My short introduction and not so short thoughts and questions as a newbie writer

[Savannah_Seishun]

Hi everyone, just registered yesterday so I'm pretty much brand new here. First and foremost I have a bunch of questions about being an author, but I figured I might as well let this be my introduction too, while I'm at it.

At this point I should probably warn you that walls of text are very much my element. I will attempt to keep this relatively concise, but don't be surprised if I fail.

Without retelling my entire life story, let's just say that I'm kind of a mess, way too introverted for my own good, and I spend more time online and less time in actual real life than I should. However, even if the lifestyle itself is far from healthy, it has resulted in a lot of sexting throughout the years. I have been praised and told that I should try writing more than once, and as you can probably tell, I really enjoy writing.

The first time the idea of being an erotica author caught my interest was about a year ago, when I found a subreddit about it and started doing some research. I was pretty into it for a week or so. I worked on four different short stories, trying out different kinds of settings and scenarios, just experimenting pretty much.

I abandoned the first one because it was honestly just not good. I was happy with the third and fourth ones, but didn't finish them. I managed to finish the second story though, and I liked it quite a bit. I followed some guidelines from both Reddit and other sources, trying to learn how publishing my stories on Amazon works, just the basics, nothing fancy. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with the story, I'd like to think I'm a decent writer, but the cover and the title make me cringe just thinking about them. I can partially blame that on the templates I followed, but either way, that's not important right now.

So, I published that story, even had a few readers, which felt good. I think I made, like...$0.5 or something along those lines? I didn't stick with it and keep writing though, and while my main reasons for that mostly had to do with how I'm pretty terrible at sticking with things long-term and other mental health shit, there were some parts of it that I, well...had issues with. I'd like to ask you guys about those things today to see what your perspective looks like, regardless of whether you feel that there are alternative ways of writing that would fit me better, or those things are just part of what being an author is like, and I should just get used to it.

Now then, it's about time that I get to the point. The subreddit and other sources that I learned from put a considerable amount of focus on the monetization aspect of being an erotica author. The truth is, I didn't mind that so much. While I enjoy creativity for creativity's sake, I could definitely use some change. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm basically a shut-in mess who has struggled to make ends meet for a long time now, and knowing that my writing is something productive in my life would definitely help, even do we're just talking $3-5 a month. Things like reading fiction, watching movies, watching porn and so on, basically anything that momentarily ignores problems rather than attempting to fix them, tends to come with a constant inner dialogue of negativity that I'd rather not invite.

The problem with the "Disregard creativity, let's make some green"-approach that I learned there was that the "optimal" approach to the Amazon market seemed to be blatantly soulless, to the point of looking like a parody. It would look something like this:

1. Find a popular genre that isn't too horribly oversaturated, preferably one that you can tolerate writing in the long run. For example, let's say that your niche of choice is "Young inexperienced secretary falls for handsome dominant sadist billionaire CEO". Yes, that sounds exactly like what you think it sounds like. No, it's not a parody, just a normal example of those niche markets.

2. Keep writing very similar stories in the genre you chose. A lot of them. Practice makes perfect and you'll become a better author over time.

3. Give them hilariously generic titles that look more like search engine optimization than authorship. The example in point 1 is not a joke, they really do look like that. I think that the purpose of it is to help readers figure out at a glance whether or not your niche is the one they enjoy. It also makes it easy to follow series of short stories that continue the same narrative, which is how you find your hardcore long-term fans, aka consistent customer base.

4. Make book covers using free images that can legally be used for commercial purposes. Once you've established yourself as an author and sell enough to afford it, pay someone to make better covers for you.


At this point I'm painfully aware of how whiny and excuse-y all that sounds, but let's just say that it really didn't seem like my thing. It reminded me a lot of the summer I spent many years ago as a "Recruiter", pestering people on the streets just trying to live their lives, doing my best to pressure them into signing up for a monthly $10 donation to some vague charity cause that I personally couldn't care less about. Needless to say I couldn't stomach it for very long at all. Having an income that I personally earned felt great, but nowhere near great enough to justify the how terrible it felt to make a living by making life worse for other people.

To you, this might sound like the ego of a delusional inexperienced author thinking they're God's gift to fap fiction and generic stories are below them, but I hope and would like to think that that's not it. I just feel like I would feel like shit if I spent my days endlessly shoveling more and more generic, soulless, minimum effort, maximum monetary efficiency stories onto Amazon. I hope that makes sense.

