Sing to me, o muse, of that man, that digger of ditches, that soaker of panties, Odysseus.
"Gods, YES," patient Odysseus shouted, "make me CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!"
"Fucking give it to me," begged bright-eyed Athena, as thirsty as a man who staggers from the desert. "Paint my face, you cunning bastard!"
"UUUUGH FUCK," clever Odysseus responded.
"You can see an update on the tech side here."
This link shows page not found for me?
Not everyone is on this site for the community. I love getting comments and likes on my stories, and do my best to leave them when I read stuff I like.
That said, I would never be upset at someone who's not looking to engage, just to read. That's fine! I have no expectations of readers beyond hoping they enjoy what I'm putting out there.
I've never posted on anyone else's wall, and I never DM anyone about stories. I think that's what the story comments are for.
It's funny, because when I started, I wrote very short stories and had a few rejected here on Lush for being under 750 words. But my last few stories have all been in the 5000 word range.
As a reader, it depends on how "in the zone" I am. Sometimes, I'm looking to get RIGHT to the action, and I don't have the motivation to read a proper character arc and establishing scenes. Other times, I get frustrated with short fiction and wish the author had written more.
All that is to say, there's readers for every length. Let your story and characters dictate how much you write.
I'm of two minds on this.
In the example Kimmi originally brought up, I agree with most of the people here — the dude was out of line. It's a piece of fiction. It's not on the author how people react to it.
On the flip side, I had a moment of clarity years ago that I was uncomfortable writing stories that didn't have clear consent. At the time I dabbled a bit in dubcon scenarios. They excited me then, and still do today. But I'm not comfortable writing them. I have no problem with the category existing, and I'm not here to yuck anyone's yum. But when I considered what I wanted to put into the world? I wanted stories featuring smart women making their own choices. Women who weren't just a subplot in someone else's story.
But I don't think that's about author responsibility so much as trying to be clear about what you want to put into the world.
My partner is fond of saying that every story I write is about them. They're half-right. Often the stories aren't explicitly based on a real-life incident, but little moments in them are. Falling off the bed while trying to pull off a porn move is a recent one that springs to mind, lol. I often have a particular person in mind, someone I've had a crush on, and the story is more a fantasy about something I would have liked to happen with them. And if I've written it such that my partner can project themselves into the story, that leaves me confident the reader will be able to do the same.
I have a very long list of draft ideas. I'm currently wrapping up a series about a group of students on a school trip who all end up getting lucky on the same night. I've got a longer-planned series about a man who gets a job as a sexual assistant to two powerful women. I have a lot of half-thought-through notes about assorted office sex scenarios, including one about a recruiter who's willing to go the extra mile to convince someone to take the job.
I have a LOT of fanfic ideas, which I really struggle with, because I can't publish them here, and I'm hesitant to include them in ebook compilations since the legal waters around fanfic are so murky. In most cases, I look for ways to unhitch them from the fandom, and tell a story with a similar scenario.
I have one series that I wrote the first chapter of, but haven't returned to, about a sexy professor who has a yearly challenge to skillfully manipulate a student into thinking it's their idea to proposition her. Tricky to write around consent issues, but the idea has stuck with me for years, so it's probably worth writing more.
The best advice I can give you is to give your women characters more traits than just physical. It kills me to read a story where the only thing I find out about the lady is that she has "double-D tits."
Honestly, a lot of times, less is more. A good rule is to only describe something if it's relevant to your story. Is it important to mention her breast size, or can you just describe how they feel when he's finally allowed to touch her? Does it matter what color her underwear are, or can you just say she eagerly took them off and threw them on the lamp?
Give her a personality and a reason to be there. Even if you're writing from a male POV, you can express a lot about her from what he observes. If he picks her up in a bar, there's a world of difference between a woman sitting alone, nursing a drink, surprised to be approached and a woman who's wearing an outfit designed to be noticed, who makes eye contact from across the room, or beckons you closer.
Most of all, though, just keep writing! Getting past the first hurdle to even put pen to paper is a huge step. Stick with it, you've got this.
That's such a fun idea. I wish I had the mapmaking chops to help you out.
This year, I decided to kick my writing to a new level.
I got a new site — https://www.rubypinkromance.com/ — to promote myself and my ebooks.
I set a goal of 100,000 words written this year, which is, uh (checks notes), a tenfold increase over what I've written in any previous year. (I'm currently sitting at 19k, which is just a little behind schedule.)
I got serious about cover art, and went back to add it to some of my most popular stories. I quite like my cover template, and while I wasn't sure about cover art at first, I've come to really like having a little bit of branding.
I published a five-chapter story called "Lunch Buddies," which has some of the hottest build-up I've ever written, if I do say so myself: https://www.weihailove.com/stories/office-sex/lunch-buddies-part-1-monday
I published two new ebooks, both bundling chapters published as shorts:
I entered a competition for the first time, in a category I've never written before, so that was doubly nerve-wracking, though I've received some lovely comments (thank you): https://www.weihailove.com/stories/bdsm/the-coat-check-room
And just yesterday I finally published the next chapter in "One Wild Night," which I struggled to finish for a full year, and it's a huge relief to finally put up something I can be proud of: https://www.weihailove.com/stories/lesbian/one-wild-night-part-5-marcy
I'm feeling quite pleased with myself, and motivated to keep working towards my 100k goal!
🥰 If you like my writing, consider giving me a follow! I'm hoping to publish quite a lot more this year…
💋 And, of course, buying or reading one of my ebooks would be lovely.
