Story authors

Thanks for your info, fanedfox. Greatly appreciated. Personally, I find it hard to describe anything in a sentence.
I love the detailed descriptions of Author James Lee Burke. Often they're a little out in left field but quite pleasant.
For a while, I tried to copy his writing style and bombed miserably. I think it was then that I learned to stick with my own personal writing style. But all the same, I personally am unable to stick with the short description method.
Therefore, my feeling is write the way you 'damn well' please. As time passed I watched my style surface. As much as I had wished to have a Burke style, I've ended up with my own JM style.
New Subject....
Two weeks ago I had promised to give my best secret for creating cover pages and here it is...
XP
I know... I know...
That Microsoft system is as old as dirt. But, here's the thing. It includes Microsoft 'Works'.
Virtually all of my covers are ultimately laid out in "Works.'
Ya... Ya... There's better systems. But the learning curve can be immense. Of course, I use other systems for some parts of creating a cover page. But in the end, It all goes through 'Works.'
But the other truth is (I can't afford the fancy stuff.)
So if you want to have a respectable cover page, go down in the basement and dig out that 20 year old Dell and whala, you're in business.
In a week or so, I'll try to write about how to make skinny people fat... And for free.
Be well.
JM

Fatchance

I was concerned about your thoughts of the changes to ff. My first feeling was... The world keeps turning. We can't stop that. I have the crank phone that came out of of my great grand parent's farm. (If you don't know what a crank phone is, Google it.) But that was replaced by the rotary phone. Recently, my nephew looked at an old rotary phone and said, "What is that?"

My point being... We can't stop progress or change. Then, I think about the other fat/chubby sites that are gone or trying to make a comeback and I'm thankful that hiccupx and cOOkie and all the others work so hard to maintain this site.
This is why I contribute articles on how to improve writing. That reminds me... I'm about due, again.

Oh! And by the way, I read your chapter "as wonderful as her mother." Terrific!!! Don't stop!!! I'll be waiting (& drooling) for the next chapter.

Be well.
JM

Thanks for your feedback JM, I definitely know that things change, and you can't and shouldn't stop all change.

Thanks also for the story praise.

I am giving all this some thought and appreciate your viewpoint.

My advise when writing is to have an actual story behind it being a fetish work. When I write mine and post them, I like to make it seem like it’d be a regular book you would read on Inkitt or WattPad with actual substance rather than straight getting to the point. This spices things up and draws readers into your story! Also, make sure there are no spelling errors before publishing as too many will scare the readers away because it’s too exhausting to mentally correct the five-hundredth misspelled word!

Be descriptive if you’re able to, to describe the setting and what’s going on rather than straight dialogue like I see some stories on here. I also recommend finding free stock photos for the “book cover” or to use free websites like Canva where you can make one! Find something that’s relevant but captivating to the eye!

That’s all I have so far on this. I can’t think for any more.

I would like to very humbly insert my voice into this conversation. I don't consider myself to be a great writer or any sort of expert, and at present my catalogue of stories here is small but growing. I'm definitely taking some notes from this thread.

One of my biggest pet-peeves I think as a reader of stories is too much exposition at the top. Going on for paragraphs and pages about some character's backstory before I even know why I am supposed to care who this person is gets old for me real quick, making it difficult for me to justify investing what little time I have for recreational reading on the rest of the story.

I like to start off my stories with a bit of intriguing dialogue, or some sort of action. Something that's going to grab people and hold their attention, make them want to read more and find out who these people are and why they are doing and saying the things that they are. Character development and exposition can be done as you go along, slowly introducing your characters to the audience in the same way that we might get to know a new friend.

If you think about someone you just met at a cocktail party or something, just sitting there and talking to you for hours about their entire life story and everything that happened to them that day, you'd likely be scanning the room for the nearest exit. When you get to know someone gradually over time, through words and deeds, you build a bond with them. You come to care.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. Props to JM, Stevita and all the great writers here on FF. Thanks for being such an inspiration to me!

One thing that crossed my mind just yesterday -- the moment you find yourself bored with what you're writing, ask what would happen to the story if you just left that part out. Usually, the boredom seems to be a signal that what you're writing doesn't actually matter. You'd be amazed at the amount of driving and door opening and local history and character backstory stories don't need.

(And if you're serious about writing stories, here are some suggestions for study. The best book on the subject I know is Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction. It offers a full education -- essays on every important aspect of fiction, exercises, and an apt collection of some of the best pre-seventies English language short fiction.

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White gives you a thorough-but-flawed guide to grammar. Read it, look up what's wrong with it -- just do an online search, it's a contentious issue -- and you'll have a solid grip on the basics of prose.

Punctuation Plain and Simple by Alward and Alward is a self-paced tutorial on the details of comma use, semicolons, and all that stuff. You can actually copy pages and fill them out with a pen and then look up the answers. Commas are slithy little toves and this book will show you how to tame them.

And finally, The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth is a little too fond of the sound of its own voice but if you want to write beautiful prose, there is no other resource concerned with the practical study of that subject for the self-taught beginner. I'm going to want to read it a few more times before classing it with the above works but it's a serious contender.)