So, what do I think that I should write? A common newbie mistake that I was warned about was the temptation to just transform all of my personal fantasies into written stories. I get that you probably have to do that to some extent in a way, in that you probably shouldn't write stories that you have zero interest in, or even would be repulsed by. Seems like the kind of thing that you learn to balance with experience.

This might sound odd, but for me, erotica, porn and just sexuality in general has slowly become more and more personal over time. I've learned that I have an admittedly pretty dysfunctional habit of being in my own head a lot. To put it bluntly, plenty of inner dialogue and not nearly enough actual action. Unsurprisingly, this led to a pretty strong interest in psychology, an urge to understand, both my own mind and people in general.

Often when I read or listen to erotic stories, watch porn or even when sexting, I think about the fantasies and scenarios, what it is about them that is arousing and attractive to me, and why that is. I find stuff like that fascinating. There's a good example that happened many years ago but still hasn't left my memory to this day. I was hanging out in a group voice chat with a couple of friends, which was pretty much a daily habit back then. Porn and masturbation habits came up as a topic, and one of my friends told us something that seemed a bit unusual to me. He would always get off in the evening right before going to bed, every day, without fail. Just a quickie, no edging, sometimes not even really much arousal. Just a daily habit that he had to do in order to be able to fall asleep. That alone probably isn't all that rare, plenty of people are habitual masturbators and do it more to soothe themselves mentally than to deal with actual horniness. The second thing he told us was more unique and much more interesting though.

Like most of that social circle, he spent most of his waking time in front of his computer, and like pretty much all of us, he had a habit of having "Background noise" on his second monitor. He would hang out in the voice chat with the rest of us, either just talking or playing games at the same time. Some people also listened to music ik the background. I personally found music distracting for some reason. I preferred playing YouTube videos on my second monitor, not really paying much attention to them at all, but it felt nice I guess. So what did this guy use as his "background noise", rather than something like music or YouTube? Porn. Specifically, lesbian porn. Most of us were surprised by that and asked him more about it. Apparently, he never really masturbated "off-schedule" so to speak, his bedtime ritual took care of that. But for some reason, a reason that none of us, himself included could figure out, he really enjoyed playing videos of women having sex on his second monitor for pretty much 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that, and even if there was, I feel like shaming is rarely if ever helpful at all. It absolutely fascinated me though. What was it in his mind, about his life, about his mindset, that made him so into watching, but not masturbating to or even getting that aroused by this? It's not like it was foreplay for the bedtime thing and he sat there with a hard-on the entire day. To him, it was just a nice thing to have in the back and barely pay attention to, like music or YouTube videos.

That was a hell of a tangent. I got a little carried away, sorry about that. My point is, even if I'm not interested in "writing for myself" and using it as some form of psychoanalytic mental masturbation, I'm still super interested in the personal, psychological aspect of it all. I have my reasons for wanting to avoid using my own interests as my main source of inspiration. As I mentioned earlier, I want this to be creative and hopefully even a tiny bit productive. I have more than enough experience when it comes to masturbation for masturbation's sake, and the self-loathing that my mind likes to couple it with. In addition to that, I want to learn to write about a variety of fantasies, scenarios and genres. I may have plenty of kinks but they're a drop in the ocean compared to all the kinks that I don't have. If I only ever write about things I'm personally into, that would leave a lot of unexplored territory.

That being said, I would still love to approach writing from this more personal, psychological angle. I've been thinking about taking suggestions and/or doing commissions. I think that it would be a lot of fun to write stories that real, individual people can enjoy and feel more personally attached to than they would to something less bespoke.

I realize that this might be a very bad idea from a monetary perspective though, especially as a beginner. If you write something with wider appeal, you get a lot of readers and potentially customers with every story. Writing something personally written to interest a single individual probably means that it's less likely to appeal to others, I imagine.

The second issue with this personalized approach is establishing myself as an author. The Amazon crowd focused a lot, and I mean a looot on that particular part. Sticking to a niche, serialized stories, mailing lists, discounted story bundles, that kind of stuff. I mean, that mentality makes a lot of sense if efficiency is your game and Amazon is your playing field, and it seems like a very effective way to build awareness of your existence as an author. That market doesn't make any sense for something more personalized though. The first thing that comes to my mind is, of course, Patreon. I can imagine for example having a basic tier that just gives people free access to all my stories and maybe letting people vote on ideas for future stories or something along those lines, and possibly doing personal commissions on a per story basis in addition to that.

