There are some really great posts here in the Lush forums for people just staring out with their writing.
One example is a whole series of very good pieces written by Morgan Hawke located in the 'Morgan Hawke's writing tips and advice' section.
Well worth checking out.
Some of this may have already been covered by Morgan but, in the spirit of camaraderie, I wanted to share with you all a couple of my own pointers that have helped me out considerably.
Everyone will have their own methods for writing and these are some of mine. If you think anything you read here might be useful, by all means give it a go!
Using an amalgamation of different techniques is fine, it's whatever works best for you.
One of my biggest bugbears when reading stories is continuity issues. If they are evident in large enough quantities, or just on one or two main points, it can really ruin a story for me.
Continually inflating and deflating something like breast or penis size tends to stick out
, but a sudden change in a main characters name or relationship to another character (from girlfriend to sister) really stands off the page. I do a little proof-reading for friends and these really slap you in the face mid-story 
To be fair, they are usually the result of what we in the UK call a 'cut-and-shut', taking two separate things and welding them together.
Mods may spot this and bounce it back to you for correction, but getting it right first time is far easier and good practice.
All of my stories have their own folder and each folder contains at least three files.
1 - Story Outline
Step one for me is a story outline. This starts with a blank page onto which I pour out all of my ideas.
It's very rough and not particularly detailed, but begins to take shape as I expand it. Details are added as to character motivations, plot lines, location etc
What you end up with is a one page summary of the story in little chunks of text. These often get chopped and changed to make the story flow better or improve a timeline event.
Once it is done and you can see it play out in your head from beginning to end, its time to make some notes on the characters themselves.
2 - Character Profile
This is more a collection of notes than an extensive profile on each character. Small reminders of physical attributes, personality traits and statistics.
An example might be:
Name: Michael Samson
Age: 30
Physical stature: 6' 2", athletic build (regular gym goer), chiselled jawline, mousy brown short cropped hair, brown eyes. 6" cock, shaved balls.
Appearance: Smartly dressed, wears a suit due to office environment, prefers black with a red, power tie.
Personality: Intelligent and flirty! Real ladies man. Like to think of himself as suave and sophisticated.
Occupation: Marketing Exec.
Other: Single. Lives alone.
That's about it.
In just a few lines we now have a record to look back on; it tells us how old he is, what he looks like, what he does for a living, how he dresses and how he thinks of himself.
It can obviously be added to as and when you like; as new ideas come to mind just note them down. Characters naturally evolve as a story forms and begins to take shape, this is just for your own reference.
If, later in the story and already on his third fling, our Mr. Samson in the throes of passion is pounding his 9 inch cock into a lucky lady, she will be very lucky indeed as its only 6 inches.
Change the story or change the profile - your shout, just keep it consistent.
3 - The Story Itself
Get writing.
Don't worry about spelling and grammar, just let your mind run away and get the bulk of it down. I personally find that if I spend too much time worrying about these things from the get go, it takes a lot longer to put it all together and can really make the whole thing drag.
Admittedly it can sometimes be spelt so badly it could be an alien language, but it gets sorted in the end.
When I have finally finished the main body of the story, now is the time to get the editing done. Fine tooth comb the whole thing top to bottom. Check the spelling, grammar, punctuation, tense, everything!
When you've done that, do it again.
If something doesn't sound right, sleep on it. I'm sure some of our resident pro's will agree with me that there is a lot that can be said for a fresh pair of eyes.
IMPORTANT
As an aside, I would also like to point this out.
The computer is not your friend.
Don't get me wrong, they seem friendly enough, but turn your back on them for a second and they'll burst into flames and drag your new perfected story straight to the deepest levels of digital hell.
In other words, please don't forget to back up your work.
We recently had such a horror story at college regarding some important coursework, the poor girls tears flowed like a river.
Online file storage is now not only fairly extensive with most companies giving you 5Gb of space, but also free!
I have accounts with all of the following storage services which cost me nothing. Simply sign up for an account, download and install the application and you will find a new folder on your machine.
Anything you put in there is not only stored on your computer, but also backed up in the cloud.
Should the electrical gremlin strike and take a bite out of your hard drive, fear not, you haven't lost a thing.
For the travel bugs amongst you, each of these can be installed on multiple machines under the same account and the contents shared - drop a file into your new folder on your home PC and it'll be copied to your laptop the very next time you turn it on.
What's even better, each of these services also has a mobile application. If you are stuck on bus or bored on a long train journey, why not have a read of your work for further inspiration?
Click any of these buttons below and secure all your hard work today.
I am not a veteran writer by any means, just a little OCD, so please take this advice in the manner in which it was given - an attempt to share a method that works for me and to help out those just starting.
If anyone else has any tips or handy techniques, please do share them below.
Happy writing,
Liz x
