Questions from a nooby, hobbyist "writer."

[Jmanchu]

Sorry for the incoming wall of text. I've been on this site amongst other writing sites for a while, mainly as a lurker, and occasional reader. I've always enjoyed the hobby of writing stories(that I've never published, or finished :| ) and reading.

The last couple of years have been some busy years so I stopped having the time to write. Now, with some free time in between my personal life I've gotten back into writing.

There's one story I'm working on(Grimdark-ish, Sword and Sorcery Fantasy setting) where I've written enough, so far, to be able to break down into 2 or more full length chapters( about 96,000 characters, or over 18,000 words so far, and counting), and by the this story is going, it'll probably be the length of a full fantasy novel set, even post edit.

You don't have to answer every single question if you feel up to replying to only some, if you just want to answer only one, totally cool with me, but here are my questions:

1. Is it better to write the story more completely before separating the story into chapters and uploading it in installments, even waiting until it's almost finished? Or should it matter at all?

I have enough of my story written down to be able to separate it into 2 or 3 full installments.

Depending on how much free time and how well I get into the zone when writing, and if I can stay out of the self-editing circle of Writer's Limbo.

sometimes I can get a lot done in a week. Sometimes, I barely get any progress.

I don't know how consistently I'd be able to keep up with finishing a new chapter, especially weekly, or bi-monthly, or even monthly. Is that something someone who posts online should be worried about? Or even think about?

2. As a general "rule," is important to focus on writing "well" and being as "professional" in your prose as possible to write a "good story?" Or is it fine to focus on writing on "your story" your way first, and only really use the rules and tips of good writing and avoiding "bad writing" as a guideline?

Even if it means it might not come out as professional or cleanly written?

Of course that doesn't mean that if I get editorial help here or if if readers offer tips I will just ignore constructive criticism, especially if the constructive criticism helps to either make my story more concise and readable.

Nor do I have such a big head that I won't humbly accept a suggestion or tip that either improves what I'm trying to go for, or even a rewriting suggestion that is superior to how I write a part of the story, as I know my writing skills are amateur at best.

But I want to stay in the category of writing "my story" more than a "good story," though I really want to hear thoughts on this.

3. Which comes to the topic of my second question: Expositions... how bad are they, really? And is going by "I like/don't like what I'm reading" a reliable indicator of if your story is passable reading material or not?

The ugly side of fantasy fiction and technically bad writing.

I know there will be readers that will skip a story if there's exposition, but I don't mind(I'm writing "my stories") but how do you know if there's too much exposition? I'd like to hear all opinions on the general matter.

Anyways, my initial approach was thinking somewhere along the lines of if I have trouble reading and re-reading story after taking a week's plus break, then, that's a sign to edit out or shorten the parts that make me lose attention(the ADHD kid in me makes for a decent editor, sometimes).

I also edit out exposition that I feel becomes unnecessary, either because the story later shows it(and I am sometimes still doing as I'm writing the story), I see a way to show not tell, or it just doesn't serve well even as foreshadowing or explaining some lore efficiently.

I'm still left with a lot of exposition sometimes despite me actually enjoying what I'm reading so far (which I'm sure there still are parts in there too boring or unnecessary to read). I fear there could be strong bias when I feel like I'm enjoying what I have so far, even though I know it's far from perfect.

The final question in regards to exposition. Dialogue exposition... always a sin of writing? Or a permissible form of expository use? I don't use on purpose or try to sneak in exposition through dialogue, but sometimes what the characters say to each other in the story could count as "exposition" technically sometimes, even though I don't feel like comes out unnaturally(ie. unnaturally as in two characters awkwardly having the infamous "As you know, Bob..." convo).

 

[Jmanchu]

4. On the topic of flexible narrative style and pacing: How flexible is "too flexible?"

A thing I've noticed about my story, is that the narrative focus, voice and style is very heavily influenced by the thoughts and feelings of my characters to the point that story's pacing(Yes, Omniscient) and the overall feel and flow of the story can feel drastically different from one chapter to the next.

It's drastic enough that to the point that one chapter can feel like an almost entirely different story with a different style depending on which main character or characters the scene focuses on. And I really emphasize how different the feel of the story changes.

All stories I have written have this pattern, but this one I'm working on is really, really noticeably different. Like it almost feels like it hits a different genre depending on the characters the story focuses on. That different.

When the story focuses on the male it tends to be more straightforward and straight to the point, slightly more action heavy (there's not a lot of action so far, but when there's fight action, there's really some action, especially with what's planned in the future). It feels more professional of the two, although I did have to inject exposition to ensure that the story had at least a little bit of clarity in what's going on sometimes.

When the story focuses on the female main character, it tends to flow in a far more, for a lack of a better word, complicated and drama-esque fashion, with a lot more focus on the inner turmoils, feelings, etc of her and the characters around her. I also tend to have to remove expository writing or try to rewrite and simplify my prose a lot more, although I find myself using a more artistic writing style. It feels a lot less straightforward as well in both a good and bad way, I guess.

Very different than when the story focuses on the male main character in that the problems I tend to run into when writing her part versus the other main character's part of the story are different.

I don't feel like it reads badly at all when I've re-read it. but I'm wondering if that is something that people have dealt with before when writing, if that is something I should tone down or complete rewrite. Should a writer try to keep to a more consistent style in general?

5. Is it alright to let dialogue be free flowing or should dialogue be more focused on being as straight to the point as possible?

As in, should all the "fat" from a dialogue be cut out to leave the story lean, or is a little bit or fair amount of "fat" okay?

