WRITING EROTICA - John McMullen

Rather than join in the usual arguments about God or some argument about
the imminent death of the 'net (film at 11.0.0.0), I thought I'd talk
about writing, and writing stories for alt.sex.stories specifically.
The rest of this article talks about:

* My biases
* A caveat (fetish fiction)
* Mechanical details
* Narrative voice and distance
* Predictable plots and boring sex
* Suggestions
* Scenarios

I believe these are reasonable guidelines, but your mileage may vary.

I'll use the word "erotica" to describe the stories here, since the
connotation of quality is not as objectionable as some of the
connotations of "pornography" or "smut." The point is not to write
something besides stroke fiction; the point is to write *better* stroke
fiction.

I assume that you understand some of the basics about fiction:
that a story has plot (events that have *effects*) and character
(individuals who are working towards a goal).

MY BIASES

Let me make my biases perfectly clear:

I believe in the fictional illusion.  I think most fiction should strive
to create an illusory world in which the reader exists.  Practices that
destroy that world or make it impossible to establish it are bad.  (Yes,
deconstruction and other metafictions exist to point out the mechanisms
we use to create the illusion.  On the other hand, Derrida doesn't write
erotica.)

If the writer is good enough or talented enough, there are no rules.
You can find successful exceptions to everything I say, but that's
because talent trumps analysis.  (A useful rule of thumb is this: if you
can explain, cogently and concisely, why you're using a technique that's
generally considered "bad" -- what you gain and what you lose by using
the technique -- then you probably know enough to break that rule.)

In case you're not clear on the difference, this is bad:

	"Hi," I said. My cock was already stiff from looking at her.

	"Hi yourself," she said.  Something in her voice said, "Fuck
	me," so I asked her up to my room.  She complied readily, her
	melons bouncing as she ran up the stairs two a time.  By the
	time I got to my room, she was already naked on the bed, her
	cooze dripping lust lubricant, her nipples stiff and hard.

	Her dripping twat was filled by my ramrod eight incher.  God she
	was tight.  She moaned while my cock sank into her and I sawed
	it back and forth pumping us to orgasm.  I really wanted her to
	enjoy our sex so I grabbed her nipples and squeezed.  She moaned
	again while I was inserting my cock into her lovepudding.  God I
	was good!  Her cunt was smooth and warm as transmission fluid in
	a Formula One racer, and I was ready to drive the distance.  We
	must have fucked like that for half an hour, her gigantic
	breasts cushioning my weight as I drove my cock into her.

	Just then my roommate Travis and his girlfriend walk in.  I'd
	always wanted to fuck Gina, and now I had my chance as she tore
	her clothes off and asked Travis to pass her around like a box
	of chocolates.

	My girl came again, drenching the sheets in a flood of honey
	juice and my own cock spurted a gallon of slime into her.
	"Fuck my ass," gasped Gina. God she was kinky! Travis pushed his
	steel-hard nine-incher balls-deep into her puckered pink sphincter. 

	My cock was still hard, so I fucked my girl in the face for a
	while.  Her throat opened right up so I could fill her mouth to
	my balls, my bloated testes banging against her chin.  I came
	again, another quart, and she swalloed it all.  Travis yelled,
	``Switch!'' so I pulled my hard cock from her mouth and planted
	it in Gina's juicy cunt while Travis put planted his lovegun in
	my girl's shitring.

(If you don't think that's bad writing, you should go on to another
article now.)

Two different classes of errors here:

 - errors of mechanics
 - errors of conception

Errors of mechanics are problems in presentation -- the confused
sequence of events in the third paragraph, the change of tense in the
second-last paragraph, the clumsiness of some of the metaphors and
sentence structures, the spelling mistakes.

Errors of conception (pun intended, of course) are problems in the actual
story:

 * improbable sex.
 * improbable anatomy.
 * no characterization.
 * pedestrian, predictable plot.


A CAVEAT (FETISH FICTION)

Even though I'm a fan of technical skill in writing, I recognize that
some fiction is written for a very narrow audience.  I think of this as
'fetish fiction' -- fiction that strongly emphasizes one particular
sexual act or attribute.  Incest and teen fiction are excellent examples
of this: for the 'fetish reader' the story loses its oomph if you don't
keep re-emphasizing the parent-child relationship, or the youth of the
participants.  I've also seen fiction that concentrated on sweat, urine,
and bodily hair. The continual emphasis on the fetish distracts or bores
the casual reader, but makes it exciting for the intended audience.

