8letters' big list of writing tips and advice

[8letters]

Hi! I’m 8letters, and this is my big list of tips/rules of thumb I’ve developed over ten years of publishing on Literotica. I published an earlier version that was a big wall of text. Hopefully, this version will be easier to read.

When I started writing for Literotica, I had no idea of what I was doing, and I spent a lot of time just learning the ropes of being an erotic writer. If you are new to erotic writing, hopefully, this will speed your learning process.

The stories I typically write are longish (5+ pages) Incest/Taboo stories where the heterosexual main characters are close in age. My characters usually fall in love over the course of my story. My advice may not apply to the category you write in or the type of story you want to write. Not all pieces of advice apply to all stories. This is what has worked for me.

Starting out
* I recommend for your first story writing a stand-alone story. I recommend this for two reasons. #1 - Stand-alone stories outperform chapters in terms of view, comments and favorites. #2 - You are going to learn a lot each time you publish a new story. If you write a series, your first chapter is going to suck, your second chapter is going to suck but suck less and will have a smaller audience than your first chapter, with each ensuing chapter your audience will shrink, and by the time you are writing well, you’ll have a tiny audience for your new writing.

Story Category
* Before you write the story, decide on the category it’s going to go in. Know the likes and dislikes of that category. For example, I/T readers don’t like male-male sex. Romance doesn’t like Male Main Characters who cheat
* If your story could go into multiple categories, research which category is more likely to get you the best results. Pick that and write your story to appeal to the readers of that category
* I’d put the categories into the following tiers (this is based on data I pulled in 2018 and may be out of date):
** A - Incest/Taboo (highest average views and second highest average comments per story for stand-alone stories, a strong chance of getting a Red H)
** B - Loving Wives (highest average votes and comments per story. Lowest average rating. High favorites. Many of the comments are harshly negative)
** B - Mature (high views, favorites and ratings; good number of comments)
** C - Anal (good views, favorites, and ratings, average comments, the vast majority of stories are one page)
** C - E&V (above average views, okay favorites, good ratings, average comments)
** C - Gay Male (above average views, okay favorites, good ratings, okay comments)
** C - Group Sex (good views and favorites, okay ratings, poor comments)
** C - First Time (good views, okay favorites and ratings, average comments)
** C - Lesbian Sex (above average views, good favorites, high ratings and comments)
** C - Noncon (high views, good favorites but low ratings, okay comments)
** C - T&C (above average views, high favorites, high ratings, good number of comments)
* If you do write a series, I recommend putting all of the chapters into the one category the story is mostly about. If you publish Chapter 3 in Group Sex after being in Erotic Couplings for the first two chapters, the Group Sex readers aren’t going to be very interested in jumping into the middle of a series and the EC readers who’ve read the first two chapters won’t know a third chapter has been published

Beginning your story
* I write in first person. I find that to be more intimate and therefore more erotic than other choices. I mostly write from the point of view of the main male character (MMC) as I’m male, but I’ve written stories from the female point of view when hers was the more interesting one. There are stories that work best written in a point of view besides first person, but try using first person if you can
* I write in past tense. Present tense stories make me think of Young Adult novels, and I’m not interested in the YA audience at Literotica
* I start my stories with an interesting scene, typically with lots of dialogue. I only have a short period of time before many readers will hit the back button and try another story, so I try to hook them quickly
* On the other hand, I’ve seen stories do well that start with a lot of narrative summary singing the praises of the FMC. And then the rest of the story is the MMC pursuing the FMC
* I always introduce the two main love interests right away. I want the reader to start building emotional involvement with my main characters as soon as possible

