All Comments on 'What I Wish I Knew'

Great advice! Thanks :)

Here's a short but good video on how to customize Word for grammar and spelling. The interesting parts are about halfway through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzrpa-gwN1A

Great article!

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Thank-you! The best bit of advice I have been given that isn't included in your excellent article is to read the story out loud- I then know if I have started too many sentences with 'I' or a character's name or if they are the same length which can get rather boring. I'm fairly new, but I also try and read stories in genres that aren't my usual kink (or lack thereof!) to read different writing styles. If I recognise something is not my kink (ie incest) I won't rate a story as I recognise my own bias.

Awesome advice. Thank you for sharing. You’re absolutely right about needing a thick skin for feedback and comments. It’s so worth it though, when one of your favorite writers makes your story a favorite or provides feedback.

I’m not an author on here, so I don’t know if lit accepts HTML entity escaping. If so, you would type < or < and & for an actual ampersand. (the semicolons are important, as it marks the end... although some browsers will still display malformed entities)

(It did for comment previews at least)

<i>italic</i> & <b>bold</b>

Thanks for the thoughts that we often forget. It's good to get poked once in a while about what we're doing and why. I have been corresponding via email with an excellent author here who is, through her works and the thoughts she sends in the emails, changing the way I think, craft characters and then write about them. Both your remarks and hers are very succinct and applicable and I'd likewise encourage any who want to improve to reach out to those they respect and hopefully get the help they're seeking.

Thoughtful suggestions

I am a big advocate of writing for exploratory purposes. Having a mechanism for feedback (beta-readers, editors) makes a huge difference in the quality of your words.

Only a couple small points to add: for those of you adverse to Microsoft and want freeware writing (raises hand) LibreOffice is more than adequate Also, I second the 'If it's not necessary for the plot, excise it.' bit, white-space and hints (you don't need to explain everything) are golden, your readers will enjoy connecting their own dots, as long as you aren't confusing or inconsistent. Well said.

Very good advice, particularly the importance of knowing your intended audience.

I don't contribute to Lit. but I do write professionally in addition to my 'day' job. Two things that publishers have impressed on me are:

Grammar and spelling matter a lot to most readers which is why publishers spend considerable time (and money) trying to get them right. However spell-binding your plots are you will have difficulty being recognized as a first-class author if you don't bother to get the fundamentals correct.

Unless you are targeting a segment of readers who share your political beliefs and sexual kinks, don't inflict them on your audience. Compared with your total potential English-speaking audience, the number of readers who actually believe what appears in Socialist Weekly or on Fox News is very small. Likewise long skinny legs, drooping stomachs and A-cup or G-cup boobs, for example, are minority tastes.

I appreciate your HTML remarks. You have the signs backwards, however. What I mean is the starting bracket is the Lesser Than symbol (point to the left) and the end bracket is the Greater Than symbol (point to the right). In other words, the "i" or "b" is between the open space of the brackets. The brackets should NOT be pointing at the "i" or "b."

I used to do some HTML writing.

I really appreciate your other comments about what works and what doesn't when it comes to writing. Most helpful is the "why are you writing" question. Every author needs to examine this most basic and important question.

Peace out.

Bebop3, you claim: "I'm not kink-shaming, but if you are writing cuck or humiliation stories, put them in Fetish, not Loving Wives."

Not so.

In fact, you ARE "kink-shaming". Any wife who has cheated on her husband has cuckolded him, by dictionary definition. Most men would find this humiliating. Therefore, by your own definition, every cheating wife story is a "cuck or humiliation story". And how are "cuck or humiliation stories" not "extra-marital fun" for some people? Do you see? You have shamed their kink under the guise of offering helpful advice. You have projected your personal preferences to artificially narrowed the scope of stories in the Loving Wives category.

In other words, you've redefined the Loving Wives category to suit yourself. Literotica defines the LW category as: "Married extra-marital fun: swinging, sharing & more." This includes both willing and unwilling cuckoldry, and any resultant humiliation. It includes swingers and wife sharers. Husband sharers, too. The LW category has been broadly and deliberately defined this way by the owners of the site.

Having a lot of time on my hand -- I would like to volunteer to be a Beta Reader.

Where to add my name to Beta Reader List ??

Anonymous who wrote: "Redefining the Loving Wives category"

I was definitely not kink shaming. You can say that those stories belong in LW and be correct in a legalistic sense (as noted by the interpolation by Lit apparati), but I was talking about finding your audience and who would appreciate your story, which is why I included: "The readership in one will be welcoming, the readership in the other will be hostile. "

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The accuracy of that statement is unassailable. Look at the scoring and comments for cuck stories in LW. It's self evident. Before there is an impulse to assail the accuracy of scoring and the paucity of commentary, you're right. They aren't a perfect barometer. That being said, they aren't horrible either.

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What I want is for a writer who is starting out to find his target audience, to receive a warm reception and be encouraged to continue and grow. Cuck stories and LW are like peanut butter and sardines. They just don't work together.

You recommend against time shifts in stories.

Respectfully, I cannot totally agree.

