Sussing out where to go with an idea.

[jaykaythree]

It could have fit into the Spillane contest, but I was working on other ideas at the time that contest was announced, and I won't rush it through simply for the sake of the contest (no offense to Chloe or others). But the idea is of a film noir-type story. I think I might go with Non-erotic, as I haven't (at present) established anything sexual.

Setting: Joliet, Illinois, 1937 (as well as flashback scenes; one is in 1953). A PI is presented a case of a murdered husband; more, I will not reveal.

I wonder if NE is the right direction ... in my previous five stories, I did not ask for a beta reader for ideas on placement of a completed work, so this would be (in its way) a First Time -- whaddya know about that. And I am never going within a mile of LW; that place is a right viper pit.

Thank you for hearing me out,
Jay

 

[rescatooor]

It could have fit into the Spillane contest, but I was working on other ideas at the time that contest was announced, and I won't rush it through simply for the sake of the contest (no offense to Chloe or others).

Just a quick note: it's just an event, not a contest. So you don't need to beat yourself for missing out because you may have had a "winning idea" at this point.

Other than that, I can't really comment on the success of non-erotic stories as I have never posted anything there. Some of my stories have had barely any sex in it, sometimes with the characters merely thinking about sex without too great detail and they've done alright (but not great) in the other categories regardless.

I don't know much about noir either outside of the realm of film. I find it a tricky genre, if you can even call it genre, in literature.

 

[KeithD]

Can't determine with this would be nonerotic or not from what was given. No sex or sexual arousal? That would be nonerotic.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It could have fit into the Spillane contest, but I was working on other ideas at the time that contest was announced, and I won't rush it through simply for the sake of the contest (no offense to Chloe or others). But the idea is of a film noir-type story. I think I might go with Non-erotic, as I haven't (at present) established anything sexual.

Setting: Joliet, Illinois, 1937 (as well as flashback scenes; one is in 1953). A PI is presented a case of a murdered husband; more, I will not reveal.

I wonder if NE is the right direction ... in my previous five stories, I did not ask for a beta reader for ideas on placement of a completed work, so this would be (in its way) a First Time -- whaddya know about that. And I am never going within a mile of LW; that place is a right viper pit.

Thank you for hearing me out,
Jay

Generally Non-Erotic has no explicit sexual content. One story I have in there is about a break-up. Romance readers usually dislike that kind of thing and will complain (they can be a bit arrogant) that it should have gone elsewhere.

First-time, obviously, is about one or more people losing their virginity, or at least engaging in their first sex act of any kind. For your story, it would depend on how prominent the event is in the plot.

 

[jaykaythree]

OK, so NE ... maybe my instincts can be right after all.

As to the portrayal of the detective, I'm going for a Dana Andrews kind of feel, like his role in The Best Years Of Our Lives.

 

[jaykaythree]

Oh, and that bit about FT? Totally tongue in cheek.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I went with non-erotic on my posting in the event. The reason was there were three sex scenes and only about 2500 to 3000 words out of 25,700 words in the story. I guess I defined it differently than the rest of you guys. It isn't a sex story, it's a story with some sex. Though I think the sex is somewhat erotic.

 

[rescatooor]

I went with non-erotic on my posting in the event. The reason was there were three sex scenes and only about 2500 to 3000 words out of 25,700 words in the story. I guess I defined it differently than the rest of you guys. It isn't a sex story, it's a story with some sex. Though I think the sex is somewhat erotic.

Sometimes there is very little sex in stories, but often it doesn't really matter as long as the story surrounding it is good. Quality over quantity.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Sometimes there is very little sex in stories, but often it doesn't really matter as long as the story surrounding it is good. Quality over quantity.

I'm pretty happy with my scores, last I checked it was a 4.5 and my father said for a long time it was between 4.6 and 4.8 only falling the last day to the 4.5 mark. I didn't expect that since most of my stories are filled with fucking. I mean sex.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'm pretty happy with my scores, last I checked it was a 4.5 and my father said for a long time it was between 4.6 and 4.8 only falling the last day to the 4.5 mark. I didn't expect that since most of my stories are filled with fucking. I mean sex.

You don't need wall to wall sex for it to be popular. I've got a story below that for ten Lit pages, nothing sexual happens. Then the last three...

It's in romance and floats around 4.8.

For JayKay, there's always an opportunity for sex of some sort. The PI goes to a strip club, or gets involved with a femme fatale...

Or just leave it out. It's up to you.

Good luck and happy writing.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I went with non-erotic on my posting in the event. The reason was there were three sex scenes and only about 2500 to 3000 words out of 25,700 words in the story. I guess I defined it differently than the rest of you guys. It isn't a sex story, it's a story with some sex. Though I think the sex is somewhat erotic.

