Where did you get the inspiration for the Mark and Jenny story ?

Mar,16 2010

If you read how I discovered naturism, you'll understand that I always wondered what would have happened if I had truly made my first steps into naturism with my ex-girlfriend and her family. How I would have felt with her parents. When I was dating her, they knew that both of us spent time nude at her house and they knew that we would visit a naturist center in a few months including a week with them, but I never saw them nude and they never saw me nude. 

Out of those un-lived experiences, I decided to write a story to highlight what I could have possibly lived. Of course, unlike Mark, I was already fascinated with naturism so I would have reacted differently, but otherwise, I am trying to imagine how my past could have looked like had my ex-girlfriend's family really been full time naturists from the first time I met them.

Mark however, isn't based on me and Jenny is definitely not based on my ex-girlfriend or on anyone I know in particular. 

Please note that the Mark and Jenny story wasn't planned to become a serial. I had written over 10 chapters and realized it was time to publish what I had so far to get a reaction and see if it could motivate my creativity well enough to eventually return to my Elizabeth story and serialize it over the course of several month.

Sadly, I am realizing that I am a much better short story writer than a novel or serial writer. In order to create interesting novels or serials, you need a conflict in almost every instalment to generate interest, but since you always have the same characters and the same settings, you need either very rich characters or a very rich settings to generate ideas for conflict.

With a short story, I can think of the conflict and simply create the characters I need to man that conflict. I had the idea "What if someone becomes the human torch and burns all his or her clothes every time they get emotional ?". I don't think there is enough material in just that thought for a novel, but it was sufficient to write "A Fiery Teenager". Had I wanted to write a serial, I would need lots of support characters and story ideas.

I still have ideas for Mark and Jenny. I am just having a hard time finding the conflicts to place in each instalment. In other words, I have enough narrative to make it to the already written epilogue, but I just don't have yet the conflict in each of the instalments to make them interesting enough to read.

I am trying to find new conflicts, new ideas, new things not yet done in any of the stories already published. I am trying to get it fresh and new. I have a few already noted down, but they are for later in the summer. My problem is getting there…

And to make it worse, I have to avoid all of the conflicts currently written into my Elizabeth story, to make both distinct and unique.