fantasies and credibility

[jdmct]

What sexual fantasies would you like to see in a story and what are the best/worst aspects of the erotic fiction you have read?

 

[Etoile]

I have wild fantasies about proper grammar and punctuation. Every time I read a story and see a misplaced quotation mark, a missing comma, or improperly formatted paragraphs, a chill goes through my bones. I long for the day when all erotica is well-written and spell-checked, so I am not distracted from my enjoyment of the story by annoying typographical errors.

 

[jdmct]

proper grammar

I 'll do my best.
Anything along the lines of subject matter??

 

[Netzach]

Ooohhh what gets me wetter than wet?

Character development. Like when you have more than just 2 generic people hooking up on page 1 in a generic dive bar and they only exist to have lots and lots of sex and you could care less as to why...

 

[Miss Diva]

I have wild fantasies about proper grammar and punctuation. Every time I read a story and see a misplaced quotation mark, a missing comma, or improperly formatted paragraphs, a chill goes through my bones. I long for the day when all erotica is well-written and spell-checked, so I am not distracted from my enjoyment of the story by annoying typographical errors.

Stop it Etoile. You are turning me on.

 

[Etoile]

Stop it Etoile. You are turning me on.

Oh baby, just wait until I get out my dangling participle...

 

[Private_Label]

What sexual fantasies would you like to see in a story and what are the best/worst aspects of the erotic fiction you have read?

Gotta third Etoile and Netzach's comments. I much prefer a well written and engaging story that includes sex, than a story that is just sex.

Make use of the volunteer editor program! They are there to help!

 

[TaintedB]

Every recently published book I read contains these sorts of errors as well. Even reprints of formerly pristine works introduce numerous errors if the publisher makes the mistake of "re-editing" the text prior to the reissue. I particularly hate the missing words or the wrong words sorts of mistakes in a work of fiction--they send me reeling out of the fantasy the author was weaving like a shot to the chest. The once-respectable professions of editing and proofreading have gone to hell: virtually no publishing house is willing to invest the time and effort it takes to turn out decently "clean" copy. I am able to ignore such things in amateur writing, I expect them and I don't even see them anymore. But in a published book? (cringe) I really don't like being constantly reminded of the fact that I live in a stage of highly advanced cultural decay...and that it's only going to go downhill from here.

 

[catalina_francisco]

LOL, I am with you girls on the bad editing and missing words, incorrect words thing, though it seems I am able to overlook it a bit more. I am with Tainted in that editing and published works have gone to the pack where speed, inefficiency and a quick buck matter more than pride in presenting something well written and edited. Such is the way our capitalist society is going in all areas.....doing a job well does not matter as much as appearing to do it quicker with stuff ups. LOL, even our bank no longer deals in money so we are told......if you want that type service from them you have to take it to the machine in the wall, and then it is limited what the machine will provide you with.

As to what works in a story....I usually find the best stories are those written with some life experience and/or good, extensive research, especially about the topic/genre of the written work, AND written by someone who is obviously passionate about what they are writing, have a feel for it....i.e. don't write a BDSM story for the sake of saying you can if you write it and feel no passion, no excitement, no interest, no understanding of what you are writing because 9 times out of 10 it shows in the finished product and comes off flat and lifeless, production line quality at the best.

Catalina

 

[Lilith]

Maybe it's a girl thing, but I don't want to just know what the characters did. I want to know why. Why is the happily married woman a Dominatrix for hire? How did he make the journey from stockbroker to gagged and in stocks? I don't need to know their whole life story just some good background info that gets me invested in the characters.

 

[snowy ciara]

I hate the cliché stories; my favorite writers on Lit are the ones who avoid the "stock" themes or who write decently enough that the cliché is interesting again.

Ball breaking Leather clad blonde bitch of Buchenwald beating the crap out of a miserable worm? Yawn Good girl looking for Mr. Good Dom to make her into a slut? Yawn Twink wanders into a biker bar and the big bad Harley hog guy makes him into a sex slave in return for using the phone. Not even a yawn, I just scroll on past.

It's gotten to the point that I can't even say that I like a particular genre of stories over here, I just list a few authors I like. Like, character development-wise, I'd love to see C's Button write more. Welcome to London rocked, I thought, even though there are formatting errors in it.

