Story Verifier
There's nothing more yummy to me than panna cotta with strawberries.
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ChrissieLecker
Over 90 days ago
Lesbian Female, 51
Germany
Forum
Story Verifier
Quote by Haineko
Ummmmm…I did it!
4 stories up in 1 month and I can knock a long standing goal off my list because 1 is for a competition.
Congrats to you!
Now that you know you can do it, keep it up, don't slack off, and it'll get easier each time.I'm also getting there, I did manage to get the editing stuff done in the first half, only 3k words to reach my goal for my lush stories and 5k for my novel. I might even make the cut by Friday night!
Story Verifier
Quote by Haineko
I counted words after every page. That way I knew how many I had to work with as I went.
Did that too, but no matter how I tried to keep things concise, every time I looked I still had a good part of the story to write anyway. So after writing came the big combing for fillwords and adjectives, then the big shortening. I thought I had it as both google docs and word told me I was below 1000, and when I pasted it into the Lush editor it read 979. Still, when I pressed "publish" I received a red warning that I was over the word limit - seems that the backend and the editor count differently - and that was when it got really, really hard. If the story was a grape, it felt like squeezing the seeds.
Story Verifier
There are so many different kinds of pain that even the definition of what a "pain slut" is can vary greatly. Some may see a person craving the not-so-tender caresses of a cane already a pain slut, while other think of needles and worse. Also, not every part of the body takes pain equally well, and while I may be able to appreciate a stinging pain on my backside, it might be way over the top on other spots of my body. That said, a pain that builds up gradually and is mixed with the right measure of pleasurable stimulation can go far beyond anything I'd normally want to endure and still be highly erotic. I like to believe that everybody is at least partially wired this way, the art is in finding the correct switches in the mind to get those wires to relay their message to the right spots in the brain. It depends on personal dispositions, trust, power balances, physical constitution and the current frame of mind. If it is accomplished by pressure, it comes with a price paid in mental health as currency, so no, that's not a road that should be travelled. The premise must always be S,S&C.
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I hated my predicament, but at the same time I was aware that, given another chance at tasting her perfect, youthful body, I would jump at it. She was a queen bee, and I was a simple worker.
From "Cordelia's Feet".
From "Cordelia's Feet".
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Done, sent a message with the contact form about that and the chapter links. Let's see if I get a bagel for finding a bug. I love bagels!
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Has anyone else recently gotten story comments that only show up as "undefined"? I've gotten three in the last 24 hours from two different people, so while I at first thought it might have been a hickup, something seems to be wonky. The comments can be found on those stories, in case this is an isolated issue:
Her Neighbor's Games Ch. 1
Her Neighbor's Games Ch. 3
Diddly
Her Neighbor's Games Ch. 1
Her Neighbor's Games Ch. 3
Diddly
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Is it just me or do the links to the next chapter at the bottom of the story suddenly point to the previous chapter for everyone else too? I swear it used to work in the past, but today I checked, and chapter 4 links to chapter 3, and 3 to 2, and so on.
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Quote by MasterJonathan
Ok I'll weigh in on this one (and please remember this is My opinion, yours may vary)
I think that people need to remember that votes and comments are only one person's view and that if you get 6 scores of 5 and then one person gives you a three (as happened with a recent story of Mine) that the story may not of appealed to that one person for some reason. It doesn't mean it's a bad story, it means that not everyone is a fan of the same thing.
I'll jump onto the wagon here because I need to let off some steam. Although it shouldn't matter that much, seeing a 1 scored on a story that had so far received seven 5s felt a bit like a slap in the face. Thanks to the timeline (no, I'm not sure this is a good thing) I'm also 99% sure who voted like that, and the person in question doesn't appear to be in the vengeful downvoter corner, rather the opposite. So it's probably been a mistake, but 99% is still lacking that one percent to risk asking them about it, because if I'm wrong I'll only start unnecessary drama. And I hate drama, unless it's inside a story
Quote by MasterJonathan
Rather than singling out one particular score, think in terms of your average. If you have an average score of 4.75 or so, you are doing good. If you have a score of 3.something, you have work to do and you need to listen to the comments your readers and the Mods give you.
Also bear in mind that none of us are a Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, or Stephen King. We are all a bunch of struggling, amateur authors trying to write down our fantasies and dreams and hoping that someone else finds them interesting (no offense to anyone intended).
