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Couple things: 1) you can say loving in here, and it's easier to read than f******. 2) after the self-pub erotica thread got gross a few years ago, there is a general moratorium on talking about writing erotica. Personally, I think that as long as you are asking questions that apply to fiction writing in general (like what you have asked so far), you are fine, but I am not a mod, and mod opinions may be different. So be aware of that as you ask further questions. If you have explicit erotica-related questions, there are other forums online dedicated to erotic writing, which would be both more appropriate and more helpful. Your best bet is going to be to read stuff like you are trying you write, though. And if you find reading/writing about sex monotonous, maybe write it as a non-erotica novel? Dr. Kloctopussy fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jul 17, 2018 |
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Jul 17, 2018 06:13
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It sounds like you're not at all interested in the sex but you are interested in the world you've created. So stop writing about stuff that bores you. Also if you can't spell out "loving" you probably shouldn't write porn.
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Jul 17, 2018 06:51
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If you need permission to write the word loving you have it, those *******s make my eyes hurt. And yeah, feel free to talk about it here but if you really want to get deep into th deets then just start another thread.
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Jul 17, 2018 07:24
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sebmojo posted:And yeah, feel free to talk about it here but if you really want to get deep into th deets then just start another thread.
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Jul 17, 2018 09:04
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avshalemon posted:can i start the thread for him Be my guest he said with a terrible sense of foreboding
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Jul 17, 2018 09:07
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Covok posted:I'm trying to use the description of how they're not really just banging but actually kind of being receptive and working with each other to imply that there is more there. You know, the difference between when you just f*** the s*** out of somebody you met at a bar versus when you bang your girlfriend and/our boyfriend. Please, never try to chat me up at a bar.
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Jul 17, 2018 11:40
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Covok posted:I've been dabbling with an LGBT+ erotic novel. How do you make sex not boring? Because, sex is kind of monotonous activity that is only good when you're like doing it. I've tried a lot of metaphors and textile descriptions...and fetishes...but I think it's kind of boring. Anyone got any advice on how to write that kind of stuff? Put a box of puppies in the scene.
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Jul 17, 2018 16:28
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Thanks for all the scrivener advice everyone  I think I maybe need to change my system to bashing out words on the commute but then organising myself properly with a pc regularly. My desktop is an old gaming rig that is prone to unexplained crashes so I’m way of using that, I do have a laptop my employer gave me for work that I suppose I can use, at least to organise stuff in Word. I’d like a Mac but they’re super expensive and we’re saving hard to buy a house right now.
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Jul 18, 2018 09:42
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This is somewhat random, but I read an ever-so-rare good web serial recently (Twig, if anyone's bored), and it does something really neat with perspective: most of the story is written from first-person, non-omniscient, and even though the setting is abnormal (it's basically 1910 London if the industrial revolution was driven by mad science instead of engineering), the main character grew up with it and finds nothing about his surroundings exceptional. As a result, it's actually really hard to figure out what the setting is or what the world looks like, because most of his stream of consciousness focuses on his mission, or the people around him, and he just randomly observes weird details occasionally, like casually noting that the nice old lady across the street bought a giant flesh puppet that looks like a camel to carry her groceries, or casually inflicting a horrible injury on himself (because medical technology is nuts and it'll be trivial to fix). It made me appreciate how under-used a lot of perspective tricks are; it's obviously common for the narrator to think about and focus on things the reader needs to know, but I actually can't think of that many writers who put visible, very obvious blind spots in the narration and actively challenged the reader to analyze and second-guess their narrator.
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Jul 18, 2018 15:31
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Thanks for all the scrivener advice everyone Macs are awful pretty and great if you're going to do graphics-intensive stuff, but for Gosh sakes don't buy one so you can do writing. I mean, yeah, do that for your second novel.
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Jul 18, 2018 21:32
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Nothing wrong with a cheap chromebook + gdocs offline mode.
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Jul 18, 2018 21:52
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magnificent7 posted:Macs are awful pretty and great if you're going to do graphics-intensive stuff, but for Gosh sakes don't buy one so you can do writing. I mean, yeah, do that for your second novel. Vellum Press is Mac only 
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Jul 18, 2018 22:13
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MockingQuantum posted:Nothing wrong with a cheap chromebook + gdocs offline mode. This is how I roll and it's great for the "just write" phase of a project.
