Question For Authors

[JPGmvny]

I’ve written two stories like that. In the end I submitted them under a different username because they were way different from what I usually write. They did push me to write them but comfort zone? Hmmmm, they were both rather dystopian maybe but in the end I was satisfied that I got them done and out.

If it was something you wanted to write and it’s outside your comfort zone maybe just submit under another username. Divorce yourself from it a little. If you’ve already written it, it’s obviously something you wanted to write.

I saw this and decided that a story that was pending was too off my normal soft romances to go in with my screen-name. It had a large romantic element, but ended up running into fantasy and BDSM, which is where I put it.

I have no difficulty in posting it although it has some intense scenes, but think it should go under a different name. Thanks CT for the thought.

 

[Lolita_Slut]

Have any of you sat down, written 15 or 20 pages, then gone back to proof it, only to discover that it makes you incredibly uncomfortable? Uncomfortable to a point, that perhaps, you even consider deleting it all?

Just curious...

A few questions and comments:

Q1) WHO JUST SITS DOWN and writes 15-20 pages? Hmmm? That's quite impressive, however i will note, that I am quite the novice.

Q2) What DELICIOUS FILTH are you writing that you later find so morally offensive? Sounds like a good time to me

Comment: All the writing I have done has been scenes that I would act out myself- I write for MY pleasure... does that make sense? (Again, I am an amateur here)

I don't know if you've been commissioned to write a piece outside of your wheelhouse, or perhaps this is a writing challenge to expand your style? In any of the above cases, while I am writing, I am my work. I live it: I become my characters; I have to!

But once it's done (and especially if I am not proud of my work) I kind of divorce myself from it. Yes, I created it. But I am not defined by my writing. It is a part of me; it is not all that I am.

If you want/need an editor or some outside opinions... I'm curious about what you've written. Let me know if I can lend you my eyes, and give you MY (depraved and salacious) point of view.

 

[Inkhorn]

Have any of you sat down, written 15 or 20 pages, then gone back to proof it, only to discover that it makes you incredibly uncomfortable? Uncomfortable to a point, that perhaps, you even consider deleting it all?

Just curious...

“For me, it was Tuesday.”

 

[BelleCanzuto]

I haven't written anything that long that afterward I thought "where the fuck did that come from?"
But I have written a short scene in a larger story (that may not get finished because I'm stuck on most of the plot) that is basically a r*pe scene [not sure if that word gets flagged here the same way it does in tags]. Anyhoo, there's a story consistent loophole that would make the scene (probably) pass muster with Laurel. And it makes sense in the context of what plot I have figured out.

So it wasn't so much what I'd written, it was the ferocity with which that particular scene bubbled up in my brain and out my fingertips. From first thought to final word (including a delay while I drove home from work) was about two hours for a few thousand words. I sat back afterward and wondered how long *that* particular thing had been roaming around in my head.

Also, I have a few very, very dark ideas that I haven't seriously considered putting down, because they wouldn't pass muster here.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Morally dubious? I was catching up on this and I have a couple. Ones more a very dark kidnapping and forced prostitution story that I started writing after I watched an old Charles Bronson movie that left me shaking my head. Kinjite. It wasn’t that enjoyable but it kicked off a story about a private investigator who recovers kidnapped girls who are being pimped out. He cuts deals with the pimp and the cops and charges the parents to “recover” the girls. Twist is, he arranges some of the kidnappings and helps “train” the girls before he “recovers” them. Mostly dubious? Uh, very. Not sure that I’ll ever finish it. Not sure that I want to. It was pretty dark.

I have another one about a meth dealing high school girl who discovers she likes sex with her grandad (a cop lifted from one of Noir’s old stories) and killing people. Now that one I may finish. I liked her.

 

[JamesMiehoff]

I haven't written something and then gone back and decided that was not an act or acts that I have a moral stance on. I have however let my evil twin loose at the keyboard a couple of times. The results can be strangely satisfying but disturbing.

I do keep everything. If I decide to abandon an effort, the next one gets a .1 (or .2 or .3) appended to it and I move on.

I learned the hard way years ago writing a manual. Most of it was crap, but there were a couple of chapters that were right on the money. Two seconds after I overwrote it with a fresh blank copy I realized that I needed those chapters. And they were gone forever.

If you are not happy with it, start afresh, just with a new title.

James

 

[oggbashan]

A few questions and comments:

Q1) WHO JUST SITS DOWN and writes 15-20 pages? Hmmm? That's quite impressive, however i will note, that I am quite the novice.

...

That depends on the definition of pages. 15-20 A4 pages? Frequently. I have written much more than that in an afternoon. 15-20 Lit pages? That is longer than a NaNoWriMo 50,000 word challenge. I have produced that much in a couple of weeks - sometimes.

I have produced a short Literotica story in less than an hour from typing the first word.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have produced a short Literotica story in less than an hour from typing the first word.

Ditto. Started it 59 minutes before a contest deadline, spewed ~4k words, edited and proofed it, and submitted it with 2 minutes to spare. Whew. Too much coffee?

What I write may discomfit others but I'm not bothered, heh heh.

 

[Voboy]

Morally uncomfortable?

Does not compute. This is Lit. Almost everything I write is something I'd never do, so...

