Why do they bother asking?

[SinclairGroupLLP]

I’ve never had beta readers, largely because the only person who knows I write at all is my partner. I’ve had them read very specific sections that deal with their expertise to make sure it made sense, and when that has happened, both times, I’ve had to completely rewrite the scenes because they were completely wrong, lol.

The whole “is this realistic” thing is something I try to deal with all the time in my stuff. The sex in my stories is completely unrealistic, which I’ve resolved by saying “this is the future, and morals have loosened a lot,” but I want everything else to be realistic so nobody reads it and gets fixated on that and it kills the suspension of disbelief.

The whole ‘nobody in that bad shape could run that fast’ thing is something I would DEFINITELY want to know because that’s the type of thing I live in mortal fear of in my writing. I am constantly asking “does this make sense,” or “is this remotely realistic” and if it’s not, I try to find ways to explain it so the audience isn’t asking the same question.

I don’t get why somebody would even argue about that - it seems obvious to me and it’s easily fixed. Just have the kid roll is ankle while he’s running. I mean, this is fiction, we are gods, it’s easy to fix just about anything.

I love feedback, good or bad, but only get annoyed when it’s feedback tells me the person hasn’t actually read the whole story - like, criticism of something that is literally explained in the text.

For what it’s worth, I think PSG would be a great beta reader, lol.

 

[lovecraft68]

I’ve never had beta readers, largely because the only person who knows I write at all is my partner. I’ve had them read very specific sections that deal with their expertise to make sure it made sense, and when that has happened, both times, I’ve had to completely rewrite the scenes because they were completely wrong, lol.

The whole “is this realistic” thing is something I try to deal with all the time in my stuff. The sex in my stories is completely unrealistic, which I’ve resolved by saying “this is the future, and morals have loosened a lot,” but I want everything else to be realistic so nobody reads it and gets fixated on that and it kills the suspension of disbelief.

The whole ‘nobody in that bad shape could run that fast’ thing is something I would DEFINITELY want to know because that’s the type of thing I live in mortal fear of in my writing. I am constantly asking “does this make sense,” or “is this remotely realistic” and if it’s not, I try to find ways to explain it so the audience isn’t asking the same question.

I don’t get why somebody would even argue about that - it seems obvious to me and it’s easily fixed. Just have the kid roll is ankle while he’s running. I mean, this is fiction, we are gods, it’s easy to fix just about anything.

I love feedback, good or bad, but only get annoyed when it’s feedback tells me the person hasn’t actually read the whole story - like, criticism of something that is literally explained in the text.

For what it’s worth, I think PSG would be a great beta reader, lol.

To be clear its not so much about the speed of the running, a short burst could be believable (little adrenaline rush could be an excuse) but it was the stamina and length of the chase that was the issue.

I think @pink_silk_glove would rip me to shreds and enjoy doing it. But who knows, I might like it.

 

[designatedvictim]

I got that comment a couple of times on my first story. Even in a conversation between two people you still need to add place holders

It's funny that you said that.
In the exchange I had with the original commenter, I wrote:

With only two people in a scene, when one goes ‘“What time is it,” he asked’, due to context, I don’t feel any burning need to phrase things like ‘“Quarter-past twelve,” replied the only other person in the room’. There *are* a few places where dialog trades back and forth and, despite context being what I feel is fairly evident, I do have to prevent such loss-of-speaker-identity issues. I tried to keep the back-and-forth to no more than three lines before re-anchoring the replier’s identity.

i.e.
“Dialog line 1,” I said.
“Direct reply dialog.”
“Dialog three as a clear rebuttal.”
“But what about my direct reply!” she shot back

 

[TheLobster]

it was the stamina and length

Those things do get pretty unrealistic in erotica, that's true.

 

[lovecraft68]

Those things do get pretty unrealistic in erotica, that's true.

And the jokes write themselves!

 

[Voboy]

I don’t get why somebody would even argue about that - it seems obvious to me and it’s easily fixed. Just have the kid roll is ankle while he’s running. I mean, this is fiction, we are gods, it’s easy to fix just about anything.

This was my first reaction, too.

Just have the kid roll his ankle while coming down the stairs. Problem solved.

 

[secretLace]

I have the luxury of writing non-erotica on the side where I have a really critical editor who help me learn sentence structure and gives me great pointers on the story structure. With that I feel that writing and posting here is freeing, I can just write for myself without much of a critical eye. The story write itself or end up in the erotic graveyard folder.

But it is a leared skill to be able to take critique and learn from it. Took me a while to learn.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

But it is a leared skill to be able to take critique and learn from it. Took me a while to learn.

Your editor says you used learn three times in two sentences. (finger wag) tsk tsk

 

[DrPope]

Well I know Im shit but I don't give a fuck .... whatever anyone thinks of my books or stories is frankly none of my business .... people are so obsessed with scores and votes and comments .... I literally could not give a fat rats flying fuck about how anyone votes or comments ...