Describing your main characters
* I describe the non-narrator main character very early in the story. Having a picture of a character in my head as I read builds emotional involvement. It’s also very disconcerting to discover late in the story that someone I’ve pictured as a red-head is blond
* It’s nice if I can get a description of the narrator in, but it’s hard to do in a natural way
* As I write sexual fantasies, I have my main characters be better-than-average physically attractive
* As my narrators are usually male characters, I’m typically describing the female main character (FMC) early on in the story. I don’t go overboard on the description of looks. At the start of the story, I have my MMC thinking the FMC attractive, but I don’t have him rant and rave about how she’s the hottest, sexiest woman in the world
* When I started writing Literotica stories, I felt like my FMC’s had to have big tits. Women in porn movies and stories always have big tits, right? But as I’ve gotten more experience, I’ve gotten comfortable with having FMC’s with tits that aren’t big. I have one story where the FMC is flat-chested. I kept expecting to get comments ripping me for having a flat-chested FMC, but none ever came
* I don’t give the FMC massive tits unless it’s somehow important to the plot. Massive tits to me equals a cartoon character, and it turns me off. Big tits are more than sufficient
* I don’t give a bra size when describing a woman’s tits. First off, the vast majority of guys can’t accurately guess what a woman’s bra size is. Also, bra sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and many women wear a bra that’s not the ideal size for them. To me, giving the bra size makes the author sound like a sixteen year old
* Conversely, using broad descriptive terms to describe a FMC’s bust allows the reader to imagine a chest size of their own choosing. I’m quite fond of “nice-sized tits”, as the reader can decide how big nice-sized actually is
* I rarely mention dick size. I don’t think it’s that important to women
* When I’m describing a character, I paint with a broad brush. I give enough detail that the reader can picture something, but give the readers a lot of freedom in what they actually picture. I had one commenter say he loves a story where the FMC looks like a certain porn star. I looked up the porn star, and she looked nothing like what I imagined the FMC to look like
* I recommend spending about as much time describing the FMC’s clothes as you do her body. Describing clothes is a great way to describe the FMC’s body
* I recommend not having the FMC dress inappropriately to start the story. Don’t have her open the door in lingerie. Don’t have her not wear panties in public. To me, those are signs of someone who’s not sexy because they’re trying too hard to be sexy
* I frequently make my main characters an athlete or a former athlete. It’s easy to picture such a character having a fit body

 

[8letters]

>>>Once you’re started<<<
* I recommend having an interesting premise. From what I’ve seen, the premise of the story is the biggest determiner of the its rating
* Two things which I think will boost your rating is to have a hot final sex scene and a Happy Ever After ending. Put your reader in a good mood before they click to vote. (Note: this doesn’t apply to Loving Wives)
* I recommend having two likable characters who have an obvious attraction for each other (Really doesn’t apply to Loving Wives)
* I recommend having backstories for each main character. They shouldn’t have come into existent just before the start of your story. They should have friends and coworkers/classmates. They should tell stories of what happened before the story started. They should have emotional baggage from prior events
* My stories typically have two parallel plot lines. The seduction plot line has the steps that result in the two main characters becoming a happy couple. The second plot line is the life story of the main characters; what’s going on in their lives. The life story plot line doesn’t have to be anything special. In “My Day as a Pool Boy”, he’s doing chores around the house while his sister hosts a pool party. The life story provides two main things: it provides insight into the characters and it provides “and time passes…” fodder. But to me, it’s important that the narrator have things going on beyond seducing the other main character
* I recommend addressing why the main characters are unattached. In too many stories, she’s the hottest thing in town and he’s a major stud, but neither of them has anyone romantically interested in them. How attractive can they be if no one is attracted to them? What happened in a prior relationship is a great way to provide insight into your character. In several of my stories, what happened in a prior relationship sets up what happens between the main characters
* My stories make the case that the guy is the only guy in the world for the girl and vice versa. The main characters have personalities that mesh perfectly and they fulfill each other. In too many stories, the basis of attraction between the two leads is that she has big tits and he has a big cock.
* If you set your story in a particular city, then I recommend having the city as a character in the story. There should be steady reminders that the characters are in that city. Otherwise, make the story more universal by leaving the city name out
* Dialogue is what brings your characters to life. Have your main characters taunt and tease each other. Have them tell jokes. A lingering look after some teasing is a great way of cranking up the sexual tension
* People use abbreviations all the time when speaking. They’ll use “wanna” instead of “you want to”. Strive for dialogue that sounds natural