An example of fetish fiction in its purest form is the bondage story,
"Linda's Epic Adventures in Life." The prose is clunky, the characters
one-dimensional, and the author's real zest is reserved for describing
restraining devices.  (Reminds me of Hugo Gernsback's Ralph 124C+: "As
you know, Ralph, we must use a succession of inserts to accommodate her
vagina to the thickness of the rusty iron spike." )

How much you emphasize the fetish aspects of your story depends on the
audience you're writing for.  If you're writing (say) a mother-son
incest story, the nature of the relationship has to be the centerpiece.
(If you're writing classical tragedy, the incest has to be followed by
the destruction of the incestuous parties -- but I digress.)

MECHANICAL DETAILS

I can't help you much with mechanical details, other than to emphasize
that they really are important.  You can look them up in any good
English text.  Your goal here is clarity: If the reader has to re-read
the sentence, or if it's not clear who's doing what to whom, then that
disturbs the illusion.

Most of these are covered by Tim Pierce in the rec.arts.erotica
introduction (stolen without permission):

  * Check your spelling and grammar.
  * Don't right-justify your text.
  * Avoid an embarrassment of ellipses.
  * Avoid paragraphs that continue for more than a screen's worth of text
    (24 lines in most cases).
  * Avoid accidental changes of tense in the middle of a story.

Spelling in particular is bothersome, because it's so easy to check and
correct.  Try to check that you're using its and it's correctly (and
their and they're, your and you're, and so on).  Personally, I loathe
the word "cum" and use "come" instead, but I have no argument with those
who like the word.

NARRATIVE VOICE AND DISTANCE

Narrative voice is who's telling the story.  The choice of narrative
voice affects the narrative distance, the immediacy of the events of
the story.  In terms of voice, you've got four basic choices (from which
you can wring a lot of changes).

1. First person: "I couldn't believe she wanted to sleep with *me!*"
2. Second person: "You reach out to touch his face."
3. Third person, limited: "Jackie knew she was as sexy as Ramona, if
   only she had the chance to show it."
4. Third person omniscient: "While Todd was considering his chances with
   Eleanor, Lance was already naked with Gwen; however, he'd run into a
   problem."

First person is most common. It's the format of almost every letter to
Penthouse Forum. "I did this and then that happened." While you'd think
it's the most immediate, it's actually quite limiting.

In a first person story, you must always answer the implied question,
"Why are you telling me this?" This has implications for the character
transformation in the story.  In shorter forms (like letters to
Penthouse Forum), the answer to the question is almost always, "This was
the hottest sex I'd ever had." If you're going to write a *series* of
stories from the first person, you may need a better reason than that.

For example, take "Family Fun," a rather long incest story that changed
authors several times.  In the first five chapters, the narrator is
seduced by his mother, seduces his sister, and watches his sister seduce
his father.  So far, we've got a plausible case that this is in fact the
most important event in the character's life.  There's no ending to the
story at this point, and (really), it's tough to imagine one, although
once the entire family sleeps together, there aren't many choices: (a)
we stop the story because it's reached its natural conclusion; (b) the
family suffers because of their incest (unlikely in this genre of
fiction); (c) the family moves on to their extended family, seducing
aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and so on; (d) we don't actually end the
story.  (In fact, the anonymous second and third authors chose something
like (d), moving the narrator to a swing party, ignoring the fact that
"open marriage" is not the same as the swinger subculture.)

Another problem with first person is that it is always distant in time.
It's difficult to preserve the sense of immediacy, of seeing things as
the characters see them. Even when you're using the device of a journal
or diary, the character is always describing the events *afterward.*

Second person is coercive, and difficult to pull off.  There are a few
successful second-person stories in literature, but not many.  Second
person tends to be an experiment.  Try this: take a second-person story
and convert it into first person.  Then convert it into third person.
Read all three.  You'll probably find that the first and third person
versions take less effort to read.

Third person can be limited or omniscient.  In many ways, third person
is much more immediate than first person, and you can restrict yourself
to the impressions of your viewpoint character.  Third person is more
flexible and powerful than first person, but isn't used as often.
(Probably because everyone starts by writing a letter to Penthouse
Forum....)


INAPPROPRIATE METAPHORS AND SIMILES.

