Additions to your writing process you wish you would have tried sooner

[storyteller19]

What steps in your writing process do you wish you would have tried out sooner?
I recently started keeping a character spreadsheet for each primary character with details about them and also a spreadsheet that keeps track of the details in each scene, what the scene's goal is, and also word count among some other details. I've only used it for a couple of stories so far but it has been incredibly useful in helping me keep my characters consistent and also how to see my whole story at a glance and how long each scene is. I don't spend too much time on it and it is a good thing to work on when I have already gotten some writing done but feel like doing something else.

I also do a few passes of quick edits as I write the story. At first I just do basic grammar edits but then as the story becomes more cleaned up and filled out I will start fixing sentence structure and marking places where I need to go back and add in more detail. I usually only focus on one scene at a time when I do this and it helps make editing after the story is finished feel like less of a slog.

 

[NotWise]

I started synopsizing stories about a year ago. Writing off the synopsis helps keep my story line from wandering, which was a problem. I write the story in the same document with the synopsis. I keep the synopsis at the end and delete the already-used parts as I write. That way the synopsis always starts where the story ends, and it shrinks while the story grows.

Normally the synopsis is pretty spare; a paragraph can expand to a few thousand words. I'll sometimes use a little more detail and add paragraphs that I keep at the beginning of the story that tell me the details I need to include on each character. As with the synopsis, I delete the parts of the character description that I've used, so I don't worry much more about character development after those paragraphs are gone.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Thinking my stories through, for real. My flagship series, the Alexaverse, was originally a quick I/T story when I began it, 5-6 chapters at most.

Nope. Between its various storylines, it is currently 42 chapters and in no danger of stopping. My ending is solid, but there are sooooooo many good ideas in order to get there.

The real problem is that all the earliest chapters are completely out of sync with current canon. I started the damn series back in 2015, so when people start with the early chapters and then move on to later ones, they see the discrepancies and message me to throw tantrums.

Sooooo I'm rebooting the early stuff when I can. Not for their sake, but my own. I HATE being inconsistent, and the Alexaverse is.

I also should've gotten meself an editor a lot sooner. I'm terrible at self-editing.

 

[yukonnights]

I started synopsizing stories about a year ago. Writing off the synopsis helps keep my story line from wandering, which was a problem. I write the story in the same document with the synopsis. I keep the synopsis at the end and delete the already-used parts as I write. That way the synopsis always starts where the story ends, and it shrinks while the story grows.

Normally the synopsis is pretty spare; a paragraph can expand to a few thousand words....

This is something I started doing some time "back there". I jot down the major parts of the story first and as I complete each "part" I write Done in red and move on to the next scene. Without doing this I can tend to drift off track, so this keeps things moving in a straight line, etc.

 

[RejectReality]

A text to speech pass in the editing process. So many uncaught errors that absolutely scream at you when read in even a somewhat robotic voice.

 

[KeithD]

Yes, I've had published books that went to series without me knowing they would that I wish I'd kept better notes building with each book so I didn't have to do basic research each time I was developing a new work in the series. I have two books that need to be written now that I'm dragging my feet on, because most of the time is going to have to be spent in reviewing eleven prior books, in one case, and two in the other before I can feel comfortable writing the follow-on books. I have two other series that have gone about a half dozen books each that I'm going to have the same problem with if I add to the series.

Beyond that, I wrote and published for a good ten years before I realized that I wasn't careful about maintaining pairs of quote marks and editors found this a burden. For some time now, the very last chore in the review process is for me to highlight and recheck the quote marks throughout the work. I get a lot less editor grumbling now--but it took me a while to discover that was a problem with my writing.

 

[storyteller19]

I started synopsizing stories about a year ago. Writing off the synopsis helps keep my story line from wandering, which was a problem. I write the story in the same document with the synopsis. I keep the synopsis at the end and delete the already-used parts as I write. That way the synopsis always starts where the story ends, and it shrinks while the story grows.

Normally the synopsis is pretty spare; a paragraph can expand to a few thousand words. I'll sometimes use a little more detail and add paragraphs that I keep at the beginning of the story that tell me the details I need to include on each character. As with the synopsis, I delete the parts of the character description that I've used, so I don't worry much more about character development after those paragraphs are gone.