More advanced writing techniques
* Sexy is as sexy does. A FMC who teases, flirts, and sashays will be to the reader far sexier than the woman with a porn star body that doesn’t do anything sexy
* I like to increase the sexual tension steadily through the story until it boils over and the characters can’t resist each other any more
* I typically have a scene or two increasing the sexual tension, and then I’ll have a scene or two without any sexual tension that tells the reader more about the characters. Then in the next scene(s), I’ll take the sexual tension higher that it was before
* I view my stories as a series of key scenes. I spend a lot of time setting up a key scene, have that scene, and then start working on setting up the next key scene
* To me, writing is like dominoes. I put down domino after domino after domino, each logically following the other. So when the reader gets to a key scene, everything is in place for that scene to make sense. If I leave out a domino or have it out of place, then that scene will fall flat
* I find describing clothing a great way to increase the sexual tension and also to communicate the MMC’s thoughts about the FMC. As the FMC gets more interested in the MMC, she’s going to dress sexier to draw his attention more
* Having a villain in a story provides lots of opportunities to improve the story. It doesn’t have to be a James Bond-type villain. It could be an overly demanding boss, a jerk roommate or a professor who hits on students. Fighting back against the villain can bring the main characters together. Or how the main characters react to the villain can show a lot about their personalities
* I want my readers to want my main characters to have sex before they have sex
* In most categories, longer stories on average do better than shorter stories. The exceptions are Anal, Humor & Satire (though should be at least 4K words), Illustrated (S/B at least 7.5K words), L&T, LW, and T&M. If you are not publishing in one of the exceptions, I recommend aiming for a story length of at least 10K words, preferably 20K words
* I don’t know if there’s a story that’s so big that it has to be published as chapters. Literotica has some really, really big stories. My longest story is 68K words
* When deciding to publish a story in chapters or as a whole story, keep in mind the expectations of the category you’re publishing in. Science Fiction & Fantasy and Novels and Novellas expects chapters. I/T, Loving Wives and Romance frequently have long stories published there
* What if you want to put something in your story something that you know will be unpopular with the readers of your category? If you feel your story has to have that in it, accept that your story is going to have a low rating and negative comments. I wouldn’t bother warning your readers upfront about what’s in your story. They’ll blow through that and still give you a low vote and leave you a negative comment
* Politics! The general advice is to avoid it. My experience is something like that. My impression is that any politician and any political party will generate a strong reaction in readers, and they aren’t looking for that kind of a reaction when they are reading porn stories. I had a story where I had the father say he was a Trump supporter, and I got comments that it was too political
* Religion! The general advice is to avoid it. I’ve discussed it in five stories. I think it works best as providing background to a character and to explain their attitudes and decisions
* Social issues! I think discussing them adds a lot of depth to a story. Don’t add them to preach, but adding them to provide context to the action in the story I think works quite well. An example of this was that positive consent was a major part of my story “My Sister Set Me Up on a Blind Date”. The MMC teaching the FMC about positive consent was an important part of building their relationship. I got a number of negative comments about it, but the story got many, many positive comments and a great rating

Sex scenes!
* I assume that sex scenes are the main thing that my reader is reading my story for. They are looking to get off, and sex scenes is what does it for them
* I try to make my sex scenes as long as I can write them. Certainly long enough for the reader to get off while reading it
* On the other hand, you can have a sex scene that’s too long. I’ve read stories where they fuck on the couch, then they fuck in bed, then they fuck in the shower, and then they fuck in bed again; and I’m ready for something else to happen besides more fucking
* I always have a final sex scene. I may have sex scenes before that, but I always have one before the couple walks off into the sunset
* For my non-final sex scenes, I try to use the sex scene to advance the story. I’ll try to show how the relationship is changing as they have sex
* Final sex scenes are the hardest for me to write. Two people committed to their relationship are making love (typically) in a bed without a care in the world. I’ve done that sex scene too many times
* The readers should be able to picture the room (or, in one of my stories, the minivan) where the couple is having sex. It doesn’t have to be detailed description, but enough that the reader can visualize the action. I recently read a story where a rock band had an orgy after a performance. I had no idea of what the room they were in looked like, so I couldn’t picture the described action. And sex action I can’t picture isn’t erotic
* Describe all five senses. What does the narrator feel, see, smell, hear, and taste?
* I try to make my sex scenes different. I’ll have the couple make love in places outside of a house, or in unusual rooms. One of my favorites is on the dining room table surrounded by the remains of dinner
* I don’t have the couple orgasm simultaneously. From what I have read, it just doesn’t happen in real life. Typically I write that he makes her come and then they fuck until he comes
* One of the things I do for writing sex scenes is I’ll have a rough idea for a sex scene, and then I’ll search porn movies for a similar scene. And then my writing of my sex scene is basically transcribing the action in the porn movie
* The hymen is on the outside, not a short distance inside a woman. I kills me how many stories there are where the author gets this wrong
* After the final sex scene, sometimes I’ll have a few sentences where the main characters say, “I love you”. Sometimes, I’ll have an epilogue

 

[8letters]

