The topic here is not story writing - but personal, private mental story-building.

Masturbation is not a topic to get too analytical about - just something to enjoy in your own way in your own time. But, having turned so many of my private wank-fantasies into published stories, it’s a topic I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about, discussing with other people ... and writing about.

Scattered around this site are several texts which explore different approaches to the mental process which I often call “Theatre of the Mind’s Eye”.

Below are brief descriptions of various related pages - and links.
Several of them are ripe for revising, editing and combining - but don't hold your breath!
For the moment this page is a simple round-up ...

GET CLOSER TO YOUR FANTASIES was the title of a workshop I hosted at several different fetish events. Advance publicity for these discussion sessions promised ...

How to make your wildest erotic fantasies more potent in the privacy of your imagination?
Explore practical ideas for strengthening the focus of your favourite
turn-on scenarios.
Open up some new horizons for yourself by exchanging ideas in an interactive
brain-storming session.
Would you really want to turn your hottest erotic dream into a ‘reality’? - if so,
what can you do the make it happen?
Test your ability to communicate your specific preferences to other people.

Jim Stewart is an experienced explorer of what he calls ‘Theatre of the Mind’s Eye’ but he is also a realist.
Come share your successes, failures, frustrations and dreams.

Notes from these sessions suggest a wide range of alternative possibilities.
(To read the full text, see list of links at the end of this page)

SCENARIO FOR A JERK-OFF FANTASY
This title introduced a dramatised public reading of my story Scenario for a Leather Fantasy.
The scenario started life as a personal wanking session before being published in DRUMMER magazine and then as part of the FETTERS Bondage Reader series.
This is how I introduced it to the audience at it’s first public performance ...

The very first time I committed one of my lurid sexual fantasies to paper – the aim was to make the mental pictures stronger for myself. I planned to describe the different elements of my favourite turn-ons in as precise and vivid detail as I could manage. By thinking it through step-by-step while writing it down, I hoped that in future wanking sessions my mental images could be better focused.
What’s more I could have a print-out copy as one-handed reading to keep my mind on-track.

All this was because, previously, during intense solo sessions I had a habit of changing my mind part way through the build-up to a hot climax. The dark Hispanic type I was visualising might suddenly become blond and hairless, or the action might drift into taking place in a different location. Spoilt for choice, my mind would often lose focus.

For me, whether in a mind’s-eye session or one-handed reading, additional visual aids such as magazine pictures helped to act as an anchor, by making the mental imagery more specific. But, that could also complicate the moment. In my early days of beating-off over "mucky books", a picture on page fifteen might show two guys doing exactly what turned me on, but ... if I preferred to imagine the sexy-looking guy on page nine ... doing it to the guy I particularly fancied on page forty ... that’d mean flipping between three pages to support my mental imagery.

I often vandalised books to bring the preferred images together on one page. All that was before computers and scanners, of course. Now, a whole new technology has opened up to us - as we will explore here tonight.

Scenario for a Leather Fantasy was my first attempt to write out a wanking session from beginning to end just the way it usually happened in my mind. When put down on paper ... the result surprised me ... because it was more like a film script than a story. When it was eventually being published - I felt this needed some sort of explanation - so I wrote a Prologue ...

PROLOGUE to a leather fantasy:
Getting a personal jerk-off scenario down on paper is something of a self-indulgence: an opportunity to savour in greater detail a collection of visual images and a hot dramatic situation which together involve all my favourite turn-ons ...

I can see the two main characters very clearly in my mind’s eye as I mentally get them to act out an experience that I would really like to take part in. Not that either character is me - but they’re both part of me ... no, I mean there's a little bit of me in each of them.

As I write, I’m still trying to work out a way to put onto paper a mental process I follow naturally two or three times a week; that is, imagining situations that excite me sexually. I bring together the action and imagery piece by piece, picturing every smallest detail of my chosen character’s clothes and actions, building up in my mind’s-eye how they move and talk. I watch and listen as they approach the situation I’m thinking them into - which inevitably will involve some sort of bondage - restraint - a power trip. What they say to one another as they interact is sometimes the opposite of what they’re thinking. So I also mentally listen in on their secret thoughts as they manoeuvre while dealing with somebody they hope to win control over ... or is it to be controlled by? I like to watch and listen and still be a part of it all.

Maybe it’s more like mentally watching a movie I’ve written. But if you’ve ever read through a movie script you’ll know how complicated that can be; the mixture of described action, narration, dialogue and instructions to the camera about where to look, or when to be in close-up and when to give a broader view of the whole scene.

