Pet peeves, things to work on as authors

[Zekar]

Another pet peeve, reaching a branch that was abandoned. Especially if the author was really good.

I mostly feel this way when there was an author who clearly had a vision but just fell off the edge of the earth.

In particular if they bring a plot point up that seems important and could lead to something good, but never happens. Best example I can think of is Non-Interactive story Donna's Delight which has the main character use magic to seduce his sister. He has dreams of witches hunting him down and realizes they are real. He plans to turn the witch into a sex slave, but the chapter ends and the author stopped writing.

Personal preference maybe.

 

[Sthaana]

1) Using geographically limited vocabulary or phrases.

That one is tough for me lol.
Since my threats are all 2nd person, I kind of want folks to be able to identify with them, no matter where they´re from without giving too much detail as to the setting, so I kind of end up writing a bizzaro mixture of British and American English, in a setting that´s a cross between Britain ("trousers", "curry", "council estates" etc.), America ("Mom", no school uniforms etc.) and Japan (cicadas as a sign of summer).

 

[HaremStarter]

Repetitive words. I was reading a chapter in a story the other day and in two paragraphs the word mood had been used at least five times. I was in the mood to tear my hair out by the end of it.

Also, telling not showing. Don't tell me how a character is/feels show me with action. And if you do show me don't have a narrator then tell me as well. I'm not a moron. You just wrote that a character was crying and trembling when the bad guy waved a gun in his or her face I don't need to be told she's scared.

 

[Loeman]

I definitely agree with you on both points gcrinehart.

Both are also fairly difficult challenges without a proper editor, and need deliberate attention.

I try to go over everything I write and try to make sure I'm not overusing the exact same word... And still I feel like I fall into that trap. It's especially not easy in erotic literature, I feel, when you're often running into what amounts to variations on the same action scenes and the same basic emotions over and over (this rape scene is followed by another rape scene followed by anticipating further rape followed by ultimate-super-rape). The descriptors might end up being rehashed over several chapters.

Uhh, and maybe replace 'rape' with 'romance' if you're not a total sicko like I am.

 

[Zekar]

I definitely agree with you on both points gcrinehart.

Both are also fairly difficult challenges without a proper editor, and need deliberate attention.

I try to go over everything I write and try to make sure I'm not overusing the exact same word... And still I feel like I fall into that trap. It's especially not easy in erotic literature, I feel, when you're often running into what amounts to variations on the same action scenes and the same basic emotions over and over (this rape scene is followed by another rape scene followed by anticipating further rape followed by ultimate-super-rape). The descriptors might end up being rehashed over several chapters.

Uhh, and maybe replace 'rape' with 'romance' if you're not a total sicko like I am.

I try to change up words from time to time. In some cases replacing a simple word like "fuck" with "ravish" or "make sweet love". There is a writing tip/swearing tip out there I've seen that says you should replace easy crude words with something more complex. So "bastard" might be replaced with "No wonder your mom fucked your father out of wedlock". Not the most elegant example, but it helps hi light the point.

A new pet peeve I'm coming across is inconsistent writing styles. With collaborative writing that becomes hard to do, but there are some chapters out there that I've noticed have different formatting styles. Not calling anyone in particular out, but a good example is thought text.

I used to use italics to denote a character thinking. But because I write mostly on my phone it's a pain to highlight text and convert it to italics. So some of my early writing has thought text italics, but now later chapters just have it without quotes. I am a hypocrite, but it still is a pet peeve.

 

[gene.sis]

But because I write mostly on my phone it's a pain to highlight text and convert it to italics.

You could uncheck the option "Use the rich text editor to create and edit chapters" at the Settings page to enable markdown syntax for your chapters.
Then you can type *italics* which will result in italics.

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

Now I know this is going to unleash a fire storm when I say it, but the author asked, so here it is:

Running into Non-Con in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories.

