How do you all make it so small?

[Emilymcplugger]

So as I approach 8,000 words of part 1 of THE PROCESS I always find it remarkable when people talk about just knocking out a quick stroker.

To me this is always somewhat of a mystery as it’s not something I think I can really do myself. I had the option to look at a shorter story in between HOT AND FUZZY and THE PROCESS but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for it. You can’t world-build, create social structures, hierarchies or communities.

I just don’t see the fun in that.

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

 

[djrip]

I enjoy 5 course meals at fancy restaurants. And hot dogs.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

So as I approach 8,000 words of part 1 of THE PROCESS I always find it remarkable when people talk about just knocking out a quick stroker.

To me this is always somewhat of a mystery as it’s not something I think I can really do myself. I had the option to look at a shorter story in between HOT AND FUZZY and THE PROCESS but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for it. You can’t world-build, create social structures, hierarchies or communities.

I just don’t see the fun in that.

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

I won't be any help to you because those stories don't interest me as a reader and less so as a writer.

 

[MrPixel]

Absoposilutely. Sometimes my state of mind is living with the scenes and characters, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, having fun in the same bed with 'em... ahem...

But, seriously, yes. The worlds I create are close enough to my IRL experiences (or at least the settings) that I catch my mind wondering whether something actually happened, or was it something I wrote. Walter Mitty-esque, perhaps?

 

[oneagainst]

I knocked out 4k words for the Ogg Memorial Event, just needed to sit down for a couple of hours to get it out. You can build a world in 1000 words if you put your mind to it... like the 750 word challenges, it's a good exercise to go through... apply Occam's Razor to the plotline.

 

[djrip]

Ok ok. Here's how you do it. Write up a 9 page story with world building and hierarchies and complex interrelationships and a 2K word sex scene. Then delete everything before and after the 2K sex scene.

 

[Duleigh]

Oh GOD Yes! My quick and silly tribute to Terry Pratchett once planned for about 8 to 10k words is now over 130k and still growing! I had planned 1 story, then 2, now in the middle of 3 I'm thinking "I should stop at 4" but I doubt it will happen

 

[SimonDoom]

We're all different. In most of my stories, there's no world-building at all, and I have no interest in world-building. I focus on the erotic interaction and the setting takes a back seat. Most of the time, I like it that way.

 

[alohadave]

I'd ask the same of people who can write multiple thousands of words.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

I like to "create" worlds. Within quotes because they look awfully a lot like the real world. But, especially if you don't attribute them to being place A or B like I dont, you must build it from scratch. Those in the know of A or B will recognize it. For everybody else it will hopefully just be a rich, plausible world. But yes, I don't think it can be done in stroker length stories.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

Yes. If they contain sentient coleoids.

But that doesn’t mean that it’s no fun to write a 1k word stroker.

Em

 

[Rob_Royale]

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

I add as much world-building/character background as needed to tell my story. It usually revolves around a location, so you can't have a story about a sex party in a strange old house, without describing the house and why it's strange. But that's as far as I go. I don't feel compelled to expound further.

 

[gunhilltrain]

So as I approach 8,000 words of part 1 of THE PROCESS I always find it remarkable when people talk about just knocking out a quick stroker.

To me this is always somewhat of a mystery as it’s not something I think I can really do myself. I had the option to look at a shorter story in between HOT AND FUZZY and THE PROCESS but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for it. You can’t world-build, create social structures, hierarchies or communities.

I just don’t see the fun in that.

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

Most of the worlds I create are like Edison, NJ or Arlington, VA, so it shortens the amount of words I need do it. I didn't do that merely for the reason of being concise; that's just the direction it usually seems to go in.

https://www.nj.com/resizer/ztNdXVDD...img/middlesex_impact/photo/20861015-large.jpg

 

[GlennJenko]

So as I approach 8,000 words of part 1 of THE PROCESS I always find it remarkable when people talk about just knocking out a quick stroker.

To me this is always somewhat of a mystery as it’s not something I think I can really do myself. I had the option to look at a shorter story in between HOT AND FUZZY and THE PROCESS but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for it. You can’t world-build, create social structures, hierarchies or communities.

I just don’t see the fun in that.

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

I can see how it's done, focusing purely on the sexual interaction and not much else, but this is something that's given me some anxiety. My current WIP is sitting at about 17500 words and I'm only just hitting the point of the main sexcapades of the story, so I estimate I'll probably have another 6-7000 words on top of what I've got before it's done. That is before most of the editing work, though, of course.

