Your writing process

[gunhilltrain]

I hope he finishes the Johnson series. It's a monumental work of history and it would be a shame if he didn't finish it.

He's got more? When did Volume 3, I think, come out? My opinion of The Power Broker is that he could have shortened it (by 20%? Who knows?) and it would have still worked well.

P.S.: In that book he made a few errors of fact (inevitable) but he also made some questionable assumptions that I may have accepted in the 1970's but I don't now. I grew up four blocks from the Cross-Bronx Expressway, so I have some first-hand reasons for thinking that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

We cross-posted. I just added a post-script that you must have missed. I've got to be quick to get ahead of you.

I’ve recently written a scene where someone is reading my Lit stories 90 years from now. Are you telling me that’s not 100% realistic ?

Em

 

[Seadog777]

There is a much longer article about Caro in The New Yorker, but it's now behind a paywall for me. (I've run out of free articles!) He has about ten of those machines. I think some people donate them to him.

http://mytypewriter.com/authors/list/Caro.html

Maybe that company would sell you one? Or eBay?

I've never found one on eBay.

As my daughters tell me "Dad, you have such an old soul"

 

[gunhilltrain]

I’ve recently written a scene where someone is reading my Lit stories 90 years from now. Are you telling me that’s not 100% realistic ?

Em

I have no idea what's it's going to be like ninety years from now. Some works in print have survived for centuries. Digital? I can't even guess. It depends on the survival of the Internet and the power grid itself. Print out all of that stuff and stow it away now! If it's science fiction, then anything goes. It could be utopian, dysotopian, or somewhere in the middle.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've never found one on eBay.

As my daughters tell me "Dad, you have such an old soul"

That's sort of what I said to my parents and grandparents once. One grandfather said to me, "It goes by so fast. It will happen to you too." Now I have a daughter who is 31, and it did happen to me!

There seems to be a lot of old typewriters out there. And this is only the first two of many sites I've found.

https://www.ebay.com/b/Antique-Typewriters/163099/bn_2310906

https://www.etsy.com/market/antique_typewriter

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I read an article recentiy saying that WhiteOut is still a big seller. It must be Keith.

Em

Actually I use it, but for stars.

 

[Seadog777]

That's sort of what I said to my parents and grandparents once. One grandfather said to me, "It goes by so fast. It will happen to you too." Now I have a daughter who is 31, and it did happen to me!

There seems to be a lot of old typewriters out there. And this is only the first two of many sites I've found.

https://www.ebay.com/b/Antique-Typewriters/163099/bn_2310906

https://www.etsy.com/market/antique_typewriter

Thank you very much.

I've bookmarked those pages.

 

[cuppatea]

I’m with @spankableBelle … I like hearing of how others write; the pantsers and the planners! A few years back, I completed Nano with no planning and after the first two weeks, it was hell to break the final word count.

My process:

Ideas stay in head for a few days, often playing around with them until they solidify into something that is translatable on to paper … usually ideas for stories are condensed down to single sentences to prompt thought.

Once it gets to pen and paper stage of writing, it’s most commonly done on physical pen and paper (pencil sometimes), on the paper I can doodle, cross out. When the idea stops, hits a wall, I write through it: if it’s not on the paper, I can’t edit/develop it later.

Once story is done on paper, or sufficient to get a feel of where it’s going, gets typed up, mainly using Google docs. As it gets transferred to electronic means, the edit process returns to paper, a case of: print, edit/draft, type up changes/additions, print and repeat … that can go through several cycles.

If the story is readable, I’ll take it to local writing group for additional feedback.

 

[Imstillfun]

I write in a mad fury bipolar high. Sometimes I list the characters and relationships at the end of the story so they’re always available so I don’t mess up names. I delete that before submitting

 

[SimonDoom]

He's got more? When did Volume 3, I think, come out? My opinion of The Power Broker is that he could have shortened it (by 20%? Who knows?) and it would have still worked well.

P.S.: In that book he made a few errors of fact (inevitable) but he also made some questionable assumptions that I may have accepted in the 1970's but I don't now. I grew up four blocks from the Cross-Bronx Expressway, so I have some first-hand reasons for thinking that.

