Turning guys into gals can be tedious after awhile!
Wanted to make a caption for Helena as she's now a member of the Haven Trading Gallery. Found the source photo and thought I could do something with it. Then, it just sat there in Photoshop for awhile ... waiting for me to work on it .. as I surfed the web about the new Pope .. and got angry as the Patriots let Wes Welker go in Free Agency to the hated rivals, the Denver Broncos .. and yet nothing really came to me. I thought that perhaps I was actually hitting one of those writer's block spells where you can't really get any ideas for captions. I mean, I've made probably 1300+ captions and 1800 panels .. its bound to happen. Then I figured .. why not use THAT in a caption?!?
I know it seems more like Mistress Dee is bored, but there are only so many scenarios you can use before you can feel like you are repeating yourself. I try to approach the time worn situations from other angles, but it can seem like you've done EVERYTHING already. And if YOU haven't, there are tons of creative people like Simone, Jennifer, C(K)aitlyn, et al that have also done lots of clever things in their captions.
I am amazed at people that can do hundreds of captions all dealing with the same topic, whether its pantyhose, son to daughter, redheads, etc ... I marvel that they don't sit there and say, "Hmmm, what am I going to make today .. I know, a pregnancy caption!" and then start weeping. I have done a ton of different styles, genres, and preferences, and even I sometimes wonder if there is much new ways to look at what we do. I think that Caitlyn's kinetic text might be the last thing I've seen that is pretty damn original. Most of the time, we have to re-invent a wheel that is already good enough.
Its why I sometimes go meta in my captions. It can expand the story beyond the bounds of the caption with a wink and a nod. Another is to build a solid base of reality that will ground the more magical and mystical elements we place to our scenarios.
I used an old joke to wrap the plot around. Basics go like this, "Guy is walking down the street and is accosted by a hooker that says she'll do anything he wants for 20 bucks. He responds back, 'here's 50 bucks, go and paint my house!'." Then you hear a rim shot and watch the burlesque dancer next. Yup, its THAT old!
Since I've been doing taxes for people on the side, I figured that if a hooker asked me what I wanted, I'd have to do MY fucking taxes! That worked, but it didn't really have the zing I usually crave, so I thought about accountants and them dealing with numbers .. and with that sweet red honeypot staring at me, I figured that 69 would do just fine. Since Helena is from the Netherlands (according to her Haven bio at least!) I looked up the tax forms and they have a W for freelance workers. Figuring that (1) being a mistress is probably a self employed position and (2) we have W-2's given to us in America at the end of the year for our earnings ... a W-69 form would work well for the both of us!
DISCUSSION QUESTION: Sorry that I have not had real good discussion questions recently, but I've been VERY busy lately and still fighting a upper infection but still working. Anyone have ideas on things that haven't yet been done in TG captions that no one has tried yet .. or has been criminally underused by us making them?
Fun cap Dee. Even mistresses that sissify men need their taxes done! I'm right on the same page with you on the whole 'only so many ways to skin a cat' (or more aptly 'only so many ways to feminize a man'). I think it even gets a little more claustrophobic when you consider that only so many stories fit into an artist's particular style. Even though I have my particular tastes that I try to bring to any cap (so long as the preferences will accept them), I still want to change things up as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteIt's similar to tastes in music. I don't know that I could listen to the same artist or even the same genre of music over and over. I like to mix in alt rock, classical, house, blues, classic rock, and even occasionally pop. But there are artists out there that have their favorite band and play their 5 albums on constant repeat.... in other words they make similarly told story caps over and over and over. Sure, it's nice to find a slight variation on the well told narrative, but damn... throw a magic spell in there or a mad scientist occasionally!
You mentioned the Kinetic Text style... but even that is just a different layout. It's not a new story. It's not a new scenario that we can all dig our nails into and write anew. This kind of folds into your discussion question, but I wonder if there is a cycle to TG stories. In movies you see a cycle of whats popular... period pieces, buddy movies, action flicks, superhero thrillers, sad dramas, teenybopper stories, television projects... they all come and go only to come back in a few years. Is there a similar thing to TG stories? I know there are some older concepts that seem to have been pushed off to the side recently (like Aunty stories)... is it time to just bring those back into vogue?