>>>When you are done<<<
* I always put at the end of my stories a request for comments
* I put in the middle of my stories this in italics: “This story was written by 8letters and published on Literotica” It makes it easy to search if my stories have been stolen and readers on other sites will catch that the story is stolen
* When editing, know what words you use/misuse and search for those specifically. For example, I use “start”, “there”, “just”, “still”, “really” and “that” too much. I’ll write “check” when I mean “cheek”. I have problems with “lie” and “lay”
* After I get my story buffed up to the point I think I could publish it, I send it out to beta-readers. I got my first beta-readers by asking people who PM’d me to look at my next story. Someone with fresh eyes will notice a glaring error that I keep skipping over. I’ve done major rewrites based on the comments from beta-readers I really trust
* I always use an editor. I make a ton of mistakes as I write. I do my best to catch them all, my beta-readers catch even more, but there are still mistakes there. I really, really want to publish my story as soon as I’ve incorporated the feedback from my beta-readers, but I force myself to take the time to get all of the mistakes I possibly can out of the story (I still don’t get them all out)
* I write extended author’s notes. For example, see here. I strongly recommend it. I’ve had several readers comment they like seeing the behind the curtain. Also, it’s really enjoyable for me to go back and read them to remember the experience of writing the story
* I recommend not writing a sequel, even if people request it. How many Hollywood sequels have you liked as much as the original? A request for a sequel is way of saying that they loved your story so much that they wished it would continue. But your story is over. Go write another story that they’ll request a sequel of

Story Title and Description
* Choose a story title that sells your story. It should be a summary of the story premise written in such a way to entice readers to click on it. Literotica offers up a smorgasbord of stories every day so if your story title doesn’t sell your story, then people will instead read a story with a title that does
* The above applies to the story description. It’s not as important as the story title, but it’s still important
* Use your story title and description to tell the readers what kinks your story has. As my stories are Incest/Taboo, I normally put the relation into the title (”Mom”, “Sis”, “Cousin”)
* Your story title and description are a promise. Be sure to fulfill that promise with your story
* Don’t use a raunchy title like “I Fucked My Mom”. As almost all of the stories on Literotica end with fucking, the “Fuck” in that story title tells the reader nothing. It doesn’t tell the reader anything about the story set up. I find such titles unappealing as they seem to imply that the story has nothing to it except a quick lurch to fucking (Side note: the most popular author on Literotica, silkstockingslover, gives most of her stories raunchy titles like “Mom’s a Gangbang Cum Bucket”. No tip applies to all authors/stories)

Story Tags
* I have no idea of how useful tags are. I usually put ten tags on my stories on the chance that they are helpful and because it doesn’t hurt to have the full limit of tags on your story
* Don’t assume that the reader looks at your list of tags. I never look at the tags when I’m reading stories
* When I’m selecting tags, I start with the main kinks in the story. Then I put down what I think is uncommon in my story. Lastly, I look at the most selected tags for my category and pick those that apply as I read down the list
* Again, I have no idea of how useful tags are, so don’t knock yourself out picking yours

 

[8letters]

>>>Style Guide<<<
This is the style guide I’ve developed over the years. I’m just tossing it out there. You should develop your own style guide.

HTML tags
* I write HTML tags into my story as I write them, and then post the story into the Text box when submitting. I don’t trust Literotica to convert something from Word
* I use the following tags: I, STRONG, BR, A, and BLOCKQUOTE
* I put in the Note to Admin box listing the HTML tags I used and ask that they be accepted. Literotica will change or ignore your HTML tags without any warning
* I use the I tag for internal thoughts, particularly for immediate reactions to an event. So

I heard something shatter in the kitchen. What the hell just happened. I got up and rushed towards the sound.

* I use either the I and STRONG tags when the person speaking emphasizes a particular word
* I use BLOCKQUOTE for song lyrics
* I use the A tag at the end of my story to link to various Literotica pages. You can only link to Literotica pages in a story

”Cum” versus “Come”
I use “come” for having an orgasm for both men and women. I use only “cum” for semen.

Double quotes
I use them only for dialog. I would not have:

He was wearing “fresh of the shelf” clothes.

I’d use ‘fresh of the shelf’ or “fresh-of-the-shelf” instead. It’s my personal experience that when I read, I treat anything in double quotes as dialog. I do use a single double quote for inches

Commas
* I generally do whatever Grammarly suggests unless I think the story is better some other way
* One thing Grammarly is inconsistent on but that I consistently do is put a comma after a sentence and before the coordinating conjunction. “You do you, and I’ll do me.”
* If I have an interrupting phrase, I put commas around it. “I heard what you said, and, to me, it’s complete nonsense.”
* I put in Oxford commas, mainly because Grammarly whines if I don’t

Pronouns
I always put the name of the person being referenced before using a pronoun, so no starting a sentence with “He said”

Dialog
* Dialog is the most important part of my story. It’s what brings my characters to life
* Each speaker gets their own paragraph. No having dialog from two different speakers in one paragraph
* When possible, I move the dialog tags a short way into the dialog. Particularly if the first part fits the voice of the speaker.

