Not the normal - what is your best story? - thread

[redgarters]

Title: When the Dark Dresses Lightly

Category: Lesbian Sex

Year published: 2024

Words: 17.8k

Basic premise: Abi struggles with perpetual winter darkness and grief in a small Norwegian fishing town north of the Arctic Circle, where she lives alone with her unusually large cat, Ulf. When Kristin moves into the house next door, unexpected feelings surface.

Themes: Grief, solitude, romance, friendship, love. That there's always light in the darkness, but sometimes it might take an effort to allow it to find you.

Motivation: When the Dark Dresses Lightly was the first lesbian slow burn romance I wrote, and the purpose was mostly to see if I could write a story like that, with the emphasis on actual feelings, and not just a stroker. I was almost exclusively reading those kinds of stories here on Lit at that point, and inspired by Onehitwanda's wonderful writing, I just started with a sentence one night and it went on from there. No big plan.

Why is it your best story: There's a number of things I feel I got right in it. The characters voices are well defined and their backstories are full enough without being forced. The twin darkness of the winter and of Abi's soul lends the story an emotional weight. I think the setting in Arctic Norway is well written into it - it's a country I know well personally, and the same goes for the Arctic darkness. The erotic elements develop naturally within the romantic story, and perhaps mostly, I have read it through many times after I published it and I don't find new things every time that I wish I'd done differently or need fixing, like I do with most of my other stories.

Anything else we should know about it: If you are going to read just one of my stories, I recommend this one.

 

[BryanRichardson]

Title: When the Dark Dresses Lightly

Category: Lesbian Sex

Year published: 2024

Words: 17.8k

Basic premise: Abi struggles with perpetual winter darkness and grief in a small Norwegian fishing town north of the Arctic Circle, where she lives alone with her unusually large cat, Ulf. When Kristin moves into the house next door, unexpected feelings surface.

Themes: Grief, solitude, romance, friendship, love. That there's always light in the darkness, but sometimes it might take an effort to allow it to find you.

Motivation: When the Dark Dresses Lightly was the first lesbian slow burn romance I wrote, and the purpose was mostly to see if I could write a story like that, with the emphasis on actual feelings, and not just a stroker. I was almost exclusively reading those kinds of stories here on Lit at that point, and inspired by Onehitwanda's wonderful writing, I just started with a sentence one night and it went on from there. No big plan.

Why is it your best story: There's a number of things I feel I got right in it. The characters voices are well defined and their backstories are full enough without being forced. The twin darkness of the winter and of Abi's soul lends the story an emotional weight. I think the setting in Arctic Norway is well written into it - it's a country I know well personally, and the same goes for the Arctic darkness. The erotic elements develop naturally within the romantic story, and perhaps mostly, I have read it through many times after I published it and I don't find new things every time that I wish I'd done differently or need fixing, like I do with most of my other stories.

Anything else we should know about it: If you are going to read just one of my stories, I recommend this one.

Oh, I loved this one!

 

[Soixenta]

It hasn't taken long for me to write a new "best" story!

Lightskirt

Category: Erotic Couplings

Year published: Just the other day

Words: 6.1k

Basic premise: Our narrator is enjoying the sunshine in a flimsy skirt, when she's accosted by a puritanical zealot. He and his henchwoman decide to drive the sin out of her, but she turns the tables on them.

Themes: Sometimes a silly premise is all you want to write and/or read.

Motivation: I wrote this for the Summer Lovin' 2025 contest. The initial vision was of our narrator being accosted by a stern stranger (hence the reference to the audiobook she's listening to: "The Overly Familiar Stranger"), and being spanked and teased until hot sex ensues. But the story took its own direction.

Why is it your best story: For a start, it has more than one character (my only other story is an exhibitionist story with no dialogue).

Anything else we should know about it: I was astonished that it received 10,000 views in less than 72 hours!

 

[big_cane_sugar]

It hasn't taken long for me to write a new "best" story!

Lightskirt

Category: Erotic Couplings

Year published: Just the other day

Words: 6.1k

Basic premise: Our narrator is enjoying the sunshine in a flimsy skirt, when she's accosted by a puritanical zealot. He and his henchwoman decide to drive the sin out of her, but she turns the tables on them.

