Advice for New(-ish) Authors

[yowser]

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

- Eric Arthur Blair

That's actually an Orwell quote from his essay ‘Politics and The English Language' in 1945.

 

[crookedletter]

I have to add this:

10. Read. Be a reader. If you want to be a writer, be a reader. If you want to write erotic stories, then read erotic stories, read them closely, figure out what you like, and figure out WHY you like what you like. And then learn from that. I guarantee you this is a far more useful way to become a writer than to take advice from other writers in the abstract. You learn by doing, and by paying attention to what you are doing. It's like learning to play baseball. You don't interview baseball players; you watch others playing baseball, and then you play baseball, and you learn by practice.

I came here to say this.

 

[crookedletter]

That's actually an Orwell quote from his essay ‘Politics and The English Language' in 1945.

Orwell is Blair's pen name.

 

[iwatchus]

Tropes are popular for a reason. Avoiding them in traditionally published literature is the prevailing advice but here on Literotica, I would be willing to bet that they're what a decent chunk of the readership is after. Obviously write what you want to write here, but if you just want to write something tropey and fun, go for it. There's a decent chance people will read and like it, especially if you do it well. Tropey stories that are well-written are rarer than you think, so there's plenty of opportunity if you want to dive into that pool.

@iwatchus This is a great resource! I read through it this morning and you've hit on most of the major pain points in AH, so good job!

The only caveat I would have added would be an addendum to AI. When you said:

I would add specifically for writing and for image creation. Literotica's own AI guidelines and the Illustrated Stories guidelines make no mention of gen AI images but all of what is said there can and should apply to using AI to create "art" as well. AI-generated images are "created" in the same way AI-generated stories are; they steal from actual human creators and should have no place on a website that explicitly calls out its dedication to human creativity.

I will put this into a list of edits thanks

 

[yowser]

Orwell is Blair's pen name.

Thank you!

 

[SimonDoom]

good points. I was thinking of me the reader and not the author when I posted that

Which is perfectly fair, but not applicable to all readers, or all writers, all of the time.

I have different moods as a reader and writer. Sometimes I like to read a Literotica story with a bit more "literary heft," if you will, and sometimes I want a story that's just pure kinky indulgence. There's room for all types here, AND you can "succeed" as an author by doing both.

 

[Statius]

Here's something I struggle with. I recently asked a friend advice on a paragraph that on the surface was just fine, but it didn't sit right, so I asked. They said to break it up into 2 or 3 smaller ones. For 4 days I've struggled with it, realizing they were right, it needed to be redone I just couldn't figure out how. Then it hit me; I have this 35 word paragraph that says everything I want it to say, but why? I just figured out I can probably say what I want to say in 3 sentences, it just needs rewording.

So I would say learn when to reduce your words and when to elaborate. There's a need and time for both things, but for a new writer it's tricky knowing which, and when.

For the record, I struggle with this and probably always will.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Some of these things have been touched on but my 2 cents...


There is room here at Lit for just about any kind of story. If you want to write a stroker, write a stroker. If you want a long complex story that intertwines sex with economic modalities in the middle American colonies circa 1760, write it.
Tell YOUR story.

This is supposed to be fun. Write stories and post them. If you obsess over views, scores, comments and the rest you will just make yourself miserable.

If you want to improve, find someone who will give you honest feedback. That means hearing things you don't want to hear.
As Kurt Vonnegut said, "A true friend stabs you in the front."

 

[EmilyMiller]

That's actually an Orwell quote from his essay ‘Politics and The English Language' in 1945.

Eric Arthur Blair was Orwell’s real name. George Orwell was a pen name.

The Orwell is a river in Suffolk (an English county I have visited) where he used to sail. He chose George after St. George.

 

[StillStunned]

Eric Arthur Blair was Orwell’s real name. George Orwell was a pen name.

The whiteness of the paper seemed to smirk a challenge at him. Eric took up the pen. His trusty pen, that had been with him in Paris and Madrid. Almost he could imagine it grin at him, as if to say, "Don't worry Eric, I've got this! You can trust your pal George!"

