I've finished a new story, "Birthday Wishes." It is an age regression/age progression type story. I'll be starting work on my Ogre storyswap and my story contest winner soon.
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I just finished part four of five of a long running serial I'm doing and I'm helping write a story collaboration. Since I last talked about what I was writing I got another commission - this one as more of a vignette or very short story. I'll be doing this next, likely some time in the next few days. After that, on my plate is my very long Ogre-themed storyswap and my story contest winner, which I assure you I have not forgotten.
I got a question in the comments on my last post - who was the cute girl in the picture? It was Linsey Ward, one of the most beautiful women of all time in my book. Today we have Kelsey Olson, another one of my personal favorites. The pictures don't relate exactly to what I'm writing but I figured people might enjoy them. What do you think? Should I occasionally sprinkle in pictures in my blog posts or is that just a distraction? For some, the best part of a story is the set up and resolution - the plot. For others, the best part is the transformation itself, described in loving detail, ideally in big, blocky paragraphs that are easy to spot as the plot is quickly skipped over. I'm midway between these two camps. On the one hand, I have enjoyed stories purely for their transformation descriptions (hell, I've enjoyed a story or two just because of a couple of really well written sentences). On the other hand, a well written plot certainly adds another layer of substantive enjoyment to a story. Here are my thoughts on this, and I'm very aware that I don't follow my own rules all of the time. First, plot ought to flow naturally from the transformation, not the other way around. If the story seems like a bunch of plot with a transformation kind of stuck in there, it doesn't work. If the plot seems to introduce, explain, and heighten the anticipation, it works great. My other rule is that I try to avoid letting the plot get in the way of the transformation. In other words, there should be a point, text wise, where the plot stops and the transformation is allowed to happen in full bloom, uninterrupted. What are your thoughts on stories in general and my stories in particular? Do you like plot? Do you feel like certain elements of plot are essential for building up to a good story? What would you like me to concentrate on more - plot details or transformation descriptions? In case you are curious, of all the commissions I've done, almost everyone has requested as much detail as possible on the transformations. So I intended to do a review of some other offerings of ebooks in the so called "BBW Romance" genre. My first review, of the ebook Big Girls on Top, was written in the tone of disappointment. But I wanted to give the genre another try, to see if I merely got a bad apple or if it was indicative of the genre at large.
Sadly, I'm here to report that it is the latter. I read in the book, "The Beauty Myth," (which incidentally is a great book that changed my life) that modern romance novels generally follow the same plot over and over again: 1. A working, independent woman meets a man at her workplace setting 2. The man pursues her and she resists him 3. The man overcomes her resistance and they get together The standard BBW romance genre copies and pastes this formula, and then adds in a crippling lack of self esteem on the woman's part, because she's a BBW and can't imagine any decent man would be attracted to her. In these stories, which I'm assuming are written by women, the man's body is typically described with more enthusiasm than the woman, and he's always a muscular guy. The "romance" part of these stories is particularly lame. Why does the man always chase the woman? Why does the woman always have the same reasons for resisting? (ie, being insecure, not wanting to be perceived as slutty). Why does the man have to go to creepy, stalker-ish lengths to win her over? Why does he have to do threatening things like grab her arm when she tries to run away? If any other man acted like this, he'd be a predator, but because he's described as attractive, he's given a free pass. The sex parts aren't much better. You'll hear a lot about the woman's inner monologue, but never what the man is thinking. You'll hear what it felt like, but rarely what it looks like. You'll have to sit through the woman's monologue constantly insisting to you that she's not usually a slut and so she has conflicted feelings about doing whatever she's doing. He has no feelings - he's charming, he's attracted to her, and he wants to have sex, that's all he is. He may end up being a decent fellow, but he is still a flat character. He is not tender, he is just macho. When I first got into reading stories as a teenage, I was so repulsed and repelled by these type of dynamics (which, again, are true in many genres, not just BBW Romance) that I didn't want to read any more. I just read stories about lesbians, because you might actually read something heart warming instead of stomach churning and predictable. The next review I'll do will be of any good actual weight gain or other transformation type stories that I find. Hopefully they will be better. I mentioned earlier that I wanted to discuss transformations in depth. I thought I'd write a little bit about how the transformation relates to my writing, give an explanation as to the goals of the transformation, share some of my favorite archetypal stories, discuss the catalysts of the change, and discuss the cultural context of the transformation.
