HOME | DD

Description
I think an interesting inflation story is much harder to create than an interesting piece of inflation art.

This seems absurd on the surface. One could make a very good argument that it is much harder to be a good artist than a good writer. After all, anyone can string a few words together because everyone on the planet does that on a daily basis anyway. Not everyone possesses the potent combination of talent, skill, and attention to detail that it takes to be a good artist.

However, over the years I’ve realized that artists have the upper hand because inflation art will never go out of style. Different artists will continue to burst onto the scene with new styles, new techniques, and greater levels of talent/skill that will always keep inflation art fresh. Moreover, a piece of inflation art doesn’t require a backstory; if that is the artist’s choice, the piece can stand on its own without any plot or character development, and the viewer is probably fine with that.

The biggest problem with writing a good inflation story is keeping it interesting without relying too much on the same old plot devices, the same old character traits, and the same old adjectives and verbs. It is true that anyone could sit down and hammer out an inflation story without too much effort, but chances are it would be similar enough to 100 other stories that it would be immediately forgotten. It was this challenge that spawned the Prose That Blows contests (started by Carnatic and perpetuated by myself and Pakona), which placed certain restrictions on authors in order to make people think outside the box. From a purely literary standpoint I think those contests produced some of the best stories the community has ever seen.

How do you write a truly great inflation story? If I knew, I would’ve already written it and simply directed you to read it and learn for yourself. What I do know from a reader’s perspective, however, is there are certain things that will make me immediately give up on a story and never read it again. Just avoiding many of the common pitfalls will put you on the path to writing a better inflation story that will stand out from the crowd.

What you’ll find here is a list of guidelines that I try to adhere to myself, based on some lessons I’ve learned over the last 10-15 years as both a writer and a reader. These are strictly my opinion of what works (and doesn’t work) for my own stories as well as others’. A “good” story may not necessarily exhibit all of these traits; in fact, it could exhibit very few, but it may possess that certain X-factor, whatever that may be for certain readers. But I do think that a story exhibiting many of these traits would probably be considered a good story.

(Pro tip: These guidelines could be applied to roleplaying as well.)

1. WRITE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO WRITE IT, NOT BECAUSE YOU THINK OTHERS WANT TO READ IT.

I’m putting this at the top because I consider it to be even more important than the nitty gritty I’m getting into in a bit.

Even within our community, tastes are way too diverse to try to please everybody. Instead, even though we all want our own stories to be popular, you should always write for yourself first and foremost. You may be the only person on the planet who likes inflated fingernails; write about it. You may be the only person on BodyInflation.org that doesn’t like full body inflation; don’t write about it. You may be one of the relatively few people that like grisly, gory, InvizKing-style bursting; write about it. It’s important for you to have an emotional connection with the story you’re writing. If you don’t, you won’t put quite as much care into your story, and your readers will be able to discern that.

Plus, maybe that one thing you want to write about will resonate with people. And even if it doesn’t, writing something is always better than writing nothing, and you’ll be able to critique yourself, make improvements on your next story, and decide whether that’s something you want to try again. I’ve posted some experimental stories that got little or no attention, which was fully expected. I didn’t write those stories because I thought people would like them, but rather because they were off-the-reservation ideas I wanted to try. When I finished some of those stories, I read them and pretty much said, “Meh, not as good as I hoped” and went on to the next thing, but I was glad I tried.

2. USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND SPELLING, DAMMIT.

Non-native English speakers will obviously get a pass here, but for those of us that grew up speaking English:

Honestly, how hard could it be?

There is no greater evidence of a half-assed, sloppy effort by an author - and nothing that will make me close a story faster - than bad spelling and grammar. It detracts from the reading experience so much that the inflation scene could be the best ever and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. Nobody is asking for nor expecting thesis-grade grammar, but it should be good enough that it just gets out of the way of the storytelling.

