Keeping track of time

May 19th, 2013 Valerie J Long

The longer a story becomes, the more crucial it may be to keep track of your timing. That’s not about the few seconds left before a bomb goes up, nor am I talking about mid-fight timing, but about the overall progress of time.

On the lowest level, you can only squeeze so much action into one day or one night – unless you choose an arctic winter setting or such – so, after a few chapters, you should know whether it’s time for sunset or sunrise. Still, that’s the easy part.

On the next level, you may have to ask yourself whether it’s Sunday or not. Again, that depends on the setting, but for a detective story, closed and deserted offices may offer special investigation opportunities.

I’m working my way up the timescale.

You can’t have full moon for three weeks in a row, nor can it return after six weeks. If you need the moon phases, you must keep track of your story calendar. If the tides are important to your story, you face a similar problem – high tide doesn’t take place on the same hour every day.

I’ve already mentioned arctic winter. In the northern hemisphere, you run into trouble if you need the long arctic night between June and August, just as you’ve thoroughly messed it all up if you need snow in Rome on a hot summer night. If your story runs several months, you better know WHEN you are.

I’m writing stories with sequels that span several decades. There’s no way to keep that all in my mind. I need to keep a calendar with the exact date per chapter. Only this way I can tell that my heroine has missed her birthday again.

Being “in the moment.”

May 12th, 2013 Jon Bradbury

In many venues, such as yoga and meditation, various schools of acting, and of lifestyle coaching, you have probably heard of the phrase, “be in the moment.”

But what does that mean, exactly?

To be in the moment, means exactly that. Do not think (or try not to) about the million and one things you have to do today, like pick up the dry cleaning, or pick up the kids from whatever practice they go to, or the bill that you haven’t paid yet but should as soon as possible.

Americans, among other cultures, find ourselves culturally unable to enjoy the moment. We are constantly thinking about “the future.” Or our past. Or “external forces” or “conspiracies,” for those with a looser grasp on reality.

And why would a writer need to “be in the moment”?

It’s very simple. People who don’t write think of writing as this simple, easy exercise. But it is anything but simple, or easy. In fact it takes an awful lot of brain power – not just creativity but research, fact-finding, problem-solving and more. When writing even one scene, a writer needs to be totally invested in the present moment. Whether then character is saying something or doing something or anything at all, that moment to moment reality is all the writer should be concerned about.

But how do you stay in moment, exactly?

That’s a little more difficult, for all the reasons mentioned. Depending on how busy your life is, you may find it difficult in the best of times to be in the moment. But here’s a couple of suggestions.

1. Make a writing space.

Whether you write by hand or by keyboard, try to find a quiet space and/or a quiet time of day when you know there will be as few interruptions as possible, and use that time to write. Not pay bills.

2. Clear your mind.

People who have taken martial arts, tai chi, or just yoga, eventually find a way to tune out the whole world and concentrate on what they are doing to the exclusion of all else. This is what you need to do. I recommend listening to meditation bell recording or something similar, or just listen to your favorite music. Anything to help you clear your mind and get it on the present moment.

3. And finally, let go.

If you are able to get through steps 1 and 2, you will find something amazing – an ability to have stray thoughts flit through your mind and leave no imprint. This is called “letting go” in meditation circles. We all have stray thoughts come and go. The key is to let them go and not dwell on them. People who suffer from anxiety and/or depression often have recurring thoughts they obsess over that stick around and keep squatting in your brain, sucking all the positive good thoughts out of your brain. Let it go, dude. No, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Believe me on that, dude.

So, in order to become an effective writer, or just be able to get through your day without stressing out, it is important to become able to be in the moment, that particularly blissful state of mind where the past does not bother you any more, the future no longer causes you any anxiety, and just leaves the present moment. Hard? Yes. Worth it? Definitely.

Peace, out. Namaste.

Jon Bradbury is the published writer of eleven e-books, including Worst Kept Secret, The Professor, and The Favor, and is madly writing more. His current e-book Sugar Daddy is available through Extasy Books. Jon can be contacted by following his Twitter feed @JonB1969

 

What’s “real” sex?

April 22nd, 2013 Jon Bradbury

In porn videos, it can be accurately said that people are “pretending” to have sex.

Now, at this point you might be saying, Well, duh! or What do you mean, pretending?

Of course they are actually having sex. That’s not the issue. By pretending I mean that the participants are not behaving as people would when they are having real and not pretend porn sex. You probably know the differences without being told what they are.

1. Exaggeratedly sexual dialogue.

By this I mean the actors (for lack of a better word) will use over-the-top language, tone or words, before they even start having sex.

For me, anyway, the fun is taking characters, putting them in a situation that is not inherently sexy or sexual, and getting them to the point where they are aroused, then seeing how they react. The funniest thing in the world is seeing a woman who is all prim and proper at first, get so turned on she becomes a completely different woman.

Instead porn videos go right for the most vulgar language, the most overtly sexual tone that they can get out of the actors.

2. Exaggerated or Over-The-Top situations/behavior/actions

Another mistake that many porn videos make is having people have sex in positions that aren’t even sexy, let alone comfortable, positions nobody in their right mind would be caught having sex in LOL.

Women don’t make noises like they do in porn movies. It’s been my experience, anyway, that women not make loud noises, or lots of noises at all. If anything, a woman will get very quiet when she’s getting pleasured.

When making love, even if it’s a quickie, there is a natural progression. Kissing and touching, followed by removal of clothes, followed by hands touching in various places, followed by manual and or oral stimulation of genitalia and or erogenous zones, finally followed by genital intercourse, depending on the video.

In porn – bam. They go straight for the sex. Foreplay is only for show.

3. Exaggerated orgasms.

When porn actors climax, they do so in such a fashion to leave no doubt they have just climaxed. This is not how real people have real sex, but everyone in a porn movie has over the top orgasms, especially the women – clutching sheets, arched back, toes curled, raising the roof off the building, all that.

4. And finally, my favorite, no cuddling.

Now it may surprise you, but my favorite part of the video is after the sex. The kissing. The caressing. The laughter, sometimes. Except in lesbian videos, there is none of that at the end. Just – bam. That’s it. End of scene, on to the next one.

Now, you’re probably thinking, why is he babbling on about all this?

Well, as a lesson. Mostly for myself. It is very tempting to write a sex scene in an erotic romance as a scene from a porn video. After all, fantasy plays a huge part in these scenes. But sometimes you have to step back and not rush things, another trap to fall in to.

Writers are readers, too, meaning we are just as impatient as the next fan to find out what happens next. So as writers we have to fight that tendency to rush through things and take our time, and no scene in the book is as important as the love scene, sex scene, what ever you want to call it. Depending on context, the chemistry between the characters, and especially how the scene figures into the plot, you as a writer have any number of options how the scene will go….. and what happens next.

Always, on to the next scene!

Peace, out. Namaste.

Jon Bradbury is the writer of eleven ebooks, including The Professor and Worst Kept Secret. His latest, Sugar Daddy, is published through Extasy Books and is available wherever ebooks are sold. He can be contacted by following him on Twitter @JonB1969.

 

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