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Jul 18, 2018 23:44
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Does offline Google Docs perform better than online? Because with the online version, anything of real length starts slowing it down significantly and glitching out pretty hard for me.
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Jul 19, 2018 01:53
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Bacon Terrorist posted:Thanks for all the scrivener advice everyone  It can drain the battery pretty fast though.
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Jul 22, 2018 20:22
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Just like my struggle in dating, I'm having problems with length, it's just too much for the thunderdome. Past three weeks I've signed up, and only finalized one of the three, not because I suck in general, no, but because I suck at finding the nugget that'll tell the story I have in mind. Conversely, if I try to write a short blip of a tale about a single moment, turning moment, in a bigger picture tale, it's full of fluff and no story. How in the poo poo do you make a tale that captures the events necessary for the payoff, without either lopping off most of it so the story is just confusing, or giving up because you're just too long. I mean the story - the STORY is just too long. feedmyleg posted:Does offline Google Docs perform better than online? Because with the online version, anything of real length starts slowing it down significantly and glitching out pretty hard for me. Break your story into chapters/scenes, of 3-4K words each.
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Jul 24, 2018 13:44
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magnificent7 posted:Break your story into chapters/scenes, of 3-4K words each. Do you mean just have separate documents for each chapter, or do I not know about some feature of Docs that lets you do this all within one document? Because Docs organizational tools are extremely poor and having 30 chapters in 30 documents is a nightmare. That's why I use Scrivener, but I hate its lack of cloud storage, lack of Android app, and lack of syncing across devices—outside of using a third-party, which I do, but it means that occasionally I wind up with conflicts when it bugs out. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 14:13 on Jul 24, 2018 |
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Jul 24, 2018 14:11
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SelenicMartian posted:iOS appstore has free Pages which is a word processor. You can have multiple documents and poo poo, keep your outlines, drafts, convert to pdf or rtf, upload things to I’ll check that out, no worries about battery drain my iPhone is coming up to 2 years old now so I carry a power bank everywhere with me to make it through the day.
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Jul 24, 2018 14:59
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feedmyleg posted:Do you mean just have separate documents for each chapter, or do I not know about some feature of Docs that lets you do this all within one document? Because Docs organizational tools are extremely poor and having 30 chapters in 30 documents is a nightmare. That's why I use Scrivener, but I hate its lack of cloud storage, lack of Android app, and lack of syncing across devices—outside of using a third-party, which I do, but it means that occasionally I wind up with conflicts when it bugs out. Yep. Different docs for different chapters, put them all into one directory, name/number them accordingly. It's not pretty, but it's backed up. OR keep your scrivener files on Dropbox. Backups go there. I kind of fluctuate between the two. Google Docs for first run ideas rough notes and then scrivener when I'm ready to who are we kidding I haven't finished anything creative in four years.
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Jul 24, 2018 18:39
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GDocs has gotten somewhat better with big documents lately. I'm working on a ~75k word novel now and it doesn't stutter or hang up if I want to edit stuff near the beginning like it used to. Takes about 45 seconds to load when you first open it, though. I'll admit, if Scrivener ever did go full-on web/cloud, I'd jump in a heartbeat. Being able to pull up whatever I'm working on at a whim on any PC/laptop/tablet/phone within reach is such a huge draw. Anyone ever try writing with Office 365? I gave it a shot a few months ago and it was ... okay. Bit clunky, little slow, sort of complicated, kind of like killing a fly with a sledgehammer.
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Jul 24, 2018 19:50
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Mirage posted:I'll admit, if Scrivener ever did go full-on web/cloud, I'd jump in a heartbeat. Being able to pull up whatever I'm working on at a whim on any PC/laptop/tablet/phone within reach is such a huge draw. My process is to work on Scrivener in the morning, copy+paste my day's progress into a Google Doc, edit in there while I'm on the train, then try to remember to transfer it back to Scrivener before I work on it again that night or in the morning. It's... not ideal.
