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Something I noticed in vore stories.
7 years ago
So I've been chugging away at my commissions. Very fun, very nice. Now to keep myself motivated and to pick up ideas, I like to read some other vore stories. After all, kind of weird to write it and not read it, yeah? Thing is, I noticed a pattern in written vore that keeps popping up, something that stops me from truly enjoying the stories. I guess I'm curious if it's just me.
Now first off, I think to write a good story you have to understand the audience. So let's look at the vore community. I'm pretty sure we can agree that in general, things tilt toward the 'prey' side of things. Prey are definitely more common. Hell, I used to be one when I first joined up. I just got more scenes as a pred and said screw it. But in general, most of the audience of the vore community, if not exclusively prey, are at least going to enjoy the mindset of it at least as much as the predator side.
But that's the thing. In so many stories I read, the prey stops having emotions halfway through the story. By that I mean once a prey is ingested, most vore writers only elaborate on their struggles or what the predator's body does to them. There's no more point of view, no more emotions, there's no connection to them once they're down the hatch. That seems so wrong to me. Like, that's when you want to know just what the prey's thinking. You've been ate! You're surrounded by squishy softness and a predator taunting you on the other side of blubber. It's the final moments of the fantasy and so many writers just...leave prey hanging. They'll mention they wiggle and squirm...but what's ol' Fred the mouse thinking, feeling or experiencing in there?
It's just something that gets me. When so many people have prey fantasies, it seems like writers cut off the prey experience at the climax of the story. You don't get to be put in the mind of the prey char that...well, let's face it, most people are pretending to be in the shoes of. So it's something I try hard to avoid. I want to put my readers in the viewpoint of the prey until there is no longer a prey to have a viewpoint at all. I will write as the wiggly bulge until it's no longer there.
Just a thought. I'm trying to become a better writer and that's one mistake I've been trying not to make. Anyway, got more stories on the way. If anyone wants one, lemme know!
Now first off, I think to write a good story you have to understand the audience. So let's look at the vore community. I'm pretty sure we can agree that in general, things tilt toward the 'prey' side of things. Prey are definitely more common. Hell, I used to be one when I first joined up. I just got more scenes as a pred and said screw it. But in general, most of the audience of the vore community, if not exclusively prey, are at least going to enjoy the mindset of it at least as much as the predator side.
But that's the thing. In so many stories I read, the prey stops having emotions halfway through the story. By that I mean once a prey is ingested, most vore writers only elaborate on their struggles or what the predator's body does to them. There's no more point of view, no more emotions, there's no connection to them once they're down the hatch. That seems so wrong to me. Like, that's when you want to know just what the prey's thinking. You've been ate! You're surrounded by squishy softness and a predator taunting you on the other side of blubber. It's the final moments of the fantasy and so many writers just...leave prey hanging. They'll mention they wiggle and squirm...but what's ol' Fred the mouse thinking, feeling or experiencing in there?
It's just something that gets me. When so many people have prey fantasies, it seems like writers cut off the prey experience at the climax of the story. You don't get to be put in the mind of the prey char that...well, let's face it, most people are pretending to be in the shoes of. So it's something I try hard to avoid. I want to put my readers in the viewpoint of the prey until there is no longer a prey to have a viewpoint at all. I will write as the wiggly bulge until it's no longer there.
Just a thought. I'm trying to become a better writer and that's one mistake I've been trying not to make. Anyway, got more stories on the way. If anyone wants one, lemme know!
Part of it is to avoid writing about digestion, viewing things from outside of the stomach means I can just have the sounds and shapes rather than the details of what is happening to the prey. Though that rarely happens immediately in vore stories so it isn't much of an excuse. I'll be looking out for this next time I write a vore scene and seeing where my focus is after the prey has been ingested.
For one, I think writers might be stuck on sort of... "traditional" story logic, for lack of a better term? Like, a lot of non-fetish fiction tends to treat someone who got eaten as if they're just instantly gone, unless they're going to survive it in some way. This is obviously a mistake for someone who wants to write to a vore audience -- like you say, we're looking for artists who can help us live out our fantasies.
On the other hand, I do think that there's a certain appeal to seeing a character swallowed alive and then you simply never hear from them again. It kind of speaks to the power of the predator. I've been thinking a lot lately that I'm often attracted to other predators not because I necessarily want to be eaten by them, but just as an admirer. I just want to watch them put people away.
Of course, if you feel underserved, that's really the important thing here. I tend to agree that the prey has the more interesting point of view in a vore scene. We all know what it's like to eat, but few of us know what it's like to be eaten. ;3 Something to keep in mind if I ever start writing again.
In fairness, I usually do that not so much because the prey doesn't matter, but because I feel it makes things more ambiguous, and therefore, more horrifying...which, to me, is also part of the fun. The fear factor. Granted, this may also be because I, myself, am a horror writer offsite, primarily, so I sort of gravitate toward that element. But still, the idea I have is either keeping the reader in suspense, or leaving things up to the imagination. You don't know what's going on in that belly, but you can make a good guess, and a few well-placed words and actions can make things all the more menacing. There are also times where I'm writing more from the predators POV than the prey's, and obviously that is another type of story.
Still, there have been times where the prey is meant to be the focus, and, for reasons I'm not presently certain of, I do just sort of cut away to the predator and leave the prey in the dust, so to speak, and I think you're correct in pointing out that a lot of writers do. I don't THINK I've done it often - of course, I could be lying to myself - but I know I have done it. I'm not sure why this is, and I'm not sure why so many others do either...maybe there's something in the fantasy itself that leans towards that? I know one person here pointed out it can add more to the unfairness and cruelty of the situation; a thinking, feeling, living person one moment, nothing but a lump of meat the next. Maybe that's part of it, maybe not.
Either way, food for thought I suppose...no pun intended.
Sincerely,
The Cheshire Cat's Master
But like Wolfflax said above, there's people who like the dominant idea that once the prey is in, they don't matter anymore. They're food. It just doesn't matter what the prey thinks, just the squirms, until they die down.
I credit my prey-centric perspective RPing for some of my more recent popularity.
I also think that the perspective changes between the two characters after "the deed is done" because well, it goes from the perspective of one to the perspective of the other. I find that it is natural for the focus to change from one character to another character when it comes to the act of vore.
Simply put, before and during the act of vore, the story is heavily focused on the prey. After the the prey is eaten, the focus turns to the predator. It feels natural in story telling.
That doesnt mean that the formula is correct or "right" in any way.
I prefer to write stories that are completely dedicated to the predator's point of view because my "prey" characters are not given a distinct personality to make it the act of vore less "destructive" and "mean".
At the end of this, I think it comes down to the emotional strings a writer wants to pull. If you want to focus on the act of eating, gorging, and the dominant position of being a predator (frankly this seems more popular than the alternative) you will transition your perspective to the predator at the end of the story.
If you want to focus on the submissive, out of control and into the belly perspective of the story it usually happens early on in the story as a prey character.
This journal entry does make me consider the reason why I try not to focus too much on the prey's thoughts and actions, and is really a great exercise in intellectual understanding of the things I write. Thank you for asking a thought provoking question!
What maybe makes it so for me is that vore is my one and (probably) only submissive side. That's my one chance to really indulge in submissing, because it doesn't happen with anything else for me. So maybe for me it's just letting it happen, even with a struggle, and being doomed to nothing more than an expanded belly. So, personally, I'm perfectly fine knowing more of the pred's POV and that he loves the flavor he's getting and indulging in gluttony as he gulps me down.