Below is the start of a multi-part, branching (aka Chose Your Own Adventure) story I've been struggling to write for a while now, so I thought I'd share what I have so far, and see if anyone could offer any advice.
The two main branches seem to be leading to either crossdressing, or romance. The crossdressing branch is a bit less difficult, but I'm still worried about it turning into something predictable and boring. The romantic branch is something I don't have a lot of experience writing, so I'm worried I'll completely mess it up.
Does anyone out there have any experience writing branching stories? I'd also appreciate any advice on avoiding crossdressing tropes, as well as writing romance that's believable and interesting without diving into ... sex stuff. If you have anything to share on these or other stuff, I'd love to hear it! :)
Below are a couple of unfinished chapters for stories I've been working on. I seem to be kinda stuck about halfway through the chapters for a while, so I thought I'd try posting what I got here, just in case anybody who's read the earlier chapters of these stories might be able to offer suggestions on how to get to the ends of the chapters. If nobody has any suggestions, it'll still be nice to at least have a place where people can see what I've written, instead of having them stuffed away in my story files. :)
I had asked my AI Chat app for a story about a gold dragon from Pern (a planet created by Anne McCaffrey) who had to choose between his male identity, and laying a clutch of eggs for his weir. What I got back turned into a pretty interesting story, so I thought I'd share. Since I didn't actually write this story, I thought it'd be best to share it as a blog post. Enjoy! :)
I'd been reading through comments on a few stories, and noticed a few of the commenters requested more detailed descriptions of what people were wearing. Most of the time, I only describe what someone is wearing, if it feels like it's important to the story. Now I'm starting to wonder if maybe I should be more descriptive about things like that. Does anyone have any thoughts about how much detail should go into describing what someone is wearing, how much detail would be needed, and when more details would be helpful in telling a story?
This is the start of an idea for a story, based on "Educating Special Boys in the Feminist Republic" by Torrey Grover. It's about a kid who doesn't really identify as a boy, but also doesn't identify enough as a girl to be brought into the program for "special boys". I'm posting it here in my blog, instead of with my stories, because I haven't heard back from Torrey yet, but I'm also wondering if people think it's close enough to the original story for it to work in the universe Torrey created.
I really ... really wish I could have a father/daughter relationship with my dad. When I first came out to him, I wasn't especially surprised when he had issues with me saying I was his daughter. But ... it's been a few decades since then. I'm pretty lucky, when compared to others, because my dad is willing to see me, and tells me he loves me. But, deep down inside me, there's still a little girl who wants to be held and cuddled by her daddy. I guess that may sound silly for a 58 year old woman to say, but that's how I'm feeling right now.
This is a report I wrote up a long time ago, about a real life camp I'd gone to, that was specifically for adults (both male and female) who felt like little girls inside. I hope it's okay to post that memory here. It's very special to me, and I just wanted to share it with my friends at BCTS.
Every once in a while, I'll come across a story that's set in the Julie-verse by Julie O, but I haven't been able to find any descriptions about what this universe is like. Does anyone know where I could find a description of this universe?
I recently posted a story with a scene that had felt creepy to me, so I added a caution tag to let people know about that. Now I'm starting to wonder if maybe I was being overly cautious. Does anybody have any thoughts on what makes a story creepy, as well as when (or if) it might be a good idea to warn people about it?
When it comes to writing stories, I think of myself as a sprinter. I'll get burst of creative energy, but tend to feel winded by the time I've reached the end a story. I think I've only written a story with over a dozen chapters once. But ... I do find there's times when I enjoy writing multi-chapter stories. I just wish I had more stamina for them.
So, for anyone who's written longer stories, where do you get the stamina to stay with them for more than a few chapters?
Recently, I've been learning more about non-binary people, and have been re-exploring my own identity based on what I've learned. Some (or maybe a lot) of that has been reflected in some of the stories I've written. Lately, I've been wondering how people feel about reading stories that have non-binary people as supporting characters, or the main character. While reading stories with characters like that are really interesting to me, I realize not everyone can relate to characters like that.
For a pretty long while, I've been thinking of adding to my story"Chance and Hope", but my ideas seem to wander all over the place, with no real focus. Recently, while reading some stories set in the Whateley Academy Universe, and it occurred to me that my story might fit in that universe. The only problem is, I'm not really sure how much I'd need to change my story to make it fit in that universe.
After including a couple of people from my older Madam Martinique's Finishing School story in my newer Janegirl Camp story, I started thinking about my older story, and how so many people seemed to want to see more of it. Eventually, I started writing Part 6. Even though I only got about 500 words in before I got stuck, it was really nice working with Billie again.
While reading a really sweet story by Melanie Brown called "Just Friends", a song by John Lennon called "Beautiful Boy" was mentioned. Intrigued by the song title, I decided to look it up, and found a recording of it on YouTube. After listening to what turned out to be a very pretty song, I found out it was written for John's son Sean. I'd only heard of Julian before, so I did some research, and discovered that even though Julian had basically been abandoned by his father, he'd still had a good relationship with Sean.
Hi everybody! I just wanted to let ya's know, after a really long dry spell, my muse seems to have woken again. I'm currently working on the next chapter of Janegirl Camp, and am about ... maybe halfway through. Even though I'm feeling a bit unsure how long my muse will keep going, it's def nice to be writing again! :)
I was just thinking about The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, and I was wondering ... what would happen to him the day after he lost his second outfit in a fortnight?