I'm with the crowd who never deletes. I'm not sure why. There are times when I realize a story isn't going to work and abandon it, and a couple that I've completed but don't find good enough to publish. That's not the story's fault, so I'll keep it around.

I don't recycle passages, though, from those abandoned tales. I always tell myself I oughta, but I never have.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't understand deleting something one has written. I have many partially written stories, some that I abandoned a while ago and never came back to, but I've never deleted anything. I've had the computer delete things for me, against my wishes, but that's another story. Its scruples (or malice) are greater than my own, I guess.

 

[Javahead]

I’ve started some stories that fizzled out. But I generally don’t delete them.

And my current one - completed, but still being polished - went way beyond where I first planned to take it, even though I’d intended to be a bit over the top. Fetishes, race play, prostitution, submission, exhibitionism and voyeurism, ...

I started out riffing on earlier discussions here in the forums and elsewhere, and went on from there. I really didn’t expect to take it as far as it went, but things just seemed to follow logically. Still too close to the thing to decide if it’s really good or a really big pile of self indulgent BS, but I certainly didn’t expect to end up where I did, even though I had plotted it out and mostly followed what I’d plotted. Something about seeing it all written out in detail makes “neat idea” turn into “OMG - did I actually write all that out?!?”

 

[oggbashan]

I don't understand deleting something one has written. I have many partially written stories, some that I abandoned a while ago and never came back to, but I've never deleted anything. I've had the computer delete things for me, against my wishes, but that's another story. Its scruples (or malice) are greater than my own, I guess.

I have only lost one story, written on a IBM XT on a 360K floppy long before I joined Literotica. I had a long draft and decided on a complete rewrite. I have the rewrite which turned out to be worse than the original, but the original was on a floppy that became corrupted and is now lost for ever.

It could never have been a Lit story because much of the plot was driven by sexual abuse that the narrator suffered as a child and the detail of that abuse was significant to the plot.

It wasn't even a good story in either version but its loss has made made paranoid about keeping even the most unlikely drafts on multiple back-ups.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't understand deleting something one has written. I have many partially written stories, some that I abandoned a while ago and never came back to, but I've never deleted anything. I've had the computer delete things for me, against my wishes, but that's another story. Its scruples (or malice) are greater than my own, I guess.

It's being ruthless with your junk. If it wasn't good enough/driven enough to finish way back then, why do you think that's going to change? Readers will spot if your heart's not in it - you can't hide boredom or disinterest. If you delete it, and the story idea is that good and keeps nagging, you start it again. But resurrecting old words? I couldn't think of anything worse.

 

[CeasarBoobage]

<snip> It's probably more common than we think.

Several times, both on bespoke stories. I'd agreed to do them, so I did the best job possible, but I won't say I was happy with myself when I finished.

Morally uncomfortable?

Does not compute. This is Lit. Almost everything I write is something I'd never do, so...
<snip>.

Agreed. I have written stuff I cringe at in the morning, and even though I know I was in a mood, I usually save them for in case I'm in the same mood later to finish them. But some.......... no. Some I'll delete in the middle of page 5 because I disturb myself.

I got in trouble with the wife for writing fairly tame stuff. Just in case she checks on me, I'm not willing to defend writing something that disturbs even me. Maybe I'll make an alt to post my dark side, lol

-------------
edit:
I have written outside of my comfort zone a few times, and only posted on request of the asking person who requested the story. Still not totally comfortable with them, but they were receieved well, so meh

 

[SimonDoom]

It's being ruthless with your junk. If it wasn't good enough/driven enough to finish way back then, why do you think that's going to change? Readers will spot if your heart's not in it - you can't hide boredom or disinterest. If you delete it, and the story idea is that good and keeps nagging, you start it again. But resurrecting old words? I couldn't think of anything worse.

Perhaps I'm sentimental, but I think the crap I've written (there's much of it) has some archival or historical value for me.

"Wow, look at that. I really sucked back then. Makes me feel better about myself now."

That kind of thing.

If it took up space, that would be different. But in the electronic age nothing takes up any space.

 

[Voboy]

I did write an incest story once, just to see if I’d squick myself out. Nope.

So? Incest pegging. Nope.

So? Curdled semen poured through a buttcrack, off the scrotum, down the hatch. Nope.

I actually amused myself with that last one. It was interesting to me to see where my mind could go. Plus, my publisher liked it enough to order three more!

 

[eroticstoryspinner]

I don't understand deleting something one has written. I have many partially written stories, some that I abandoned a while ago and never came back to, but I've never deleted anything. I've had the computer delete things for me, against my wishes, but that's another story. Its scruples (or malice) are greater than my own, I guess.

Exactly. At the very least you can part the words out for other stories or return to it later

 

[ElectricBlue]

If it took up space, that would be different. But in the electronic age nothing takes up any space.

Suzie looked across at her brother with affection. "But Simon, think how much better a finished story would be - people could read it and say, 'that Simon guy, gosh, look at his stories, isn't he grand.' And that bastard EB will stop getting cheap mileage because you have so many unfinished stories, and so many promises to finish them.

"Besides, I look so much better in something finished. All those bits and zeroes - I don't look my best." She winked. "But I still look pretty cute."