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Poll: What Do You Like In A Story?

Which of these is important to you in a story or other artwork?

  • As much sex as possible (pornographic)

  • Plausible situations (feels like real life)

  • As much blood and gore as possible

  • A storyline that would be interesting with or without erotic detail

  • Characters with extreme/creative vulgar language

  • Erotic humor

Results are only viewable after voting.
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toxidomaskjr said:
wow jedakk, will we have the opportunity to read a new master piece from you?
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You will indeed, but I want to let it "rest" for a few days then go back through it and polish it a bit. I don't know if it's a masterpiece or not, but I asked someone whose opinion I respect to have a read of it, and said she read it and re-read it with great pleasure, always a good sign! I've since done more work on it and I think it's a bit better. So we'll see what people think of it.
 
Writing about crucifixion - a long, drawn-out agony - for me the only way is to focus on different stages in time once 'I' am raised up and hanging there, and I've gone through the hard and hopeless struggle of coming to terms with the agony. After that - awareness fades in and out, I see and hear different people viewing me, mocking, commenting - maybe the guards bring me back to wakefulness with a blow, lashes, even hot irons - the sun moves ever higher, thirst, burning heat, exhaustion (maybe a spongeful of filthy water or worse) - flies, crows, vultures... A simple trick, no doubt familiar to other writers here, is to use all my senses - what am I seeing, hearing, feeling with my bare skin and my stretched muscles, smelling, tasting in my parched mouth...?
 
Eulalia said:
Writing about crucifixion - a long, drawn-out agony - for me the only way is to focus on different stages in time once 'I' am raised up and hanging there, and I've gone through the hard and hopeless struggle of coming to terms with the agony. After that - awareness fades in and out, I see and hear different people viewing me, mocking, commenting - maybe the guards bring me back to wakefulness with a blow, lashes, even hot irons - the sun moves ever higher, thirst, burning heat, exhaustion (maybe a spongeful of filthy water or worse) - flies, crows, vultures... A simple trick, no doubt familiar to other writers here, is to use all my senses - what am I seeing, hearing, feeling with my bare skin and my stretched muscles, smelling, tasting in my parched mouth...?
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"thirst, burning heat, exhaustion" ... it's also always nice to look down on my straining (or limp) body to take in the sheen of sweat covering my breasts, my shallow breathing, erect nipples, rivulets of blood, etc.
 
Eulalia said:
Writing about crucifixion - a long, drawn-out agony - for me the only way is to focus on different stages in time once 'I' am raised up and hanging there, and I've gone through the hard and hopeless struggle of coming to terms with the agony. After that - awareness fades in and out, I see and hear different people viewing me, mocking, commenting - maybe the guards bring me back to wakefulness with a blow, lashes, even hot irons - the sun moves ever higher, thirst, burning heat, exhaustion (maybe a spongeful of filthy water or worse) - flies, crows, vultures... A simple trick, no doubt familiar to other writers here, is to use all my senses - what am I seeing, hearing, feeling with my bare skin and my stretched muscles, smelling, tasting in my parched mouth...?
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I think that kind of description enables a reader to really visualize the scene. It's not just the agony of being nailed to a cross, the endless struggle against pain and for breath, it's all of her senses. This new story I'm finishing up talks a lot about that. Here's an excerpt where the main character, catherine, or "cat" for short, is hanging roped to a cross during a BDSM session:

Except in my fantasies, I was a Roman slave, and it was not ropes that held me to the cross, but big, square nails driven through my wrists and feet, making me one with the timber. There was the crowd of onlookers watching me, enjoying my agony and humiliation, laughing and jeering at me, the cast-off refuse of Rome. There were guards there beside my cross, making sure no one could get to me, either to ease my suffering or end it.

