Who else is also working on their novel?

[AllenWoody]

I've had the idea for a novel lodged in my brain for well over five years. During that time I've done a bit of outlining (though outlining this particular work has been a challenge) and written a few pages. During the same time I wrote fifty plus erotic stories or chapters.

Then, about a month ago, I figuratively dusted off the work, resumed writing, and now I'm flying along. Writing sex scenes has been the biggest drag on my productivity for quite a while now, and it's liberating to be free of them. There are of course still massive challenges, the foremost of which is answering the question "what happens next?" but I'm finding this break from erotica enjoyable and productive. Earlier today I tried to pick back up on one of my erotica WIPs but wrote about one paragraph before I decided it was more rewarding to return to the novel.

Sound familiar?

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've had the idea for a novel lodged in my brain for well over five years. During that time I've done a bit of outlining (though outlining this particular work has been a challenge) and written a few pages. During the same time I wrote fifty plus erotic stories or chapters.

Then, about a month ago, I figuratively dusted off the work, resumed writing, and now I'm flying along. Writing sex scenes has been the biggest drag on my productivity for quite a while now, and it's liberating to be free of them. There are of course still massive challenges, the foremost of which is answering the question "what happens next?" but I'm finding this break from erotica enjoyable and productive. Earlier today I tried to pick back up on one of my erotica WIPs but wrote about one paragraph before I decided it was more rewarding to return to the novel.

Sound familiar?

I thought I was writing a novel in the year before I joined Lit. Then I broke it into short stories, and I made quite a mess. It would have been about college students in the 1970s, and there is a lot of that on here. But I feel like I'm about done with that, and I doubt I'd try to make a coherent narrative out of it now.

 

[YDB95]

I have a finished manuscript, but it's badly in need of editing.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I have a lot of first drafts that haven't seen the light of day when it comes to novels. I'm currently pantsing one, and the progress is in my signature. Honestly, I started it out of nowhere, because it wouldn't leave my head, and I haven't returned to it because... I don't know. I'm avoiding the scene I left it on, yet the call to carry on is getting louder.

I have no idea about what I'm doing with it, honestly. I don't know where I'm going... All I know is that it's just a bunch of stories that aren't really connected and are in a convolluted chronology. I don't want to make it non-linear. I'm writing it that way precisely because I don't know what's going on in my head, and until I finish filling up those 212 pages of a boring thesis that was going straight to the shredder until I intervened to use the blank side of it and tattoo a piece of transgressive erotica in those dead trees, I will never know what the hell is that story even about.

Also, the 10-minute novelist is also a pantsing effort. I'm just doing an anthological novel on it, which will be done when I either reach 85K, or 15 stories; whichever comes first. I write that on my phone, so I'm pretty much writing it anywhere, with the timer on whenever I go for it. Much better than doomscrolling, and because I'm writing it in my native language instead of English, anyone who even dares to look at my phone will prompt me saying something cheeky, like "careful... you may want to get naked in public if you keep gossiping."

 

[oneagainst]

Yes, familiar. I'm currently running through "final" editing passes with a couple of mainstream novels, looking at getting them published. At the same time, I'm reworking The Monogamists from its pretty basic origins here into a full novel for publication elsewhere - with a view to releasing the rest of the "Wonderland" series of Lit novels as expanded "Director's Cuts" in the next few years. And the Lit publishing schedule has another 2 books in the pipeline for this year.

But, to answer the question... yeah, it's getting harder to write the Lit stories when you can go into much finer detail with a full novel. There's a freedom to it, outside of the familiar Lit mode of the story (x amount of sex within y thousand words, or (if it's Loving Wives) z amount of burned bitches) that I think lets you develop more as a writer. It's a totally different (and in my opinion more rewarding) experience than banging out a stream of 750-word Lit vignettes.

 

[TheRedChamber]

No, I'm working on four novels.

For a definition of 'working on' which any sane person would take serious issue with.

 

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I have had a novel percolating in my brain for years, so I went off and wrote 700k words worth of stories here instead of doing much of anything with it, lol.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I have a finished manuscript, but it's badly in need of editing.

