So a friend of mine who's new to Lit...

[BiscuitHammer]

Decided he'd check out the forums and dared to venture into AH, even though he doesn't write here.

While he enjoyed some of the topics that pertain to literary endeavours, he also sent me this gif, as it was his overwhelming impression of the interpersonal dynamics of the forum.

Ouch?

https://tenor.com/view/fritz-the-cat-learning-is-a-big-thing-gif-5395501

 

[JGittes]

Decided he'd check out the forums and dared to venture into AH, even though he doesn't write here.

While he enjoyed some of the topics that pertain to literary endeavours, he also sent me this gif, as it was his overwhelming impression of the interpersonal dynamics of the forum.

Ouch?

https://tenor.com/view/fritz-the-cat-learning-is-a-big-thing-gif-5395501

I was saying this exact thing to my wife yesterday.

In the defense of the authors who regularly contribute, I offer the following. It takes a substantial ego to imagine something, conjure up words in the correct order to communicate to another human being, and finally be brave enough to publish it in public. Nearly all the regular contributors have highly accomplished back catalogs and many hundreds to thousands of followers.

While most authors may have a small group of beta readers and editors, the process itself is personal. After one finds oneself successful at it, it's much easier to explain to others how you do it than it is to listen to others tell you that you are doing it wrong.

 

[TxRad]

BH, did you give him a tour of the GB and PB just to show the contrast. His comment on those would probably burn paper.

 

[TadOverdon]

https://tenor.com/view/fritz-the-cat-learning-is-a-big-thing-gif-5395501

Less so than most forums I've followed online. There's a certain amount of dick-swinging in here, but where isn't there?

 

[SimonDoom]

This place isn't nearly as bad as other forums at this Site, and for that matter many other forums I've seen elsewhere.

Disagreement isn't the same thing as rancor. Disagreement isn't a bad thing. It's predictable and unsurprising that in a forum among authors of erotic stories you'd see a huge range of opinions and a lot of disagreement.

I think that's a good thing. It only gets bad when it gets personal. There's no reason to get personal.

I personally don't mind if somebody tells me I'm wrong about something and they know more about the subject than I do or they point to something specific that proves me wrong. It happens more than I'd like, but it keeps me on my toes and I learn something.

 

[lovecraft68]

Decided he'd check out the forums and dared to venture into AH, even though he doesn't write here.

While he enjoyed some of the topics that pertain to literary endeavours, he also sent me this gif, as it was his overwhelming impression of the interpersonal dynamics of the forum.

Ouch?

https://tenor.com/view/fritz-the-cat-learning-is-a-big-thing-gif-5395501

I don't disagree.

I'm part of a writer's association and two points about that.

The first is I'm the black sheep because I write erotic content, many of them think anyone can write it, and others don't even see it as writing.

Of course it is, we all know that, and we all know it takes work and like everything else, some are better at it than others.

But having said that, there's some people here who are so full of themselves you'd think they were on the NYT best sellers list. The self importance and pretentiousness is a turn off.

Especially because, IMO anyway, erotica should be the most fun genre to write in, and the one that you should take less seriously(not as in not try to write a good story, I mean the point here is to arouse and excite, this isn't usually deep stuff we do) yet they give it the feel of...being in that author's group

Because point two is if you think some people here are high on themselves, some of the people I've met at these things? You'd swear you were talking to people with King/Clancy levels of success.

 

[oggbashan]

Having been writing for Lit for nearly twenty years, I can get annoyed with newbies, who having read no more than a few stories, tell us we are all doing it wrong and produce a magic formula for success.

The formula might help some but we approach writing in different ways. Most of those who contribute to the AH have been successful Lit authors. It takes some nerve to write and publish here, and so the author is likely to have confidence in their writing and methods.

But only a few of us are as dogmatic as the newbies. What works for us might not work for someone else.

But by comparison with the Politics Board, our discussions are courteous and allow for an exchange of views.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I think it's true we get a substantial amount of pontificating in here, and so very many people are Rhodes scholars, apparently. As for the other forums here on the DB, I don't really venture into them.

I asked him if I fell into the category represented by his Fritz gif, and he says 'No, you're a terminal goofball who happens to write smut. If you pontificated like THAT, we wouldn't be friends.'

Funny part? He won't read my stuff here on Lit, because he doesn't want to know where my mind takes me, and, secondly, he generally can't deal with my sense of humour and thinks my erotica will be jammed full of it. He's right. Even The Great Khan has my humour in it, and it's a grisly war story with gore, plunder, humiliation, and rape.

But I like you guys, so hopefully I don't spend my time trying to out-intellectual all you big fuckin' intellectuals.

