How much do you like your own stories?

[Guest]

So I have this story I want to continue. It is all written, 8 chapters long, in big chunks of text I wrote down months ago not to let the idea slip away.

It is not the most successfull of stories, I have others that do a lot better, but I really like it!

It hinders my progress. Every time I get to the edit it, I end up reading the big chunks instead!

So, how much do you like your own? Do you reread? Do you re-edit? Or are you done with them after they are posted?

Wondering,

Maharat

 

[Recidiva]

I really like my own stuff. Sometimes publishing it means that I just want to stop rereading it and rethinking it, and I just want it DONE and out there so I stop tinkering.

Writing to me is sorta archaeology and housecleaning at the same time. If there are thoughts all over the floor, it's probably the toys I play with the most.

Finally publishing them means they're up on the shelf.

I like to go back and read it later though.

Like archaeology, I preserve it in it's original state if I think it's "finished" and on the shelf. I don't re-edit. It's a reminder of previous inspiration or flawed execution.

 

[glynndah]

I'm beginning a new story right now. I thought it was pretty good when I saved it last night, but this morning when I re-read it, it was horrid. I think I'll wait on it for a while until it changes back.

 

[Recidiva]

I'm beginning a new story right now. I thought it was pretty good when I saved it last night, but this morning when I re-read it, it was horrid. I think I'll wait on it for a while until it changes back.

There's one I still chew on for about two years. I tried to write a nonconsent piece but ended up being disturbingly romantic...

I love these guys and I can't actually do the nonconsent bit. I can't figure out how to transpose the entire story to something palatable.

So they stay and occasionally I email the fragment to someone and say "WTF do I do with these guys?"

 

[Vermilion]

i do like my stories. Some of the old ones make me cringe a little because they're not brilliantly written, but if I start scanning through for mistakes or to find a quote or whatever, I always get sucked in and re-read the whole thing

I write the stories because I like them... so I like to read them

x
V

 

[Salvor-Hardon]

I like my concepts, plots and characters, I just don't like how they come together as stories.

Ideally an editor would be a great partner to have, some one who would do the "Great ideas, really intriguing guy there, but Sal, it sucks." Then taking out a red pen mark it all to hell and make me re-write.

I get impatient, I get distracted. I just want to be done and over with and then submit and that is what kills my stories.

 

[flavortang]

I like my stuff or I wouldn't share it with people. If I get one other person to say they like it, too, that makes it worthwhile.

 

[glynndah]

I like my concepts, plots and characters, I just don't like how they come together as stories.

Ideally an editor would be a great partner to have, some one who would do the "Great ideas, really intriguing guy there, but Sal, it sucks." Then taking out a red pen mark it all to hell and make me re-write.

I get impatient, I get distracted. I just want to be done and over with and then submit and that is what kills my stories.

But they're all my babies. I know they're buck-toothed, need glasses and could really use a trip to the beauty salon, but all I want people to do is tell me they're pretty.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

By the time I have a story ready for submission I absolutely hate it...

 

[Recidiva]

But they're all my babies. I know they're buck-toothed, need glasses and could really use a trip to the beauty salon, but all I want people to do is tell me they're pretty.

Exactly. For every story I've submitted I've gotten back some really thoughtful, wonderful compliment and feedback that makes me want to write more. Along with being told recently not to "plagerize" Harlequin, I also got back:

"Usually, I consider the stories I read on literotica to be one of my guilty pleasures, a very guilty pleasure, in fact. But your stories feel right, feel hmmm... the only word I'm coming up with right now is "healthy" and I don't think it quite fits the well. I guess they're just so full of the joy and humanity of the physical expression of love that I'm not left with any reason to feel guilty for liking this - they feel pure, clean despite/because of? the sex and minus the sappiness one usually finds in non-smutty stories. In any case, unlike most things I read on literotica, I would have no trouble showing your work to my boyfriend, even my as yet unconceived children when they're old enough."

Now that rocks.

 

[Guest]

but they are pretty

But they're all my babies. I know they're buck-toothed, need glasses and could really use a trip to the beauty salon, but all I want people to do is tell me they're pretty.

And so well behaved ... not!



Maharat

 

[slyc_willie]

Do I like 'em?

Most of the time, yes. If I didn't like the ideas, I would not have written the stories to begin with. My execution is sometimes lacking, though, as well as my self-editing. Those facts become glaringly clear when I look at my own stories once they've posted.

I have a couple that I would consider removing, but they helped me get some fans, so why not leave them up? Besides, it's interesting to see how my ideas regarding erotic writing have changed since last October.

So, even if I don't like every aspect of every story I have written, I like them because they're part of my evolution as an erotic author.

