Your Best Writing Tips

[pink_silk_glove]

I can see this as worth bearing in mind. A LOT of Deus Ex Machina bail outs on Lit.

I was actually going to mention this in my first post and forgot. The wise words of Robert McKee in adaptation.

"Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina."

 

[Bamagan]

So proper "consequences?"

I can see this as worth bearing in mind. A LOT of Deus Ex Machina bail outs on Lit.

Yeah, probably why they're being so harsh on trying to stop the proliferation of AI, it makes deus ex machina way too meta.

 

[Euphony]

"Find an ending, but don't cheat, and don't you dare bring in a deus ex machina."

Not naming names but there is an uncomfortable number of top list fixtures that are rife with DEM.

Even worse, a handful of them are so predictable, readability just evaporates.

 

[AchtungNight]

Not naming names but there is an uncomfortable number of top list fixtures that are rife with DEM.

Even worse, a handful of them are so predictable, readability just evaporates.

Not everyone’s readability, because they’re popular. But you’re entitled to your opinion.

 

[Euphony]

Yeah, probably why they're being so harsh on trying to stop the proliferation of AI, it makes deus ex machina way too meta.

Going meta has destroyed some of the most powerful people in the world.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Not naming names but there is an uncomfortable number of top list fixtures that are rife with DEM.

Even worse, a handful of them are so predictable, readability just evaporates.

There's no way that that can be true because if I suggest that scores don't indicate quality around here I get shut down.

 

[Euphony]

Not everyone’s readability, because they’re popular. But you’re entitled to your opinion.

I get you're feeling stung by your earlier comment reading muddled and required some group clarification so now you're turning tables on the flimsy foundation that, yes, everybody has an opinion.

If that's our working assumption, why should this thread on improving craft even exist?

Craft is a thing. Readability is a thing. There are many readers who don't give shit about the nuances that come with them. Don't think that means we shouldn't bother at all or write to the lowest common denominator because we can.

 

[Euphony]

There's no way that that can be true because if I suggest that scores don't indicate quality around here I get shut down.

I like "incredibly noisy dataset" but few will dork out with me on that one.

 

[Cali_Love]

I thought I'd throw this out there and see w
The idea of this thread is to share some of your techniques, approaches, philosophies, secret sauce

C’mon, Loki. I want your Secret Sauce. Don’t start a thread and leave out your own goods, damn you! You recently published a story, made me cry, and trashed my day full of emotion that I still just can’t shake off. How do you do it?!

 

[AchtungNight]

A better tip- don’t build up a villain or a hero as a significant factor in your story and then let them go unconfirmed as such. Similarly, if you’re going to say a character is bisexual, make sure you show them as attracted to both genders and not just throwing in a fetish for gratuitous reasons.

 

[StillStunned]

Not naming names but there is an uncomfortable number of top list fixtures that are rife with DEM.

Even worse, a handful of them are so predictable, readability just evaporates.

This seems a bit paradoxical...

But on to another writing tip: don't write what you don't want to write.

I'm finding myself dealing with this. I've been trying for weeks to make the next instalment of The Rivals work. But I wrote myself into something of a corner: at the end of Chapter 4, the protagonists are separated. The trouble is, the stories are only really fun to write if the two of them are together. I've written thousands of words just to get them together. The story isn't bad, it's just not nearly as interesting as when they're actually interacting.

 

[Pabiporffor]

Make your stories as WOKE as possible to suit the modern reader. Inclusivity is my key to enjoyment so pop in under-represented minorities such as cock guzzling grannies, pegging siblings, dogging daughters and figging friends. Everyone likes to see themselves reflected in a story and as writers we have a responsibility to make sure these voices are heard.

 

[Euphony]

This seems a bit paradoxical...

I think I see what you're saying here.

DEM usually mirrors an expected solution or implementation but I can appreciate some of the creative DEMs that authors used.

My lack of imagination aside, the "a little too perfect" of a solution problem remains.

Timmy didn't study for a quiz. A meteorite obliterating the school is a bit much, at least for my radar.

 

[KeithD]

Write what appeals to you, and, if you have, take that as enough satisfaction without regard to the reception it gets wherever you have published it. Then go on and write the next one.

 

[Stimtheone]

There are things that I have mostly internalized, to the point that they are automatic, but I will try to give my ideas of what MIGHT make my works better:

Focus on feeling. Objective, detail-rich descriptions are for academic textbooks. Yes, you want to give enough detail that your audience knows what is happening, but you can't just clinically describe things and expect them to FEEL. Focus on what the characters are thinking, experiencing, expecting, trying... sex is not necessarily masturbation, just some mechanical thing to do and finish. Heck, even your average masturbation has plenty of thoughts running through someone's head. Focus on what makes this an EXPERIENCE.