The thing is, understandably, no one in their right mind would ever subscribe to that Patreon. Why would anyone ever subscribe to an author who has very little if anything at all when it comes to experience and reputation alike. That simply wouldn't work.

So, what I'm thinking right now is that I'll probably just start writing and publishing submitting stories for free here on Literotica for now, just to get started with writing again, practicing and improving. Maybe let people suggest stuff for free if they like my work. Then focusing on actually making any money off of it all in the future, if I both manage to stick to the habit of writing consistently, and actually turn out to be pretty good at it.

All my rambling thoughts aside though, I'm still basically very new to all this, I have no idea whether or not all this makes sense, for all I know, I may be completely off the mark here. If you managed to get through my wall of text, I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions or advice that you have, anything is appreciated.

 

[SimonDoom]

Here's the deal. The odds of making substantial money from writing erotica are against you. The market is totally saturated and there are a gazillions of people (like me) who publish erotica for free.

It's not impossible. But it's highly improbable. If you need to make money, this probably isn't the best way to do it.

So figure out what you want to accomplish with your erotica writing, and just do it. Do it first, and then fret about it afterward. Publish a story and then solicit feedback about it on the Feedback Forum. Or try to get readers of your story before you publish it. To do that, I recommend doing your research and finding authors you like and reaching out to them rather than posting open-ended requests for help.

 

[SamScribble]

Pretty much what Simon says.

For almost 60 years, I have paid the grocer and the wine merchant with my pen. I have had a few successful books and a number of successful plays. But, for the past few years, most of my income has come from story-telling in support of other endeavours.

I have re-written reports for global business consultancies, turning mumbo-jumbo into must-read stories. I have written web content for a leading global architectural firm. And I have written a number of ‘plain English guides’ for an international aid organisation. In between, I have written several hundred opinion pieces. And each of those gigs has paid proper money.

If you want to write erotica, by all means, go ahead. Have fun. But if you want to make proper money, write for people who expect to have to pay for it.

Good luck,

 

[KeithD]

So, what I'm thinking right now is that I'll probably just start writing and publishing submitting stories for free here on Literotica for now, just to get started with writing again, practicing and improving. Maybe let people suggest stuff for free if they like my work. Then focusing on actually making any money off of it all in the future, if I both manage to stick to the habit of writing consistently, and actually turn out to be pretty good at it.

This is a good approach. And it could lead to making some pocket change, although it can be awarding even if it doesn't get to that level.

 

[NaomiDPlumm]

I think it was said by Herb to Les on the television show 'WKRP': "There's a reason why it's called 'Top-40.'"

Yeah, it's popular, but that doesn't mean its any good. Who sells more burgers, your local steak restaurant or McDs? Who has the better product? Literotica offers something tangible to a new author by offering 32 Quadrillion stories for free. Under a different user name I had quite a few posted here.

I didn't write because I thought I could do better than anyone on the best seller list, I wrote because I didn't see anything like what I wanted to read. I don't buy into the crap we have all been taught since we were young. Especially all of the phony anti-sexuality in society. I didn't set out to write FAP, just real stories about real people and real situations that didn't whitewash or edit the sexual elements out.

My works didn't go into the big cauldrons of Incest Taboo and Loving Wives because that wasn't what they were. They were I was told, hard to categorize, with elements of every category except science fiction and non-human making at least a cameo. They didn't get big readership, but they got what I thought were good numbers. In order 4.21 4.23 4.36 4.52 4.44 4.50 4.47 4.48 4.58 and 4.64 for the first ten.

Then people who didn't appreciate "different" got involved. They complained about the story placement an nit-picked rules and guidelines. Two sisters made out once in a ten page story, and it gets moved to Incest Taboo. (Where the readers all wonder why it's there.) Or worse "swinging" gets moved to Misogyny Central, oops, I meant Loving Wives, because the participants were married. Stories with any male on male activity were savaged.

Then a writer from ^Key West^ suggested actually publishing a few in the marketplace. (Thanks.)