“Duh,” said Bart. “That was a stupid thing to do.”

* When it’s just two people speaking, no more than three lines without a dialog tag. I find I lose track of who’s speaking if I go more than that
* When a person says a lot at one time, I’ll break up their dialog with some description of action

Suzie said, “[Lots of words].” She frowned. “[Lots of words]”

Wall of text
Don’t do it! Figure out how to break it up

Repetition
* When I’m editing, one of the things I look for is repetition. Do I have the same word used multiple times close together? Do I start multiple paragraphs near each other the same way?
* Grammarly won’t find excessive repetition, so it’s up to me to catch it

 

[8letters]

>>>Underage sexuality<<<
I’m going to give my understand of Literotica’s Under 18 Rule. I find the stickied thread on it too lacking in specifics to be helpful. This is based on my observations and posts to the AH. This is not an official ruling from Literotica. Many of the examples came from this thread.

What are the rules?
1. Characters under 18 cannot have sex
2. Characters under 18 cannot be sexualized in any way. You cannot describe their looks, body, attitude, or clothes in a way that sexualizes them
3. Characters under 18 cannot say or act in a way that implies that they are sexually aware
4. Characters under 18 cannot see naked people, cannot see people acting in a sexual manner, and cannot hear people having sex
5. All of the above applies to when discussing in a story the underaged past of a character that is currently 18 or older
6. Characters 18 and older cannot have fantasies or sexual thoughts about characters under 18
7. Characters cannot act with the immaturity of someone under 18. If you have a story about a teacher having an affair with a high school freshman and then age the student up to 18 at the last moment, your story can be rejected
8. Characters 18 and older cannot act as a youngster while having sex. No dressing up in Brownies uniforms
9. When writing fan fiction, you cannot use characters or real-life individuals who are best known when they were under 18. No Harry Potter fan fiction even if you make Harry 25 in the story

Detection of rule-breaking
1. All of the stories submitted to publication on Literotica are read by an individual. The site co-owner Laurel did all the reading at one point, but I’m not certain that’s the case now. If any underage sexuality is noticed at this point, the story will be rejected with a note
2. Once a story is published, individual readers can report the story for underage sexuality. My impression is that the site’s default behavior is to accept the report and reject the story. If your published story is rejected, you won’t get an email or a message. It will just show up in your list of stories with a status of “Rejected”
3. Stories still slip by the initial reading and the reading by the community. The existence of such stories is not a defense for your story having underage sexuality
4. I would guess that the tolerance for underage sexuality varies from category to category. I/T readers seem very tolerant of it. Again, it takes just one reader reporting your story to get it rejected

Practical application in terms of writing
1. From what I’ve seen, authors can safely imply that high school seniors are 18 or older
2. Don’t set a story in the summer before the character’s senior year. I’ve seen stories published that do that, but it’s risky as I don’t think there’s any state where someone will be 18 the summer before their senior year unless they’ve been held back
3. Don’t say “This character was held back a year, so they are 18 even though they are a junior in high school.” There’s a good chance it’ll be rejected
4. If you have a non-sexual scene where the characters are underage, I’d suggest putting something in the Note box giving the reviewer a heads up. Otherwise, they might see a scene that starts with “I was 16 and sitting on my bed” and reject the story without reading further
5. It’s wise not to mention the age of anything if it’s under 18. A story was rejected because a character poured a drink of 12-year-old whiskey
6. If you are going to discuss underage sexuality, keep it short and clinical. “I lost my virginity when I was 15” is fine
7. Conversely, make it vague enough that it’s not clear if the sexuality started when the character was 18 or when they were younger. “While I was in high school, …”
8. Putting “All characters are 18 years or older” at the start of your story does nothing to protect your story from getting rejected. Stories whose characters are all 18 or older can still be rejected for underage sexuality. All your notice does is waste your readers’ time

What if your story is rejected for underage sexuality
1. Don’t get bent out of shape! It’s most likely a minor thing that you can easily clean up or address with a Note
2. Find out why the story was rejected. You may need to contact Laurel for this. To do that, start a conversation with her. She generally responds within a day and is very pleasant to deal with
3. Do whatever fix the story needs and resubmit it with something in the Note box that specifies what you did to address to problem

These are the rules of the site. Literotica has enjoyed tremendous success following them. If you don’t like them, tough. If your story demands that you not follow them, there are plenty of other sites that will accept your story.

 

[8letters]

>>>Copyrighted Works, Fanfiction and You<<<
This section applies to you even if you don’t write Fan Fiction.