I do agree that jumping around to excess is confusing, but starting a story with a chunky backstory is dull and makes me click on. My preferred option is to start in media res, grab the reader's attention, and then shift to backstory, which on Lit except for novels never needs tn paragraphs. Starting in media res gives you the chance to tease the reader with some early sex, which Lit readers want to see.

Personally, I hate shifting POV stories. I find it distracting, and Lit stories require focus. Even Charles Dickens was criticised for his switching narrators in Bleak House, considered by many his best novel, and by some he greatest novel of the 19th century. My advice would be "don't".

Very useful thank you!

Loving wives is the biggest waist on the site. Should be called cheating wives.

Great info. I have to agree, pretty new to the site and Loving Wives is a joke. I really wanted to read that genre. I spent my first week in nothing but that genre and it's all cheating. I assume that was not the intention when the site was formed so I would say the moderators allowed it to be ruined. As a woman I really hoped that genre would be good, now I will not even click a story submitted there. Shame there probably are some great stories but I have no desire to dig through all the whore stories.

On LW category topic, something has been bugging me for a while. Why are the Literotica categories unchanged (and nothing added) in over 15 years? Perhaps even longer, but I've only been reading here for the past 15. Also, is there a way to add a story into multiple categories (with hashtags or something), which would remove a lot of the confusion about what a story is truly about?

<b>this is how you bold</b>

Just wanted to say a big thank you. Your advice seems sound and thoughtful and is much appreciated. It's really generous of you to take the time and trouble for those of us who may just be starting out (though I'm sure there are useful reminders in there for even the more seasoned).

I also think you’re absolutely correct and not kink shaming about the loving wives category.

For some oddball reason the site owners decided to make ‘loving wives’ an oxymoron. I would say that the vast majority of people expect to find stories about actual loving wives and not cheating, sharing, swinging and cuckoldry in that category when they first click on the name.

I would also suggest that the cuckold story writers that submit to loving wives instead of fetish, do so for two reasons. For one, they are trolls and get off on pissing off the more militant members there. Or two, they get off on the humiliation heaped on them by those same members. Any serious writer would submit to fetish so they can get well reasoned feedback, instead of abuse.

I appreciated your insight under the "Getting Help" heading. I have regretted not using a volunteer editor on each of my first four submissions. If I've learned anything during my writing projects, it is that I abysmal at editing my own writing.

On my latest story, I sent out eight polite emails seeking a VE over three weeks. I got no responses. I came to assume that I must be doing something incorrect. After reading your insights, I feel assured that my experience seems to have been par for the course. You advise persistence since responses are few and far between from those generously volunteering their editing services. Your suggestions for beta-readers is a helpful alternative for novice authors such as myself.

Great thoughts.

For simple HTML examples w3schools is a good place to test out tagging.

I time hop - all the time. I love to start in-media-res - but time hopping can pull the reader out of the story, so if time hopping is your thing don’t interrupt an orgy to revisit someone high school prom.

But post orgy might be a good place to revisit the past and either resolve or create conflict.

Thanks for sharing!

Is this a "HOW TO" on how to show people you nothing more than a cliché as well as a terrible thief of other writers' work and ideas?

But it's often not obvious at first glance. I had one negative comment from about a year ago, and when I found it again (someone had posted above it), I realized that it was right on target after all. I wrote a new version of the story - partially based on the criticism provided - and I'm going to make a series out of it.

Good stuff, thanks!

Sounds like you ripped this off some failed author's blog.

Just going to test out the <b>Bold<b>, <i>Italics<i>, and <u>Underline?<u>

Computer science types will recognize that.

Also, mathematically, ">" means "greater than ", while "<" means "less than ".

For your purposes, try "Left Angle Bracket" and "Right Angle Bracket", treating them as 'square parentheses'. That will also help you remember that you need to use them in matched pairs.

So helpful

I enjoyed the reminders of why I write and the many helpful hints. I found the work to be a light easy read. Thanks for sharing.

"Work on dialogue. It should 'sound' the same as a conversation you might overhear at Starbucks. Read it aloud to yourself."

No, it shouldn't sound like what you might hear at Starbucks. Dialogue should sound elevated and more precise, even the characters who stutter, or speak in slang, or have that ditzy, valley girl accent, and so on. Why? Because it's clear, concise, and intriguing. It captures your audience the way the Players in a stage performance do. Dialogue needs to sound natural while being watchable, i.e., you want your audience to want to watch these people and listen to what they have to say.

The Will half here.

Full disclosure: Bebop3 pre-read a chapter of our most recent tale. Many THANKS for that!

Dammit. When I read some of your stuff, it feels like I've plagiarized it because Devo and I (and I swear!) wrote similar stuff independently, and this guide is no exception.

The only disagreement I have is about what you term "time hopping." Unless I'm misinterpreting your meaning (which is distinctly possible), Devo and I absolutely employ this device in our stories. In our opinion, when done right, it's a very useful construct. We put it to a test in one of our stories which, though receiving some scathing comments, still rates at 4.8+.

In our own guide, we specifically address comments like the trollish ones below mine. You let them shine, so that people like me can see how idiotic they are and get a good laugh at their stupidity.