 

[jsmiam]

We just like to prove that we’re smart! We’re not, like dumb. We’re smart and we want respect!

https://youtu.be/zgHXHtHSsNo

 

[oggbashan]

Rhodes Scholars?

I have no formal qualifications for writing after university entrance examinations. What I do have is twenty years of experience at work at writing concise non-fiction, and nearly twenty years of writing for Literotica.

My only demonstrated Literary success is being chucked out of a creative writing class for two reasons:

1. My list of publications (non-fiction) was longer than anyone else, including the tutor. But I wanted to learn CREATIVE writing;

2. I entered a local literary competition that the tutor had been entering for ten years. On my first attempt, I won two small prizes, one for poetry and one for a short story. The tutor was unplaced - again.

She decided, unfairly, that she couldn't teach me anything so I had to leave...

 

[AlinaX]

People keep coming here and asking for help and opinions, and by and large we try to help and give our opinions. Sure, there are occasional personality clashes, and even the occasional drive-through asshole, but by and large it's a friendly space.

We're aware that erotica is the literary child that generally hides behind the sofa when the adults are talking about adult stuff, but there definitely is an art to writing erotica - which becomes painfully clear whenever the adults make stiff and awkward attempts at it. The irony is, the better we get at writing erotica, the less we actually want to do it.

~ The hand rose from the lake and grasped Arthur's mighty weapon. "My sword!" he hissed. "Take my sword!" ~

Plus there's the whole moral dimension to writing erotica, and that's where the arguments really kick off...

 

[ChloeTzang]

LOL. We write. We're mostly pretty good at it, and we have the self-confidence to express ourselves and sound forth with our opinions and views, and (mostly - we all know there's a few exceptions LOL) based on our experiences. And we get people asking questions, answering questions, stating opinions, making statements, and, yes, pontificating

I find it fun, entertaining, often educational, and in the 5 or 6 years I've been here, I've learnt a lot from everyone here, and I continue to learn, and, I hope, pass some of what I've learnt on here and there, doing my best to pay it forward for others who are like me when I first started here - new to writing, unsure of myself, a little insecure about my ability to write, but wanting to learn, and of course, write shorter and more concise sentences. LOL.

All of which is to say, some if it may come across as your friend says, biscuithammer, but the totality is far greater than the parts, and I for one value all of it. It's a friendly, welcoming, largely non-judgemental, and very much inclusive environment here which welcomes all comers and is far more tolerant of inexperience and outright nepophytes than any other writing forumI I've come across.

I've joined a few different writers forums and groups over the last five years and in all honesty, I find this forum the most rewarding and useful, as well as interesting, because we're all over the map on any and every subject under the sun. But whenever you have a writing question, you can ask it here and you'll get intelligent and well thought out responses.

 

[windar]

The irony is, the better we get at writing erotica, the less we actually want to do it.

Plus there's the whole moral dimension to writing erotica, and that's where the arguments really kick off...

The first statement is very true.

As to the second, there's also the fact that you are exposing intimate fantasies. While not everything I write is actually something I fantasize about-some are quite definitely not-people will naturally assume it is.

 

[ChloeTzang]

....While not everything I write is actually something I fantasize about-some are quite definitely not-people will naturally assume it is.

LOL. Oh for sure. That's one of the things I love about Literotica. The readers who assume that because you write it, that's who you are. I'm afraid if readers take me for my heroines in my stories, they're going to have an extremely weird person to deal with. On the other hand, maybe they have a.... uh-oh

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Rhodes Scholars?

When I say that, I'm referencing the interminable number of individuals who PM to criticize my (or other's)writing, citing their own exemplary degrees that permit them to pontificate and denigrate from on high.

I swear, a full third of the site's English readership has PHDs in literature, often erotic, and from prestigious institutions, if one were to take them at face value.

Don't tell me you went to Oxford and got a PhD in classic literature when you spell colour or armour without a 'u' in the word. Or just can't spell in general.

I have a few friends who are legit, published authors, and at least two of them LOVE to write erotica and publish it. It does well for them and frees them from the constraints of the established literary monolith.

I think it's true that erotica gets flanderized into spicy romance novels, barring some exceptions (whatever the Hell that 50 Shades thing was, aside from dangerous). But artful erotica is rare, since the principal driving force behind the genre is appealing to deep-seated needs in people's limbic system and amygdalla.

I doubt I'll ever be good enough to be a serious author who can get legit erotica published mainstream. Kudos to those who can.

And watch out for the endless roving bands of Scholars and PhD collectors on Lit, they're more merciless than the mutants in post-apoc stories.

 

[TxRad]

Rhodes Scholars?

I had to cut the English Teachers grass to pass high school English. Sometimes there was a lawnmower involved.

I've learned a lot from being on Lit. I look back at my early works and cringe. I've had two people volunteer to edit my stuff. I learned a lot from both but alas one died and the other became a writer of her own stuff.