I had always considered fanfiction to be a blatant copyright violation, and Literotica publishing fanfiction meant that the site didn’t take copyright violations seriously. After educating myself on the issue, I know see that fanfiction has become an accepted fair use. The rules on fair use from the US copyright law, section 107:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

There are no court rulings on fanfiction, and there is an informal system in place that controls it. My guess is that there are no court rulings on fanfiction as the big copyright holders are afraid they will lose. They would lose because (1) fanfiction is noncommercial and (2) the copyright holders cannot demonstrate a negative effect of the value of the copyrighted work. In fact, fanfiction helps to maintain interest in a copyrighted work. With every new fanfiction story being published, the chances of them losing increases. I think we are well past the tipping point where any court would rule against fanfiction being legal. Trademark violation has an even bigger chance of losing if brought to court for fanfiction as long as the fanfiction creator doesn’t try to make it look like the trademark owner is responsible for the fanfiction.

This is important to you, even if you don’t write fanfiction. This means:
* You can write a story that uses the setting and characters of a copyrighted work
* You can use one-liners or dialog from a copyrighted work
* You can use jokes that were professionally written
* You can use song lyrics from copyrighted songs. The site has the restriction that you cannot use more than four lines of lyrics at a time

 

[djrip]

* I put in the middle of my stories this in italics: “This story was written by 8letters and published on Literotica” It makes it easy to search if my stories have been stolen and readers on other sites will catch that the story is stolen

Ah... Oops!

 

[ElectricBlue]

Ah... Oops!

Gee, the irony. 8letters worrying about stolen content. That's got to be a joke, right?

 

[MrHereWriting]

What if your story is rejected for underage sexuality
1. Don’t get bent out of shape! It’s most likely a minor thing that you can easily clean up or address with a Note

 

[MyBareTorso]

>>>Copyrighted Works, Fanfiction and You<<<
This section applies to you even if you don’t write Fan Fiction.

I had always considered fanfiction to be a blatant copyright violation, and Literotica publishing fanfiction meant that the site didn’t take copyright violations seriously. After educating myself on the issue, I know see that fanfiction has become an accepted fair use. The rules on fair use from the US copyright law, section 107:

There are no court rulings on fanfiction, and there is an informal system in place that controls it. My guess is that there are no court rulings on fanfiction as the big copyright holders are afraid they will lose. They would lose because (1) fanfiction is noncommercial and (2) the copyright holders cannot demonstrate a negative effect of the value of the copyrighted work. In fact, fanfiction helps to maintain interest in a copyrighted work. With every new fanfiction story being published, the chances of them losing increases. I think we are well past the tipping point where any court would rule against fanfiction being legal. Trademark violation has an even bigger chance of losing if brought to court for fanfiction as long as the fanfiction creator doesn’t try to make it look like the trademark owner is responsible for the fanfiction.

This is important to you, even if you don’t write fanfiction. This means:
* You can write a story that uses the setting and characters of a copyrighted work
* You can use one-liners or dialog from a copyrighted work
* You can use jokes that were professionally written
* You can use song lyrics from copyrighted songs. The site has the restriction that you cannot use more than four lines of lyrics at a time

Wow, that's quite an exhaustive how-to guide! Thanks for taking the time. "I don't give the female MC massive tits unless it's important to the story"...whoops, guilty! Geez, of a few other things too.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Wow!! That's a lot of great information!!!! Thank you so much for all that work to help us newbies!!!!

 

[Zootonius]

In the list of 'Story Categories,' Romance is missing.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Wow, that's quite an exhaustive how-to guide! Thanks for taking the time. "I don't give the female MC massive tits unless it's important to the story"...whoops, guilty! Geez, of a few other things too.

mine always have big boobs. well, not the male characters - unless moobs count?

anyway, nice suggestions list above.

 

[HeyAll]

Amazing list, thanks for sharing.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Although I disagree with a lot of the advice, I understand it is from 8Letters perspective alone and some will find great value in it. This looks like a good candidate for a "How-To" submission.

 

[8letters]

In the list of 'Story Categories,' Romance is missing.

I only listed categories that I considered to be in the "A", "B" or "C" tiers. Romance doesn't get enough views for me to give it a "C".

 

[8letters]

Although I disagree with a lot of the advice, I understand it is from 8Letters perspective alone and some will find great value in it. This looks like a good candidate for a "How-To" submission.