Weight gain is one of the most popular transformations online and it is - by far - the most common transformation type in my stories. In fact, of the 28 stories I have there now, only two involve no weight gain whatsoever. When I first got into transformation fiction, I went to places that focused on this transformation exclusively, such as Mollycoddles and Dimensions Magazine. Mollycoddles has some of my older weight gain stories still posted, so if you really love them, by all means check out the stories of "Ghostly-Spectre" and tell me what you think. Like most transformations, weight gain stories generally has three possible goals, which are not at all mutually exclusive. Punish/Humble people who deserve it, give someone a new role in life, or beautification. Generally the goal depends on if the author views curvy women (or men) in a positive or negative light. To provide some examples, some see getting fat is a terrible fate that ought to befall bad people, and it ought to accompany other kinds of terrible changes, like in Mddubya's very, very dark story "When the cat's away." To others, weight gain might indeed be humbling, but it is part of a transformation from one role to another, like in Matt L's appropriately titled "Remodeled." And finally, some see the transformation in an exclusively positive light, such as Joel's "Life Changer." The methods for causing the change are typically food, spells/wishes, aging, science, and even exercise, as in a story by Berry and one by me. Most readers, including myself, prefer a drawn out transformation process, rather than an instant change. Some prefer the end state to be quite large, others prefer only a smaller change. I'm on the small to mid-size change side myself. The context of the transformation is that we live in a society in which being overweight is frowned upon. It is perceived to be a sign of ugliness, a health hazard, and by some even a moral failing. In some ways, this makes weigh gain seem more exciting - it is taboo. When I was younger, I dreamed of being the one guy who could see the beauty of an overweight person and heal their emotional wounds. This desire is reflected in my earlier works such as Embers in the Frost. I wrote "Embers in the Frost" as a teenager, and since then I have not tried to write a story where I describe my ideal women or my ideal relationship. I've changed a lot since then and I feel like I ought to give that a try when I don't have so many projects on my plate at once. Some people look at weight gain as just a punishment, but others are overweight themselves or consider themselves to be FAs or "fat admirers." The Lard Biscuit site has a good explanation of what it means to be a FA today (it also has a gallery of plus size models.) There are many reasons why societal views on weight might change in the future. For one, being moderately overweight isn't nearly as bad for your health as was once thought. In fact, recent studies have shown it may actually be healthier than being "target weight." Second, as we learn more about genetics, we learn that weight isn't entirely a product of behavior and thus people aren't lazy if they cannot lose weight. Third, judging people by their looks is superficial. Fourth, since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, anybody can be beautiful and their ought not be one universal standard of beauty. I first realized that my views on beauty might be different when I saw the film "Shrek," and thought Princess Fiona looked better as a chubby ogre than as a skinny human. I feel like my views today are partially utilitarian. That is, part of what forms my aesthetic taste in beauty has to do with what I perceive to be the use of what I like. To give an example, I feel like one of the reasons I'm attracted to chubby women is because I imagine how wonderful it would feel to cuddle with them. Other FAs primarily like that bigger girls have bigger boobs. Everyone has their own reasons. If you like weight gain transformations, leave a comment sharing what you like about them and please give a link to your favorite weight gain story. Thanks to those in the comments who pointed out that the link to Quantum Flux was broken. It is now fixed on this blog and in the story section.
I also wanted to share some thoughts on what's coming up. I have two commissions I'm working on before I get to the story I'm writing for our idea contest. One is collaborative, the other is a very long project that I've been doing for some time. What kind of a sneak peak would you like from either? I have a story out, "Quantum Flux." Let me know what you think!
I also wanted to respond to a few of the comments I've received. One person informed me - in German - that I didn't have an email address. My email is available on the contact me and commission a story pages. Another user said that "Sneak Peaks" could unintentionally have the effect of ruining a story if the plot is revealed and the elements of suspense and surprise are compromised. That is something I had not thought of. In the future I will try to give a bit of the story, but try to keep the plot a bit more under wraps. Our recent poll was an interesting experiment. (One way is that the site had 400 unique visitors but only 10 poll respondents, but never mind that for the moment.) What was primarily interesting to me is that there was no one clear favorite among those that responded. I take that as a good thing - it seems that among at least there of my ideas for content (reviews, sneak peaks, and in depth discussions) there is some interest.
