I can write but I can't read

[dr_mabeuse]

This is an awful thing to have to admit here, but I'm wondering if other authors have ever had this problem: I can write erotic stories but I can no longer read them. It's not dyslexia or anything, I just don't have the patience or interest. I can read short stories in magazines, and I have no trouble with novels, I just seem to have lost my interest for on-line erotica.

Here's what turns me off:
A story told in first person. I'm just tired of first person. We all have first person stories in us, and unless you have something new to say, why should I bother? I want someone to give me the big view, the omniscient view.

Stories that start with setting statements: "Eric was an excellent garbageman."; "I'd just got my first submariner's license." "Doris had always liked the look of Ed's pantload." I see these sentences, and my eyes just glaze over. I just can't go on.

Physical descvriptions. Why am I so tired of reading "She was five foot six and had the body of a model"? "He was a striking figure with an athlete's body"? Could it be that physical descriptions are just not important in most stories. That if it's a bad story it doesn't matter how beautiful she is and if it's a good story it doesn't really matter what he looks like? I read a physical description and my heart sinks.


Authors have always read other authors to see who's doing what and how they handle certain writing problems. How come I can't stand to do this anymore?
I want to say that I've always enjoyed erotic stories, and have always been a reader. Also I should add that I've always found it uncomfortable reading text of a CRT. I just don't like it. It's not comfortable. So maybe this is part of it.
But my aversion to erotica now takes the form of real irritation. Am I just becoming a curmudgeon?

I promise to read any replies though.

---dr.M.

 

[BigTexan]

... Here's what turns me off:
A story told in first person.

There are a few stories the IMHO need to be told in first person. But not nearly as many, as are told in first person here.

Stories that start with setting statements:

This is a sure sign of someone who is not an experienced writer. (again IMHO)

Physical descvriptions.
---dr.M.

This just screams "Amateur Night at the Bistro"

I've discovered a similar tendency. To be honest, on the lit new story list only 1 or 2 new stories a day show up that are both constructed and written well. Throw in that I don't read incest, non-consent, mature, romance, ... stories and I usually don't find even a single story I enjoy reading. But once in a while I find one that is a jewel

The "problem" is both what's good and bad about Literotica. Laurel and Manu allow almost any story that shows any level of technical competence and obeys the age and paragraph rules to be posted. This is great because otherwise a lot of other writers and I would never be able to see our work published. It's bad because of what you are talking about.

However, I'm personally happy to wade through the quagmire of sloppy "me too" stories to read that one jewel. Also as time has gone by, I've found a few writers whom I read everything they write. I know it will be done well and will be enjoyable on some level.

WildSweetOne, is one of those writers. So is English Bob. KillerMuffin always writes well but some of her stories make you think a little too much for my tastes. You will slowly find your favorites if you keep looking.

So keep clicking and back-clicking and remember that the ONE story that really turns your crank could be the next one you read. Or the next, or the next, or the next ...

BigTexan

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Thanks

Thanks, Big Texan.

I was really expecting to be raked over the coals as an elitist pig when I posted that comment. It's good to see that I'm not the only one who had trouble with some seemingly trivial things in the stories.
In all my wonderings about why I couldn't read a lot fo stories, the one thing I never considered was that it might be because a lot of them were just plain bad. Because the basic style of all the stories here is very good insofar as spelling, punctuation, paragraphing etc. are concerned, it's easy to forget that they're not all first rate.
Thanks for the nice straightforward answer.

---dr.M.

 

[sirhugs]

Not sure why, but first person always seems most real to me. I find " omniscence" oppressive. A well done first person narrative draws me into the fantasy . Third person is like watching a play. Second person is like my little sister trying to get me to play Barbies.

I usually enjoy some modest physical description, but too many times, its just "44D"...then I start to glazre over. I prefer to use my imagination.

