New Author Question - One Trick Pony

I’ve published three stories on Lush. (Technically seven, but five are part of a series.) I am working on finalizing my next two stories and I realized something.

It dawned on me last weekend that several things in my stories feel redundant, at least to me. If you redacted my characters’ names across the stories, they could easily be the same people. While the backstories are unique, the banter often feels too similar. And the sex scenes… They feel very ‘rinse and repeat’, right down to me using the same words again and again, only in different ways.

With one of the stories, I am taking several steps back and trying to change my voice and my writing style. Here is the thing; it doesn’t feel natural. I am playing with new words, different phrasings, even different punctuation. Considering that I am a new author with no formal training, the fact that this is difficult should not be a surprise. It has been very challenging. And humbling. But even then, when I get to the sex - Déjà vu.

I am curious if other authors here started in a similar place. How did you move beyond feeling like a one trick pony?

Or am I overthinking this?

Great question! I’m an amateur, didn’t start feeling like I was writing too much of the same, but feel there now. It’s the sex that feels regurgitated over and over.

Here’s my thoughts. There are some brilliant authors (here and in a bookstore) who I could read the first few paragraphs and know they wrote the story because of style or tone or something like that. And that can be a great thing. Poe is an example. I know what to expect, but am excited! Then there’s the Hallmark channel movies and Harlequin romances where you change the city and names and it’s the same story over and over. But both are still popular because they are telling a story a lot of readers will always enjoy.

What kind of writer do you want to be? Eclectic? Or recognizable? Or find a niche that’s popular here?

If you wanna feel fresh sex, I suggest changing the setting first and foremost… and use it. Get outta the bed. Fuck in a seedy crevice in the underbelly of a city. Describe the smells. Have her claw at the mortar in between bricks. Or fuck in the ocean or on a beach where sand gets everywhere, waves threaten to pull them apart. Then it will feel like different sex. Use the elements. Tease in public. Make onlookers part of your scene.

To switch up voice, use different point of views. 1st is more intimate. 3rd you can be more descriptive of everything else around the central character. 2nd is tricky but you can make the reader feel part of the story, talking to “you”.

Just some thoughts…

And enjoy figuring out what kind of writer you want to be. Then be open to changing your mind over and over along the way.

Don’t let stats or overthinking steal your joy of writing!

😊

Thanks, Kimmi. I appreciate the well thought out response! Lots of things to think about.

I think Kimmi has it right. The more you develop your voice as a writer, the more your stories are just going to sound like you. But that's not necessarily a bad thing if you have a voice that people want to hear and will keep coming back for. That said, you could avoid writing until you have a story worth telling rather than retelling the same basic story over and over again. The reason all those Hallmark movies sound the same is because they crank out about 100 of the things every year. If they just produced one every couple of years, they'd probably have more inspired and original ideas. No one here is under any obligation to mass produce sexy stories, though some do seem to approach their participation on this site as a full-time job.

Also, if you're one of the authors who focus more on sex than plot or character (about 80% of the authors on LS), try shifting your focus. People having sex is generally less interesting than how and why they're having sex. If you can establish that well, the sex itself (which I think most established writers here will admit can get repetitive and dull to write about) becomes merely the conclusion and payoff for working through the challenges of the plot, which should be the main part of the story. Unfortunately, there's only so many ways you can write "And then that went in there..." But you have a lot more room to build up the story of how they got to that point, and that's hopefully where you can find more opportunity for something original.

Great points laid out so far.

Think of action movies as well. We've all seen movie gunfights and fistfights at this point. What differs is the reasoning behind it, the characters executing it and the consequences of said actions.

Characters(imo) more make a story than plot, so to help with even the sex part, think of how that character would fuck. Are they more of a soft lover, a rough fucker or a blend of both styles? That can be played with:

Ben's a meek guy and thus more of a love maker. Or maybe for some reason, this meek guy is fucking Cynthia's mouth like a pussy? What could have lead to such a disparity between his personality and fuck-style? This is where character introspection makes the surrounding sex more interesting too. Maybe he is repressed. Why is he repressed? Is this recent or long term?

Anyhow, Tarantino, Ritchie and Shane Black can make you feel the differences in their tales even if you can pinpoint their tone from afar and you will be able to do it too.