I'm happy with what I have in print. I think the stories are unique. Money changes hands, they are steady but not "best sellers." When I figure the time and effort involved it doesn't actually "pay" to write. But my husband and I enjoy reading them together. And it's like having an alarm on your house, people who want to attack and savage your work won't pay $0.50 apiece to do so when they can savage free stories so easily elsewhere.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've published close on a million words here on Lit over five years, and I've turned maybe 250,000 of those words into books for sale, and so far I've sold... ooo, $100 worth of books and... not made a cent in profit. But I've got some pretty covers.

Unless you have high volumes of content and keep turning it out (and some here do) the odds of even paying for coffee are zero. Preparing a book for publication is a lot of effort and takes a lot of time - the return on your hourly effort from erotica would at best be cents. That's assuming you have content in the first place.

 

[lovecraft68]

The only way to make some money in selling erotica is to find a niche you're good at and have a steady flow of content because its what have you done for me lately and you're as good-or bad-as your last book.

I make an average of $1000 a month give or take, which isn't bad, but I've been at it for 10 years with close to 170 unique e-books(and a handful of collections)

Also most of my money is made with taboo material which can't be sold on every platform, the other decent seller is Milf material.

I have several more serious efforts blending horror and erotica and if I'm lucky they're 10% of that monthly total, and that's what I not only put a lot more effort into writing wise, but also invested in with editing cover design, paying for spaces at cons to sell the paperbacks in person

In other words, some money can be made, but you need to be committed to putting the work and time in, and being able to keep doing it.

Write, format, find cover, publish.

Repeat repeat...repeat.

 

[PennameWombat]

I've published close on a million words here on Lit over five years, and I've turned maybe 250,000 of those words into books for sale, and so far I've sold... ooo, $100 worth of books and... not made a cent in profit. But I've got some pretty covers.

Unless you have high volumes of content and keep turning it out (and some here do) the odds of even paying for coffee are zero. Preparing a book for publication is a lot of effort and takes a lot of time - the return on your hourly effort from erotica would at best be cents. That's assuming you have content in the first place.

To the OP and the first point here. It’s widely debated who first said it, but established authors all seem to agree on “your first million words don’t count” or “your first million words will suck” or something similar. I’ve also seen that sentiment in writer’s groups and on sites where pro authors hang out such as Quora and more.

So. So long as your first million words are gonna suck… have some fun with them. I sometimes cringe when I look at the very first stories I published here, not because of my plots, but well, the writing is kinda clumsy. That doesn’t mean some of my later stories aren’t the same. But I can, sometimes, see the improvement in my writing (if not always my ideas ) And, I’ve received some nice comments and some good ratings. Some bad ones too, but all in all, it’s been quite positive.

As to the second point, and others made on this thread, I’m not a ‘pro,’ in that I’ve never sold fiction, erotica or not. But to the grind point, I’m acquainted with a woman who self-publishes (mainly) ‘cozy mysteries’ (focus on the mystery/crime solving, blood and guts offscreen, not erotica), about 40,000-50,000 words each ‘book.’ She publishes like a metronome and even with that doesn’t make close to a living. But her writing pays for itself and her husband works full time. But it’s a definite grind. But as her catalog has grown, she picks up more from that over time. But it didn’t seem like she felt she’d ever become wealthy off the writing. (She’s also a pro editor for other authors, which adds to her income. Her day is, send kids to school, split time writing her stuff and editing for others (she hires/barters with someone else to edit her stuff), kids get home, dinner, sometimes writing in evening after they’re in bed. Every day.)

I… don’t work that way

I see some of that here. I pick up followers with contest entries or (less so) any other release. If I check stats in between, I add but it’s much slower. My old stories pick up views and the odd favorite or vote, but it’s definitely more pronounced with a new release.

 

[KeithD]

TIt’s widely debated who first said it, but established authors all seem to agree on “your first million words don’t count” or “your first million words will suck” or something similar. I’ve also seen that sentiment in writer’s groups and on sites where pro authors hang out such as Quora and more.

Guess they had never heard of Harper Lee.

Sorry, that's bunk. A million words is upwards of eleven novels.

 

[LAHomedog]

To the OP and the first point here. It’s widely debated who first said it, but established authors all seem to agree on “your first million words don’t count” or “your first million words will suck”

I don't agree with this at all. I buy Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour to perfect, but a million words, nope.

 

[PennameWombat]

Guess they had never heard of Harper Lee.

Sorry, that's bunk. A million words is upwards of eleven novels.

I don't agree with this at all. I buy Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour to perfect, but a million words, nope.

