How Much?

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Pianist Artur Rubenstein claimed he practiced every day to keep his edge.

How much effort do you invest in your writing? My goal is one improvement per day, every day. I fill legal pads with notes of what I hear, read, or think. And when I come upon awkward prose I use the example for a study problem.

Moments ago I read some crude stories posted to LIT. Theyre crude because their flaws are basic stuff, not arcana professionals quarrel over.

 

[YoursSINSerely]

Pianist Artur Rubenstein claimed he practiced every day to keep his edge.

How much effort do you invest in your writing? My goal is one improvement per day, every day. I fill legal pads with notes of what I hear, read, or think. And when I come upon awkward prose I use the example for a study problem.

Moments ago I read some crude stories posted to LIT. Theyre crude because their flaws are basic stuff, not arcana professionals quarrel over.

Will you be naming stories? Did any of them have to do with shoes (gulp)?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Will you be naming stories? Did any of them have to do with shoes (gulp)?

I never kiss & tell on LIT; if the story is exemplary (uncommonly good, for readers from the Blue States), I give it a 5 and a thumbs up, and I never score a crappy story.

 

[vrosej10]

Pianist Artur Rubenstein claimed he practiced every day to keep his edge.

How much effort do you invest in your writing? My goal is one improvement per day, every day. I fill legal pads with notes of what I hear, read, or think. And when I come upon awkward prose I use the example for a study problem.

Moments ago I read some crude stories posted to LIT. Theyre crude because their flaws are basic stuff, not arcana professionals quarrel over.

You know compulsive writing is a sign of some mental illnesses...

No actually writing everyday is a really good idea. I try to write some every single day. i have quiet time after my son goes to bed and I am surgically attached to my notebooks which i have planted everywhere.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Obsession-compulsion disorder is only a problem if you keep your nose stuck up the same dog's ass all the time.

 

[vrosej10]

Obsession-compulsion disorder is only a problem if you keep your nose stuck up the same dog's ass all the time.

You would know! I was actually refering to schizophrenia.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

You would know! I was actually refering to schizophrenia.

Schizophrenics arent noted for obsessions and compulsions. 'Frozen' is a better word. The OCD is aware of his issues, schizophrenics arent.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm terrible. I don't write every day, at least not on the computer or paper. I don't keep a notebook handy to jot down ideas. (I figure that if they're any good, I'll remember them without scribbling them in some notebook which I'll eventually lose or send through the laundry.) I hardly even read fiction anymore.

But I do write in my head. Constantly. I'm always describing things to myself, or trying to explain things, or picturing pages of dialog. Analyzing, putting feelings into words, playing with words and concepts. It just seems to be the way my mind works.

When I'm not thinking about pussy, that is.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

When you become an old fuck like me you'll invest in a legal pad.

 

[R. Richard]

I try to write at least a little bit each day. I succeed most days.

I then do something that I would encourage others in Literotica to do. I submit my finished stories for publication. I have 19 published-for-pay novels. I also have enough rejection slips to paper a room in my house. I currently have a novel submitted, plus two magazine articles submitted.

If you don't try, you aint gonna succeed!

 

[DeeZire]

I'm no Arthur Rubenstein, but I try to practice the piano every day. It's drudgery, but it pays off when I get to the gig and I find myself playing effortlessly. It's much easier to attract chicks when you're projecting a confident vibe, something you can't do when you're struggling with your playing technique. (Yep, it's all about trying to get laid, although at my age, I'll settle for a boob flash.)

How this applies to writing porn is a mystery to me. Perhaps the boob flash is the common denominator.

 

[vrosej10]

Schizophrenics arent noted for obsessions and compulsions. 'Frozen' is a better word. The OCD is aware of his issues, schizophrenics arent.

Check this link you idiot. Do you actually know any schizophrenics or are you just talking out your arse as usual?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergraphia

 

[drewxcore]

I tend to write most days. Occasionally doing writers excercises to get a bit of inspiration when I'm stuck. I don't really write erotica at all although it's an area of writing i'll explore eventually.

For ideas I actually use a baby book i have. If i find a decent name with an interesting meaning I find that i can usually develop a whole story just from that.

I've only just discovered I have a knack for poetry as well.

 

[sr71plt]

I either write or edit every day. Days don't differentiate themselves as weekdays/weekends in my life.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Check this link you idiot. Do you actually know any schizophrenics or are you just talking out your arse as usual?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergraphia

I interviewed a few thousand of them.

