An introduction! Also, a question!

T

theringleader

Guest
.....

.....
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Long story short, how do you inspire yourself to write when the inspiration doesn't come as naturally as it used to?

Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.
I rarely can't write, but occasionally an idea is slow to start because my subconscious is still cooking. If that's the case, I'll often start a side project (everything of mine this last year have been side projects because I've been writing what I call my stupid big thing). Maybe if you're stalling on a novel length piece, give shorter pieces a go. Simpler plots, fewer protagonists, less to get complicated.

Erotica as a genre? Good, horny sex, for starters - shed inhibitions and go full on with your fantasies. The point, after all, is to get men hard and women wet. Then there's the porn versus erotica question, where the consensus seems to be the latter cares more about emotion, motivation and intimacy, whereas the former is, have you come yet?

At Lit, there's one big, wide spectrum with a place for everyone and everything on it. You'll find the forever question, "how long is ideal?" To which the answer is always, "long enough for the purposes of the story." There are one page quickies (a Lit page is around 3750 words, give or take fifty or so), and the longest single piece I've found is about eighty Lit pages (around 250,000 words). Having said that, a 10,000 word story or chapter (3 Lit pages) seems to be a useful, popular length.

Some folk won't read short stories, others won't read long ones. Don't try to please everybody, because you''ll just please nobody, least of all yourself. And a word of caution, if you do attempt a long, multi-chapter story, make sure it's either finished before you publish, or you can get it finished. That's a very big dislike here, the great unfinished story, where writers run out of ideas, time, life gets in the way... There are hundreds of them.
 
Hello, there! Nice to meet you; I'm new to the Literotica discussion board as well.

Long story short, how do you inspire yourself to write when the inspiration doesn't come as naturally as it used to?

One answer you'll often encounter is to simply not wait for inspiration -- just write, even if you don't feel inspired. There's almost no discernible difference in quality between writing that you produced while feeling inspired and writing that you produced during a slog. (In any case, you can always edit your work later.)

But if it's a matter of productivity, then I, too, had this problem for many years. For me, the answer was therapy. I went into therapy with a concrete goal in mind: "I want to be a more productive writer." I lucked out, found a great therapist who clicked with me, and she helped me to start writing again on a regular basis. It can be challenging to find a suitable therapist -- but it's worth it.

I hope this helps.
 
Many of us have found that National Novel Writing Month is a useful exercise to get us into the habit of writing even if we are not inspired.

https://nanowrimo.org/

It doesn't matter if what you write during NaNoWriMo ends up as a heap of manure that needs sifting to find the gems. You will have proved to yourself that you can write consistently every day.
 
...............
 
Last edited by a moderator:
. . . I am primarily interested in writing novel-length works of fiction . . .

Hi and welcome to the madhouse.

After years of writing short-form fiction, I started submitting to Literotica as a way to practice writing longer form fiction. The length of a novel makes for a very large canvas. Bring lots of paint!

I quickly learned not all stories deserve the extra words. Finding that happy medium between too long and too short has been interesting. Though I have written several novel-length pieces, I can't say that I know going into a new piece if I have enough material to fill that big of a bucket.

Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.

Biggest difference? Most can't or won't share their erotic writings with people they know. Many know I write. Few know I write erotica.
 
Hi and welcome :)

I had been writing on Literotica for a while (under a different name) before creating this shared profile with my coauthor. One of the reasons I've moved over to collaborative work is because I have found it easier to motivate myself with a partner. I started out on the ORP and SRP forums, roleplaying while working on my own stories to keep my imagination running. Sometimes a bit of a change or something new is enough to reignite the passion for your own projects.

:rose:Liv
 
Welcome to Lit.

I second the advice of the authors above.

If you are new and unfamiliar with Lit, and you want to write, I strongly encourage you to read some of the How To essays that are available. They provide tips on writing erotica and very useful information about how this site is organized. In particular, it's very useful to understand the categories into which the stories here are shoe-horned. Understanding categories will help you connect with the readers who will want to read your stories. I recommend this article: https://literotica.com/s/love-your-readers-categories.