There’s no more or less science behind the million words as there is Gladwell’s 10,000 hours (plenty of info ‘debunking’ or at least debating this). They’re both generalisations that capture the ethos ‘practice makes perfect.’ And there’s nothing that says the words have to be novels. It’s writing. Anywhere. It’s the intent and effort.

But to the OP. If you take my earlier statement too strongly… sorry. Relax. Write. Have fun at it. Think about what you’ve written, what you’re writing. But. Do it with some intent. Push yourself now and again. Experiment. Don’t take advice from randos on the internet too seriously.

As I understand it, Lee’s first book she’d written was actually To Set a Watchman, but it was knocked back by editors/publishers and she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird over the next three years. So not the million words but the 10,000 hours as that’s not exactly fast.

There are plenty of authors whose first novels were massive hits or even became classics, like Lee’s. Catcher in the Rye and The Martian are a couple. And we can’t forget 50 Shades… (even if we want to.) But neither Salinger nor Weir just sat down and those books were the first words that emerged, both spent years on those works. James on the other hand…

 

[KeithD]

Ah, sweeping generalizations. That and ten cents can get you a dime.

I think most don't have a clue what a million words represents. I do. If you ain't got it long before the equivalent of eleven novels, you ain't gonna get it.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As I understand it, Lee’s first book she’d written was actually To Set a Watchman, but it was knocked back by editors/publishers and she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird over the next three years. So not the million words but the 10,000 hours as that’s not exactly fast.

By my understanding, she'd also written several essays and sub-novel-length stories before hitting publication success. Without knowing the details of that earlier, unpublished work, I don't think any of us are in a position to know whether she did or didn't have a million words under her belt before To Kill A Mockingbird.

 

[KeithD]

By my understanding, she'd also written several essays and sub-novel-length stories before hitting publication success. Without knowing the details of that earlier, unpublished work, I don't think any of us are in a position to know whether she did or didn't have a million words under her belt before To Kill A Mockingbird.

We don't even know if she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The strong rumor out there forever is that Truman Capote wrote it or had as much to do with the writing of it as she did.

When you've written a million words, though, you know how much has gone into that. It isn't just several essays and some subnovel-length stories. My goal is to write half a million published words a year, and I've come close every year for the last decade or more. It's been one hell of a lot of writing, though. An average of nearly 1,400 usable words every single day of the year.

 

[NaomiDPlumm]

Guess they had never heard of Harper Lee.

Sorry, that's bunk. A million words is upwards of eleven novels.

Sod's Law: 80% of everything is crap. Ergo 80% of most writers first million words are crap (and so is 80% of their next million). But you and Harper Lee's are in the 20% that isn't crap.

 

[KeithD]

Sod's Law: 80% of everything is crap. Ergo 80% of most writers first million words are crap (and so is 80% of their next million). But you and Harper Lee's are in the 20% that isn't crap.

I'm not claiming the latter, but I think the former (Sod's Law) is highly speculative bunk.

 

[SimonDoom]

We don't even know if she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. The strong rumor out there forever is that Truman Capote wrote it or had as much to do with the writing of it as she did.

When you've written a million words, though, you know how much has gone into that. It isn't just several essays and some subnovel-length stories. My goal is to write half a million published words a year, and I've come close every year for the last decade or more. It's been one hell of a lot of writing, though.

I'm curious why this is your goal. I assume by this you include your free Literotica stories, so you're not making a substantial amount of money. I estimate that I've written a little under 600,000 words in my 39 Literotica stories over 4 1/2 years, but that's just a half-assed guess. Point being you're writing almost that much every single year and that sounds punishing. It's very impressive but it's hard for me to imagine doing that much unless someone was paying me a lot of money. That has yet to transpire. Do you enjoy the act of writing that much or is it more satisfaction in achieving the goal? Or is there some other purpose, like continuing to hone your skills so you can achieve a writing project you have in mind?

I have no idea whether the "one million words/10,000 hours" concepts have any truth to them, although I would guess that most successful writers HAVE tons of experience writing before they write their best stuff.

I'm sure I'm way, way over one million words if I add all my academic and professional writing to my fiction writing, but I'm not sure if that counts.

 

[KeithD]

I'm curious why this is your goal. I assume by this you include your free Literotica stories, so you're not making a substantial amount of money.