It seems to be a tradition to use ugly convoluted similes and metaphors
("Her cunt was smooth and warm as transmission fluid in a Formula One
racer, and I was ready to drive the distance").  I suggest we break
tradition.

An inappropriate or strained image brings laughter, not interest.  It's
jarring.  Really, is anyone turned on by phrases like "bloated testes"?
In the same line, I've always felt uncomfortable with references to
semen as "slime."

You can see how these metaphors begin -- "bloated testes" is meant to
convey a feeling of fullness, to convey that image of virility that's so
important to many authors. But: "bloated" has negative connotations
that are bothersome. You ought to be sensitive to these other
connotations.

"A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they
can change their meanings right in front of you.  They pick up flavors
and odors like butter in a refrigerator." -- John Steinbeck

TEDIOUS, REPETITIVE OR RUNON SENTENCES.

A lot of writers get so carried away by the images in their minds that
they don't structure them into sentences. There's no variety in the
sentence length or rhythm. Usually this shows up as run-on sentences.

I'm not knocking long and complex sentences.  A long and complex
sentence may be necessary; but some writers use long sentences because
they can't be bothered to insert punctuation.  (This is related to runon
paragraphs, which I describe in the next section.) Consider this long
sentence:

	Troy looked around and noticed that Emily was watching him with
	some interest, staring at his stiff prick and licking her lips
	as her cousin Beth licked her husband's come from Emily's wet
	slit...Troy wanted to fuck Emily and went to her, rubbing his
	stiff prick against her full warm lips and Emily opened her
	mouth and took his come slick cock into her throat as she
	slipped a sperm coated finger into his asshole, fingering his
	butt as she swallowed his stiff prick...Emily sucked his cock
	deep for about 5 minutes until he pushed Beth aside to fill
	Emily's spermy cunt with his cock and eventually his goo.

Among other things, the writer here believes that an ellipsis is a
substitute for a conjunction. Usually you're better off trying to vary
the lengths and rhythms of the sentences. Here's an attempt to rewrite
the previous sentence using shorter sentences:

	Troy watched Beth eagerly suck her husband's come from Emily's
	cunt.  When he glanced up at Emily's face, she was looking at
	him, looking at his stiff prick.  She licked her lips and he
	took that as a sign to come forward and fuck her mouth.  He
	rubbed the head of his cock over her full warm lips; Emily took
	his cock into her mouth and her throat.  She slipped a
	sperm-coated finger into his asshole.  He had never felt so
	full.  For five minutes she sucked his cock and probed his ass
	until finally, he had to have her cunt.  He pushed Beth aside
	and fucked Emily frantically until he came.

Sentences tend to be longer and more florid at the climactic moment (you
should pardon the expression) of a story or chapter.  There are other
reasons for using a long sentence -- perhaps to convey a mood or an
emotion, as this example tries to do:

	Although her cousin Beth was still kneeling between her legs,
	cleaning her of Garry's come, Emily still felt unsatisfied and
	hungry, almost empty, and she told herself that the problem had
	been Garry's -- he wasn't big enough -- so she beckoned to Troy,
	whose soft cock was almost as big as Garry's hard one; she felt
	a vague tremor of desire as the young man walked over to her and
	proudly presented his cock to her but it wasn't hard yet,
	watching her hadn't made it hard so she took it in her mouth in
	a perfunctory manner -- but as she tongued it she copied what
	Beth was doing between her legs, swirling her tongue over his
	cockhead when Beth caressed her clit, licking his shaft when Beth
	licked the length of Emily's pussy, until Emily began to feel
	that she wasn't sucking Troy at all, merely acting as an
	extension of Beth's tongue, and the illusion destroyed any
	desire she had felt.

On the other hand, many people have read too much Hemingway and write
paragraphs like this:

	Troy looked around. Emily was watching him. She licked her lips. Her
	cousin Beth was sucking her husband's come from her slit. It
	excited Troy. It excited him a lot. He went to her. He rubbed
	his cockhead against her full warm mouth. She took it in. She
	took it all in. She put a finger up his asshole as she swallowed
	all of him. Emily sucked the good suck, and he came.

Even worse, some people have Zelazny disease:

	His cock. Was in her mouth. Her warm wet mouth. She sucked.
	Him. Until. He. Came.

These special effects have their place, and they can be very effective
-- that's why people copy them.  They lose their effectiveness if
overused.

RUNON PARAGRAPHS.

