Story authors

Okay, so I've been really struggling with this story and I don't know why.

A few years ago, I was writing stories left and right for myself, I just saw an image by an artist online and then crafted a story around it very easily.

The way I did this was by essentially figuring out the inciting incident and working my way to the conclusion by acting the story out.

Now though, nothing seems to jump out at me. What does is either not that interesting (as in it sounds too generic of a weight gain story) or goes in a direction that's uncomfortable for me.

I've been trying to figure out one for my story and I just can't figure out anything.

So far all I know is that the story will be surreal, by which I mean the character will seemingly enter a new life of a new character and not be affected by it (well they will be but everyone else acts like nothing changed).

Our character wants her life to calm down and return to some sense of normal even if it's not the one she knew, she just wants everything to stop changing.

I don't know why everything's changing but I don't necessarily have to explain that anyway.

The lead will either start out skinny or fat, and if they start out fat then they'd basically be established as having always been a big girl and doesn't really care what others think of her fat or eating habits.

This idea actually works because I've also thought what if this girl has led a life where she usually eats whenever things aren't going so well and now eating is only leading to weight gain which is only making the reality shifting (that which made her uneasy) become worse.

So I just don't know how to send her into the reality shifting, or the conflict as given what we have so far then the reality shifting would just resolve on it's own and thus isn't one.

If I could figure out how to send her into that situation then I'd be set, but I have no idea. So my question is where can I get ideas for this, or if any similar stories exist.

Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

I think you may be overthinking this. And also, you’ve done this before in your housewife prototype when the wife eats the spice and everything changes.

There are many examples of these kinds of shifts, and yes, they all seem cliche because we’ve seen them for ver and over. Some are magical shifts and some seem grounded in reality of brain chemistry and physics.

Saul gets struck by lightning on the way to Damascus and becomes Paul. Dorothy gets swept up ina tornado. George Bailey is visited by an angel who has the power to change the world. Mom and daughter get strange fortune cookie fortunes and wake up in each others’ bodies in Freaky Friday. Bill Murray awakens again and again to the same Groundhog Day radio music.

Getting hit on the head and awakening to a different world where everyone else has changed is rather common trope, as is going to sleep in this me reality and awakening in another.

Ask yourself what you want your protagonist to learn or accomplish as a result of this change, and do you want the change to be permanent (Saul to Paul) or temporary (Freaky Friday).
There is little new under the sun, but good luck trying to come up with something different. Maybe it can in some way match the reality shift. If this is about her suddenly becoming fat, maybe she purchases a magical scale to weigh herself, or tries on a bewitched dress or eats a new food (like your housewife).

I think no matter what you come up with, what you do to convince the reader of this new world is more important than how you get there.

What is most compelling in all these stories is what happens after the shift in reality. You need to bombard your reader with details, and your inciting incident takes on less importance.

I hope this has helped.

Sorry it took a while to respond. Admittedly I wrote this post when I was about to go to bed and was half-awake.

You're right, I have the inciting incident already, but it is the lesson they learn from the adventure that I don't have.

Basically I feel my story is incomplete, the lead just gains weight and realizes that she likes it but this doesn't really change anything about her other than her size.

She does sort of have a sexual awakening in realizing she loves to gain weight but I feel this lesson is learned very soon into the story and the rest is just sort of there as a result. Like now the story is just continuing on for the sake of showcasing how far she's going to go or how big she's going to get (which works for a conclusion but it happens towards the start of act 2 instead and that doesn't work).

So it's like the story needs more story to have her gain happen towards the conclusion or her weight gain be a sub-plot in the main story and therefore conclude whenever it needs to as long as it moves the main plot along.

So the question is what does she get out of becoming an enormous woman? The answer lies in who she was and I just don't have that.

Which is what tired me meant by "inciting incident" I guess. What was she doing before the inciting incident of reality changing around on her, or before her weight gain happens?

I have no idea on that, all I have is what happens after that but not what she learns from gaining weight. I've tried seeking the answer from what I've got so far but the answer isn't there as it's so open ended.

She could be anyone and learn anything from this experience (well almost). She could be a housewife finding her true self, a drop-out college student looking for where to take their life and find it in the oddest way, or even a creature pretending to be human but their creature nature comes out instead.

I've had various ideas for the conclusion as well: they find out it was all in their head and they haven't gained any weight, they use their fat to overtake the villain that was after them this whole time, or escape the reality shifting with a new outlook on life (in some way).

Here's where we are now, the character isn't as developed as she needs to be yet to determine what she'd learn from this and I don't know what sort of life to start her out in. Maybe I can figure something out.

I think I may have realized my issue is that I keep questioning the why of everything in the story. Why is our character gaining weight in the first place? Why did that reason happen?

Though not the in-universe reason but the meta reason. I feel like the story needs the weight gain to be justified, even when I know it doesn't.

I doubt anyone here or anywhere else that's into fat, cares about justifying the why of it but for some reason I do.

So I keep asking: What does the weight gain scene(s) accomplish for the story? How do we continue after the weight gain but the story make sense?

