Honestly I've never felt the urge to write about my one other past lover, so it's hard for me to relate. That's less a matter or guilt or awkward feelings because of my current partner and more a matter of not having anything good to write about, lol.
The closest I've come is writing a fantasy about a real life friend of mine and I did share that with my partner. Ironically, he was more comfortable with that than reading stories I had written based on chat sessions with friends on Lush.
Hypothetically, I think it would depend on how long I'd been seeing the new person, how relaxed and confident I felt about the relationship and how open minded my new lover was. Nothing would ever stop me writing what I wanted to write, but if I thought it would hurt them or make them feel uncomfortable I would hold off on showing them until a more appropriate moment. I think I would show them eventually.
I seem to have lost about 22 votes off a story that had 70 votes before the change. View and comments seem unaffected. Votes on my other stories seem the same. Have we lost a lot of members in the transfer?
Great question. I hope you get a few replies on this because I'm sure a lot of people will have different opinions on the matter.
My first point is to say don't group introduction with exposition, they are different things.
If I start reading a story and it gives me a potted history of the characters relationship, it sends me straight to sleep. For me a good story dumps you straight into a scene, but that doesn't necessarily mean a sex scene.
You'll achieve better results by weaving your back story into an encounter between the characters than by using exposition in blocks. It'll also act as a way of telling you what's important to the story and what's not. If you can't find a way to bring it up in the course of showing me the events that are happening then it's not important.
Look to the fundamentals of story telling - Beginning, Middle, End. Every story should start with a scene which establishes the norm, the context, before the occurrence of a precipitating event. But, don't fall into the trap that "the norm" needs to be normal. It's simply the state of things before the precipitating event and so it will be determined by what that event is.
For example, I once started a story in the middle of a plane crash because the norm was that a woman was trapped on a desert island and the precipitating event was encountering someone else on the island. I didn't need to back track to a point before she took off in the plane.
So in summary, you need enough of an introduction for the reader to understand the context of the precipitating event. As far as exposition goes, less is more; use only as much as you need to bring your characters and story to life and no more. And, don't give it to me in a big block, give me little tastes throughout the story and I won't even notice it's there.
The concept of cross dressing is quite foreign to me. Girls wear men's clothes all the time but that doesn't make them cross dressers, it seems to be a fairly one way thing. I don't really find I have much in common with people who let their sexuality define who they are, for me it's much more about individual personality.
Ultimately you just have to ask yourself if the way it makes you feel good outweighs the way it makes you feel bad. If you're feeling bad more of the time then ask yourself if it is really worth it?
The important thing is that you are staying safe and you're not letting it impact in a negative way on the rest of your life; your job, family, real life relationships etc.
I think online interaction of this kind can be very addictive, because you are physically isolated from the person you are interacting with you can feel uninhibited and do things you might not do otherwise. It's a safe adrenalin and endorphin rush. Like any addiction though, it can start to take over your life.
Good luck, I hope you are able to figure out what you want. Lush is a great community and I'm sure you'll get loads of great advice from the members here.
I've got an HTC Wildfire and I love it. I've never had an iPhone, or any other touch screen phone before, but I find the HTC interface very easy to use and I get good functionality from the phone. Plus it was a free upgrade on a £20 a month contract, so that was nice.
Of course two days later my bf gets himself an HTC Desire HD. Seriously, men just can't stand their women having better gadgets than them!
Hey Buz, good on you for overcoming. Some people would use dyslexia as an excuse not to make an effort but I would have had no idea you had trouble. If you ever need someone to proof read your stories or anything, let me know.
I agree that in most cases spelling errors aren't a big issue, the meaning is usually still obvious. I struggle with a lack of or incorrect punctuation in posts I read sometimes because the punctuation changes the meaning of the sentence. Big blocks of text with no paragraph breaks are also hard to read, because it all just blurs together.
I don't know a lot about dyslexia. With reading different colours, do the colours that are difficult or helpful vary from person to person?
