What I Wrote and Why: the support thread

[onehitwanda]

"Because the voices told me to" is pretty much all you will get from me

 

[StillStunned]

"Because the voices told me to" is pretty much all you will get from me

You know that's just the announcer on the Tube, right?

 

[ElectricBlue]

By my count, we're up to 39 WIWAWs so far. This is wonderful, people!

I'd still love it if some of the other regulars shared their thoughts. No pressure, but

The thing is, I wrote a WIWAW several years ago (five years ago, in fact...)

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-floating-world-madelyn-redux

Then, because I have a habit of falling for my leading ladies, I went all meta and wrote myself into a story, just so I could write another version of Maddy, who I met in the street one day:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-hyacinth-house-pt-01

I also wrote this one, which goes into a fair amount of psycho-babble:

https://www.literotica.com/s/a-love-song-for-sara

 

[Omenainen]

By my count, we're up to 39 WIWAWs so far. This is wonderful, people!

I'd still love it if some of the other regulars shared their thoughts. No pressure, but @onehitwanda @Omenainen @Devinter @theWollstonecraftWoman @Voboy @AwkwardlySet @Bamagan @RejectReality @Rob_Royale @Bramblethorn @ElectricBlue @Djmac1031 @SimonDoom @Kelliezgirl @NoTalentHack @AlinaX @FifthEstate @MyBareTorso @AG31 @MrPixel @THBGato @MelissaBaby @AwkwardMD @ChloeTzang @8letters @Lifestyle66 @ronde @TheRedChamber @TarnishedPenny @Trionyx @joy_of_cooking @MillieDynamite @Kumquatqueen @oneagainst @intim8 ... (deep breath) ... and of course everyone else not mentioned by name, how about it?

Nah. Sorry, but I don’t give a fuck why y’all wrote what you wrote and I’m not interested in explaining mine

 

[lovecraft68]

I had my doubts on this and expressed them somewhere on the board at some point that it seemed a bit, I don't know, hubris may have been the word. To think the readers really care about why you wrote something as opposed to just getting another story to consume.

Its often been noted that considering the size of this site how sadly few votes we get, and far fewer comments, that sometimes we are writing simply for people who can't be bothered to take literally two seconds to vote for a minute to leave a quick "liked it, didn't like it" but just move onto the next free product.

But I gave this a shot because going into this year I hadn't entered an author challenge since way back when I created one "The tag team challenge" something that was way more work then I'd want to do again, because it was headache and drama central even though we did get some good stories out of it.

This year I figured I would help support some of the sponsored challenges. I finally took up Blackrandl1958 up on an offer for one of her invitation only contests and joined Wicked Games, Heyall's on the Job and this one. I may do Pandemonium as well, but not sure yet.

Like I said above somewhere, my choice was obvious because its a story that people have asked over the years why the hell I would write a piece that's more disturbing that erotic, so I'd give an answer.

I'm glad I did because I've always been proud of this one. It wasn't an easy one to write, it seems like story suicide considering what the I/T category usually looks for, and I managed to deliver it and to a surprisingly good score and a lot of comments that hit exactly as I wanted as in "This was fucked up, but..." when something you didn't really like in ways can still impress you, its a win.

The most recent comment on my WIWAW which I just saw last night because I don't check all the time really brought that back to me.

canyouread_77 days ago
I had to go find it after reading this essay.....my god.
What a piece of work, but not in a bad way. Like many others, I can't really tell if I like it or not; it certainly makes me feel deeply disturbed. Similar to the movie Parasite, it will stick with me forever but I probably don't want to read it again. And that's powerful. Wow. Wow......

I think the fact this was written at a time my wife was going through her first bout of cancer leant to being able to capture the despair the MC felt at points and leant a genuine feeling of hopelessness to parts of it.
Let's here it for catharsis.

 

[Bamagan]

Just out of curiosity, did everyone else named in the massive name-drop upthread get an alert about it? I normally get the red bell on the infrequent occasions when someone names me, but I didn't get one for this, or for a similar long list of names in that avatar/handle origin thread. I'm wondering if putting too many crashes the alerts or something, or if it's a 'me' problem of some kind.