3. USE PROPER SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE, DAMMIT.

Again, no one is asking for something that would stand up to MLA scrutiny (my comma splices would get me in trouble), but a minimum level of competency in combining or breaking up ideas and actions goes a long way. That said, however, there are some cases when bending the rules might be effective. I am prone to starting a sentence with a conjunction instead of combining it with the previous sentence. This is partially because if someone were to read the story aloud, I would want a longer pause between the two thoughts. Bending the rules allows me to get the effect I want.

Paragraph structure is also a common bugaboo. It’s easy to make paragraphs run long, but readers’ eyes are lazy and an excessively large block of text is a big turnoff. Insert a paragraph break here and there to break up the action a bit.

Also, it’s important to remember that any given paragraph should only contain one character’s dialogue; if another character starts talking, it’s time to start a new paragraph. Combining them into the same paragraph can get confusing in a hurry.

4. KEEP A THESAURUS HANDY TO GO BEYOND THE USUAL BUZZ WORDS.

How many different ways can you describe an inflated woman? Regrettably, not many; there are only so many synonyms for “balloon”, “inflated”, and “woman”, and all of the permutations of such have probably already been tried. Still, it helps to at least make an effort to not keep reusing the same words over and over. A thesaurus can get you pointed in the right direction.

Some synonyms don’t necessarily work, though, so don’t just pluck any word out of the thesaurus. For instance, one synonym for “balloon” is “bladder.” Personally, that’s one word I hope never makes its way into the inflation lexicon.

5. MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS BELIEVABLE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF YOUR STORY.

Inflation fiction is extremely character-driven (we are, after all, inflating them) so those characters, their reactions to events, and their interactions with each other are critical to the efficacy of any story. I think the stories that are plagued by this the most are the ones where the character’s inflation is unexpected.

Let’s be real - it’s unlikely that a woman would have her stomach blow up and instantly orgasm; she would be much more likely to lose her shit. I know, I know, suspension of disbelief and all that. Of course, the problem here is that we don't want to read about a woman blowing up and freaking out because that’s not sexy and orgasms are. The non-sadists among us usually want the characters to enjoy what’s happening to them.

How can you accomplish that while still making it real? One idea would be to create a universe in which the possibility of inflation, and even perhaps its sexual properties, are already an accepted part of life for the inflatee. I’ve done that with a few of my last stories and it seemed to work really well. That’s where the importance of the “within the framework of your story” part comes in.

6. DON’T BE AFRAID TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTERS TALK TO EACH OTHER, MAYBE EVEN A LOT.

Dialogue seems like one of the more underused and underrated aspects of inflation stories. I think a lot of writers get so focused on the actions of the inflation scene, or they’re in such a hurry to get to it, that they either forget or ignore the fact that their characters have mouths and vocal chords.

It is possible to write good stories without dialogue, but good dialogue can really add a lot to the story, especially the depth of the characters. Dialogue can even move the whole story along. “Routine Physical”, another personal favorite story of my own, is 100% dialogue between two characters. Not only does the story get the point across, but it also allows the reader to see the characters’ interpretation of the events as they transpire.

Take some time to think about how your characters might meaningfully talk amongst themselves. You may find that writing dialogue for them is worth the effort.

7. CONTINUITY IN THE STORY IS !!!!!EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!

Movies and TV shows usually employ a script supervisor to maintain continuity throughout the story. For instance, if Jack Bauer ends an episode of 24 with a bruise and a bloody shirt, he obviously needs to start the next episode with the same bruise and bloody shirt. It’s the script supervisor’s job to make sure that happens.

Unfortunately, most inflation authors don’t have the budget to hire someone else, so we need to be our own script supervisors. Continuity errors in a story can be very confusing and distracting. One of my favorite stories has a woman inflated and rotated face down on the ground. A few moments later the narrator says her nipples are pointed skyward, yet she is presumably still face down (the narrator never mentions her being rotated facing up). How is that possible? Just a mistake, and an easy one to make, but also an easy one to correct if you proofread well enough.