He's a very opinionated historian and I think he stretches his interpretations sometimes to fit a predetermined narrative. But the level of detail is incredible, and Johnson is a compelling figure. I really enjoyed Master of the Senate. One learns more about how the Senate works from reading that book than from reading a political science work.

 

[KeithD]

My God, Keith. Do you also have dial up Internet?

Nope. Very high speed. Very reliable. With floppies, the evidence is pretty easily disposable quickly. Whatever you put up into the cloud is there and accessible.

 

[comegently]

Interesting thread.
When I write a story here, I start with a general idea, working directly in Word.
I put myself into the role of one of the characters, but I do not always present the story in that way.
What happens to that character is what is happening to me as I walk in their shoes.
How does it feel? What is coming in through the senses? What is she thinking?
This means the main sex parts of the stories are a turn on for me.
I compose those parts rapidly.
If, during this process, ideas for further parts of the story occur to me, I write them as sketchy notes, directly in the text, to be used later.
I invariably find I have to flesh out the story later, but at the same time I prune it, so that characters speak as much as possible through their actions, rather than the words of the all-seeing author.
I also snip out unnecessary adjectives and adverbs, as Roald Dahl once advised a student.
I read it through and fix any continuity errors or clumsy repetition. I make sure the guidelines here have been followed - especially when it comes to dialog.
Then I sleep on it and then I revise it again. I may sleep on it more than once.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Thank you very much.

I've bookmarked those pages.

There are even more of them if you really want to browse. I never realized how big a deal it is; even Amazon has some. I Googled, "Old Typewriters For Sale."

 

[gunhilltrain]

He's a very opinionated historian and I think he stretches his interpretations sometimes to fit a predetermined narrative. But the level of detail is incredible, and Johnson is a compelling figure. I really enjoyed Master of the Senate. One learns more about how the Senate works from reading that book than from reading a political science work.

I suspect that after doing all of that research, he was reluctant to not use it all. I've seen PhD theses online where using every bit seems to be an important factor in getting it approved. But it's hard to not skip through some of it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I write in a mad fury bipolar high. Sometimes I list the characters and relationships at the end of the story so they’re always available so I don’t mess up names. I delete that before submitting

Yeah, I've noticed that putting some notes / facts at the end for reference helps me a lot. It took me a while to figure that out. Easier in some cases than having a separate sheet of paper or a separate file.

 

[gunhilltrain]

We're supposed to have a process?

I suppose I usually get an idea and run with it until I back myself into a corner, lose interest, or successfully finish the story. How the idea starts varies.

6 times outta 10 I end up with a serial killer I have to edit out at some point.

Serial killers seem to have a much larger cultural impact than their limited numbers would suggest. They are sort of symbolic in the way that Satan or vampires might have been in earlier eras. They rarely are as suave and sophisticated as Hannibal Lector was. More like wretches such as Ed Gein. Although, Ted Bundy had a pretty smooth act going for a while.

 

[Paul_Chance]

I inevitably start in notes on my iPhone. It's always with me, so when inspiration strikes, I'll jot a few things down. I might write a scene or two. Occasionally but infrequently, I'll write an entire story there, but that's rare.

Almost everything I write begins with a character or set of characters in some sort of scenario. That is where the clear spark of inspiration hits me.

Then, I usually email the notes to myself and move them into a Word document on either my laptop or the PC (where they're saved to the cloud for those "just in case" scenarios).

Once I've pulled them over to the PC, I'll plot them out, using the classic three act plot structure. Keeping in mind that, for me, at least as far as Literotica is concerned, I'm writing short stories (2K to 7K words), I'll start writing.

I may write from beginning to end, but usually I don't. I pop through the plot and write specific scenes. Once I've got the first draft (all the scenes) written down, I'll start the review and edit process and focus on the small details of writing - foreshadowing, transitions, character and setting details.

Then, I pull back and start massaging the final draft, editing with a focus on spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. At this point I'll also be checking sentence and paragraph structure and making any adjustments. I'll often do this several times.

If I am having someone beta read it for me, at this point I'll send it over to them and let them take a look at it. I've got a handful of beta readers and one friend whose an editor.

I'll move the final over into a text document (notepad) and review the story one more time to clean up any artifacts that might have been carried over from word. Then, upload it into the appropriate submission tool, eyeball it one last time and send it off.