 

[Voboy]

Just out of curiosity, did everyone else named in the massive name-drop upthread get an alert about it? I normally get the red bell on the infrequent occasions when someone names me, but I didn't get one for this, or for a similar long list of names in that avatar/handle origin thread. I'm wondering if putting too many crashes the alerts or something, or if it's a 'me' problem of some kind.

I did.

 

[lovecraft68]

Nah. Sorry, but I don’t give a fuck why y’all wrote what you wrote and I’m not interested in explaining mine

Points for honesty.

 

[SimonDoom]

Just out of curiosity, did everyone else named in the massive name-drop upthread get an alert about it? I normally get the red bell on the infrequent occasions when someone names me, but I didn't get one for this, or for a similar long list of names in that avatar/handle origin thread. I'm wondering if putting too many crashes the alerts or something, or if it's a 'me' problem of some kind.

I did not. In theory I like the idea of responding to the request and writing a short story describing why I wrote a story, but I've been so pokey about writing, period, lately, that I can't commit to it. I just want to get a new original story done.

 

[StillStunned]

Just out of curiosity, did everyone else named in the massive name-drop upthread get an alert about it? I normally get the red bell on the infrequent occasions when someone names me, but I didn't get one for this, or for a similar long list of names in that avatar/handle origin thread. I'm wondering if putting too many crashes the alerts or something, or if it's a 'me' problem of some kind.

@Bamagan how about now? How about if I say pretty please?

I did not. In theory I like the idea of responding to the request and writing a short story describing why I wrote a story, but I've been so pokey about writing, period, lately, that I can't commit to it. I just want to get a new original story done.

There's still a month to go...

 

[StillStunned]

@FreyaGersemi Thanks for starting the thread on the General Board. Unfortunately the lack of response confirms what I've long suspected: there are plenty of people on Literotica who have no idea that there are stories, and people who write them.

 

[AlexFourways]

Just realised I left out the WIWAW 24 from the notes to Admin, so have just added them! I figured with over 24 hours pending it was not being processed! Silly me.

To prove my level of inattention!
I thought I was racing a deadline of 31st of July - Not 31st August!
I must get on with writing.
I have a stalled romance about ballroom dancing - I know very little about the professional aspects, but as long as it's feasable it's fiction.
An extension to the Quiet Man - So much for it being a One Off - In three parts but waiting for technical clearance on the BDSM elements from another author who will remain credited in due course.
An additional Mr Fourways story inspired by a DM - possibly a mistake!

 

[FreyaGersemi]

@FreyaGersemi Thanks for starting the thread on the General Board. Unfortunately the lack of response confirms what I've long suspected: there are plenty of people on Literotica who have no idea that there are stories, and people who write them.

Well, I wanted to help promote the WIWAW stories outside of just fellow authors. It was my blundering attempt at marketing. I really need to hire a promotional staff!!

 

[StillStunned]

@AlexFourways I know, it's a long challenge. This is my first time organising one, and I thought people would be taking their summer holidays (or Christmas holidays, depending on their hemisphere), so they might need a bit more time.

But even so, it's a nice long time for people to decide to join. Reviews & Essays can do with the traffic.

 

[StillStunned]

Well, I wanted to help promote the WIWAW stories outside of just fellow authors. It was my blundering attempt at marketing. I really need to hire a promotional staff!!

At least no-one's replied with "Fuck off out of here, Literotica isn't a place for writers or their stories." Which quite honestly I thought was going to be the response from most of the users.

 

[Bamagan]

@Bamagan how about now? How about if I say pretty please?

There's still a month to go...

Nope! Although you were also quoting me, which I did get an alert about, so in this case it might have been a case of over-riding priority to avoid multiple notifications from a single post.

 

[TheLobster]

@FreyaGersemi Thanks for starting the thread on the General Board. Unfortunately the lack of response confirms what I've long suspected: there are plenty of people on Literotica who have no idea that there are stories, and people who write them.

My hunch is that they did notice stories exist but no one told them how they’re made, so there is a widespread ignorance about the birds and bees involved.

 

[TheRedChamber]

@StillStunned

Thanks for the shoutout. I was worried that anything I wrote would be too self-absorbed or self-congratulatory or self-something to be interesting so I wasnt going to enter. Then I thought what the hell wrote around 700 words and discovered it did indeed feel too self-something. I might pick it up again but it seems unlikely.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Four new WIWAWs up today!

Mine will be a long soon... hopefully.