Here's an actual paragraph from Family Fun (I've corrected the spelling):

	We drove for about 20 minutes and pulled up in front of a nice
	suburban house which looked for all intents very conservative.
	The only indication of a party was the six or seven cars parked
	in the driveway and in the street.  Dad and I got out on the
	street side and went around to help the ladies out getting a
	great show as Mom and Ger made sure to hike up their skirts.  We
	went to the door and rang the bell after a short wait a tall
	blond woman wearing a terry cloth robe answered the door and let
	us in.  Dad spoke briefly to her then introduced Geriann and I
	to her telling us that her name was Donna.  Dad told Donna that
	this was our first swing party and that we were their kids.
	Donna looked at Ger and I and licked her lips then reached out
	and rubbed Ger's tit then my cock.  I liked Donne right away and
	told her I was going to make sure she enjoyed tonight.  Donna
	smiled and opened her robe placing it on the chair next to the
	door and allowing us see her hot body as she led us into the
	living room.  My eyes almost fell out of their sockets as we
	entered the room.  There were four couples and three young
	girls going at it on large mats layed down on the floor.  Donna
	led us thru the fucking mass of bodies to a bedroom and told us
	to strip and join in where ever we wanted.  Mom told me to close
	my open mouth and began to strip me quickly.  Dad was doing the
	same for Geriann and soon my sister and I were standing there
	naked.  I helped Mom out of her clothes as Geriann stripped Dad
	exposing his stiff cock and stroking his prick in her hot little
	hand.  Mom told us that we needed to be introduced to everyone
	and that we would have to let the others get to know us a bit
	before we really got wild.  After her words of wisdom Mom led me
	by my cock as Dad guided Ger by placing his hand on her ass
	moving us to the living room to meet their swinging friends.

In one paragraph (29 lines of text, 381 words), the author is conveying
at least five separate events:

  1. We arrive and walk to the door.
  2. Dad convinces them it's cool to let us in.
  3. We're introduced to the hostess.
  4. We get our first sight of the orgy.
  5. We undress.
  
There should probably be three paragraphs here, maybe five.

LACK OF DIALOGUE.

Dialogue is one of the easiest ways to make your characters seem like
actual people.  Here's a typical bit of narrative exposition.  Your male
character has finally been allowed into the Dionysius Club and is being
shown around the orgy room:

	Leo was introduced to Benito, a stocky man with dark hair and
	gleaming teeth, who was fucking a woman named Clarice; Benito
	stopped as they approached and complimented Anna on her shaved
	pussy.

Compare that with the following (admittedly non-brilliant) dialogue:

	"Annie!"  A stocky man with dark hair and gleaming teeth stopped in
	mid-stroke to look at Anna and Leo.  "You've shaved!  I love my
	hair pie without the hair."

	Anna laughed. "I'll save you a piece, Benito. Hello, Clarice."

	The woman under the man grunted. "Don't talk, Benito --  fuck!"

This dialogue at least tells you that everyone has met, and that they
have some kind of relationship.  We also get a hint of their
personalities.


UNREALISTIC SEX SCENES.

Look, we'll cut some slack because it's fiction, but the average
erection is around six inches, not six inches around.  Not every woman
has firm breasts, and if her nipples are stiff it may just mean she's
cold.  The second half of "Family Fun" contains many references like
this: "I really wanted her to enjoy sex, so I pinched her stiff
nipples." (And I was wasting my wife's time with foreplay....)

Women always have these gushing orgasms.  (Florence King talks about
this in her essay, "Confessions of a Lady Pornographer" -- at a
Christmas party, one of the staff complained that she didn't gush like
the women in the books; to which Florence replied (I'm paraphrasing),
"Honey, if I lubricated like the women in the books, I'd see a doctor.")

No one kisses in these stories, either.

Part of the problem is that the characters are interchangeable --
they're just tab A and slot B. As David Gerrold once wrote, all sex is
friction.  It's the differences in partners that make it interesting.
And that leads us to...

LACK OF CHARACTERIZATION (PERSONALITY AND MOTIVATION).

Characterization is a broad, broad topic and not one that I'm going to
be able to treat fairly here.  There are lots of approaches to
characterization, but here's one that works for me.