So don't fret the individual scores, concentrate on the average score, and just enjoy living out your fantasies through your writing and/or reading others.
Remember folks, Lush is FUN!!
And now that I've cooled down, I'll add: don't give too much about scores, because people might be distracted while they score, their cat may run across the keyboard, they might not hit the right row on their tiny touchscreen, or they may simply trying to do more things at once than they can manage.
*bites her lip* Though I might at one point write a story about a lush reader who downvotes a story but gets her bum shaded in an appealing crimson hue after she blabs about it to her roommate, who, as it turns out, happens to be the author of the story in question. Yes, now that I think about it, I'll definitely do that *sniggers manciacally*
Story Verifier
I used to travel quite a lot in my previous job, and I found that a little workout was the thing that worked best. If I'm on familiar territory I go for a jog, or I use the hotel's pool or treadmill to work up some sweat, then I shower and afterwards go for a walk (even if is was just a few rounds around the block) for fifteen minutes to cool down. Getting ready for bed after that, then reading a few pages - I have to force myself not to go past twenty pages, or I'll become too engrossed to fall asleep - in a good book and listening to some of my favorite songs on the ipod has become something of a ritual that also helps. The important thing was to do this every evening. The mind's a creature of habit, so if you have often enough fallen asleep dead tired after working out while away from home, the brain will connect those things and say "hey, I've been running, now I'm reading and listening to music, I know this situation, it means I'm going to get sleepy, yay!"
In bad cases, when the day has been too exciting to settle down easily or when something important is scheduled for the next day, I also use autogenous training. It's basically nothing more than getting comfortable on the bed on my back and letting my focus slowly shift from my toes up to my head and down my arms while I imagine the part I'm focusing on becoming warm and relaxed. It's good to push away all the stray thoughts that tend to keep me awake.
In bad cases, when the day has been too exciting to settle down easily or when something important is scheduled for the next day, I also use autogenous training. It's basically nothing more than getting comfortable on the bed on my back and letting my focus slowly shift from my toes up to my head and down my arms while I imagine the part I'm focusing on becoming warm and relaxed. It's good to push away all the stray thoughts that tend to keep me awake.
Story Verifier
I always have a number of stories going in parallel, usually its two to three, but somehow all kinds of plot bunnies have been jumping me the last few months, and while I'm sitting here and trying to get the critters under control, I've got four story series that need completion as well as three half-way done standalone pieces. I may be slightly overdoing it...
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Quote by seeker4
He, he. Why do other IT folks get all the good calls?
I believe the craziness comes with the territory. I remember having to check the computer inventory list when I was still a trainee. Space used to be quite limited those days and people were afraid to change something that at least worked, so they used all kinds of abbreviations to fit the whole item description into 8 characters. Obviously, either nobody was fluent in English or nobody gave it a second glance, because the entries for "one piece of Amstrad Tower AT" computers were abbreviated to "1 AM TWAT". The question I heard most that day was "why are you grinning?"
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I gasped into her mouth while her tongue stirred moans of need from me, and I rejoiced when her fingers speared my pussy in a single thrust.
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Quote by Liz
Before you swap out the HD, you should try rebooting the system and rolling back to the last known good configuration, run a chkdsk, or even check for a corruption in the master boot record.
Yes, that's what I always do as well. I give it a few good ones with the boot until it works again and mutter some vowelless words under my breath. Though I haven't found any recordings of some corrupt master kicking it yet.
Story Verifier
Quote by Icarus32
Sentence that should never appear in an erotica story "And that's how I met your mother"
I'm not sure that this is true for a story site that has an category ;)
Story Verifier
I'm too late to vote, but:
I don't think an "Office Sex" category makes sense. I'm finding it hard enough to put my stories into the correct category as it is. Just imagine a lesbian interracial first-time story that involves a bit of spanking and toys. That's five possible categories.
In my opinion, categories should be to narrow down the selection to important sexual preferences of the readers and to differentiate on types of writing. lesbian, bisexual, group sex, bdsm etc. are all valid categories that "protect" the unwilling reader from having to see things that may be out of their comfort zone. The differentiation between prose, poems, flash fiction and novels is also absolutely helpful.