I need to start doing that too. I usually have a rough idea of what scenes I want, but I quickly stray from it. If I do that ahead of time, it could help me know the ending I'm working towards.

 

[storyteller19]

Thinking my stories through, for real. My flagship series, the Alexaverse, was originally a quick I/T story when I began it, 5-6 chapters at most.

Nope. Between its various storylines, it is currently 42 chapters and in no danger of stopping. My ending is solid, but there are sooooooo many good ideas in order to get there.

The real problem is that all the earliest chapters are completely out of sync with current canon. I started the damn series back in 2015, so when people start with the early chapters and then move on to later ones, they see the discrepancies and message me to throw tantrums.

Sooooo I'm rebooting the early stuff when I can. Not for their sake, but my own. I HATE being inconsistent, and the Alexaverse is.

I also should've gotten meself an editor a lot sooner. I'm terrible at self-editing.

I have several stories I need to work on sequels for and the thought of rereading them seems like so much work for some reason. I have been making use of the editors on here occasionally but most of my contest stories are entered on the last day of the contest so I rarely budget time to allow someone to edit for me.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

A text to speech pass in the editing process. So many uncaught errors that absolutely scream at you when read in even a somewhat robotic voice.

I 2nd the text to speech. The new Microsoft Word text to speech does a pretty good job and helps me catch not only grammar mistakes, but awkward sounding passages, especially dialogue. The Microsoft azure tts demo is fantastic - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/text-to-speech/#overview

 

[ElectricBlue]

I find word clouds invaluable, both to make sure the story characters have the right balance, and to identify words that are used too often. This site pictorially displays the top one hundred most used words in a visual display.

https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create

 

[LexxRuthless]

I just wish I'd started writing and posting stories sooner. Once I started, I learned rapidly from the mistakes I made on my first submissions. In my case, I simply cannot utilize a spreadsheet to keep track of story details -- I bog down in the minutiae and it would take me years to finish a single story that way. There was no substitute for "just doing it" and getting something onto the site so I could see it in print and figure out how to do a better job with the next one.

One tool that has been remarkably useful has been the "New Story Text" field itself. I do my writing in Word, and copy and paste the text into that field, complete with HTML tags for italics, bold, etc. When I hit "Preview & Publish" I get to see the story with a different font and layout. Reading it that way often makes errors I have overlooked become obvious, like when I see the same word recurring in three consecutive lines of text. "Gee, you think you might be overusing the word 'incredible' a bit?"

 

[TadOverdon]

Planning, as several posters have noted above. Synopsizing, character notes of all kinds. Identifying where turning points ought to happen. And then revising as I go along for sentence structure, vocabulary and unexpected events that weasel their way into the story as I write it.

All of which I've done to some extent on previous books, but none of which I did sufficiently on the last book. And I suffered for it.

 

[Trionyx]

I walk. For an hour or so every day I let the dog run and sniff while my mind works out the plot and dialogue snippets. Getting away from the computer helps me the most.
It looks like my avatar got trashed in the new version. Wonder why.

 

[storyteller19]

A text to speech pass in the editing process. So many uncaught errors that absolutely scream at you when read in even a somewhat robotic voice.

I started using the reader in word a while ago and it really helped me iron out my stories more. It’s so easy to have missing words/ awkward sentences and not catch it from multiple edits.

 

[storyteller19]

I find word clouds invaluable, both to make sure the story characters have the right balance, and to identify words that are used too often. This site pictorially displays the top one hundred most used words in a visual display.

https://worditout.com/word-cloud/create

I’m going to try this out, thank you. I knew there was something like this but never got around to looking for it.

 

[HeyAll]

1) Higher scrutiny for editing for typos and using grammarly.com. Starting off, I use to read the stories fast, now I read them slow.

2) Cutting out unecessary words and sentences. These days I try to keep stories as lean as possible.

3) Work harder for original ideas.

 

[LexxRuthless]

3) Work harder for original ideas.