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Jul 24, 2018 20:16
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Mirage posted:Anyone ever try writing with Office 365? I gave it a shot a few months ago and it was ... okay. Bit clunky, little slow, sort of complicated, kind of like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. I'm a lovely unaccomplished writer but I like using Onenote. What I like is that you can layer things pretty well for organization. For instance I have a "writing" "Notebook" that keeps all of my thoughts, etc. (but you could just make a different Notebook for each topic). From there you can add multiple tabs by category, ex.: "zombie story," "aging novel," writing principles," "inspiration." Then within those tabs s you can write or draw wherever you want on the screen, you can insert photos, you can copy paste from a website and it will rope in the url. Further, you can add "Pages" to the side for different topics and make a hierarchy with them to collapse a whole category. For instance, Writing (notebook) -> Aging Novel (tab) -> Characters (page) -> Protag's Mother (subpage) whereas "plot & scenes" is a diff category, and so is "themes and conflicts"
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Jul 24, 2018 21:55
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magnificent7 posted:Just like my struggle in dating, I'm having problems with length, it's just too much for the thunderdome. A lot of fitting a story into a short length comes down to picking a story that can be told in a short length. If I've got 1000 words, I probably don't have enough time to set up political intrigue or an ensemble cast. I'm going to want a story that's one scene long, or maybe two, if the scenes are short. The conflict is going to be pretty straightforward, and I won't have a lot of time to spend on worldbuilding. (A good rule of thumb is that you've got about enough space to explore one weird concept, if you're taking your story in that direction.) Start as close to the conflict as possible; in a TD-length story, you usually want your conflict present by the time you get to the second paragraph.
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Jul 25, 2018 00:02
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I'm currently writing my novel longhand. When I'm done I'll type it up on gdocs. Y'all are weak 
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Jul 25, 2018 01:48
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Manofmanusernames posted:I'm currently writing my novel longhand. When I'm done I'll type it up on gdocs. Personally, I can't write fast enough by hand to get the words out at a satisfactory pace, which prevents me from getting into a flow. I write best when I can basically stop noticing the "interface" of my body, which means being very comfortable and getting the words out quickly, without worrying about a cramped hand. I envy those with quicker, more sturdy digits than mine. magnificent7 posted:Just like my struggle in dating, I'm having problems with length, it's just too much for the thunderdome. Adding to what Djeser said, it's amazing how much "telling" you can do up front in very short fiction. You can tell the reader straight up what the deal is, so long as you then take that concept and build on it/subvert it/comment on it in some way. I think of novels like a movie, short stories/novellas like a TV show, and flash fiction as a camera panning around one single object for a few minutes. I find very short fiction is a good place to explore a single contrivance, moment, feeling, object, scene, etc etc etc from multiple angles.
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Jul 25, 2018 02:20
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As an exercise, try putting your entire setup into a single line, maybe two. Then write the story from there. Have it be so blunt and direct it feels awkward. Then resolve that setup with 2-3 characters max.
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Jul 25, 2018 02:24
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Thanks for the continued discussion regarding the merits of mobile software. OneNote is bugged on my phone for some reason and won’t let me create new folders, I do like the idea of using folders to desperate projects though. I know Evernote does the same but I feel OneNote is worth trying to resolve because my work has Office365 so I can just use that login and not pay for the premium stuff.
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Jul 25, 2018 05:59
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i hand-write my first draft then use microsoft word
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Jul 25, 2018 22:53
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Thanks for breaking down the critical spots in a TD/flash-fiction tale, that helps a lot. Also, I film my stories as interpretive dance and then once it's in good enough shape, I transfer it to cassette via morse code.
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Jul 26, 2018 16:18
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Does anyone here do novel exchanges? I've been getting chapter-by-chapter critique on Critique Circle which is a great website with a great inline system, but there are large gaps between when chapters get posted and the same people are not always around to read each chapter. So while critters can point out line and chapter-specific problems, it's not great for getting feedback on the whole plot or character arcs. If anyone else has a fantasy or sci-fi novel under 100,000 words and wants to exchange manuscripts for critique I'd be interested.
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Jul 27, 2018 01:44
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I'm writing my first novel and I've given myself a quota of 500 words a day. I wrote 3,000 yesterday and it feels great. I can't believe I didn't start this years ago.