 

[yukonnights]

Ideas pop into my mind, often on the few minutes in which I'm fully waking up in the morning. I track down a few notes I'll need, like names and places, I sit down to the computer, and I compose.

This describes my approach pretty well. Start with a larger/general idea, a draft of who does what, where it's done, the naughty bits needed, the happy ever after ending.

The outline is pretty much abandoned midway through the writing of the story as the details have become more clear in my mind.

I write on a laptop in RTF Text and drop it into the queue and wait to see what happens.

That said, my interest in writing has waned — so perhaps I won't need to worry about it in the future.

 

[Alitaptap]

Love reading how everyone writes too. This is a great thread! As for me, I shift between my phone and my physical journal, so yeah, I write longhand a lot of the time. Yup, one of those idiots who has a fountain pen and different inks - seriously, such a cliché - but I like the movement, the rhythm of forcing your body to commit to something permanent, or a sense of permanence.

Usually it’s either early in the morning or right before falling asleep, before my brain says, “oh, that makes no sense,” or “ack, you can’t do that!” And with my phone, I steal away at work when an idea springs to mind, before someone looks over my shoulder that is - haha!

I think that makes me more of a pantser/gardener. For the one long story I haven’t finished (I write poems mostly) the scenes come non-linearly. So I write them as they come, then I find ways to sew them up together into some massive quilt of sorts. This is probably why it isn’t done! Maybe I should add more structure into doing this. Ayayay, we live and learn.

 

[oneagainst]

Interesting thread.
When I write a story here, I start with a general idea, working directly in Word.
I put myself into the role of one of the characters, but I do not always present the story in that way.
What happens to that character is what is happening to me as I walk in their shoes.
[snip]
If, during this process, ideas for further parts of the story occur to me, I write them as sketchy notes, directly in the text, to be used later.

Yes. Speed is the key, for me, so typing directly in Word with auto capitalisation and auto correct on means very rarely having to go back and correct myself mid paragraph.

Because it's rude to interrupt the MC in mid flow just because I can't keep up. I type at the speed I think which means less friction trying to get the story out. Or that I don't think quick. Meh.

 

[Rob_Royale]

My writing process? Mighty bold of you to assume I have anything resembling a process.
I work 12-hour days, 3 or 4 days a week. These are my brainstorming days. Happily, I don't do anything like brain surgery, that my mind wandering to all things pornographic would be detrimental to. I develop my ideas and plan the story. I write down any keynotes on the notepad on my phone. I get home and do any research that's needed. Then I knock out the first page or two. For some reason that usually really helps the story gel in my head. I'll likely NOT write any more than that on the first weekend. The second weekend is when the magic happens. After that, it's just a continuation of brainstorming work weeks and writing weekends.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

One of the things I do is that I do bounce around timelines in my chapters, as my mood dictates which part of the story I’m interested in writing that day, BUT, I only write “end of part” once that first full draft is written.

I can only get that end on when there are no gaps and that chapter is definitely done.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

 

[PandemicReader8]

My Lit process is truly a work in process. I knew during the pandemic that I wanted to contribute here, but I was likewise sure that A: I didn't have the time to have additional novels or even novellas in my pipeline, and B : that I didn't understand the site's readers.

So I lurked. I read, especially How To articles by authors prominent in a category. I made notes. I created this account to save stories I thought were particularly well done. And at least one that I found particularly "inspiring." But I digress.

After all that, my present Lit process is a hot mess. I'm planning to stick with an erotica model Ella Ford laid out for authors trying to tap the cash to be made on Amazon. The model works, allowing for story but remembering that the readers - a large number of them - are reading the genre for obvious reasons. Though I suspect word count will be increased. Ella calls for a cap to allow for volume in a specific marketplace, this isn't a concern for me here.

At the same time, I struggle with the desire to offer a "fancier kind of smut". I'm not sure it fits here. My first piece was intended to offer "thinking BDSM". I had to effectively gut the theme to get it published.

 

[CurvySassyAJ]

I am going to try something new for me. I am now in the process of creating a better out line and character development before just starting with an idea or two, then getting stuck on the direction of my story.