Commentary for "Upside Down and Inside Out" - or, why and how I stuffed ~18 kinks into an SGA story
This month's mini-challenge at 
kink_bingo is "all you can kink," a.k.a. How Many Kinks Can You Stuff Into One Fanwork? (Insert joke about kink fisting/stretching here.) Lacking the time and/or focus to create something new right now, I took a look at preexisting stories and learned that my personal record for number of distinct,
kink_wiki-recognized kinks contained in a single fanfic appears to be about 18.
(The mini-challenge may have inspired the creation of a spreadsheet to find out. There may have been illustrative bar graphs. Please don't judge me.)
The honor belongs to Upside Down and Inside Out (also on the AO3), an SGA Santa Madness story I wrote a few years ago for companion in kinkiness sabinelagrande and which was subsequently podficced-for Kink Bingo, even-by Sabine herself. As though anticipating this mini-challenge, one of the first comments on the fic was: "How did you get all of that into that space? Holy skamoly."*
It's odd; before Kink Bingo came along, I didn't really think in terms of individual kinks that could be strung together to make a story. I wrote what I thought was hot, or interesting, or to explore something I'd seen or heard about. The stories were all quite kinky-my early writing is filled with bondage and toys and pervertibles and breathplay and issues of consent, etc. etc.-but except for maybe bondage, the elements didn't always stand apart, like how I just categorized them, you know? Then Bingo happened, and the fic-writing process changed. Kinks got quantified. Kinks became a basis on which to build a plot. I haven't been able to shake that way of thinking ever since.
I'd like to think and write more about that one day, but the point here is that "Upside Down and Inside Out" fell somewhere in between the two story-building methods. Sabine's request included 11 kinks, and I wanted to include as many of them as possible. That meant thinking about which of them combined well and how they might lead to a scenario. The brainstorming went something like: "If John and Rodney [one of the requested pairings] are in a room because aliens demand they perform a ritual [check AMTDI off the list] that involves John tied up and hanging from the ceiling [ditto suspension + bondage], and if John's been switched into a woman's body through offscreen shenanigans and he wants Rodney to take him out for a spin anyway [gender play + bottom!John], then Rodney can do stuff like spank and finger him while he's hanging there [spanking], taking control and talking all the while [dom/sub + verbal humiliation/dirty talk]…"
The story took shape like puzzle pieces fitting together. And as it did, I rounded it out with more stuff I thought was sexy and scene-appropriate. Having John be naked while Rodney was clothed. Slipping one of the ropes into John's mouth for a gag. Binding his breasts with the ropes, too. Having Rodney hold onto John body-length when it got to be too much. Adding some oral. Having Rodney blow air between John's spread legs. Creating a unifying structure wherein Rodney was directed to give John three orgasms. Some of those I recognized as kinks right away, like the gag, and others I thought/think of as kinks even though they aren't on the Wiki list, like the clothing differential, but it wasn't until I was writing up the author's notes afterward that some of the others stood out, like double penetration. And it wasn't until this week, scanning through the
kink_wiki list, that I identified several more, like orgasm control, sensation play and "held down."
The list as I'm counting it for the mini-challenge:
The fic is 3,700 words, which my calculator tells me works out to a density of one kink per 206 words. But I didn't want the story to read like a laundry list of "now they are doing this kink and then this kink and then this kink." I have read stories like that, and they make me sad. So, like I did when I was brainstorming, as I wrote the scene I tried to think about how everything built together and to concentrate on what made each action hot. You never know how readers will react, but when I finished the story I was really happy with it, hotness-wise. And it ended up getting great comments.
If I were to go back and edit the fic, I'd take out the AMTDI part. It contorts the whole beginning of the story with the effort to show that John wants to do what the Pelari are asking. John Sheppard is not likely to enjoy being made to have sex by a bunch of aliens, especially not while they watch. The story might lose Sabine's requested AMTDI kink, but it feels less complicated and more true to the characters if they were to volunteer rather than be semi-coerced. I suppose aliens could invite them to do it.
I do like how John's being in a female body gets taken in stride, and that rather than serving as a source of angst, it's an opportunity to experience sex in a different way.
Favorite lines:
"I can't tell if you're about to have an orgasm or an aneurysm," Rodney said.
and
"Ng nng," John offered, feeling magnanimous now that Rodney had taken the edge off.
"Yes yes, you're welcome."
What else. The "three" Rodney breathes out at the end was inspired by poor zapped little Timmy in Jurassic Park. I think I stole the idea about Nancy and cunnilingus stamina from "At the Violet Hour" by linaerys. I loved depicting bondage and being held tightly as comforting in addition to arousing. There are some lines I'd tweak and some extra verbiage I'd remove. But overall this story still makes me happy, and I'm even more happy to be able to share it with the Kink Bingo community for the first time.
Comments? Thoughts? Questions?
*You will see the irony of this when deelaundry, who left that comment, posts her mini-challenge fill in the next few days.
kink_bingo is "all you can kink," a.k.a. How Many Kinks Can You Stuff Into One Fanwork? (Insert joke about kink fisting/stretching here.) Lacking the time and/or focus to create something new right now, I took a look at preexisting stories and learned that my personal record for number of distinct,
kink_wiki-recognized kinks contained in a single fanfic appears to be about 18.
(The mini-challenge may have inspired the creation of a spreadsheet to find out. There may have been illustrative bar graphs. Please don't judge me.)
