Looking for Co-Author

[PhantomErotic]

Hey, guys, I am very new to the world of writing, I would love it if someone would be willing to take me under their wing for a while and give me some pointers while I get on my feet.
I am more looking for someone to write with and talk with extensively about writing, then I am just looking for suggestions.
I would also love to co-author some stories with people, I think that would help me greatly as a writer.
Any help you guys could give would be great, even just some suggestions.

 

[Nezhul]

The best suggestion anyone can give you - write. The more you write, the better you get at it. At first your work can be stylistically pretty bad, but it will improve over time. All you need is keep writing.

Second best suggestion - read. The more you read, the better you become with your words. The more ideas you have. It's very good to have plot ideas from other books or movies too. It's totally normal to read something and suddenly have an inspiration like "I want the same happen to my character, but I want him to make another choice."

And don't hesitate to use Volunteer editor's program. It helps

 

[PhantomErotic]

The best suggestion anyone can give you - write. The more you write, the better you get at it. At first your work can be stylistically pretty bad, but it will improve over time. All you need is keep writing.

Second best suggestion - read. The more you read, the better you become with your words. The more ideas you have. It's very good to have plot ideas from other books or movies too. It's totally normal to read something and suddenly have an inspiration like "I want the same happen to my character, but I want him to make another choice."

And don't hesitate to use Volunteer editor's program. It helps

Okay, thanks man!

 

[StrangeLife]

Like Nezhul says....

http://i.imgur.com/KbGraKp.jpg


Seriously - write some shit down, submit it to Literotica and prepare for the verdict. Thats all.

There is no better writing school around. This is like strapping on your backpack and venturing out in the savage landscape of erotica-writing to live of the land and conquer your inner literary spirit. If you survive you will return as the Bear Grylls equivalent of a writer

(just kiddin' about the "survival" part...)

 

[Nezhul]

One more advice I thought of - take time to care about the details. It's easy to say that your character walks through a park and enters the office building, but... Pay more attention to it. Thing is, when you write you often have a mental picture of what's going on (at least I do). But your reader will not have that picture.
It might be tempting to write all the actions, but the descriptions are very important. Take care to tell the reader what the park looked like, what the weather was, what were the feelings of the character as he passed through that part, what caught his attention. Why was there a park near the office building and how it was positioned in relation to it. Imagine yourself walking that road in this setting - what will your eyes fall onto, what will you pay attention to? Maybe it's cold outside and you would try to walk faster to get inside. Or it's very nice outside, and you would enjoy the wind as it touches your hair... That's what your character will experience also.
But there's a balance to be had. Don't try to describe everything. Your story needs to be a roller-coaster, action, then resting time, then more action. We humans use free time (as we walk or have nothing to do) to go through our emotions, analyze what happened just now. That's when your eyes pay attention to surroundings a lot as your mind drifts. Then, when there's action or you are busy, you would not may much attention. A park will be just a park if you are running through it, trying to catch up to someone in hot pursuit. But the same park will be an enchanting place if you have time to walk slowly.
Pace your book accordingly. Description comes with deep analysis of what the character goes through, then action comes with more momentary thoughts.

For every 2-5 descriptive sentences, try to include an action, so that the reader don't get bored. A good writer can describe a single tree for 2 pages, but will that make a good reading? No. There should be a balance.
For every few paragraphs of descriptive materials, include a dialogue or some action between them and vice versa. You need to break up different things with others so the reader don't get bored. For example you may want to add a big dialogue scene where a lot of things need to be said, but don't go for straight dialogue. Every once in a while break it with some action, describing what the characters are doing as they talk or what is happening around them. Add in some private thoughts on the matter the character has as they talk. Some analysis he makes or how he feels about what is being said.
Break up your material.

Also don't make flad dialogues. I try to always add the description of what the character is doing, thinking, or how his facial expression looks like as he talks. Just for comparison:
"Hey, I'm gonna order a dinner."
"What, again?"
"Sure, I'm too tired to cook today."
"I can cook. You just go and relax."

"Hey, I'm gonna order a dinner," Amy said, struggling out of her jacket.
"What, again?" Sam frowned.
They've been eating take-outs for the entire week now.
"Sure," Amy smiled apologetically, "I'm too tired to cook today."
"I can cook," he offered, "You just go and relax."

