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You are right, it is true of most fiction, for a good reason, Chekhov's gun. If we put the ordinary and mundane into focus, the reader will think there is a reason behind it and feel cheated when there turns out to be no reason. But still, there's no harm in a little bit of scene setting, some...

You've written a great a chapter, it took blood, sweat and tears to produce this master piece and now your finger is hovering over the publish button. But don't push it! Well, not yet anyway, let it marinade for a while. The first time I ever did this it was agony, I just wanted to publish it...

People don’t seem to use the toilet. The women of our stories don’t have periods. Safe sex does not exist, but nobody ever gets an STD. There is a distinct lack of pets, are we not animal lovers? What else do we hardly ever see in our stories? By the way, the above applies to all my...

There were hard learned lessons!

This topic has been done several times before, but it's one topic that I think is ok to keep re-visiting as the sites we use change their rules so frequently that it's good to have a fresh take on it. I've been through several different sites, the usual reason for having to switch to a new...

Write it up anyway, while you have the time. It might suit the competition next year, or perhaps there will be a new anthology series of short stories on CHYOA you can add it too soon. Some of the existing ones might suit too. What ever it is, I'd love to read it!

Did they announce the winners yet?

I don't know why I find it so hard to write conflict and character flaws. Maybe it is because I primarily write for my own sanity, I find it cathartic and calming, so perhaps I'm shying away from conflict because of the reason I write in the first place. But if I am going to improve my writing...

This is my pet hate and probably the most common mistake I see on CHYOA. All to often I see the first two paragraphs covering what should take more than half of the whole story. Story arcs are thing, like wise character arcs, and once I discovered this it completely changed the way I write.

I feel slightly called out, conflict is rare in my stories, so too are character flaws. I know full well that both are essential but they are a weakness I have in my writing. At least I am aware of it and try to do better but more often than not it just doesn't come out right. Great post with...

I was messaging a friend about this recently. It seems it's a very common issue for erotica writers. Apparently those who write other genres suffer the same thing, thriller writers grow tired of writing fight scenes in much the same way we do with sex scenes. I asked him how he keeps it fresh...

It makes perfect sense, many of feel the same way.

Oh dear...1500 words to edit out of the first draft. This is going to be carnage. Wish me luck.

I get this a lot, which is a bit of a problem when you're writing erotica. I suppose it's a very niche form of writers block. I cope with it a few different ways. I either just leave the sex scene and carry on writing, then come back to it later on when I'm in the mood. Or simply plough on...

I'm still writing. I'm at nearly 8000 words and have about 500 more to add. Then I'll have to go back and edit from the start to get it under 7500. This is not easy!

This is hard, I'm at 5500 words already and nowhere near finished! Going to have to do some serious editing to keep it under 7500. And there's already some great stories in there with some big hitters dropping in their contributions. Tough competition, which can only be a good thing, I need to...

It's down to personal choice, but for me I can't do major re-writes, once it's out there, it's out there. Minor tinkering and fixing typos is fine, but I feel that to do a major re-write once published just feels wrong somehow. But, with the way CHYOA works, I see no reason why a different...

The act of writing is for me the most rewarding part. I get a huge buzz when my characters take on a life of their own and I find them doing things I'd never planned for. I go back and update some stories just because I miss the characters, it's like visiting old friends I've not seen in a...

Karlie Montana was the main one, plus a few others. What's a Lora?