I try to avoid a backstory puke. If one is provided early, all that's necessary is to ground the reader in the moment and place so they can enter the flow of the story. Then, as the story unfolds, it can be worked in as unobtrusively as possible so the reader feels they're simply getting to know the characters or situation better without having it "splained" to them.

Writing a story is like having sex... too much too soon is a turn off. It's nice for intimacy and familiarity to grow as you progress and, little surprises here and there add to the experience.

One of my first lessons in writing was how important it is for me to allow myself to write a really shitty first draft. The reason it's so important that I do that is because ALL of my first drafts are really, I mean REALLY, shitty.

Try Mandi's suggestion above, and see if you can't get it moving that way. Don't expect to have much of a "real" story, but I guarantee that you will likely have what most of us start with: an overall idea and a few plot points. From there, you start filling in the gaps and revising what doesn't work. People don't usually just sit down and crank out a story when they begin writing, they learn to nurture, coax, and grind a story out of themselves.

After doing what Mandi suggests, set aside an hour to put your words down on paper. Don't worry for a minute how it looks or sounds - the main thing is to just get it down. Set it aside, give it time to germinate, then set aside another hour and come back and review what you wrote down. Resume filling in the gaps and revising things so they better match your vision. Don't ever expect to be satisfied, but if you keep cycling back to it, sooner or later you're going to read somethin you wrote and smile.

If you find yourself struggling, feel free to DM me and let me take a look at what you were able to come up with. Like Mandi, I won't write it for you, but I'm happy to try to ask some helpful questions that might stir your imagination.

Soul to Squeeze - Red Hot Chili Peppers

How does the charge appear on the account? I thought I read somewhere that it says "story service," or something of that nature. If so, that would blend in with other subscriptions and services I use for my writing.

Quote by AngelWorthy

As a non-paying member you only have 8 Lushmail per day. It resets each day. Maybe, you can use your last Lushmail message to ask the story mod into the chatrooms, where I believe you may be able to chat with the mod in private message. I know that non-paying members can chat with the chatroom mods in private message. I'm just unsure about story mods. Maybe a story mod can try, to let us all know.

Thank you for answering. It's been a day since I posted and I was able to get back in touch with @AvidlyCurious to follow up on things. I'm so much happier with the level of communication here than on the last site I was at. It's so refreshing!

I'm a new author here and am eager to get my story up for everyone. I was having a great conversation with an Admin, AvidlyCurious, who was being a big, big help. She responded to a question and I found I couldn't answer her unless I upgraded. I will likely do so once I get the story up and running, but am wondering if there's any other way to continue the convo since there may be more to work out on the story. Does the limit reset after a period of time, or is that it for my being able to follow up with her?