8letters
Writing
- Joined
- May 27, 2013
- Posts
- 2,183
Hi! I’m 8letters and this is my big list of tips.
Before I get into the tips, let me explain why I think you should pay attention to my tips:
* I’ve done the biggest statistical analysis of how stories on LitE perform (here, here and here)
* I’m a successful LitE author, currently #106 on the list of most favored authors
* I have one story that is consistently in the Incest/Taboo hall of fame
* I have three other stories that have ratings greater than 4.8
* 2/3’s of my stories have a rating of at least 4.6
* I’ve written a lot of story reviews in the Story Feedback forum
But why should you care about my tips? Shouldn’t writers write what they want to write? Absolutely. Isn’t there an audience for any type of story on LitE? There is. My advice is meant to help you get more views, a higher rating, more comments and more favorites. If you don’t care about those things, great; more power to you. Hit the back button and move on to another thread. But I think the vast majority of writers who publish on LitE want more views, a higher rating, more comments and more favorites. From my personal experience, it’s a lot more fun the first week after a story has been published when the story is successful.
My list of advice applies to longish (4+ pages) Incest/Taboo stories where the heterosexual main characters are close in age. My characters usually fall in love over the course of my story. My advice may not apply to the category you write in or the type of story you want to write. Not all pieces of advice apply to all stories. This is what has worked for me.
* Choose a story title that sells your story. It should be a summary of the story premise written in such a way to entice readers to click on it. LitE offers up a smorgasbord of stories every day so if your story title doesn’t sell your story, then people will instead read a story with a title that does
* The above applies to the story description. It’s not as important as the story title, but it’s still important
* Don’t use a raunchy title like “I Fucked My Mom”. As almost all of the stories on LitE end with fucking, the “Fuck” in that story title tells the reader nothing. It doesn’t tell the reader anything about the story set up. I find such titles unappealing as they seem to imply that the story has nothing to it except a quick lurch to fucking (Side note: the most popular author on LitE silkstockingslover gives most of her stories raunchy titles like “Mom’s a Gangbang Cum Bucket”. No tip applies to all authors/stories)
* Non-chapter stories outperform chapters in terms of view, comments and favorites
* Longer stories outperform shorter stories. Aim for at least three pages, preferably six pages
* I don’t know if there’s a story that’s so big that it has to be published as chapters. LitE has some really, really big stories. When deciding to publish a story in chapters or as a whole story, keep in mind the expectations of the category your publishing in. Science Fiction & Fantasy and Novels and Novellas expects chapters. I/T, Loving Wives and Romance frequently have long stories published there
* Know the likes and dislikes of the category you are going to publish in. For example, I/T readers don’t like male-male sex. Romance doesn’t like Male Main Characters who cheat
* If you want to write a particular category of story, write it. If you have ideas for stories that could go into multiple categories or the story you are writing to could into different categories based on what you emphasize, research which category is more likely to get you the best results
* Don’t write a sequel, even if people request it. How many Hollywood sequels have you liked as much as the original? A request for a sequel is way of saying that they loved your story so much that they wished it would continue. But your story is over. Got write another story that they’ll request a sequel of
* I write in first person. I find that to be more intimate and therefore erotic than other choices. I mostly write from the point of view of the main male character (MMC) as I’m male, but I’ve written stories from the female point of view when hers was the more interesting one. There are stories that work best written in a point of view besides first person, but try using first person if you can
* I write in past tense. Present tense stories make me thing of Young Adult novels, and I’m not interested in the YA audience at Literotica
* Start your story with an interesting scene, typically with lots of dialogue. You only have a short period of time before many readers will hit the back button and try another story, so hook them quickly
* Don’t start your story with lots of narrative summary. Work that background information into the action of your story
* Introduce the two main love interests right away. Let the reader start building emotional involvement with your main characters as soon as possible
* Describe the non-narrator main character very early in the story. Having a picture of a character in my head as I read builds emotional involvement. It’s also very disconcerting to discover that someone I’ve pictured as a red-head is blond
* It’s nice if you can get a description of the narrator in, but it’s hard to do in a natural way
* As this is a sexual fantasy, I have my main characters be better-than-average physically attractive
* As my narrators are usually male characters, I’m typically describing the female main character (FMC) early on in the story. Don’t go overboard on the description of looks. At the start of the story, the MMC should find the FMC attractive, but he shouldn’t rant and rave about how she’s the hottest, sexiest woman in the world
