Held back by my own imagination

[TheExperimentalist]

Red H's are not that rare. Some people collect a lot of them, while others have none. There is speculation that they are easier to get by meeting "reader expectations." Others scoff at that as "pandering." Comments can be hard to get, except for Loving Wives. This is a huge site, with a large ridership, and most of them don't bother with detailed analysis. They almost never respond again to anything you may comment in return, but it's worth thanking a person for a complimentary comment.

You can always ask in Story Feedback for more - well, feedback - and usually people will respond.

As for scores, if it comes out as a 4.00 or above, I'm contented.

Do you happen to know if I'm correct in my assumption that it seems like the red H is a straight "4.5 or above", or is there something more complex to the metric than that? Thanks.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Do you happen to know if I'm correct in my assumption that it seems like the red H is a straight "4.5 or above", or is there something more complex to the metric than that? Thanks.

Ten votes minimum, with an average of 4.50.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Ten votes minimum, with an average of 4.50.

Thanks.

 

[ICantLeafYou]

I don't lorem ipsum it, but I do this a lot, including the brackets. Stuff like:

The Lorem Ipsum was just filler for the forum post so I could show an example. I don't use that in my actual writing.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

The Lorem Ipsum was just filler for the forum post so I could show an example. I don't use that in my actual writing.

Ohhhhh... got it. Okay, yeah, that makes a LOT more sense now. Sorry, sometimes I can be a bit of a doof. Rereading, I see now that you're saying we do basically the same thing, with slightly different notation conventions. Cool.

 

[SimonDoom]

Ohhhhh... got it. Okay, yeah, that makes a LOT more sense now. Sorry, sometimes I can be a bit of a doof. Rereading, I see now that you're saying we do basically the same thing, with slightly different notation conventions. Cool.

The cool thing about writing is we're all doing the same thing but we all think about it in different terms. And that's a GOOD thing. Listen to other writers and learn what you can from them but don't ever let their voices get in the way of your own.

 

[Unblemished]

To be brutal, stop indulging yourself with a long piece of excuse making like this and write the damn stories. You're doing too much thinking that's not productive.

Your main issue, I think, is that you're planning all these big long interconnected thematic stories, the next great erotic novel. Try something shorter, a whole bunch of short, complete in themselves pieces, very simple, two protagonists meet, do whatever, story done. Get a dozen 4 - 6k stories (2 Lit pages) like that under your belt, different categories, different moods. That way you'll nail your technical chops, find your own voice as a writer, get a bit of a following, learn how to write. Walk before you try running.

Right now, it seems to me that you want to get onto the well travelled conveyor belt of stories we've all read before. Try something different, be yourself, but just write the bloody stories. Right now, you've got the wrong moniker. Should be TheProcrastinator .

This is good advice, IMO. It's more or less what I'm trying to do when life gives me time to write.

What you need to remember OP is that practice is important. I'm not some grizzled lit veteran myself but I've done a lot of writing in general, and practice-makes-perfect is true across the board. You'll have a much easier time with your long I/T sagas and such if you've already got some writing experience under your belt, and your Magnum opus will probably get more engagement if you already have an established base of followers.

Short tales can also be good for practicing the different perspectives you're worried about, or for honing different aspects of writing. For example, I have a love of detailed, even purple prose...so I sometimes deliberately restrict myself to, say, 1000 words or so just to practice getting the point across without using pages of description.

Also, writing short tales just...makes things easier? You don't get as hung up as you would on a piece you've been rotating in your head for years. It means you're creating something and getting eyes on your work, which increases motivation for your other projects. Obviously do your best to write them well, but if one doesn't land then so what? Learn what you can from it and write another one. Also, if you try different things and ideas and perspectives, you can come back to your bigger ideas with new eyes. They seem fresh.

F'rex, I was struggling with my priority WiPs recently so I decided fuck it, just write something. Just picked an idea and spat it out. Thought of a scenario I figured was hot, glanced at an old piece I'd recently uploaded and decided to use a similar style, wrote it in two days and three sittings, and chucked it in the catalogue. Obviously I want it to get accepted and for people to read and like it, obviously I'll be disappointed if it bombs, but I'm not going to lose sleep over it.

(And frankly the style is so fawning it's made me much more enthusiastic to work on my other, more confrontational WiPs. Mission Accomplished I guess)

There's nothing wrong with wanting to write a Great Erotic Novel or a long, thematically coherent series, but the most important thing for a writer is to write. And if you've had practice, your longer tales will thank you for it.