I appreciate the thoughtful responses.

It looks like each of you have written a LOT of stories, across multiple categories. I have seen several authors on Lush who are able to seamlessly write from very different perspectives - male vs female, straight vs. bi vs. gay/lesbian, 1st person vs. 3rd person.

I’ve dabbled in 1st person vs. 3rd. One of the stories I will be submitting after the mod break is told from a female perspective. So I am slowly branching out.

I am curious… I am guessing most of you started writing with a unique voice. Maybe you were naturally drawn to a certain category. You were probably happy what you were publishing. You were probably getting positive feedback from readers, which encouraged you to keep writing. But then you started thinking... What else? Eventually, you started to stretch. What triggered that? What was that moment like? If that happened to you, do you occasionally go back to your roots? Or have you moved on and are you more interested in continuing to push yourself as an author?

Quote by CarltonStJames

We've all seen movie gunfights and fistfights at this point.

Excellent point. I have no interest in watching movies focused on people shooting each other or CGI mutants punching each other, and I get bored watching a 45-minute gonzo porn scene where the only progression is the actors changing positions.

I have two multi-chapter stories that I'm trying to finish up, and I'm having trouble coming up with sex scenes that don't read like a retread of a previous chapter. I think I'll sit down right now—it's a gloomy Saturday and I can't text any of the ladies in my phone contacts without appearing too thirsty 😅—and start typing plot and then let the characters decide when and how the sex will happen. 😉 And in the future, maybe I'll aim to wrap up any long stories in, say, eight chapters (25-30K words) instead of a dozen or two.

I don't think I have much to add and find Kimmi's response is really good along with the others. I've only published about 13 stories here but 2 are EPs and 3 are RRs so I figure I don't totally suck. BUT: I have the exact same problem with my sex scenes. I work pretty hard on editing and use the "FIND" feature in WORD to look for repetitive words or phrases in a story. I try to find unusual words or use words slightly out of context to change it up (E.g I once described a pussy as "her sodden eloquence." lol)

I think challenging yourself helps, write outside your comfort zone in terms of your own experiences and gender because this can really help in finding new ways to describe sex acts. In the movie "Shadows in the Sun" Harvey Keitel's author character is telling Joshua Jackson's character about writing and he tells him to use a typewriter instead of a word processor because it forces you to think about every word. That really resonated with me and I try to write with that always in my mind.

Dialogue is another challenge and I try to keep it to a minimum and use short sentences to keep it simple. I find reading a story aloud, especially dialogue is really helpful.

Quote by paddlingincognito

I appreciate the thoughtful responses.

It looks like each of you have written a LOT of stories, across multiple categories. I have seen several authors on Lush who are able to seamlessly write from very different perspectives - male vs female, straight vs. bi vs. gay/lesbian, 1st person vs. 3rd person.

I’ve dabbled in 1st person vs. 3rd. One of the stories I will be submitting after the mod break is told from a female perspective. So I am slowly branching out.

I am curious… I am guessing most of you started writing with a unique voice. Maybe you were naturally drawn to a certain category. You were probably happy what you were publishing. You were probably getting positive feedback from readers, which encouraged you to keep writing. But then you started thinking... What else? Eventually, you started to stretch. What triggered that? What was that moment like? If that happened to you, do you occasionally go back to your roots? Or have you moved on and are you more interested in continuing to push yourself as an author?

I’m a goal setter and also eclectic in many ways. I need to try new things or I lose interest in writing. And the world and what’s going on in my close circle affects me so much it affects my writing. I’ll go dark stories for a bit. I need to challenge myself. I think I go through different eras in writing. I wrote certain things when mourning some deaths. Write different when happy.

I don't know how much my insight counts here, given that out of my 75+ stories, most of them are in one category - but when you've got faith in the characters, it gives you room to expand the situations you place them in.

Sure, most of my stories are about spanking, but I feel I've done a lot with that. I've experimented with continuity, with narrative, even genre. I've written a dozen-and-a-half flashback stories, a ghost story, even an art review without really stepping out of the Spanking label (Not all of it has landed with readers, but some of it has - one reader even commented that he'd never before read a story that made withdrawn consent romantic).