* When I started writing LitE stories, I felt like my FMC’s had to have big tits. Women in porn movies and stories always have big tits, right? But as I’ve gotten more experience, I’ve gotten comfortable with having FMC’s with tits that aren’t big. I have one story where the FMC is flat-chested. I kept expecting to get comments ripping me for having a flat-chested FMC, but none ever came
* Don’t give the FMC massive tits unless it’s somehow important to the plot. Massive tits to me equals a cartoon character, and it turns me off. Big tits are more than sufficient
* Don’t give a bra size when describing a woman’s tits. First off, the vast majority of guys can’t accurately guess what a woman’s bra size is. Also, bra sizes vary from manufactures to manufacturer and many women wear a bra that’s not the ideal size for them. Giving the bra size makes you sound like a sixteen year old
* Conversely, using broad descriptive terms to describe a FMC’s bust allows the reader to imagine a chest size of their own choosing. I’m quite fond of “nice-sized tits”, as the reader can decide how big nice-sized actually is
* I rarely mention dick size. I don’t think it’s that important to women
* When you’re describing a character, just paint with a broad brush. Give enough detail that the reader can picture something, but give the readers a lot of freedom in what they actually picture. I had one commenter say he loves a story where the FMC looks like a certain porn star. I looked up the porn star and she looked nothing like what I imagined the FMC to look like
* Spend about as much time describing the FMC’s clothes as you do her body. Describing clothes is a great way to describe the FMC’s body
* Don’t have the FMC dress inappropriately to start the story. Don’t have her open the door in lingerie. Don’t have her not wear panties in public. To me, those are signs of someone who’s not sexy because they’re trying too hard to be sexy
* I frequently make my main characters an athlete or a former athlete. It’s easy to picture such character having a fit body
* Have an interesting premise. From what I’ve seen, the premise of the story is the biggest determiner of the its rating
* Have two likable characters who have an obvious attraction for each other
* Have backstories for each main character. They shouldn’t have come into existent just before the start of your story. They should have friends and coworkers/classmates. They should tell stories of what happened before the story started. They should have emotional baggage from prior events
* My stories have two parallel plot lines. The seduction plot line has the steps that result in the two main characters becoming a happy couple. The second plot line is the life story of the main characters, what’s going on in their lives. The life story plot line doesn’t have to be anything special. In “My Day as a Pool Boy”, he’s doing chores around the house while his sister hosts a pool party. The life story provides two main things: it provides insight into the characters and it provides “and time passes…” fodder. But to me, it’s important that the narrator have things going on beyond seducing the other main character
* Why are the main characters both unattached? In too many stories, she’s the hottest thing in town and he’s a major stud, but neither of them have anyone romantically interested in them. How attractive can they be if no one is attracted to them? What happened in a prior relationship is a great way to provide insight into your character. In several of my stories, what happened in a prior relationship sets up what happens between the main characters
* My stories make the case that the guy is the only guy in the world for the girl and vice versa. The main characters have personalities that mesh perfectly and they fulfill each other. In too many stories, the basis of attraction between the two leads is that she has big tits and he has a big cock. Strive for more depth than that
* If you set your story in a particular city, then the city should be a character in the story. There should be steady reminders that the characters are in that city. Otherwise, make the story more universal by leaving the city name out
* Dialogue is what brings your characters to life. Have your main characters taunt and tease each other. Have them tell jokes. A lingering look after some teasing is a great way of cranking up the sexual tension
* People use abbreviations all the time when speaking. They’ll use “wanna” instead of “you want to”. Strive for dialogue that sounds natural
* Sexy is as sexy does. A FMC who teases, flirts and sashays will be to the reader far sexier than the woman with a porn star body that doesn’t do anything sexy
* I like to increase the sexual tension steadily through the story until it boils over and the characters can’t resist each other any more
* I typically have a scene or two increasing the sexual tension, and then I’ll have a scene or two without any sexual tension that tell the reader more about the characters. Then in the next scene(s), I’ll take the sexual tension higher that it was before
* I view my stories as a series of key scenes. I spend a lot of time setting up a key scene, have that scene, and then start working on setting up the next key scene
* To me, writing is like dominoes. I put down domino after domino after domino, each logically following the other. So when the reader gets to a key scene, everything is in place for that scene to make sense. If I leave out a domino or have it out of place, then that scene will fall flat