Oh yea, and always proof-read your work before you get it to the editor. Not only it lets you get rid of typos and some mistakes, but you will most likely want to add something or even re-do some phrases.
Also if you don't feel like writing any particular part of the story - don't. Just write what happens further along, what you are excited about. It's better than NOT writing at all. And there are two other benefits:
1) You have more time to think and maybe redo the part you didn't want to write to be more exciting
2) When you have most of the book/story written, it's much easier to make yourself sit down and connect the dots, writing the less exciting parts.

 

[8letters]

Hey, guys, I am very new to the world of writing, I would love it if someone would be willing to take me under their wing for a while and give me some pointers while I get on my feet.
I am more looking for someone to write with and talk with extensively about writing, then I am just looking for suggestions.
I would also love to co-author some stories with people, I think that would help me greatly as a writer.
Any help you guys could give would be great, even just some suggestions.

What categories do you want to write in? What story ideas do you have? How good are your writing skills? How would you split up the work?

As others said, probably the best thing is to get a couple of stories published and then you can point any potential co-writers to those as examples of what you want to write.

 

[PhantomErotic]

One more advice I thought of - take time to care about the details. It's easy to say that your character walks through a park and enters the office building, but... Pay more attention to it. Thing is, when you write you often have a mental picture of what's going on (at least I do). But your reader will not have that picture.
It might be tempting to write all the actions, but the descriptions are very important. Take care to tell the reader what the park looked like, what the weather was, what were the feelings of the character as he passed through that part, what caught his attention. Why was there a park near the office building and how it was positioned in relation to it. Imagine yourself walking that road in this setting - what will your eyes fall onto, what will you pay attention to? Maybe it's cold outside and you would try to walk faster to get inside. Or it's very nice outside, and you would enjoy the wind as it touches your hair... That's what your character will experience also.
But there's a balance to be had. Don't try to describe everything. Your story needs to be a roller-coaster, action, then resting time, then more action. We humans use free time (as we walk or have nothing to do) to go through our emotions, analyze what happened just now. That's when your eyes pay attention to surroundings a lot as your mind drifts. Then, when there's action or you are busy, you would not may much attention. A park will be just a park if you are running through it, trying to catch up to someone in hot pursuit. But the same park will be an enchanting place if you have time to walk slowly.
Pace your book accordingly. Description comes with deep analysis of what the character goes through, then action comes with more momentary

What do you guys think about thrid person omniscient writing? Should I keep the point of few from one person or is it okay to jump from person to person?

Either way what you guys have said is helpful and I well definitely heed your advice!

 

[Hypoxia]

What do you guys think about thrid person omniscient writing? Should I keep the point of few from one person or is it okay to jump from person to person?

That depends on the story and your desired effects.

First, avoid present and future tense except in conversation, and use 2nd person only in song or poetry. Next, if your story needs the intensity of a personal POV, 1st is best, followed by 3rd limited. I sometimes use 3rd limited-shifting -- I start with one character's thoughts and deeds, then to another (but I make sure it's clear who's thinking and doing what), then back or to another. But IMHO those shifts should be short; keep focus on the main character.

I've not really addressed your question. With 1st or 3rd-limited, the main character (and the reader) can be fooled and mistaken. 3rd-omniscient can make everything perfectly clear. Which do you prefer? My advice: read highly-regarded stories here and see how the authors used POVs.

 

[NoJo]

I came here to get practice at writing. After two or three stories I hit my stride.

This is a good place to dip your toe in the water, because, let's be honest, none of us are J D Salingers here, so you have a pretty low bar.

Write something, and request feedback if you like in the story feedback forum.

I really don't think you should get hung up on what tense/pov to use, style and grammar, at least, not until you've tried to write something. People get it pretty much right anyway when they write, just from absorbing all the stuff they've read.

And if it is wrong, somebody will tell you where you're wrong, and hey, you can fix it up.

 

[sr71plt]

There have been two points made directly to your original question here, one of which you haven't answered. First, if you want to find a coauthor, you need to have stories of your own out there so they will know if there might be a fit--and that you actually can hold up your end of coauthoring. Second, it will be very important for you to establish what you are interested in writing before anyone will express interest in writing with you.

