What are you proud of in your stories?

[LessThanAWord]

"Letting people's imaginations breathe" is such a good way to put it, damn. A good writer gives you the right number of guideposts and lets you fill in the rest. And literally no one can tell you what the rest is...if the writing is good enough, it makes you fill in those blanks with the hottest things you can imagine.

Bill Watterson once said of Calvin and Hobbes that he draws the way he does because the eye is attracted to blank space. Never stopped thinking about that.

 

[Erozetta]

I guess I'm surprised by - and also kind of proud of - the fact that while I try to not describe the physical details of my characters much at all, people still seem to find the stories hot. To me, sex has always *always* been like 80% in your head. Someone saying some hot shit is way, way more of a turn-on than how someone looks physically. I really try to get that across to the reader in my stories. So far, people have seemed to respond well to that, and I really appreciate it.

Personality has always filled in the blank of character image for me more than description ever has. Sometimes the way a writer describes a character doesn't mesh with how that character behaves. In those cases, I will absolutely overwrite the description on the page for the one the personality conjures for me.

 

[LessThanAWord]

Per @Erozetta's comment above, I think I've identified a thing I'm reasonably proud of: guiding a character into behaviours that aren't in their apparent nature and making it feel like in the end, it fits. Whether it's via curiosity or a situation eroding their sensibilities/inhibitions until their strange core is exposed, I love to start with a person who doesn't belong in porn world and learns to enjoy their stay. I think it's why I tend towards dubcon stories; I want to see characters exposed to the fact that their own better judgement kept them from their true selves. Although in my most recent story Sheafs, I feel like I've done a good job of inverting that, and showing a degree of liberation/empowerment as the characters abandon themselves to their moment.

 

[AG31]

I've only written a handful of fiction pieces, and those in the last 3 years. I don't consider myself an author, but, rather, a recorder of fantasies. So as things progressed I was a little surprised and proud of three things:

1 - My choice of language was often (I thought) to the point.

2 - In a few stories the setting was original. I hunted around for the word "setting." I'm still not happy with it, but for someone who's made a point of advocating for "simple erotica" (no focus on plot or character), saying my plots were original didn't seem to be the thing.

3 - I seem to have a particular style. Some like it and some don't. But it's consistent and noticeable.

 

[Devinter]

@LessThanAWord - You ought to be 'proud' of being a card-carrying member of the extremely elusive "clown club". Only a couple of those stories are submitted each year. They are rarer than unicorns around these parts!

 

[Erozetta]

@LessThanAWord - You ought to be 'proud' of being a card-carrying member of the extremely elusive "clown club". Only a couple of those stories are submitted each year. They are rarer than unicorns around these parts!

It's a good one, too. I think I've recommended it in at least three different places since reading it in... June, I think?

Though, one of those recommendations hasn't been released yet.

 

[StillStunned]

@LessThanAWord - You ought to be 'proud' of being a card-carrying member of the extremely elusive "clown club". Only a couple of those stories are submitted each year. They are rarer than unicorns around these parts!

Unicorns are apparently not rare here at all: https://tags.literotica.com/unicorn/

 

[Bazzle]

I'd love to hear what people have to say about their own work. One aspect or quality you think stands out in your stories that you think/know resonates with your readers.

I'd like to share mine after I've read a few of your answers! Feel free to link to works that you believe stand as especially good examples.

Finding people actually enjoy my perversions too.

I can write some really strange stuff, and their actually people who can get turned on even with bad sentence structure, information dumps, and awful spelling.

So I take that as a positive.

 

[LessThanAWord]

@LessThanAWord - You ought to be 'proud' of being a card-carrying member of the extremely elusive "clown club". Only a couple of those stories are submitted each year. They are rarer than unicorns around these parts!

I'm proud to have pulled that one off! Maybe I should write more short stories for obscure kinks...

 

[Devinter]

I'm proud to have pulled that one off! Maybe I should write more short stories for obscure kinks...

I wholeheartedly encourage this. Experimentation makes a writer grow. Try different styles, different themes, different kinks. And I hope you intend to enter the upcoming challenges as well - such as the Pandemonium one by @StillStunned which is coming up soon! Demons might not be overly obscure around these parts, but they are hot as hell.

 

[StillStunned]

I wholeheartedly encourage this. Experimentation makes a writer grow. Try different styles, different themes, different kinks. And I hope you intend to enter the upcoming challenges as well - such as the Pandemonium one by @StillStunned which is coming up soon! Demons might not be overly obscure around these parts, but they are hot as hell.

As long as they keep the clowns out of it! That's a level of creepiness that has no place in a wholesome event like Pandemonium.

 

[LessThanAWord]

As long as they keep the clowns out of it! That's a level of creepiness that has no place in a wholesome event like Pandemonium.

I mean I wouldn't outright discount the demonic element from Ms. Bonkers.