I could imagine the sun beating down on my naked body, burning my skin until I glowed with the heat, the breeze between my legs, the smell of the place of execution, of hard-baked ground, rotting flesh, sweat, fear, piss and shit. Sometimes it seemed so real that I imagined that I could feel the nails that impaled me.
​
The story, "Altered States," explores the idea of what could happen if you take someone whose fantasy is very strong, deprive them of sensory input, and replace what they feel, smell, taste and hear with what you want them to experience. I admit that I shamelessly plagiarized the title from the 1970s movie of the same name. :devil:
 
Barbaria1 said:
"thirst, burning heat, exhaustion" ... it's also always nice to look down on my straining (or limp) body to take in the sheen of sweat covering my breasts, my shallow breathing, erect nipples, rivulets of blood, etc.
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good point - imagining ourselves 'enjoying' ( :eek: ) the 'victim's eye-view'
 
Eulalia said:
good point - imagining ourselves 'enjoying' ( :eek: ) the 'victim's eye-view'
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Or not! I remember a comment I received once on a story where the guy said he didn't want to know what the victim thought about it or felt. I thought, and still think that the truth was that he was afraid of imagining what the victim would feel, think, see, etc.
 
Yes, I'm sure there are some who aren't interested in what's going on in the victim's mind. They may not be interested in what's going on in anybody's mind, more in what's being done to some girl's body. Fair enough, I don't think you or I write for that readership, there must be some who do.
It makes me think about how interested I am in what's going on in the Torturer's/ Executioner's mind(s) - not particularly, I suppose, if their thoughts are just sadistic lust, anger, mysogyny. More complex motives are more interesting, but I think a weakness of my own stories may be a lack of 'depth' in the Torturer characters. Yours do turn on interesting, complex motives in all the main actors.
 
Eulalia said:
It makes me think about how interested I am in what's going on in the Torturer's/ Executioner's mind(s) - not particularly, I suppose, if their thoughts are just sadistic lust, anger, mysogyny. More complex motives are more interesting.
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Stay tuned for the sequel to "Trabbian Justice", which I hope to start posting very shortly. I hope it will satisfy those interests.
 
Eulalia said:
Yes, I'm sure there are some who aren't interested in what's going on in the victim's mind. They may not be interested in what's going on in anybody's mind, more in what's being done to some girl's body. Fair enough, I don't think you or I write for that readership, there must be some who do.
It makes me think about how interested I am in what's going on in the Torturer's/ Executioner's mind(s) - not particularly, I suppose, if their thoughts are just sadistic lust, anger, mysogyny. More complex motives are more interesting, but I think a weakness of my own stories may be a lack of 'depth' in the Torturer characters. Yours do turn on interesting, complex motives in all the main actors.
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Even though I always say 'Who cares' the emotions are vital to a great story...

...they aren't 'victims' though...:devil::p:doh:
 
I've found myself liking a lot of different stories here; some that are rather straightforward in their focus on the 'event', some where it happens more on the side, some where it's only an intention or suggestion that runs through the story but perhaps isn't even realized. I guess one thing that can make a good story great for me, is when there's a deeper reason for the victim to end up where she does -- beyond just being captured as a criminal/rebel or being a misbehaving slave.
 
malins said:
I've found myself liking a lot of different stories here; some that are rather straightforward in their focus on the 'event', some where it happens more on the side, some where it's only an intention or suggestion that runs through the story but perhaps isn't even realized. I guess one thing that can make a good story great for me, is when there's a deeper reason for the victim to end up where she does -- beyond just being captured as a criminal/rebel or being a misbehaving slave.
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Agreed. And it is interesting to reveal these deeper reasons step by step in a story told by the viewpoint of the condemned, when the condemned is already hanging to the cross.
 
jedakk said:
As a reader and a writer, I do not like that particular style, but to each his own. When I post a story, I want it to be complete; I know where the story is going and how it's going to end up. I've written the twists and turns I envisioned, I've put in humor where it fit, and maybe I've surprised the readers at the end. I'd not likely be able to achieve the kind of writing quality I want if I wasn't in complete control of the direction of the story.
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True as a complete story, complete control must be in the writers hands. But as a conversation hmmm choices are good. However we are discussing stories and the creator has and aslways should have the control!
 