* I find describing clothing a great way to increase the sexual tension and also to communicate the MMC’s thoughts about the FMC. As the FMC gets more interested in the MMC, she’s going to dress sexier to draw his attention more
* Having a villain in a story provides lots of opportunities to improve the story. It doesn’t have to be a James Bond-type villain. It could be an overly demanding boss, a jerk roommate or a professor who hits on students. Fighting back against the villain can bring the main characters together. Or how the main characters react to the villain can show a lot about their personalities
* You want your readers to want your main characters to have sex before they have sex
* Sex scenes! I assume that sex scenes are the main thing that my reader is reading my story for. They are looking to get off, and sex scenes is what does it for them
* I try to make my sex scenes as long as I can write them. Certainly long enough for the reader to get off while reading it
* On the other hand, you can have a sex scene that’s too long. It doesn’t come to me to write a sex scene that long, but I’ve read stories where they fuck on the couch, then they fuck in bed, then they fuck in the shower, and then they fuck in bed again; and I’m ready for something else to happen besides more fucking
* I always have a final sex scene. I may have sex scenes before that, but I always have one before the couple walks off into the sunset
* For my non-final sex scenes, I try to use the sex scene to advance the story. I’ll try to show how the relationship is changing as they have sex
* Final sex scenes are the hardest for me to write. Two people committed to their relationship are making love (typically) in a bed without a care in the world. I’ve done that sex scene too many times
* The readers should be able to picture the room (or, in one of my stories, the minivan) where the couple is having sex. It doesn’t have to be detailed description, but enough that the reader can visualize the action. I recently read a story where a rock band had an orgy after a performance. I had no idea of what the room they were in looked like, so I couldn’t picture the described action. And sex action I can’t picture isn’t erotic
* Describe all five senses. What does the narrator feel, see, smell, hear and taste?
* I try to make my sex scenes different. I’ll have the couple make love in places outside of a house, or in unusual rooms. One of my favorite is on the dining room table surrounded by the remains of dinner
* I don’t have the couple orgasm simultaneously. It just doesn’t happen in real life. Typically I write that he makes her cum and then they fuck until he cums
* One of the things I do for writing sex scenes is I’ll have a rough idea for a sex scene, and then I’ll search porn movies for a similar scene. And then my writing of my sex scene is basically transcribing the action in the porn movie
* The hymen is on the outside, not a short distance inside a woman
* After the final sex scene, sometimes I’ll have a few sentences where the main characters say, “I love you”. Sometimes, I’ll have an epilogue
* I always end the story with a request for comments
* When editing, know what words you use/misuse and search for those specifically. For example, I use “start”, “there”, “just”, “still”, “really” and “that” too much. I’ll write “check” when I mean “cheek”. I have problems with “lie” and “lay”
* After I get my story buffed up to the point I think I could publish it, I send it out to beta-readers. I got my first beta-readers by asking people who PM’d me to look at my next story. Someone with fresh eyes will notice that something isn’t quite right. I’ve done major rewrites based on the comments from beta-readers I really trust
* I always use an editor. I make a ton of mistakes as a I write. I do my best to catch them all, my beta-readers catch even more, but there are still mistakes there. I really, really want to publish my story after I’ve incorporated the feedback from my beta-readers, but I know I should take the time to get all of the mistakes I possibly can out of the story
* I write extended author’s notes. For example, see here. I strongly recommend it. I’ve had several readers comment they like seeing the behind the curtain. Also, it’s really enjoyable for me to go back and read them to remember the experience of writing the story
Before I get into the tips, let me explain why I think you should pay attention to my tips:
* I’ve done the biggest statistical analysis of how stories on LitE perform (here, here and here)
* I’m a successful LitE author, currently #106 on the list of most favored authors
* I have one story that is consistently in the Incest/Taboo hall of fame
* I have three other stories that have ratings greater than 4.8
* 2/3’s of my stories have a rating of at least 4.6
* I’ve written a lot of story reviews in the Story Feedback forum
But why should you care about my tips? Shouldn’t writers write what they want to write? Absolutely. Isn’t there an audience for any type of story on LitE? There is. My advice is meant to help you get more views, a higher rating, more comments and more favorites. If you don’t care about those things, great; more power to you. Hit the back button and move on to another thread. But I think the vast majority of writers who publish on LitE want more views, a higher rating, more comments and more favorites. From my personal experience, it’s a lot more fun the first week after a story has been published when the story is successful.