If you get actively involved here as an author you will find out quickly that readers are highly segregated by category: many readers love certain types of stories and loathe others. Incest is the most popular category, by a wide margin, but many readers and authors dislike incest stories.

What's distinctive about erotica? I'd say the fact that erotica is written to arouse. That purpose drives many of the artistic choices you make as an author: word choice, pacing, build up, and the rendering of the sex/erotic scene with which the story reaches its climax (so to speak).

Good luck!
 
Welcome!

I followed a similar path, exploring various modes of writing and then adding erotica to the mix. It's in some ways similar, but also refreshing in other ways. Don't be daunted by the whole matter of comments and scores and so forth. It'll all make sense eventually and this forum is a very useful place to find answers. In the meantime, just enjoy yourself and do what you love to do.

Though it was many years ago, I know what it's like to be fogged up by meds. (In my case, I struggled with an anxiety disorder for a long time -- feel free to PM if you need to vent about your situation.) I found various alternatives that fit better into my lifestyle and don't have that effect. It can be hard to find clarity when you've got distractions like that, but it isn't impossible.

I love when inspiration strikes at odd times and I always keep an app on my phone nearby to take advantage of those moments when they happen. However, when there's a lack of motivation, I personally don't find that it helps to force it. The self-inflicted pressure just makes me frustrated and gets me down. What works for me is getting out of the house and seeking some kind of soothing, focused experience that puts me in my happy place and gets me thinking, even if that's just a long walk in the forest. If I put the task of writing aside and just go out and enjoy life, inevitably the right frame of mind will return and inspiration comes with it.

I would definitely say that if you like various forms of writing it can be useful to go back and forth between them. I write a lot of poetry as well and there are definitely times when I am in the poetry frame of mind vs. times when I'm in the short story frame of mind. Somehow flip-flopping between one and then the other gives a chance for different parts of my brain to rest. Maybe you'll find your experience to be the same as you try out erotica. I love both, but I find the energy to differ greatly and the whole process of writing changes. Also, with erotica, it's endless fun to explore your own fantasies for motivation! Trying to improve your craft across multiple styles of writing is a challenge, sure, but it's good exercise for the mind.

Good luck!
 
Long story short, how do you inspire yourself to write when the inspiration doesn't come as naturally as it used to?

For me, reading other people's work sometimes gets me in the mood to write my own. But in general, if the inspiration isn't coming, it's because I have a lot of other stuff on my plate, and I probably need to be focussing on that instead of pushing myself to write.

Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.

For me, not much. I generally aim to write stories that present sex as part of the picture, not the whole picture, and they still need most of the same elements as other genres (depending on what other genres I'm crossing the erotica with).
 
Hello all. I hope you are well this evening.

Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.

I actually think erotica is a very challenging genre, particularly if we are talking about the erotic short story, which is what most people cultivate on lit. The best writing manages a middle way between mere pornography (mechanical, formulaic) and "mere" fiction (i.e. a short story where people have sex at some point). You have to manage enough character development, enough real conflict beyond the process of hooking up, but without losing the erotic tension that makes the genre. There are some people on this site who are really good at it. I do not count myself among them.
 
Lately I have been in something of a writing slump (for far too long, actually) and was wondering what you do to get the motivation and interest in writing back after a long break. I think part of my problem is concentration related, as I am on a few medications that muddle my brain a bit and make it hard to focus for very long. [...] Lately I have been wondering if I should try my hand at some different forms like short stories. Maybe that would help me get some of my inspiration back?

Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.

Writing is fantastic for my own mental health, and I wind up taking advice from my own characters with surprising frequency. In fact, my fiction writing began partly as an outgrowth of therapeutic journaling. I sympathize about the muddled feeling. The effect on your writing is something to give real weight when it comes to balancing medications.

I'm fairly new to writing, and have a few non-erotica Big Stories to tell. One of these projects has me very excited, but I keep running into creative blocks with it. The erotica is a great complement, serving two purposes: first, by giving me a hook that drags me through the story-telling with less hemming and hawing. It's been great for Just Writing, and as a new writer I need all the practice I can get.