I think we all seem to share the view that it's mostly about, the procedure, the people, the emotions and the reasons behind it, the devices and punishments issued. It is less about gore and gruesomeness and more the threat of it. We arn't in it for a person to be dead or ripped to bits. It's the journey the sacrifice and the quest for a high. Be that high for the victim, the crowd or the audience.
 
Joker14 said:
I think we all seem to share the view that it's mostly about, the procedure, the people, the emotions and the reasons behind it, the devices and punishments issued. It is less about gore and gruesomeness and more the threat of it. We arn't in it for a person to be dead or ripped to bits. It's the journey the sacrifice and the quest for a high. Be that high for the victim, the crowd or the audience.
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I like that. Concisely and well said. :)
 
Lots of good points have been made already.
I'm not too much of a regular here and more of a CruxFoundation guy but narration is definitely a strength on the CruxForums. Not much of that happens on Foundation and when it does, it's usually crossposts from here.
I've probably missed a lot of good ones on CF.

What I prefer in a story?
I'll side with the majority and say plausibility and storyline. Over the years I've acquired a taste for stories that are less in-your-face about the torture - been there done that. It doesn't always have to be all about a girl on a stick ;)

How about the unusual?
Something unique, something weird, that I haven't seen before. A surprise, an unusual setting, an unusual approach or technique.

Otherwise - I know a good one when I see it :D

I'm really not up to date, so here's a question:
What would you gals & guys, readers & writers, consider suggested reading out of more recent contributions?
 
algabal said:
Lots of good points have been made already.
I'm not too much of a regular here and more of a CruxFoundation guy but narration is definitely a strength on the CruxForums. Not much of that happens on Foundation and when it does, it's usually crossposts from here.
I've probably missed a lot of good ones on CF.

What I prefer in a story?
I'll side with the majority and say plausibility and storyline. Over the years I've acquired a taste for stories that are less in-your-face about the torture - been there done that. It doesn't always have to be all about a girl on a stick ;)

How about the unusual?
Something unique, something weird, that I haven't seen before. A surprise, an unusual setting, an unusual approach or technique.

Otherwise - I know a good one when I see it :D

I'm really not up to date, so here's a question:
What would you gals & guys, readers & writers, consider suggested reading out of more recent contributions?
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If you want something completely off the wall there is 'The Pit of Shit' in one of the bdsm boards (Non-fatal, gross, and completely off the wall) or Velut Luna's thread that is intriguing and very well written.
http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/posts/263120/

There is Barb's and (I hope I am right) Phlebas that has kept torture to a minimum which suits me and is both well illustrated ...
http://www.cruxforums.com/xf/posts/263121/

Joneysgirl 'Medievel horrors is off the beaten path but is well illustrated and with short vignettes

And not to self-promoting I have two threads going- "Barb time travels" in Fantasy Unlimited and 'Olympic Crux' in Crucified Women.

Be prepared to skip though a lot of banter or enjoy it and learn about our more active members. We sometimes get sort of 'ADHD' at times:p

Very glad to have you here. I have enjoyed your art since I first saw it!!!

Tree
 
algabal said:
I'm really not up to date, so here's a question:
What would you gals & guys, readers & writers, consider suggested reading out of more recent contributions?
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I haven't even come close to reading everything here, but personally, I love King Diocletian's "State of Emergency", all 4 parts. I also was enjoying The New Girl, though there haven't been any updates recently.

And since Tree has tooted his own horn, I think you might like my 2 stories "Trabbian Justice" and "Trabbian Justice Comes to America". Some exotic settings and I try to get in the characters' heads. A third one will be starting soon, "Trabbian Justice-Jungle Hell".
 
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