Well, for the purposes of developing this favourite fantasy of the Mind’s Eye, I guess that’s the basic format for this jerk-off scenario tonight.

The full text of SCENARIO FOR A LEATHER FANTASY is on site - link at end of this page

ONE -HANDED READING
Jerk-off stories are what keep a lot of people coming back to this site - especially if they’re turned-on by descriptions of “wrapping, strapping, chaining and tying”. But, how do they use the different ‘Storylines’? Do they read on-screen or print them out? Recently I’ve made texts of all main stories on-site more printer-friendly.

Bed-time reading and sitting at the computer are two very different situations when enjoying mind-candy. The topic of illustrated and un-illustrated texts is discussed later on this page. Another fundamental question comes first. That is, finding turn-on text which pushes all your buttons and contains nothing that’s a turn-off. So, setting aside the physical differences of jerking-off in bed, on a sofa or sitting at a computer desk ... let’s stick to (if you’ll excuse the expression) the subject of SUBJECT-MATTER.

CHANGING OTHER PEOPLE’S STORIES
Mentally altering, enhancing, editing details to suit your own personal turn-ons is only half the story here. In your imagination, to shift the emphasis of a scenario so it includes more of your personal erotic preferences is not difficult. It’s something many people do automatically while reading; particularly in the case of one-handed reading.

However, with my story texts, I encourage readers to feel free to change or add by printing-out and physically revising the text to suit their own taste (or lack of it).
This web page is not about writing stories, but simple tweaking of an existing text is under consideration here. Believe me, the actual process of editing-in extra sexy details or pushing the characters to act out your personal preferred alternatives can provide hours of sexually stimulating enjoyment at the computer or scribbling on a print-out.

The ethics of taking an author’s text and changing it, is questionable. Some people find it offensive ... and I can understand that point of view. Technically, infringement of copyright only becomes a matter of concern if the alternative version is circulated without acknowledgement to the original author. This is certainly not on. The alternative versions I’m recommending should NEVER be published or even circulated to others ... without the originator’s written consent and giving full credit.

However, personally, I don’t see it as an insult to the original author’s creative integrity. To me it’s a healthy exercise in imagination - and a compliment to the originator rather than any sort of criticism. But, and I do stress this; a version of somebody else’s creative writing adjusted for personal private enjoyment should not be made available to others without the originator’s consent - and never for profit. I admit freely that many of my stories on this site were inspired by or built-onto other people’s texts. This I always acknowledge on the title page and only publish when their consent has been given.

What I’m really proposing here is something more personal. Whether just tweaking minor details in a text to add more of what pushes my particular buttons for private enjoyment ... or taking a situation or characters as a starting point and building onto the original ... either can offer a lot of stimulating mileage.

I argue my case for encouraging people to make whatever mental adjustments help them to enjoy the situation more fully, in the introduction to what was eventually published (with permission from the original author) in the Bondage Reader series as ...

MAN -TO- MAN STUFF
A story by Derek Arnold - made longer by Jim Stewart

INTRODUCTION: Turn-ons & Turn-offs
What’s in it for you
Reading erotic fiction is a chancy business. How soon into a story can you tell if the author is on your wave-length? Particularly in terms of erotic subject matter, if the reader’s personal preferences do not precisely match those of the author, this can lead to frustration – or a stimulating exercise in creative imagination. You, the reader can, by imagining changes you'd make to storyline or characters, shut the book at any point and drive the action in a direction more likely to get your juices flowing. Alternatively, you can read the story right through and then, in retrospect, imagine your way through your chosen alternative version and get off on it as often as you like.

When the originator of this story started writing, it wasn’t called Man-to-Man Stuff – and his aim was to push the buttons of one particular friend of his (and, of course, himself during the writing process). The content was chosen to appeal to specific known sexual / sensual preferences. After showing the first sequence to several like-minded kinkheads, the basic scenario was then broadened by adding elements which the original author knew would appeal to several more of his personal acquaintances.

What’s in it for me
By the time the story was shown to me by the author, it was already 15,000 words long – and a lot of it immediately fired up my boilers big-time. However, certain elements and images in the story cut across my personal likes-and-dislikes enough to be distracting. So, at first I mentally edited them out - and then, because it was an electronic file, began a self-indulgent process of physically replacing what jarred for me. This may sound presumptuous (if not bloody rude!), but when it comes to sexual stimulation, we all know that it’s the subtle nuances which really make the difference. As in cooking, the same basic ingredients can result in different flavoured dishes, depending on addition of various little ‘extras’, or making exclusions.

