MayorReynolds
Appropriate Length
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2012
- Posts
- 441
And by first I mean ever. Prior to this, I never wrote any erotica at all---not for Literotica or anywhere else.
My story's been sitting on my flash drive since I finished editing on December 4. I'm anxious and itchy to submit it, but I'm worried it's not perfect enough for publication. I tried contacting a few volunteer editors to help but received no response. I don't blame them though, what with the holidays here and everything.
Anyway, here's some specs about my story, and a few things I'm concerned about:
* The story's a "First Time" category tale. A frustrated college Junior, Leon, decides to go to a party after a potential hookup goes down the crapper. It's 2006, the night before Leon's supposed to leave campus for Christmas vacation. Outside, a snowstorm, rare for his part of the country (which isn't specified in the story) is falling and getting worse.
- A bitter Leon goes outside. His car's in the parking lot, and the off-campus house party is about a mile away. Leon decides to go to the party on foot instead of taking his car. When I wrote the story, I thought the image of walking through a snowstorm instead of driving would reflect inner turmoil, perhaps a bit of self loathing. But now I'm not sure if it's gonna work. It's what I call a potential "Logic Hole."
* The rest of the story is thus: at the party, Leon meets a girl (a year below him) named Summer Madison. They chat for a bit, then go back to his personal dorm room (it's in a suite he shares with three other guys) and have sex. Again, the journey back to the dorm is on foot through the snowstorm, which is getting heavier; Summer actually has on MORE weather-appropriate clothing than Leon does.
- My goal was to make Summer's past and background a little mysterious while trying to develop her as a character at the same time. I don't know if I pulled that off right. Also, there's a lot of buildup to the actual sex with a lot of reader teasing before the big event, though I did sorta throw in sex in a couple places before that by having Leon watch a porn DVD.
* I tried to establish humanity and characterization, and then attempted to make the sex HOT. I sent the draft to a few personal friends for feedback. One young woman friend of mine commented that she had to take breaks while reading it, because she was really tired at the time and had to resist urges to masturbate herself silly with her toys.
* Last word count (with Apache OpenOffice Writer): 9,811 words. That's much shorter than what I determined my limit to be, 17,500, the maximum for a novelette.
* The title is "Summer's Warmth: A Winter Encounter." I picked a title with several meanings at once as opposed to something like "Leon Fucks a Hot Blonde" or "Losing His Virginity." Prior to writing, I read as many writing guides as possible on the site.
* I guess my biggest problem is that I feel this will come as cliche. Some of the story contains some autobiographical elements, which makes it a lot more personal to me. There's also dreamlike qualities to it. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a story about a guy losing his virginity to a hot blonde Sophomore during a snowstorm before Christmas. It seems like it's... been done before. A lot.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
My story's been sitting on my flash drive since I finished editing on December 4. I'm anxious and itchy to submit it, but I'm worried it's not perfect enough for publication. I tried contacting a few volunteer editors to help but received no response. I don't blame them though, what with the holidays here and everything.
Anyway, here's some specs about my story, and a few things I'm concerned about:
* The story's a "First Time" category tale. A frustrated college Junior, Leon, decides to go to a party after a potential hookup goes down the crapper. It's 2006, the night before Leon's supposed to leave campus for Christmas vacation. Outside, a snowstorm, rare for his part of the country (which isn't specified in the story) is falling and getting worse.
- A bitter Leon goes outside. His car's in the parking lot, and the off-campus house party is about a mile away. Leon decides to go to the party on foot instead of taking his car. When I wrote the story, I thought the image of walking through a snowstorm instead of driving would reflect inner turmoil, perhaps a bit of self loathing. But now I'm not sure if it's gonna work. It's what I call a potential "Logic Hole."
* The rest of the story is thus: at the party, Leon meets a girl (a year below him) named Summer Madison. They chat for a bit, then go back to his personal dorm room (it's in a suite he shares with three other guys) and have sex. Again, the journey back to the dorm is on foot through the snowstorm, which is getting heavier; Summer actually has on MORE weather-appropriate clothing than Leon does.
- My goal was to make Summer's past and background a little mysterious while trying to develop her as a character at the same time. I don't know if I pulled that off right. Also, there's a lot of buildup to the actual sex with a lot of reader teasing before the big event, though I did sorta throw in sex in a couple places before that by having Leon watch a porn DVD.
* I tried to establish humanity and characterization, and then attempted to make the sex HOT. I sent the draft to a few personal friends for feedback. One young woman friend of mine commented that she had to take breaks while reading it, because she was really tired at the time and had to resist urges to masturbate herself silly with her toys.
* Last word count (with Apache OpenOffice Writer): 9,811 words. That's much shorter than what I determined my limit to be, 17,500, the maximum for a novelette.
* The title is "Summer's Warmth: A Winter Encounter." I picked a title with several meanings at once as opposed to something like "Leon Fucks a Hot Blonde" or "Losing His Virginity." Prior to writing, I read as many writing guides as possible on the site.
* I guess my biggest problem is that I feel this will come as cliche. Some of the story contains some autobiographical elements, which makes it a lot more personal to me. There's also dreamlike qualities to it. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a story about a guy losing his virginity to a hot blonde Sophomore during a snowstorm before Christmas. It seems like it's... been done before. A lot.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
) because most know that you get what you pay for. 