I'm talking bits of small talk, random interesting interactions between two characters, or any little bits of two people having a conversation that isn't relevant to moving forward the main plotline of an epic fantasy setting of hero is trying to defeat a great evil threatening the world with the world trying to survive marauding demons, evil curses and dark gods, constant wars and bickering, warring politics of feudal lords and warlords, pirates, and an empire led by a black magician trying to take over the world while their nobles plot behind the scenes for their ambitious grabs to power, and rebellions against the empire, with a princess that secretly wants to get away from the choking influence of her father's empire life.

This one is what bothers me as a decent amount of my characters, do have parts of the story where they have interesting interactions that do a good job fleshing out the personality and ambitions of the characters(according to what I've read), but a lot of them seem almost more like distractions from the moving forward of the main plotlines.

 

[Jmanchu]

6. On the topic of sex usage in your story for both erotic and non-erotic intention.

Is it a problem if there isn't a set pattern for when an upcoming chapter is or isn't going to be or have an erotic scene?

Like sometimes the story might be little or no eroticism, and other times, nonstop chapters of full on XXX-rated graphic sexual scenes filled with filthy smut, and then maybe sporadic sexual scenes in between focus on story? Hypothetically?

What if some potential sex scenes cut out without being shown or the sexual eroticism of it toned down or not at all the focus, either for keeping the story's pace going, or because the nature of the sex or implied sex that's about to happen isn't meant to be erotic to read, but to help shape the setting?

7. What's the general rule on grimdark shit in stories when the edgy grimdark shit is there but not explored in any actual way as part of the story's smut material? Will that make it officially "noncon?" Could there be any possible problems in publishing it here?

On the topic of "rape." I'll go to the point. There will be themes of rape or attempted, like war and death and rape and bad times in the setting happens. But a lot of it is either left implied or brought up in your typical "grimdark" and "sword and sorcery" kind of way, or if it is about to happen, it cuts out. They aren't the erotic focus or meant to be part of of the smutty elements of the story. Not erotically explored In any significant way.

One example: An evil army takes over a town, it's known that they kill and enslave the people they conquer, and they are absolutely no strangers to committing war crimes. The scene cuts out after the army leader instructs his men to enslave, kill, and slake their appetites on the citizens.

Another example: in the setting, a dark cult of sorceresses that essentially take male slaves and victims and drain them of their life essences with dark sexual rituals for power or personal gratification. It's not planned to be explored in any smutty way, but it's there in the setting as in that shit happens, and when the male main character, or any other character(usually male) ever deals with said women there's a certain overhanging threat that they can be, well, used.

Basically forcefully snu snu'd to death, if you will, by evil witchy succubus-like bitches owing their allegiance to the underworld looking to suck out all the life energies of their victims while they slip in a subdued state into a coma or death.

Or a near-rape scene where the female main character has to stop an angry and ambitious male noble who gets frustrated at her, and she ends up fighting him off before things get too far(and she, right after, sets him in his place). These are just a few examples. Again, there's no plan to explore any actual graphic rape scenes, especially not in any erotic way.

P.S. Actually, I just remembered that there is an erotic masturbation scene where the female main character does enthusiastically explore some... "noncon-esque" fantasies in her head while she enjoys herself, and there might be a couple more masturbation scenes with her where she thinks about god-knows-what.

Dunno if that is something that would change anything about what I talked about involving "rape." But that's about as far as it goes.

 

[Winter_Fare]

1. Characters exposed to sexual situations cannot be under 18, or look or act under 18. No exceptions or loopholes. It doesn't matter what era the story is placed in, magic and technology don't invalidate the rule, dream sequences still count.This rule has nothing to do with any laws anywhere; it's just Laurel's decision on this, her privately owned server. Don't do it or even ask about it.

2. If your character fucks it, it has to be either human or entirely mythical.

3. We don't make or enforce rules. Only Laurel, the site owner, does. We can't help you or convince Laurel of anything.

4. No one has demographic data on the readership, including the site owners. The site owners do know roughly how many active writers there are, but info on the readership is anecdotal at best.

5. There's no right or wrong length to a story or a chapter. No particular form is better or gets higher ratings. Other than telling you to use better grammar, we probably can't help you improve your ratings. Note that some categories are judged more harshly than others, and some are ok with plot while others encourage sex and more sex. It's ok to ask about categories here, and some authors know them inside out.

6. If you write a story, it's automatically copyright. However, consensus here is that that implicit copyright on stories published here for free is just about useless legally. We can't help you if your story was ripped off. (And that happens frequently.)

7. There's no archetype for a typical reader here, so no one can give you anything other than vague guesses as to whether your story will be well received. There are some categories here that are much more widely read than others, and that's all we know. (Note that if anything is known about a "typical reader", it's that they either resent their ex-wife or want to screw their mother or sister. This place is not your aunt's tea club and there can be good reason for minimizing your exposure to the readership, especially when writing certain genres.)

8. If you posted in Loving Wives, you get what you get in terms of commentary. It happens to everyone there. Other categories are generally nicer but hostility can happen anywhere.

9. People read when they want to, leave scores on stories when they want to, leave comments when they want to, and don't do either when they want to. It's the same with all of us. You can't do anything about scores. Whining will not help; in fact there's evidence that whining or boasting about scores in this forum attracts additional low score votes; see the next point.

10. It's known for certain that some people put scores of 1 (awful) on stories because they are authors and competitive about scores, or sometimes by people who just hate certain topics. The site sometimes recognizes these as bogus votes and "sweeps" them away. As a result, scores have only the barest relation, if any, with story quality, especially at first. Old timers will tell you: don't get hung up on scores. Write what you like. Unless you completely suck, someone else will like it too.