That might be overthinking it but it's honestly something that's bothered me since forever. I've never cared either in stories by other people until I started writing one and then I'm like "Wait, how does this story work?"

I want to write a story, not a fetish story or a weight gain story but a story that has some elements that appeal to our interests.

So this brings me to another question, cartoons do weight gain scenes all the time and it works, character gets a tube shoved in their mouth and gain weight and it works. No one complains how this doesn't add to the story (Ed, Edd and Eddy, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends), or they've actually used this to add to the story (Totally Spies, Johnny Test, Producing Parker), so how do they do it?

How does it work in that story but not mine? My idea is somewhat about the idea of cartoon logic is applied into reality for the purposes of surrealism, but I feel I don't understand this aspect of cartoons enough to use it.

My solutions have often went into "we just explain it's a cartoon in real life" and that's the solution but to me that doesn't work. If you just say that cartoon physics now work in reality because cartoon characters have come to life then how do we explain that real people can't use those physics.

I know that films like Who Framed Roger Rabbit exist but that's pretty much the opposite of my idea. My idea is not that cartoon characters roam around, but that cartoon character have transformed into real people and are now roaming around, and even then I'm not sure I want to use that idea.

If I do use that idea then I'd want to explore the fictional character's perspective on how they now have to come to terms with being real people, and therefore dealing with our version of physics would make more sense.

So what is it about the (slapstick?) joke of weight gain that I don't get that's making it difficult to write my story? Am I just weird for not seeing it or is it difficult to understand? I feel so lost right now.

Looking over ti again, I think what I'm missing is the external conflict.

This is why I feel the story doesn't go anywhere because while I have an internal conflict, I don't really have anything that leads to it so it just kind of starts.

So what kind of external conflict can lead to weight gain, and be resolved by weight gain? That's the part I don't understand, and I don't know why I don't.

lydsville;

Wow, you are really over thinking this! It's your story, you make it whatever you want. Don't worry about if the "inciting" incident is real or imagined.
I've use incidents such as a co-ed comes home from college, she's gained weight, worries what her mother is going to say/think only to discover that her mother has gained a ton of weight and is now fat. Mom wants daughter to join her in being fat.
I have about sixty stories posted here, I had over one hundred and twenty on my old DA site. I write my stories for my enjoyment and I post them to share. I don't worry about, what is real or not, I just write what I imagine you should too! Good luck!

It's not that I strive for realism but that I want my character to be doing something more than gaining weight. That's interesting enough but I like to have something that explains what circumstances led them to actually gain weight.

Take the film Weird Science for instance, technically Wyatt and Gary do exactly what we do when writing a story, they brought their sexual fantasy dreams to life.

Though while they could've just done that because they're turned on by the idea, they did this because they needed her to help them talk to girls and become more popular to have the bullies leave the alone.

Something has to drive the character into doing this. In the example you gave the girl didn't start worrying until she was returning home from college and the conflict was resolved once she got there.

Using only the description you've given here I would focus on that ride home and describe her going through situations in her head about what she's afraid of. then I would have her arrive home to see her mother enormous and this makes her more comfortable.

Then she'll find out her mother wants to make her lager and this makes her somewhat worried but as she fattens up she begins to realize how much she likes it.

In the example I gave, I could rework that into a girl who wants to gain weight for some reason can't bring herself to and thus needs to call upon a larger woman (that she either makes with her computer like Wyatt and Gary do or somehow finds in real life) who then shows her the ropes and fattens her up.

Though she wouldn't just do this just because she can, something has to drive her to do this. I write my characters through comparing to personal experience and how people usually function, people don't usually just do things for the sole reason that they can, something makes them do it.

There's an old saying "lighting a fire under one's ass" that applies here. People don't move until it's absolutely necessary that they do. Sure that's me clinging to realism there, but that's the only way I know how to write characters.

Though this has given me ideas, the easy answer is that what made her move in this way is that our lead has been trying desperately to be turned on and this is her last resort and she discovers it's perfect but now there's the issue of actually doing it, which causes her to hesitate and worry but is then calmed when she actually tries it.

Why was she desperately trying to be turned on is because she has been led to believe she's not quite "human" if she can't feel something like this and therefore keeps trying.

The issue with this is that you can possibly tell that I'm projecting my won feelings, and while I should write what I know it's the part of showcasing how she was led to that feelings of inadequacy, I know how I was but those aren't things I want to explore in my story.

This is what I meant by my story getting too dark or too real before, the correct term would be it's too autobiographical and thus too painful to go through. The story would start out in a very horrifying way where we send our lead on a similar rough journey to my own,.

At best that doesn't make for an erotic story, at worse it attracts the wrong kind of people being turned on by my suffering.

To (hopefully) avoid that I thought about making the story about myself, then when the audience realizes it is a real story about a real person with some fantastical scenes or elements then they would maybe take it more seriously and be prepared for the scarring nature of the introduction.

Though again, bad idea on the chance that it would go horribly wrong. So this is where I'm actually stuck, the solution is right there but it's not a good answer, or at least I don't know how to keep myself safe with the answer.