Same. It's only a 50K romance, but that qualifies, right? I'm also about 30K words into a high fantasy that I keep revising. Then there's that other romance, what I can my 'Jason Borne novel,' and a sort of super hero thing I've been playing with, not to mention a political drama mini series my son and I are laying out....,
The funny thing is, I started writing here to hone my craft. At last count and just under a million words later, I'm still here. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to finish just one of those other 'legit' projects.

 

[oneagainst]

Same. It's only a 50K romance, but that qualifies, right? I'm also about 30K words into a high fantasy that I keep revising. Then there's that other romance, what I can my 'Jason Borne novel,' and a sort of super hero thing I've been playing with, not to mention a political drama mini series my son and I are laying out....,
The funny thing is, I started writing here to hone my craft. At last count and just under a million words later, I'm still here. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to finish just one of those other 'legit' projects.

I think that's an important point... to get any good, you need to write, publish, get feedback, repeat repeat repeat. It's important not to understate the profound effect of Lit on doing that. Regular posting here has helped me immeasurably in my capacity to write a coherent narrative, smut or mainstream

 

[ChloeTzang]

I think that's an important point... to get any good, you need to write, publish, get feedback, repeat repeat repeat. It's important not to understate the profound effect of Lit on doing that. Regular posting here has helped me immeasurably in my capacity to write a coherent narrative, smut or mainstream

Writing stories here on Lit has really helped me improve my writing over the last 10 years. My only bitch is, I need to write more! More more more!!!!!

 

[oneagainst]

Writing stories here on Lit has really helped me improve my writing over the last 10 years. My only bitch is, I need to write more! More more more!!!!!

... that isn't responses to forum posts...!

 

[Erozetta]

I have four novels (about 380k words altogether) written from, I don't know like 10 years ago, maybe? I need to pull them out and go through them with a solid edit, but I wrote them long before I came to Lit and I just know it's gonna be painful to look at where I was with my writing vs where I am now. And I'm going to have to rewrite the damn things. My goal is to start those rewrites in January of next year and be done by April.

This year, I'm working on small edits and stories so I can carry that into the rewrites.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I've had the idea for a novel lodged in my brain for well over five years. During that time I've done a bit of outlining (though outlining this particular work has been a challenge) and written a few pages. During the same time I wrote fifty plus erotic stories or chapters.

Then, about a month ago, I figuratively dusted off the work, resumed writing, and now I'm flying along. Writing sex scenes has been the biggest drag on my productivity for quite a while now, and it's liberating to be free of them. There are of course still massive challenges, the foremost of which is answering the question "what happens next?" but I'm finding this break from erotica enjoyable and productive. Earlier today I tried to pick back up on one of my erotica WIPs but wrote about one paragraph before I decided it was more rewarding to return to the novel.

Sound familiar?

Almost every novel I have submitted here, or published through mainstream publishing, has seen the writing interrupted at some point by inspiration for something shorter and steamier. I knock that out and get back to work on the novel. My current WIP has been interrupted twice and will likely be interrupted again. It doesn't affect anything unless I am on a tight deadline. Then, no distractions.

 

[StillStunned]

The funny thing is, I started writing here to hone my craft. At last count and just under a million words later, I'm still here. Maybe one day I'll be good enough to finish just one of those other 'legit' projects.

As I posted in another thread a while ago, supposedly you need to write two million words before you're any good.

But come to think of it, it's a rule given by people who sell books on writing. I suppose they have a vested interest in making people question their abilities.

 

[TheLobster]

But come to think of it, it's a rule given by people who sell books on writing. I suppose they have a vested interest in making people question their abilities.

It's a genius scheme.

When you're reading a book on writing, you aren't writing yourself. You therefore need more of those writing books if you want to get good at writing without actually writing. So you end up with having read lots of books about writing without really writing anything, so you need to buy more books on writing because you haven't been writing this whole time that you've been reading books about writing!

See? It's so brilliant that even reading or writing about it detracts you from writing, meaning you need even more books on writing! Perfect!

 

[StillStunned]

It's a genius scheme.

When you're reading a book on writing, you aren't writing yourself. You therefore need more of those writing books if you want to get good at writing without actually writing. So you end up with having read lots of books about writing without really writing anything, so you need to buy more books on writing because you haven't been writing this whole time that you've been reading books about writing!