 

[Erozetta]

I mean I wouldn't outright discount the demonic element from Ms. Bonkers.

I knew it...

 

[dadadadiox]

I'd love to hear what people have to say about their own work. One aspect or quality you think stands out in your stories that you think/know resonates with your readers.

I'd like to share mine after I've read a few of your answers! Feel free to link to works that you believe stand as especially good examples.

For me it’s always the characters I’m most proud of. Because I’m a serial writer I invest a great deal on backstories, insecurities, anxieties, motivations, and in the end I feel I have fully formed characters.

 

[Pabiporffor]

Not so much getting people to suspend belief but to give belief a 2 week leave of absence with full pay.

 

[Djmac1031]

I suppose my simplest answer to this question is that I'm proud of writing something that entertained someone. In whatever form that "entertainment" takes. Whether they "got off" to one of my sexier stories or simply found themselves transported to my fictional world for a little while, if someone liked something i wrote, I take pride in that.

 

[Hypnobitch01]

I'd love to hear what people have to say about their own work. One aspect or quality you think stands out in your stories that you think/know resonates with your readers.

I'd like to share mine after I've read a few of your answers! Feel free to link to works that you believe stand as especially good examples.

Consent and mutual respect in relationships. Every sub submits willingly and with full understanding.

 

[Omenainen]

I'd love to hear what people have to say about their own work. One aspect or quality you think stands out in your stories that you think/know resonates with your readers.

I'd like to share mine after I've read a few of your answers! Feel free to link to works that you believe stand as especially good examples.

I’m proud of myself for doing this. English isn’t my first language, and I’m still constantly amazed I’m this good at it. I’m sorely tempted to update the language skill level section in my CV to include “English - internationally awarded smut author”.

Considering the stories itself, I think my most prevalent underlying theme is respect. I really like it about myself that it’s more important to me than who’s fucking who with what. As for readers, I do have an amazing and appreciative readership, but not many of them seem to be as willing to hop around categories and pairings and kinks as I am. Some are, and eventually I hope to lure them all to my work.

I’m also very proud of myself for hosting an event to promote women-centric erotica. I guess that could also be counted as a part of my work here, if applying the term broadly.

 

[bi_cathy]

A lot of what was said here rings with me. English not being my main language. Writing erotica without focusing on every physical detail (some of my first stories didn't have actual names for the protagonists or any physical attribute at all, but still got appreciated). Imagination and creativity. Dialogue. Fun. Etc...

What first came to my mind, though, when I read this question was this very particular aspect that I've recently grown to appreciate about my writing. I'm a slow writer and an even slower editor for myself. I'll write and re-read and re-read and re-read a million times all while still trying to push the story forward (I rarely have a plan, I'm making it up as I go, so I stall). Sometimes I just go back one paragraph, other times I go back to the start of a super long 20-30K story and re-read it all. That part, I'm not super proud of, because I procrastinate a lot.

The positive side effect, though, is that this gives me a million ideas for tying stories together and adding depth to my characters. If I'm 5 months and 20k words in with a storyline, I've probably forgotten a thought or sentence or specific something that happened in the early stages that could be relevant now. A real human, living those moments, wouldn't though. This would be one of the coolest or most influential moments of their life, so they'd remember. So when I re-read, that's where the spark comes and I start tying bits and pieces around. Oh, this would go so well there! Oh, huh, I forgot I wrote this thought, I need to go back and justify why things changed. And so on.

It's this aspect that gives me a lot of satisfaction when a story is finished. I feel like I'm wrapping it up super nicely with a bow and I've done everything to make sure it's cohesive and coherent throughout.

... and I guess that means I get to justify my procrastination.

 

[Agent0069]

I’m not proud of my stories, but I think that one day they’ll work as a great conversation starter with my therapist, to get us working towards the right direction.

 

[Otto26]

Plot. I think the kinks in my writing are pretty standard 13 year old heterosexual male but they take place in actual stories that are usually more than just a vehicle to deliver smut. Some readers like that and, in my opinion, most readers hate that.

I like LessThanAWord's description of 'negative space'. I want to describe just enough to pull the reader into the story but I want them to fill in the details to personalize it and pull themselves in deeper. Again, I find that most of my readers hate that while a small number of them value it.

 

[JewellToned]

At this time, I'm just proud that I was able to finish and post something. Especially after such a long gap between stories.

 

[bashfull]

I'd love to hear what people have to say about their own work. One aspect or quality you think stands out in your stories that you think/know resonates with your readers.

I'd like to share mine after I've read a few of your answers! Feel free to link to works that you believe stand as especially good examples.

I write more for my own wants and desires than for others, tho my musings are often with a muse in mind. And most of my work are merely thoughts and lots of whimsy posted my newbie thread, or at least used to be prior to the new LIT rules.

But to answer the question, I am told that it is my sensuality that others enjoy. That I blend both raunch and romance.