I enjoyed Erotica more before I started writing it. I think I read too much like a wannabe editor now- I notice spelling errors, tense shifts, etc that I would have glanced through before. My standrads I guess are higher, and like most others here sio far, its only the few "gems" per day that I look for. If , Like Big, you arbtrarily limit your categories, you miss out on some good stuff. Often, categories are misleading or arbtrary. If a title looks amusing, or you recognize a good writer, stretch a bit.

 

[wildsweetone]

dr_mabeuse,
I have found that since giving feedback to other authors, I have become unable to read many stories also. At least, I mean I can read them, but I get little enjoyment from them as my eyes seem trained to pick up errors. If that seems a little unfair to some writers, I am sorry. I have found that now I have limited my feedback, I can read easier.

I had one request that I read a writer's story and had permission to leave the errors alone, just enjoy the story if I could. It made all the difference. I loved it. Perhaps it could help if you gave yourself permission to just relax and enjoy what you read... it might help.


BigTexan,
I am deeply humbled by your words. Thank you. You are appreciated.

 

[NaughtyMike]

I like first person stories and always write them. To me they are more realistic. I especially enjoy female first person gang bang stories... So I wrote one myself and plan on writing more.

The stories I never read have the end of the description goes something like... "or was he?" "or was she?"

Jenny was forced to suck cock.... or was she?

If you are going to have a twist in the story, don't tell me about it up front. I can figure it out for myself, thank you. I actually believe those stories are written by people who shouldn't legally be here at this site. Would an adult write something like that?

That is my biggest turn off other than second person stories.

I am working on a third person story...and it will take a while- I am stuck at the beginning of my group sex scene. I have two people naked sitting at the dinner table, rest are dressed, I am trying to make this thing flow natural.... and this will be in the celebrity catagory... another catargory I hate and never read. I hate fictional accounts of celebrity sex unless it involves Betty Rubble and Dino.

 

[Weird Harold]

This is an awful thing to have to admit here, but I'm wondering if other authors have ever had this problem: I can write erotic stories but I can no longer read them. It's not dyslexia or anything, I just don't have the patience or interest. I can read short stories in magazines, and I have no trouble with novels, I just seem to have lost my interest for on-line erotica.

You're suffering from "burn-out" and an increased awareness of how difficult "good" writing is.

I have found that the more I read of ANY genre, the more I require absolute excellence to enjoy a story. Since Literotica is a site for Amateur Authors, and amateurs (especially novices) tend to all make the same mistakes and rehash standard plots.

I have also found I have litle patience with authors who don't (apparently) put as much thought and effort into their stories as I do -- or at least run a spell-checker before submitting.

One last thought -- if you're burned out by the sameness of the stories, think how Laurel must feel. She reads EVERY story before approving it.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

I read very selectively...if there's little to no plot or character development or the sex isn't erotic to me I drop it. It also depends on my mood, like my own writing...sometimes I want it down and dirty other times I want a nice philosophical subject as well.

 

[its Leslie]

Erotic writing can be like any other activity, you have to love something before you can "take it home from the office" successfully I guess.

I like to do woodworking. I do it for fun currently. But I wonder, if I "had" to do it 9 to 5 each day as a business, would I have the same fire to do my own projects as well.

I did some professional work making models. Essentially I was getting paid to do what I would be doing back at home for relaxation. But you have to really love something I guess.

I write erotica primarily to share it. I think if I was doing it professionally ie had to do it daily to produce income, I suspect the fun would fade soon.
If the fun in something fades, I guess everything connected with it fades.

I would have to assume the trick to making something fun, lies in how you do it. It is possible burn out requires periodically walking away from it in favour of something else.
Perhaps a month or two of writing something totally unrelated would return the lustre.

I suffer burn out in my rolegaming about every 2 years. It becomes impossible to make it feel new. I then am forced to just quit rolegaming for a few months till the drive returns.

 

[Whispersecret]

I'm with ya', Doc. I don't read many stories here. Most of them are bad. Same old, same old plots, or lackthereof. Poor grammar and mechanics. No style, no skill. Also, I already spend too much time here on the bulletin board.

