I have unsold stories...

[tuulia]

I don't want to put them up for free yet, but it's not so easy to find a publishing venue fit for

- a horror-ish story about a woman who dates her own clone
- a pulp-detectivey modern-day erotic short story
- an slice-of-life erotic short story - no real content beyond the characters, the sex and its negotiation
 

Comments

[senmut]

OC? Are you writing in a universe established by someone else, but with a new character?

Not really? I tend to say OC instead of muse quite a bit, because I do write fanfic in addition to original verses. The actual title for this one in particular would be 'pain in the rear that occasionally eats my brain or takes over my life' if I were perfectly honest. But that's a bit much even if I abbreviated it. He is a Main Character in the most annoyingly 'pay-attention-to-me' way possible.

[tuulia]

I don't know what you mean by muse, but I do understand the idea of using the term OC to distinguish from borrowed characters, like saying "original fiction" to distinguish from fanfiction. I'm guessing muse, then, is more or less the same thing as "OC".

I sort of see OC characters, or characters called OC as opposed to just "characters", as particularly moveable - you can plug them in several different situations without losing their personality or the thrust of their developing characterization. I have a few like that, though I've never done anything very interesting with them. The problem is story vs. character: A story usually should CHANGE a character to be a good story, but a character who you see in a very specific, established way is resistant to change.

I also have one universe with characters I haven't moved around but that somehow function like "OCs" (muses?) in that they seem more colourful and... fixed, somehow, like comic book characters. A character called Ursula, from the pulpy detective story above, has some of that as well. With time and ideas, I could see myself writing her a series of mysteries during which her own character changes very little. But then I also have characters like Thelema the ingenue, who's story IS her character. Plug her in a different world and background, and it just wouldn't work. Same for Nate the killer, or Timon Task. You can change some things about Nate's world, but you always have to have the background of a rundown town, the formative murder, and the crossing of a desert.

PM or email (blog name saaritsa at g mail dot com) the problems you're having? Maybe I can help brainstorm a way out.

[senmut]

Muse is ... character that is very strongly a piece of my brainstorming for the universe I am working in? In a lot of ways, this character is THE character around which the universe evolved, so his characteristics are harder for me to be willing to change. It's like having a voice inside my head when I go to write that tells me how the character should be written. Like your Thelema, I think, the story is his, so if I change the background from before he's on stage, it... gets sticky.

I may take you up on the brainstorming some time later. Right now, I really ought to get my tail to bed, as I have work in less than 12 hours.

Many good thoughts to your submissions!

[tuulia]

Oh, hah, so a muse is the OPPOSITE of what I thought it was! Now I'm even more intrigued about what the specific problem is. I'll keep an eye out for that mail. But right now I should also go. :)