What elements and techniques make good writing and what does it look like?

[TheShaggington]

I guess this thread is a result from my earlier post about realism. Now I want to know how, in any way, could an erotic or non-erotic piece be improved in anyway? I'm saying this because I got two stories about a princess and her hermaphrodite mother and a woman who rapes and enslaves other women that when I write about the sex, it looks to me like it would be better putting the public to sleep.

Plus any recommendations for good writing is welcome too, since the only vampire story I like is Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

 

[patientlee]

I guess this thread is a result from my earlier post about realism. Now I want to know how, in any way, could an erotic or non-erotic piece be improved in anyway? I'm saying this because I got two stories about a princess and her hermaphrodite mother and a woman who rapes and enslaves other women that when I write about the sex, it looks to me like it would be better putting the public to sleep.

Plus any recommendations for good writing is welcome too, since the only vampire story I like is Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

That's a pretty broad question. You'll probably get more constructive answers if you can narrow it down a bit.

Good luck with your stories!

 

[Euphony]

a woman who rapes and enslaves other women

Have you considered more rape and more enslavement?

I've found there's a minimum level youve gotta hit when using these rather blah subjects or else it becomes a yawner.

Perhaps the enslaved could rape back? Yeah, we've all seen it done before but if you fully flesh it out, I think you can reawaken the audience at least a little.

 

[Euphony]

And PLee is right. You're question is about as broad as possible. Some specific questions will yield more useful replies.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I disagree.

I suggest you put one kind of person in a tank with others who are poison. Like put a Kim Kardashian nun in a Devils Island prison with devils in heat. She wants to be good, but the devil makes her do it, till a new warden comes along.

 

[lovecraft68]

I disagree.

I suggest you put one kind of person in a tank with others who are poison. Like put a Kim Kardashian nun in a Devils Island prison with devils in heat. She wants to be good, but the devil makes her do it, till a new warden comes along.

The Devil made me do it is a cop out.

Its all free will Jimmy.

 

[PennLady]

I guess this thread is a result from my earlier post about realism. Now I want to know how, in any way, could an erotic or non-erotic piece be improved in anyway? I'm saying this because I got two stories about a princess and her hermaphrodite mother and a woman who rapes and enslaves other women that when I write about the sex, it looks to me like it would be better putting the public to sleep.

Plus any recommendations for good writing is welcome too, since the only vampire story I like is Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.

Nearly any story can be improved, erotic or not. But how to do it is a question only an author can really answer, perhaps in tandem with their editor, because everyone has an opinion and they'll all be different.

Both questions are way too broad to answer, though.

 

[TheShaggington]

Sorry for making it so broad. In the best specific sense, what I'm saying is what can I do to not make the writing boring, and any good recommendations for books would be appreciated.

 

[Euphony]

Sorry for making it so broad. In the best specific sense, what I'm saying is what can I do to not make the writing boring, and any good recommendations for books would be appreciated.

Still way too broad friend. Think of it like this, if I said " How do I make a non-boring movie" wouldn't you have like a million different ideas/ways to accomplish that? Many of which may have nothing to do with the movie you are intending to make.

Lit is full of fantastic examples of well written works in any number of categories. Go to the top list in the cat you'd like to write in and see what works in your mind and what doesn't.

No magic formula or right answer. What you like to READ will often be what style your best at WRITING.

Read more. Imitate those you admire some. Throw in your own flair.

TADA story!

 

[TxRad]

Keep writing and have something to say. Nothing beats practice.

 

[_Lynn_]

Keep writing and have something to say. Nothing beats practice.

Indeed.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sorry for making it so broad. In the best specific sense, what I'm saying is what can I do to not make the writing boring, and any good recommendations for books would be appreciated.

I say it all the time.

The best marketing campaign ever and the most motivational (to me anyway) is three simple words

Just do it.