11. Not everyone active in the fora is nice, honest and factual. A few are none of the above. Regard what you read here with appropriate skepticism. This is the internet; some people are simply assholes with opinions. Try not to be one of them. Note: not everyone here is who or what they claim to be.

12. To take a story you wrote off the site, post it again with the same title but add [REMOVE] to the end of the title, or at the beginning if it doesn't fit at the end. (You don't have to repost the text of the story.) It won't come down immediately.

13. You can delete comments on your stories, and you can refuse to accept anonymous comments. That's all the control you or anyone gets. It's wise to use a throwaway email address when replying to readers. Some of them have issues. (Others are very nice).

14. If contacted by someone underage - and this is not unlikely to happen eventually - cut off contact, and if you can figure out who they are, report it to Laurel via a "PM" (Private Message).

15. Whatever you're complaining about, we've probably been there too, but we can't help. The site is what it is. The management isn't interested in making radical changes, so if there's something or someone here you don't like, learn to live with it. (Other sites might suit you more.)

16. If someone here is annoying, use the Ignore feature on them. Don't whine, don't indulge in pages of drama. Optionally say goodbye, and flip the Ignore switch. It's the true path to happiness.

17. Stories take time to get through moderation. Three days is somewhat typical but it can be over two weeks. You won't be contacted if it's rejected; you have to check your author page periodically. You can resubmit with changes, after discussing it with Laurel. Or you can take it elsewhere. Discussing it here won't help you.

18. Rape stories are not allowed unless the victim decides it was ok, during or after the fact. This rule is very fuzzy, but it appears to be an attempt to not glorify real life rape, while leaving a door open for a particular genre of "We both know you want it" sexuality. This can be contentious and shouldn't be argued about here, as everyone has their opinions about it, and ultimately Laurel's the only one who decides on acceptable content. Accept it as a known grey area.

19. Don't give out a lot of personal information here. Never give out anyone else's personal information.

20. Political comments, personal attacks, promoting other sites, advertising (with certain exceptions), and quoting long sections of a story can all get you in trouble in this forum. So don't. Kink shaming is discouraged; if someone's kink seems abhorrent to you, set ignore on them.

21. Don't sweat the small stuff. And on a free erotica site, everything is small stuff. The place is supposed to be about orgasms and fun. No two people are here for the same reason and people don't have to agree on anything here. Smile and nod, or use ignore where you can't, and it's all good.

This is not an official FAQ. I'm just an occasional writer here.

Here's a quote from the sticky FAQ at the top of the board that I found helpful at times x good luck with your story! It sounds fun.

 

[Jmanchu]

So, if had I read the sticky FAQS a little more carefully I would have had some of my answers, huh... then question 1. is almost completely answered, and I'll take it as "Post however, whenever you want. Don't sweat it." < And maybe that there should be the answer to a few of my other questions lol

And question 7 fully answered. Just means it's a "grey area" as long as it's not an actual erotic rape story or puts rape in a glorified, "stop it, get some help" kind of way. Cool and thanks for the helpful reply and encouragement!

 

[Bramblethorn]

A lot of these are good questions to be asking as you write a story, but not necessarily questions that other people are going to be able to answer for you. What works for me might not work for you.

1. Is it better to write the story more completely before separating the story into chapters and uploading it in installments, even waiting until it's almost finished? Or should it matter at all?

If you feel capable of finishing the whole thing before posting, that's a good option. It saves the problem of writing yourself into a corner with stuff that you can't change because it's already been posted.

Personally, I can't manage that; it takes me a year or more to write a long story, and posting chapters as I go helps keep my momentum up. But if you can, I'd recommend it.

2. As a general "rule," is important to focus on writing "well" and being as "professional" in your prose as possible to write a "good story?" Or is it fine to focus on writing on "your story" your way first, and only really use the rules and tips of good writing and avoiding "bad writing" as a guideline?

This depends entirely on which tips and whose definition of "professional" we're talking about.

There is a ton of advice for writers out there. Some of it is actively bad, some of it is pretty optional, some of it is important. Some is good advice taken out of context - rules that are good for business writing might be over-formal for erotica.

I do think it's worth making an effort on spelling and grammar. A few errors here and there shouldn't be a problem, but if the story is riddled with SPAG errors many readers will find that distracting. And there isn't usually a conflict between getting the SPAG right and telling the story as you want to tell it.

(Usual caveat that the characters within a story might not speak perfect BBC English!)

3. Which comes to the topic of my second question: Expositions... how bad are they, really? And is going by "I like/don't like what I'm reading" a reliable indicator of if your story is passable reading material or not?

Exposition in moderation isn't automatically bad, but it's usually better to drip-feed it as needed rather than delivering an info-dump on Page 1 and then expect readers to remember the details ten chapters later. "As you know, Bob" is best avoided.

4. On the topic of flexible narrative style and pacing: How flexible is "too flexible?" A thing I've noticed about my story, is that the narrative focus, voice and style is very heavily influenced by the thoughts and feelings of my characters to the point that story's pacing(Yes, Omniscient) and the overall feel and flow of the story can feel drastically different from one chapter to the next. It's drastic enough that to the point that one chapter can feel like an almost entirely different story with a different style depending on which main character or characters the scene focuses on. And I really emphasize how different the feel of the story changes. All stories I have written have this pattern, but this one I'm working on is really, really noticeably different. Like it almost feels like it hits a different genre depending on the characters the story focuses on. That different.

When the story focuses on the male it tends to be more straightforward and straight to the point, slightly more action heavy (there's not a lot of action so far, but when there's fight action, there's really some action, especially with what's planned in the future). It feels more professional of the two, although I did have to inject exposition to ensure that the story had at least a little bit of clarity in what's going on sometimes.

