Wednesday and Thursday were very productive for me in the TG realm. I ended up making a bunch of captions, some to cover caption debt I managed to accrue in May, and other things for the 4th Issue of the Haven Quarterly that will hopefully be out in the beginning of July. So far for the HQ, I've made a caption based off a song title from a story written by Belladonna from Fictionmania (aka Sarine Davis from Rachel's Haven) and a few advertisements. Since we want it to look as much like a magazine as possible, it definitely has to have ads. I think I like making those the most!
One of the captions I made to get out of caption debt was this one for Neurotoxin. When I owe, I try to look in their photo folder to see if anything there inspires me. I already know that they think its a great picture, so I'm already half way there in them liking it. This one jumped out at me because .. to me its visually stunning, don't you agree? I can see why it was in her "pictures to use for captions" folder and that is why I was drawn to it.
From there, I thought about her screen name, Neurotoxin, and I figured I would use that as a base for the caption. I also wanted to stay away from any sort of real plot, and focus on the RIGHT NOW changes as they were happening in the moment. It wasn't necessary to give it any back story as far as I was concerned.
Why muddy it up with something that could end up clunky? I would much prefer that Neurotoxin, and any reader, fill the plot in however they'd like it to be. Was it a jilted ex-wife? Lab experiment gone horribly wrong? Batman knocked him into the vat while fighting crime? I figure that the reader will have a much better back story than I can, since they know what they like.
Because of that, I was just able to write about sensations as to what he/she was feeling. I tried to make it a bit detached but I couldn't be TOO clinical or it would lose some of its impact. I am not sure I got the exact best balance between the two, but I think its still pretty hot.
On another note, I was able to check out the backlog of some of my favorite captioners and friends to this blog. Great work, and I'm sorry I couldn't comment on it when it was new, but Hey! Hopefully I got some people looking at the less current stuff now! Also, if you haven't checked out Simone's "Glamour Games" series yet, you are doing yourself and Simone a great disservice. Its WONDERFUL!
DISCUSSION QUESTION: If you had just seen the picture, what sort of story would you have come up with for a caption? Figured that I want to see what this photo would inspire others to write about. Also, traffic has slowed down her the last week or so. I know I haven't been posting that regularly, but I figured I would ask .. Would you like to see more older captions, or more recently created ones? I have many of both, so let me know what you'd like to see. If I made you a caption you haven't seen posted here, let me know and I'll see what I can do, especially if you have an idea for a discussion about it.
This is one of those images that is visually stunning enough to be in a cap, but it has so much going on that I find it hard to write a shorter story for. Here is my brief mental workup...
ReplyDeleteShe's underwater. Why? Is she hiding? Yes, she's hiding. But what's the red cloth? It's the 'thing' that is transforming her. So she was a guy... what is she hiding from? People want to transform her, but why does she want to hide from them? She signed up for an experiment, but doesn't like where it's going. So she has to realize that the experiment involves tranformation before she hits the water... so maybe they already started it. Yeah... they apply some tech things like a facial mask, false breasts, a fake pussy covering her penis... and then they tell her that the next step will make all of these modifications permanant. Instead of following them to the next 'station' she runs away, finds a vat of dark liquid and jumps in to hide.. she can only occasionaly peek her lips above the surface for air but stays close so that she can see when the coast is clear. Meanwhile the 'red transforming silk thingamabob' starts caressing over her. Making her skin soft, permenantly attaching the mask/breasts/pussy and even mentaly manipulating her to go along with and even love the new body...
That's where my mind went. But from that long drawn out 'idea' I could see at least 2 panels. My mind immediatly wants to fill in the blanks (why is she there? why is she hiding, why isn't she stopping it...). I actually come across images that inspire stories as this one did, but they are to complex and draw out and I decide that they just aren't worth the effort. Sure... I could probably pare this idea down and tell part of the story, but with the whole idea in my head already I would feel like I'm not telling enough.
I think I'd like to see a mix of your old and new captions. I like seeing the 'classic' Dee especially when its a path that you don't take as often now, but I also like seeing where you caps are going. When you do something new, or expand upon your capping skills. But above all, I like when the cap somehow matches your discussion topic!
Those images that you find that inspire stories in you that are longer than 1 panel .. have you thought about posting them to your blog or putting them in a folder on the Haven for others to tackle? You could consider it a blog challenge or something .. or just a "hey everyone, see if you can make something of this!"
DeleteNo. To be honest when I see images like that, i'm more often than not searching for images to cap. I know it would only take a few seconds to save the image and post it later, but I don't want to stop my search and take even that time. But thats a good idea... I may start putting these up on the haven.
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