Since "Sneak Peaks" was the marginal favorite, though, I'm going to share one now. As I wrote earlier, I'm working on three commissions, so I've decided to offer a bit about one of them, which is a gender and race change transformation. First, a bit of background. I've done some gender bender type stories before, but I haven't given a gender change a serious treatment for quite some time. In fact, I've been writing short stories for about 10 years, and I haven't done it since writing my very first story, which was a gender TF anime fan fiction. I have a lot of thoughts about the complexities of gender stories, but I'll save that for an in depth look at the genre at a later time. My first story was brimming with sexuality, while my recent commission - while erotic - does not contain any depiction of sexual activity. So the stories are quite different in many. Contained within the story is a theme which tends to come up again and again - changing identity. That's what the story is primarily about. The story also has a racial element and age, as the protagonist changes from a younger black man to a middle aged white woman. And here is your sneak peak: She...well...I...was white, middle aged - but young enough to be the mother of the children on the walls. Blonde hair, in a short, spiky hairdo, the kind fashionable for women of that age. The skin was pale, but bore traces of an artificial tan. If anybody had asked me what I’d do if I woke up with a woman’s body last week, I would have told them that I would have spent all day in front of the mirror. I couldn’t help but take off my clothes to take a look, but out of the sake of curiosity, not lust. The white tank top and jean skirt came off easy, revealing large pink bra and underwear. I was surprised to look at the traffic stats and find that my site is regularly getting around 300 unique visitors a day. That's a lot of people! Since you are here, I wanted to ask what you'd like most from this blog. I have several things planned (including posting more often), but I'm curious what you find the most interesting idea: 1. Reviews of stories, books, and sites about transformations. I want to provide information about my explorations of the best material out there. I'd like to share what I like, why I like it, and how it compares to what else is available. 2. Sneak peaks of upcoming stories and discussion of the creative process. Sharing what's happening and how it's happening. This means sharing what stories I'm working on, excepts from my works in progress, and my musings on how to craft a story and complete a project. 3. In depth explanation of transformation concepts. This includes my thoughts on previous stories, why certain ideas are appealing, and brainstorming on what it all means. I'd like to share precisely what appeals to me and explain how that flows into what I write, as well as compare the style of different types of stories in different communities. 4. More personal tidbits. What it's like being a writer, the experience of running this website, how my personal tastes has affected my life, and how to communicate with people on and offline about topics like transformations. 5. Your choice. Let me know what you'd like to see, if I haven't listed it here. This time I'd doing things a little different. Feel free to comment, but I'm leaving a poll in case people find that more accessible. I recently got a Kindle, so I've been browsing their collection of short stories to see if there is anything good. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of actual, physical transformation stories, but I was curious if there as anything well written that involved some good descriptions. Ideally, I'd like to read a story about a curvy girl (or a tomboyish/muscular girl) who is a little bit on the dominant side, but not so much that the story would be BDSM. So the first story I decided to buy was "Big Girls on Top" by Mercy Walker. Apparently, there is a BBW erotica sub-genre now, and there are several defining characteristics. A somewhat insecure BBW meets an impossibly attractive, muscular man, whom (much to her surprise) is very attracted to her. Against her better judgement, she gets into bed with him very quickly. "Big Girls on Top" follows these traits very closely. Despite the title, it is about only 1 girl, and she's hardly on top. She does have sex with him on top in one scene, but the man in the story is constantly the pursuer and she's swept off her feet by him. In addition, the story shies away from overly detailed descriptions of her body. So ultimately I was disappointed, but I did feel like it was well written in the technical sense and was a good story if you like BBW erotic fiction generally. I'll let you know if I read anything that is a closer fit to what I like or to TFs generally. In the meantime, do any of you have any Kindle favorites? If you do want to read "Big Girls on Top," it's only 99 cents: |
AboutT.F. Wright is a game developer and bestselling author. They focus on topics like magical transformations, celebrating alternative forms of beauty, flipping traditional gender roles, and LGBT themes. T.F. is also available for commissions. Categories
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