Yeah, people puff themselves up. That is natural with creative types. If we don't, who will.

 

[lovecraft68]

People keep coming here and asking for help and opinions, and by and large we try to help and give our opinions. Sure, there are occasional personality clashes, and even the occasional drive-through asshole, but by and large it's a friendly space.

We're aware that erotica is the literary child that generally hides behind the sofa when the adults are talking about adult stuff, but there definitely is an art to writing erotica - which becomes painfully clear whenever the adults make stiff and awkward attempts at it. The irony is, the better we get at writing erotica, the less we actually want to do it.

~ The hand rose from the lake and grasped Arthur's mighty weapon. "My sword!" he hissed. "Take my sword!" ~

Plus there's the whole moral dimension to writing erotica, and that's where the arguments really kick off...

Once someone brings 'morality' into the conversation, I bow out. I don't have any patience for people who are morally, politically, or religiously stuck in 1950

 

[MrPixel]

...Yeah, people puff themselves up. That is natural with creative types. If we don't, who will.

You gotta blow your own horn sometimes. If I didn't, I wouldn't be in the orchestra.

 

[oggbashan]

I had some anon people who challenge my history e.g when 'OK' would have been used in England, and when Middle English was spoken. But both were polite queries, not 'you're wrong!'.

But there is one who goes on at length about my storytelling to which the response should be 'It's fiction. I can make it up'.

Others object to some of my femdom stories. they seem to be challenged by any woman character who is not submissive. That says more about them than my story. As for Loving Wives comments? Where do they live?

 

[oggbashan]

The claims of academic or work qualifications are even more bizarre on the Politics Board.

Some, particularly anti-vaxx people, seem to have qualifications in virology that their posts refute.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Others object to some of my femdom stories. they seem to be challenged by any woman character who is not submissive. That says more about them than my story. As for Loving Wives comments? Where do they live?

99% of the women in my stories are liberated about their bodies and their choices, and you can almost HEAR the incels gnashing their teeth in their mommy's basement. I LOVE doing that to them.

I've also noticed that all the commenters who insist they have a plethora of PhDs are anonymous. I'm not saying that they should expose their identity, but they're not even registered users. Don't bother telling me and expect me to believe that you're Lord Byron is your not gonna prove it. Make it worth my while to listen to you. Until then, you're a shmuck in mommy's basement, binging free smut and complaining about it.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/6932a432-4d27-482f-a9cb-4273c6f944a5/gif

 

[lovecraft68]

Some, particularly anti-vaxx people, seem to have qualifications in virology that their posts refute.

I didn't know Aaron Rodgers posted there.

 

[lovecraft68]

99% of the women in my stories are liberated about their bodies and their choices, and you can almost HEAR the incels gnashing their teeth in their mommy's basement. I LOVE doing that to them.

I've also noticed that all the commenters who insist they have a plethora of PhDs are anonymous. I'm not saying that they should expose their identity, but they're not even registered users. Don't bother telling me and expect me to believe that you're Lord Byron is your not gonna prove it. Make it worth my while to listen to you. Until then, you're a shmuck in mommy's basement, binging free smut and complaining about it.

https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/6932a432-4d27-482f-a9cb-4273c6f944a5/gif

Same here and I don't write femdom stories here, these are like yours, different categories, but the women are strong and want what they want, they're not dominate, but not weak and submissive and because of that I get the full Monty of LW style whining from the cold male insecurity crowd.

 

[oggbashan]

I didn't know Aaron Rodgers posted there.

He is frequently quoted there as if his pronouncements were Holy Writ.

 

[Emirus]

I can understand

I can understand why Biscuithammer’s friend has come to his conclusion. I don’t think his opinion is an attack on anyone in particular, after all he presumably doesn’t know anyone, but just a general comment.

99% of my interest in the forums lies in the AH. I very rarely look at any other forum. So I can’t comment on what happens in them only here. I rarely comment nowadays anyway and the two reasons are basically:

(1). Many of the comments made are the same, or similar, to comments already made on the topic. Which is fine by me and I appreciate the majority of those who make comments probably don’t read what others have previously written. I tend to read previous comments (but then again I’m perfect) and don’t comment if I’m going to repeat what’s been said. But that’s up to me and doesn’t mean others should do the same.

(2). Someone going through the various threads for the first time is quite likely to think the comments are repetitive and boring, particularly the extremely long ones with long paragraphs. I must admit I tend to skip over those which is a pity because I probably miss out on something interesting.

But everyone is entitled to an opinion and also entitled to voice it. After all, the definition of the word forum is a meeting or medium where ideas or views on a particular issue can be exchanged and discussed. If someone wants to “pontificate” that’s up to them. No one else has to take any notice of them.