All Comments on 'Just Out of the Egg'

I am one of the Anonymous readers who is a better critic than writer. I am male and of retirement age. I read a lot, Literotica being the only online reading I do. I read a lot of fiction and try to read a classic every now and then. I have read Egyptian, Indian, Russian, German, Dutch books in the last five years. I have enjoyed the English authors such as Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope. Joseph Conrad was a revelation. I also recommend anything by Nancy Friday.

In Literotica I have the opinion that the majority of writers and readers are male. Even some very convincing tales from the female point of view have been written by men. But the female point of view is mostly missing. So I am excited to read writings from an authentic female point of view. There are many things to learn about how women or a particular woman thinks and feels. I have found women to be much more interesting than men. I really liked the piece of yours that I read. So please keep on writing. Be yourself. Don't chase ratings or listen to the trolls. Thank you for the effort you have made to be heard. We need individual voices.

R.

Score helps authors gauge how good we are. Did we do what we set out? Did I make too many mistakes? Did they like it? Its generally the only feedback we get. The best advice to give is no advice at all. Write what you want for yourself, nobody else. Imagine you are the only reader of the story and then stop giving a shit about who will like it. Then forget you ever wrote it. Sit on the story for a few month and re-read it. If you need an editor, I can send you mine. Volunteer editors on this site are very rare or not good at all. Are they out there? Yes. Will you find one....LOL

As a fellow author I applaud your efforts and confidence to submit your stories. I can relate to the nervousness that comes with every submission, after you have spent time going over a story again wondering if more changes are needed. It took me ages to find two great people to help edit my work, one from the actual volunteer editors portal (took a LOT of emailing) and my second was actually a commentor on some of my stories. I found that his comments pointed out some gaps in my stories, so I asked him to beta read my next story. He agreed (thankfully) and the rest is history.

I try to reread my own work a few times before submitting, but know that I don't always have the patience to not submit.

I agree with you about the fickle nature of the audience, and would also suggest that the genre you submit in will steer the curve somewhat. A steamy hot sex story can do very well in Erotic Couplings, but maybe not as well in Loving Wives. A slower falling in love story could rate very high in Romance, but maybe not fare as well in Group Sex. Know your audience :)

Anyhow, I've enjoyed the two stories of yours I've read, and I'll be working on the rest when I can. Keep up the good work and as a writer I respect says all the time, "Keep your stick on the ice."

Rnebular

Always good to see a thoughtful author! I tend to give 5s to authors I enjoy as a way of encouraging them to write more. I suggest you write stories that please you first and foremost!

5

Good observations! I suggest you write stories that please you first and foremost. I only give out scores of 4 and 5. Why punish amateur authors if I don't like their stories or don't think they did a good job. Good luck with your future stories.

5

Thank You!

Thank you for sharing your talents and viewpoints with us. I enjoy your stories which is why I became one of your followers immediately. I don’t read this category often, yet you made very valid points here. I suggest mining your followers for beta readers; after all, they obviously like what you write. Another suggestion is to read your story out loud, reading ONLY the words actually written. It’s a good way to find missing or extra words. Your ear will catch many grammatical errors since they’ll just sound “wrong.” It takes a lot of discipline to see only what is there and not what you meant to put there. Our brains are wired to automatically fill in any gaps, thus we can hav txt spk & othr shrtcuts, rght?

I've read two of your articles. I like the clarity of your writings - thoughtful, logical, methodical, and very entertaining. My first story was in Novel section. After days of writing, editing, rewriting, and repeating the process, I was exhausted. At that point, it dawned on me readers might not like what I labored so lovingly to create, so I stopped and published it. There was little response to it. But I did get one nugget of encouragement so I posted the remaining as stand-a-lone chapters. They faired better. I felt good about it. That's when I consolidated it all from beginning to end and reposted it, again under Novels. Perhaps that was a bad idea. I had only one response thus far, calling it 'long...stupid...dribble'. Yet, it gets high grades and is favorited by several other readers w/o comments. Guess what I'm trying to say is, it is all a coin toss at some point in time. AND it is good to get the encouragement like those of your followers. Good reading! Your advise is gratefully appreciated.

Why do you say this? "But since I write mostly for a target audience of females the lack of gender identity in the great majority of bios leaves me with a data gap." I'm a male who thoroughly enjoys your stories. I'm sure there must be many others.

I must say I have never commented on or rated any story on here or any other sight. That being said I love your stories. I wandered onto them and have now read everything you have written and pretty much loved all of them other than maybe the sci-fi stuff but that’s just because I’m not really into it. I am a 45 year old male so don’t feel like it’s only women who enjoy your work I am relatively new to this sight but between your writing style and then to have numerous stories told about my local area has made you my favorite. Keep up the good work and I am really looking forward to see what adventures you have in store for us.

Nice. Sincere.

Write from your heart!

"Deeply Felt & Honestly Stated"....will always be best.

Craft Key: A Story Is about a character who WANTS something...

and what they DO to get it.

Keep that at the Center of your story development!

Kisssses, wherever you love them most, guaranteed!