It's nice to still have goals as your life winds down. I think if I stopped having a few goals I can attain, I'd wither up and stroke out (earlier than I probably will anyway). This is one that keeps me cooking along. And, no, your assumption isn't true. Nearly everything I'm posting to Literotica now was published to the paying marketplace three or four years ago and included in that year's production figures. Even the ones I post here first (mainly contest stories) get included in later for-pay anthologies. And, yes, I made/make money off of it--nearly all of it (no, not much individually). And I don't self-publish. Those too are goals. I'm compelled to write and did so professionally through two careers. So, I write. That's pretty much all I do anymore. But, no, I don't write for free--even on what's published to Literotica. If I wasn't making money off the writing I'd go back to professional editing for mainstream publishers--in that world, except for a few authors, the editors are making more off their books than they are.

Anyone who doubts that much can be written and published--accepted by publishers who pay for it--in a year can go up to the Literotica Authors Books sticky at the top of the AH and trace through over the last decade and more who/what book launchings have been covered. And for me, that's only the slice of the erotica I'll own up to and none of the mainstream I also write/publish (not self-publish).

 

[SimonDoom]

It's nice to still have goals as your life winds down. I think if I stopped having a few goals I can attain, I'd wither up and stroke out (earlier than I probably will anyway). This is one that keeps me cooking along. And, no, your assumption isn't true. Nearly everything I'm posting to Literotica now was published to the paying marketplace three or four years ago and included in that year's production figures. Even the ones I post here first (mainly contest stories) get included in later for-pay anthologies. And, yes, I made/make money off of it--nearly all of it (no, not much individually). And I don't self-publish. Those too are goals. I'm compelled to write and did so professionally through two careers. So, I write. That's pretty much all I do anymore. But, no, I don't write for free--even on what's published to Literotica. If I wasn't making money off the writing I'd go back to professional editing for mainstream publishers--in that world, except for a few authors, the editors are making more off their books than they are.

Anyone who doubts that much can be written and published in a year can go up to the Literotica Authors Books sticky at the top of the AH and trace through over the last decade and more who/what book launchings have been covered. And for me, that's only the slice of the erotica I'll own up to and none of the mainstream I also write/publish (not self-publish).

I think it's great. It's impressive. If I was that disciplined I'd have the 40+ unfinished stories that have been cooking around in my brain for the last few years done by now, easily. And, circling back to the OP's original questions, it's a good example of why as an author you should set whatever goals work for you and satisfy your needs and desires and not worry too much about what other people think authors should do.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I have no idea whether the "one million words/10,000 hours" concepts have any truth to them, although I would guess that most successful writers HAVE tons of experience writing before they write their best stuff.

I'm sure I'm way, way over one million words if I add all my academic and professional writing to my fiction writing, but I'm not sure if that counts.

Never having read To Kill A Mockingbird (I know, shoot me - but it wasn't a set book in Oz when I as in high school) I always think of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 as the example of an outstanding first novel. His next one was 22 years later, but with reputation made, who really needed a follow up?

I do think all of your career professional writing does help, in that presumably you've learned to hang a coherent sentence together before you picked up your erotica quill. I know I could parse a sentence before I met Suzie .

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm curious why this is your goal. I assume by this you include your free Literotica stories, so you're not making a substantial amount of money. I estimate that I've written a little under 600,000 words in my 39 Literotica stories over 4 1/2 years, but that's just a half-assed guess. Point being you're writing almost that much every single year and that sounds punishing. It's very impressive but it's hard for me to imagine doing that much unless someone was paying me a lot of money. That has yet to transpire. Do you enjoy the act of writing that much or is it more satisfaction in achieving the goal? Or is there some other purpose, like continuing to hone your skills so you can achieve a writing project you have in mind?

I have no idea whether the "one million words/10,000 hours" concepts have any truth to them, although I would guess that most successful writers HAVE tons of experience writing before they write their best stuff.

I'm sure I'm way, way over one million words if I add all my academic and professional writing to my fiction writing, but I'm not sure if that counts.

Because he's obsessed with quantity and bragging about said quantity. Watch his posts, he can never answer a question without adding "I" and the long list of things he's working on.

Everyone writes for different reasons, his is attention and validation because despite all the claims of greatness and success, he has to constantly remind everyone of his countless stories and output...meaning he's reminding himself.

As my first Sensei told me back in my teens. "Show me someone who brags and I'll show you someone who wishes he had something to brag about." In other words, just do what you do, let others give you credit, don't give it to yourself.