I looked at your link. You confuse appetite with impairment.

 

[Boota]

I'm a lot like Doc. My mind practices even if my hands don't. Same thing with guitar. I don't really see any of what I do as actual practice, though. I'm either working or not working. I have sat down to practice guitar exactly once in the last twenty years. Otherwise it's just playing. With writing, I sit down and write. I have such limited time to write that when I do I don't want to waste any of it with doing writing exercises. I guess in it's own way any of the doing is also practice. What was going to be my warm-up (practice) stories to see if I could write a novel ended up published, except for one. The best one, in my opinion.

I do keep notes. Song ideas, story ideas, etc. I have to. They fly at me so fast sometimes that I'd hate to trust my memory and lose something that kicked ass in the moment. I can't tell you how many times I've referred to old notes and been blown away by a great idea I had forgotten about.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

BOOTA

I have a WORD template story I use for exercises. When I dream up something or come across something I insert in my template story to measure the effect. Is it an improvement?

 

[Boota]

If it helps you and you really feel like it was an improvement, then that is the only guideline you have to go on. I don't have anything against writing exercises, I just don't feel like I personally benefit from them anymore.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

BOOTA

You have to find what works for you cuz one size doesnt fit all.

The other thing is, we cant perceive every viewpoint concerning our creations, we have blindspots, so diverse feedback can often be useful, if not pleasant.

 

[Loring2]

Practice?

I don't mean to be flippent; but just how do you go about practicing 'writing' ? It would seem to me that the only way to 'practice' writing is to write and if that's the case ... ???.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I don't mean to be flippent; but just how do you go about practicing 'writing' ? It would seem to me that the only way to 'practice' writing is to write and if that's the case ... ???.

I suspect 99% of LIT 'writers' think like you; if they can apply pencil to paper, wear they lead down a bit, then theyve written something worthy of a plastic trophy. Using your criteria as the measure, a monkey slapping typewriter keys is 'writing.'

The rest of us take a different view: Do the scribbles create the outcome we want?

 

[Loring2]

We disagree

I suspect 99% of LIT 'writers' think like you; if they can apply pencil to paper, wear they lead down a bit, then theyve written something worthy of a plastic trophy. Using your criteria as the measure, a monkey slapping typewriter keys is 'writing.'

The rest of us take a different view: Do the scribbles create the outcome we want?

Come on Jimmie,
You call it practice I call it writing. I do it for real money about 20 to 30 weeks a year and you've never read any of it but you've seen some I'm pretty sure.

I start at the end of a story and go back to its beginning, where I (we) decide who's in it and profile them. What happens between beginning and ending changes all the time. It's in a constant state of flux; a constant state of writing and rewriting.

I've never met anybody worth his salt who can write a story in linear fashion; let alone without rewrites even without a time deadline.

Naw Jimmie:... take a tip... practice is bullshit. You should be writting and editing, that should be your practice.

Then submit for publication and if you can write porn you can write in other venues. Give it a shot. From what I see, you can write some good dialogue.

There isn't much use for sharp or clever dialogue in porn.

Learn how to get it into your 'stuff' ... thinking and practice can be the same thing and the word 'practice' has several insinuations.

... And no I not giving out my SWG ID

Loring

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Whatever. I spent the evening studying verbs and the sloppy effing crap many of the best sellers pass off as writing. They need to practice.

 

[jacks4u]

... Then submit for publication and if you can write porn you can write in other venues. ...

Loring,

Is it really that easy to get published?

What I'm doing here, is actually some sort of 'skills building'; Write shit, edit, or ask a VE to look at it, perhaps throw it up on SDC for comments, modify, or not, throw it up on .lit. The whole Idea - learn by doing. learn from other's comments, learn from reader's comments (yea, right!). learn by learning (sounds redundant huh? some things are 'viral' in that new info sometimes brings other notions with it)

But the goal is to practice to make perfect. But hey, I'm starting late in the game.

I suppose publishers aren't gonna knock down my doors and ask me to write them a story. So, at some point, I'll have to figure out how to 'show off my wares', so to speak... but the how of it eludes me...


Jacks

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

JACK

Editors and publishers dont know good writing from their asses. All they know is what their competition bought and what's a best seller. So you need an agent who knows quality goods.

I own every how-to-write book there is, and I plan to give all of them away except for maybe 3. Theyre useless. What works is dissecting 6 or so books you fucking love.