Karl doesn’t say no to Dennis. Even at the Drive-In theater when they’re surrounded by others.
A lot has been happening in my life, so I was experiencing a bit of writer’s block from the stress. So I needed something fun and light to bring me a little joy! So I made Karl and Dennis. They aren’t complicated. They know what they want and they do it.
And while the first draft of this short smutty fic came together in just a couple days, I also used it as an opportunity to try to improve my writing.
Like most of my stories, this one began with a single thought that I found hot: A blowjob in the car during at a drive-in movie theater. Set it in the 1960s, with even more risk involved? Yeah, that’s hot.
The fun part about setting the story in the 1960s was trying to bring to accurate to the language they might use and the experience of going to college then. Student Unions had TV rooms for students to watch communally, and other entertainment included listening to live music, going dancing, or going to the movies.
Also, the word “cum” hadn’t been popularized yet (though “to come” still meant “to achieve orgasm”). As an interesting challenge to myself, I tried to use more period-specific or longer-standing phrases instead, like “get off, “climax,” or just plain ol’ “orgasm.”
In an effort to improve my writing, I have been trying to give distinctive voices to my characters. Especially in short fiction like I write, I think I can be more experimental. I don’t want every character to sound the same, or even sound like the narration.
To help me give both Dennis and Karl distinctive voices, I had to flesh them out more as characters. I already knew Karl was more submissive sexually, but he also loved music, was an avid swimmer, and was a little less in control of the way he presented himself, such as swearing in public more often.
In my first draft, Dennis was a lot less developed. What I knew was that he had a dynamite smile and often spoke in questions. I was trying to get him to resemble a popular, but kind, sort of guy, who won people over through sheer charisma. But what was his voice?
Since this was just an exercise in character voices, I decided to try to give my two characters some binary/opposite characteristics:
- Dennis asked lots of questions. Karl used lots of exclamations.
- Dennis got to the point quickly. Karl needed to work up to his point.
- Dennis used nicknames with Karl. Karl sometimes liked to tease Dennis.
- Dennis expects to get his way. Karl is always ready to have to defend his point.
The second draft of dialogue did feel a lot better, and I think if someone read some of the lines without context, they could accurately identify who said it 90% of the time, given the character’s personalities.
Stay tuned for more fics at The Mez! I originally developed it as a setting for a longer story that I described on the Future Projects page. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to add another story to that setting. Maybe I’ll put them in a series together on AO3 one day!
ByConor Stories 
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