Snarky reply? No, just the truth which is seen as snark these days because the truth is "mean"

 

[lovecraft68]

Just going by my 'catalog" I'm guessing I'm done 2-3 million words, but never added it up. The one series I did was my first series SWB here. but published as Broken was a hair of 900k.

But I think the million words 10k hours thing-to me-is just a stat someone came up with to make things sound harder than they are, many have struck gold on a first novel as has been pointed out.

Its like stats here, kind of sadly meaningless once you break down all the BS that can go with them and how every story is subjective and there are endless variables that blow it up or sink it.

But people need to fluff themselves, so x-amount of hours and words etc must mean they're great in someone's eyes. I think that type is also the kind of guy who would feel compelled to tell someone how big their dick is in a PM.

Yes, talking about someone here who needed to share that with me.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Hell, after the first million words, I quit counting.

As for the OP, do what you want, write what you want. The big boon of erotic writing was about eleven years ago. Then Amazon put the breaks on indy writers of erotica and the market became flooded with nonsense.

Anyway, welcome to the nut house. And good luck.

And as for why many other are here, I write what I would like to read and I write for myself. If others like my stuff, great, if they don't, their loss.

 

[PennameWombat]

Never having read To Kill A Mockingbird (I know, shoot me - but it wasn't a set book in Oz when I as in high school) I always think of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 as the example of an outstanding first novel. His next one was 22 years later, but with reputation made, who really needed a follow up?

I do think all of your career professional writing does help, in that presumably you've learned to hang a coherent sentence together before you picked up your erotica quill. I know I could parse a sentence before I met Suzie .

Well, this has all been fun

No worries on that. I never had to read To Kill a Mockingbird in my schooling either, and I grew up in the US, and simply picked it up having heard so much. To tell the truth I’ve never been overly impressed with it (whoever actually wrote it… ) No, I’m not saying I’d do better (hey, I’m here and don’t have a room in my house where I have my money piled up from my bestsellers.)

But to my initial point, bunk or not. Heller’s Catch 22 (1961) was indeed his first novel and to say it’s a classic is an understatement. But. He had multiple degrees in the arts (BA, Masters, Fulbright Scholarship) and had been a published short story author since 1948 or so and taught at Penn State University and was a copywriter for magazines and spent a decade+ writing Catch 22 through the 1950s.

He did not simply sit down, having never written before, and Catch 22 came out. And, after that, he did some screenplays and other work before more novels. That he wasn’t widely known at the time wasn’t because he’d never written anything. Same, it turns out, with Harper Lee. Maybe neither had written the million words, but they’d ‘written.’

We can (and certainly are) argue if it’s a million words, or ten thousand words, or three hundred thousand and five hundred and twenty two words, or whatever. There will be prodigies, and yes, at some point it might become clear you (no, not you specifically Electric, but the generic you) can’t write (hell, maybe some of you think I fit in this category) but look, the point is that you do have to put in some work. The saying I posted is indeed a generalisation. But it’s still valid to the degree you need to put in some work with intent to achieve.

But. I spent decades of my life Not Writing because I was busy Doing Other Things. I wish I’d pushed myself Then, clearly like certain others here did. But, alas. All I can do is what I can do now.

And I have zero assumption that if I hit the million words (I don’t count them) I’ll suddenly be Stephen King or whomever. Nope. I just hope that I incrementally improve somehow as I go along.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hi everyone, just registered yesterday so I'm pretty much brand new here. ........

First up, welcome to Literotica - you've already got a lot of responses, great start, and a long rambling post is a great way to introduce yourself

.......Like I mentioned earlier, I'm basically a shut-in mess who has struggled to make ends meet for a long time now, and knowing that my writing is something productive in my life would definitely help, even do we're just talking $3-5 a month. .....I just feel like I would feel like shit if I spent my days endlessly shoveling more and more generic, soulless, minimum effort, maximum monetary efficiency stories onto Amazon. I hope that makes sense.

So, what do I think that I should write? A common newbie mistake that I was warned about was the temptation to just transform all of my personal fantasies into written stories. I get that you probably have to do that to some extent in a way, in that you probably shouldn't write stories that you have zero interest in, or even would be repulsed by. Seems like the kind of thing that you learn to balance with experience.

.....I realize that this might be a very bad idea from a monetary perspective though, especially as a beginner. If you write something with wider appeal, you get a lot of readers and potentially customers with every story. Writing something personally written to interest a single individual probably means that it's less likely to appeal to others, I imagine.