8. KNOW WHEN TO EXPLAIN CERTAIN DETAILS, AND WHEN TO LET YOUR READERS CONNECT THE DOTS THEMSELVES.

Glossing over or outright withholding certain details can be done for two reasons:

1. To keep your story from getting bogged down in relatively unimportant minutiae. This is pretty important because a lot of authors like to do this at the very beginning, starting off their story with a massive explanation of the setting and/or motivations of the characters. This isn’t always necessary; for example, in a “revenge” story we don’t always need 3-4 opening paragraphs explaining why a character needs to exact revenge upon another. Part of that is because the “revenge” plot is frequently used and we’ve seen it all before, but in some cases those details simply aren’t important to the story, or they can be slipped into the narrative piece by piece as is appropriate. If the details are omitted completely, the readers can use their imagination to fill in the blanks, and in some cases that might be better than your idea.

2. To give the readers a chance to figure things out for themselves. This is also important because the readers don’t always need to have their hand held every step of the way. If you withhold certain details or let them slip gradually, it can provide an entertaining or amusing experience for the reader when they put it all together and realize what is going on. For instance, my story “The Underdog” features female body inflation as a competitive sport, but I did not reveal the nature of the sport until almost 1/4 of the way through the story.

Having said all that, there may be times when a protracted explanation is needed, such as to describe certain extraordinary events that are important to the story, or to set up a very different fictional universe from our own. In these cases it’s good to paint a detailed picture for the reader; with the proper setup, they will be better able to understand and believe the characters and events you portray.

8A. DON’T HIT THE READER WITH A DISSERTATION OF THE INFLATEE-TO-BE’S BODILY FEATURES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY.

This definitely ties in to the previous point. Too many people fall victim to this, and it reeks of a really formulaic story. Usually this is done to communicate to the reader (either explicitly or implicitly) how attractive the inflatee is. However, the reader doesn’t need to be told this since he/she is probably going to picture someone attractive anyway, regardless of their exact features. If certain details need to be disclosed, do so when the time is right and as the narrative allows, or if a blow-by-blow description is necessary at least let the reader get into the story first.

8B. TRY TO GIVE QUALITATIVE - NOT QUANTITATIVE - DESCRIPTIONS WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

A quantitative description involves measurable real-world data (e.g. inches, feet, pounds, etc.); a qualitative description is not measurable, instead relying on generalities or comparisons. To give an example, here are two ways to describe a woman’s figure:

Quantitative: Jenny was 5’11”, 135 pounds, and had 32DD breasts.
Qualitative: Jenny had a trim athletic figure topped with uncharacteristically large breasts.

If you want to communicate the fact that Jenny is in good shape, it’s not important to say her height/weight; just come out and say that she’s in good shape. And while her cup size may be useful to know, her band size is probably useless, and the qualitative description is no less effective at getting the point across. In fact, “uncharacteristically large breasts” could be interpreted a number of ways that may result in readers assuming an even larger size, which is presumably a good thing for the reader.

Here’s another example:

Quantitative: Jenny grew to be over seven feet wide as her body started becoming rounder all over. Her view was blocked by her ZZZ-cup breasts, and her thighs, each over three feet wide, were spread apart, making it difficult for her to stand.
Qualitative: Jenny grew to be over seven feet wide as her body started becoming rounder all over. Her view was blocked by the massive mounds of her breasts, and her thighs had tripled in size, spreading them apart and making it difficult for her to stand.

In this case, “seven feet wide” stays since measurable data could be considered important when it comes to describing and visualizing her overall size at this stage. However, her cup size is not important since it’s not a cup size that exists in real life, so no one really knows how big it is anyway (and I have seen a few stories cling to silly, outrageous cup sizes or belly sizes - “she looked like she was full term with dectuplets” - until the bitter end). For the thighs, saying they “tripled in size” is effective because it compares her thighs to their original size. Her thighs being three times larger is a rather dramatic change regardless of whatever their uninflated width may be, and the reader knows that.