"Office sex" should be a tag. The problem, as I see it, is that tags are currently completely free-form (perhaps something like a multi-selectable list of standard tags could help there?) and there isn't a convenient way to browse them. As I see it, and with a rising number of stories on the site, there will come a point where a lot of stories will fall victim to the category system, (almost) never being found by readers who'd otherwise appreciate them. If you invent a lot of categories that overlap with existing ones, it will either be a one-way road or there's going to be lots and lots of re-shuffling ahead. Topics and settings are three-dimensional. I may put a story into the lesbian category, but even though my readers may like lesbian, for them the most important search criterion may be "first time". Perhaps now would be a good time to start to start implementing something new and lay the groundworks for multi-category (or multi-main-tags or however a technical implementation may look at it) story assignment.
That's just my thoughts looking at it from the perspective of a reader as well as writer, and from quite some experience with data visualization at work. It's the same thing there.
Sales person: "Here we have the Excel sheet with sales to first time customers, here are recurring ones, and here's the sheet with large batch orders. See the diagrams next to each other? The sums don't match up with total sales."
Secretary: "Ehm, sure they don't, some of them are listed twice, you have to decide in which one to put them. Either they are first-time, or they are large. You decide."
Sales person:"Oh. But they *are* both!"
Secretary: "Tough luck!"
Sales person: "Ok, ok, I get it. Just remove them from first-time."
Later: another sales person, panicking: "I've made a big sale to a new customer, and the amount isn't on the new sales sheet! I need it there for the commission."
Secretary, sighing: "It's one the *large orders* sheet."
Sales person, whining: "But I don't want it there, I always look at the first-time sales total to calculate my fee."
Secretary thumps her head on the desk.
I don't think an "Office Sex" category makes sense. I'm finding it hard enough to put my stories into the correct category as it is. Just imagine a lesbian interracial first-time story that involves a bit of spanking and toys. That's five possible categories.
In my opinion, categories should be to narrow down the selection to important sexual preferences of the readers and to differentiate on types of writing. lesbian, bisexual, group sex, bdsm etc. are all valid categories that "protect" the unwilling reader from having to see things that may be out of their comfort zone. The differentiation between prose, poems, flash fiction and novels is also absolutely helpful.
"Office sex" should be a tag. The problem, as I see it, is that tags are currently completely free-form (perhaps something like a multi-selectable list of standard tags could help there?) and there isn't a convenient way to browse them. As I see it, and with a rising number of stories on the site, there will come a point where a lot of stories will fall victim to the category system, (almost) never being found by readers who'd otherwise appreciate them. If you invent a lot of categories that overlap with existing ones, it will either be a one-way road or there's going to be lots and lots of re-shuffling ahead. Topics and settings are three-dimensional. I may put a story into the lesbian category, but even though my readers may like lesbian, for them the most important search criterion may be "first time". Perhaps now would be a good time to start to start implementing something new and lay the groundworks for multi-category (or multi-main-tags or however a technical implementation may look at it) story assignment.
That's just my thoughts looking at it from the perspective of a reader as well as writer, and from quite some experience with data visualization at work. It's the same thing there.
Sales person: "Here we have the Excel sheet with sales to first time customers, here are recurring ones, and here's the sheet with large batch orders. See the diagrams next to each other? The sums don't match up with total sales."
Secretary: "Ehm, sure they don't, some of them are listed twice, you have to decide in which one to put them. Either they are first-time, or they are large. You decide."
Sales person:"Oh. But they *are* both!"
Secretary: "Tough luck!"
Sales person: "Ok, ok, I get it. Just remove them from first-time."
Later: another sales person, panicking: "I've made a big sale to a new customer, and the amount isn't on the new sales sheet! I need it there for the commission."
Secretary, sighing: "It's one the *large orders* sheet."
Sales person, whining: "But I don't want it there, I always look at the first-time sales total to calculate my fee."
Secretary thumps her head on the desk.
Story Verifier
Thank you all for the tips and encouragement. I've done some more digging (also using smashwords, thanks bethalia!), but didn't come up with anything definitive. Too few numbers to be of statistical meaning after having plucked out all the disguised werewolf, vampire and tentacle stories ;)
So I'll settle for knowing that I'll have at least one reader and give it a spin
I may very likely take you up on the offer, Haineko. It's good to know there's someone to check with if my ideas get too outrageous or strange. So thanks again.