It's not a big thing to ask that forum members post things that are
a) Polite and respectful
and
b) Understandable/readable
You cannot blame someone for taking offence where it wasn't intended, because like it or not offence was caused. People have different value systems and sensitivities, you cannot just expect them to have the same values as you.
You cannot blame a reader for not being able to read what you have written, because language is a common system of communication and we must all play by the same rules. To consider those rules unnecessary is to welcome chaos.
We must all own our own communication and be responsible for the effects it has.
Now let's calm this thread down, offer our welcome and opinions without letting judgement and name calling get the better of us. Let's take jokes for what they are and try not to take every comment as a personal attack.
Dude, that's brilliant. I want to imagine everyone in the world gets a welcome pack when they first go on the internet and that's one of the diagrams in it. Love it!
I have a few to share:
Okay, who the hell gave you a 3 for this? Very hot...I love stories about longtime friends that become lovers, it just makes it that much more special! Great job! (How Quiet Can You Be?)
Love it when I inspire indigence on my behalf!
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Funniest comment:
MOW simply brilliant!! You are so very talented, you build the tension superbly!
If Carlsberg did muisc festivals then this is certainly one I would be at. Wonder if Kez and Ella will have more stories to tell lol xx (Festival Fever)
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You had me at “No. Make me!”. The Domina in me grabbed her crop. Well done. (Bad Girl)
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Now that's how you leave a job. I just gave the Bosses the finger n thru some SHIT. Great story loved it (Last Day Send Off)
Was that actual shit do you think?
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Is it weird that I want an Xbox online account now? I never thought I'd hear myself say those words! Fabulous story MOW... I can't wait for part 2!!! (Like an Actual Girl pt1)
Watch out, my stories may cause you to behave out of character, lol.
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Ahh the stacks... Flashback! Good read. (Secret Sex in the Stacks)
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BEST comment:
Sweet and naughty, with a touch of humour. Loved every tantalizing second. I really liked Ellie's character - the complexity was very realistic; I felt she was balancing between her inner and outer worlds - showing the expected restraint and trepidation but also being experienced with her own inner knowledge of her body and fantasies. (Might as well go there in style)
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I also think some of the best comments I've ever received were for "What are Friends for?" which dealt with a young woman offering a blowjob to an older, married man who had never had oral sex. It seemed to touch a lot of people.
Thanks Fugs!
I was sort of hoping for something a little less "adverty," but I'll consider using one of them.
Basically I have a badge on my profile from my publisher. I'd like to put one for Lush too.
I'd like to put a permanent link to Lush on my new blog. I want to link to the site in general rather than my profile page on it and I would like to do it with an image rather than just a text link.
Does Lush offer any web badges or signature graphics for its members to use elsewhere on the web?
What matters to me is that I find a guy emotionally and intellectually stimulating. I've found that among men of all ages. Physically I can find things to like in anyone I find that kind of connection with.
Has anyone ever considered starting a critique group for writers? I know there are a lot of writer's groups out there but it can actually be quite hard to find places to get feedback on erotica. I know there are a lot of writers on Lush who would be interested in improving their writing.
It could be run through the forum, but since people would be posting work they're not ready to share with the whole community, it would be good to restrict access. By that I just mean that people would have to request to be added to the critiquing group and could be asked to leave if they don't take it seriously.
DM, try looking at Google's cached copy, often that gets around some restricted membership issues.
As Nic mentioned earlier, all site owners are required by law to list contact information with the site registration company. You can find it using a whois search.
With 521 Friends, I ran a whois search and pulled up emails for an admin and the hosting company. I've emailed them about mine, but as yet, no response.
XHamster took my story down and I think they may also have banned the user. Woohoo, a site with standards!
... Or should that be *another* site with standards ;)
If the site has an excerpt and then a link to Lush I'm fine with that, that's just sharing content like you might on facebook or twitter. Since it points back to Lush it's still crediting me as the author, obviously. As Nic said, site's actually use Lush's RSS feed to create content like that.
The ones I have an issue with are the ones that copy the full text of the story without permission.
I'm kind of disappointed no one ever stole Youth and Experience while it was on Lush, then I would have been able to set my publishers on them, lol.