 

[MyBareTorso]

I had my doubts on this and expressed them somewhere on the board at some point that it seemed a bit, I don't know, hubris may have been the word. To think the readers really care about why you wrote something as opposed to just getting another story to consume.

Its often been noted that considering the size of this site how sadly few votes we get, and far fewer comments, that sometimes we are writing simply for people who can't be bothered to take literally two seconds to vote for a minute to leave a quick "liked it, didn't like it" but just move onto the next free product.

But I gave this a shot because going into this year I hadn't entered an author challenge since way back when I created one "The tag team challenge" something that was way more work then I'd want to do again, because it was headache and drama central even though we did get some good stories out of it.

This year I figured I would help support some of the sponsored challenges. I finally took up Blackrandl1958 up on an offer for one of her invitation only contests and joined Wicked Games, Heyall's on the Job and this one. I may do Pandemonium as well, but not sure yet.

Like I said above somewhere, my choice was obvious because its a story that people have asked over the years why the hell I would write a piece that's more disturbing that erotic, so I'd give an answer.

I'm glad I did because I've always been proud of this one. It wasn't an easy one to write, it seems like story suicide considering what the I/T category usually looks for, and I managed to deliver it and to a surprisingly good score and a lot of comments that hit exactly as I wanted as in "This was fucked up, but..." when something you didn't really like in ways can still impress you, its a win.

The most recent comment on my WIWAW which I just saw last night because I don't check all the time really brought that back to me.

canyouread_77 days ago
I had to go find it after reading this essay.....my god.
What a piece of work, but not in a bad way. Like many others, I can't really tell if I like it or not; it certainly makes me feel deeply disturbed. Similar to the movie Parasite, it will stick with me forever but I probably don't want to read it again. And that's powerful. Wow. Wow......

I think the fact this was written at a time my wife was going through her first bout of cancer leant to being able to capture the despair the MC felt at points and leant a genuine feeling of hopelessness to parts of it.
Let's here it for catharsis.

You got another set of eyeballs on an older story, and then got put in the same frame as Parasite...that's pretty cool! I was a little unsure about this challenge myself (I'm not exactly comfortable talking about myself, or my "process" as a writer), but it's been fun ordering my thoughts and thinking about what I've been doing here in Literotica...if for nobody but my bad self!

 

[Devinter]

By my count, we're up to 39 WIWAWs so far. This is wonderful, people!

Agreed - and I have enjoyed reading several of them.

I'd still love it if some of the other regulars shared their thoughts. No pressure, but @Devinter . how about it?

Regrettably, my spare time is quite limited and I have to make certain priorities. Do I read The Dome 03: Over the Edge or do I write a WIWAW? I shall pick the former.

Spoiler of sadness:
Besides, even though I could go in-depth and analyse some particular aspect of my writing - such as you did with picking character names - I think that focusing on a particular story would oftentimes produce depressing results. As you know, I work with certain charity organisations and as a psychologist. I see a lot of pain in the world. Much of what I've written is either to escape reality for a while, or to make a fictional story out of some aspect of what I've experienced or witnessed that was rather tragic - only so I can put a happy ending to the tale and create something heartwarming, where as the reality of what inspired the story is oftentimes far bleaker. There are exceptions to this, but looking through my list of published work, they're few and far in-between. Nobody wants to read that.

 

[Bramblethorn]

gah, I really wanted to post something for this one but life got busy once again :-( If the event recurs, I'll try again next year.

 

[ElectricBlue]

@FreyaGersemi Thanks for starting the thread on the General Board. Unfortunately the lack of response confirms what I've long suspected: there are plenty of people on Literotica who have no idea that there are stories, and people who write them.

Not the best idea, cross connecting to the General Board. It's a different community over there.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just out of curiosity, did everyone else named in the massive name-drop upthread get an alert about it? I normally get the red bell on the infrequent occasions when someone names me, but I didn't get one for this, or for a similar long list of names in that avatar/handle origin thread. I'm wondering if putting too many crashes the alerts or something, or if it's a 'me' problem of some kind.

No.

I usually do, though. Maybe you swamped the notifier.

 

[StillStunned]

gah, I really wanted to post something for this one but life got busy once again :-( If the event recurs, I'll try again next year.

Luckily for you, you still have a whole month to go!