Interesting. I'm not disagreeing, certainly, but one thing I have enjoyed is weaving two or three established themes or "tropes" into a cohesive narrative. The underlying ideas may not be unique or novel, but I find I can create original stories from pre-existing ideas without trying too hard to be clever. This approach makes it easy to write stories quickly -- or at least quicker -- and then I let reader feedback determine if it was a bad idea. I find that when I try "too hard" to come up with something truly original, I wind up going a long time without posting anything new.

 

[HeyAll]

Interesting. I'm not disagreeing, certainly, but one thing I have enjoyed is weaving two or three established themes or "tropes" into a cohesive narrative. The underlying ideas may not be unique or novel, but I find I can create original stories from pre-existing ideas without trying too hard to be clever. This approach makes it easy to write stories quickly -- or at least quicker -- and then I let reader feedback determine if it was a bad idea. I find that when I try "too hard" to come up with something truly original, I wind up going a long time without posting anything new.

I think a lot of popular tropes for any genre have room to be explored in different ways.

I also use common ideas, but I work hard to find new twists.

On a side note, one of the things that dissapoints me when looking at the latest crime novels at the book store, is that much of it is the same story over and over again. That bothers me, same with erotica.

 

[LexxRuthless]

I think a lot of popular tropes for any genre have room to be explored in different ways.

I also use common ideas, but I work hard to find new twists.

On a side note, one of the things that dissapoints me when looking at the latest crime novels at the book store, is that much of it is the same story over and over again. That bothers me, same with erotica.

How much do you think the characters in the story, POV, and setting make a difference? For example, I had an idea to write a mom-son story in third person, but tell it from the perspective of the 18-year-old daughter who is not involved in sex with either of them. Make it kind of a mystery, since she is unaware of the incestuous relationship between her mother and older brother at first.

 

[SimonDoom]

I can't think of anything when I think about how I would change the process of writing stories I've written. I wish I had started writing stories years and years before I did. It's so incredibly satisfying to publish a work of fiction, even if it's just here on this crazy erotic story place and I'm not making any money from it.

 

[lovecraft68]

From day one until today, I write in total freefall. I have the general idea in my head and where it starts, and I sit and its off to the races from start to finish, then I go back and remove anything that might have gone too far or add something that betters what's there. No change in the process other than improving over time through continuing to write.

 

[HeyAll]

How much do you think the characters in the story, POV, and setting make a difference? For example, I had an idea to write a mom-son story in third person, but tell it from the perspective of the 18-year-old daughter who is not involved in sex with either of them. Make it kind of a mystery, since she is unaware of the incestuous relationship between her mother and older brother at first.

I do that more and more now. Telling it from a 3rd party. So far no complaints. Works great.

I like doing it because it's refershing and you can write new viewpoints and opinions on the matter, rather than the same thoughts.

 

[NotWise]

How much do you think the characters in the story, POV, and setting make a difference? For example, I had an idea to write a mom-son story in third person, but tell it from the perspective of the 18-year-old daughter who is not involved in sex with either of them. Make it kind of a mystery, since she is unaware of the incestuous relationship between her mother and older brother at first.

This sounds like something I'd do, then wonder, "Why?" It complicates the task and might make it harder for the readers to follow. The answer to the question is always "Cuz I want to." It stretches my way of thinking of things and makes it more interesting to write.

I'm doing something like that for my April Fool's Day story. The April Fool's Day part is told by a guy in a diner, bent over a cup of coffee, and relating a story from his youth. What it lets me do is develop a different (but related) story around the storyteller at the same time he's telling his story.

Will the readers even care about all the work that takes? I have no idea.

 

[SimonDoom]

My general guideline is to tell the story from the perspective of the most interesting erotic character in the story. The person who goes through a process of change, from A to B.

But that's just a rough guideline. My other advice is that you should mix it up. Try different points of view. There's no "right" POV. Each POV will give the story a different erotic flavor.

 

[storyteller19]

1) Higher scrutiny for editing for typos and using grammarly.com. Starting off, I use to read the stories fast, now I read them slow.

2) Cutting out unecessary words and sentences. These days I try to keep stories as lean as possible.

3) Work harder for original ideas.

Grammarly has helped me so much. Even if it doesn’t have the correct solution to a section, it’s still often right about it needing fixing

Cutting out unnecessary words has become my favorite part in editing. Sometimes I can’t believe the extra amount of words that appear during the first draft.