Friday, October 30, 2015

Phallic Friday - Animal magnetism

This week I saw another submission call that's piqued my interest - I must stop looking at these!! You can find it here if you're interested.

A publisher is looking for "Stories about men drawn together over their love of animals".

Can you see why that interests me? I could link Wildlife Wednesdays with Phallic Fridays and in one story :)

It can be from 20K to 60K and not due until July 2016. So I've time to think, and write... but what?

What animal to choose? How do you pick just one? Or do I create a story about a croc hunting team, sort of Crocodile Dundee meets Steve Irwin but leave out the female characters? Or maybe I think about last week's posts and do a couple of make zoo keepers who bond over a snake they both kiss...and maybe they'll discover other snakes that like kisses. :)

I could write something like Brokeback Mountain, but with a happy ending. Or Water For Elephants with all male characters. Maybe Gerald Durrel or James Herriot could inspire my lead.

This is how my story ideas start. I'm no planner, but my mind goes into a frenzy of ideas. Drawing an idea, tossing it around, discarding it. This can go on for days and days, weeks even. Then something might stick. I'll get some words down, then it might fade to nothing. I'll have something else burn brightly in my mind, but words aren't there. Finally, something will happen and a scene will materialise in my mind that words spill out about it. Then they keep coming and coming. Sometimes it will stall, and I'll write something else for a bit, then off they go again. More words. And that's the bit I find the most fun, although it does sound quite awful when I write it like that!

It's after the words have spilled when I struggle. I have to somehow turn the words I have into something smooth, with well depicted characters who have proper motivation. I have to make sure there's a believable story on the page, not lost in my head. I have to ensure the translation from my mind to the page can be followed by someone else. And that part is tedious and boring for me. My fun is in finding the story, working out what's going to happen to who.

So men, bonding over animals... two men, or three? Lots of animals or one sort? Is a woman involved or not? A short story or something bigger?

Oh, and the fetish story. Yeah, still working on that! It's why I should never look at these submission calls. Why I shouldn't let myself get distracted by a new idea. Focus. Fetish story. But animals...

What animals would you write about? And who would be your characters?

2 comments:

  1. Lots of fodder in the zoo keepers and the snake. Or it's a bloke who brings a photo in of his pet snake shedding skin (or whatever)... then maybe they all shapeshift into pythons. (oops, that's my anthology sneaking in) :) Good luck with writing it!

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    1. LOL Shape shifting males and animal magnetism! Wow, Lily, you're giving me even more options!!!

      Cate xo

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