Second, Literotica is a big and diverse crowd, and it's been useful to get feedback on my efforts so far. It gives me a lot more confidence for sharing my non-erotica with friends and family.
 
Here's a confession: I usually write most of my stories in bed, when I'm masturbating.

It's true. As I pleasure myself, various plot lines surface. The ones that seem to have the most effect on getting me there are the ones that eventually turn up in my stories. By the time I've actually sat down at the computer to write them, I've told them to myself a few times, and they're usually in enough focus for me.to put into words.

Give it a try!
 
It's true. As I pleasure myself, various plot lines surface. The ones that seem to have the most effect on getting me there are the ones that eventually turn up in my stories.
Makes sense. If you can't turn yourself on, why would you expect your words to turn anyone else on? My test for my own material is to read it six months on, to see if it still "works." Some do, better than others, and there's a few that, if I hadn't written them, would tag as favourites, because they work every time. Which just goes to show how effective** conditioning can be, if you can do it to yourself ;).

** or alarming, depending how you look at it.
 
I'm new to this, but what got me writing was dissatisfaction with other works. I got sick of not getting what I want out of stories, and decided I'd write what I want to read. I'm not going to leave mean comments or give 1* reviews, just create what I want to see.

As for your attention span issues, once I sort out the plot, I try to go paragraph by paragraph. if I'm in a groove, but don't want to write out something, a description say, I'll put in #DESCRIBE# and keep writing what I want to write at the moment, and go back later. Same thing with dialogue, or anything I feel needs research, stopping when you're on a roll to look something up, or thrash out perfect dialogue, will grind work to a halt.
"Just keep swimming!" as Dory says, but with writing instead of swimming. :D
 
There's a ton of interesting thoughts and advice on here already, but for my two cents worth I'd add that one of the differences in writing erotica is it allows you to explore your characters in ways that you can't do in 'mere fiction', to quote sexyprof1967. I read somewhere, on a site about writing fiction, that when you are creating/writing characters, it's unfair to let them into the bedroom door and then shut the door on the reader, since sex is where people are at their most honest/vulnerable/raw etc etc, and isn't that what readers want to find out about - about that character's flaws and innermost desires and all that? So that's why I started writing stories that are erotica - to do that. See how many ways I can find to describe those moments. But I'd also say that like some of the other authors above, writing erotica is not necessarily something to tell everyone you do - unless you are really sure of why you want to tell them, and of who you tell.
 
Also, how do you feel writing erotica differs from writing in other genres? I am new to writing erotica, though I have dabbled in it from time to time with limited success.
The biggest difference in my mind is that I can get a lot of people to read my stuff and I can get people to help me get better with my writing. I was really bad at writing when I started posting stories here, still managed to get an editor and still managed to get quite a few comments to my first story. If I was writing fantasy short stories instead, I'm doubtful I'd be able to find the same size readership.
 
Here's a confession: I usually write most of my stories in bed, when I'm masturbating.

It's true. As I pleasure myself, various plot lines surface. The ones that seem to have the most effect on getting me there are the ones that eventually turn up in my stories. By the time I've actually sat down at the computer to write them, I've told them to myself a few times, and they're usually in enough focus for me.to put into words.

Give it a try!
I often think of plot ideas as I fall asleep at night and flesh them out in the morning (pun always intended). I'm opposite to Athalia; I write the sex scenes with the goal of getting an erection. That tells me at least one person was aroused by my writing.

Of course, then I deserve a reward...
 
I've been thinking about this. There are three current threads that refer to getting readers (or writer's) off

Maybe that would be a more useful five point scoring system that a scale of one to five stars:

  • Did the story get you aroused?
  • Did the story get you hard / wet?
  • Did the story inspire you to masturbate?
  • Did you cum?
  • Will you use / have you used this story more than once?
:)
 
I often think of plot ideas as I fall asleep at night and flesh them out in the morning (pun always intended). I'm opposite to Athalia; I write the sex scenes with the goal of getting an erection. That tells me at least one person was aroused by my writing.

Of course, then I deserve a reward...

I'm not sure that makes you my opposite. The reason I fantasize is to get aroused. The story comes later, and builds around what aroused me.
 
Back
Top