Themes: Sometimes a silly premise is all you want to write and/or read.

Motivation: I wrote this for the Summer Lovin' 2025 contest. The initial vision was of our narrator being accosted by a stern stranger (hence the reference to the audiobook she's listening to: "The Overly Familiar Stranger", and being spanked and teased until hot sex ensues. But the story took its own direction.

Why is it your best story: For a start, it has more than one character (my only other story is an exhibitionist story with no dialogue).

Anything else we should know about it: I was astonished that it received 10,000 views in less than 72 hours!

I left a comment for you there but I'll repeat the basic idea here:

Wow.

 

[SophieUK]

It hasn't taken long for me to write a new "best" story!

Lightskirt

Category: Erotic Couplings

Year published: Just the other day

Words: 6.1k

Basic premise: Our narrator is enjoying the sunshine in a flimsy skirt, when she's accosted by a puritanical zealot. He and his henchwoman decide to drive the sin out of her, but she turns the tables on them.

Themes: Sometimes a silly premise is all you want to write and/or read.

Motivation: I wrote this for the Summer Lovin' 2025 contest. The initial vision was of our narrator being accosted by a stern stranger (hence the reference to the audiobook she's listening to: "The Overly Familiar Stranger", and being spanked and teased until hot sex ensues. But the story took its own direction.

Why is it your best story: For a start, it has more than one character (my only other story is an exhibitionist story with no dialogue).

Anything else we should know about it: I was astonished that it received 10,000 views in less than 72 hours!

Nice story!

 

[big_cane_sugar]

Title: When the Dark Dresses Lightly

Category: Lesbian Sex

Year published: 2024

Words: 17.8k

Basic premise: Abi struggles with perpetual winter darkness and grief in a small Norwegian fishing town north of the Arctic Circle, where she lives alone with her unusually large cat, Ulf. When Kristin moves into the house next door, unexpected feelings surface.

Themes: Grief, solitude, romance, friendship, love. That there's always light in the darkness, but sometimes it might take an effort to allow it to find you.

Motivation: When the Dark Dresses Lightly was the first lesbian slow burn romance I wrote, and the purpose was mostly to see if I could write a story like that, with the emphasis on actual feelings, and not just a stroker. I was almost exclusively reading those kinds of stories here on Lit at that point, and inspired by Onehitwanda's wonderful writing, I just started with a sentence one night and it went on from there. No big plan.

Why is it your best story: There's a number of things I feel I got right in it. The characters voices are well defined and their backstories are full enough without being forced. The twin darkness of the winter and of Abi's soul lends the story an emotional weight. I think the setting in Arctic Norway is well written into it - it's a country I know well personally, and the same goes for the Arctic darkness. The erotic elements develop naturally within the romantic story, and perhaps mostly, I have read it through many times after I published it and I don't find new things every time that I wish I'd done differently or need fixing, like I do with most of my other stories.

Anything else we should know about it: If you are going to read just one of my stories, I recommend this one.

Also wow.

I'm going to have to take this thread seriously lol

 

[Soixenta]

I left a comment for you there but I'll repeat the basic idea here:

Wow.

Nice story!

Thank you both!

 

[EmilyMiller]

It hasn't taken long for me to write a new "best" story!

Lightskirt

Category: Erotic Couplings

Year published: Just the other day

Words: 6.1k

Basic premise: Our narrator is enjoying the sunshine in a flimsy skirt, when she's accosted by a puritanical zealot. He and his henchwoman decide to drive the sin out of her, but she turns the tables on them.

Themes: Sometimes a silly premise is all you want to write and/or read.

Motivation: I wrote this for the Summer Lovin' 2025 contest. The initial vision was of our narrator being accosted by a stern stranger (hence the reference to the audiobook she's listening to: "The Overly Familiar Stranger", and being spanked and teased until hot sex ensues. But the story took its own direction.

Why is it your best story: For a start, it has more than one character (my only other story is an exhibitionist story with no dialogue).

Anything else we should know about it: I was astonished that it received 10,000 views in less than 72 hours!

Having read it, good choice

 

[EmilyMiller]

Thank you all for taking the time to explain your work. Between this and Summer Lovin’ that’s a lot of stuff to read!