Keep on writing, because you and your extended "team" are good! More Montauk!

Re: Dialog - Use contractions. "I'd be happy to" vs "I would be happy to," "You can't do that" vs "You cannot do that."

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Commas - Read the sentence out loud. If you find yourself taking a breath, put a comma there; if a pause feels unnatural, remove the comma.

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Re: Cuck - Yes, most LW stories are "cuckold," meaning that a partner is having sex with someone else. "Cuck" is an invented LW word to describe the various forms of cuckold fetish.

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@Anonymous Re: Dialog - I agree AND disagree with you. I don't care for stories with dialect-heavy dialog (I'm looking at you JimBob44!). I read a story with a stutterer, A-a-a-nd e-ev-ev-ery se-se-sentence was written like that, instead of just saying, "he stuttered." Where I disagree with you is as I stated above. When you write dialog without contractions, the dialog sounds very stilted. As you say, it should sound natural, i.e. the way someone in a Starbucks might sound!

Great advice - working up my courage/initiative to write here. I have done some beta/editing for a couple authors based on their reception to my comments, so that rings true. That said, you may not be the top writer here, but certainly near it...5*

This is an excellent bit of advice. The one thing I would add is that many comments can be helpful and some can be along the lines of "This is not how I would write it." I take a certain perverse pleasure in writing stories about truly loving and chaste wives and watching the critics blow their tops. Some comments need to be ignored.

Sometimes the audience will respond like you're a bad comedian sucking at his job. Sometimes it's like you're Oprah and there's a free car in it for every member of the audience. That's just part of being an artist in any form - it's all subjective. But consider your genre carefully when placing a story in a category. Some are easy, some lead you to think that the genre has nothing to do with the category as described. Fear not, however. Readers tend to find the niches they like and tend to like certain patterns within them, and will happily applaud or boo the author as if they were the audience at a pantomime. It depends on how well you fit that pattern for them - and then they also sometimes like things that break the pattern completely.

The advice on jumping genres is invaluable, take it and run with it. It stretches the author, and the brickbats that may be thrown are worth it in the long run. The experience not only broadens the mind, it also increases the talent.

The other great piece of advice is - ask questions of your work. If you're not sure, ask - or look it up. If you state something is a fact, then check it. If you're not sure then pose it in a character's voice within the story. Readers come from every single walk of life, and you can be absolutely positive that at least one of them will know when you're wrong about a fact. Hopefully, they will take the time to explain it to you.

The only addition I can offer to Bebop's essay is research. Research your plot. Know the characters' professions, where they're likely to find work, and check how much they might earn within it. Know the geography, and even the history of a setting, as well. You think it snows everywhere in the antarctic - nope, some places haven't seen snow in a century. You think Big Ben is a clock tower - nope it's the name of one bell. You think all deserts are sand - nope, some are full of bushes and riverbeds. Research online - a couple of clicks and you can sleep peacefully, or realise that you need to fix something, and then sleep peacefully. It's always better than regret.

Excellent piece. 5*

I'm glad that you write and I'm glad that I don't! Love your work!

Top-tier in my book. And I like your handle.

Nice article. But “/“ is a slash. A backslash is “\”, which is usually used as an escape character.

As I tend to do, I was circling back through some of my favorite authors, so naturally I was going through Bebop3’s romances when I caught this one, listed as being in the How To category which I didn’t even know about. Damn. I wish I had read this before I published anything. Thanks for the advice nonetheless. 5*

I don't mean to sound rude, but I didn't know how else to put it, so allow me to apologize in advance. But I couldn't help but laugh when your article that stressed the importance of having an editor so very clearly never was never sent to an editor.

This is all good advice for authors just starting out. I would add one: Save your favorite plot idea for a time after your skills have developed. A favorite idea was what stirred me to write my first, but looking back I can see that I would have done a much better job of it if I had taken on a few non-favorites first to build my skills. I did not and once published all those flaws are too late to take back. True, you can edit and resubmit, but many readers have already read it.

Great advice. If I might offer a few tidbits...

Many writers disagree with the premise that patience pays dividends. You can see it in the number of stories on Literotica that sit incomplete for months or years, or those where the later parts bear little or no resemblance to the earlier parts. The safe bet is to completely finish a story before submitting any part of it for publication.

Favorite writing applications are mentioned, such as Word, Google Docs, etc., but then HTML coding is also discussed with no explanation of where the coding should be utilized versus where it shouldn't. For example, a story written in Word, with bold and/or italics can be uploaded as a *.doc file and the formatting will follow it. HTML coding is utilized when the text of a story is cut-and-pasted into the text field on the submission page.

A wonderfully successful process to assist with editing a story is to use a text-to-speech convertor to have the words read back to you. Later versions (2016 on) of Word have the feature built in, but there are several websites that offer the feature for free.

Rules of grammar for dialogue are different than for the narrative. People simply do not speak as they write, so unless you want all of your characters to be a perverse version of Professor Higgins from "My Fair Lady", learn to write dialogue as people really speak.

If you want other writers to support your efforts, set an example and support them. If you read their stories, comment and vote, or don't expect them to do the same for you.