One final example:

Quantitative: As Jenny passed the 50-foot mark her perfectly round body lifted off the ground, rising higher and higher, rapidly growing larger as the air pressure dropped around her. Far above the clouds and over 200 feet across, Jenny thought she might even blow up to be miles wide. However, when she felt her skin tighten up suddenly, it dawned on her that she was about to reach her limit.
Qualitative: Much taller than her house, Jenny’s perfectly round body lifted off the ground, rising higher and higher, her growth rapidly accelerating out of control as the air pressure dropped around her. Far above the clouds, unable to comprehend how massive she had become and was still becoming, Jenny thought she might continue blowing up forever. However, when she felt her skin tighten up suddenly, it dawned on her that she was about to reach her limit.

At some point numeric measures of size become tedious, so it’s okay to use comparisons and be a little more vague. How much taller is “much taller” than her house? Is it a one- or two-story house? The reader is able to fill in these details to suit their own tastes because not everyone likes their inflatees to get 50 feet wide (or larger). Further descriptions of growth beyond that are similarly tedious and possibly a turn-off, so a more general description can give readers the freedom to interpret as they see fit.

9. WRITE YOUR STORY LINEARLY (START TO FINISH), THEN GO BACK AND CHANGE CERTAIN AREAS AS NEEDED.

This requires a lot of discipline since we want to get to the good parts but we may have 2000 words to lay down before the story even gets there. I can sympathize with the feeling of impatience, but I have written a few stories in which I wrote the inflation section first and then wrote the rest of the story around it. I found this to be even harder since the good parts were already written and the rest of the story seemed like a chore that I didn’t want to do. When I did get around to writing the rest of the story I didn’t put nearly the effort into it that I should have, and the whole finished product suffered as a result.

I have found that writing the entire story linearly also helps quite a bit with continuity. Jumping around to different areas of the story makes it easy to get the finer details of your story mixed up.

10. IF YOU CAN, GIVE YOUR STORY TO A FEW OTHER AUTHORS FOR INPUT BEFORE POSTING IT.

It never hurts to solicit the opinions of others when it comes to improving your story. You may be looking for validation of your work or some serious constructive criticism, and I think other writers are better equipped to offer that kind of perspective from a sympathetic point of view.

If you don’t have anyone else to turn to, just ask a few people in the community. I know that I would be happy to help if someone were to ask me for my input.

11. WHEN YOUR STORY IS EDITED AND READY TO POST, READ IT TOP TO BOTTOM IN A SINGLE SETTING AT LEAST THREE MORE TIMES BEFORE POSTING.

This casts a wide net to catch any errors that you might have missed during the editing process. It also gives you one last chance to look at the story completely from the reader’s perspective and make sure that the story works.

12. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED BY THE TYPE - OR LACK - OF INPUT THAT YOU GET.

If your story misses the mark with the community, don’t let it get you down. Remember, you are doing this primarily for yourself. Use every story and every reaction to your story as a learning experience to apply to your future works. Learn what advice suits your writing style and creativity and what advice doesn’t.

13. “QUICKIE” STORIES STILL SERVE A PURPOSE.

The “quickie” inflation story is the Chevrolet to inflation fiction’s Cadillac: the Cadillac may be better appointed and more expensive, but the Chevy will still get you from point A to point B.

Sometimes ignoring all these guidelines and writing a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am inflation story with shallow, stupid characters and empty sex can be a valuable exercise. It keeps your writing from getting stale and it can serve as a kind of self-reward for hard work done elsewhere, perhaps on another story that required a bit more effort. Sometimes that’s all you want to write, and from a reader’s perspective sometimes that’s all they want to read. Go for it.

Description
I think an interesting inflation story is much harder to create than an interesting piece of inflation art.