So I'll settle for knowing that I'll have at least one reader and give it a spin
I may very likely take you up on the offer, Haineko. It's good to know there's someone to check with if my ideas get too outrageous or strange. So thanks again.
Story Verifier
Oral but short, that's going to be a tough one for me. And looking at who's already lining up here to take away the prices, I'll stick to a tiny flicker of hope for honorable mention.
Meanwhile, I can't wait to see what you'll all come up with. I'm sure it's going to be a blast!
Meanwhile, I can't wait to see what you'll all come up with. I'm sure it's going to be a blast!
Story Verifier
As I've got a few plot bunnies bouncing madly in my head that may, once calmed down and lined up, be enough to fill a novel, I'm wondering the usual. Has it done before and, if yes, how.
The basic story line is going to involve a bit of murder-mystery, a secret pagan society and, how could it be different, one or two young woman whose curiousity is at times only topped by their naivety. Do I need to mention lots of kinky sex? Didn't think so. But if I plan to make a novel of it, I'll of course also try to write for a market (if there is one, and if that doesn't mean to bend my arms backwards).
So far, the only erotic novel with strong pagan elements is Lizbeth Dusseau's "Pagan Dreams". I found a number of short stories on ebook sites, but not really much. Is it just an unploughed field, are werewolves and vampires simply such more erotic that nobody is interested in the topic, or am I simply once more too blind to see the forest for the trees?
All pointers to works out there that I overlooked are greatly appreciated, and I'd be equally happy to read your personal opinions.
The basic story line is going to involve a bit of murder-mystery, a secret pagan society and, how could it be different, one or two young woman whose curiousity is at times only topped by their naivety. Do I need to mention lots of kinky sex? Didn't think so. But if I plan to make a novel of it, I'll of course also try to write for a market (if there is one, and if that doesn't mean to bend my arms backwards).
So far, the only erotic novel with strong pagan elements is Lizbeth Dusseau's "Pagan Dreams". I found a number of short stories on ebook sites, but not really much. Is it just an unploughed field, are werewolves and vampires simply such more erotic that nobody is interested in the topic, or am I simply once more too blind to see the forest for the trees?
All pointers to works out there that I overlooked are greatly appreciated, and I'd be equally happy to read your personal opinions.
Story Verifier
Congratulations to the winners! Those are brilliant stories.
I hope the next comp will start soon, so many beautiful stories each one gifts us with (I won't mention that I can't wait to have another go at trying to make it into the top ten *tongue-in-cheek*)
I hope the next comp will start soon, so many beautiful stories each one gifts us with (I won't mention that I can't wait to have another go at trying to make it into the top ten *tongue-in-cheek*)
Story Verifier
It's hard to pick exactly five, but among my most favorite and not already listed are:
Cruel Intentions
Underworld
9 1/2 Weeks
The Fifth Element
Secretary
Cruel Intentions
Underworld
9 1/2 Weeks
The Fifth Element
Secretary
Story Verifier
Quote by seeker4
Sometimes I do, esp. if it is one that I haven't read it in a while. OTOH, sometimes I spend so much time cringing and mentally re-writing that arousal just isn't going to happen.
That's exactly how it works for me too. Thankfully, I find myself in the first category more and more often. If I don't look too closely, that is. ;-) Story Verifier
For March I've set myself a goal of writing 20k for my ongoing lush stories and another 20k for a novel I'm nearly half way through.
And to finish editing another third of the year's NaNo's brainchild, which will be the hardest one of my goals.
And to finish editing another third of the year's NaNo's brainchild, which will be the hardest one of my goals.
Story Verifier
I don't mind the wait. At least not if the story's to my liking. If everybody waited until they had their story completely finished, we would have to do without some of the most brilliant stories here on lush, e.g. Sprite's absoulte gem "Mrs. Vandermeer's Rules". That one took almost three years between chapters one and six and is currently leaving us dangling on a major cliffy - so what? I, for one, would rather re-read older chapters to get back into the flow of a story after a while than not read it at all.
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A boiled egg with slightly runny yolk and a piece of white bread to dunk in, lots and lots of salt on the egg, and a freshly squeezed orange juice. Works like magic for me. Though the best idea is always to drink lots of water before hitting the sack.