I think the reason why my WIP is so bulky is because it's a seduction/cheating story, so there needs to be a lot of back and forth and development before the sex can actually happen. The next idea I have planned is a lot simpler so I assume it'll be quite a bit shorter, but I don't feel like I'd ever be satisfied writing the really short "stroker" type stories as they never really interested me while reading and do not as a writer, either.

I enjoy losing myself in my worlds and characters, especially loving when there's thing I didn't plan that just come along while writing because I think it'd fit the narrative or as I'm developing an understanding of a character I'm just like, "oh, yeah, they'd totally do that."

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'd ask the same of people who can write multiple thousands of words.

It's easy. Just start and keep going.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When I sat down to write what I thought might be a stroker, it still ended up being one of my mood pieces. Came in at two Lit pages, which is quite short for me. The sequel was three pages, the threequel, four pages. Which tends to be the way of things.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Just out of curiosity, I averaged the length of my stand alone stories. 25,200 words. I actually thought it would be higher. But my WIP will be somewhere in the 50-55k range, so it will go up a bit.

 

[Fatdog25]

I knocked out 4k words for the Ogg Memorial Event, just needed to sit down for a couple of hours to get it out. You can build a world in 1000 words if you put your mind to it... like the 750 word challenges, it's a good exercise to go through... apply Occam's Razor to the plotline.

I tried to do something similar for the Nude Day 2023 contest, just a short one-off of around 3500 words or so, basically tried to keep it to one Lit page. I usually just sit and write whatever comes out of my fingers that makes sense, my other two pieces being 17k and 22k in length.

I sat down, came up with an idea, outlined it, created a couple of scenes, piece of cake, right?

It ended up being around 7.2k words (two Lit pages). I'm pretty sure it wanted to be longer, since I ended up cutting almost a third of the first draft. It turned itself into something else in the process, but that's another story for another time.

Synopsis: Some people are cut out to write shorter pieces. I am not one of them.

I don't mind reading shorter stories, I love a good story without regard to length. I have simply resigned myself to embracing my egregious verbosity wholeheartedly.

 

[Jmanchu]

So as I approach 8,000 words of part 1 of THE PROCESS I always find it remarkable when people talk about just knocking out a quick stroker.

To me this is always somewhat of a mystery as it’s not something I think I can really do myself. I had the option to look at a shorter story in between HOT AND FUZZY and THE PROCESS but I just couldn’t muster any enthusiasm for it. You can’t world-build, create social structures, hierarchies or communities.

I just don’t see the fun in that.

Anyone else enjoy losing themselves in the worlds they create?

*Raises hand* Me. I can't write for the life of me a quick stroker because I always, one way or the other get lost in the world-building and lore. Half the fun in writing stories is in fleshing out characters and settings in my opinion.

 

[TxRad]

Cold water makes things smaller.

 

[ronde]

One way to write really short stories is to imagine the scene and the character, and then pretend you're looking at the scene through a keyhole in the door. What you see through that keyhole is the only thing you write. It's not an approach that works for me, but I've read several stories that seem to have been written in that way.

 

[oneagainst]

I don't mind reading shorter stories, I love a good story without regard to length. I have simply resigned myself to embracing my egregious verbosity wholeheartedly.

I'm equally happy at 3k or 100k. Sometimes it's just fun to drop the reader right into the middle of it and have them working the background out at the same time the MC is, cyberpunk style. Uh, erotipunk?

Maybe time for that drink. It's always 5pm somewhere, right @onehitwanda ...?

 

[onehitwanda]

I'm equally happy at 3k or 100k. Sometimes it's just fun to drop the reader right into the middle of it and have them working the background out at the same time the MC is, cyberpunk style. Uh, erotipunk?

Maybe time for that drink. It's always 5pm somewhere, right @onehitwanda ...?

Every clock is rum'o'clock!

 

[Emilymcplugger]

*Raises hand* Me. I can't write for the life of me a quick stroker because I always, one way or the other get lost in the world-building and lore. Half the fun in writing stories is in fleshing out characters and settings in my opinion.

I know. I’m writing a scene at a bar with two characters and I know there’s a sex scene coming up but DAMMIT, plot takes precedent!

 

[MrPixel]

*Raises hand* Me. I can't write for the life of me a quick stroker because I always, one way or the other get lost in the world-building and lore. Half the fun in writing stories is in fleshing out characters and settings in my opinion.

That's the way I write. Story is more important because, ostensibly, I write rom-coms with sex scenes.

OTOH, I just finished a 2K-word wanker that was a scene pulled from a much bigger story because it occupied too much of the timeline for "an evening out". Add an intro/segue of sorts, done. Now the question is whether I want to publish it.