Which leads me to another thing. I've edited a couple of stories for people and I've noticed that the documents I've received via email are in better shape than what gets posted on Lit. It seems that some of these errors; weird paragraph breaks, missing punctuation marks, sections of manuscript that overlap (like re-printing the same few paragraphs) or sections that are missing that were there when I proofed the piece are Literotica's errors, not the authors. And they can be a bitch to correct. I know that the powers that be are busy and pretty much everyone who works in the background are volunteers, but really, couldn't they be a little more careful or maybe a little faster on the uptake when errors are reported?

Anyway, I like a good story with character development and some back story. I'm into descriptive and unique ways to describe things; I don't want "he sucked her boobs like baby." How about he teased them, laved them with his tongue, sampled them, worshiped them, hinted at pain with the edge of his teeth, loved her breasts with finger and tooth and tongue. I guess I'm really picky because I don't like the overblown bodice-ripper flowery stuff like "manly thews" and "heaving bosoms" (isn't bosom one of those nouns that doesn't have a plural anyway?). There's a nice spot in between that's hard to find.

One last pet peeve, that makes me nuts....

Abrupt changes of character and or POV make me crazy! Either you're telling the story as it happens or you're telling it as happened. If you're writing a flashback within a piece that's cool; what I'm talking about is when you go from "I started to scream as I come." It's either "I screamed as I came." or "I come screaming in your arms.". The POV switches distract me too. People abruptly switch from character a to character b in the same sentence sometimes. One of my big goofs is I do miss verb tenses sometimes, (and I'm working on it, I promise.) but there's a difference between missing a verb tense and switching from first person to second person to third person POV in the same tale.

Sorry for the rant....

In answer to the original question....

Tell me an old plot in a fresh way, or just do something new. But don't tell me the same old soap operas over and over.

 

[Jay Davis]

Wow, the GSP (grammar-spelling-punctuation) Nazis have totally hi-jacked this thread. And guess what? I'm one, too. An occasional oversight I can live with, but when the errors start popping up every paragraph, or even every sentence, I just can't see the forest for the trees anymore.

There's simply no excuse these days for a typo or misspelled word. The only thing that spell-checkers miss are words that when misspelled, turn into other words (typing "red" when you meant "read," for example), but grammar-checkers in Word and similar packages will catch most of those.

There are a handful of word-sets commonly get used in place of one another. Learn them, and get them right. A few of the more annoying ones include:

to/two/too
there/their/they're
your/you're
its/it's

Decide if you're going to spell it "come" or "cum," and then be consistent.

Now, I'm going to fly in the face the advice above. Fully-realized characters are great, when you have the time and space to develop them. But a LOT of the tales on literotica are not even short stories, let alone novels or novellas--they are quick scenes or vignettes, often less than a thousand words long. There just isn't time to give even one character a character arc, let alone a backstory and motivation, in that amount of space. In such cases, all you can do--all you should do--is present a fantasy vignette that excites you, for the enjoyment of those who are into similar scenes.

The four stories I've submitted to Literotica definitely fall into this category--they are fantasy scenes, not short stories. Not to be crude, but they are written to be exactly as long as a leisurely masturbation session, and I hope they are used as such. My goal is for the reader to be coming just as the characters do. I'm writing porn here--smart porn, I hope, but certainly not literature.

Regarding development, I've gone in the exact opposite direction than that suggested by the previous posters. I've deliberately chosen to leave out any physical descriptions of my characters, or any deep exploration of their motivations, so as not to interfere with the readers' freedom to project themselves and the person they love (or are hot for, at least) into the scenario. I never pin down the characters' height, build, hair color, or even ethnicity, so that the readers can cast the story in their own minds any way they like. (I actually learned this from screenwriting seminars. One thing you NEVER do in a screenplay is physically describe the major characters. Doing so limits the actors who might be able to play the roles in the minds of potential producers and directors, thus making the screenplay harder to sell. You may be writing for Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, but you want to leave room for them to cast Russell Crowe and Halle Barre.)

I'm working (very slowly) on a novel-length BDSM story, in which the characters have physical descriptions, backstories, character arcs, etc. In fact, the thing actually goes far more than a dozen pages in a row with no sex at all--more than once! But it won't get posted to literotica until I have at least a complete first draft, beginning to end.

