Writing tips - a thread

This is a wonderful thread. Thank you to @Munchies for making it! And for all the great contributions!
2 years

Story feedback forum



Munchies:
True. We can poo-poo the low quality stuff until the cows come home, but that doesn't actually fix the issue.


Well, I’m happy to throw one of my stories on the fire if anyone would like to tear it to shreds. Or if ValtheFA who posted earlier would like to go we could look at one of theirs, or anyone really.
2 years

Story feedback forum

Munchies:

Thanks!

I may make a separate thread with free/low cost resources when I have the time.


That’s awesome. For all the same reasons I made this thread originally, I think as a community we can work cooperatively to make cooler art, whether it’s high art or smut! And I think we can talk about and critique the work better and more cooperatively.
2 years

Story feedback forum

Munchies:
The key to writing a good sex scene: vanilla or otherwise, is transporting the reader into the scene. Not as if they are spectators but rather active participants.

Here are some articles that helped me when I started writing sex scenes ages ago:

dianagabaldon.com/2012/07/how-to-write-sex-scenes/

dianagabaldon.com/2012/07/how-to-write-sex-scenes/

dianagabaldon.com/2012/07/how-to-write-sex-scenes/

Another important element of a good sex scene is character design and the choreography. Just as artists and animators have references or act out certain scenes, writers can do the same. It brings cohesion to your work and can make some aspects of writing easier.

I see many stories here that describe characters in ways that don't make any sense. For example, a writer might describe a woman as "fat and busty" when she is 5'6", 130 lbs, and a B cup. That will ruin the immersion for anyone who knows what such a woman would look like.

I found this site ages ago, and it really helps figure things out:

dianagabaldon.com/2012/07/how-to-write-sex-scenes/

You can select a gender, height, and weight to find tons of matches. Just flick through the photos until you find the body shape you're looking at.

In terms of scene choreography, there are many different techniques. You can act things out alone, with a partner, or make rough sketches. Hell, even crude stick figures will do. Don't be afraid to make notes or reread previous scenes so you can keep relevant details in mind.


Those links are all great and well worth reading for any authors out there!
2 years

Story feedback forum

Letters And Numbers:
Is there any appetite here for a thread to get into more in-depth constructive criticism of some of the stories here? I was reading the comments of a story today that had a critique and it seemed to me that this might be a more organized format for technical criticism like that.

Could also just take a book club format where we all read one short story a week or longer story a month?

Any interest?

Munchies:
This looks interesting in theory. The downside, however, is that most fetish stories aren't good.

I'm not talking about the kink aspect of it. I believe that you can write about any subject matter and make it good. I'm talking about the hordes of poorly written stories on FF, DA, Dimensions, etc.


So there are the hordes for sure, but there are also some really great writers as well (here, and on the other sites) who choose to *also* write erotica instead of *only* writing it. Some of those stories could be more fun to read critically. And there are also authors who honestly might want to improve, even if all they want to do is write a better sexy story?
2 years

Story feedback forum

I’m very interested. I’m not sure how to start, but I would happily volunteer my book if we need a volunteer. I have 14 chapters left to post on here, or I can send it as a pdf to anyone in the “book club”. Or if my book is too long, I’m sure there’s another one we could start with.

Just as a resource, this isn’t bad: www.nownovel.com/blog/constructive-writing-feedback/

Some of it seems basic, but it’s all good to keep in mind.
2 years

Why isn’t my story listed when i search for ‘newest’?

FF Team:
Hi Letters And Numbers,

I have spoken with hiccupx about this. The issue with recently updated stories appearing as a category on the home page is that in the past authors have abused this option to get to the top of listings or carousels by changing minute details in the story like adding a comma.

You do have the option like you say to categorise search results by recently updated. Also if you follow an author you will get updates of when new chapter published.

So for the above reason it is ot something hiccupx wants to introduce to the story page.

Cheers for the suggestion.

c00kie
FF Team


Good reasons. It’s too bad some people abuse the system!
2 years

Why isn’t my story listed when i search for ‘newest’?

FF Team:
Hi Anonq11,

Thanks for getting in touch. I can see your story on page 3 in the 'newest' story search.

Newest stories are displayed by their creation date and I can see you created the story 1 week ago.

I can see you have updated your story 11 hours ago. For updated stories we have a separate search and you can select 'Recently Updated' from the search form to see stories with new chapters. Your story displays on the first page on this search.

Hope this helps,
c00kie
FF Team


Would there be any interest by the team to make “Recently Updated” stories one of the top-level categories on the main Stories page instead of having to go into options to filter that way? There are a lot of terrific serialized novellas and novels being posted on the site right now (including a very well received novel called “What A Long Sleep You’ve Had” - 2 new chapters this week!) that can be hard for new readers to find.

There have been a ton of new stories recently, which is great! - but some of them are shorter and wrap up quickly or get abandoned quickly and it hides some of the very active serialized content.
2 years

Eat butter

I’d throw up so fast 😂
2 years

Updates to story formatting

Some more feedback/a suggestion: when someone you’re following posts a new chapter in a story, it shows up in your feed with a little snippet of the new chapter, but when you click on that it always takes you to the first chapter of the story. It would be nice if it took you directly to the new chapter.
2 years