I am Squiddy

General
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Hey, just thought I’d introduce myself, I’m frae Scotland (if you want to associate a voice with a post).
Have been lurking for a while, reading the good stories (and the bad).
Started working on a few stories myself, based on scenarios I’ve been thinking of for a while, trying to make sure they make sense. Not sure when I’ll decide they’re finished, I have an ending planned from the start, I might cop-out and post the “first chapter” before I’ve finished writing it.
Anyhow, it seems like time to do the whole de-lurk thing.

Greetings and salutations and all that.

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Re: I am Squiddy

If you post an incomplete chapter, it’ll have to come out of Zoidberg’s paycheck.

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Re: I am Squiddy

Heh, don’t worry. I won’t start posting chapters till it’s >99% finished anyway and I’m only working out kinks.

Seems like many people have problems avoiding genericism (is that a word?) in almost every aspect of their stories. But the ones who write highly different plots diminish the ABDL element until it’s just a normal short story with ABDL references. Only a few (very good) writers get the balance right, coming out with new, well written, plots.

For that matter I don’t think I’ve ever seen the basic generic story ‘perfected’ (written well, thought out, etc), and particularly in… actually if I continue on I’m going to give away the plot of my bloody story. So I’ll leave it at that, It might be a while (I’ve been writing it for at least a month now, and it’s not that long).

But better late than… pish.

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Re: I am Squiddy

That’s a bold statement to make against the stories on this forum. Bold enough you might piss off a lot of authors.

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I’m interested in who you consider a very good writer that has got the balance right.

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Re: I am Squiddy

You’re getting me all wrong, I’m just saying that due to the sheer volume of very generic stories on a lot of abdl sites (I’ve been lurking a while), the really good stories do tend to be in the minority. You must admit there are a lot of stories out there with the same “girl wakes up wet, forced into diapers” plot full of holes, and the mention of “normal short story with ABDL references” is mostly because I’m having a hard time stopping mine becoming that. (Incidentally, I never included myself in the “good authors” group)

I do believe and have seen that if anyone really puts work into something and thinks things through, that will be recognizable.

Sorry, really really didn’t want my first posts here to be “you guys need to work harder”
It was supposed to be more like “whew this writing thing is HARD”

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Re: I am Squiddy

Actually I was more referencing the fact that you can’t define stories so black and white. To say a story is either a generic diaper story whether or not it’s good OR a unique plot that lacks ABDL elements whether it’s good or not is extremely short sighted.

Yes, writing is hard for many situations and especially here as that does seem to be the pattern with stories but that doesn’t mean they are defined into one of those two categories primarily because there can be a heavy ABDL story -with- a unique plot and written extremely well. There are also stories that try to actually be unique and not so blatantly obvious about the ABDL lifestyle that turn out just…really really bad.

So yes, there are a lot of stories involving a girl who wakes up wet and is forced into diapers that are full of plot holes, that does not mean a story written like that will automatically be a crap story nor does it mean it’ll have a lot of plot holes.

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Re: I am Squiddy

umm….I wasn’t.

Edit: or at least, I wasn’t trying to.

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Re: I am Squiddy

True there is no black and white, but there is a slippery slope.

When several concessions have been made it encourages more: If a writer gets attached to an idea which isn’t really plausible, they tend to allow some inconsistencies in the story, to keep their idea. This is like cheating at Sudoku, it might seem ok at the beginning, but if you do, you have to do it more and more to finish the game.

The more unresolved issues a writer allows for, the more he/she is prone to, and so any writers in the middle ground tend to get dragged either to good or bad practice, leaving a gap. You can tell who just got too excited about an interesting concept to find an alternative or a workaround, and who wrote a story just for themselves (and then liked it so much they wanted to share it). This does seem to be easier (or at least more common) around generic stories, probably because the writers have themselves been immersed in generic stories and the implausible elements within them become the norm.

I’m not saying implausible ideas are bad… actually I think I am saying that, they can still be fun though (there are plenty of blockbuster movies with glaring plot holes) they just require disregarding the laws of nature/physics etc.

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Re: I am Squiddy

When several concessions have been made it encourages more: If a writer gets attached to an idea which isn’t really plausible, they tend to allow some inconsistencies in the story, to keep their idea. This is like cheating at Sudoku, it might seem ok at the beginning, but if you do, you have to do it more and more to finish the game.