A few days ago, I had a really vivid dream, where I was in class (I think it was high school), and the teacher called on me. My hackles went up when he called me, "Mister Brown", and I said, "It's Miss, not Mister." When the teacher asked me why I said that, I told him it was because I was a girl, not a boy. I'm not sure where I got up the nerve to talk back like that. I think it was more because I was more angry than scared of the teacher.
I was half asleep in my bedroom, sorta listening to some show or video my wife was watching in the living room. I had almost drifted off, when I heard a metallic clang. And then ... I was someplace dark and cramped. I sorta knew I wasn't actually there, but it still felt real. I think I'm mostly grounded again, but I'm still smelling paint every once in a while, and my heart starts racing. Got all the lights on, which is helping a bit. Still a bundle of nerves. Not sure if I'm gonna be sleeping any more tonight.
Well ... looks like my group therapy will be ending this week. I'm really gonna miss the people I met there. Even though I wound up being put in the wrong group (I found out a couple weeks ago the group I was in wasn't for dealing with trauma), I still learned some good stuff. Even though I wish I could stay with the group longer, I know all things come to an end, and I'm grateful for the time I was able to spend with the people there. :)
I've been working on the next chapter of Janegirl Camp, where Zee, Raine, and Jess join a Gender Chat session hosted by Mrs Shepherd. After everyone there introduces themselves, I was thinking of there being a gender themed question and answer session, but I'm not sure what sorts of questions might be interesting. Does anyone have any suggestions of what gender themed questions you might have asked, if you were a kid between ten and twelve, while being a camper at Janegirl Camp?
A few weeks ago, I'd been in an online writer's group, and shared a chapter of one of my stories. One of the people in the group asked me why my character was talking with a Southern accent. Does anyone else who's read my stories see any accent like that? The only places I've lived have been New Jersey and California, so I'm really not sure where I might have picked up a Southern accent.
I'm just ... so tired of these nightmares. I'm tired from the lack of sleep. I'm tired of the emotional drain. I'm tired of needing to go around the house, and turn on the lights. A lot of the time, I won't remember what I dreamed about. I'll just wake up, feeling scared, or angry, or something like that. I remembered what I dreamed about last night/this morning. I'm not sure if that's better or worse.
I've sorta been writing a lot more dark in what I've been posting, and I'm kinda worrying I'm doing it a bit too much. Part of what I'm worried about is if I'm just telling people about stuff that hurts too much to hear. I've been sharing the kinda stuff I usually avoid reading. I really don't want to hurt anyone, and I'm wondering if I'm doing that by opening up too much. Even though it feels freeing to not keep stuff hidden, it's not worth it, if I'm hurting people. Is there a way of knowing when I've been sharing too much dark stuff?
I'm not sure if I'm ready. I feel like I'm wading into a lake, and years of memories are being stirred up as I walk. The water is too murky to see my own feet, and I'm not certain how deep the lake is, or how far I can go before I slip into the deep end. Right now, just the thought of letting a complete stranger look into those waters, and see whatever might float to the surface, is a bit ... terrifying. I really hope I'm in better shape tomorrow.
I've sorta been ... obsessing ... about seeing a therapist in a few days. There were just lots of stuff ... I don't know the name of the stuff ... but it was filling me up to overflowing. And then, I became disconnected from the stuff, but it sorta ... kept going without me. And that stuff somehow turned into the song below. I'm still feeling disconnected, and I'm not sure if I can make sense of the song, but I sorta just needed to say what's in this song, because ... I'm not sure. It just feels like something that really needs to say. Umm ...
It's been a few years since I've seen a therapist. I'd stopped, because it was starting to bring up stuff I felt like I couldn't handle. I still ain't sure if I can handle it, but stuff seems to be bubbling up, and trying to ignore it doesn't seem to be helping any more. So, I've decided to try contacting my healthcare provider today.
I'm really, really nervous about looking for a therapist to help me with stuff. I'm tired of hiding from my past, but I'm also scared of facing it. Anybody got any suggestions on how to do this with the least amount of issues?
I was thinking about Janegirl Camp being split into 3 age groups, and each group would attend camp at different times. The first group would be ages 7-9, the second group would be 10-12 (Zee's age group), and the third age group would be ages 13-15. I was also thinking of giving each group a different name, but I'm not sure if I like the names or not yet. The first group would be called Caterpillar, the second group would be called Chrysalis, and the third group would be called Butterfly.
I've been working on the next chapter of Jangirl Camp, and seem to be running into an issue I don't think I've ever run into before. Zee seems to be feeling separation anxiety when his dad is saying goodbye to him at camp, and I'm really feeling guilty about separating them. I know it's something that needs to happen for the story to continue, but the actual scene is feeling a lot more difficult to write than I'd expected.
Does anyone have suggestions on how to write a scene where a parent and somewhat clingy child are separated with the least amount of trauma?
I've been thinking about trying to expand on my Janegirl Camp story. I sorta felt one thing that might move the plot along would be having Zee and the other campers getting involved in different activities. I've come up with a few ideas, but I've been struggling to come up with any really interesting ones, so I thought I'd try asking others for suggestions.
For those who've been following my story, Ian & Brice/Bryce, I'm still working on the next chapter, but things are going a bit slowly. a big part of that is because I can feel how Ian will want to be held, as well as how afraid he is of doing anything like that would trigger another flashback.
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