I'm faced with a strange problem... not one I'm looking for a solution to, just one that I felt the need to express. I've always enjoyed making up stories and writing; I used to entertain a small circle of friends back in grade school with the Adventures of Alabama Smith, incompetent but wildly lucky archaeologist who scoured the globe for such prizes as the Golden Frog and the secret formula which turned gold into lead. The most fun part was the sharing of the stories, telling them to others and watching them get interested and want to know what would happen next. I used to write them in a serial format, a page at a time, leading up to cliffhangers to bring people back; in the end, I had about eight or nine kids who would meet me at lunch to hear about the next chapter. That's a bit of a problem when writing erotic fiction, because I can't actually share that with people I know (well, of course I technically COULD, but it wouldn't really be comfortable for either me or the audience, and I certainly can't share it with my kids!). For the first time in a long while, I'm feeling myself really getting into a story I've made up (It's Good to be the King); I'm really enthusiastic about coming up with the next twist, the next character, the next plot development, the next illustration. But, the only people I can share it with are people I've never actually met (i.e., you guys), and if I did meet them I wouldn't know it. Anyway, I just wanted to pointlessly complain about what a bummer it is that I have this story which I'm really excited about but I can't share it with the people in my life. Anyone else ever have that problem?
Just a stupid idea... What about free reading events in your local swinger club (or a private party)? That way, the audience would probably feel comfortable. You could tell the host about your motive and offer the reading without charging. Just unsure if the theme would fit for that audience and if YOU would feel comfortable if your audience wears Dessous (or if you would also have to wear sth sexy) So just... a stupid idea I'm actually too shy to even do a reading of a non-erotic theme, so I don't have any urge to do something like that ^^
It's not so much that I want to read it to people (which isn't really practical with a CHYOA format anyway), but that I'd like friends and family to be able to read it - or that I could at least talk to them about the story. But, with an erotic subject matter, the only one I'd even begin to feel comfortable with is my wife - and she tends to psychoanalyze a bit when it comes to what I write, I'd rather not know what she'd make of something like this.
I can really emphasize that, even if my wife isn't into psychology. Well, then probably the only solution would be some kind of chat or discussion thread, though you wouldn't see their reaction. (or an adult reader circle ^^)
When I was in High School, my mother's English Teacher Friend very much pressed me into writing novels professionally. Apparently my actual English Teacher(They worked in the same school) shared a story that I wrote for an assignment with her and the other English Teachers who worked at the school. I didn't really think too much of the story at the time. It was about a boy getting lost in the woods and silly shenanigans ensued. However, apparently it was good enough that it legitimately surprised many of the teachers. Some of which have had me in class in the past. I sometimes wonder if that was a path that I should have taken, but at the time(and still now) I didn't really think that my writing was all that great. My girlfriend knows that I write dirty stuff on the internet, but she claims that she hasn't really read any of it too much. I show her the occasional chapter and the results were positive. However, she keeps telling me that she won't actually read any of the stories until they're finished and when I explain the site's format and how there's probably not going to be a definitive end to most of the stories on the site...She gets all pouty. It's a faux pout though. She likes to tease me and for all I know she's already read through everything that I have written on her own "time". Sadly, she doesn't make for the best critic. Any pressing for constructive criticism releases a default "Well, it's better than I could've done, so iunno"
I know how you feel, my friends know that I write erotica as a hobby but I have never shown it to any of them or told them enough that they would be able to track it down on their own. I wish I could bring them in on it so that I could maybe get some feedback but it somehow feels kinda weird. Sort of like showing your friends a video of you having sex. I do sometimes show people passages that I really am proud of but I just tell them it is part of a "story I am working on" and leave out the rest of the context. I did have one friend who I let read my stuff but it was pretty pointless, she just kinda said generically positive things and tried to pretend she wasn't weirded out by the somewhat out their content.(It was a sort of Murder Mystery story with a Modern Noir take on some Non-Con themes) Mostly because she really wanted us to be more than friends which is kinda why I felt ok showing her. Maybe one day I will find someone IRL to share all this with.
I've shown a couple friends where my stuff is, how to find it. Which was pretty hard personally as my stuff tends toward a shit ton of kink. I've also shown my fiance. Its not really her cup of tea but she doesn't mind me writing and she's still around after reading through some very naughty narrative, so that counts for a lot. Sucks not being able to tell family that for once in my life I have a constructive hobby when they ask what I'm up to, but oh well.
It took a long time for me to be comfortable sharing my work with people, and it's not like I'll ever show my parents or anything, but I've gradually cared less and less about what people think. A lot of my friends are kinky and/or kink-positive and so I don't mind showing them. My wife is very supportive, and I've even gotten her to make her own account here and write some, so that helps-- I know I'll always have an audience of at least one.
My "real-world" friends know I like transformation stuff, and they know I like attractive women, but they have no idea that I like to write content combining the two for erotic interactive story sites using a pseudonym. What takes some of the "heat" off me is that one of my friends writes romance fiction that she sells on Amazon under a pseudonym -- she talks about it enough that we know pretty much everything except the actual pseudonym. (I manage to bite my tongue and avoid chiming in when she's talking about her experiences writing online.) So in our group of friends, there's known to be one person who writes online using a fake name -- what are the odds that there would be a second person who does the same?
Shhhh... my friends have no idea. Unless you're secretly one of my friends. What are the odds that there would be a third...
Now I have started to make a little money off of writing it is a lot harder to keep it to myself. After all my family tend to be pretty dismissive of my writing so being able to rub it in their faces that I am actually making some money from it would be nice.