Happily, with the Author’s agreement, I spent a lot of highly stimulating hours imagining his two excellent characters and core scenario into a piece of text which will allow me to get off on it during many re-readings in the future.

This version is now 38,000 words long and I’m delighted that the Author has agreed to allow other readers to see my ‘take’ on his story.

Enjoy it for what’s in it for you ... or add and subtract from the text to satisfy more fully your own particular tastes.

For complete text of MAN-TO-MAN STUFF, see link at the end of this page.

JOHN STRICKLAND’s characters in his horny Motorcycle Messenger stories inspired two of my most popular texts on this site.
His LOCKED IN LEATHER remains one of my favourites, but frequent returns to read it again and again prompted me to invent an alternative ending. Luckily, John decided that both versions should be available on this site.

The second inspiration came from one line in his FURTHER ADVENTURES OF A MOTORCYCLE MESSENGER. The 6500 word story I wrote involves his character Sam trying on the new PVC rain gear John describes so vividly. The author and I share an enthusiasm for the gear ... and the character of Sam is so hot ... I just couldn’t resist building him into a fantasy of my own. My take is called FANTASY & REALITY IN PVC.

Links to my two 'adaptations' can be found in the list at the end of this page.

TOO MUCH DETAIL IN A TEXT
This is a topic I had not written much about until recently (November 2008).
I’m sometimes accused of putting too many adjectives, let alone too much descriptive detail into my texts. Well I’m sorry, I write from my personal turn-on point of view - and I know what I like. All my stories luxuriate in the sort of detail that turns me on. For example, the sensual specifics of the sight/smell/sound of certain fabrics. Also, technical details which aim to paint a word picture; a rope-tie described needs to be precise enough to enable the reader to visualise it clearly ... perhaps clearly enough to enable them to try that particular tie for themselves if they choose. This may seem excessive to somebody who just wants to get on with the narrative. That’s where my suggestion for editing a text for personal preference really comes into it’s own. - subtract or add.
In fairness to my potential readers, I sometimes preface my stories with a warning such as ...

“Know what you’re getting into here. You’ll find no graphic details of genitalia or penetrative sex. The focus here is on a wide range of sensual and psychological, rather than overtly sexual excitements. In the sort of physical Power Exchange game-playing I’m into, sex opportunities are ‘optional extras’, a spice that the reader can add to suit his personal taste if required.
So, if the sensual appeal of strong canvas, tarpaulin, tough hide (rather than dress leather), oilskin, industrial-weight rubber and army gear excite your erotic imagination ... (plus, of course, it’s restrictive potential) ... you’re in the right place.”

This is usually followed by an invitation to add as much sex or violence of whatever kind the reader may prefer.

While on the subject of too much detail, at the beginning of my web page about ‘Rope and Roping’ I warn “If you think 35,000 words on the subject of rope and roping sounds obsessive - go find other topics to explore around Houdini Connections”.

But, on the other hand, at the beginning of a particularly detailed self-indulgent story about men kinky for oilskin gear, I invite ... “This tale will work equally well if you imagine the guys are into rubber or leather instead. That mental process is easy enough. By making an electronic copy and physically changing the text, you can not only have a very stimulating time doing it - you can end up with a print-out that will really focus your visual imagination time and time again."

A GOOD EXAMPLE of a reader adjusting a story for his own amusement is a version of my story Long Distance Control Trip. This is a 6000 word story about waxed motorcycle gear.
Originally there was only an excerpt from it on-site - and a good friend asked for the complete text - and then, because he prefers soft and shiny Rukka motorcycle gear rather than the matt and sticky waxed stuff, he totally replaced all references to the look/feel/smell/ sound of waxed fabric. For added authenticity in his version, buckles in the original story became velcro and zippers became snap-fasteners. It’s an excellent example of making a switch - and having fun getting all the details right. From what he told me, while adapting the descriptive specifics, the writer togged himself up in his Rukka kit and strapped himself to his desk chair while indulging himself by systematically making the changes. A jerk-off situation in itself.

N.B. The complete text of my waxed gear version of the story is now on site - linked to the complete re-telling as Rukka.

Since writing this, an additional page WORD PICTURES, expands on this text (22nd October 2008)

OPEN-ENDED STORIES
Many of my stories end abruptly, just when the reader is looking forward to what happens next. This can be disappointing or infuriating - but, in my mind, it’s an invitation. Leaving further development to the imagination of the reader, leaves a lot of different doors open.

