150k words and slow start. Worth submitting?

[FiveFour]

Hi.

Trying to keep this short. I'm new to writing anything. I'm 100,000 words into a 150,000 word story. It's not hardcore, it's more about the interaction between characters and how they react to finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Nothing but a little nudity for 10,000 words then masturbation from 10,000 words, and no sex for the first 50,000. Not sure if it even qualifies as erotic nowadays. I'm writing it for my own enjoyment, but wonder if other people would enjoy it too.

So, based on this, is it worth the time of the volunteers who vet the stories, and of the readers who might find it more like a story with erotic parts instead of an erotic story?

Thanks.

 

[Handley_Page]

Hi.

Trying to keep this short. I'm new to writing anything. I'm 100,000 words into a 150,000 word story. It's not hardcore, it's more about the interaction between characters and how they react to finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Nothing but a little nudity for 10,000 words then masturbation from 10,000 words, and no sex for the first 50,000. Not sure if it even qualifies as erotic nowadays. I'm writing it for my own enjoyment, but wonder if other people would enjoy it too.

So, based on this, is it worth the time of the volunteers who vet the stories, and of the readers who might find it more like a story with erotic parts instead of an erotic story?

Thanks.

iT SOUND LIKE AN INTERESTING NOVEL

 

[stickygirl]

Hi.

Trying to keep this short. I'm new to writing anything. I'm 100,000 words into a 150,000 word story. It's not hardcore, it's more about the interaction between characters and how they react to finding themselves in unusual circumstances. Nothing but a little nudity for 10,000 words then masturbation from 10,000 words, and no sex for the first 50,000. Not sure if it even qualifies as erotic nowadays. I'm writing it for my own enjoyment, but wonder if other people would enjoy it too.

So, based on this, is it worth the time of the volunteers who vet the stories, and of the readers who might find it more like a story with erotic parts instead of an erotic story?

Thanks.

Would it break down into chapters? At least then if the feedback suggested changes, you've not given them too much work by initially presenting chapter one. A book would be in chapters.

I'm sure others will have more informed ideas regarding categories

 

[FiveFour]

iT SOUND LIKE AN INTERESTING NOVEL

Thanks.

These are the numbers from my story of 128K words, and the one and only sex scene starts at page 33.

Seven people (eight, if I count myself as well) specifically indicated that they liked it. I'm getting the impression that for Laurel (the person who scans all the stories) it doesn't really matter how long a story is. There's even a Non-Erotic category, so low sex-content shouldn't be an issue for the site.

If you like your story, and you want to share it with others, I'd say, go ahead.

Thanks, I'll get on with reviewing, finishing, then final edit.

Would it break down into chapters? At least then if the feedback suggested changes, you've not given them too much work by initially presenting chapter one. A book would be in chapters.

I'm sure others will have more informed ideas regarding categories

I can break it down into chapters, but the chapters wouldn't work as individual stories. Basically, it's the story starts with travelling on Sunday, then a problem with their accommodation forces them into the unusual situation. The days that follow is how they deal with that situation. The story evolves around their interactions.

I'm sure I could cut the story length down a lot with lots of editing, but I don't want to cut too much because I like writing it this way. Like my posts here, I'm sure most people will find it long-winded. But as RebenR says, I like it and want to share it, so I'll go ahead.

 

[FiveFour]

PS. It's Exhibitionist and Voyeur.

 

[KeithD]

Number of words--or even how soon the Web site theme action starts--don't determine whether a work is worthwhile submitting here. Even the concept of "worthwhile" is up for a wide range of interpretation. What matters is how good the content is and how well it's conveyed. The only way to get an answer to that is to submit it--and even then the "worthwhile" is determined by a wide variety mix of those who comment/vote on it, whether or not they bother to read it.

If that all sounds mushy . . . it's because it's about the only honest answer to such a question. You can't have a useful answer to that question up front.

 

[PoisonPen33]

Just post/publish. The community here (save for LW) is incredibly friendly and if it's a good story, they'll let you know.

 

[gunhilltrain]

There are different ways of handling it. Updike broke Rabbit at Rest into three very long named chapters, but then he had many unnamed section breaks inside of those. Those were merely extra line spaces where there was something like a change of scene.

You might want to do something like that - a natural pause for the reader to take a break as needed, rather than just an unbroken text from beginning to end. I sometimes put a line of asterisks in to indicate a scene change. I rarely add a heading to a scene, but I have done that once in a while.

P.S.: I admire you for trying such an ambitious project the first time out. I rarely go above 8,000 words for a stand-alone story. For the one true series I'm writing, it will probably be about 35,000 words in maybe eight or nine chapters.

 

[SamScribble]

There was a time when people who thought that they knew what they knew told people who weren’t so sure what they knew what to read, what to look at, and what to listen to. And hundreds of thousands of people queued up the stairs at The Louvre to catch a glimpse of The Mona Lisa. (Do you think these same people would even pause if they saw The Mona Lisa hanging in the window of a suburban art gallery and gift shop?)

And then along came the internet. There were still a few people who thought that they knew what they knew, but, in the grand scheme of things, they were no longer so important. Any writer, painter, or musician could post their productions for almost the entire world to read, look at, or listen to. Never mind the quality, feel the width.

Here at Lit, not only can anyone who can stay within Laurel’s rules post their story, but the people who read the story (however cursorily) can comment on it and give it a score out of five.

Is your 150k words with a slow start worth submitting? I suspect that the readers who are looking for a story in which Sonny-Jim fucks his mommy within the first five hundred words will tell you no. And they will confirm this with the placement of a single star – and possibly a barely-literate comment. But, if you have told an engaging story, involving interesting characters – and told it well – there will be some readers – perhaps a dozen, perhaps a hundred – who will cheer and award you five stars and say something like: ‘This is the best thing I have read in a long time’. Would that make it worth submitting? Up to you really.