Maybe I shouldn't try, then I'll always be safe. But I thought this would help me, but perhaps it never would.

I've always wondered the same thing, why are there so many stories about a parent fattening up a child in a story where the fattening up of someone is the erotic material.

It has always bugged me but I never said anything because I was afraid of stepping on toes by even saying I had a problem with it. Though I'll be honest this is why I've actually avoided reading most of the stories on this site.

When I was talking about "how I'd write" the example given by the previous reply, my honest answer would be I wouldn't write a story like that in the first place because it disturbs me.

But I can already hear the barrage of people telling me "not to kink shame" the people into that. My retort is that I'm not telling them how to live their life, but I am saying they can't just force me to be okay with something I'm not okay with.

Incest is not okay, having personally been through having a parent who was incestuous and living in fear of my life that they would harm me with their interest, I'm sorry I'll never be okay with the idea as I've been traumatized by it.

Still my apologies for sharing my opinions on subjects like this, I'll go stay in my lane now.

Amen, this is exactly what I've been insinuating this whole time. I've experienced that censoring mod team on another forum and feared encountering them here.

On the old forum I opened up about my being raped (not by my family, at least I don't think as it happened when I was away from them and at school) and then when I complained about the creeps DMing me about how I deserved it and should be more considerate of how others feel about that, I was the villain and I needed to be dealt with.

I'm appalled and completely flabbergasted that this is the fat fetish community as it stands. Sure not everyone is into this creepy stuff but they are okay with it creeping into the community easily. (I left all of this behind once and refused to even think of fat ever again, but came crawling back because I can't deny what I am)

This is what I kept meaning by "dark thoughts" or the story getting "too real", I didn't want to make a story with that sort of disturbing material of someone being forced to put on weight by another person and then accepting it and thus "making it okay" that they were forced into a sexual situation without their consent.

I just wanted to make a story about a woman who puts on weight of her own accord, knowing full well what she was doing, and then realizing that she likes it sexually and then taking it further.

Now admittedly my way of achieving this was by way of vore (which is technically cannibalism) and I've had times where I felt bad about being into that too. I've thought of ways around that too (perhaps we reveal in a plot twist that these people are all still alive as she never ate anyone before), and I still was afraid I was delving into the area of disturbing things I always hated.

I'm tired of dancing around what I actual mean. I just want to make a story that I can enjoy without finding myself thinking about the dark implications of what I wrote. My two stories I've posted are both thing I don't like because of those reasons, but according to everyone else they are perfectly fine.

What was okay about the witches manipulating Connor to become Constance and think he enjoyed it (as a transgender woman I found this part in particular as wrong as it felt like I was letting the conservative idea that I chose or was manipulated into being myself when I arrived to the conclusion that I am female through tons of soul searching)?

What was fine about Jenny the housewife being in a marriage with a lying dirtbag who was at least 20-30 years her senior?

Both of those plots were not good, they were born out of desperation where I had no answer but assumed I did, I went with what people told me to go with "be comfortable with ANY idea that comes to mind", "to follow through with the idea to the end even if it HURTS", and "that creative comes with SUFFERING".

I realize the truth and lack of in each of those quotes. Making a story doesn't have to hurt, if you're not comfortable with the idea then don't do it, and if you're suffering trying to bring your idea to life then you're not bringing it to life in the right way (I wanted to make a game first but realized how I'm not good at coding or balancing or level design, so now I'm making an animated short film, because I've realized I'm good at talking in a visual language and acting as well as rudimentary 3D modeling).

John Smith, thank you, you're the best. I feel so much better to have gotten all this off my chest. I needed this, I needed to say what was bothering me because it only keeps bothering me the more I keep it bottled up.

Maybe someone else is hurt by what I said, but listen if things bother me then they bother me. I can't help that I've been through hell and being reminded of it is painful. No amount of therapy will make people eroticizing my pain okay, just teach me how to easily handle those situations better.

Sorry if I've made anyone upset, but I needed to say what I said or else I would have exploded on someone and that would hurt that person a lot worse. Vent over.

Thank you Lydville. Thank you so much. And thank you John ❤️

First off, I love that you’re overthinking your story. That’s art.

The other posts really struck a chord with me. To me people getting fatter and enjoying it is not just hot, but profoundly beautiful. It pains me that so much of the community is about humiliation, degradation ect. I don’t want to insult people, I want to enjoy sharing a beautiful thing with them.

My sister is a neurobiologist with an interest in the structural changes caused by trauma and helping people who have suffered it. She has spoken to me at great length about the research on trauma recovery. She finds the normalisation of porn involving invest, coercion and humiliation very concerning, because of their relation to and effect on trauma.

Now I don’t know enough to say that there isn’t a healthy way for some people to enjoy that sort of fantasy, and if someone can then all power to them - BUT - it is not kink shaming, discrimination or even rude to say that you are uncomfortable with it, not on board with it or that you’d prefer a space that was less focused on it. It’s science. Indisputable empirical fact.