It also depends on the story, too. If I’m in the mood for pure smut and there’s a quick story that doesn’t bother with character development or plot, but does the smut really well—ok, that can be great too. But if it’s going to be longer than a few chapters I need something else to hold my attention

It’s extremely important to me. I mostly write character-driven stories, but I work pretty hard to make my characters realistic and have real emotions and intentions. And when I’m reading someone else’s fic, flat characters start to bore me pretty quick. So yup, very important.

I will say, also, that I love “amateur” art and writing, and I go into it expecting that it won’t be perfect. It makes reading those great amateur authors so much more fun. You expect a published author to be good, but when you find a hobbyist who’s great it’s exciting for me. And there are some great authors who post here. A lot of them, actually.

Why is this thread still open?

Are you talking about non-fiction?

I think it’s pretty common advice for people dating online to be extremely up front with people before you get into things. Like if you’re looking for a partner for marriage and children, etc, say that early and often. You might rule out people who are looking for something different and avoid wasting both of your time.

So yeah, maybe that’s dystopian, but that’s where we are.

This is a tricky site because it’s a little bit of everything. If it was just a porn site, you would expect that most people would be buying or selling. If it was just a dating site you wouldn’t expect people to be just looking for friends or just be looking for free porn or erotica. But it’s all of that and it doesn’t do some of it well. So yeah, I think being upfront is important.

Story club is back! It's February, which means romance is in the air, Valentine's day is coming up, and it's Black History Month!

This month's selection is a sweet bite called "Crumbl For You" by TCC.

fantasyfeeder.com/stories/view

In the author's words, "This is the first story that I've posted that represents a female character most like myself, inspired by my wish to see more black women in stories here on FF. As a half black and white woman, the racial dynamics in this story are based on my own experiences with interracial dating and growing up in a diverse home and community, as well as attending a majority white university. Please understand this is just one of infinite possible representations of such characters. I appreciate any and all feedback readers have to offer. Happy February all!"

It's charming and romantic with a ton of character building in just two chapters. I hope everyone reads and enjoys it, and joins in the discussion. Thanks very much, TCC!

Amen to this. Therapy is a tuneup for the noggin. Pretty much everyone can benefit from it, whether you think you need it or not. We’re not usually taught how to think about ourselves and our feelings, and it’s not something that comes naturally to most folks.

Not to speak for Stevita, but some of it is “you know it when you know it”. You can feel when your writing starts to get a lot of positive feedback and people are subscribing to your profile and commenting when you post new chapters. I think one of the keys is to consistently have have new content. I had a reasonably popular story on here that got good traction, but I’ve been writing for different audiences since that wrapped up and haven’t had WG fic to keep people coming back. It is what it is, I haven’t really had the inspiration for the kinkier material, but it hurts engagement. Stevita’s cross promotion advice is spot on, too. This is a small community compared to WG tumblr or reddit or deviantart. But always read the fine print. My favorite part about this site is that the creator has a lot of control over their content. I could delete all my stories with a push of a button. It doesn’t mean they get struck from the face of the earth, but a lot of sites don’t even give you that option. If you post something somewhere and decide you want to monetize it down the road, make sure you have the ownership of your own content that allows for you to remove free versions. Your stories are good, keep writing!