 

[Emirus]

I can break it down into chapters, but the chapters wouldn't work as individual stories.

Chapters don’t need to be individual stories to work. If you do make it into chapters you’ll probably find it easier to get someone to edit/read.

...

 

[SpindleTop]

I started posting my story series (total 165k words) in July 2019 and the 15th and final chapter went live in May 2020. (It took pretty much exactly 52 weeks to write!) My series was very much a slow burn - the two main characters didn’t lose their virginities until Chapter 11, although there was some experimentation before that. To be honest, I didn’t set out to write such a long series (initially I thought it would be four chapters at most), but as I got into it, the characters began to take on a life of their own.

My motivation initially was to prove to myself that I could do it (and produce something half decent in the process), but I decided after a few months that I enjoy writing as a hobby and that it's something I'd to do (on an amateur basis) for the foreseeable future.

I posted all of the chapters in the First Time section and all of my feedback was supportive and encouraging, (I think the readers there are a fairly gentle crowd). There were a few commenters who gave me some very useful critical feedback and they definitely made me a better writer. (It was the first piece of creative writing I’d done since High School.)

Since finishing the series, I’ve posted two short stories (one 12k words and the other 22k words) and I’ve made a conscious decision not to embark on another series for at least a year. (That’s not because I didn’t enjoy it - I really did. And I learnt a tremendous amount doing it - the difference between the earlier and later chapters is staggering - forcing myself to make a longer term, sustained effort, really did help develop my style.) But now I feel as a writer that I should focus on shorter works, to which I can devote more time for polishing and editing.

But in answer to your question, I’d say go for it and if you’d like to chat more via pm about my experience, then do let me know! (Reader feedback really does help!)

You find the series here: https://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=5133214&page=submissions
And here’s my latest stand-alone story: https://www.literotica.com/s/meaningful-meaningless-sex

Hope this helps,

SpindleTop

 

[Abbafan]

Some of the highest rated stories are long. I start to lose interest personally if there's not some shenanigans after a couple of pages, but plenty of people like the really character driven, very slow building stories.

 

[FiveFour]

Thank you all for your encouragement. It will take a while for me to finish (busy life) and review, but I think I will submit it eventually.

There are different ways of handling it. Updike broke Rabbit at Rest into three very long named chapters, but then he had many unnamed section breaks inside of those. Those were merely extra line spaces where there was something like a change of scene.

You might want to do something like that - a natural pause for the reader to take a break as needed, rather than just an unbroken text from beginning to end. I sometimes put a line of asterisks in to indicate a scene change. I rarely add a heading to a scene, but I have done that once in a while.

P.S.: I admire you for trying such an ambitious project the first time out. I rarely go above 8,000 words for a stand-alone story. For the one true series I'm writing, it will probably be about 35,000 words in maybe eight or nine chapters.

I have no intention of writing such a long story, and have no ambition to be a writer, I just started writing the story one day without knowing where it would end up, simply because the idea had been running around in my mind.

After a while I started to use Outline so I could put headings in so I could find my way back to parts of the story to change things, they're typically scene changes that I could highlight as you suggest.

Chapters don’t need to be individual stories to work. If you do make it into chapters you’ll probably find it easier to get someone to edit/read.

...

Since it's over seven or eight days, I'd probably split it into chapters like that. However, a chapter "Monday" doesn't convey much. I like stories or shows that don't lay it all out obviously at the start. I like the "what the hell is going on here" sort of thing where it may be quite a while before I figure out part of the plot. Being more specific about chapter titles might give the plot away. I'll think about that.

I started posting my story series (total 165k words) in July 2019 and the 15th and final chapter went live in May 2020. (It took pretty much exactly 52 weeks to write!) My series was very much a slow burn - the two main characters didn’t lose their virginities until Chapter 11, although there was some experimentation before that. To be honest, I didn’t set out to write such a long series (initially I thought it would be four chapters at most), but as I got into it, the characters began to take on a life of their own.

That's reassuring (about the slow start), thanks. I didn't set out to write such a long story either.

{Snip}

Since finishing the series, I’ve posted two short stories (one 12k words and the other 22k words) and I’ve made a conscious decision not to embark on another series for at least a year. (That’s not because I didn’t enjoy it - I really did. And I learnt a tremendous amount doing it - the difference between the earlier and later chapters is staggering - forcing myself to make a longer term, sustained effort, really did help develop my style.) But now I feel as a writer that I should focus on shorter works, to which I can devote more time for polishing and editing.

Thanks. Without meaning to set up sequels I have an idea for a separate second part, and maybe a couple of spin-off stories. But as I said, I really have no ambitions (and little time) to write more than this one.


Looking back, I guess I was really asking whether a novice should submit something long and slow to start, or whether I should do masses of editing to make it more a quick-release story. Thanks for your comments, long and slow to start it will stay.

Truly, thanks again.

 

[Blind_Justice]

The number of words and the amount of sex are relatively irrelevant if you can make it an engrossing read. Good characters and plot can carry a story far. Granted, you won't get many high-fives from the "I NEED TO GET OFF!" stroker crowd, but that's the beauty here on Literotica. There is room for literary content as well as erotica.

Not that I would view myself as anything but a talented hack, but my long-form stuff seems to resonate well enough with readers, even if long stretches go without much in the way of sex.

Since you're writing your first story, concentrate on telling it the way you see fit. Finish it. Edit it a couple times. Then take a good long running start and dive headfirst into the pool - publish it. You can bet your behind that sooner than later you'll get a comment or ten. Carefully consider the feedback and iterate from there if you're so inclined.