 

[SmilingLez]

Don't let other people's opinion influence your subject matter. If you are inspired to go dark/dystopian, follow that rabbit hole. Don't let ratings and/or negative comments from jackholes discourage you. Oh, edit before submitting - typos, spelling errors and grammatical errors take away from the beauty of your words. If you don't want to write "strokers", literotica has a non erotic section for both poetry and stories. Lastly, don't be surprised if your stories/poems end up in pending purgatory.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

1. Tell YOUR tale.

How best to do this will differ depending upon the audience you want to target. There are many here who believe that there is a singular audience on Literotica consisting of people interested only in getting sexually aroused. False, false, false.

Knowing that you have a more diverse audience allows you to structure your tale as you feel comfortable telling it. If you want to tell the story about the first sexual encounter of a couple, you don't have to necessarily go into graphic details about how tab A fit into slot B. There's nothing wrong with doing that, but you could still have a strong audience and receive positive feedback if you focused more on the anticipation and fears of the characters, or the romantic aspects of their experience together. Stories with PG-13 and R ratings coexist here with all the X-rated stories just fine.

2. Don't reject everything "AI". There are several ways that resources based on artificial intelligence can be brought to bear to assist with getting your ideas from your head, though your hands, and onto a computer screen. One recommendation I frequently offer is the use of voice-to-text features in applications such as MS Word that allow you to dictate your words and convert them into text. There is likely a notes taking application on your cell phone that will also do this. You are not using AI to compose your story, which is verboten, you are using it to convert your own words. Spellcheck and grammar checking resources are also allowed as long as you don't allow them to materially alter the content of the story to the point where it no longer reflects your human style and intent.

3. Be patient. It is tempting to push out the first pieces of a story as soon as it is written to see what people think of it. However, doing so takes most of the control of the story away from the author. You can no longer go back easily and make changes that later content in the story would benefit from. You've already committed yourself and tied your hands to a large degree. Finish the entire story before posting any part of it. The other advantages to this approach are that it can minimize rejections. Context counts more than content where rejections are concerned. Content in the beginning of the story that could trigger a suspected rules violation can often be accepted once the admin is able to view the content in the context of the entire story. Likewise, with suspicion of the use of generative AI to write the story, these decisions are frequently based upon what percentage of the story is suspect. We don't know what the threshold is on Literotica, but by submitting more of the story at a time, any portion that is suspect will likely become a lower percentage of the total.

4. Reverse the process. Voice-to-text can be a handy resource to help you convey your thoughts while writing. Text-to-speech is even more valuable when the time comes to edit your story. Listening to what you have written will point out mistakes that your eyes are blind to.

 

[crookedletter]

As Kurt Vonnegut said, "A true friend stabs you in the front."

I thought that was an Oscar Wilde?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I thought that was an Oscar Wilde?

I stand corrected, thanks!

 

[EmilyMiller]

What advice would you give people just starting out?

Write.

It’s as simple as that. What you write may at first be naive and clunky, but finish something, and publish it. That puts you in an exclusive club. Then write another. At this point you’ve done better than all the people here with just one story.

Keep writing. It’s useful to read other authors here, and to read mainstream fiction, but there is no substitute for writing. You get better by writing.

Don’t write what you think people might like, write what you like. You’re doing this for you, not as a career decision. If you aren’t passionate about the subject or characters, it will come across as flat lifeless writing.

If you begin to get comfortable in what you do, challenge yourself. Write a longer story, write a shorter story. Write from a different gender’s POV. Write a character that you have to do some research about.

Try different narration and tense approaches. What can you do differently with each.

But mostly keep writing.

 

[StillStunned]

Take it slow. Don't be in a rush to get through the story. It's about the journey, not the destination. Write like you're on an old steam train travelling through the mountains. Or it's a lazy Sunday morning and you're making love to your partner. Take your time. Explore, savour, cherish. Let the anticipation build - the climax will be the better for it.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Another piece of advice I'd give: Play

What do I mean? There are TONS of ways to publish here on lit. A wide range of story categories, Poetry (of various types), audio...and they are all so different (not to mention the choice between erotic and non-erotic all over the place). Play with things, test them out, even if you never hit publish, just play around and see which parts of the playground stick out.

I didn't think I'd enjoy writing poetry as much as I do. I'm back to my earliest poetry days wanting to do a series of sonnets just because it seems like a fun challenge. Acrostics are my "let's just do something silly" activity. Do they get the best ratings? Nah. But it was playing around with the Halloween Contest (something I originally didn't think I was going to go anywhere near) that made me realize how much fun I was having with poetry in general.