That's an interesting conundrum. My tactic would have been to break it into a series; I have a bad habit of starting them without a clear goal in mind. Then I would have put various chapters in different categories - also a dubious habit. But 2,500 to 4,000 words is typical for a stand-alone story by me.

 

[MillieDynamite]

originally, when I started, there were no chapters at all. I wrote it in a few weeks. Then filed it away unhappy with it. I dragged it out and went through it, and remembered I hadn't ended the story. So, I wrote the ending, then went back and rewrote the whole thing.

 

[gunhilltrain]

originally, when I started, there were no chapters at all. I wrote it in a few weeks. Then filed it away unhappy with it. I dragged it out and went through it, and remembered I hadn't ended the story. So, I wrote the ending, then went back and rewrote the whole thing.

I find it hard to read long texts on-line as opposed to reading it in print. I'm not sure why that is. Thus, it would be unlikely for me to publish 25,000 words in one installment, but that's my own preference. I did have a series that had about 14,000 words. It was episodic, so it was easy to break it into nine chapters, I think.

 

[Bodington]

Ideas

Most of my submissions have been in the Novels and Novellas category as I love writing a long thorough story. One of my greatest inspirations is the 19th Century British author Anthony Trollope. I don’t pretend to be in his caliber of writing talent as I surely am aware his literary production will still endure whereas my efforts will disappear when Literotica either ceases to exist or starts to delete what I’ve submitted. What impresses me most about Trollope is that he had a day job to wit as a post master for the UK Post Office, and that was his major source of income during his lifetime. To be able to work a full time job plus write novels, he set a regimen of how many hours in the week he could devote to writing his novels and a goal of who much writing i.e. how many words he could produce in the time he had allotted for writing.

In this vein, I’m mindful that the technical definition of a novel is a work of fiction exceeding 100K words. With that in mind using the Trollope example, I establish in my mind how long each chapter will be and therefore the minimum amount of chapters I need to fulfill the definition of a novel. Having set such an outline the ideas to fill the plot line seems easy to appear to my mind and I easily reach the 100K words threshold, and mostly go well beyond it.

I found it surprisingly easy to create two of my longest efforts, each reaching beyond 300K words, from a simple limited starting idea. In ‘Mothers and Daughters’ my idea was to portray the trials and tribulations of a teenage female getting pregnant at thirteen years of age and becoming a mother without resorting to an abortion or giving up her child for adoption. After two chapters I resolved to incorporate other women who become pregnant under peculiar circumstances, and tie their story line with the initial protagonist, and in turn fit in with my proposed title. Thus, there is the story of a prostitute who becomes pregnant as her bid to normalcy. Another woman is a single mother who has no clue between two men as to the identity of who is the sire of her daughter. Yet another single mother who marshals her daughter’s upbringing and talent into becoming a celebrated entertainer.

For ‘Vivian Laaning’ my idea premise for my story stems from Thomas Harding’s 19th century novel of Tess of the d’Urbervilles. I first encountered this novel in my high school English class when we studied this novel. At that tender age, I was under the age of eighteen years, which Literotica does not seem to want to acknowledge that such sexual thoughts ever enter the minds of minors, I was enthralled at Hardy’s description of the heroine’s first seducer’s reaction to seeing her hand milking a cow. Harding does not resort to crude remarks in writing this scene, but as a callow youth at the time without much sexual experience, I could relate to Harding’s description. I knew without a doubt that the male witness had developed an erection despite viewing a mundane task performed by the heroine.

I found this scene in the novel very erotic despite the absence of graphic sexual details. Ergo, I wanted to develop a story line that incorporated such a scene, but going in a radical different direction than Hardy’s novel. Now not only did I concoct a vastly different plot for my heroine, but I find I can’t stop. I’m currently in the process of developing a sequel.

 

[MelissaBaby]

It could have fit into the Spillane contest, but I was working on other ideas at the time that contest was announced, and I won't rush it through simply for the sake of the contest (no offense to Chloe or others). But the idea is of a film noir-type story. I think I might go with Non-erotic, as I haven't (at present) established anything sexual.

Setting: Joliet, Illinois, 1937 (as well as flashback scenes; one is in 1953). A PI is presented a case of a murdered husband; more, I will not reveal.

I wonder if NE is the right direction ... in my previous five stories, I did not ask for a beta reader for ideas on placement of a completed work, so this would be (in its way) a First Time -- whaddya know about that. And I am never going within a mile of LW; that place is a right viper pit.

Thank you for hearing me out,
Jay

Write it first, then decide where it fits.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Write it first, then decide where it fits.

Actually, the scene set in 1953 is a flash-ahead scene, if that is the correct term. Or you could call the main text a flashback, as in Sunset Boulevard or Double Indemnity, although those are in a few days, not years. Or maybe 1953 could simply be seen as a kind of sequel.

But yes, I would follow Melissa's advice.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Write it first, then decide where it fits.

Best advice.

If it matters, I've done some N-E and it did reasonably well.