I'd love to hear what you disagree with. Change my mind.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't agree with every specific thing 8Letters recommends, but I think this is very helpful. 8Letters and I both write incest stories and have somewhat different approaches to them, but one thing I think we share is paying attention to what works. Writers tend to get two completely different lines of advice. One line is to read a lot and absorb what good writers do, and another is to do whatever you want. I'm more of the first camp. I think you should pay attention, read a lot, figure out what works, and then once you've developed a certain level of proficiency do your own thing. But I don't think it's helpful to tell a new writer just to do their own thing, because often they're thinking "I don't know what that is!."

A few reactions:

I like to mix up the point of view. I write some stories from first person POV, but I like to write some stories from 3d person POV as well, and when I do it's usually with a "free indirect style" that some call close 3d person where the narration is merged with the perspective of the main character. The effect is nearly the same as first person in terms of intimacy, but it has the advantage of allowing the narrator at times to reveal things that the main character might not know or perceive. Third person POV also allows you to switch points of view among characters, and depending upon the story that can be a very useful thing to do.

I avoid all special formatting. I never use italics. There's no right or wrong on this. I like to keep things simple and I'm lazy. Also, the Lit app doesn't allow for italics.

I agree with 8Letters' approach to dialogue. Use different paragraphs. Use the correct format. My impression is that 8Letters draws his dialogue out more than I do. My approach is a bit more spare and economical, but my stories tend to be somewhat shorter, too. Again, there's no right or wrong way. Do what works for you and serves your own artistic purposes.

I agree very strongly with the idea that the author should make the reader WANT the two main characters to have sex before they have sex. This makes the sex scene more satisfying. This is where the buildup comes in. By the time they have sex, the reader can hardly wait for it to happen. That's a key. If you write a story about two people having sex without getting the reader invested in the characters, it's not as interesting and not as erotic.

I don't necessarily agree about not giving the story a raunchy title. It depends on the story. My second most-viewed story is entitled "Mom Spreads Her Legs." It has over 794,000 views. But, obviously, you wouldn't want to give a romantic story a title like that one. The title should match the overall tone of the story. I fully agree that in the case of most incest stories the word "Mom" or "Sister" or the equivalent should be used.

One big difference between my stories and 8Letters' stories in terms of subject matter is that almost all of his stories concern young adults, and his incest stories are almost exclusively about siblings, whereas I tend to focus on people in middle age, because I'm middle-aged. Some readers prefer to read about young people. But there's a huge readership that enjoys the hot moms/hot wives themes, and that's what I prefer to write about. Again, there's no right or wrong here.

I don't agree with 8Letters' description of fair use under copyright law, but I'm not sure it matters much for practical purposes here at Literotica. What matters is what the Site will allow. If it gets past the Literotica gatekeeper the risk of your being sued by somebody because you wrote fanfiction is vanishingly small.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I'd love to hear what you disagree with. Change my mind.

No, the disagreement is valuable.

As you've likely seen on other threads, I always advocate for finishing a story completely before submitting any part of it for publication. This would be a recommendation (tip) that I would give to new writers, encouraging patience over instant feedback gratification. In doing so, some of your other tips related to the selection of category, etc. would probably solve themselves.

I would probably also advice new writers to start out with a third-person omniscient narrative since it is a more familiar storytelling perspective that is generally easier to master for new writers. I would also put greater stress on literary elements and devices and which are optional versus mandatory within a story.

If you are interested in compiling a more comprehensive "How-To" guide for publication here, I would be happy to send you some of the things that I would include with my full consent to use them.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I agree with SimonDoom and BobbyBrandt, in principle, although I think we disagree on some of the details.
First person is easier for a new author. You just think of it as telling a story about your life.
"I did this, I did that", no different than relating an experience to a friend.
However, it can be very limiting. If your goal is a quick stroker, first person is the easiest way to get from point A to point B. For a more involved, complex storyline the various flavors of third person are better.

 

[8letters]

I don't agree with every specific thing 8Letters recommends, but I think this is very helpful. 8Letters and I both write incest stories and have somewhat different approaches to them, but one thing I think we share is paying attention to what works. Writers tend to get two completely different lines of advice. One line is to read a lot and absorb what good writers do, and another is to do whatever you want. I'm more of the first camp. I think you should pay attention, read a lot, figure out what works, and then once you've developed a certain level of proficiency do your own thing. But I don't think it's helpful to tell a new writer just to do their own thing, because often they're thinking "I don't know what that is!."

I usually really enjoy your replies to my posts as they get me to think deeper on the subject.

My ideas on this have evolved over time, but right now, I'd say that the most important thing is to publish your first story. You've got an idea that you're excited enough about that you're willing to take the time to sit down and write it out. Don't expect anyone to edit or beta-read your first story. The grammar check in Word or Grammarly (which is free to download and use) are the best you're going to do. Publish it, and now you have some "known knowns". Now is the time to start doing researching, reading comparable stories, reading books on writing, etc. There's no teacher at Literotica to tell you "Needs a stronger ending". If you do that work to get better at delivering stories that readers like, I think you'll have a lot more fun publishing on Literotica.