Also, and this dovetails with some of the other advice: If you're like me and get migraines or other issues that make your eyes blurry, wait on hitting publish or get someone else to take a quick look first. This way, you don't end up forgetting an "o" when you're writing "too" because you were waffling between "too" and "so" or putting "writing" instead of "writhing" (both things I recently did in the same night while I was playing around when I probably should have been giving my eyes a rest or at least pulling things out of the lit editor and into 20 point font or something.

And it seems to me at least that the shorter your work is the more likely someone is to notice this and tell you about it in your comments. I've taken to just putting in an edit and thanking them for noticing (and hoping Laurel doesn't hate me for the edits). Do I know if that's the right way to do it? Nah. I could just wait until the edit goes through and then delete the comment as no longer relevant. But I'd rather my readers see me as the sort of person who owns my mistakes. Why? No clue. And that's the best part - you don't have to have a perfect reason for it. Stay true to yourself throughout the whole process and that's the best reason you can have.

 

[iwatchus]

Another piece of advice I'd give: Play

Another way to play -- write something in humor. I made one foray into there, kind of on a dare, and it was a blast. It will almost certainly end up my lowest rated story, but it was fun to write.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Another way to play -- write something in humor. I made one foray into there, kind of on a dare, and it was a blast. It will almost certainly end up my lowest rated story, but it was fun to write.

One of these days, I'll be funny enough to pull that off! It's on my list, though. Humor, Parody - they are just ways to figure out what you're going to enjoy the most. And unless you're doing this for money (and from some authors I know, they'd say even IF you're doing this for money) enjoying it the most really is the goal.

 

[alohadave]

Another piece of advice I'd give: Play

I wrote an experimental piece in 750 words that I am really happy with.

Made with no quotes, so dialog is inferred from the context.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

I wrote an experimental piece in 750 words that I am really happy with.

Made with no quotes, so dialog is inferred from the context.

I feel like this is a great challenge for playing with, too. I wrote one already and intend to play with some more, messing with genres and the like. It will cost me 750 words (okay, more challenging for me than you'd think), but is just such a fun format. It's also where I'm going to mess around with POV - I've never tried 2nd person POV (in a story) so that's where I'm going to give it a go I think (as well as in my poetry).

 

[Statius]

I love throwing humor in my stories, someday I'll write a comedy, but right now my darker side needs to get out, so writing a bit edgier these days.

 

[Statius]

Another piece of advice I'd give: Play

What do I mean? There are TONS of ways to publish here on lit. A wide range of story categories, Poetry (of various types), audio...and they are all so different (not to mention the choice between erotic and non-erotic all over the place). Play with things, test them out, even if you never hit publish, just play around and see which parts of the playground stick out.

I didn't think I'd enjoy writing poetry as much as I do. I'm back to my earliest poetry days wanting to do a series of sonnets just because it seems like a fun challenge. Acrostics are my "let's just do something silly" activity. Do they get the best ratings? Nah. But it was playing around with the Halloween Contest (something I originally didn't think I was going to go anywhere near) that made me realize how much fun I was having with poetry in general.

Also, and this dovetails with some of the other advice: If you're like me and get migraines or other issues that make your eyes blurry, wait on hitting publish or get someone else to take a quick look first. This way, you don't end up forgetting an "o" when you're writing "too" because you were waffling between "too" and "so" or putting "writing" instead of "writhing" (both things I recently did in the same night while I was playing around when I probably should have been giving my eyes a rest or at least pulling things out of the lit editor and into 20 point font or something.

And it seems to me at least that the shorter your work is the more likely someone is to notice this and tell you about it in your comments. I've taken to just putting in an edit and thanking them for noticing (and hoping Laurel doesn't hate me for the edits). Do I know if that's the right way to do it? Nah. I could just wait until the edit goes through and then delete the comment as no longer relevant. But I'd rather my readers see me as the sort of person who owns my mistakes. Why? No clue. And that's the best part - you don't have to have a perfect reason for it. Stay true to yourself throughout the whole process and that's the best reason you can have.

My longer works (single stories) are my most popular. My most read work is 11 Lit pages.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

My longer works (single stories) are my most popular. My most read work is 11 Lit pages.

So many lit pages....All in one story?

 

[MillieDynamite]

Keep an even keel on your work and your ego. Don't let negative comments bring you too far down, nor positive ones take you too high up. There's always going to be people wanting to torpedo you and others who want to build you up. However, you should remain yourself when either one offers their two cents' worth.