When the story focuses on the female main character, it tends to flow in a far more, for a lack of a better word, complicated and drama-esque fashion, with a lot more focus on the inner turmoils, feelings, etc of her and the characters around her. I also tend to have to remove expository writing or try to rewrite and simplify my prose a lot more, although I find myself using a more artistic writing style. It feels a lot less straightforward as well in both a good and bad way, I guess. Very different than when the story focuses on the male main character in that the problems I tend to run into when writing her part versus the other main character's part of the story are different.

Hard to gauge without reading it, but in general different voices for different characters is a good thing.

5. Is it alright to let dialogue be free flowing or should dialogue be more focused on being as straight to the point as possible? As in, should all the "fat" from a dialogue be cut out to leave the story lean, or is a little bit or fair amount of "fat" okay?

Depends what you're considering "fat".

In general, the more character-driven your story is, the more you might want to lean on dialogue as a way of showing who your characters are, how they feel, and how they influence one another.

6. On the topic of sex usage in your story for both erotic and non-erotic intention. Is it a problem if there isn't a set pattern for when an upcoming chapter is or isn't going to be or have an erotic scene? Like sometimes the story might be little or no eroticism, and other times, nonstop chapters of full on XXX-rated graphic sexual scenes filled with filthy smut, and then maybe sporadic sexual scenes in between focus on story?

Particularly if you're posting in SFF, there's no mandatory smut quota. Readers will be pretty tolerant of low-smut stories if there's enough story to keep them engaged.

7. What's the general rule on grimdark shit in stories when the edgy grimdark shit is there but not explored in any actual way as part of the story's smut material? Will that make it officially "noncon?" Could there be any possible problems in publishing it here?

On the topic of "rape." I'll go to the point. There will be themes of rape or attempted, like war and death and rape and bad times in the setting happens. But a lot of it is either left implied or brought up in your typical "grimdark" and "sword and sorcery" kind of way, or if it is about to happen, it cuts out. They aren't the erotic focus or meant to be part of of the smutty elements of the story. Not erotically explored In any significant way. One example: An evil army takes over a town, it's known that they kill and enslave the people they conquer, and they are absolutely no strangers to committing war crimes. The scene cuts out after the army leader instructs his men to enslave, kill, and slake their appetites on the citizens. Another example: in the setting, a dark cult of sorceresses that essentially take male slaves and victims and drain them of their life essences with dark sexual rituals for power or personal gratification. It's not planned to be explored in any smutty way, but it's there in the setting as in that shit happens, and when the male main character, or any other character(usually male) ever deals with said women there's a certain overhanging threat that they can be, well, used. Basically forcefully snu snu'd to death, if you will, by evil witchy succubus-like bitches owing their allegiance to the underworld looking to suck out all the life energies of their victims while they slip in a subdued state into a coma or death.

As described, that's probably not going to be a problem with getting it published here. There isn't a site rule against non-con content though there are some limits on torture/snuff type content.

 

[Winter_Fare]

So, if had I read the sticky FAQS a little more carefully I would have had some of my answers, huh... then question 1. is almost completely answered, and I'll take it as "Post however, whenever you want. Don't sweat it." < And maybe that there should be the answer to a few of my other questions lol
And question 7 fully answered. Just means it's a "grey area" as long as it's not an actual erotic rape story or puts rape in a glorified, "stop it, get some help" kind of way. Cool and thanks for the helpful reply and encouragement!

I manage to fly a bit closet to the "get some help" end of the n/c spectrum at times and it still falls within the accepted rules. There should be mutual enjoyment without maiming or death during the sex act itself but either aside of it if fair game.

 

[Jmanchu]

A lot of these are good questions to be asking as you write a story, but not necessarily questions that other people are going to be able to answer for you. What works for me might not work for you.



If you feel capable of finishing the whole thing before posting, that's a good option. It saves the problem of writing yourself into a corner with stuff that you can't change because it's already been posted.

Personally, I can't manage that; it takes me a year or more to write a long story, and posting chapters as I go helps keep my momentum up. But if you can, I'd recommend it.



This depends entirely on which tips and whose definition of "professional" we're talking about.

There is a ton of advice for writers out there. Some of it is actively bad, some of it is pretty optional, some of it is important. Some is good advice taken out of context - rules that are good for business writing might be over-formal for erotica.

I do think it's worth making an effort on spelling and grammar. A few errors here and there shouldn't be a problem, but if the story is riddled with SPAG errors many readers will find that distracting. And there isn't usually a conflict between getting the SPAG right and telling the story as you want to tell it.

(Usual caveat that the characters within a story might not speak perfect BBC English!)



Exposition in moderation isn't automatically bad, but it's usually better to drip-feed it as needed rather than delivering an info-dump on Page 1 and then expect readers to remember the details ten chapters later. "As you know, Bob" is best avoided.



Hard to gauge without reading it, but in general different voices for different characters is a good thing.



Depends what you're considering "fat".

In general, the more character-driven your story is, the more you might want to lean on dialogue as a way of showing who your characters are, how they feel, and how they influence one another.


Particularly if you're posting in SFF, there's no mandatory smut quota. Readers will be pretty tolerant of low-smut stories if there's enough story to keep them engaged.



As described, that's probably not going to be a problem with getting it published here. There isn't a site rule against non-con content though there are some limits on torture/snuff type content.

That's what I was sort of expecting and hoping for when I posted. Just different opinions, tips, and other stuff that personally helped people when it comes to these questions here. I wasn't thinking there was a holy grail, singular answer to most of these questions.