I argue that, if I’d climaxed the story using my limited range of personal kinks, I might have chosen plot developments which are not what the reader was hoping for - or what would best satisfy his erotic preference.

So, as a rule, having supplied the building bricks for the reader’s imagination, I like to leave them to decide what could/might/should happen next. Their imagination can supply a more suitable climax. Follow-on scenarios can include all their favourite turn-ons - and none of their turn-offs which might spoil the story for them.

When a described situation gets to a certain point of excitement, letting your own mind ‘pick up the ball and run with it’ can be very stimulating. Then, on re-reading, you can supply a different ending every time if you choose; just as you can choose to re-clothe the characters in different gear or change their physical appearance. You don’t need to write it down to make these adjustments more potent in your mind’s eye ... although doing so might offer you additional enjoyment.

Discussing this topic reminds me of another angle - or is it a separate topic?

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
(Added May 2010) This question was one I had to ask ‘Callum Buchanan’ several times. In the early days long before we met (he was till writing anonymously from a box number) his fantasies always ended with him rendered totally helpless and unable to prevent whatever might happen next. When pressed about what sort of thing - he could never tell me. At first I thought he was being coy. Later, I came to believe that he had never seriously allowed his mind to stray that far. Is that believable? Is that possible?

With his last story Read The Instructions it originally ended with the sports gear inescapably imprisoning him and the suppliers arriving to either rescue him or take advantage of his helpless predicament. I pushed him into writing a further chapter, but even that ended inconclusively. Did he just not know what he wanted to happen - or was the real thrill leaving it open to being something he seriously didn’t want to experience - but could not admit it? An interesting topic for discussion.

The complete text of his draft of the story Read The Instructions was added to the site in May 2010.

GETTING IT ONTO PAPER?
The physical process of writing something down need not be a chore. After some highly imaginative (and stimulating) thinking-it-through, jotting a few key words in the margin of a printed text can support your personal preferences during the next reading.
Even a tentative one-finger typist can soon learn to make changes to an on-screen copy of a text found on the Internet. After a creative re-think, sitting typing-in the changes can certainly get the juices flowing - believe me. If you're used to sitting at the computer with a web-cam or exchanging mutually stimulating text messages - souping-up stories can become a new form of turn-on.

Technically, the search-and-replace facility on a computer is a good starting point when planning to personalise a text.
For example, if you choose to substitute an alternative for the word oilskin, search-and-replace can be used to identify and highlight every occurance of the word. After that, if you choose, you can enjoyably immerse yourself more deeply into the story for a few hours at the keyboard, systematically trawling through the text to locate and replace different references to visual, tactile or sensual qualities of oilskin gear and replace with descriptions of the sensual delights of your preferred fetish material. That can really focus the mind - and repay you with repeated self-stimulating opportunities during the process - and result in a hard-copy in your hand to enjoy on many future occasions.

Adding descriptions of an alternative predicament or activity may demand more creative effort - but this need not be literature. Focussed thinking is all it takes. Making a few mental notes while re-reading somebody else’s text is a useful start. This may be all it needs for future sessions when you are visualising it in your mind’s-eye. Key words alongside the original text may be all that's necessary. But, if you decide to make a hard-copy of your own version - the actual process can keep you hard just thinking about alternatives, paragraph by paragraph. This sound like a big step to some people; settling down at a computer with a copy of the original text and working your way through it. Believe me, I can tell you from experience, it can be the beginning of a stimulating adventure ... and because you can now down-load a complete text of any of my stories - have fun!

CREATIVE WRITING
Never be afraid of adding your own ideas. To quote my advice in ‘Letters from the Fetters Files’ ... “To hell with literary style - letting your ideas just flow is what counts”.

Often in the past, when encouraging people to write down their own ideas, I've reassured them that this demands no real literary skills. “Talking onto paper” is something I recommend when inviting any exchange of opinions with like-minded kinkheads. There’s a paragraph at the beginning of the printed 'Letters' booklet, where I wrote inviting more correspondence with me by reassuring ...
“When it comes to writing down a rush of ideas .....; when it comes to an enthusiasm .....; when it comes to a flow of alternatives - - to hell with grammar and structure: dots, dashes, colons, semicolons and double question marks may not be true punctuation - but they communicate a personality. To gossip onto paper can be a great release. I encourage people to use their own 'voice' as they write to me, not keep stopping to tidy up the text.”

So, the same goes for when writing for your own amusement or self-turn-on.