 

[Kimikimidoll]

Also, if you can enable PM then maybe people who want to offer can? Just saying.

 

[Kantarii]

Have you checked the story idea/ circle discussion board?

 

[Nezhul]

What do you guys think about thrid person omniscient writing? Should I keep the point of few from one person or is it okay to jump from person to person?

Either way what you guys have said is helpful and I well definitely heed your advice!

If you write it third person, you should still concentrate on one character. That keeps the story focused. However that doesn't mean you don't explore other people viewpoints too. It just means that 90% of your story should follow your main character, while 10% you can spend describing other viewpoints that deal with events that your character does not see, or that provide outer look at the character (f.e. how awesome he looks to the outsider at a particular moment. Naturally he himself can't think "I'm sooo awesome!" but another person can).

If you write the story from a first person perspective, then you should avoid snapping to other characters unless it's somehow explained by lore. You should at most explore their viewpoints through dialogues or main character's insights (What he thinks THEY think).
However I should also mention Wildbow's "Worm" web series. He made it a first-person story, however at the end of each arc (and occasionally in the middle) he did a thing that he called interludes. These were full separate chapters that followed one character at third person perspective, and this approach didn't ruin the flow. Obviously it can be done only in longer stories, or maybe it can be adapted.

These advices are what I recommend to stick with as a beginner. An experienced author, I'm sure, can make EVERYTHING work. It's about how you write and not the rules. It's just much harder to stitch some things together (like first person + third person), but it's not impossible.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hey, guys, I am very new to the world of writing, I would love it if someone would be willing to take me under their wing for a while and give me some pointers while I get on my feet.
I am more looking for someone to write with and talk with extensively about writing, then I am just looking for suggestions.
I would also love to co-author some stories with people, I think that would help me greatly as a writer.
Any help you guys could give would be great, even just some suggestions.

Just write. Take some stories or authors in the sub-genre or category that you really like and start out by writing your own version of one you like most. Play with writing styles, see what suits you best, what you feel more comfortable with. Take the advice from here and in the Writers Resources section. That's what I did when I started writing here (June 2015). A lot of it won't make sense to start with, but more and more of it will as you progress. And really, the only way to get there is by actually writing and putting it out there. Don't be shy about it, we've all been there and everyone here knows what its like. We all started like you.

My first story here wasn't that great and I had to edit it and resubmit it three times before it got accepted (coz I based it on someone elses to start with and it was a bit too much of a copy) - but I kept rewriting and eventually I got to something original. It wasn't the best but it's still sitting there with a 4.64 rating so it was a good start for me.

 

[legerdemer]

One more suggestion: among the essays in the How To category, there are some on writing. Don't take them as any sort of god-given truth, but rather a piece of clothing you might look at, see if it fits, try it on for size, keep or discard.

As an example, I've written one on setting (see my sig for my author's page), but many others have written all sorts of helpful essays on writing for here. Look around.

 

[8letters]

What do you guys think about thrid person omniscient writing? Should I keep the point of few from one person or is it okay to jump from person to person?

Either way what you guys have said is helpful and I well definitely heed your advice!

It all depends on the story. To me, first person is much more intimate than third person. My first story was third person (here and here) where as my second was first person (here). Both stories are brother-sister incest stories. If that's not your thing, reading the first half of a page will give you an idea in the difference in the level of intimacy.

Most stories here are about the main character (MC) trying to win over his love interest (MCLI). To me, we should see the MC struggle to connect with the MCLI, to strengthen their relationship and then to finally bed him/her. If you start the story with the MCLI thinking "He's such a hunk. I'd love to fuck him," then you're going to lose the dramatic tension. But there are story lines where knowing the MCLI's thoughts improves the dramatic tension, particularly if the MCLI is reluctant to act on his/her feelings towards the MC.

 

[Handley_Page]

I suggest you need a "Beta Reader". Someone to read what you've written and maybe point out any obvious mistakes.
Then you can send it to an Editor (there's a thread for it), who will really lean on it.
All this before you make a laughing stock of yourself and attract loads of strange comments.

BTW. A Lit page is about 3700 words.
2 pages would seem make a good start.