This seems absurd on the surface. One could make a very good argument that it is much harder to be a good artist than a good writer. After all, anyone can string a few words together because everyone on the planet does that on a daily basis anyway. Not everyone possesses the potent combination of talent, skill, and attention to detail that it takes to be a good artist.

However, over the years I’ve realized that artists have the upper hand because inflation art will never go out of style. Different artists will continue to burst onto the scene with new styles, new techniques, and greater levels of talent/skill that will always keep inflation art fresh. Moreover, a piece of inflation art doesn’t require a backstory; if that is the artist’s choice, the piece can stand on its own without any plot or character development, and the viewer is probably fine with that.

The biggest problem with writing a good inflation story is keeping it interesting without relying too much on the same old plot devices, the same old character traits, and the same old adjectives and verbs. It is true that anyone could sit down and hammer out an inflation story without too much effort, but chances are it would be similar enough to 100 other stories that it would be immediately forgotten. It was this challenge that spawned the Prose That Blows contests (started by Carnatic and perpetuated by myself and Pakona), which placed certain restrictions on authors in order to make people think outside the box. From a purely literary standpoint I think those contests produced some of the best stories the community has ever seen.

How do you write a truly great inflation story? If I knew, I would’ve already written it and simply directed you to read it and learn for yourself. What I do know from a reader’s perspective, however, is there are certain things that will make me immediately give up on a story and never read it again. Just avoiding many of the common pitfalls will put you on the path to writing a better inflation story that will stand out from the crowd.

What you’ll find here is a list of guidelines that I try to adhere to myself, based on some lessons I’ve learned over the last 10-15 years as both a writer and a reader. These are strictly my opinion of what works (and doesn’t work) for my own stories as well as others’. A “good” story may not necessarily exhibit all of these traits; in fact, it could exhibit very few, but it may possess that certain X-factor, whatever that may be for certain readers. But I do think that a story exhibiting many of these traits would probably be considered a good story.

(Pro tip: These guidelines could be applied to roleplaying as well.)

1. WRITE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO WRITE IT, NOT BECAUSE YOU THINK OTHERS WANT TO READ IT.

I’m putting this at the top because I consider it to be even more important than the nitty gritty I’m getting into in a bit.

Even within our community, tastes are way too diverse to try to please everybody. Instead, even though we all want our own stories to be popular, you should always write for yourself first and foremost. You may be the only person on the planet who likes inflated fingernails; write about it. You may be the only person on BodyInflation.org that doesn’t like full body inflation; don’t write about it. You may be one of the relatively few people that like grisly, gory, InvizKing-style bursting; write about it. It’s important for you to have an emotional connection with the story you’re writing. If you don’t, you won’t put quite as much care into your story, and your readers will be able to discern that.

Plus, maybe that one thing you want to write about will resonate with people. And even if it doesn’t, writing something is always better than writing nothing, and you’ll be able to critique yourself, make improvements on your next story, and decide whether that’s something you want to try again. I’ve posted some experimental stories that got little or no attention, which was fully expected. I didn’t write those stories because I thought people would like them, but rather because they were off-the-reservation ideas I wanted to try. When I finished some of those stories, I read them and pretty much said, “Meh, not as good as I hoped” and went on to the next thing, but I was glad I tried.

2. USE PROPER GRAMMAR AND SPELLING, DAMMIT.

Non-native English speakers will obviously get a pass here, but for those of us that grew up speaking English:

Honestly, how hard could it be?

There is no greater evidence of a half-assed, sloppy effort by an author - and nothing that will make me close a story faster - than bad spelling and grammar. It detracts from the reading experience so much that the inflation scene could be the best ever and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it. Nobody is asking for nor expecting thesis-grade grammar, but it should be good enough that it just gets out of the way of the storytelling.