As for the scenes to write about? Write things that turn YOU on--whether it's feathers, leathers, ropes, floggers, or just a simple satin sheet. I believe (I could be fooling myself, but I believe) that I can tell when I read a story whether the scene being played out excited the author. In fact, I've gotten turned on by scenarios and fetishes that ordinarily do nothing for me, simply BECAUSE the author's passion for the action was apparent and infectious.

The hardest things for me to write in my longer project are the scenes where the plot calls for characters or activities that don't push my personal buttons (one specific example: a male-top, female-bottom non-consensual scene--a date-rape scenario--that was key to the female lead's backstory, but was personally abhorrent to me). Writing them is a chore; making them hot is a huge challenge. So, when you're writing short things--whether it's a vignette or a longer, "real" short story--stick to things that get you going. It's much, much easier to arouse someone else, be it a lover or an audience, when you are aroused yourself.

And as a final note--use simpler sentences than I do. I am addicted to compound sentences, dependent clauses, and parenthetical insertions. It's the way I think, but it makes my prose harder to read.

 

[bronntanas]

Now, I'm going to fly in the face the advice above. Fully-realized characters are great, when you have the time and space to develop them. But a LOT of the tales on literotica are not even short stories, let alone novels or novellas--they are quick scenes or vignettes, often less than a thousand words long. There just isn't time to give even one character a character arc, let alone a back story and motivation, in that amount of space. In such cases, all you can do--all you should do--is present a fantasy vignette that excites you, for the enjoyment of those who are into similar scenes.

The four stories I've submitted to Literotica definitely fall into this category--they are fantasy scenes, not short stories. Not to be crude, but they are written to be exactly as long as a leisurely masturbation session, and I hope they are used as such. My goal is for the reader to be coming just as the characters do. I'm writing porn here--smart porn, I hope, but certainly not literature.

Regarding development, I've gone in the exact opposite direction than that suggested by the previous posters. I've deliberately chosen to leave out any physical descriptions of my characters, or any deep exploration of their motivations, so as not to interfere with the readers' freedom to project themselves and the person they love (or are hot for, at least) into the scenario. I never pin down the characters' height, build, hair color, or even ethnicity, so that the readers can cast the story in their own minds any way they like. (I actually learned this from screenwriting seminars. One thing you NEVER do in a screenplay is physically describe the major characters. Doing so limits the actors who might be able to play the roles in the minds of potential producers and directors, thus making the screenplay harder to sell. You may be writing for Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, but you want to leave room for them to cast Russell Crowe and Halle Barre.)

I'm working (very slowly) on a novel-length BDSM story, in which the characters have physical descriptions, backstories, character arcs, etc. In fact, the thing actually goes far more than a dozen pages in a row with no sex at all--more than once! But it won't get posted to literotica until I have at least a complete first draft, beginning to end.

.

I've noticed in general that the guys tend to read more of the vignette or quick stroke story, and the ladies tend to go for the more realized stories. As I've said, that's in general, so don't get all flamey, people. I tend to flip flop depending on my mood. Sometimes I wanna come NOW with as little abstract thought as possible. In this case, I don't want to know what Sophie's poodle's toe nail color is, I want to know about Sophie's body and juices and all that. But when I'm in a more relaxed and mellow mood, you can tell me in detail about the type of kibble FiFi prefers and I'll go with it as long as you get to the sizzlin' stuff within, say 5 or 6 pages.

I'm going to echo Jay here; write what makes you hot, or what you think is going to make you hot. There are lots of erotic writers out there, and most have them have at least one unusual kink. Unusual kink stories are hard to find, but they're out there. Try to please one specific audience and let the oddballs (like me, I have a few very odd turn ons. But I'm a M sub, so I'm already somewhat odd.) find their own stuff.

And incidentally, I do tend to be a punctuation/spelling Nazi, but on a site like Lit were you have a multi-national audience, conventions are going to vary somewhat. I don't care if you go for Brit spelling convention or Australian convention or what. But whatever you do, please be consistent. Do it the same all the way through. You can even set IeSpell and the like to match your country if you wish.

 

[Jay Davis]

write what makes you hot, or what you think is going to make you hot.

Let me put it this way. If your story isn't hot enough to make YOU want to stop typing and touch yourself every few paragraphs, it sure as heck isn't going to turn anyone else on.