I do read enough so that I think I have a good idea of what is cliche in an erotic story. I wish more of the Lit writers would read too with this goal in mind. I mean, if you see that there are like a zillion other "I caught my sister looking at porn on the internet and now I'm gonna blackmail her into being my sex slave" stories, wouldn't you think twice about writing one yourself?

Weird Harold, you are so astute. That point about familiarity with a genre--that is so ME. I am highly critical of my favorite genres now, and I think part of it is because I've read so many of them, so it's more difficult to impress me, AND because I'm a writer now and my brain just analyzes automatically.

 

[Guest]

If you're an elitist pig, so am I. I don't read erotica for pleasure much anymore. I click a story by an author that I haven't read and by sentence three I know if it's a winner for me.

Sad, but I think being a writer who aspires to good writing over fantasy sharing, you get jaded quickly. You just lose interest in anything that's not paper-publishable.


Thanks for the lovely compliment, Tex. You made me blush.


-KillerMuffin

 

[dr_mabeuse]

First Person

I want to thank you all for your comments and suggestions. For It's Leslie, I'd just like to say that I've considered the possibility that I'm just suffering from burnout, but the fact is that I still like to write erotica, I just can't seem to read it. (I can read my own stuff if I leave it alone for a month or two, but I don't always like it. But I think that's normal.)

I wanted to say something about first-person voice, because it seems there are a lot of people who prefer this style, and I don't want to give the idea that I'm denigrating it. I've done first person and I've done third, and neither is easier than the other as far as I'm concerned.
I think, though, that first person happens to feel more comfortable and "natural" for novice writers, and so more bad stories appear in first person than in third simply vecause of the author's inexperience.
First person also makes it easier to slip into colloquial sloppiness or to pass off subjective statements like "She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen." or "It felt great". But that can also be done in third and is just bad writing.

I happen to be interested in the characters' psychology and inner thoughts, and in the richness and juiciness of the language used to describe sexual and psychological activities, both of which to me are more accesible in third person. But I realize that choice of voice is a matter of taste and there's really no sense in arguing about it. No accounting for taste.

---dr.M.

 

[tenyari]

There are conventions that drive me nuts in some erotica. I will admit to only having read a few of the stories at Literotica. There just isn't a good method of finding stories you like.

I've said the same thing at ASSTR. No good search engine. So they're adding one, they just standardized it last week. Not because of me btw, that discussion began long before I got on the scene.


This place needs a good search engine for the stories.


That said, you're stuck reading the new section for the most part. That can really be hit or miss. It isn's always just an issue of quality, there's the issue of style and subect matter. There are all kinds of subtleties broad categories just can't address.

On the specifiecs of things like first person, starting with a setting comment, or whatever... it's all a case by case thing.

There's a very good novel that starts with the line "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times". Sometimes such a comment works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Thing is, sometimes it can be a 'dark and stormy night', but when it's always a 'dark and stormy night' it starts to get old.

That applies to just about any convention in any genre.

 

[Laurel]

There is a search function here:

http://www.literotica.com/stories/story_search.php

You can search for a specific theme or content, but I don't think there's any way to find a "good" story other than reading them. I've found some very compelling writing - stories that are excellent as stories - in categories that don't interest me on a sexual level.

 

[TheEarl]

The search function is very useful in other ways, but doesn't do much to sort the dross from the quality.

I don't know whether it's just because I'm getting more critical since I became an author, or whether the stories are getting worse, but I find it v.hard to read new stories.

I said something to that effect a few months ago and KM (bless her little cotton socks) posted a thread asking for authors to put in their favourite reading stories with that at the head. Unfortunately it sank fairly quickly. Good idea though.

Try looking in the Story Discussion Circle. Most of the stories in there are from authors who genuinely want to improve and so you'll find quite a bit of quality writing there.

Of course the fact that my latest story has been submittedto the SDC has no bearing on that last statement at all .

The Earl

 

[horny_giraffe]

Second person is like my little sister trying to get me to play Barbies.

