I'm not sure exactly what aspect of 'being a writer' you're concerned about, so I'll just dump everything.
I'm going to assume you mean you want to be an officially published author. In that case, I should make it clear that I haven't really gotten that far myself, outside of a couple of short stories in anthologies. I'm partly regurgitating what I've read from authors like Mercedes Lackey and C.S. Friedman (no relation to the
real Friedman).
Firstly, you need to improve your writing. This isn't an insult; I can see you're actually one of the better writers on CHYOA, based on your latest chapters, but there's still a long way to go. Take a look at the top ten stories on the site -
none of them are anywhere near good enough to be commercialised. Every single one of them would be rejected by an editor purely based on their opening paragraph. Your mission is to do better.
In that light, I'll start with the first paragraph of the latest chapter you published.
I can't see, I can't see outside my head. Something is wrong, something feels wrong, why am I not in control? My legs, they walk without my say, my body moves on its own and I am left feeling lost from my own. I want to scream, cry for help as loud as I can, but I have no voice, my body won't listen to me. I am not myself, I am not me.
Good quality, at least for CHYOA. Your ability to convey a fairly abstract scene is strong. However, your sentence structure is poor, you misuse repetition, and you use far too many commas where there should be periods. I would cut the initial
I can't see.
Something is wrong, something feels wrong is redundant and should be replaced; your writing should convey the sense of wrongness to the reader without ever needing to tell them, that is, show, don't tell.
My legs, they walk without my say is a very strange way of structuring and wording that sentence, and it would be better as
My legs walk without being told. with the comma dropped.
my body moves on its own has the same show-don't-tell issue, although you
already did the showing, so these six words essentially tell the reader something they already know (and should be removed). I'm not sure what the phrase
I am left feeling lost from my own even means, exactly. Do you mean 'my own body'? In that case, I'd phrase it as
I feel separate from my own body.. The word
scream is redundant. That sentence is otherwise fine up until
, my body won't listen to me, which creates a run-on sentence, conveys no new information, and should be cut.
I am not me is just the worse of the two halves of that last sentence and should be removed.
With that, you're left with:
I can't see outside my head. Why am I not in control? My legs walk without being told. I feel separate from my own body. I want to cry for help as loud as I can, but I have no voice. I am not myself.
I'd consider that an improvement. There are no more run-on sentences or redundant clauses. The shorter, choppier sentences also convey the narrator's internal panic a little better.
But, you could still rearrange the sentences to flow into each other better, and I'd elaborate on the first sentence - what does the narrator mean, exactly, by seeing inside their head? - and some of the word choices aren't ideal, and I would replace 'myself' with the narrator's name, if possible, for extra impact...
My point is, imagine every single sentence in your story is picked apart like that, because this is exactly what editors will do, and most readers will subconsciously pick up on at least a couple of these imperfections. A story has to be
really, really good to be worth publishing.
Before you look too far into publishing, you need to first reach the level at which you can see all of those ways to improve for yourself. Published writing is very much
not something you learn on the job; you need to practice it for hundreds of hours before you publish. Judging by the fact that your stories consistently rank among the longest on CHYOA, you should be far better equipped than most to actually finish a manuscript - that is, assuming you're looking at writing a novel.
When you finish your first draft, you then need to start over and edit every single sentence from the beginning. Every published author does this, and unless you're a highly accomplished and experienced writer, you'll need to do this several times. It's also a good idea to read books in the same genre as yours regularly, if you don't already, and I mean
books, not anything on the Internet. There's only so much you can learn from those you intend to surpass.
Then you need
someone else to read your manuscript and suggest changes. Friends and family are fine for now. If it's too sexual for your or their comfort, I'm sure there would be some willing CHYOA users. Weigh up their criticisms, remembering that they're not experts; the point of this is just to get another perspective. Once you've editted your manuscript even further, you get
another person to read and offer their opinions. This time, you want someone reasonably qualified. Perhaps your friend has an English degree, or perhaps you know someone who's already published their own work before. Worst case, you can always hire a professional editor. (And, either way, you'll probably want to pay back anyone who does this for you, friend or not, as it's a big ask.)
By this point, you will hopefully be far beyond Mt. Dunning-Kreuger, enough that you know when your manuscript is ready.
If you intend to publish erotica, specifically, then self-publishing an e-book on Amazon or something is likely your best route. Erotica (and romance in general) is, to my knowledge, a very high-supply, high-demand genre. Take my opinion on this with a grain of salt, but I think you'd actually have a better chance finding your own audience of paying readers than you would finding an appropriate and willing publisher. Just remember that self-publishing has its own pitfalls, most notably on CHYOA that you may be legally responsible for your own work if, for example, it includes underage characters.
Otherwise, you will want to do some research on potential publishers. Self-publishing is still possible, but most e-book demand seems to be in romance; you'll need to do all the promotion yourself, and don't expect to see a single cent back for your first book.
Many publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts. If so,
don't send them your manuscript. Not only will they hate you forever, they'll tell all their friends about how much you suck. These publishers usually publish through agents, instead. You could try getting an agent if you want; I have no idea what lies down that path.
Many publishers only publish particular kinds of books. Make sure you only contact those for which your book would be a good fit, or you'll come off as incompetent.
Before you send your manuscript to a publisher, read their style guide very, very carefully. From their perspective, if you can't do something as basic as change your story to a certain font and add double line spacing, you're not worth publishing.
From there... well, if you make it that far, you'll be far beyond the level of needing advice from strangers on CHYOA. I could probably learn a thing or two from you.