My list of advice applies to longish (4+ pages) Incest/Taboo stories where the heterosexual main characters are close in age. My characters usually fall in love over the course of my story. My advice may not apply to the category you write in or the type of story you want to write. Not all pieces of advice apply to all stories. This is what has worked for me.
* Choose a story title that sells your story. It should be a summary of the story premise written in such a way to entice readers to click on it. LitE offers up a smorgasbord of stories every day so if your story title doesn’t sell your story, then people will instead read a story with a title that does
* The above applies to the story description. It’s not as important as the story title, but it’s still important
* Don’t use a raunchy title like “I Fucked My Mom”. As almost all of the stories on LitE end with fucking, the “Fuck” in that story title tells the reader nothing. It doesn’t tell the reader anything about the story set up. I find such titles unappealing as they seem to imply that the story has nothing to it except a quick lurch to fucking (Side note: the most popular author on LitE silkstockingslover gives most of her stories raunchy titles like “Mom’s a Gangbang Cum Bucket”. No tip applies to all authors/stories)
* Non-chapter stories outperform chapters in terms of view, comments and favorites
* Longer stories outperform shorter stories. Aim for at least three pages, preferably six pages
* I don’t know if there’s a story that’s so big that it has to be published as chapters. LitE has some really, really big stories. When deciding to publish a story in chapters or as a whole story, keep in mind the expectations of the category your publishing in. Science Fiction & Fantasy and Novels and Novellas expects chapters. I/T, Loving Wives and Romance frequently have long stories published there
* Know the likes and dislikes of the category you are going to publish in. For example, I/T readers don’t like male-male sex. Romance doesn’t like Male Main Characters who cheat
* If you want to write a particular category of story, write it. If you have ideas for stories that could go into multiple categories or the story you are writing to could into different categories based on what you emphasize, research which category is more likely to get you the best results
* Don’t write a sequel, even if people request it. How many Hollywood sequels have you liked as much as the original? A request for a sequel is way of saying that they loved your story so much that they wished it would continue. But your story is over. Got write another story that they’ll request a sequel of
* I write in first person. I find that to be more intimate and therefore erotic than other choices. I mostly write from the point of view of the main male character (MMC) as I’m male, but I’ve written stories from the female point of view when hers was the more interesting one. There are stories that work best written in a point of view besides first person, but try using first person if you can
* I write in past tense. Present tense stories make me thing of Young Adult novels, and I’m not interested in the YA audience at Literotica
* Start your story with an interesting scene, typically with lots of dialogue. You only have a short period of time before many readers will hit the back button and try another story, so hook them quickly
* Don’t start your story with lots of narrative summary. Work that background information into the action of your story
* Introduce the two main love interests right away. Let the reader start building emotional involvement with your main characters as soon as possible
* Describe the non-narrator main character very early in the story. Having a picture of a character in my head as I read builds emotional involvement. It’s also very disconcerting to discover that someone I’ve pictured as a red-head is blond
* It’s nice if you can get a description of the narrator in, but it’s hard to do in a natural way
* As this is a sexual fantasy, I have my main characters be better-than-average physically attractive
* As my narrators are usually male characters, I’m typically describing the female main character (FMC) early on in the story. Don’t go overboard on the description of looks. At the start of the story, the MMC should find the FMC attractive, but he shouldn’t rant and rave about how she’s the hottest, sexiest woman in the world
* When I started writing LitE stories, I felt like my FMC’s had to have big tits. Women in porn movies and stories always have big tits, right? But as I’ve gotten more experience, I’ve gotten comfortable with having FMC’s with tits that aren’t big. I have one story where the FMC is flat-chested. I kept expecting to get comments ripping me for having a flat-chested FMC, but none ever came