Hahha! What a great line. Second person does feel a little imperative for me. Sort of like when a someone says "You will go--and you will like it!"

I also get bored reading the stories a lot of the times. If they are short, I'll read them--but I rarely feel like searching. I rarely have the patience to read a two-part story.

My pet peeves are catharsis stories and endless sequels.

 

[sirhugs]

endless sequels, no, I agree- but a selected sequel is like a good brand name- i'm likely to at least open the link. By part 23 though, I'm toasted.

 

[Route66Girl]

I don't have an aversion to reading erotica yet, but echo the sentiments of those who say that their newly-critical perspective hampers enjoyment. I back-click out of most stories I open after reading the first paragraph.

As for descriptions, I agree with Dr. Mabeuse's statement: "...if it's a bad story it doesn't matter how beautiful she is and if it's a good story it doesn't really matter what he looks like." The litany of measurements used to describe characters in most stories irritates me to no end.

But, although it's more than possible to write a good story without specifics of physicality, there's a problem inherent in dealing description completely out of the hand. Eroticism is all about sexual attraction... and for most people, that begins with visual stimulation. It's a skilled writer who can excite the reader without any at all. Maybe one day I can do that. Not yet.

As for POV, I am guilty, I guess, of relying on 1st person. I honestly hadn't thought that I was using it as a crutch, but after reading the opinions here, I wonder.

I've written stories in 3rd (never 2cd) that aren't here on Lit, when the need for the omniscience is there. Mostly, it's 1st, though. When using 1st, I don't feel like it's a crutch so much as a vehicle... seeing the story unfold through the eyes of one person, their thoughts- that can be stylistically beneficial. A character is going to relate what's going on with in their own unique lingo, according to their own philosophies, etc. If it's an interesting character, that adds something, I think.

Interesting thread

 

[Pookie]

I think the key to description is giving the reader enough so they can use their own imagination for the details. I prefer things like "medium sized breasts" instead of "36C". Also, I prefer his "large cock" instead of his "12 inch cock".

By not being so specific with the descriptions, the reader can build their own picture in their mind that is pleasing to them. I personally don't like the idea of a guy with a "12 inch cock". That would be a turnoff for me right from the start. But if I read "a large cock", then I can visualize for myself what size I prefer. A “pleasing” large cock for me is well under 12 inches. To someone else, a 12 inch cock might be exactly what they want, but let each person use their imagination. Sometimes a “12 inch cock” is what the story calls for though. It all depends on the theme of the story and what the author is trying to tell in his story. To many stories though abuse the use of descriptions.

Another would be “his cock was as thick as a beer can”. No, thank you. Every time I read something like this, I cringe at the thought of what I would feel like during and afterwards. Just say his “thick cock” and let me picture in my mind a comfortably thick cock for myself.

On the issue of reading erotica as an author, I find I have less patience with stories that don’t spend some time creating a plot and characters, making the story seem real. The two stories I have written primarily deal with incest, but I rarely read many incest stories. The reason for this is most incest stories are just “stroke stories” with absolutely no consideration for reality. Not that every story has to be “real”. But to exclude feelings, emotions, and natural human reactions is rather insulting to the reader in my opinion. If a mom walks in on her husband and discovers her once faithful man screwing their teen daughter, she is NOT going to just strip and join them ... it doesn’t happen. The mom will be pissed. There will be various emotions involving all of them. They may all wind up in bed some time later, but don’t try to pass off that an average wife is just going to ignore her husband’s infidelity without some natural reaction of anger and hurt. Stories like this tend to end up being stroke stories. These I now have no patience for. It’s probably because I know how difficult it is to write something that is “believable” for the reader.

I can tell what effort the author has given to the story. I will give the same effort reading it in return.

 

[JAYCE73]

I agree, and I would like to do some

First, I totally agree with ya. There was this one erotic site on the web that I really enjoyed, it was or is White Shadows Nasty Stories. There were some REALLY HARD EROTIC STUF there, but for some reason, those who submitted to the site seemed to be profestionals who had some dark side to them, so they wrote these stories.
I stoped reading the stories when they went to a pay site.