If you can say "they fucked" and lose nothing, do it. Now, the exception might be "stroke stories" which I heard about, but in my case I try to not just put sex scenes so that there are sex scenes. This was told to me by another, but I have striven to focus on making the sex scenes more meaningful, worth the words being typed out. I could include fifty times more sex scenes in my stories and all of them would feel like padding. Basically, don't be afraid to just declare that characters fucked if they have not brought anything new and meaningful. First times mean a lot, with someone, for someone... doing something particular... but no need to describe how every morning the couple fucks before breakfast in two pages of description for what essentially might as well be a copy-paste. I have found many scenes worthy of skipping when reading, feeling like they were just not giving anything.

The narrator is a person. Too many are used with an omniscient, completely correct narrator. Even if you don't declare it, make the narration more alive. Let the narrative comment on their actions, their thoughts, let it have an opinion and the ability to be wrong. That does not mean the narrator should be unreliable, but if you make a mistake somewhere, this detail will let them chalk it up to the narrator, a person that can do wrong even without intention, to just have made a mistake in telling the story. It also allows you to make jokes in narration, but don't go full "a joke every other line" because modern audiences can't be entertained unless you assault them with entertainment.

Try to imagine the story without sex. Yep, I know this is an erotica site, but too many focus so much on sex that everything around it loses quality. Obviously, people come here for the vivid descriptions of people doing the horizontal tango, but try and imagine what is the story without it. What would it be if you just drew a curtain over those parts? Yes, there is no sex, but does the rest hold up or do you now realize that without the sex, the rest looks like a five-grader's product? Life has plot and sex. Okay, if you are really all about the sex in some stroke story, feel free to ignore this, but some audiences will be unable to even care about the sex scenes if they don't have a foundation. For women, the grand audience of sex stories, sex is more about what it means rather than the process itself while men are just enjoying the fun bits. They want to know how liberated they feel to finally slip outside the marriage and have pleasing sex with someone to make them feel special, not just fuck someone else in a whole new bed.

Write for yourself. Okay, this one is more of a grand thing, but... don't ever get to the point where you try to please an audience. Yes, the point is to have an audience, but let me tell you a secret... no matter what you make, no matter how "correct" or "horribly wrong" you make your content, there will be people to hate it and people to love it no matter what. If you ever find the point where you are writing because "audiences love this" then just stop and go do something else. Don't write incest because it's the big, popular category, write it because you do want to tell a story of incest. If you write for others, you'll get exhausted, but do it for yourself and the energy will keep coming.

 

[StillStunned]

I think I see what you're saying here.

DEM usually mirrors an expected solution or implementation but I can appreciate some of the creative DEMs that authors used.

My lack of imagination aside, the "a little too perfect" of a solution problem remains.

Timmy didn't study for a quiz. A meteorite obliterating the school is a bit much, at least for my radar.

Hm, I always figured deus ex machina means "the author got tired of writing and pulled the solution out of their arse". If you can see it coming from a distance, that seems to contradict the "out of the writer's arse" element.

 

[Euphony]

Make your stories as WOKE as possible to suit the modern reader. Inclusivity is my key to enjoyment so pop in under-represented minorities such as cock guzzling grannies, pegging siblings, dogging daughters and figging friends. Everyone likes to see themselves reflected in a story and as writers we have a responsibility to make sure these voices are heard.

Bet your Rorschachs are fun.

 

[AchtungNight]

Write what you, your readers, and your publishers are comfortable depicting. In that order of priority.

If you aren’t comfortable depicting something, don’t feel like you have to do it. There’s plenty of stuff on the net that doesn’t turn me on.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Everyone likes to see themselves reflected in a story and as writers we have a responsibility to make sure these voices are heard.

No we don't.

 

[Euphony]

Hm, I always figured deus ex machina means "the author got tired of writing and pulled the solution out of their arse". If you can see it coming from a distance, that seems to contradict the "out of the writer's arse" element.

Deus ex machina (/ˌdeɪəs ɛks ˈmækɪnə, ˈmɑːk-/ DAY-əs ex-MA(H)K-in-ə,[1] Latin: [ˈdɛ.ʊs ɛks ˈmaːkʰɪnaː]; plural: dei ex machina; English "god from the machine")[2][3] is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly or abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.[4][5] Its function is generally to resolve an otherwise irresolvable plot situation, to surprise the audience, to bring the tale to a happy ending or act as a comedic device.[6]

Covers both points. Yours: "unexpected." My scenario specific subpoint: "unlikely."

Solving the out of the blue element doesn't always fix the wildly unlikely issue. (and porn writers love them some wildin' melodrama)

 

[TxRad]

The best way to improve your writing skill is to write and then write some more.

 

[Euphony]

Perfection has killed far more artists than mistakes.

 

[Altissimus]

C’mon, Loki. I want your Secret Sauce. Don’t start a thread and leave out your own goods, damn you!

Well, in no particular order - other than the first point. The first point is, IMO, the pivotal, driving point.

Your characters tell your story. Define your characters as well as you can as soon as you can, then stick to it, ffs.