* Don’t give the FMC massive tits unless it’s somehow important to the plot. Massive tits to me equals a cartoon character, and it turns me off. Big tits are more than sufficient
* Don’t give a bra size when describing a woman’s tits. First off, the vast majority of guys can’t accurately guess what a woman’s bra size is. Also, bra sizes vary from manufactures to manufacturer and many women wear a bra that’s not the ideal size for them. Giving the bra size makes you sound like a sixteen year old
* Conversely, using broad descriptive terms to describe a FMC’s bust allows the reader to imagine a chest size of their own choosing. I’m quite fond of “nice-sized tits”, as the reader can decide how big nice-sized actually is
* I rarely mention dick size. I don’t think it’s that important to women
* When you’re describing a character, just paint with a broad brush. Give enough detail that the reader can picture something, but give the readers a lot of freedom in what they actually picture. I had one commenter say he loves a story where the FMC looks like a certain porn star. I looked up the porn star and she looked nothing like what I imagined the FMC to look like
* Spend about as much time describing the FMC’s clothes as you do her body. Describing clothes is a great way to describe the FMC’s body
* Don’t have the FMC dress inappropriately to start the story. Don’t have her open the door in lingerie. Don’t have her not wear panties in public. To me, those are signs of someone who’s not sexy because they’re trying too hard to be sexy
* I frequently make my main characters an athlete or a former athlete. It’s easy to picture such character having a fit body
* Have an interesting premise. From what I’ve seen, the premise of the story is the biggest determiner of the its rating
* Have two likable characters who have an obvious attraction for each other
* Have backstories for each main character. They shouldn’t have come into existent just before the start of your story. They should have friends and coworkers/classmates. They should tell stories of what happened before the story started. They should have emotional baggage from prior events
* My stories have two parallel plot lines. The seduction plot line has the steps that result in the two main characters becoming a happy couple. The second plot line is the life story of the main characters, what’s going on in their lives. The life story plot line doesn’t have to be anything special. In “My Day as a Pool Boy”, he’s doing chores around the house while his sister hosts a pool party. The life story provides two main things: it provides insight into the characters and it provides “and time passes…” fodder. But to me, it’s important that the narrator have things going on beyond seducing the other main character
* Why are the main characters both unattached? In too many stories, she’s the hottest thing in town and he’s a major stud, but neither of them have anyone romantically interested in them. How attractive can they be if no one is attracted to them? What happened in a prior relationship is a great way to provide insight into your character. In several of my stories, what happened in a prior relationship sets up what happens between the main characters
* My stories make the case that the guy is the only guy in the world for the girl and vice versa. The main characters have personalities that mesh perfectly and they fulfill each other. In too many stories, the basis of attraction between the two leads is that she has big tits and he has a big cock. Strive for more depth than that
* If you set your story in a particular city, then the city should be a character in the story. There should be steady reminders that the characters are in that city. Otherwise, make the story more universal by leaving the city name out
* Dialogue is what brings your characters to life. Have your main characters taunt and tease each other. Have them tell jokes. A lingering look after some teasing is a great way of cranking up the sexual tension
* People use abbreviations all the time when speaking. They’ll use “wanna” instead of “you want to”. Strive for dialogue that sounds natural
* Sexy is as sexy does. A FMC who teases, flirts and sashays will be to the reader far sexier than the woman with a porn star body that doesn’t do anything sexy
* I like to increase the sexual tension steadily through the story until it boils over and the characters can’t resist each other any more
* I typically have a scene or two increasing the sexual tension, and then I’ll have a scene or two without any sexual tension that tell the reader more about the characters. Then in the next scene(s), I’ll take the sexual tension higher that it was before