@ 1. That was actually one of my concerns for question . Once I post I can't edit, and it's set. I'm mostly done with editing the first few chapters so I don't think I have to worry about them... but maybe I'll wait a bit until I have a few more chapters and see how I feel :|

@2. and 3. That's what I was wondering about, how concise someone's writing should be or how artistically free someone can be allowed to be in their writing, and how much the guidelines of good writing one should follow. Example of "professional," I immediately think of Bernard Cornwell and Steven King as highly "professional" when it comes to writing prose seeing as how straight to the point their writing gets but is fully enjoyable.

Then I think of Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Saga, which is both as fun to read(for me), as it is, at times, hard to read through because of the crazy and highly imaginitive to the lore and setting, and the fairly basic yet clear prose with exposition up the wazoo being both his strong and weak point in his writing(As well as the mini stories that do nothing more than distract from the main or side plots). His Stormlight Archives series is the perfect example to me of "My story" vs. "Good story" and he clearly wrote it the way he had the most fun doing it.

And then there's J.R.R. Tolkien with his use of exposition. One of my all time favorite stories, and probably the best Fantasy writer of the 20th century, but I had found myself tempted sometimes to skip a paragraph or two when he gets into details over describing landscapes, especially with LotR(mainly when I was younger and my A.D.H.D was really bad).

So just avoid the awkward "As you know, Bob," and I'll be gucci with expository dialogue. and keep from too many large exposition dumps especially in the introduction. Gotcha.

4. I was thinking of posting a few snippets as an example, but that made for a wall of text here with the question and my attempts at using the "spoiler" failed. Even when I tried to summarize it instead, so I removed those examples
I guess I'll just wing it for now, and maybe see if I can get some "beta reading" later, once I've written more. Much to ponder on here.

5. Yeah, my story is extremely character driven, I think the majority of my writing is in some sort of dialogue. So, then I don't need to think about it too much? lol.

6. Glad to know! Thanks.

7. So, then I don't need to worry about it?

Anyways, thanks for answers! Appreciate it.

 

[Jmanchu]

I manage to fly a bit closet to the "get some help" end of the n/c spectrum at times and it still falls within the accepted rules. There should be mutual enjoyment without maiming or death during the sex act itself but either aside of it if fair game.

So then, I really don't have worry about it, long as I'm not a sick puppy that treads into "you should be on shock therapy, and serious psychological help" territory I'm good? Thanks for clarification.

 

[ElectricBlue]

@ 1. That was actually one of my concerns for question . Once I post I can't edit, and it's set. I'm mostly done with editing the first few chapters so I don't think I have to worry about them... but maybe I'll wait a bit until I have a few more chapters and see how I feel :|

You can in fact edit a posted story, by submitting a complete new text with all the edits, with exactly the same title plus the word EDIT.

It is, of course, better to get it right in the first submission, but if your proof reading was diabolically bad, you can fix it.

 

[Jmanchu]

You can in fact edit a posted story, by submitting a complete new text with all the edits, with exactly the same title plus the word EDIT.

It is, of course, better to get it right in the first submission, but if your proof reading was diabolically bad, you can fix it.

Ohh okay. So not completely without hope if I post a story and I feel like I want to make a few changes later. Thanks for answer. Appreciate it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

The fact that you're thinking about the questions is a good sign. Personally I'd get all the chapters mostly done before posting, so you can say "this story will be X chapters. It's all drafted and will be posted over the next few weeks once each chapter is edited". That means readers who don't like starting unfinished stories will give it a go, and the fact you know editing is a thing will also encourage readers. If you know you have problems with punctuation and grammar, try to find an editor, but you look OK. Editing to remove unnecessary words and ensure every pronoun links to the right noun is always worth it, but equally people are here to enjoy a story, not like a report for work where you have to get three points across as bluntly as possible.

A title and Description which make clear what can be expected are good, and if there's going to be stuff that readers may want a warning about, consider a warning up front "This story contains fantasies about non-con sex", for example. Up to you.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Ohh okay. So not completely without hope if I post a story and I feel like I want to make a few changes later. Thanks for answer. Appreciate it.

We all find typos, but usually it's not worth the effort to fix them. If the writing is fundamentally sound, most people are forgiving - by the same token, if the writing is a real mess, it wasn't ready to submit in the first place.

 

[Jmanchu]

The fact that you're thinking about the questions is a good sign. Personally I'd get all the chapters mostly done before posting, so you can say "this story will be X chapters. It's all drafted and will be posted over the next few weeks once each chapter is edited". That means readers who don't like starting unfinished stories will give it a go, and the fact you know editing is a thing will also encourage readers. If you know you have problems with punctuation and grammar, try to find an editor, but you look OK. Editing to remove unnecessary words and ensure every pronoun links to the right noun is always worth it, but equally people are here to enjoy a story, not like a report for work where you have to get three points across as bluntly as possible.

A title and Description which make clear what can be expected are good, and if there's going to be stuff that readers may want a warning about, consider a warning up front "This story contains fantasies about non-con sex", for example. Up to you.

So, then definitely better to wait to write more before even considering publishing a first installment. And if I ever write some raunchy non-con erotica or any chapter that has any kind of serious "reader beware" content, then putting up a disclaimer isn't a bad practice. Gotcha! And thanks for reply

 

[Jmanchu]

We all find typos, but usually it's not worth the effort to fix them. If the writing is fundamentally sound, most people are forgiving - by the same token, if the writing is a real mess, it wasn't ready to submit in the first place.

So, I shouldn't worry about too many typos, unless I type like a drunk with the grammar skills of a 12 year old. Aight

 

[Bramblethorn]

We all find typos, but usually it's not worth the effort to fix them. If the writing is fundamentally sound, most people are forgiving - by the same token, if the writing is a real mess, it wasn't ready to submit in the first place.