3. USE PROPER SENTENCE AND PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE, DAMMIT.

Again, no one is asking for something that would stand up to MLA scrutiny (my comma splices would get me in trouble), but a minimum level of competency in combining or breaking up ideas and actions goes a long way. That said, however, there are some cases when bending the rules might be effective. I am prone to starting a sentence with a conjunction instead of combining it with the previous sentence. This is partially because if someone were to read the story aloud, I would want a longer pause between the two thoughts. Bending the rules allows me to get the effect I want.

Paragraph structure is also a common bugaboo. It’s easy to make paragraphs run long, but readers’ eyes are lazy and an excessively large block of text is a big turnoff. Insert a paragraph break here and there to break up the action a bit.

Also, it’s important to remember that any given paragraph should only contain one character’s dialogue; if another character starts talking, it’s time to start a new paragraph. Combining them into the same paragraph can get confusing in a hurry.

4. KEEP A THESAURUS HANDY TO GO BEYOND THE USUAL BUZZ WORDS.

How many different ways can you describe an inflated woman? Regrettably, not many; there are only so many synonyms for “balloon”, “inflated”, and “woman”, and all of the permutations of such have probably already been tried. Still, it helps to at least make an effort to not keep reusing the same words over and over. A thesaurus can get you pointed in the right direction.

Some synonyms don’t necessarily work, though, so don’t just pluck any word out of the thesaurus. For instance, one synonym for “balloon” is “bladder.” Personally, that’s one word I hope never makes its way into the inflation lexicon.

5. MAKE YOUR CHARACTERS BELIEVABLE WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF YOUR STORY.

Inflation fiction is extremely character-driven (we are, after all, inflating them) so those characters, their reactions to events, and their interactions with each other are critical to the efficacy of any story. I think the stories that are plagued by this the most are the ones where the character’s inflation is unexpected.

Let’s be real - it’s unlikely that a woman would have her stomach blow up and instantly orgasm; she would be much more likely to lose her shit. I know, I know, suspension of disbelief and all that. Of course, the problem here is that we don't want to read about a woman blowing up and freaking out because that’s not sexy and orgasms are. The non-sadists among us usually want the characters to enjoy what’s happening to them.

How can you accomplish that while still making it real? One idea would be to create a universe in which the possibility of inflation, and even perhaps its sexual properties, are already an accepted part of life for the inflatee. I’ve done that with a few of my last stories and it seemed to work really well. That’s where the importance of the “within the framework of your story” part comes in.

6. DON’T BE AFRAID TO HAVE YOUR CHARACTERS TALK TO EACH OTHER, MAYBE EVEN A LOT.

Dialogue seems like one of the more underused and underrated aspects of inflation stories. I think a lot of writers get so focused on the actions of the inflation scene, or they’re in such a hurry to get to it, that they either forget or ignore the fact that their characters have mouths and vocal chords.

It is possible to write good stories without dialogue, but good dialogue can really add a lot to the story, especially the depth of the characters. Dialogue can even move the whole story along. “Routine Physical”, another personal favorite story of my own, is 100% dialogue between two characters. Not only does the story get the point across, but it also allows the reader to see the characters’ interpretation of the events as they transpire.

Take some time to think about how your characters might meaningfully talk amongst themselves. You may find that writing dialogue for them is worth the effort.

7. CONTINUITY IN THE STORY IS !!!!!EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!!

Movies and TV shows usually employ a script supervisor to maintain continuity throughout the story. For instance, if Jack Bauer ends an episode of 24 with a bruise and a bloody shirt, he obviously needs to start the next episode with the same bruise and bloody shirt. It’s the script supervisor’s job to make sure that happens.

Unfortunately, most inflation authors don’t have the budget to hire someone else, so we need to be our own script supervisors. Continuity errors in a story can be very confusing and distracting. One of my favorite stories has a woman inflated and rotated face down on the ground. A few moments later the narrator says her nipples are pointed skyward, yet she is presumably still face down (the narrator never mentions her being rotated facing up). How is that possible? Just a mistake, and an easy one to make, but also an easy one to correct if you proofread well enough.

