Teletubbies Porn

or "You Can't Write That!" as it applies to the hapless writer, whether because other people are saying it or because he's saying it to himself.

This spawns three sub-exclamations, in inverse order of applicability to my writing:

"That's an [unintentional] fetish!"
Man, Rule 34 will get you no matter how hard you try to avoid it. Sometimes you'll just have to live with that, sometimes you'll have to run a suspect story past a stable* of fetishists. Intentional fetish is a different thing, and is known as "characterization" if done well. If not done well, the problem isn't that you can't write it, it's that you suck at writing it.
*Har?

"That's too silly!"
This happens a lot when I'm brainstorming. I force myself to write everything down, and some days it just all seems so goofy. On the other hand, I've read (and written) some stories that started with a goofy premise and made it great. A lot of Philip K. Dick's work, for instance, is an effortless blend of goofy and awesome (and meaningful).

That is, if you have a silly idea, don't throw it away. If it's a silly world, try to come up with a character and story to go with it. If it's a silly character, come up with a story. Whether "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" (Harlan Ellison) was the former or the latter, it stands up.

"That's a horrible thing to say!"
When I make a character, sometimes that character is going to say or do something horrible. Not just an antagonist declaring "I'll kill your little dog! And eat it!", but a protagonist doing unsavory things. Sometimes that "pro" is just a matter of degrees from the "anti". Sometimes the protagonist has his own reasons. Sometimes people just say and do horrible things.

This isn't just Blatant Evil. This is also the result of a character with a well-defined morality applying that morality to a situation in ways that are...grey. My rule for myself is to always know why the character did that, so that even if I don't reveal it explicitly there will be enough clues for the careful reader to piece together a motivation.

But, I'm a writer of Speculative Fiction. Speculation, because it goes beyond the norm, will sometimes be uncomfortable. It may sounds horrible or goofy or...er..."porny" (not often). But if I wince away when that happens I'm abandoning writing what has the potential to be good stuff.

I've printed out a big sign and hung it on the wall above my whiteboard.
I can write whatever I want to write.
...and so can you.

#

Doom lurches forward on pointed claw-feet, extending a grasping tentacle toward its victim, her knees bloody from crawling on them. This fallen lady (her name was Civilization) screams. But nobody is left to hear. She edges back, out of tentacle length, and falls into a crevice. "I'm free," she sighs, as she falls toward her doom.

You can't anthropomorphize doom. It just is.

----
250 words? Yes
Short Story "Cosmast Rhyt" - in progress
- - - -
Reading - ?

*083