What do your stories try to do?

[AchtungNight]

For the most part, I try to write stories that make people laugh, but comedy is one of the hardest genres to write in. While many of my comedic stories have done well (except those in Incest Taboo, where the readers don't seem to appreciate attempts to make them laugh), paradoxically my sad stories have done better on the site in Romance, First Time and Lesbian Sex.

Crud, I may have trouble in that category. Oh well, I still will be posting more Shapiro and Coleman sister stories. Just give me time.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

when I write a story, my purpose is to titillate. I write pure jack off material with a bit of piss off the BTB crowd.

An author recently asked me to read a story. It was well written, but I was trying to figure out what he was trying to accomplish. To me it was just a description of something that happened. To me, It read like a news story.

what are your goals for your stories? Make someone feel something? titilate? chronicle an event?

The three E's. Emotion, Entertainment, Erection.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Just had this discussion with another author the other day. Here's a snippet:

I have been fighting my dysphoria since I was six and it has been hard. Sadly, I will never get to live my dream. That time has past for me.
Most of what I write is me trying to deal with all the angst. As a result, my universe is a Pollyanna world full of love and hope, compassion and understanding. It's a place were acceptance runs like a river and happy endings happen all the time. All things in much too short supply in our real world today.

===
So I guess, I write to exorcise some personal demons and to spread a little positivity in a part of our society that sorely needs it these days.

Almost sounds like me, and kinda why I write a lot of romance, given my failures in that field.

 

[Tanuki]

I started writing on Lit because I read some stories by Sharon Green (Mind Guest and the Terrelian series) about strong female characters from the modern/future world who get into non consensual situations on barbaric worlds.

I loved them and wanted more, but couldn’t find anything like those books. So I decided to write my own. They also didn’t go far enough in the sexual content (being mainstream books) so I wanted to flesh that out as well.

Once I started getting lots of Lit feedback that also guided me as well.

 

[ronde]

I have several reasons for what and how I write, but always I'm attempting to draw the reader in to the story enough they can paint their own picture of what's happening. I don't write for the purpose of arousing a reader. I write sex into my stories if and when it seems to naturally follow the plot and the personalities of the characters.

Some of my stories are based on personal experiences. Some are more of the "what might have been if I'd..." type. Some are historical because I love history. Others are just an idea I had that wouldn't stop.

 

[StillStunned]

I write strokers for my wife's entertainment. I write adventure stories for my own. And the weird ones just seem to happen by themself.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

In much of what I write for Lit, my goal is to portray Sex For The Rest Of Us.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Sex For The Rest Of Us.

Is that the zombie show with Pedro Pascal?

Em

 

[Stimtheone]

I make stories to give hope, grant smiles, suggest deep thought and break from the norm. They have lewd content only because I do not believe in a real life being without it.

 

[Zanzie]

My stories try to get written. Alas, they haven't quite managed it yet.

 

[HordHolm]

I want to get inside my characters and make their actions relate to believable motivations, and believable obstacles. Kitchen sink erotica, if you will.

 

[mpeters]

Do you ever write wish-fulfillment stories that turn out the way you'd want your life to be?

This is what almost all of my stories are... except for the one I just submitted. It's pure fantasy, my fantasies in written form.

I hope that my readers find them enjoyable, and get turned on (and hey, if they pleasure themselves while reading them, even better). I think that anyone who reads the seven stories currently published of mine will probably get to know me in ways that the people in my life don't know at all, to be honest, although that's not my primary goal.

The main character in these stories is a modified version of me in most ways, although I have changed elements of the main character's background. Some of the characters in the stories are completely made up, others are a combination of real-life people, but it's all fiction from beginning to end.

As a writer, it's a nice break for me to write this erotica, to be honest, because it is so completely different for what I'm working on that I hope to be professionally published some day. Sometimes this stuff flows easier, sometimes it takes longer to get it written (I think the story I just submitted took me nearly two months to write, and it's only about 50 pages), although holidays may have been a factor.

Honestly, it's just nice to see the reactions and know people are enjoying my writing!