One big difference between my stories and 8Letters' stories in terms of subject matter is that almost all of his stories concern young adults, and his incest stories are almost exclusively about siblings, whereas I tend to focus on people in middle age, because I'm middle-aged. Some readers prefer to read about young people. But there's a huge readership that enjoys the hot moms/hot wives themes, and that's what I prefer to write about. Again, there's no right or wrong here.

I found it interesting that you decided to bring this up. I agree that there are big audiences for lots of different story topics at Literotica. I think authors should look for the largest combination of "This is what I want to write about" and "This is what readers want to read".

 

[8letters]

If you are interested in compiling a more comprehensive "How-To" guide for publication here, I would be happy to send you some of the things that I would include with my full consent to use them.

Sure. How about I create a Google Doc version of this thread, send you a link to it, and you type your additions into that?

 

[nice90sguy]

A very interesting read -- my only problem with it is that too much of it is about WHAT to write, rather than how. But it's certainly a very good set of guideliness for writing a story that will be popular on this site -- a goal many of us have.

Luckily, this site has so many readers that one can write a very succesful story while still ignoring a lot of the guidelines -- but maybe not get into the toplist.

 

[Pabiporffor]

Useful stuff. As for the underage stuff I've made the mistake of using scenarios to point to a virgin character being over 18, things such as, "Mary ordered another wine at the bar." It doesn't work, if it's a first time story always state their age.

 

[dmallord]

I don't agree with every specific thing 8Letters recommends, but I think this is very helpful. 8Letters and I both write incest stories and have somewhat different approaches to them, but one thing I think we share is paying attention to what works. Writers tend to get two completely different lines of advice. One line is to read a lot and absorb what good writers do, and another is to do whatever you want. I'm more of the first camp. I think you should pay attention, read a lot, figure out what works, and then once you've developed a certain level of proficiency do your own thing. But I don't think it's helpful to tell a new writer just to do their own thing, because often they're thinking "I don't know what that is!."

A few reactions:

I like to mix up the point of view. I write some stories from first person POV, but I like to write some stories from 3d person POV as well, and when I do it's usually with a "free indirect style" that some call close 3d person where the narration is merged with the perspective of the main character. The effect is nearly the same as first person in terms of intimacy, but it has the advantage of allowing the narrator at times to reveal things that the main character might not know or perceive. Third person POV also allows you to switch points of view among characters, and depending upon the story that can be a very useful thing to do.

I avoid all special formatting. I never use italics. There's no right or wrong on this. I like to keep things simple and I'm lazy. Also, the Lit app doesn't allow for italics.

I agree with 8Letters' approach to dialogue. Use different paragraphs. Use the correct format. My impression is that 8Letters draws his dialogue out more than I do. My approach is a bit more spare and economical, but my stories tend to be somewhat shorter, too. Again, there's no right or wrong way. Do what works for you and serves your own artistic purposes.

I agree very strongly with the idea that the author should make the reader WANT the two main characters to have sex before they have sex. This makes the sex scene more satisfying. This is where the buildup comes in. By the time they have sex, the reader can hardly wait for it to happen. That's a key. If you write a story about two people having sex without getting the reader invested in the characters, it's not as interesting and not as erotic.

I don't necessarily agree about not giving the story a raunchy title. It depends on the story. My second most-viewed story is entitled "Mom Spreads Her Legs." It has over 794,000 views. But, obviously, you wouldn't want to give a romantic story a title like that one. The title should match the overall tone of the story. I fully agree that in the case of most incest stories the word "Mom" or "Sister" or the equivalent should be used.

One big difference between my stories and 8Letters' stories in terms of subject matter is that almost all of his stories concern young adults, and his incest stories are almost exclusively about siblings, whereas I tend to focus on people in middle age, because I'm middle-aged. Some readers prefer to read about young people. But there's a huge readership that enjoys the hot moms/hot wives themes, and that's what I prefer to write about. Again, there's no right or wrong here.

I don't agree with 8Letters' description of fair use under copyright law, but I'm not sure it matters much for practical purposes here at Literotica. What matters is what the Site will allow. If it gets past the Literotica gatekeeper the risk of your being sued by somebody because you wrote fanfiction is vanishingly small.

Just an observation - Lit does allow italic use. HTML tags <I> and </I> work. I use them. And I like your stories.