You will not be great off the bat. You learn that by writing, writing and more writing and trial and error.

write something post it and look at the feedback. You will get comments like "you suck fuck you" ignore those. You will get "oh my god best ever" ignore those too they are equally useless.

Look for the ones that are constructive that tell what the liked, but didn;t like. Then you start to get a feel for things.

There are a lot of good writers here and I guarantee you no two are the same.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

The Devil made me do it is a cop out.

Its all free will Jimmy.

Youre becoming as concrete as your LIT daddy. Loosen up, Junior!

 

[lovecraft68]

Youre becoming as concrete as your LIT daddy. Loosen up, Junior!

I thought you were my lit daddy?

 

[Acktion]

All right, for what it's worth, here's my two cents. (and no, I don't give change)

Appeal to all five senses. Everybody and their color blind dog will put in visuals and sounds. Give it some texture, some taste, and some smell.

Bumping uglies without emotion is a good aerobic exercise, but that's all it is. Why do you as the writer and any potential readers give a hairy armpit whether these two (or more) people get together or not? If it's just the fact that his cock is as ginormous as her tits, then you've got about 10k other spank pieces to contend with for anyone to care.

Dumb it down. While you and a few others may know how to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" and what it means, and (hopefully) most people who have graduated or sat their "tests of general educational development" will be able to work it out from contextual clues, most people just don't want to work that hard for their prurient enjoyment. If the word is more than five beats, and it doesn't appear in a newspaper outside the crossword, then pull out the thesaurus and chose another.

For myself personally, hermaphroditic rape is outside of my particular subset of erotic fantasies. Having said that, if sex of any kind is putting someone to sleep, then someone is definitely doing something wrong. Rolling over afterwards is one thing. I mean, they don't call it "nature's tranquilizer" for nothing. But, during? Yup. Something is definitely not working.

Here, I'm going to say something that used to piss me off to no end when it was said to me and I swore I would never say to anyone else.

"Read what you want to write."

But, what it has taken me this long to figure out is that it is much more involved than just letting your eyes traipse across the screen while your mind conjures the image. In a way, what it means is closer to "autopsy" than "read". You have to study each passage and try to figure out just what that person did to make you like the story they wrote. They made you like it, but how did they do it? Was word choice important? Was there scenery involved? How detailed was their description of anything other than the physical attributes of the people involved in the sexual act? What else was going on other than sticking tab a into slot b with musical accompaniment that sounded like "bow-chicka-bow-bow"?

Granted, you want to do something more than my "oops" scene in my experimental story "Genesis" after that much build up unless it is intentional as it was when I wrote that scene.

Hey, I turned the Bible and church into little more than a platform for preaching incest. If they could take that without a raised eyebrow and then bitch because a 22 year old virgin male only lasted three strokes when his much more experienced 18 year old sister took him the first time, that is hardly my fault. After all, they SAID they wanted realism.

Which, perhaps, I should have addressed in your thread about realism. They don't really want realism. What they want is to be given a reason to suspend skepticism. They want to believe, even if for just a moment, that it could happen to them. But, if they considered their life all that with a side of fries, then they probably would be out living it instead of chilling and reading your stuff to escape the humdrum existence of their life for awhile.

So, anyway, there's the thoughts rattling around in the empty space between my ears. And if you think I actually gave you any answers, you still have a lot to learn about writing. That, after all, is why writer's write. In an effort to try to find the answers to the questions they themselves have. Once a writer has all of the answers, they have no more reason to write.

Enjoy. And best wishes in setting your feet along the path of confusion and pain.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I thought you were my lit daddy?

You make me laugh, asshole

I'm thinking Dutch Uncle. STFU AND GO DO IT! kinda DU.

You came rough hewn, and now you can teach Master Classes.

 

[PennLady]

I don't know if these will help but these are things I've discovered I think help make a good story.

* Pick a story, tell it, and tie up all the loose ends. Subplots are fine, but don't get lost in them. Have a starting point, diverge, but bring everything back to an end point. You don't have to tie up everything completely with a bow, but bring a little closure to all of the doors you opened.