 

[Chantilyvamp]

Depends. Some I like, some i just didnt know how to finish. Poetry I suck at but I give it a try anyway (and no others dont think that just me).

One story I hated when I finished it. It came from haunting emotions that reading it again made my gut clench to the point I never wanted to see it again! But the readers seem to like it and now removed a bit from the emotional aspect its not that bad. Not that well written as I have no writing skills period but not half bad with the idea and could be developed more. However, I'll leave it alone for fear I'll stir the pot and I'll hate it again.

 

[DerelictionOfSanity]

I don't submit anything that I'm not already pretty happy with and once something is posted, I don't re-edit. On the other hand, I normally do a lot of editing before posting. I do reread my stories because I like them.

The stories that I do re-edit are the ones that I'm just not happy enough with to post. I keep them because they have some good points and I hope that some day I'll be able to turn them into something good. I often end up changing pieces and sometimes it all actually works out.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I can't say I like the stories I have posted on Lit. I don't see them that way at all. More than anything else they are studies in personality, characterization and such. Some characters I like - Like Harry Dick and his talking cock - others I have no feelings about at all.

JJ

 

[rgraham666]

Yep. I like my stuff. I write the type of stuff I like to read.

Even my incomplete work I like. Sure, it may be no more than poorly executed scribblings. But it shows I' capable of doing something.

 

[miwoodsman]

To be honest, I like my own stories - it's one of the reasons I started writing. I'd read quite a few excellent works here on Lit and ideas started rolling around in my head, so I started writing.

By the time I post, I've reread and re-edited dozens and dozens of times and I know I'll keep fiddling with them until I die, so I post them to get them out of my mind.

I've gone back and reread my first couple of stories and it makes me cringe. Choppy sentences, poor editing but that's what I get for self-editing.

I still love them, though, they're my children.

 

[ExoMani]

I like my own stories, but I'm also very aware that my writing could be better.

If I ever do start rereading my own stories, I'll probably also start rewriting and resubmitting them.

 

[Guest]

yeah

I like my own stories, but I'm also very aware that my writing could be better.

If I ever do start rereading my own stories, I'll probably also start rewriting and resubmitting them.

I am very aware of that ... it is just that I stop in the middle of re-editing, to read. Re-editing thus really takes a long time.



Maharat

 

[ExoMani]

I am very aware of that ... it is just that I stop in the middle of re-editing, to read. Re-editing thus really takes a long time.



Maharat

I agree.

I rewrite and edit my stories a lot before I finally submit them. There comes a time, however, when I realize that another rewrite isn't going to make my story all that much better. Then, it's time to finish the story, get it off my desk, and move on to another story.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

Like some, hate some, love a couple of them.

The first story I ever started writing was purely because I couldn't find a good story with a character named Lori. I don't know why, but the image of this one girl that I used to know with that name just turned me on to no end way back when (even before Lit even existed). It's quite possibly one of my worst stories. I will never finish, or publish it (though I will probably never completely give up on it either )

I also hate Little Red Rides the Hood, but I love the concept (came up with the title and started working on the story later).

I love my Over the Sink stories, even htough I'm considering how to rewrite two of them.

I also love about a dozen half-finished stories that I have on my hard drive.

My tentacle/celebrity stuff is ok, but I feel like they could be done so much better. Maybe I need an editor for those? No idea...

 

[oggbashan]

Some, yes; some no.

I like some of my stories. I don't like some of them.

What tends to split them is whether I was writing them for me or for an audience, particularly an audience that likes a particular fetish or sex practice. The more obscure the kink, the less I'm likely to like the finished product with a couple of exceptions - I like The Giant Squid, my only attempt at tentacle sex, and two satires - The Worst Chain Story Ever Chap 01, and The Literotica Olympics, Day 17, Rowing.

The story I like best is the next one, the one that's going to be perfect (and never is...)

Og

 

[cloudy]

My oldest stories make me cringe, but I very much like my newer ones.

Roll it all up together, and they're much like my kids.

 

[MarshAlien]

They were fun while they still lived here, but now that they're out on their own, they never write, they never call. Sometimes they have their friends send me e-mails to tell me how they're doing, and they still let me view their report cards and their readers' comments online. But really - a more ungrateful series of stories I have never before seen. And after all the work I put in raising them, too.

Still, as you can tell by my signature, they've made me very proud, and I do like boasting about their accomplishments. "I am the proud parent of an honor roll story at Literotica."

Marsh

 

[MagicaPractica]

Well, I pretty much take something that I wish I could find a story to read about and write, figuring that other people are looking for that story too. I only have one story up I really don't care for and it's part of a chain so I don't feel like I can take it down. I might not like every aspect of them, I may have done some things better in some stories and some things better in others, but I love them all. I created them.