 

[onehitwanda]

...Herotica?

You bastard. I love it

 

[yowser]

...Herotica?

Susie Bright edited a lesbian anthology back in 1995 called Totally Herotica, followed by maybe a half-dozen followups (Herotica 2, 3 etc.)

Ambitious and motivated writers might benefit from another work of hers: How to Write a Dirty Story: Reading, Writing, and Publishing Erotica.

 

[redgarters]

Oh, I loved this one!

Thank you

 

[onehitwanda]

Thank you

You should be proud of it, it's a fantastic work.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Tales From Old Shanghai - Never Ending Love

Category: First Time

Year published: 2019

Words: approx 100k (29 Lit pages)

Basic premise: Old Shanghai was a place and time where morality was irrelevant. Missionaries declared that if God permitted Shanghai to exist, he owed an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah. Greed was its driving force. Anything and everything was for sale in that Old Shanghai. This then is the world in which this Tale is set. This is the world in which Han Chuntao, a young Chinese schoolgirl, struggles to survive. It is a world of opportunity, hope, depravity, lust, perverted desires, blatant racism and prejudice, immorality and decadence. It is a world in which everything has its price. A world where everything, anything and anyone could be bought or sold. A world in which a penniless refugee could become a multi-millionaire. A world in which a well-brought up schoolgirl from a wealthy Chinese family could become a sought-after whore. A world where everything and anything was a commodity, a world where corruption and betrayal were everyday occurrences. A world where life was cheap and morality had no place. A world where nobody cared if you lived or died.

Themes: Love - it's a love story set in the Shanghai of a century ago

Motivation: I wrote it as a tear-jerker of a love story for the 2019 Valentine's Day competition and it worked for me. Writing this was a labor of love. I'd always wanted to write a story set in Shanghai and that vision of the old Shanghai from the 1930's really captures my imagination. What I wanted to do was recreate at least a little something of that city of the past and its people.

Why is it your best story: I cried right thru writing this story and I still cry every time I re-read it.

Anything else we should know about it: I'm redoing it to self publish and it's expanded a little to about 3 times the original length.

 

[redgarters]

You should be proud of it, it's a fantastic work.

Thank you so much. For both the inspiration of your beautiful stories and for your kind words.
I am proud of it. I sometimes look at the things I'm writing now and ask myself where that easy flow has gone.

 

[onehitwanda]

I sometimes look at the things I'm writing now and ask myself where that easy flow has gone.

To every thing there is a season.

 

[ElvieG]

Story: Enkantos

Category: Erotic Horror

Year published: March 2025

Words: About 7,200.

Basic premise: Angry, frightened, and slightly unhinged nurse gets sent to the Boonies where she encounters the creature that she daydreamed about in her teens.

Themes: I wanted to portray the Manananggal in a positive light.

Why is it your best story: Because the other two I have on here are worse

Motivation: I wanted to write this story because I was that nurse, and I spent four pointless months in that village. I would probably have died there if it weren't for the kindness of the local policewoman, who was the only responsible adult in the village.

Anything else we should know about it:

It took me well over a year to write this story because I kept diving down rabbit holes, adding more characters and subplots until the story became so confusing that I couldn't follow it from beginning to end myself. Late one evening, I made an editing mistake and wiped out several months' worth of writing. I'd already rewritten parts of it several times, and I was bored with the story, so I abandoned it for a few weeks. When I looked at it again, I decided that it was far too long and some of it was getting very close to subjects that aren't permissible on Lit, so I reduced it from around twelve thousand words to just over seven and posted it the same night before I was tempted to start altering things again.

 

[Statius]

Story: Enkantos

Category: Erotic Horror

Year published: March 2025

Words: About 7,200.

Basic premise: Angry, frightened, and slightly unhinged nurse gets sent to the Boonies where she encounters the creature that she daydreamed about in her teens.

Themes: I wanted to portray the Manananggal in a positive light.

Why is it your best story: Because the other two I have on here are worse

Motivation: I wanted to write this story because I was that nurse, and I spent four pointless months in that village. I would probably have died there if it weren't for the kindness of the local policewoman, who was the only responsible adult in the village.