* Use that active voice. Keep away from "was [verb]ing" constructions. If he "was running," then "he ran," things like that. The "was" slows everything down. I'm not saying never do it, because sometimes you'll want that effect, but use it sparingly.

* Keep it plausible within its own bubble. Set out your rules and stick to them. You can have werewolves and vampires and people that fly and all of that, but lay the groundwork for it so that everything is believable in your world.

* Trust the reader. You don't have to detail every little thing the characters do or feel. If someone is entering a house, just say they went inside. You can skip how they got the key out, put it in the lock, turned it, turned it back, pulled it out, put their hand on the knob, etc. (Caveat: if those details are important, then include them, but only if they are important. No rule is absolute in writing.) Trust the reader to get facial expressions, feelings, tones of voices, etc., from the situations you've set up.

There. Hope that helps.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

All right, for what it's worth, here's my two cents. (and no, I don't give change)

Appeal to all five senses. Everybody and their color blind dog will put in visuals and sounds. Give it some texture, some taste, and some smell.

Bumping uglies without emotion is a good aerobic exercise, but that's all it is. Why do you as the writer and any potential readers give a hairy armpit whether these two (or more) people get together or not? If it's just the fact that his cock is as ginormous as her tits, then you've got about 10k other spank pieces to contend with for anyone to care.

Dumb it down. While you and a few others may know how to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" and what it means, and (hopefully) most people who have graduated or sat their "tests of general educational development" will be able to work it out from contextual clues, most people just don't want to work that hard for their prurient enjoyment. If the word is more than five beats, and it doesn't appear in a newspaper outside the crossword, then pull out the thesaurus and chose another.

For myself personally, hermaphroditic rape is outside of my particular subset of erotic fantasies. Having said that, if sex of any kind is putting someone to sleep, then someone is definitely doing something wrong. Rolling over afterwards is one thing. I mean, they don't call it "nature's tranquilizer" for nothing. But, during? Yup. Something is definitely not working.

Here, I'm going to say something that used to piss me off to no end when it was said to me and I swore I would never say to anyone else.

"Read what you want to write."

But, what it has taken me this long to figure out is that it is much more involved than just letting your eyes traipse across the screen while your mind conjures the image. In a way, what it means is closer to "autopsy" than "read". You have to study each passage and try to figure out just what that person did to make you like the story they wrote. They made you like it, but how did they do it? Was word choice important? Was there scenery involved? How detailed was their description of anything other than the physical attributes of the people involved in the sexual act? What else was going on other than sticking tab a into slot b with musical accompaniment that sounded like "bow-chicka-bow-bow"?

Granted, you want to do something more than my "oops" scene in my experimental story "Genesis" after that much build up unless it is intentional as it was when I wrote that scene.

Hey, I turned the Bible and church into little more than a platform for preaching incest. If they could take that without a raised eyebrow and then bitch because a 22 year old virgin male only lasted three strokes when his much more experienced 18 year old sister took him the first time, that is hardly my fault. After all, they SAID they wanted realism.

Which, perhaps, I should have addressed in your thread about realism. They don't really want realism. What they want is to be given a reason to suspend skepticism. They want to believe, even if for just a moment, that it could happen to them. But, if they considered their life all that with a side of fries, then they probably would be out living it instead of chilling and reading your stuff to escape the humdrum existence of their life for awhile.

So, anyway, there's the thoughts rattling around in the empty space between my ears. And if you think I actually gave you any answers, you still have a lot to learn about writing. That, after all, is why writer's write. In an effort to try to find the answers to the questions they themselves have. Once a writer has all of the answers, they have no more reason to write.

Enjoy. And best wishes in setting your feet along the path of confusion and pain.

What you say is true, 100%.

Hard crime pulp is my thing, and I have pert nearly read every line of it, and recognize the heirloom prose, themes, and plots in the new books and stories. But to stand on the shoulders of the giants you must climb to their shoulders.

