I actually just went back to a chapter that I started a year ago and finished it. It was excruciating and i'm not super happy with it, but it's done. I haven't even checked it for spelling or grammar...
This is a major fantasy of mine. I would love to write a story and be able to illustrate it myself, but I can't draw to save my life. I even took a drawing class once solely for this purpose.
Confessions! I just added a couple of stories to Archive of My Own (as a backup -- CHYOA's my 'first drop'). It has a massive block of tags, which pop up when you add them. Despite this massive block and the literal hundreds of thousands of stories, a large percentage (plurality) of which deal with sexuality... I was the first to tag with "Plan B," "Emergency Contraception," or "Morning After Pill." (Or a number of other variations.) I am... almost pathetically proud of this fact. When I put Wonder Woman: Oathbound up on AO3, the first comment on the story said that they "found this a bit horrifying and I feel dirty after reading it. [...] However, I enjoyed reading this immensely." Which is almost exactly what I was hoping would be the reaction. I have this terrible habit of 'confessing' things that I'm jumping up and down and squeeing over in a transparent effort to say "GUYS! I DISTURBED, ENTERTAINED AND ENTICED AND WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO ACTUALLY ACKNOWLEDGE PLAN B ON THIS BIG SITE." And that's pathetic.
* As I do with fiction books, I first judge a chyoa story based on its cover picture. If I like picture I naturally assume it will be good story, if the picture is ugly then of course the story has to be bad.
A bad habit that I also share. That's why I take the time to pick a decent photo. So many good stories with shitty, or no, cover picture.
- Despite the fact that 90% of the comments I get are positive, I still have to take a moment to psyche myself up and check any new comments
The quick answer is "a picture I like." Which I know isn't much of an answer. Basically, a picture that has a few of the following: Visually attractive, conveys the story, is creative, witty, and/or if it appeals to any of my fetishes, but is tasteful. Strangely, I tend not to like explicit pictures. I guess I think the cover should be a bit of a tease. To pick a few from chyoa: "The Lodge" has a beautiful picture (I dabble in photography as a hobby). "Blackmail"'s picture is simple but effectively straight forward. "Adventures on Omicron" has a sexy cosplayer but in a very well done costume. And "Terms of Service", though much more base, appeals to several fetishes of mine.
Never read 50 Shades of Grey. Have read Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy. Most formative experience with erotic literature was The Way of a Man with A Maid.
I started writing for Chyoo 1 when it was a side site of Literotica back in the day. I started writing because it was easier than trying to program erotic interactive fiction, and I had time on my hands while unemployed. You know the proverb about idle hands. I enjoy trying to write to readers' comments and suggestions, and will sometimes bend a story or a character a place I might not have taken them. I used to sometimes add, "If you like, please comment!" to my stories or chapters. I often build my stories a chapter at a time for the fun of it, rather than trying to aim at a story arc. The game mechanics in "Slut World" or "Lusty Magical Academy" go well with this approach. A story like "Lucy's Portion" would do with a bit of a longer horizon than chapter by chapter. I add chapters to stories and characters that currently interest me. That means I have multiple stories with incomplete storylines that trail off. For a few storylines in "Lusty Magical Academy" and "When the Cat's Away", I've added flash-forward "end" chapters to. Sometimes I contribute to a popular story ("At the Cabin") because I know it will get more attention than my own stories. I wrote a chapter for "A Fantasy Dynasty" that built off the logic of the situation and the main character's actions, but squicked myself badly enough that I didn't really return to the storyline. I might still return if I get an idea that lightens the tone a bit. I identify a little too closely with the characters for writing fraught chapters to be fun. I write more than I read here. On Literotica, I read much more than I write. I've enjoyed collaborating with other writers, sometimes alternating chapters.
There are tons of stories I like written in second person. But I just cannot contribute to them because my mind refuses to write second person. Reading 'you' all the time kind of glosses over it for me, but writing it drives me nuts. I dislike the Georgia font that's standard here because the numbers go below the line. 123456789 just looks weird. I write out numbers as words in fiction anyway but it still irks me.
Yeah, I only started doing that just a short while ago, but it bothers me enough to take the time. Maybe a "default font for account" would be nice.
The site uses Gentium Basic as primary font, so all numbers have the same height on the main page. You could manipulate the CSS automatically.