8. KNOW WHEN TO EXPLAIN CERTAIN DETAILS, AND WHEN TO LET YOUR READERS CONNECT THE DOTS THEMSELVES.

Glossing over or outright withholding certain details can be done for two reasons:

1. To keep your story from getting bogged down in relatively unimportant minutiae. This is pretty important because a lot of authors like to do this at the very beginning, starting off their story with a massive explanation of the setting and/or motivations of the characters. This isn’t always necessary; for example, in a “revenge” story we don’t always need 3-4 opening paragraphs explaining why a character needs to exact revenge upon another. Part of that is because the “revenge” plot is frequently used and we’ve seen it all before, but in some cases those details simply aren’t important to the story, or they can be slipped into the narrative piece by piece as is appropriate. If the details are omitted completely, the readers can use their imagination to fill in the blanks, and in some cases that might be better than your idea.

2. To give the readers a chance to figure things out for themselves. This is also important because the readers don’t always need to have their hand held every step of the way. If you withhold certain details or let them slip gradually, it can provide an entertaining or amusing experience for the reader when they put it all together and realize what is going on. For instance, my story “The Underdog” features female body inflation as a competitive sport, but I did not reveal the nature of the sport until almost 1/4 of the way through the story.

Having said all that, there may be times when a protracted explanation is needed, such as to describe certain extraordinary events that are important to the story, or to set up a very different fictional universe from our own. In these cases it’s good to paint a detailed picture for the reader; with the proper setup, they will be better able to understand and believe the characters and events you portray.

8A. DON’T HIT THE READER WITH A DISSERTATION OF THE INFLATEE-TO-BE’S BODILY FEATURES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY.

This definitely ties in to the previous point. Too many people fall victim to this, and it reeks of a really formulaic story. Usually this is done to communicate to the reader (either explicitly or implicitly) how attractive the inflatee is. However, the reader doesn’t need to be told this since he/she is probably going to picture someone attractive anyway, regardless of their exact features. If certain details need to be disclosed, do so when the time is right and as the narrative allows, or if a blow-by-blow description is necessary at least let the reader get into the story first.

8B. TRY TO GIVE QUALITATIVE - NOT QUANTITATIVE - DESCRIPTIONS WHENEVER POSSIBLE.

A quantitative description involves measurable real-world data (e.g. inches, feet, pounds, etc.); a qualitative description is not measurable, instead relying on generalities or comparisons. To give an example, here are two ways to describe a woman’s figure:

Quantitative: Jenny was 5’11”, 135 pounds, and had 32DD breasts.
Qualitative: Jenny had a trim athletic figure topped with uncharacteristically large breasts.

If you want to communicate the fact that Jenny is in good shape, it’s not important to say her height/weight; just come out and say that she’s in good shape. And while her cup size may be useful to know, her band size is probably useless, and the qualitative description is no less effective at getting the point across. In fact, “uncharacteristically large breasts” could be interpreted a number of ways that may result in readers assuming an even larger size, which is presumably a good thing for the reader.

Here’s another example:

Quantitative: Jenny grew to be over seven feet wide as her body started becoming rounder all over. Her view was blocked by her ZZZ-cup breasts, and her thighs, each over three feet wide, were spread apart, making it difficult for her to stand.
Qualitative: Jenny grew to be over seven feet wide as her body started becoming rounder all over. Her view was blocked by the massive mounds of her breasts, and her thighs had tripled in size, spreading them apart and making it difficult for her to stand.

In this case, “seven feet wide” stays since measurable data could be considered important when it comes to describing and visualizing her overall size at this stage. However, her cup size is not important since it’s not a cup size that exists in real life, so no one really knows how big it is anyway (and I have seen a few stories cling to silly, outrageous cup sizes or belly sizes - “she looked like she was full term with dectuplets” - until the bitter end). For the thighs, saying they “tripled in size” is effective because it compares her thighs to their original size. Her thighs being three times larger is a rather dramatic change regardless of whatever their uninflated width may be, and the reader knows that.