Ah but in a fictional world with fictional sciences, physics and laws of life, plausibility is newly defined based on the story. Take any futuristic technology based story. If machine will diaper protagonist based on maturity level, then machine will plausibly dress protagonist in babyish clothing despite the real worlds rules of life actually preventing something like this (we all know there are -so- many immature bratty teens out there). In storywriting, plausibility is like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder.

The more unresolved issues a writer allows for, the more he/she is prone to, and so any writers in the middle ground tend to get dragged either to good or bad practice, leaving a gap.

To an extent I agree with this. An unresolved issue can be a good medium for a “Mystery” appeal to any story, but if it’s simply left like that from start to finish, then yes this is a VERY bad thing.

You can tell who just got too excited about an interesting concept to find an alternative or a workaround, and who wrote a story just for themselves (and then liked it so much they wanted to share it).

To type with one hand under the keyboard = bad juju.

I’m not saying implausible ideas are bad… actually I think I am saying that, they can still be fun though

They aren’t bad if used properly. What we would perceive to be implausible can be given an explanation and therefore made plausible, but if a writer just GM Rule 0’s the story with his/her fantasy, then yeah it can tend to fuck up a LOT of things.

Note: To anyone that doesn’t know the reference GM Rule 0 = Game Master can say and do anything he bloody well wants in the game (s)he controls, players have no consent.

In any case, for the most part I agree with you but even so, stories written here shouldn’t be categorized even if there’s a hundred different categories to choose from mainly because the imagination is infinite. Oh, and MAJOR props to you for coming back and making this worth my time! You’re one of the few people here I don’t scare off :stuck_out_tongue:

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Re: I am Squiddy

I will say out and out that implausible ideas aren’t bad, but failing to provide plausible explanations, with realistic circumstances to give the finished story plausibility is VERY bad.

Look at TinkerBell for example. A flying pixie is certainly implausible in the world we live in. BUT, if you were to provide plausible explanations as to WHY she can fly, and WHY she’s not even a foot tall, then people reading can begin to buy in to it. Add realism in the guise of traits that make her a unique person, ALONG WITH traits that most readers can identify with, and you have a story that’s plausible, even if the idea behind it isn’t.

Just my $0.02

BB

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A story has to function within the rules and confines of the world it creates. If that world is different from our own, then the author must also find a way to gain our acceptance of the discrepancies.

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Re: I am Squiddy

Yeah that seems like the direction this thread is going in.

It’s the context that matters surely, If I read a sci-fi story (or watch a particular sci-fi western), I don’t need it to explain how the spaceship anti-gravity works, I just take it for granted (it’s the future, the fancy technology is half the fun). That said, there is a basic level of realism to adhere to, I still DON’T expect sound in space.

Oh and don’t betray your principles (I hate that. If you say something’s impossible, don’t turn around and do it later without explanation).

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I don’t need it to explain how the spaceship anti-gravity works, I just take it for granted

It’s not the how that’s important, it’s the why. You do need to explain why that needs to exist, and erm…I think you mean artificial gravity. Anti-gravity is just an object not subject to gravity, i.e. anything and everything in space.

But yes, if you feel the need to mention that the ship has artificial gravity, you’ll also need to explain why it has that. It’s a simple line of dialog but it adds so much to the story, especially for technical things like that. There are some, very rare instances where it’s a good idea NOT to explain something, but for most situations it’s absolutely critical, otherwise it takes away from the flow of a story.

Example

“He turned on the artificial gravity generator and they walked to the end of the corridor for their briefing.”

Why do I need to know or care about the artificial gravity generator? There’s no real reason for that to be in there.

“He turned on the artificial gravity generator, floating through the air always seemed to make him sick. They walked to the end of the corridor for their briefing.”

Not only do we now have an explanation as to why it was mentioned but we also have a character trait present. It’s simple, it only took nine extra words and adds to the flow of the story.

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Re: I am Squiddy

Yeah artificial gravity, maybe I was aiming for arti-gravity? (sounds like a mesh of physics and theatre studies) you knew what I meant though.

Its the how that I’m complaining about though, I was more meaning you shouldn’t try to explain how stuff works in the future (or rather you don’t need to). The why is a stylistic part of the story, as you demonstrated. Not nearly as black and white.

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Re: I am Squiddy

Hello Squiddy. Looks like you’ve fitted right in.

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