What we call characterization is the ability of the writer to convey
personality and motivation.  Personality is the set of choices a person
makes -- from diction (whether he says "Yeah" or "Affirmative") and
clothing (a hot pink miniskirt says something different than jean
cutoffs) to choice of careers, lovers, and hobbies.  Not all of these
are conscious choices, but we'll leave that aside for the moment.
Motivation is the reason why a character makes specific choices.
Generally characters are striving to *achieve* or *avoid* something.

(Note that internal roadblocks count as motivation.)

In most stories we see here on the net, the characters are motivated by
simple lust or by a particularly treacly kind of love.  Yet people have
sex for many different reasons (even Glamour magazine ran an article
called "7 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight").

The quickest list of motivations I know is the Seven Deadly Sins; lust
is one. In case you're not up on your theology, the other six were:

 - Anger
 - Avarice (Greed)
 - Envy
 - Pride
 - Gluttony
 - Sloth

Imagine a story where they have sex because she's angry (at someone) and
he's proud (of his ability).  This immediately suggests how each
character's story will be resolved -- she will discover something about
her anger or the object of her anger, he will discover something about
his pride.

One more thing: most people are not simple.  They don't proceed in
straight lines towards their goals, with single motivations.

Incidentally, don't believe that because your character is based on a
real person, he or she will be believable.  'Tain't so.  In fact, I
think a writer describing a real person tends to get lazy and doesn't
justify the character enough -- so the "real" character gets short
shrift.

PREDICTABLE PLOTS AND BORING SEX.

How many stories have you read with this plot:

1. Generic people meet
2. She goes down on him
3. He fucks her; both come.
4. He fucks her ass; both come again.
5. Friends show up and they repeat, in various combinations. The women
   are allowed to touch each other, but no two men are.

I'm not saying a good story can't be built out of this structure (it
can), but these stories are frequently boring.

Plot is a series of *events* that have repercussions for the characters
involved.  Bob has a shower.  That's not important to the plot.  But if
Bob has a shower and he jerks off, which means that he can't get it up
for Julie later, so she invites in Dana from next door: that's an
important event in the plot.

Plot is structured in *scenes*.  Scenes are a lot more interesting if
each character has something to accomplish and a reason (or reasons) why
it can't be done.  For example, you have a scene between Chris and
Frances:

 * Frances wants to sleep with Chris. Chris won't even kiss her.

 * Chris wants to tell Frances she has bad breath. Chris has been taught
   it's impolite to discuss these things.

Obviously, this is a trivial example. If the motivations and obstacles
are great enough, they form the basis for the whole story:

 * Both Chris and Frances want to top each other; neither is willing
   to bottom.

EXAMPLE.

Here's that extended chunk of Family Fun rewritten. This version is 
longer, but it's vastly more readable:

	We drove out into the suburbs and pulled up in front of a nice
	conservative house.  Only the six or seven cars parked in the
	street and driveway betrayed the party inside.  Dad and I went
	around to help our ladies out of the car; Mom and Ger made sure
	to hike up their skirts, so we got a great show.

	A few moments after we rang the bell, a tall blond woman wearing
	a terry cloth robe let us in.  The house smelled of sex.

	Dad spoke briefly to her; then said,  ``This is Donna.
	Donna, these are our kids, Geriann and Bill.  This is their
	first party.''

	Donna looked at us and licked her lips.  ``It's good to meet
	you, Geriann,'' she said, and rubbed Ger's tit.  Ger surprised
	me by leaning forward and kissing her.  Donna turned the kiss
	into something wicked, running her hands over Ger's hips, ass,
	back, and cupping her breasts.  After breaking the kiss, she
	turned to me and said, ``Nice to meet you too, Bill,'' as she
	traced her fingers along my cock.

	I liked her right away.  ``I'll make sure you enjoy tonight,'' I
	told her.

	Donna smiled.  ``I'm sure you will.'' I tried not to stare when
	she placed her robe on the chair next to the door.  She had a
	long lean body, like a runner, and almost no tits at all but her
	nipples were big and brown.  She also had the most abundant
	brown bush I'd ever seen.  I watched her muscular asscheeks flex
	as she led us into the living room, and then I had plenty more
	to stare at: All the furniture had been pushed to the wall, and
	there were four couples and three young girls going at it on
	large mats.