What can I say except to try new things and see what works - or at least, see what still feels like it's yours?

well, if you think it's same sauce, blowjob straight gg..in the same pattern write down different acts. break out the old DnD dice and roll the action

Going for the Omnium Badge (a story in every category) made me stretch a lot and helped me try out new things. Even if you don’t aspire to write in every category, pick a few different ones and challenge yourself. 😘

Quote by techgoddess

Going for the Omnium Badge (a story in every category) made me stretch a lot and helped me try out new things.

Funny. I’ve actually been looking at some ideas I have that are not fully flushed out and then wondering “How would the story look different if went with genre A vs B?”

Go to the coffee shop or a restaurants and listen to how people talk. It’ll help you create dialogue that is more unique to a character, and notice how real people move—what movements show their moods, etc.

I think reading a lot, in and out of lush, also helps. Especially when you get into a genre and 100 books later, you now see alllllll the cliches. I like to try to turn the cliches on their head. But I also like a cliche sometimes—just keep the dialogue or whatever fresh. It’s extremely difficult to make a brand new plot or character, but if you pick an element to work on each new story, I think it helps build your overall ability to create truly amazing and memorable work.

Thanks for this post! Super cool! I don’t get to nerd out about writing enough

I'm able to change characters, setting and plot quite easily, but when it comes to the erotic stuff, I find the exact same. Apart from some tweaks with how the characters interact with each other I feel like I'm repeating something I've written before. I find myself very invested in a story until I get to the sex bits. It might be a good idea to try writing regular fiction and see how the characters play out without the sexual dynamic.

Quote by neverwas

I'm able to change characters, setting and plot quite easily, but when it comes to the erotic stuff, I find the exact same. Apart from some tweaks with how the characters interact with each other I feel like I'm repeating something I've written before. I find myself very invested in a story until I get to the sex bits. It might be a good idea to try writing regular fiction and see how the characters play out without the sexual dynamic.

search porn using the scene you are writing. used the action to change up your scene

I promise that I'm not trying to make this post all about my stories, but here's what I've done regarding characters and dialogue.

When I begin writing a story, I always have some idea of who the characters are. Their age, their appearance, their attitude. I'll think about where they grew up and went to school, etc. Some of my characters don't have English as their first language, so their dialogue will sound different.

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The following examples are set in 1926...

A Swedish woman visiting the U.S. speaks more formally, and doesn't use contractions: “Forgive me, gentlemen. I do not know how to proceed.”

A guy from Eastern Europe who's been in New York for a decade speaks like a gangster: “I’m sure it’ll be fine. But you’re gonna ruin your gloves, doll.”

An older college professor, kind of dorky: “Golly, Mrs. Qvistsjö, you had us going for a minute.”

A younger PhD student, educated but not dorky: “You’re more than just a pretty young thing. Anyone can see that.”

19-year-old flapper #1: “Gosh, don’t be such a killjoy! Are you gonna be like this at the séance tonight?”

19-year-old flapper #2: “Nah, forget it. Everyone would be hopping mad if we got caught.”

Flapper #1's mother, arrived from Eastern Europe as a young girl, with no trace of an accent anymore: “I know they said it was over between them, but no sense in allowing them the temptation, n’est-ce pas?”

Flapper #1's mother, imitating her Eastern European father: “Zat vos my daughter. Not my vife.”

A Black man with long fingers from the American South: “My mama made me keep my hands out of sight when we went into town. There’s only two things folk’ll think those fingers are good for, she’d say. Playing piano and picking pockets. And we ain’t got no damn piano.”

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And a few examples from more modern times...

19-year-old bad girl #1 who did well in school: “Look, Mrs. M. I appreciate what you’re tryin’ to do for me, but it just isn’t gonna work.” (Notice that she says “isn’t gonna”—correct grammar but informal pronunciations.)

19-year-old bad girl #1 who did worse in school: “We ain’t got nothin’ to do this mornin’. How about Tawny and me go to Rochester with you?” (Notice that she says “ain’t got nothin” and also makes a subject/object pronoun error with “me”, which a mod fixed and I had to request to be unfixed. 😁)

Elderly New England man: “Anythin’ else, miss? Want some tonic? Doctah Peppah, Frescer, Moxie…”

Canadian guy: “I came over to air things out before you arrived. Soary aboot that.” (Note: he also uses Canadian words like washroom instead of the American bathroom.)