And a LOT of readers will read the story in the first week it's up, so by the time you put an edit through it'll be too late for many of them.

 

[SimonDoom]

I agree heartily with Bramblethorn that you ask great questions but with respect to some of them there's no "right" answer for every author. I will give you MY personal answer, based on my experience having published 51 stories and my perception of what makes a story better and also more well-received by readers.

1. Is it better to write the story more completely before separating the story into chapters and uploading it in installments, even waiting until it's almost finished? Or should it matter at all?

If you can swing it, write the whole thing first. HOWEVER, I make a habit of trying to make sure that each chapter delivers the content that readers expect of that category. So if it's an Anal story, there's anal activity in every chapter. Otherwise, don't break the story up into chapters at all.

2. As a general "rule," is important to focus on writing "well" and being as "professional" in your prose as possible to write a "good story?" Or is it fine to focus on writing on "your story" your way first, and only really use the rules and tips of good writing and avoiding "bad writing" as a guideline?

I think it's always better to write well, in the sense of writing prose that is grammatical. It should be well edited and proofed, and spelling and punctuation errors should be minimized. I personally do not enjoy sloppy stories. But as a whole Literotica writers are very forgiving on these points. The standards aren't that high.

3. Which comes to the topic of my second question: Expositions... how bad are they, really? And is going by "I like/don't like what I'm reading" a reliable indicator of if your story is passable reading material or not?

Long expositions are tedious for a reader most of the time. Look for alternative ways to convey needed information: through dialogue, for example. Break up the exposition into bite-sized chunks. You don't have to explain everything all at once.

4. On the topic of flexible narrative style and pacing: How flexible is "too flexible?"

I don't think this can be answered in the abstract. I'd have to see a sample of how it's being done to give an opinion. If you have a story in third person omniscient and you go from one person's head to another's at a section break, it's perfectly OK if the writing style changes somewhat to match the new character.

5. Is it alright to let dialogue be free flowing or should dialogue be more focused on being as straight to the point as possible?

Personally, I prefer dialogue to get to the point. I also feel strongly that it should be correctly punctuated. This is one of my few strongly held "shoulds" of writing: all writers should take a little time to master the basic rules (there are fewer than ten) of how to write dialogue. Experiment if you want, but learn the basics.

6. On the topic of sex usage in your story for both erotic and non-erotic intention. Is it a problem if there isn't a set pattern for when an upcoming chapter is or isn't going to be or have an erotic scene?

As I said above, this is my approach: Chapters of at least 7000+ words. Every chapter has sexual content that matches the category in which the overall story is published. Every chapter is published in the same category. If I cannot do these three things, then I don't publish chapters separately. I publish the story in one big whole. This is just my way and others have followed completely different rules with success.

7. What's the general rule on grimdark shit in stories when the edgy grimdark shit is there but not explored in any actual way as part of the story's smut material? Will that make it officially "noncon?" Could there be any possible problems in publishing it here?

All that matters, IMO, is whether Laurel, the site owner, will OK it. Learn the content rules. Grimdark is just fine as long as it's OK with Laurel. But you are very limited in your ability even to refer to or tease unacceptable content. "I remember when I was 11 spying on my naked sister in the shower" probably will get your story rejected.

 

[SimonDoom]

So, I shouldn't worry about too many typos, unless I type like a drunk with the grammar skills of a 12 year old. Aight

Personally, I wouldn't go that far. I have typos in everything I publish, and I have readers point them out to me quite often. I find too many typos in a story to be very annoying. I recommend making at least a reasonable effort to make sure your story doesn't have too many typos. A reasonable effort would include:

1. Trying to get it right in the first draft. Try to minimize typos as you go.
2. Let the story sit for a day after the first draft is done, and then carefully proofread it.
3. Then use editing software, like Grammarly, or something like it, and go through your story. But DON'T follow editing programs religiously. Their suggestions often are not better than what you've written.
4. Give it one final edit.

 

[8letters]

* You're writing in SF&F. I'm not a SF&F reader, buy my understanding is that SF&F readers look more for world building than they are for sex, though they want a world that does have sex
* Exposition - as I'm not a SF&F reader, I can't say. Exposition is normally bad, but it might be okay in SF&F because of the world building requirement
* SF&F readers expect chapters. Lots of chapters. Hundreds of chapters isn't a bad thing in SF&F. So I'd suggest building up enough chapters so that you can meet a regularly publishing deadline like once a week and start publishing them. I'm not a series writer, but my impression is that readers of series don't like a bunch of chapters in a short period of time and then a slow trickle of chapters over a long period of time
* You are going to learn so much from your first few chapters, and you'll hopefully start getting a lot of support from your readership after the first few chapters. Publishing chapters before you finish means that you'll get to include your learning into your later chapters

 

[Jmanchu]

I agree heartily with Bramblethorn that you ask great questions but with respect to some of them there's no "right" answer for every author. I will give you MY personal answer, based on my experience

Exactly what I was hoping for when asking these questions.

If you can swing it, write the whole thing first. HOWEVER, I make a habit of trying to make sure that each chapter delivers the content that readers expect of that category. So if it's an Anal story, there's anal activity in every chapter. Otherwise, don't break the story up into chapters at all.

1. So, definitely wait until I've gotten a decent amount done, or see if I can finish by the end of this year or something.

About breaking up the chapters thing: I have the story written up in scenes that connect from one to another, almost like mini chapters that have definitive conclusions or some sort of resolution to each scene, if you don't count the cliffhangers that occasionally set up the next part.

I don't think it would be difficult to organize them into installments that don't awkwardly break the pacing of the story, but your point is something I'm going to have to think about.