	I easily spotted the people I already knew: Bob was fucking one
	of the teenage girls; Carol was on her hands and knees in a
	threesome with a man I didn't know and another of the teenagers;
	Jim was fucking a tiny redhead by the fireplace; and Lisa and
	Jenny were straddling one of the other men I didn't
	know.  Lisa had his cock, and Jenny was sitting on his face and
	rubbing her exposed clit.  Jenny looked just as sexy naked as I
	had known she would: her tits were full, firm and bouncing
	gently as he fucked her with his tongue; her bush was trimmed
	back nicely and her pussy lips were exposed.

	Donna led us through the fucking mass of bodies to a bedroom and
	told us to strip and join in wherever we wanted.  Mom told me to
	close my open mouth, then quickly stripped me.  Dad did the same
	for Geriann and soon my sister and I were standing there naked.
	I helped Mom out of her clothes as Geriann stripped Dad.  She
	stroked Dad's stiff prick a couple of times.

	``You can't really get wild until you've met everyone and
	they've gotten to know you a bit,'' Mom told us.  She waited
	until both Ger and I agreed, and then she said, ``So let's get
	started.'' She took me by the cock and Dad placed his hand on
	Ger's ass, and they guided us into the living room to meet some
	new friends -- and some old friends in a new way.


SCENARIOS

Okay, enough talking; here are half a dozen scenarios which are not
hackneyed or cliched. These are plucked from the air; use if you wish.
I've written these as hetero, but change genders and sexual orientations
if you'd like. The nice thing about motivations rather than sex acts is
that they span sexual preferences.

 - She's dumping him, wants to let him down easy so she arranges a
   threesome with a girl she thinks would be good for him.

 - They have an argument, it's clear they're going to break up, and she
   wants to show him the kind of great sex he'll be losing by leaving.

 - He condescends to give a mercy fuck to someone and either (a)
   discovers his assumptions about people like him/her were wrong or
   (b) discovers that it can be {ennobling|cheapening} to give a mercy
   fuck.

 - He's impotent (and remains so throughout the story); she helps him
   adjust to it by showing him other things they can do.

 - She's held on to her virginity for a long time, and decides it's time
   to go "all the way" -- but for various reasons keeps being frustrated.

 - A romantic has an encounter with a golddigger; from the opposite
   point of view, a cynic is ennobled by an encounter with a romantic.

 - After some depressing event (loss of job?), the protagonist has
   unexpected sex which cheers him or her up.

 - A professional mime/mannequin is fondled and groped on the job.
   Professional pride prevents him/her from turning to look at the groper.

 - A gay man and a lesbian each want a child, so they agree to have sex.
   (This could be funny or poignant, depending on your approach.)

 - She has always been afraid to express herself sexually.  Now that
   she's facing death (you make up the reason: terminal disease, held
   hostage by terrorists, old age), there's nothing holding her back.

MORE SUGGESTIONS.

After the white heat of inspiration has cooled, set the story aside.
The next day, read it out loud. (It's even better if you can get someone
else to read it to you.) When you're reading something familiar, there's
a tendency to skip over the boring or overly-familiar parts. Reading out
loud forces you to slow down and look at every word in your story.

A second suggestion:  read every book on writing you can find.  Even the
bad ones will contain one new item or one new interpretation you can
use.  Although you must take him with a grain of salt, John Gardner's
_The_Art_Of_Fiction_ is excellent.  Crawford Killian posted a set of
articles on the basics of commercial fiction; they're archived in
various places around the Web.

A third suggestion:  read voraciously, read analytically.  Don't just
read Penthouse Forum or the latest Bee-Line book; read Anais Nin, Henry
Miller and Pat Califa.  Read erotica from the sixties, when they were
forced to put in more characterization because they couldn't have as
much sex.  (Writers like Robert Silverberg, Lawrence Block and -- I
believe -- Donald Westlake wrote erotica during the fifties and
sixties.)  Look for the good authors on the net, and read them.

But you should also read outside the field.  Read romance novels:
they're formulaic, but they also show you how you can distinguish one
character from a billion other similar characters.  Read Faulkner to see
how long a sentence can be, and read Hemingway to get that out of your
system.  Read Sherwood Anderson.  Read Edgar Allen Poe to see how all
the supposed elements of fiction can be compressed and dropped.
(_The_Cask_Of_Amontillado_ is *all* denouement.) Read classic novels
and plays:  Shakespeare and Dickens could create a wonderful character
in two lines.

And as soon as you think you have the rules of fiction sussed out, find
someone who breaks those rules and figure out how they get away with it.

John McMullen
jhm@sentex.net