• You don't have to explain it all to the reader in the first two paras, you just have to know your character yourself...
• ...but you do have to show the character as the story progresses (and this is achieved through emotions as much as anything)
• if you want to change your character, you need an excuse - an 'Event', trauma, realisation, epiphany, a new experience.
• if you don't know what to do next in the story and you have a well-established character, ask the character what they'd do. They'll respond, according to their character, then you can write that. Easy.
• If your characters do anything, they need a reason. Otherwise they don't do it - same as you or me. You should know that reason - whether you let the reader in on it depends on the story.

Plan it

• Spend all that down-time when your brain isn't fully occupied - the commute in the car, walking the dog, going down on your partner - thinking about your story.
• Ask yourself questions that start with 'how' or a 'w': Where can it go? Why would it go there? How does it end? How would my character respond to this or that? What story am I trying to tell? Why am I trying to tell that? When does it come together? Who is driving it?
• Make notes of ideas as they come so you don't forget them. Something I love to do is WhatsApp myself the thought I just had, coz I can do this anywhere at any time. Then when I sit at my desk I can just pull up my WhatsApp and go... yep, that bit goes there, and I need to go back and add in that bit, and here's a note at the end of the doc to include this bit, and...
• Signposts. (I dunno if this is a term.) I think of a cool line/dialogue/event/thingy that I want to include, and I write it down at the bottom of the doc and then work out how to get the story there. And if I have somewhere I want to go (a plot point, a cool event, the end) then I work back from that point to where I am, figuring out what needs to happen in the interim.

Paint it

• Draw the picture of what you want the reader to see.
• Make it evocative.
• Include emotion. Even a sunny day in the park has emotion embedded within it: kids playing in a water fountain; a guy lying on a bench with his head in a woman's lap while she reads her book and idly strokes her fingers across his brow; a fella in a trench coat hiding behind a tree (wait, what?); a lost child crying for a parent; two dogs fighting, their owners seriously embarrassed while also trying very hard to check out the other person - is he wearing a ring? See? Everything is better with emotion.
• Don't paint stuff that doesn't matter. You'll make them think it matters, and they'll be like "yeah, but what about..." for the rest of the story.

Include conflict

• Conflict makes it real.
• It can be small or large, singular or numerous - but the 'plot' should pivot around a major conflict - physical, emotional, whatever. A separation. An atomic bomb. A lack of toilet paper. An internal conflict.
• Resolve it.

Sex

• FFS, I do NOT want to know how big his cock is or how big her breasts are. I don't even care what colour her hair is, unless it's specific to the story in some way shape or form. Reading allows the reader to get an image, and they'll put their own image over your words. If you dictate an image they don't like, you just lost them.
• Emotion. Emotion makes sex. No emotion? Just skip it, please. Tab A into Slot 1/2/3 isn't hot, unless it's Ikea on a warm summer's day. Tab A, with anger/tenderness/uncontrollable lust/dominance/cold control into Slot 1/2/3 with reluctance/passion/gratitude/smug manipulation/teasing is hot.
• Characters think during sex (according to who they are as characters - not according to who you are or what that girl you went to school with that you still really lust after/hate would do. Character consistency.)
• Sex is emotional; emotions drive reactions; reactions drive change/epiphanies/regrets/understandings/development. Reflect this during the sex (or immediately afterwards, as applicable, but during is hotter).

Beginning, middle and end

• These three are kinda important...
• ...and none of them is more, or less, important than the others.

General

• Write what you know - it's a cliche for a reason.
  • If you don't know what you're talking about it, learn. ChatGPT+Wiki+Youtube is pretty efficient.
• Write from the heart - if you don't care, no one else will
• Don't be afraid to include humour (but don't dictate when to laugh)
• Don't be afraid to break the rules (but if you do, have a reason for doing so)
• Don't assume the reader is an idiot...
• ...give them enough to get 4 when they add 2+2...
• ...unless you've got a 5 behind your back for the ending, of course.
• Did I mention characters? Vital.
• Did I mention emotion? Every step of the way.

You recently published a story, made me cry, and trashed my day full of emotion that I still just can’t shake off. How do you do it?!

Yeah, sorry about that. That particular one... I fed in just enough to make you care, teased the end, made you care even more, then cut it all off abruptly. If it's any consolation, it hurt me a lot more to write it than it did for you to read it. (If you want to read it, make sure you're done being happy for the day and want to stop that shit.)

 

[AG31]

Adhere to the internal logic of your story. Don't ask questions like, "What POV should I use?", "How long should a paragraph be?", "What ratio should I have between sex and the rest of the story?"

I've literally seen these questions asked, mostly on Reddit.

How do you know what the internal logic of your story is? Think about it when you're falling asleep. What kind of story would give you pleasure. Guaranteed you're not alone. Think about stories by other authors that have given you pleasure. What distinguishes them?

 

[alohadave]

Hm, I always figured deus ex machina means "the author got tired of writing and pulled the solution out of their arse". If you can see it coming from a distance, that seems to contradict the "out of the writer's arse" element.

Or, the author wrote themselves into a corner and don't have a way out without an outside force resolving the story.

Interestingly, in ancient Greek theater where it originated, DEM was common and not looked at as a failure of the author/playwright.