How to Write a Good Story?

For a long time, I was just an avid reader of Literotica. Then one day, when I couldn't find a new story that interested me, I decided to write my own.

At the time of writing this, I have published 85 stories. Of course, I think that they are all wonderful, but it's you, the reader, that judges them. And, as always, I respect the ratings that you have given them, even when it's lower than what I was expecting. But overall, I've been pleased with the ratings and comments my stories have received.

Because I've written a lot of stories, I feel that I'm able to offer advice to budding writers. The following, not in any particular order, is that advice!

(1) Jump in.

Don't hesitate, write your first story. It might not be good, but it's a start. And the next one will be easier to write, and will probably be better.

(2) The story.

You don't need to have planned out the whole of the story before you start writing. Most times, I only have a rough idea of the storyline. It develops as I write. Sometimes when I start, it's only the first few lines that have been planned. The key thing is to start.

(3) Write what you like to read.

That should help to make the story believable. And write in a style that you are comfortable with. Hopefully, the readers will like the way you write your stories.

(4) It should be more than just sex.

Continuous sex scenes, no matter how well-written, make the story boring. A good story should have pages that are nothing to do with sex. Many of my stories have more pages like that, than there are pages that have a sexual content. And put some humour into your story, the readers like that.

(5) Size matters!

And it does for the length of your story. My first stories were short, but now I make them at least 6k, and ideally longer. For me, 7.5k is a good length.

(6) Let the reader use their imagination.

A good story has a lot of detail, but sometimes it's best to leave it vague, so that the reader can put their own interpretation on it. For example, I might simply describe a woman as being beautiful, or having a gorgeous body. The reader will then imagine them in their own way, with what they regard as being beautiful and gorgeous. And I'll say that a woman has large breasts, rather than say she is 38DD. When you give numbers, and say they are large, you'll get comments disagreeing with you.

'38DD large, don't make me laugh. My Sister is 46FF'.

Though I quite often have big cocks in my stories, and I'll say their length, perhaps 8 or 9 inches. They say, write what you know, but in my case, regarding cocks, I write about what I'd like to have!

(7) Say the same thing in different ways.

It makes the text more interesting. For example, I will sometimes use the following for clit. Pebble, pearl, lump, jewel.

'She moaned when I polished her little pearl'.

(8) Ratings.

Most people will give you a fair rating, even if the topic isn't their favourite one. Of course, there are spiteful readers out there who enjoy giving stories a 1, just because they can. However, most are what the reader genuinely believes your story is worth. So if the rating of your story is low, then take notice. Your writing needs to improve!

(9) Comments - Always read them.

These provide valuable feedback, but only if they give some detail. Ones like, 'Worst story I have ever read', are no help at all. But ones like, 'Awful story, the characters weren't realistic. And the sex scenes were rushed', are helpful. They give you something to think about.

(10) Comments - Agree with them?

You don't have to agree with them, or change your writing to do what the reader has suggested. One reader said that they didn't like me using cunt. That it was too crude a word. I took their advice. I now use pussy most of the time, with cunt being used when I think it suits the occasion. But the comment that said that my writing was so bad that I should stop, I ignored.

(11) Don't let nasty comments stop you writing.

Most of them come from anonymous readers that haven't written a single story. Remember, you are the brave one that is writing. You are doing what they haven't dared to do!

(12) Comments - Reply?

For my first stories, I did. Somebody would say something bad, that I disagreed with, and I would reply. But that can lead to a heated argument. So now I only reply to correct an error. For example, if they say that I've spelled a word wrong, and what I've used is correct, or is a recognized alternative spelling, then I might reply to them.

(13) Comments - Like it & Hate it.

Don't be surprised if you get both types of comments for your story. Somebody will say that it's the best story that they have ever read, and the next comment will say that it's the worst. People have different tastes. What turns one person on leaves another one cold.

(14) Comments - What amuses me.

This isn't going to help you write better, but it might make you laugh. I have stories that are Mother & Son, in the Incest section of Literotica, that have comments like, 'I hate incest stories about a Mother and her Son'. So why the fuck did you read the story? And there is somebody who quite often says that they don't like my stories, but stupidly, they continue to read them!

(15) Accuracy & Consistency.

VERY important. Spelling mistakes, even just a few, put the reader off. And because your story will be read thousands of times, any inconsistencies will be uncovered. For example, a character starts off as Candy, but later on they are referred to as Cindy.

(16) Checking your story.

I've said how important accuracy and consistency is, but what can you do to achieve that? You, like I do, need to spend hours checking it. And I mean hours. I spend between 6 to 8 hours doing that. And I do it in a systematic way.

(A) Spell checking. I write my stories in Word, so that's easy to do.

(B) Check for words that are often used in a wrong way:

Too & to. Where & were. Faint & feint. Know & now. Stationary & stationery. I have a long list of them. Do some research, and then make your own list!

(C) Check for inconsistencies. For example, you say that the Son is 20 and the Mother is 22 years older than him, but later on you say that she is 45.

(D) Check where names are used, including Mother, Son, Sister etc. It's easy to get them wrong. For example, Jim said, but it should be Anne said.

(E) Put your story into a text reader so that you can listen to it. Then, while you are listening to it, read the words on Literotica so that you can do any corrections. I do that a few times, taking about an hour each time. That's why I end up spending hours proof-reading. Note, I use 'Text Reader' on my phone, or the PC version that converts it to MP3 so that I can listen to it on my iPod.

But you can never guarantee that you haven't missed something. If you have, then hopefully it's something minor and it hasn't spoilt the story for the reader.

(17) And this is what I include at the end of my stories, to encourage feedback.

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Thanks for reading my story.

Please rate it or add a comment, good or bad. If it's good it encourages me to write more, if it's bad it encourages me to write better.