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Jul 27, 2018 02:03
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Ccs posted:Does anyone here do novel exchanges? I've been getting chapter-by-chapter critique on Critique Circle which is a great website with a great inline system, but there are large gaps between when chapters get posted and the same people are not always around to read each chapter. So while critters can point out line and chapter-specific problems, it's not great for getting feedback on the whole plot or character arcs. It sounds like a writers group I used to be involved with - there were five of us and we'd swap out chapters weekly. It was HUGELY helpful in getting my book finished and onto the NYT Bestseller list. ANd by that I mean I put my book on top of the list and took a photo. Unfortunately I don't have anything worth reading right now, but check around your area. They always met at the library.
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Jul 27, 2018 15:37
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I've probably got 2 months left to finish my newest draft, at which point I'm planning to finally get friends and family readers. I'd love to be a part of a novel exchange once I'm at that point. I figure stranger feedback is always going to be a bit more critical than my friend who I've rambled on about the book to for ages or my mom who thinks everything I do is brilliant, no matter how much I tell them not to pull their punches.
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Jul 27, 2018 15:56
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feedmyleg posted:I've probably got 2 months left to finish my newest draft, at which point I'm planning to finally get friends and family readers. I'd love to be a part of a novel exchange once I'm at that point. I figure stranger feedback is always going to be a bit more critical than my friend who I've rambled on about the book to for ages or my mom who thinks everything I do is brilliant, no matter how much I tell them not to pull their punches. Cool. I don't have PMs (I should probably get them though) but just quote me in this thread whenever you want to do an exchange. My book is 70k words.
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Jul 27, 2018 22:23
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First post on here. As a writer, have you considered the idea of using outlines for your work?
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Jul 31, 2018 06:09
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I don't normally do this, but this week is the sixth anniversary of the bloodsoaked Flash Fiction Thunderdome, so if you have ever considered signing up for a round then this is a great opportunity to do it and win not only unending glory but also actual prizes! Putting in a story also gets you lifetime access to the frankly astonishing Thunderdome Archive which currently has more than seven million words of goon fiction in it, some of which aren't terrible. You have a couple of days to decide, but it's an easy prompt so I'd just leap right the hell in if I were you.
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Jul 31, 2018 08:45
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Fruity20 posted:First post on here. As a writer, have you considered the idea of using outlines for your work? My book's current outline is ~40 pages long. I feel like doing extensive outlining frees me up to just let the prose flow when I actually sit down to write. It becomes an exercise in fleshing out what's in the outline rather than staring at a blank page. Not only does it mean that I know exactly what I'm writing toward and exactly how everything connects, it also allows me to be far more efficient with what I'm writing. It means that what might have taken 5 pages were I to come at it organically can take 1 page and be a lot more clever because of it. feedmyleg fucked around with this message at 12:20 on Jul 31, 2018 |
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Jul 31, 2018 12:17
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feedmyleg posted:My book's current outline is ~40 pages long. Out of curiosity, how do you approach outlining? I am a pantser who direly wishes I was a planner but outlines have historically been the most sure-fire way to make my brain shut down and destroy my enthusiasm for a project. It's bizarre, because I'd think outlining would come a little more naturally to me given it's sort of how I approach a lot of the rest of my life. My plan for the near future is to try a few different approaches to outlining and see if any of them stick.
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Jul 31, 2018 17:49
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MockingQuantum posted:Out of curiosity, how do you approach outlining? I am a pantser who direly wishes I was a planner but outlines have historically been the most sure-fire way to make my brain shut down and destroy my enthusiasm for a project. It's bizarre, because I'd think outlining would come a little more naturally to me given it's sort of how I approach a lot of the rest of my life. My plan for the near future is to try a few different approaches to outlining and see if any of them stick. I had a really hard time with outlines because I could not focus on something that felt so open-ended. Someone somewhere recommended the snowflake method and it really helped ground me on where to start and where to go. Basically start from a sentence, then elaborate that sentence into a paragraph, then each sentence into its own paragraph, etc. I'd definitely suggest giving that a try if you're having trouble figuring out how to start.
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Jul 31, 2018 18:09
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sebmojo posted:I don't normally do this, but this week is the sixth anniversary of the bloodsoaked Flash Fiction Thunderdome, so if you have ever considered signing up for a round then this is a great opportunity to do it and win not only unending glory but also actual prizes! If I wasn't fist deep in moving right now, I would be on this 1000%
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Jul 31, 2018 18:35
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