beyond.

It could be a serial, each episode being a particular "adventure" that occurs when the change takes place.

And that doesn't preclude the possibility she could be bitten or infected by other types of weres, with varying results. Or the white teen girl could be the primary were form, with her taking on others if she is simply too close to another were, yet being female in each form.

Edit to add: I'm the one that claimed #9. Feel free to put my name there, Cassy_Bee.

As I said in the blog about NaNoWriMo, I jumped in with both feet and wrote about 2k words there for a story that I thought of about four hours ago. I also wrote over 2600 words for the story I claimed here, that's just under 4700 words total in about nine hours of writing.

I'm a four finger typist, generally using index and middle fingers on both hands to type. Five hundred or so words an hour is about average for me, this is partly due to my typing style, but also because I tend to edit and proofread as I write, which slows things down a bit.