 

[Etoile]

Let me put it this way. If your story isn't hot enough to make YOU want to stop typing and touch yourself every few paragraphs, it sure as heck isn't going to turn anyone else on.

That's probably why my story isn't rated particularly highly (last I checked, which was a few years ago) - because I'm too clinical. I always am...my fiction is just crappy.

 

[Jay Davis]

That's probably why my story isn't rated particularly highly (last I checked, which was a few years ago) - because I'm too clinical. I always am...my fiction is just crappy.

You're wrong, Etoile. Your story is hot. It also happens to be very well-written, with just the right amount of incidental detail to set the scene and establish the characters without becoming distractingly flowery.

It isn't rated as highly as it should be, but that may be because it's not reaching the right audience. It's in Erotic Couplings, which is pretty much Literoticese for "vanilla hetero man-on-top sex." And it's written from the point of view of a submissive female--a POV not likely to be appreciated by the vanilla hetero male masturbators hunting that category.

It may not have any handcuffs, nipple clamps, or Japanese bondage, but it's a D/s story all the way. Blowjob scenes don't usually mean much to me, as a male submissive, but the sense of surrender and possession your heroine feels is something I can identify with directly, and which was very exciting to me.

I wish every story on Literotica were this "clinical" and "crappy." Hell, I'd be happy if my stories were half this clinical and crappy.

Now, everyone go read it:

http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=10092

 

[Private_Label]

That's probably why my story isn't rated particularly highly (last I checked, which was a few years ago) - because I'm too clinical. I always am...my fiction is just crappy.

*fans self*
I wish more writers were as Crappy (NOT) as you are.

*ahem*
*crosses legs*
*tenses legs*


You should write MORE!!!!! Please....

 

[FurryFury]

I would like to see more like Tales From Subspace!


http://english.literotica.com/stori...ry.php?id=84817


Also something about some characters I have in my head. Described just a bit here, post # three.

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=347706

Well I actually have tons of ideas...

Fury

 

[Miss Diva]

Oh baby, just wait until I get out my dangling participle...

And I'll show you my commas...

 

[sophia jane]

Regarding development, I've gone in the exact opposite direction than that suggested by the previous posters. I've deliberately chosen to leave out any physical descriptions of my characters, or any deep exploration of their motivations, so as not to interfere with the readers' freedom to project themselves and the person they love (or are hot for, at least) into the scenario. I never pin down the characters' height, build, hair color, or even ethnicity, so that the readers can cast the story in their own minds any way they like. (I actually learned this from screenwriting seminars. One thing you NEVER do in a screenplay is physically describe the major characters. Doing so limits the actors who might be able to play the roles in the minds of potential producers and directors, thus making the screenplay harder to sell. You may be writing for Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, but you want to leave room for them to cast Russell Crowe and Halle Barre.)

I am exactly the same way when I write. I rarely describe the appearance of my characters, and in several of my stories my narrator isn't even given a name. Makes my editor crazy, but that's the way I am.

As for what turns me on when I'm reading- good writing, some character motivation (though honestly if I'm reading a story to get off, I don't want too much motivation, I want sex), and at least a little bit of creativity. I don't want to read a vanilla story or a standard BDSM story; there needs to be something that makes it stand out for me.

And I agree- if it turns you on while you write it, others (tho probably not everyone) will be turned on, too.

SJ

 

[chris9]

What sexual fantasies would you like to see in a story and what are the best/worst aspects of the erotic fiction you have read?

Easier to say what's a big no-no for me: I hate it when people in the stories jump around in positions (e.g. she is tied, lying on her back, spread-eagled on the bed --> her butt is on the bed, first some teasing/torturing going on on her tits, then suddenly her butt gets spanked -How the hell can anyone spank an ass she is lying on without moving the ties, turning her) This is just annoying me greatly.
I agree with the others on the grammar/spelling. It's not so very easy to always read words I've never heard (they don't teach sex vocab at school) without wondering if the author is talking too/two/to.

What I like in a story, not so much in a turn-me-on way, but in a make-it-real way, is safety. If people meet for the first time (often after being online/phone) to have them pay attention to public meeting, safety call, using condoms, not drinking any alcohol (that, too, when they have been together longer).
I hate those 'cheating' stories. It's a fantasy, so please make it either inside of a relationship or two singles meeting (except when there are more people involved, still without anything treacherous against a committed relationship). That's because a relationship, even more a marriage is more important. So end it, start something new, but not in the middle of it.

