New author, and how to start your stories

[TarnishedPenny]

Thank you, Simon.

There is most certainly a lot of overlap. And I fully acknowledge that generalizations need to be taken carefully. That said, I do believe that men and women have, broadly speaking, different entertainment tastes. No? OK, just two words for your consideration:

Chick flick.

Oh, certainly, lots of guys liked Steel Magnolias and Bridges of Madison County and lots of gals enjoyed Die Hard and Iron Man. But there are some pretty obvious bell curves.

Similarly, there are women whose favourite bar drink is beer, but for every gal with a Bud, there’ll generally be two with a cooler or a white wine. Tastes differ. That’s not bad, but it is real.

Look at so-called feminist porn. There’s generally (again ‘generally’) more emphasis on plot and characterization. There’s usually sex, and usually sizzling-hot sex, but not without the other.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thank you, Simon.

There is most certainly a lot of overlap. And I fully acknowledge that generalizations need to be taken carefully. That said, I do believe that men and women have, broadly speaking, different entertainment tastes. No? OK, just two words for your consideration:

Chick flick.

Oh, certainly, lots of guys liked Steel Magnolias and Bridges of Madison County and lots of gals enjoyed Die Hard and Iron Man. But there are some pretty obvious bell curves.

Similarly, there are women whose favourite bar drink is beer, but for every gal with a Bud, there’ll generally be two with a cooler or a white wine. Tastes differ. That’s not bad, but it is real.

Look at so-called feminist porn. There’s generally (again ‘generally’) more emphasis on plot and characterization. There’s usually sex, and usually sizzling-hot sex, but not without the other.

Steel Magnolias is nails on a chalkboard to me. Die Hard: Christmas classic.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As a reader, I don't mind ten or twenty thousand words of intro if I know there's a payoff coming. It's when I can't tell whether there is a payoff in store that length really becomes a problem.

 

[burgwad]

It's interesting to me how one goes through phases. I'd written a number of long, slow burn stories with back story, character development and so on; but I'm now writing some quick and dirty stories, which for me are the equivalent of strokers.

I suspect I have a long, more complex, story brooding, waiting to surface. My subconscious gets rather busy sometimes - it usually manifests itself with long, complex dreams - last night's could have been a story.

I'm not going to go looking for the quote, but I seem to recall David Foster Wallace likened his writing career to poops. When he was just getting started on Infinite Jest (which is 1000s of pages long) he reportedly told his editor "I'm ready to take my big shit." I'm not sure that he ever called his short fiction or essays "little shits" but I feel like the analogy holds, especially in alignment with what you've described as "phases." Sometimes you go to poop and holy crap it's a huge one. Other times, maybe even most times, you go to poop and it's something a little simpler, more straightforward. But it's all poop.

 

[Djmac1031]

You'd be surprised how often you the author feels your preamble is too long when it's not.

If a reader is just looking for a stroker story, odds are they'll either speed read / skip your setup and go right to the sex scenes, or find another story.

But readers who actually want a STORY that actually captures their interest as well as titillating will appreciate a well written, fleshed out setup.

Write YOUR story.