* I view my stories as a series of key scenes. I spend a lot of time setting up a key scene, have that scene, and then start working on setting up the next key scene
* To me, writing is like dominoes. I put down domino after domino after domino, each logically following the other. So when the reader gets to a key scene, everything is in place for that scene to make sense. If I leave out a domino or have it out of place, then that scene will fall flat
* I find describing clothing a great way to increase the sexual tension and also to communicate the MMC’s thoughts about the FMC. As the FMC gets more interested in the MMC, she’s going to dress sexier to draw his attention more
* Having a villain in a story provides lots of opportunities to improve the story. It doesn’t have to be a James Bond-type villain. It could be an overly demanding boss, a jerk roommate or a professor who hits on students. Fighting back against the villain can bring the main characters together. Or how the main characters react to the villain can show a lot about their personalities
* You want your readers to want your main characters to have sex before they have sex
* Sex scenes! I assume that sex scenes are the main thing that my reader is reading my story for. They are looking to get off, and sex scenes is what does it for them
* I try to make my sex scenes as long as I can write them. Certainly long enough for the reader to get off while reading it
* On the other hand, you can have a sex scene that’s too long. It doesn’t come to me to write a sex scene that long, but I’ve read stories where they fuck on the couch, then they fuck in bed, then they fuck in the shower, and then they fuck in bed again; and I’m ready for something else to happen besides more fucking
* I always have a final sex scene. I may have sex scenes before that, but I always have one before the couple walks off into the sunset
* For my non-final sex scenes, I try to use the sex scene to advance the story. I’ll try to show how the relationship is changing as they have sex
* Final sex scenes are the hardest for me to write. Two people committed to their relationship are making love (typically) in a bed without a care in the world. I’ve done that sex scene too many times
* The readers should be able to picture the room (or, in one of my stories, the minivan) where the couple is having sex. It doesn’t have to be detailed description, but enough that the reader can visualize the action. I recently read a story where a rock band had an orgy after a performance. I had no idea of what the room they were in looked like, so I couldn’t picture the described action. And sex action I can’t picture isn’t erotic
* Describe all five senses. What does the narrator feel, see, smell, hear and taste?
* I try to make my sex scenes different. I’ll have the couple make love in places outside of a house, or in unusual rooms. One of my favorite is on the dining room table surrounded by the remains of dinner
* I don’t have the couple orgasm simultaneously. It just doesn’t happen in real life. Typically I write that he makes her cum and then they fuck until he cums
* One of the things I do for writing sex scenes is I’ll have a rough idea for a sex scene, and then I’ll search porn movies for a similar scene. And then my writing of my sex scene is basically transcribing the action in the porn movie
* The hymen is on the outside, not a short distance inside a woman
* After the final sex scene, sometimes I’ll have a few sentences where the main characters say, “I love you”. Sometimes, I’ll have an epilogue
* I always end the story with a request for comments
* When editing, know what words you use/misuse and search for those specifically. For example, I use “start”, “there”, “just”, “still”, “really” and “that” too much. I’ll write “check” when I mean “cheek”. I have problems with “lie” and “lay”
* After I get my story buffed up to the point I think I could publish it, I send it out to beta-readers. I got my first beta-readers by asking people who PM’d me to look at my next story. Someone with fresh eyes will notice that something isn’t quite right. I’ve done major rewrites based on the comments from beta-readers I really trust
* I always use an editor. I make a ton of mistakes as a I write. I do my best to catch them all, my beta-readers catch even more, but there are still mistakes there. I really, really want to publish my story after I’ve incorporated the feedback from my beta-readers, but I know I should take the time to get all of the mistakes I possibly can out of the story
* I write extended author’s notes. For example, see here. I strongly recommend it. I’ve had several readers comment they like seeing the behind the curtain. Also, it’s really enjoyable for me to go back and read them to remember the experience of writing the story
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