Yeah, well, Amazon is flooded with all that generic crap, I've browsed some of it myself and most of it isn't even remotely erotic. 90% of it is badly written garbage, and formulaic, as you say, with clickbait titles. That's a losing game that just turns most readers off, and seriously, it won't make you much money. You might make a few bucks here and there, but it'll be chump change, and what are you going to get from that, personally. Not a whole lot, because it's pretty soul-destroying to write mindless crap for a few cents an hour. Why bother. If its more money you want, you'd make more working minimum wage in a fast food outlet or Walmart or something.

Add to that that if you're not invested in a story, it shows in the writing. You can write formulaic crap, that's easy, but its also obvious to readers what you're doing, and you lose them. Really, even readers of jerk-off material want at least a semblance on an intelligent story to go with the jerk-off content, and if its not there they're unlikely to come back for another helping.

Not only that, you have to write something that interests you, or you're going to lose interest, so yeah, it's a balance, but its one you have to figure out for yourself. There's no formula for success in writing, other than a good story and skill with words. You can have formulaic plots and and character arcs and all the other stuff they teach in creative writing, but in the end it boils down to telling a good story that makes readers want to turn to the next page, and the next, and the next, until oh crap, I finished! Is there another book by this author?

.The second issue with this personalized approach is establishing myself as an author. The Amazon crowd focused a lot, and I mean a looot on that particular part. Sticking to a niche, serialized stories, mailing lists, discounted story bundles, that kind of stuff. I mean, that mentality makes a lot of sense if efficiency is your game and Amazon is your playing field, and it seems like a very effective way to build awareness of your existence as an author. That market doesn't make any sense for something more personalized though. The first thing that comes to my mind is, of course, Patreon. .......

You could probably count the authors that make anything other than chump change on Patreon on the fingers of one hand. It's a waste of time for the money you'll make. Don't even bother. And as for the Amazon crowd, yeah, you see that stuff all the time, and again, its a tough game to play, and things like that have their place and their use, but first you have to actually get enough written to make it worthwhile doing. Biggest market is women's romances - and they have all this stuff down pat. It's a huge market - so if $'s are your thing, look at that genre, and within that genre there are so many niche markets, all of them huge. Far bigger than erotica as defined on Amazon. Again, hard market to crack, you're writing to formula - because there are very definite expectations from readers, but it can be fun if you're interested. Most authors, even in romance, do it on the side because you ain't going to make a living from it.

.So, what I'm thinking right now is that I'll probably just start writing and publishing submitting stories for free here on Literotica for now, just to get started with writing again, practicing and improving. Maybe let people suggest stuff for free if they like my work. Then focusing on actually making any money off of it all in the future, if I both manage to stick to the habit of writing consistently, and actually turn out to be pretty good at it.

Sounds like a good plan to me - and if readers like you're stories, you'll get suggestions, but honestly, just go with what floats your boat. Everyone writes better when it's something they're interested in, so find story ideas that you WANT to write about. Better yet, that you HAVE to write about. The best ones are the ones where that story just pours out without much thought, because its there, in your head, and all it needs is for you to write it out... and work on all the little things. Like dialog. So many people fuck up on dialog, and manage to make it sound so artificial that it throws the reader out of the story. And bra sizes. DO NOT do bra sizes, ever. LOL. Penis length is of course, fine. rotflmao.

.All my rambling thoughts aside though, I'm still basically very new to all this, I have no idea whether or not all this makes sense, for all I know, I may be completely off the mark here. If you managed to get through my wall of text, I'd love to hear any comments, suggestions or advice that you have, anything is appreciated.

Oh yeah, it all makes sense. I think most of us have been there. I certainly was, and I started writing on Literotica as a way to get experience, write for a live audience, see how it went, and for me, it's been a great experience. I started writing here in 2015, I've had a lot of fun, got a lot of experience, got approached by a couple of small e-book publishers, and I have one e-book published and more coming out this year, a bit behind what I'd intended because last year was a bit fucked up, writing-wise, for obvious reasons, but for me its working, and my first e-book is still selling steadily after three years, which is pretty cool.

So I'd say, just go with writing on Literotica, you have a huge audience here, see how your stories go, get that experience, see what works, get clear in your mind about what your goals are and where you want to go with your writing and start working towards that.