The honor belongs to Upside Down and Inside Out (also on the AO3), an SGA Santa Madness story I wrote a few years ago for companion in kinkiness sabinelagrande and which was subsequently podficced-for Kink Bingo, even-by Sabine herself. As though anticipating this mini-challenge, one of the first comments on the fic was: "How did you get all of that into that space? Holy skamoly."*
It's odd; before Kink Bingo came along, I didn't really think in terms of individual kinks that could be strung together to make a story. I wrote what I thought was hot, or interesting, or to explore something I'd seen or heard about. The stories were all quite kinky-my early writing is filled with bondage and toys and pervertibles and breathplay and issues of consent, etc. etc.-but except for maybe bondage, the elements didn't always stand apart, like how I just categorized them, you know? Then Bingo happened, and the fic-writing process changed. Kinks got quantified. Kinks became a basis on which to build a plot. I haven't been able to shake that way of thinking ever since.
I'd like to think and write more about that one day, but the point here is that "Upside Down and Inside Out" fell somewhere in between the two story-building methods. Sabine's request included 11 kinks, and I wanted to include as many of them as possible. That meant thinking about which of them combined well and how they might lead to a scenario. The brainstorming went something like: "If John and Rodney [one of the requested pairings] are in a room because aliens demand they perform a ritual [check AMTDI off the list] that involves John tied up and hanging from the ceiling [ditto suspension + bondage], and if John's been switched into a woman's body through offscreen shenanigans and he wants Rodney to take him out for a spin anyway [gender play + bottom!John], then Rodney can do stuff like spank and finger him while he's hanging there [spanking], taking control and talking all the while [dom/sub + verbal humiliation/dirty talk]…"
The story took shape like puzzle pieces fitting together. And as it did, I rounded it out with more stuff I thought was sexy and scene-appropriate. Having John be naked while Rodney was clothed. Slipping one of the ropes into John's mouth for a gag. Binding his breasts with the ropes, too. Having Rodney hold onto John body-length when it got to be too much. Adding some oral. Having Rodney blow air between John's spread legs. Creating a unifying structure wherein Rodney was directed to give John three orgasms. Some of those I recognized as kinks right away, like the gag, and others I thought/think of as kinks even though they aren't on the Wiki list, like the clothing differential, but it wasn't until I was writing up the author's notes afterward that some of the others stood out, like double penetration. And it wasn't until this week, scanning through the
kink_wiki list, that I identified several more, like orgasm control, sensation play and "held down."
The list as I'm counting it for the mini-challenge:
- Consent play (aliens make them do it; Rodney checks to make sure John still wants to go through with it)
- Gender play (John has a female body)
- Bondage (John's wrapped up in ropes with a spreader bar holding his legs apart; I'm counting those as separate kinks)
- Suspension (He's hanging from the ceiling by his ankles)
- Dom/sub dynamics (they've agreed that Rodney's in control; John sinks into subby thought patterns)
- Dirty talk and verbal humiliation (Rodney narrates what he's doing and what he wants to do, and says a few degrading things)
- Spanking/impact play (self-explanatory, I hope :) )
- Double penetration (vaginal and anal fingering at the same time)
- Gags (see above; and may I take this opportunity to plug Sabine's podfic again, if only to hear her say John's lines through the rope)
- Virginity (John hasn't had sex in this body before)
- Orgasm control (Rodney's been ordered to give John three, and John's at his mercy for receiving them)
- Sensation play (air-blowing, rope texture, vibrations, fingers teasing between John's legs…)
- Voyeurism (they're being watched by "three old men in pointy hats")
- Shaving (John has a brief fantasy after Rodney makes a comment)
- Held down (Rodney holds him tight for the last few minutes)
- Exposure (John's legs are forced apart; he's half-naked in front of three aliens and his teammate/boyfriend; one breast is bare while the other is bound)
The fic is 3,700 words, which my calculator tells me works out to a density of one kink per 206 words. But I didn't want the story to read like a laundry list of "now they are doing this kink and then this kink and then this kink." I have read stories like that, and they make me sad. So, like I did when I was brainstorming, as I wrote the scene I tried to think about how everything built together and to concentrate on what made each action hot. You never know how readers will react, but when I finished the story I was really happy with it, hotness-wise. And it ended up getting great comments.
If I were to go back and edit the fic, I'd take out the AMTDI part. It contorts the whole beginning of the story with the effort to show that John wants to do what the Pelari are asking. John Sheppard is not likely to enjoy being made to have sex by a bunch of aliens, especially not while they watch. The story might lose Sabine's requested AMTDI kink, but it feels less complicated and more true to the characters if they were to volunteer rather than be semi-coerced. I suppose aliens could invite them to do it.
I do like how John's being in a female body gets taken in stride, and that rather than serving as a source of angst, it's an opportunity to experience sex in a different way.
Favorite lines:
"I can't tell if you're about to have an orgasm or an aneurysm," Rodney said.
and
"Ng nng," John offered, feeling magnanimous now that Rodney had taken the edge off.
"Yes yes, you're welcome."
What else. The "three" Rodney breathes out at the end was inspired by poor zapped little Timmy in Jurassic Park. I think I stole the idea about Nancy and cunnilingus stamina from "At the Violet Hour" by linaerys. I loved depicting bondage and being held tightly as comforting in addition to arousing. There are some lines I'd tweak and some extra verbiage I'd remove. But overall this story still makes me happy, and I'm even more happy to be able to share it with the Kink Bingo community for the first time.
Comments? Thoughts? Questions?
*You will see the irony of this when deelaundry, who left that comment, posts her mini-challenge fill in the next few days.