Story Verifier
In addition to the help page there are also a number of sticky posts in the "Writer's Resources" forum here that are worth reading.
As to how long a story should be - I don't think there are generic rules that say what works for the readers and what doesn't. I've got stories here that range from barely 2k words to one that even slightly tops the 10k limit, and I don't see a noticeable trend in votes or comments.
As to how long a story should be - I don't think there are generic rules that say what works for the readers and what doesn't. I've got stories here that range from barely 2k words to one that even slightly tops the 10k limit, and I don't see a noticeable trend in votes or comments.
Story Verifier
Just to prove a point: I didn't have my first coffee of the day when I read this title, and what reached my eyes was "Can you still write when you are tied?" To which the answer is obviously "that depends." ;)
From time to time, I like writing when I'm really tired. My mind then has a tendency to take all kinds of shortcuts and comes up with the most outrageous ideas. Though editing those texts is a nightmare. Misspelled words tend to be the least of my worries, as I end up with lots of completely nonsensical word swaps, sentence fragments that make me scratch my head and generous amounts of "false friends". So, all in all, it's a good trick to get fresh ideas, but I'd go crazy over fixing up my texts if I did it regularly.
From time to time, I like writing when I'm really tired. My mind then has a tendency to take all kinds of shortcuts and comes up with the most outrageous ideas. Though editing those texts is a nightmare. Misspelled words tend to be the least of my worries, as I end up with lots of completely nonsensical word swaps, sentence fragments that make me scratch my head and generous amounts of "false friends". So, all in all, it's a good trick to get fresh ideas, but I'd go crazy over fixing up my texts if I did it regularly.
Story Verifier
One reason that I publish my stories here instead of putting them into an anthology and self-publishing them as a commercial ebook is that I like to get feedback as the story progresses, that I am able to try out new ideas and see how well those are received. I'm not offended myself if a multipart story I enjoy isn't finished yet. It would be different if I had paid real money, but since reading here is free, I enjoy what others share with me and am happy.
That's also what gives writing for Lush a different feel than writing for commercial publishing. Here, it is a hobby that I can enjoy without pressure, while writing to get a novel out (perhaps even with a deadline) can and often does cross the threshold towards hard work. I already have a full-time job, and like justalilfun wrote, work, family and other facets mostly dictate when and how often there is time to write.
There are a lot of brilliant, but unfinished stories here on Lush. I wouldn't want to do without those, even if some of them may never get finished. It is nice if a long story that I like gets continued every week, but I don't mind either if I have to wait six months. That's life.
That's also what gives writing for Lush a different feel than writing for commercial publishing. Here, it is a hobby that I can enjoy without pressure, while writing to get a novel out (perhaps even with a deadline) can and often does cross the threshold towards hard work. I already have a full-time job, and like justalilfun wrote, work, family and other facets mostly dictate when and how often there is time to write.
There are a lot of brilliant, but unfinished stories here on Lush. I wouldn't want to do without those, even if some of them may never get finished. It is nice if a long story that I like gets continued every week, but I don't mind either if I have to wait six months. That's life.
Story Verifier
A trick I use is to imagine myself inside a camera that loosely follows my main character(s) as opposed to being inside my mc's head. Though it still can be hard, after 100k words in 1st it felt rather clumsy to switch to 3rd person, and I recently found myself drifting into first involuntarily a few times. It did get better after a few continuous pages, and it helped to imagine a kind of "virtual alarm bell" in my head tuned to "I"s and "me"s outside of direct speech. What I do need to write 3rd person is a better picture of my characters, but once I do have that, the "camera perspective" adds a small voyeuristic component to the writing that has its own appeal
A lot depends on the exact perspective you use in 3rd, all-knowing or limited, and if limited, to what. You can still keep your focus relatively close to one mc in limited, but you need to make sure that you don't start character hopping and drifting into all-knowing. Besides that, it's just a little more showing than telling. If there's a verb that expresses feeling or emotion, ring the first person alarm and make sure that you don't describe your character's internas. Stay a bit more on the outside and use winces and twitches and gestures to make emotions and feelings obvious.