If or when I get to having someone review and edit this, I'll definitely be asking if each online installment of the series reads well after editing it.

And I'm hoping that SFF people might be fine with a story that focuses on the Sword and Sorcery setting, with the occasion and sometimes with the not occasional drips of gratuitous graphic sex and the parts of romance mainly between the two main characters.

I completely removed a potential sex scene between the male main character and a barmaid he saves from a bunch of rowdy soldiers, mainly for the sake of making a better flow to the pacing of the story and a cleaner conclusion for that scene and chapter(It was designed to introduce the male main character).

Now after your post I'm wondering if I should write it all over again and add it back in. Huh...

I think it's always better to write well, in the sense of writing prose that is grammatical. It should be well edited and proofed, and spelling and punctuation errors should be minimized. I personally do not enjoy sloppy stories. But as a whole Literotica writers are very forgiving on these points. The standards aren't that high.

Yeah, I should have made myself more clear on this. By professional I didn't mean just making sure your piece has professional grade, or passable grammar and punctuation. That, I thought was a given for anyone who pursues writing even as just a hobby. Sorry about the confusion there.

What I meant was in professional writing prose ranging from focusing on being as concise as possible. in not only your words but in avoiding distractions(even if its interesting to read or write about) from the main plot while ensuring it moves forward as smoothly as possible.

As in "kill your darlings" and cut the fat when your story has ANY parts distracting from or not directly building up and being a vehicle to drive forward the main plot or any side plots that tie into the main plot somehow.

To be clear: not as a guideline, which I do practice as I edit in my story, but as the ultimate goal.

A kind of poor analogy would like the difference between focusing on shaving off reading time in your writing as much as possible like you're trying playing a game to do a professional speed run world record instead of just playing the game to have fun beating it.

On a side note, I do enjoy the subtle and artful practice of occasionally finding ways to convey things without words when I write my stories at least. I've yet to master it though. Frank Herbert's writing does that well, in my opinion. The author of Dune.

And then adverbs: I mean the rule of avoiding all adverbs like they're "McDonalds trans-fats fried foods" bad for the health of your writing. I know the general guideline of if there's a single word that describes your action is superior to the kind of lazy action-word and adverb combo, I stick to that and absolutely avoid redundant usage as it just reads like crap.

To clarify here: I do try to utilize the superior single action/desriptor word to the inferior word-adverb combo, and I edit out reduntant and most ultimately unnecessary adverb and if I do use an adverb, then when I edit I follow the practice of consulting my local thesaurus and dictionary to see if I can find a better word, etc.

Examples:

Smiled widely < grinned.
Stared angrily < glared.
Yelled loudly <= yelled, screamed.
quickly charged - quickly is redundant.

angrily charged - maybe not redundant but might be unnecessary if the context story already makes it obvious that there's anger there, for instance.




But while I do follow a decent job of not relying on adverbs(I think), I still see them even post-edit, still there, even though I've trimmed out a lot of the "bad adverbs" from the writing diet.

My problem is: So, some professionals might say "The road to hell is paved in adverbs" ala Steven King, but the decent amount of adverbs still left feel like they do give some extra flavor to my writing.

I should have been far clearer, but I thought being slightly vague about "professional writing" would rope me all kinds of answers from all kinds of questions relating to "professional writing" that I didn't even think of asking. Thought I was smart, but I guess I was just lazy.

Maybe a better format for 2 could have been:

Is making sure that the concision in your writing prose until it's professional grade important? Or is an amateur level alright?

The practice of "Killing your darlings" to keep your story professional and to the point of the main plots: Should you always "kill your darlings" even if you're not looking to make a professional book? What if you don't want to "kill all your darlings?"

Adverbs: How bad? Should a writer, even a hobbyist, be a strict writing "vegetarian" or is it alright to leave some adverbs in the diet? Long as I don't partake too much in adverb "cheat meals," would that be a problem?

Also, any inputs or opinions on good writing habits in general as a guideline vs. a set hardline rule in terms of prose, dialogue and character development, and usage of setting are welcome.

But if standards don't need to be that high, then maybe I'm overthinking it?

 

[Jmanchu]

Long expositions are tedious for a reader most of the time. Look for alternative ways to convey needed information: through dialogue, for example. Break up the exposition into bite-sized chunks. You don't have to explain everything all at once.

This one is the one I struggle with the most during certain parts of the story. So as long as I keep it manageable it's alright, then? I do tend to rely on expository dialogue without meaning to. I was worried if that was bad, even though I don't see the "As you know, bob" convos(I always try to keep the convos between characters as free as possible and not control it in any way, and that one relates to question 5).

I do make a habit of removing exposition once I feel like it'll be shown later and clearly in the story, or even rewritten to show, not tell, but I find myself having trouble removing or properly shortening some exposition(I'm really bad when it comes to character exposition sometimes, which I'm working on).

I don't think this can be answered in the abstract. I'd have to see a sample of how it's being done to give an opinion.

Yeah. I don't blame you. I tried to add snippets of story in the question before, then I tried to describe instead what I meant along with a brief summary of the male character's side of the story vs the female's.

Using the spoiler format didn't work for me. So instead of leaving a larger wall of text in the forum, I just removed it. :| Shoulda removed the question outright, but I thought it would at least give some interesting answers, which it did.

I'm still considering how to show it, or how much is needed to show or where to post that, and I'm considering on whether I should first write more, after further editing before I do as I'm constantly editing(sometimes rewriting) the story.

I have two "chapters" in mind that don't really give information in the main story, but show clearly what I'm talking about. I don't know whether to post just a snippet, which would only show some of the difference in prose or the entire scenes, which highlight everything I'm talking about.

Or where even I would.