Anything else we should know about it:

It took me well over a year to write this story because I kept diving down rabbit holes, adding more characters and subplots until the story became so confusing that I couldn't follow it from beginning to end myself. Late one evening I made an editing mistake and wiped out several months' worth of writing. I'd already rewritten parts of it several times, and I was already bored with the story so I abandoned it for a few weeks. When I looked at it again, I decided that it was far too long and some of it was getting very close to subjects that aren't permissible on Lit, so I reduced it from around twelve thousand words to just over seven and posted it the same night before I was tempted to start altering things again.

Sometimes those mistakes are the best. I have a story I absolutely love, not because it's my best, but because it has my best character and concept. When I wrote the original I deleted the beginning 5 times. But now I am going the opposite direction than you. I am rewriting the whole thing and expanding it into a novel. Some stories need to be short, some long, only you can make that decision, well you and the story, ha! Funny how the stories sometimes decide themselves isn't it? I don't normally do erotic horror but yours sounds interesting, looking forward to reading it.

 

[Statius]

Tales From Old Shanghai - Never Ending Love

Category: First Time

Year published: 2019

Words: approx 100k (29 Lit pages)

Basic premise: Old Shanghai was a place and time where morality was irrelevant. Missionaries declared that if God permitted Shanghai to exist, he owed an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah. Greed was its driving force. Anything and everything was for sale in that Old Shanghai. This then is the world in which this Tale is set. This is the world in which Han Chuntao, a young Chinese schoolgirl, struggles to survive. It is a world of opportunity, hope, depravity, lust, perverted desires, blatant racism and prejudice, immorality and decadence. It is a world in which everything has its price. A world where everything, anything and anyone could be bought or sold. A world in which a penniless refugee could become a multi-millionaire. A world in which a well-brought up schoolgirl from a wealthy Chinese family could become a sought-after whore. A world where everything and anything was a commodity, a world where corruption and betrayal were everyday occurrences. A world where life was cheap and morality had no place. A world where nobody cared if you lived or died.

Themes: Love - it's a love story set in the Shanghai of a century ago

Motivation: I wrote it as a tear-jerker of a love story for the 2019 Valentine's Day competition and it worked for me. Writing this was a labor of love. I'd always wanted to write a story set in Shanghai and that vision of the old Shanghai from the 1930's really captures my imagination. What I wanted to do was recreate at least a little something of that city of the past and its people.

Why is it your best story: I cried right thru writing this story and I still cry every time I re-read it.

Anything else we should know about it: I'm redoing it to self publish and it's expanded a little to about 3 times the original length.

View attachment 2559321

I plan on reading this as well, looks like my type of story. Just gotta find time. I love a good love story.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

Ok, I’ll bite:

May the Best Lover Win

Category: Erotic Couplings (Don’t make fun..)

Year published: 2023

Words: 13k

Basic premise: Coworkers competing for the affections of same woman; one is a straight male, the other a bi woman, who presents as gay because it’s less complicated for her. He’s that handsome, shallow guy that girls love to hate.

Themes: the story is told simultaneously from both MC’s perspective, back and forth chronologically. Set in a idillic tropical beachside bar, which admittedly is cliche, but nonetheless makes me smile. Both characters go through a transformation as things progress.

Motivation: Nothing grand to declare here. it just kinda rolled out of me, gradually though. I worked on it forever. The story’s location is near and dear to me though.

Why is it your best story: ‘Twas hardest thing I’ve ever written, that is, sounding authentic in the voice of a bi-woman. Plus the mechanics seeing of the same event from two viewpoints made my head spin at times.

Anything else we should know about it: After asking nicely, some Lit members were very helpful for me in shaping the afore mentioned woman’s thoughts and attitudes.

 

[Voboy]

I sometimes look at the things I'm writing now and ask myself where that easy flow has gone.

SO relatable.

 

[bestkeptsecret678]

I cried right thru writing this story and I still cry every time I re-read it.

Someone once told me that tears are our body’s way of telling us that something is really important.

Reading your comment prompts me to admit that I sometimes get misty-eyed reading a passage from something I previously wrote, which I felt really hit a bullseye. I feel weird about it when it happens, and hope nobody’s looking, but love it at the same time.