 

[Omenainen]

I write to sort out my emotional baggage.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Mainly, my goal is to try to entertain and hopefully amuse the readers.

Though, occasionally, I'll give them a little nudge. In my latest story, 'A Perfect Christmas,' I drew attention to the fact that after the pandemic a lot of people surrendered the pets they'd gotten to keep them company, to animal shelters. I thought if even a few readers adopted a pet from a shelter, instead of buying one from a pet shop, that it might help to alleviate the problem of overcrowding at the pounds, at least a little.

I've done something similar in other stories, too. Thankfully, the readers don't seem to mind. I also think it makes the characters seem more real, that they seem to care about more than just themselves.

 

[Devinter]

For the readers, I write to make them feel something. Arousal. Happiness. Amusement. Motivation. Sadness. Grief. Anger. Maybe even inspiration, in a few cases.

For myself, it is mostly for the challenge. That's why I enter almost every event. Even the stories I write outside of events generally tend to have some sort of 'challenge goal' in my head. How perverted can I make a story and still make it a love story? How sad can I make a story and still get a reader to finish it? How niche of a fetish can I throw in and still get people to engage with it? I also take on a lot of reader requests. Especially if what they ask for is something weird.

Writing about fetishes I do not possess myself for example requires additional effort and research, but it's surprisingly fun. Or basing a story on some ridiculous premise and yet trying hard to make it seem plausible. Sometimes it doesn't work out, however. For example, I tried writing a story from the perspective of the house cat, watching a couple get frisky and thus forgetting to feed the poor creature, making it incredibly angry. But it turns out that using a cat as a narrator is harder than it sounds. So that one is temporarily shelved.

 

[KachinaDoll]

I write what I like to read. Er... that's it.

 

[davion2308]

Years ago I'd write just to get a sexy scene and something to turn people on.

Recently, I'm trying to set up realistic, believable scenarios with characters that ring true to readers. I'm honing my craft where the dialogue sounds realistic, the situation seems plausible, and the sex is that much better because the reader now roots for (or against) the MCs.

I'm trying to write to tell my story but in a way that it'll click with readers. My stories are trying to resonate and be accepted as 'real.'

 

[Wriggle]

I want my stories to take the reader to worlds they haven't lived, but also simultaneously remind them of themselves. .

 

[Candy_Kane54]

Foreigner did a song titled "I Want to Know What Love Is." My stories try to define it in its many forms. I draw strongly from I Corinthians 13:4-8 in my stories.

 

[oneagainst]

Curiosity. Coming up with characters, creating situations, and firing the starting gun. Sometimes it's a hundred metre sprint (that's 109 yards in the US, or 219 cubits in ancient Egypt) to the finishing line, sometimes it's an overland trail run through the woods to some very singular places. Offering the chance to step outside the day-to-day into another world, however weird, however much graphic woodworking occurs there.

 

[AchtungNight]

Mainly, my goal is to try to entertain and hopefully amuse the readers.

Though, occasionally, I'll give them a little nudge. In my latest story, 'A Perfect Christmas,' I drew attention to the fact that after the pandemic a lot of people surrendered the pets they'd gotten to keep them company, to animal shelters. I thought if even a few readers adopted a pet from a shelter, instead of buying one from a pet shop, that it might help to alleviate the problem of overcrowding at the pounds, at least a little.

I've done something similar in other stories, too. Thankfully, the readers don't seem to mind. I also think it makes the characters seem more real, that they seem to care about more than just themselves.

I’ve done similar things with public service announcements about women into martial arts (beware, sexual assault offenders!), unscrupulous sexual bullies (of both genders), and fun facts about celebrities. Especially the latter- I try to research my subjects heavily and incorporate true facts about them as well as my personal spin. I do have an Illuminati type secret society directed by a Faerie Alien hybrid genie in play for extreme disbelief suspension, plus a vivid imagination, but I incorporate realistic scenarios when possible.

I also enjoy giving socially awkward characters action- it’s a nice fantasy and helps me write from the heart. Yes, said characters can include celebrities!

