Airy Tales

Posted By Inflate123 on November 25, 2011

Fanfics abound in the inflation story community. I’ve seen Final Fantasy BE stories and One Piece Mansion inflation stories and [insert trendy movie/cartoon/TV show/anime/videogame here] expansion stories. It’s great that you are inspired to take something you love in normal life and make it into a pervy inflation adventure. But…you are assuming the audience knows what you know, and that is rarely true. I know a lot of pop culture references, but I don’t know them all. The show you’ve dedicated hours to watching might well be something I have never seen. So as a reader, I’m left out.

The problem with this from a writing standpoint is actually worse, because fanfics spare the author the trouble of establishing who these charcters are or why they behave the way they do. You know from playing an 80-hour RPG or watching five seasons of a TV show exactly how and why the characters will do something. So by using this narrative shortcut, you are skipping a lot of the work that goes into making a compelling story. Why do I care about this character? Do I sympathize with them? Should I feel bad that our plucky heroine is getting inflated because luck never goes her way, or is she a total bitch and I should enjoy this revenge fantasy? A non-fanfic establishes those barriers in the telling. Too many fanfics skip that step altogether and just go “you know, it’s Squiggles — she’s like that.” No, actually, I don’t. So don’t fall into that trap.

And for the record, it would be nice to note that your story is a fanfic at the outset. When I did a riff on Cinderella, I said, “this is a riff on Cinderella.” In the file. At the top of the story. So you would know the context going in. Very often lately I’ve opened a story, started to read, and had no idea I was reading a derivative work until halfway through. It’s still your story, but you have to set it up, folks.

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Posted By Inflate123 on August 10, 2011

It’s been a very busy time for me in real life again. My job is one of those this-needs-your-immediate-attention positions, where the pressure is often high and not in the exciting kinky way. As a result I find myself coming home mentally exhausted, which leaves little energy to brainstorm for story ideas or new concepts. But with a slightly lighter workload and no travel to stress about this week, the wheels started turning on the way home from work today.

Earlier in the year TLink invited lots of people to create an original character for his Academy of Swelling project. I took the chance and did my first OC, Dr. Julie Janssen. I then…didn’t do anything with her. (Though TLink did, and that thrilled me.) I see a lot of people create OCs (in fact, offering criticism to one artist who suddenly didn’t want to hear it, he haughtily told me that he’d created over 300 OCs as ultimate proof that he knew what he was doing thank you very much) and while some of them get the attention they deserve — like Kreizen’s always-interesting Inflatrix — I see too many people come up with a character and then stop. Like, to that guy, it was way more important to have 300 OCs than one well-developed one.

To me, OCs are not Pokemon (My OCs — let me show you them). They’re not supposed to be little tributes to yourself. “Look, I have created a character! It is original! I am a god! My work is done, so let me go bask in the glory of my own awesomeness.” Actually, nobody cares, because you have not given anybody a reason to care. I maintain that coming up with a name, a hair color, and a cup size is easy; putting a heart and a brain and a real personality behind the mind-numbingly boring data sheet is where you should be focusing your attention. James Bond, Jean Grey, Kermit the Frog, Hermione Granger — all the best characters have depth. An OC data sheet has none.

When I sit and think about Julie, I really like not who she is, but what she could become. I haven’t done the work yet. I want to give people a reason to care about her, to follow her adventures, to root for her and her loopy brain that brings good inflatable ideas to life. I have to convince you that she’s worth your attention; otherwise, she isn’t.

I don’t think anybody NEEDS an OC, but if you’re going to make one, commit to it.

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Posted By Inflate123 on February 23, 2011

A few weeks ago I found a tiny thumbnail on a random website of a blonde in a cheetah-print leotard — same image shown here, only even smaller. The image had been hijacked and used for someone’s ad campaign, so I couldn’t figure out who she was or where it originally appeared. But I liked what I saw — nice curves, spandex, gorgeous hair…do I even have to explain?

I looked on Google several times, because it bugged me that I couldn’t find her. It was obviously a professional photo; someone had to have it out there. Well, tonight I found it in a place I really didn’t expect: national TV. The image was flashed on the screen during the debut of America’s Next Top Model as prior work of one of this season’s contestants, Kasia. The image was from V Magazine’s “Size” issue last year (there’s a preview on models.com with the full-size image) and was shot by Sølve Sundsbø.

I was thrilled to get the image in a higher resolution, but man…I just didn’t expect it on TV!

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Posted By Inflate123 on February 23, 2011

It’s on! And it’s a doozy. I’m going to enter but I don’t know what I’m doing yet. It’s tricky. You should enter.

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