One final example:

Quantitative: As Jenny passed the 50-foot mark her perfectly round body lifted off the ground, rising higher and higher, rapidly growing larger as the air pressure dropped around her. Far above the clouds and over 200 feet across, Jenny thought she might even blow up to be miles wide. However, when she felt her skin tighten up suddenly, it dawned on her that she was about to reach her limit.
Qualitative: Much taller than her house, Jenny’s perfectly round body lifted off the ground, rising higher and higher, her growth rapidly accelerating out of control as the air pressure dropped around her. Far above the clouds, unable to comprehend how massive she had become and was still becoming, Jenny thought she might continue blowing up forever. However, when she felt her skin tighten up suddenly, it dawned on her that she was about to reach her limit.

At some point numeric measures of size become tedious, so it’s okay to use comparisons and be a little more vague. How much taller is “much taller” than her house? Is it a one- or two-story house? The reader is able to fill in these details to suit their own tastes because not everyone likes their inflatees to get 50 feet wide (or larger). Further descriptions of growth beyond that are similarly tedious and possibly a turn-off, so a more general description can give readers the freedom to interpret as they see fit.

9. WRITE YOUR STORY LINEARLY (START TO FINISH), THEN GO BACK AND CHANGE CERTAIN AREAS AS NEEDED.

This requires a lot of discipline since we want to get to the good parts but we may have 2000 words to lay down before the story even gets there. I can sympathize with the feeling of impatience, but I have written a few stories in which I wrote the inflation section first and then wrote the rest of the story around it. I found this to be even harder since the good parts were already written and the rest of the story seemed like a chore that I didn’t want to do. When I did get around to writing the rest of the story I didn’t put nearly the effort into it that I should have, and the whole finished product suffered as a result.

I have found that writing the entire story linearly also helps quite a bit with continuity. Jumping around to different areas of the story makes it easy to get the finer details of your story mixed up.

10. IF YOU CAN, GIVE YOUR STORY TO A FEW OTHER AUTHORS FOR INPUT BEFORE POSTING IT.

It never hurts to solicit the opinions of others when it comes to improving your story. You may be looking for validation of your work or some serious constructive criticism, and I think other writers are better equipped to offer that kind of perspective from a sympathetic point of view.

If you don’t have anyone else to turn to, just ask a few people in the community. I know that I would be happy to help if someone were to ask me for my input.

11. WHEN YOUR STORY IS EDITED AND READY TO POST, READ IT TOP TO BOTTOM IN A SINGLE SETTING AT LEAST THREE MORE TIMES BEFORE POSTING.

This casts a wide net to catch any errors that you might have missed during the editing process. It also gives you one last chance to look at the story completely from the reader’s perspective and make sure that the story works.

12. DON’T BE DISCOURAGED BY THE TYPE - OR LACK - OF INPUT THAT YOU GET.

If your story misses the mark with the community, don’t let it get you down. Remember, you are doing this primarily for yourself. Use every story and every reaction to your story as a learning experience to apply to your future works. Learn what advice suits your writing style and creativity and what advice doesn’t.

13. “QUICKIE” STORIES STILL SERVE A PURPOSE.

The “quickie” inflation story is the Chevrolet to inflation fiction’s Cadillac: the Cadillac may be better appointed and more expensive, but the Chevy will still get you from point A to point B.

Sometimes ignoring all these guidelines and writing a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am inflation story with shallow, stupid characters and empty sex can be a valuable exercise. It keeps your writing from getting stale and it can serve as a kind of self-reward for hard work done elsewhere, perhaps on another story that required a bit more effort. Sometimes that’s all you want to write, and from a reader’s perspective sometimes that’s all they want to read. Go for it.