Devinter- my ex had one of our cats hiding under the bed without us knowing once when we hooked up. We used to joke with each other about what the cat thought about what they witnessed. Your story idea sounds similar. Might not be acceptable to Lit, so it may be a good call not to post it here. Interesting idea, however.

 

[jhealy55]

The stories I post here all have a similar goal. A while back I started to understand that like any other sense we have, our capacity for excitement can become jaded. For most people that means we have to amp up the physical sensation to trigger the same response level we had when we first got hooked on whatever it is that gave us our favorite experiences.

So they are looking for a more desirable partner, a kinkier situation, a hotter pepper, a higher stakes game, a bigger wave or a taller mountain. At some point, I realized that everything I really wanted was back the other way. It was about resetting my perception about the simplest experiences to a point where I could recapture the same level of intensity. I feel like I'm still struggling to do that.

At what point does it feel silly to have characters all wound up about a simple kiss, a peek down a woman's blouse, finally getting to second base, etc? In most settings, I feel like most of us have just gotten to a point where all that is just texture leading up to a much bigger payoff with a more intense act. So I've been looking for settings where the simplest acts are imbued with a higher degree of anticipation, awkwardness, risk, shame, submission, sensation and significance.

I tried a concept where a long-married couple from a traditional background started venturing into exhibitionism and submission as a way to capture the intensity of those threshold moments where we are well outside our comfort zone and wide open to every aspect of the experience. It felt like it had to quickly progress to something much kinkier very quickly to avoid getting stale.

During COVID I had a lot more time to write and realized for most people, they would be locked into a tight group of very familiar people and have a limited ability to travel, meet new people or try things for the first time. So the brother/sister thing suddenly became very interesting because while it definitely added a new dimension of kink, it also made for a setting where even the smallest feelings of attraction, or acts of intimacy became supercharged with an intensity that most standard relationships don't.

While it did work on a lot of levels, I'm not sure what most readers in that genre are really after. Many of the suggestions, comments and requests felt like they were just way outside any place that I imagined my characters going. Most of what I'm after is happening between my characters ears rather than between their legs.

So that lane has sort of stalled out for me. I'm working another story idea that has a fish out of water element that feels promising, but finding that it doesn't write itself as easily as the brother\sister thing. Not sure there's another premise that is so inherently charged with potential threshold moments to push the characters through.

Interested in other writers who are chasing a similar element in their work. What they've learned, found and abandoned along the way.

 

[Euphony]

While it did work on a lot of levels, I'm not sure what most readers in that genre are really after. Many of the suggestions, comments and requests felt like they were just way outside any place that I imagined my characters going. Most of what I'm after is happening between my characters ears rather than between their legs.

Standard advice here is write your story. It is hard enough to render what we want to the page, it's herculean trying to write well to someone else's spec. Your time and emotional investment are always greater than the readers and you should honor that.

Also worth mentioning, the voices who pipe up aren't necessarily a cross section of your readers. Just as negative product experiences get more reviews than satisfied customers busy enjoying your product and their lives, so too are Lit interactions.

It's worth considering if you really aren't finding your audience or if you audience is likely composed of those quiet voices as opposed to a loud minority.

Can't know for sure but if you swim more counter current you swim to category expectations, it's a real possibility.

 

[AchtungNight]

Your inner writer and characters' voices should be the strongest ones. Consider the critics' arguments, but if your preferred story is better than theirs, or at least more pleasing to you and your fans, let that vision be what you write. Good luck.

 

[jhealy55]

It's funny how often you see comments suggesting something you've already written as you are working a few chapters ahead, but I've never let the comments guide the work. I feel like I always know where I'm going, even at those times when I am still looking for the best route to get there. I've had characters surprise me along the way and bend the arc in some unexpected ways, but the comments are more about, 'did they get it?', than 'did I go where the audience wanted?'.

I'm frankly terrible at writing for others. Just can't get motivated if it's not somewhere that I really want to go.

Think it just makes you wonder if you are connecting the way you hoped or if you've set up shop where your intended audience is most likely to find you.