See? It's so brilliant that even reading or writing about it detracts you from writing, meaning you need even more books on writing! Perfect!

Clearly I've been doing it wrong with the Writing Exercises.

 

[oneagainst]

Clearly I've been doing it wrong with the Writing Exercises.

It's a real hole to fall into. A writer's weekend I went on, I asked a fellow writer about her work. She was on her first book. I asked how many years, she said about ten. I asked how many edits, and she said seventeen.

I changed the subject.

I've found that there is a point, somewhere after the third pass through, that the story dies for you and you're just going mechanically through it. You need to publish then, before you grind the life out of it. There still needs to be the scratches on the vinyl to keep that edge.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I have an idea for a novel. It's an alternative history idea but it would require a massive amount of input from some expert in two ancient cultures. But to tell the truth, I'm really happy doing my short erotic stories. It suits my ADHD.

 

[SimonDoom]

I have several non-erotic novel ideas, but I haven't actually done anything to write them.

I am, however, working on a movie screenplay.

 

[AllenWoody]

I think that's an important point... to get any good, you need to write, publish, get feedback, repeat repeat repeat. It's important not to understate the profound effect of Lit on doing that. Regular posting here has helped me immeasurably in my capacity to write a coherent narrative, smut or mainstream

Yes, and I'm thankful for the instant gratification element of posting on Lit. A friend of mine who read my first (draft) chapter said something like, "This is really your first time writing?" I muttered something along the lines that I'd written plenty but just hadn't been satisfied with it enough to share.

It's a genius scheme.

When you're reading a book on writing, you aren't writing yourself. You therefore need more of those writing books if you want to get good at writing without actually writing. So you end up with having read lots of books about writing without really writing anything, so you need to buy more books on writing because you haven't been writing this whole time that you've been reading books about writing!

See? It's so brilliant that even reading or writing about it detracts you from writing, meaning you need even more books on writing! Perfect!

Save The Cat Buys Another Writing Book!

 

[yowser]

Funny you should ask...

Ten (?) years ago it started, a fabulous first sentence, then most of a first chapter, extensive notes on characters, loads of in-jokes, wordplay, another half chapter, clear idea of an ending, it was always just so Perfect every night after the second beer...

And then mothballs. And damned addictive Literotica with its addictive siren call, and indisputable appeal. But hardly the only excuse.

Chance of getting finished? (never mind published) is above zero, but probably below 10 percent.

 

[oneagainst]

Yes, and I'm thankful for the instant gratification element of posting on Lit. A friend of mine who read my first (draft) chapter said something like, "This is really your first time writing?" I muttered something along the lines that I'd written plenty but just hadn't been satisfied with it enough to share.

LOL yes, this, at the writer's group: "Was this your first short story?" to which I'm thinking "Yes, anywhere that you're ever likely to read, unless you really are WetSlut69???"

 

[Izanami9]

I am in fact working on my sixth(?) novel, which is so ambitious in scale I sometimes feel I bit off way more than I can ever chew - a kitten trying to devour an elephant.

The story is a braid of three separate lifetimes narrated by the same character; different incarnations in 1) a primeval landscape before recorded history, 2) 17th century Norwich, England to the Colony of Virginia in the New World; and 3) 1980s NYC. These narratives are punctuated by glimpses of a great cosmic Library containing vast rooms like the Hall of Stars, the Linguistics Chamber, the Cartography Room, and the Hall of Souls. All with a Garden in its midst.

It’s definitely the Masterpiece of my life, if I can ever finish it, and if I do much of the credit will belong to my writing group and beta readers - they are why I’ve gotten as far as I have (about 40k words in).

Literotica is still new to me, and I came hoping it would help me keep the gears well-greased. It’s been more helpful than I ever expected, since I didn’t think I had much room for more characters and more stories. Turns out I really do.

 

[Lathanar1]

I'm working through my novel ideas on Lit because that's what's always been in my head. I find short stories more difficult to write. The novel format gives me room for the story within a story and all the character arcs I want to explore. I've only been putting in the sex where it should go, so I've run into a couple chapters of action and plot without the 2,000 word sex scene. Sometimes the rating gets dinged for that, but my highest rated chapter has no sex.

 

[AchtungNight]

[asks writer about their novel in a very irritating manner at progressively higher pitch]