American gal making fun of his accent: “Well, soary to surprise you. I wrapped everything up a day early.”

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Of course, some of these will become caricatures if I don't keep the dialogue quirks reined in; I usually have to go back and remove a few instances of soary/oot/aboot from the Canadian dialogue. But, to wrap up this post that I've probably spent 45 minutes composing, if your characters are actually people with personalities and not just Male Character #1—I think I'll call him Brad and make him tall—and Female Characters #1 & #2—I think I'll call them Kayla and Maddie and maybe one of them is blonde—then your dialogue can follow naturally from who your characters really are.

To add to all the great suggestions above, one of my favorite things to do when distinguishing character voice is to figure out who in the story curses more. A buttoned-up nerd or bookish church mouse might not curse at all, finding dorky or antiquated replacement words. "Oh, fiddlesticks!" So it becomes a moment of character development when they utter their first real "fuck" on the page.

A brash person with little regard for their surroundings will curse even when it's unnecessary or inappropriate, and might have a smaller vocabulary than their peers because their favorite words all have four letters.

"Fucking gimme the thing."

"The what?"

"That little fucking thing. The buzzing thing. The shit you're holding right fucking now."

"Did you just forget the word 'vibrator?'"

"Fuck off."

Within a sex scene, one partner might say "yes please" while the other says "fuck yes" while the third is more "hell yeah" kind of dirty talker.

How someone curses, in the U.S. at least, can signify ethnicity or background without falling into racist caricatures. "Holy shit, you look awesome!" gives a different impression than "God damn you're looking good!" Or having a frustrated character say, "These fucking idiots are driving me batshit," feels different from, "These motherfuckers are about to drive me out of my god damn mind."

"Write what you know" remains the cardinal rule. Kimmi absolutely nailed it by saying the absolute first thing to play with - and the second - is the setting, with the characters being maybe the third. Change the date, change the location, change the scenarios that bring the characters together, change the characters' backgrounds and internal motivations.

Personally, I've been slower than a lot of writers in changing my voice, even after 90 stories having rarely departed from making (a version of) me the protagonist, always speaking in my own voice. Again, write what you know. This year, I plan to finally enter the Novels genre and write third-person with omniscient narration that can see everyone's internal thoughts and not just my own. But it has taken me years to work myself towards even that. Not saying you would want to take that long in shifting your tone and perspective, but I don't think you need to be in a hurry to do so when there's so much to play with in terms of setting and characters.

Which leads to my other major tip: keep entering Competitions when they come up. You got a great start with Elf on a Shelf. These contests will force you to refine and improve your writing, and to come up with scenarios that would never have come to mind otherwise. Without a competition prompting me to come up with the idea, would I have ever written a 9000-word Noir thriller, or a love story about biking the Great Divide Route that crams six sex scenes and twice as many sex partners into just 2000 words? A humorous, cum-drenched, Hitchcockian piece about solving the mystery of a future genetically-engineered bioterrorist Porkdemic? A tale about skiing and and getting high on pot cookies with former Indian coworkers on an unplanned Christmas layover? Or ... an erotic poem, about anything? Nope. None of these would have come into existence. Sorry if sharing some of the contest entries that I'm particularly proud of comes off as making it about me, but I really, really owe a lot to the competitions I have entered, with or without any recognition for it. It's about the writing, not the winning.

Don’t do ‘series’. The gap between publications means that it’s too hard to retain reader engagement

Quote by Alfresco

Don’t do ‘series’. The gap between publications means that it’s too hard to retain reader engagement

we will have to agree to disagree. If someone down the road reads a story, they will want follow on storied if they ar interesting enough

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Canadian guy: “I came over to air things out before you arrived. Soary aboot that.”

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT, the one quote I pulled to showcase my Canadian dialogue includes an “out” that should be an “oot”. 😆 I’ll add this to my short list of edits that the mods will never have time to fix. And yes, I like to spell it “damnit”.