Also, don't try to go into too much detail. The nice thing about third person is that it allows you to wrap a layer of mystery around your mc. First person often requires you to be descriptive and exact. Grant yourself the freedom to give hints that aren't explained right away, it will make it easier to add small supsense arcs. Use the camera trick to zoom closer with intensity and give a wider field of few when you advance your plot. It may even help as a writing exercise to "be" the camera operator and to let him/her describe the scenes he/she is filming. Third person is, in a way, simply the first person narrative given by someone not partaking in the action.
A lot depends on the exact perspective you use in 3rd, all-knowing or limited, and if limited, to what. You can still keep your focus relatively close to one mc in limited, but you need to make sure that you don't start character hopping and drifting into all-knowing. Besides that, it's just a little more showing than telling. If there's a verb that expresses feeling or emotion, ring the first person alarm and make sure that you don't describe your character's internas. Stay a bit more on the outside and use winces and twitches and gestures to make emotions and feelings obvious.
Also, don't try to go into too much detail. The nice thing about third person is that it allows you to wrap a layer of mystery around your mc. First person often requires you to be descriptive and exact. Grant yourself the freedom to give hints that aren't explained right away, it will make it easier to add small supsense arcs. Use the camera trick to zoom closer with intensity and give a wider field of few when you advance your plot. It may even help as a writing exercise to "be" the camera operator and to let him/her describe the scenes he/she is filming. Third person is, in a way, simply the first person narrative given by someone not partaking in the action.
Story Verifier
Thinking too much about characters and plot beforehand used to be what kept me from writing. I learned that last October, when I decided to do a kind of warm-up for NaNoWriMo. I didn't have a real idea, only the aim to get at least 20000 words written down over the month, and I sat there for an hour in front of an empty document. I was almost ready to close the lid of my laptop, when I decided to use my own current emotions and let my main character feel equally annoyed. I can't say exactly how my thought process worked after that, but an hour later I had 3000 words which described how my main character was hauled off to her aunt's place because her parents went abroad for work. And from there on, the story started to tell itself. I just needed to ask myself "what's the conflict?" and the characters hastened to create one. That was actually an incredibly liberating experience. The story is now 25k words long and growing (for the curious, I'm talking about "Staying With Cousin Erin", which you can find here on lush), and I've started to spit out an average 75k words a month compared to meager 30k/year before that.
I'm not saying that writing without at least a rough outline is the way to go. I'm constantly carrying around ideas that I want to flesh out, snippets and characters and sometimes also more convoluted plots. But I tend to overthink, and when November and NaNo arrived, I simply picked one of those better shaped ideas and started writing, not caring that there were still holes as big as the Greek government deficit in my plot. And the nice thing was, once a chapter was written, I could simply refuse to go back and work ahead instead of going around in circles. Plot holes filled themselves and characters jumped into the fray out of nowhere.
More often than not I find myself not knowing exactly where I'm going, just having a few loose points that I want to brush by on my way. But how to get my characters there, how to find the right conflicts to keep up the suspense, mostly comes from quick decisions. It is, of course, nice to have a few clear scenes laid out beforehand, and it's an absolute neccessity for me to have a clear aim for novel-length stories.
The hard part is right in the middle of a long (for me long means above 20k words) story, that's the point where I have to stop and take a bit of time to plan ahead. The characters are established by then, as is the overall feel of the story, and that's where I sit down and think up fitting scenes to act as signposts towards the story's conclusion.
I'm not saying that writing without at least a rough outline is the way to go. I'm constantly carrying around ideas that I want to flesh out, snippets and characters and sometimes also more convoluted plots. But I tend to overthink, and when November and NaNo arrived, I simply picked one of those better shaped ideas and started writing, not caring that there were still holes as big as the Greek government deficit in my plot. And the nice thing was, once a chapter was written, I could simply refuse to go back and work ahead instead of going around in circles. Plot holes filled themselves and characters jumped into the fray out of nowhere.
More often than not I find myself not knowing exactly where I'm going, just having a few loose points that I want to brush by on my way. But how to get my characters there, how to find the right conflicts to keep up the suspense, mostly comes from quick decisions. It is, of course, nice to have a few clear scenes laid out beforehand, and it's an absolute neccessity for me to have a clear aim for novel-length stories.
The hard part is right in the middle of a long (for me long means above 20k words) story, that's the point where I have to stop and take a bit of time to plan ahead. The characters are established by then, as is the overall feel of the story, and that's where I sit down and think up fitting scenes to act as signposts towards the story's conclusion.