 

[Euphony]

* Trust the reader. You don't have to detail every little thing the characters do or feel. If someone is entering a house, just say they went inside. You can skip how they got the key out, put it in the lock, turned it, turned it back, pulled it out, put their hand on the knob, etc. (Caveat: if those details are important, then include them, but only if they are important. No rule is absolute in writing.) Trust the reader to get facial expressions, feelings, tones of voices, etc., from the situations you've set up.

This. SO VERY MUCH THIS.

I've been losing my mind over stories where every little detail is spelled out for no purpose.

I've no need to know the OJ is low and next to the milk in fridge if she's just reaching in for a quick sip of water before giving her big speech.

Fluff quickly turns into sludge in the wrong hands. And it's all through the vote levels, even top lists.

Details relevant to the plot are the hallmark of a good writer. Details for the sake of details seem like someone tying to look like a good author rather than being one.

 

[MSTarot]

Grab the heart and make it weep!

Your reader is looking for an emotional response. Lust is a very powerful emotion but it is not the only one. Fear, anger, pride, greed, gluttony get all the seven involved in your story.( leave sloth for the warm after glow) We do it in every day life without blinking.

Make the reader feel the emotions of your characters. They have to relate to the character to care about what's being done to them.

Why should they care that Bill and Tina are having sex? They can go to any porn site and 'see' two people having... well something somewhat similar to sex.

Lets say Bill is a Televangelist preacher and Tina is a pregnant mom who he's 'counseling' Well... now we know a little bit, but why are they together.

Is Bill just a lust filled bastard or does he really care and wants to help? Maybe she so innocent it's gotten the better of him. Maybe he hates himself for what he's doing but can't stop.

Is Tina being used or... is she the one using him? Was there ever any feeling for Bill? Is he a father figure to her and she loves him? Hates him?

Or worse is she a 'Jesus' freak who thinks he's the second coming and that she's carrying the returning Christ. What an emotional jumble her internal thoughts would be. Hum...

The emotional content you put in can let us know that far more than just telling us with plot.

Find that balance between heart strings and G- strings and you can have a much better story

MST

 

[Acktion]

Find that balance between heart strings and G- strings and you can have a much better story

MST

I'm stealing this. Just wanted to let ya know.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3svvCj4yhYc

boop boop be doop

 

[Weird Harold]

...what can I do to not make the writing boring, ...

Eliminate Passive voice -- and the passive mindset that goes with it.

An "Online Writing Lab" I found years ago said:

Overuse of passive voice can make your prose seem flat and uninteresting

I've found that as little as 3% passive voice sentences (according to MSWord's grammar check) can exhibit the truth of that claim. (I suspect that the percentage is so low because only about 10% of a typical story can be either passive or active voice, so 3% is actually 30% of those sentences where an author has a choice.)

Passive voice does have a place and purpose, which is why the OWL specifies "overuse." I've found in my own writing that I have to carefully consider every instance of passive voice identified by MSWord to decide if I really need it in each case -- the answer is usually "No."

 

[HeyAll]

Sorry for making it so broad. In the best specific sense, what I'm saying is what can I do to not make the writing boring, and any good recommendations for books would be appreciated.

A story isn't boring when it's building towards the pay off at the end.

Think of it like watching a tv show. Some shows are slow placed and methodical, but they aren't considered boring because it's building towards something. Every scene serves a purpose. And every scene is well written.

Apply that to an erotic story. Your title & description of your story is what pulls people in. Once they click, they expect to be led down the path of what you advertised. Great dialogue and good descriptions are always a plus.

Best of luck.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://s3.freefoto.com/images/9907/04/9907_04_19_web.jpg

The greatest sin is using the wrong word.

Earlier a poster used CLUTCH to describe a COPSE of trees. SEE ABOVE ^^^^^^ a COPSE of trees. CLUTCH is not a synonym for any group of trees.