TALKING AND LISTENING is another web page where I encourage people to communicate with me informally and describe their personal erotic preferences. There I say ...

“The originality of players never ceases to amaze me ... and hours of enjoyment on many different levels are to be gained by first getting your own private thoughts into better focus, and then writing them down. This can even pave the way to sharing them with others through a completely safe (and anonymous) medium of the Internet.

For more about the Talking & Listening project, I’m breaking the pattern and recommending that you follow the link briefly, and return here using the ’back’ button.

VISUALISATION
This word has two meanings in the context of strengthening an erotic focus.
To mentally visualise an image or situation ... or to support your mental image with something more substantial such as a well-chosen picture.

Mental visualisation is explored in the Get Closer to you Fantasies workshop notes. Also on-site are several uncompleted pages headed ‘visualisation’. But these remain only parking places for archive material waiting to be revised or scrapped. (Writing this paragraph may prompt me to do some work on them quite soon!)
Visualisation is a process central to the theme of Theatre of the Mind’s Eye.

TELEVISION AND FILMS
Before we introduce the practicalities of adding actual pictures and drawings to your own texts, for the moment let’s stay with other visual stimulus which may prompt you to turn a given situation/predicament/character into building materials for your own personal enjoyment.

FEEDING FANTASIES is a page which looks at how TV and movie imagery can add to our mental sexual fantasies. It opens with the statement ...

Hollywood, the dream factory, has been feeding our sexual fantasies for generations. From Clara Bow, via Marilyn Monroe to Sharon Stone (or whoever); from the young Brando, James Dean and thousands of studs since, men and women have creamed their jeans or wet their knickers over images fed into their minds.

Well, the casting couch is now in our living rooms. With TV and video recorder we can pump up a face, figure or dramatic character and mentally involve them in a scenario of our own choosing, commanding whoever we select to take part in our wildest fantasies.

Quite often, a situation we've seen in a movie or read in a book is the starting point for our fantasy - but we then expand on the action according to our personal taste.
As an example of the way we feed our lustful imaginings, some time ago I mentally hijacked the character of HAMISH MACBETH from the British TV series. An episode in my DVD collection suggested to me a different out-come, so I imagined the tough young Scottish policeman into a thoroughly kinky re-working of the plot.

See link to FEEDING FANTASIES page below for the full story

ADDING PICTURES to support imagined action is a topic that’s also well covered in different texts. For the moment two existing web pages offer between them a wide range of possibilities.

STORYBOARDS AND STORYLINES is a page which brings together correspondence with JOE T., the New York illustrator. His drawings press all my buttons, and on this generously illustrated page various alternatives are explored.

Together we discuss creating mental fantasies based on one single picture, and commissioning pictures based on private fantasies. Multi-frame storyboards are also a great way of visualising a scenario - but these are a lot of work for the artist to draw the same characters repeatedly.
Joe T has a talent for making a single picture tell a whole story. Many of these have fired up my imagination. In correspondence we discuss ... “ ...picking up the ball and playing your own mental game with it.”
As an example of personal story building, I took (with his encouragement) his single-frame picture of a garage mechanic who had a leather-clad biker tied-up in his workshop, and turned it into a 10,000 word story!

Storylines & Storyboards is linked at the end of this page.

INDEX OF RELATED PAGES

Mentioned above = pages which discuss Jerk-off fantasies:
GET CLOSER TO YOUR FANTASIES = rough draft of ideas for discussion
VISUALISATION = same topic on pages currently under review
SCENARIO FOR A LEATHER FANTASY = the full story/script
LETTERS FROM THE FETTERS FILES = informal correspondence
TALKING AND LISTENING = fetish preferences described
FEEDING FANTASIES = inspiration from TV and movies
STORYBOARDS & STORYLINES = pictures encouraging personal story ideas
WORD PICTURES = a recent expansion of this descriptive writing

My stories expanding or building onto other texts:
LOCKED IN LEATHER = John Strickland’s story with alternative ending
FANTASY & REALITY IN PVC = same author’s character Sam has a new adventure
MAN-TO-MAN STUFF = Derek Arnold ’s story ‘adapted’ and added to
LONG-DISTANCE CONTROL TRIP = waxed rain gear story my version
LONG-DISTANCE CONTROL TRIP = the Rukka alternative
HAMISH MACBETH = my suggestions for an episode of the TV series
FIERCE MECHANIC = my story inspired by a drawing by Joe T
BONDAGE READER SERIES = printed versions of my stories