If that particular example does make a comeback, it won't help me as I don't particularly care for the incestual nature of them... but maybe there's another story style that can make a comeback.
The caption style I miss the most is one that I often try to represent .. the sexy yet silly captions made popular by people like Bimbo Jessica, Courtney, ShySteffie and Petra, none of whom are making captions anymore (well Courtney occasionally, but she's been working on other things the last year or two.) There was a certain whimsy about them, but they were all sexy and steamy as can be. I think that Kaitlyn comes closest nowadays, but I often feel like she holds back some of the deviant twists that could amp up the perversion to keep it at a PG-13 - soft R rating. Petra and Steffie could both give you the giggles AND a boner at the same time, and how often does THAT happen? Its a dying breed of caption I think.
DeleteI think of the Kinetic Text as a different way of presenting a story .. with bursts of story lines that form a narrative. I don't think of it as straightforward, but more like a stream of consciousness. To me that is something different than the usual.
Hmm... that begs the questions then; Did Bimbo Jessica, Courtney, ShySteffie and Petra start out making their captions that way or did they evolve into that style? Maybe there is some caption artist out there that will eventually pick up the silly/sexy mantle and run with it.
DeleteThat's just great, to Caitlin I become an inspiration, and to you a writer's block;-)
ReplyDeleteBut if this is you on a writer's block we don't have to worry. It is great.
However you might not want me to do the taxes, You get the IRAS on your back, and I the belastingdienst. but form W69, that sounds good.
Mmmm, I wonder, do I sense some doubt about my nationality, or is it just me? Not that I would mind, but if there is, I would be curious to what the cause is. It might be inspiring.
Well, with the large amount of 3 captions on my name, I can't say I can relate to the fact that I did everything already. To me it's even hard enough to realize I have an Idea at all, so I am glad everybody at the Haven is patient with me, and I can take my time.
Nah, you weren't the cause of the writer's block :) Sometimes we get a little stumped or lack that spark of inspiration that carries over into the finished caption. This happened to be one of those times and I'm glad I did as I'm quite fond of this one. Not many mistresses in TG captioning would make their transformees do their taxes!
DeleteMany VPN's use IP's from the Netherlands so I never know for sure where people come from, and on the Haven, you can list any country you want. We have quite a few people from Antartica apparently! The first time I used a VPN and my homepage was in another language (Dutch I presume?) it was very interesting to see what the headlines were!
If you've only made three so far then you should have PLENTY of inspiration!
Inspiration isn't the main problem for me, making it work in a caption is. I did work out a few more Idea's I had, only three I dare call a caption, the others I call deleted. I did have fun making them, it's good for the learning process, but before I dare calling it a caption, at least *I* want to be satisfied with the result, so I can at least hope someone else will like it too. From anyone else I can only hope they will be gentle but honest with me.
DeleteAbout your remark; 'We have quite a few people from Antarctica apparently'. Is that maybe an angle that hasn't been done before? A few vague ideas on the subject spring to my mind anyway.
Just a suggestion Helena... you might consider posting your 'failures'. There is a lot to be learned from finding out how a good idea turned bad. Just mention that you aren't pleased with it, and ask for a critique. Hell, you might even find that it's just a style that you personally aren't happy with, but might have a very interested audience. I'd say about half of my caps are ones that I'm not happy with, but I know that they please a certain population, so they get posted anyway.
DeleteAnd it's an excellent suggestion, and I'm a little ashamed, I didn't think of it myself.
DeletePart of my day job is to train people, and I always teach them to admit to the things that went wrong, so they can learn from it, and it can be prevented from going wrong again. In more than one occasion the thing that went wrong actually provided a solution in itself. So that is basically your suggestion.
However, I have to admit that posting a caption I'm not really pleased with myself is a big step. I'm nervous enough to post a caption that worked for me. So the first step to following your suggestion, is NOT deleting works I am not pleased with. That will make it easier to post them when I'm ready for that step.