How do you all make it so small?

[Emilymcplugger]

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.

To be fair I’ll probably write something shorter for the OGG HERO thing, but I was just gonna come up with something dry and non-sexual for that.

You should definitely publish it. I put the spoof songs in the poetry section not long back and found that to be most enjoyable.

 

[nice90sguy]

The length of my stories has grown over the twenty years I've been writing here, in direct proportion to the amount of time it takes me to reach orgasm

 

[Djmac1031]

Cold showers and thinking about baseball.

Oh, wait, you meant story size, not...

Nevermind.

 

[Djmac1031]

As a more serious answer to your inquiry:

Moat of my stories are pretty short; two to three LE pages, average.

I have written some longer, I think my longest is 6 pages.

I don't really consider any of them JUST "Quick Strokers."

I will say there are writers much better than world building than I, but I think most of my stuff manages to give the reader a general sense of who my characters are, what makes them tick, etc.

I try to find the humanity in it, no matter how short.

Whether I succeed or fail is up for debate of course.

 

[Pureotica]

My prose runs lean, And I sometimes underwrite, so I have the opposite problem.

I'm good at evocative detail, but sometimes skip the connective tissue that holds scene logic together. I need to add it in in the final drafts.

On the other hand, while searching for a story, I tend to spin plots into novels, when I intended to write a short story, at first.

Writing is an exercise in imposing order, on a rather chaotic creative process. I'm getting better at structure, and discipline, though. When I first tried fiction, I tended to wander in circles. Now I'm happy with the work I produce, but I never just bang a story out. I do a lot of experimental writing before I find all the pieces. I wish I know a more efficient way, sometimes. But I can't start with an outline without some free-writes, and I can't fully pants my way to a finished product. It's sort of a back-and-forth between the two.

But I don't know how long a story will be until late in the process. I'm aiming for longer stuff than my earliest submissions, because they seemed rushed and underdeveloped. But I don't mind a lean wordcount if the story feels complete. I' don't want to shoehorn content unless it adds something, story-wise.

 

[BobbyandtheCabin]

I get too excited and too hyperactive to write or read the super long ones.

I really try to focus on all the senses in mine. I think that builds a world in itself. A small, pocket world, but still a place you can go to.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

My prose runs lean, And I sometimes underwrite, so I have the opposite problem.

I'm good at evocative detail, but sometimes skip the connective tissue that holds scene logic together. I need to add it in in the final drafts.

On the other hand, while searching for a story, I tend to spin plots into novels, when I intended to write a short story, at first.

Writing is an exercise in imposing order, on a rather chaotic creative process. I'm getting better at structure, and discipline, though. When I first tried fiction, I tended to wander in circles. Now I'm happy with the work I produce, but I never just bang a story out. I do a lot of experimental writing before I find all the pieces. I wish I know a more efficient way, sometimes. But I can't start with an outline without some free-writes, and I can't fully pants my way to a finished product. It's sort of a back-and-forth between the two.

But I don't know how long a story will be until late in the process. I'm aiming for longer stuff than my earliest submissions, because they seemed rushed and underdeveloped. But I don't mind a lean wordcount if the story feels complete. I' don't want to shoehorn content unless it adds something, story-wise.

Sometimes I do know how many parts it’s gonna be. For example I knew where the breaks would naturally occur for ATDAH and I knew that HAF would be around a week long (more or less) due to the number of mysterious deaths, so around 7 parts (turned out to be 8).

For the new one, THE PROCESS, I have no idea how long it’s gonna be. I think it’s gonna be around the same length as HAF, but of course a whole lot more serious, due to the themes.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My prose runs lean, And I sometimes underwrite, so I have the opposite problem.

I'm good at evocative detail, but sometimes skip the connective tissue that holds scene logic together. I need to add it in in the final drafts.

I think many story crafters, especially those who come into erotica from an existing short story base, forget that erotica, when all is said and done, has a physiological purpose. We're writing to get the reader aroused and, ideally, get them off. That requires a different rhythm to the traditional three or five acts - there need to be more peaks and plateaus, I think, to get those juices going.

The pay-off has got to be perfect (timing) .