Here I am, suis generis in yet another category. My best story is my first. They get less substantive as they move on. Well, "almost" suis generis. I guess there is the known phenomenon of authors that only had one book in them.
I think there's a difference between "polished or accomplished" and "best story". For many writers, their first story is probably the result of years of rumination and dreaming before the actual writing takes place. It's also probably the story they have a strong desire to tell, otherwise they wouldn't have taken the leap from dreaming about it to actually writing and publishing it. These factors together can make for a powerful story, without the writer necessarily understanding why it works.
My first story is actually my "worst". Its my inner carnal perverse desires that actually no one else likes. Plus its badly written. The idea is amazing. BUT i've learnt from it. I have used parts of it better in other stories.
My dear @EmmAgain,I do very much want to write for my readers - if I’m ever fortunate to have any- as I truly believe most would be thrilled to be immersed in the parts of my life I want to share. I’ve traveled, I’ve had incredible sexual experiences, I’ve lived through an incredibly strange family dynamic. (Hi Mom!
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But at this stage I just don’t have the literary talent. I don’t know how to breathe written life into all my terabytes of images and videos and memories. And with a baby on the way, I don’t see that changing this year or next.
Thank you for taking the time to compose such a helpful, informative reply.
I appreciate your very generous welcome to a wide-eyed newbie to the world of personal writing. I’m tentative about this whole project - and also very pressed for time in my ‘real’ life - but understand that these things are best tackled in bite-sized chunks. I have a keen and talented volunteer editor. Now I just need to feed her!
Not true. I only thought of publishing some time (weeks) after writing my first story. I didn't even know how to publish. Didn't know sites like Literotica existed. It took some guts to actually do it. I wrote because the fantasy was overwhelming and I wanted to preserve it in the best words possible. All subsequent stories followed that path, except I didn't need pluck to publish.
Go for it. You'll be extremely popular. As for writing for the reader, a discerning one wants it to read something between a diary entry, observational, and a formal story.Thank you for taking the time to compose such a helpful, informative reply.
Thank you for the very sensible advice and encouragement!
Agree with this statement on a number of levels. The plotting and imagining is the most fun. The tweaking, revising, editing the most tedious for me. And as nerve-wracking as it can be, since you never know, is the release. Will they like the character (for me the most important element)? The plot? Execution? Anyway back on topic, are there any real negative reasons to write?I haven't replied to this yet because I was thinking about it on and off for days!
There are a number of things in my life (writing erotica is now one of them) that I do because seeing other people enjoy and appreciate something that I made happen makes me feel wonderful.
I host board game parties with friends, not because I crave the social interaction (I'm highly introverted) but because watching them have fun feels good!
I volunteer for community events sometimes because watching my community come together for something collectively experienced is as close as I get to religion.
The process of writing is enjoyable for me, mostly in the thinking/imagining/plotting process. But if I was only doing it for myself, I wouldn't bother writing all of it down or tweaking and revising and refining. Turning those ideas into a finished whole that I hope other people will be excited by and engage with is what makes me finish it
But surely you wanted your subsequent stories to be read, why else did you publish them? and for a story to be read, there must be readers. You may not have started out writing for an audience with your first story, but afterwards, in subsequent stories, didn't part of you consider them? Only you can know this, of course. I should not have said all authors because there are always exceptions and you may be one of them I don't believe there are many folk like you. Best wishes
Sure, I'd like for them to be read. Hoping to find like minded people, just because that's a human thing. But I wrote them for the same reasons I wrote the first one. No thought at all about the readership.
@BeautyInTheStruggle,
I began writing because before we married, my husband was a seafarer. We were apart for months at a time, and ships are usually without internet or telephone connections for weeks at a time, so letter writing remained a major part of our lives. Over time, the letters became longer and more explicit until I began writing lengthy stories with detailed descriptions of places, feelings and of course, the sex acts we were both focused on.