I was looking for something similar, and found literotica. Great site, but the content does not compare to White Shadow's.

Any way after saying that, I wanted to do some shameless self promotion here. Your looking for a good read, check out my stories. I have a series about my Love for a certain Porn star.

The response I recieved was prety good. So you might like them.
http://literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=59242
I hope you do, if not tell me what I need to work on.

 

[deliciously_naughty]

Re: I agree, and I would like to do some

First, I totally agree with ya. There was this one erotic site on the web that I really enjoyed, it was or is White Shadows Nasty Stories. There were some REALLY HARD EROTIC STUF there, but for some reason, those who submitted to the site seemed to be profestionals who had some dark side to them, so they wrote these stories.
I stoped reading the stories when they went to a pay site.

I was looking for something similar, and found literotica. Great site, but the content does not compare to White Shadow's.

That's b/c Laurel will put next to anything up. Lits an amateur website, not a professional one.

 

[TaffyJ]

plausible disbelief

If only there were a diploma to be awarded in the learning of erotica writing, and the students had to compile well written stories in each genre as a requirement of graduation. Those would make for good reading.

In my college English classes, I was always tempted to submit some of my already finished works when required to write something. It would have saved time, but too bad everything I had was written with a strong erotic flavor. I wonder if I would have been reprimanded for the nature of the piece? Maybe that would make for a good story.

I, too have difficulty reading most of what's here. Though I have trained my eye to skip over technical errors, there are many other things that will yank me right out of the story. I'll have to try the story discussion circle.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Jayze73's story

Thanks for inviting us to check out your story. I went there and started reading it, but I couldn't finish it. I was going to just charlk it up as another "can't read" when it occurred to me that I owed it to you to tell you just why I couldn't finish it.

The first and most obvious thing was that the story didn't appear to have been proofread. Within the first two paragraphs I stumbled over at least one spelling error and three grammatical errors in the use of commas, and I could see it only got worse from there. You need to proofread your stuff meticulously before you post it-- or better yet, have someone else do it--because people care about these seemingly minor and trivial things. I simply can't read a story where obvious mistakes just jump out at me.

The other thing--or things--is more serious. After the first few paragraphs I had a very good idea of what I figured was going to happen in the story. Guy's a desk clerk in a hotel on Times Square, he wants to get laid, there's a porn convention in town. Am I right in assuming that he'll meet the porn star of his dreams and have totally fantastic sex with her? I was so certain of that that I felt I didn't have to read any further.

What's worse, the narrator simply did not interest me enough to male me want to spend time with him while he scored. He didn't seem to be especially perceptive, intriguing or give me any reason to care much about him and his story. If you're going to give us a predictable story--and most stories are predictable--then you've got to give us another reason for wanting to stick around. This guy's already got his bad grammar and punctuation going against him, and then his introduction to the action is totally flat and uninteresting.

So maybe you write a great sex scene; I don;t know. I couldn't get that far.
Hope this helps

---dr.M.

 

[sirhugs]

Re: Re: I agree, and I would like to do some

That's b/c Laurel will put next to anything up. Lits an amateur website, not a professional one.

more because White Shadow was even more liberal as to content. It had to go AVS because of its extreme content. Lit is still nonAVS because, um, Laurel has some limits.

 

[TaffyJ]

I'd love it if...

Hey, Dr M... or anybody else who'd be kind enough to take the time...

I'd love it if somebody would give me a really harsh critique like Dr M just did. I have blinders on, I guess, because it's my brain child, but I would love to be shown the faults in my writing so I can improve on future efforts.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=17597

Don't be polite, just tell me what stinks. If anybody actually does this, I thank you in advance. I realize I could take this to the story discussion board, but even there, they're too polite to be effective.


I am aware there are a few punctuation errors, but I couldn't catch them myself and my proof reader is far from an English major. I'm more interested in content critique. Again, Thanks.