Personally, I prefer dialogue to get to the point. I also feel strongly that it should be correctly punctuated. This is one of my few strongly held "shoulds" of writing: all writers should take a little time to master the basic rules (there are fewer than ten) of how to write dialogue. Experiment if you want, but learn the basics.

Yeah, this is where I struggle the most with dialogue. I always try to follow an approach of just set the scene up, sit back, watch what happens when these two characters interact, and write. Now if what I end up with gets boring, I edit or rewrite.

There's still a lot of dialogue that is character interaction which shows or builds the relationships between the characters or highlights and displays a character trait or personality of the character in some meaningful way, but some of these scenes don't really push the main plot forward.

Like it can be a scene that highlights some drama between two characters or something instead of the big plot of "sword and sorcery, kill the bad guys, and deal with politics of jealous warring feudal lords and an evil empire taking over the world and making a dark prophecy come true."

I always try to follow good grammar basics and make a clean format when writing dialogue.

As I said above, this is my approach: Chapters of at least 7000+ words. Every chapter has sexual content that matches the category in which the overall story is published. Every chapter is published in the same category. If I cannot do these three things, then I don't publish chapters separately. I publish the story in one big whole. This is just my way and others have followed completely different rules with success.

I plan on putting this one in the fantasy category.

All that matters, IMO, is whether Laurel, the site owner, will OK it. Learn the content rules. Grimdark is just fine as long as it's OK with Laurel. But you are very limited in your ability even to refer to or tease unacceptable content. "I remember when I was 11 spying on my naked sister in the shower" probably will get your story rejected.

So, I'll just have to wait and see if it'll be accepted. If not, I'll figure something else I guess. Also, I don't plan on writing anything that'll have to do with anything about anyone underage in some sort of sexual situation.

* You're writing in SF&F. I'm not a SF&F reader, buy my understanding is that SF&F readers look more for world building than they are for sex, though they want a world that does have sex
* Exposition - as I'm not a SF&F reader, I can't say. Exposition is normally bad, but it might be okay in SF&F because of the world building requirement
* SF&F readers expect chapters. Lots of chapters. Hundreds of chapters isn't a bad thing in SF&F. So I'd suggest building up enough chapters so that you can meet a regularly publishing deadline like once a week and start publishing them. I'm not a series writer, but my impression is that readers of series don't like a bunch of chapters in a short period of time and then a slow trickle of chapters over a long period of time
* You are going to learn so much from your first few chapters, and you'll hopefully start getting a lot of support from your readership after the first few chapters. Publishing chapters before you finish means that you'll get to include your learning into your later chapters

So I might be able to get away with my story then in SF&F And there could be some value to the approach publishing chapters while you're still working on new chapters. Huh...


Thanks for all the helpful answers and insights so far, all. Really helping me out here.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Also, paragraph breaks. Use more of them!

Your posts are what we call "walls of text", they're hard to read, especially on small devices. Give readers more white space, with shorter paragraphs than you use here.

Many readers use phones to read (goodness knows how they do that, I couldn't), so think of different devices when you compose, don't think paper pages in a book.

You've asked a ton of good questions (and there is no "right" answer to any of them), but if you want to write good erotica, start by reading it. Go read, see what other writers do. Sample any of us lot here in the AH and you'll get a fair start ("Pick me, pick me," - shameless self promotion always helps!).

Set your standards high but not impossibly so, don't dumb down to the lowest common denominator, don't overthink stuff (which clearly, you do), just get on and do it.

And paragraph breaks, did I mention paragraph breaks?

You'll be fine .

 

[tenyari]

Here's a quote from the sticky FAQ at the top of the board that I found helpful at times x good luck with your story! It sounds fun.

2. If your character fucks it, it has to be either human or entirely mythical.

No space aliens, sex-robots, half-elves, or Neanderthal?

 

[Jmanchu]

Also, paragraph breaks. Use more of them!

Your posts are what we call "walls of text", they're hard to read, especially on small devices. Give readers more white space, with shorter paragraphs than you use here.

Many readers use phones to read (goodness knows how they do that, I couldn't), so think of different devices when you compose, don't think paper pages in a book.

You've asked a ton of good questions (and there is no "right" answer to any of them), but if you want to write good erotica, start by reading it. Go read, see what other writers do. Sample any of us lot here in the AH and you'll get a fair start ("Pick me, pick me," - shameless self promotion always helps!).

Set your standards high but not impossibly so, don't dumb down to the lowest common denominator, don't overthink stuff (which clearly, you do), just get on and do it.

And paragraph breaks, did I mention paragraph breaks?

You'll be fine .

Yeah, I have a bad habit of getting lazy with paragraph usage whenever I post anywhere in forums. I'm more meticulous about it when I write stories, but I'll see if I can fix the format of my posts a bit. I definitely see what you mean. :|

I don't see how anyone can read from a phone. I'd kinda get a kindle and a computer works fine.

My mind, I always lean on physical books because reading stories electronically is harder for some reason(though I can do a computer). Maybe I'm old fashioned.

I do read some erotica, on here as well. I've learned what I like to read(and thus write) and what I don't.

I even have used some as reference material to see how to improve or learn something new as inspiration to try out for a story, or study how different proses for a sexual scene can be done, on top a lot of experimenting, mixing that with life experiences, my own, other's. etc.

Then I see how I can use all that to write what I want to make.

Overthinking is my superpower and kryptonite.

Also... how does one go about using this shameless self promotion? :|

 

[ElectricBlue]

Also... how does one go about using this shameless self promotion? :|

Get your stories out there, then refer to them in posts such as these!

We all do it in one way or another, there's no shame in spruiking yourself, and it gets new readers.