 

[Jay Davis]

If people meet for the first time (often after being online/phone) to have them pay attention to public meeting, safety call, using condoms, not drinking any alcohol (that, too, when they have been together longer).
I hate those 'cheating' stories. It's a fantasy, so please make it either inside of a relationship or two singles meeting (except when there are more people involved, still without anything treacherous against a committed relationship). That's because a relationship, even more a marriage is more important. So end it, start something new, but not in the middle of it.

Ok, here, I disagree. I'm fanatic about safety and responsibility and protection in real life, but in fantasy fiction, I ONLY worry about those things if they make the story hotter. Condoms, for example--in real life, I don't care if she's on the pill, got an IUD, a sponge, two creams, three jellies, a diaphragm AND a full bottle of morning-after pills...I'm STILL wearing the raincoat. In a story, though, I'm only going to mention the condom if it somehow makes the story more erotic, not less. (At least one of my stories DOES make some mention of the condom, because its going on--and coming off later--are important to the fantasy.)

This is just like how in stories, no one ever wakes up with morning breath--they just start kissing soon as their eyes begin to flutter open. In real life, I'm gonna find a way to get to my toothbrush before I start any serious macking. But stories are fantasies, idealized worlds where there aren't any diseases, unwanted pregnancies, stinky armpits or feet, bad breath, love handles, loud TVs in the apartment next door, or anything like that. Fantasies are the one place we can really, really be free, so I try not to weight them down with anti-erotic minutia.

 

[chris9]

Ok, here, I disagree. I'm fanatic about safety and responsibility and protection in real life, but in fantasy fiction, I ONLY worry about those things if they make the story hotter. Condoms, for example--in real life, I don't care if she's on the pill, got an IUD, a sponge, two creams, three jellies, a diaphragm AND a full bottle of morning-after pills...I'm STILL wearing the raincoat. In a story, though, I'm only going to mention the condom if it somehow makes the story more erotic, not less. (At least one of my stories DOES make some mention of the condom, because its going on--and coming off later--are important to the fantasy.)

This is just like how in stories, no one ever wakes up with morning breath--they just start kissing soon as their eyes begin to flutter open. In real life, I'm gonna find a way to get to my toothbrush before I start any serious macking. But stories are fantasies, idealized worlds where there aren't any diseases, unwanted pregnancies, stinky armpits or feet, bad breath, love handles, loud TVs in the apartment next door, or anything like that. Fantasies are the one place we can really, really be free, so I try not to weight them down with anti-erotic minutia.

I did read one story where they used a condom, but where it was like absolute background. For me it made the story more real, more round, worked in the situation, for the characters. If they don't use any, there is this tiny little voice in my head saying they should, and why don't they.
So I prefer stories with 'old' couples, where it makes sense that they don't use any. I don't hate the story without, but on some level it bothers me because it feels wrong. I will still read the story (once I got that far I want to know how it ends ), but it bugs me.

 

[sophia jane]

I did read one story where they used a condom, but where it was like absolute background. For me it made the story more real, more round, worked in the situation, for the characters. If they don't use any, there is this tiny little voice in my head saying they should, and why don't they.

It takes me out of the story if too much emphasis is put on safety. I did include condom use in one story because a married couple had a threesome, and it seemed like something the characters would do. Other than that, I haven't included it and probably won't in the future.

SJ

 

[chris9]

It takes me out of the story if too much emphasis is put on safety. I did include condom use in one story because a married couple had a threesome, and it seemed like something the characters would do. Other than that, I haven't included it and probably won't in the future.

SJ

I'm not saying that there has to be much emphasis on it, or that I don't enjoy stories without some safety. It just makes more sense to me with. *shrugs* But I only read one story that had this which I enjoyed. It would almost certainly annoy me if there was more than two words for it and maybe if I read it in every story.
Maybe it's also a sort of political/health education thing in my head. Yes, we all know it's fantasy, it's story, it won't work in real life. Still we want 'the fairy-tale'. So if there is safety in stories, I hope it won't be forgotten so often in RL, because people get used to it. {I'm an optimist who believes the world will be all safe and beautiful and people will improve, pay attention to themselves AND each other }