So I'm strolling along, reading a fun thread in a nice Sci-Fi story, everything's going fine, I'm getting all worked up, and...
BOOM out of nowhere there's a rape scene.
Fun time ruined, story I wanted to add to now off limits, go back to the index and try again.
Problem is I have found only about 2 stories I wanted to add to that didn't have this problem.
WTF is WRONG with all of you?
Rape isn't fun, for anyone.
It's inhuman and barbaric and given my free choice in the matter wouldn't be allowed on this site.
Y'all DO realize that the risk of getting raped is why women don't just proposition men on the street for a quick hookup when they're in the mood, right?

Gah!

 

[HaremStarter]

Now I know this is going to unleash a fire storm when I say it, but the author asked, so here it is:

Running into Non-Con in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories.


Gah!

I don't think your post should cause a firestorm and I hope it won't. I doubt there is a member on this sight that hasn't been enjoying a story only to have a chapter dealing with a fetish/kink they cannot abide come along and "ruin" it for them.

Rape Fantasy is problematic. I'd say you are probably not alone in being turned off by it.

 

[Zekar]

Now I know this is going to unleash a fire storm when I say it, but the author asked, so here it is:

Running into Non-Con in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories.

So I'm strolling along, reading a fun thread in a nice Sci-Fi story, everything's going fine, I'm getting all worked up, and...
BOOM out of nowhere there's a rape scene.
Fun time ruined, story I wanted to add to now off limits, go back to the index and try again.
Problem is I have found only about 2 stories I wanted to add to that didn't have this problem.
WTF is WRONG with all of you?
Rape isn't fun, for anyone.
It's inhuman and barbaric and given my free choice in the matter wouldn't be allowed on this site.
Y'all DO realize that the risk of getting raped is why women don't just proposition men on the street for a quick hookup when they're in the mood, right?

Gah!

I get the same feeling when I find a story that I like and it delves into something too fridge for my liking. In other sites I'd find Diaper play and Vore in chapters where I had no hint of that being the theme.

I've since gotten better at just leaving the chapter and finding something better. I kind of wish there was a Universal tag system in place that we could hide stories that include "x"tag.

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

Would be so much more efficient that the now rightly defunct dislike button. One mans nightmare fuel is another man's fetish fuel.

 

[SeriousBrainDamage]

Now I know this is going to unleash a fire storm when I say it, but the author asked, so here it is:

Running into Non-Con in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories.

So I'm strolling along, reading a fun thread in a nice Sci-Fi story, everything's going fine, I'm getting all worked up, and...
BOOM out of nowhere there's a rape scene.
Fun time ruined, story I wanted to add to now off limits, go back to the index and try again.
Problem is I have found only about 2 stories I wanted to add to that didn't have this problem.
WTF is WRONG with all of you?
Rape isn't fun, for anyone.
It's inhuman and barbaric and given my free choice in the matter wouldn't be allowed on this site.
Y'all DO realize that the risk of getting raped is why women don't just proposition men on the street for a quick hookup when they're in the mood, right?

Gah!

Fire storm? I think that including a fetishes you don't like as pet peeve is a bit of a stretch of the original question, so you are almost calling for it.
The title wasn't " shit I don't like"

But maybe I didn't understand...


Let me get this right ... are you saying that you're against rape, but just in sci-fi and fantasy?
Why?
I will refrain from asking if you are trolling but.. i just don't believe you even the slightest when you say " fun time ruined "as porn and erotica don't rely on surprises.
They rely on anticipation.
If a story goes towards rape, dear ,you'll know it more than in time.

I don't know exactly to what story you are referring to, but as an example, if a beautiful space explorer scouts an alien and unknown planet, full of perils and savage aliens, the author is already "flirting" with rape.
It is there , right before your eyes.
Countless mainstream products rely on that, obviously without finalising it.

I just need a couple of lines to know that the chapter that i'm reading contains a fetish that puts me off.
More frequently the title is enough.

Also "wtf is wrong"
I can't bear you lecturing me or others suggesting we are some kind of sickos.
Grow up.


On topic, I must say that exaggerated physical descriptions are a major turn off to me, like some have already said.
Seem to watch one of those 80'porn with girls sporting ginormous implants, probably because they were novelty at that time.
And to match that...
Penises so big and long to literally impale the poor fellow girl.
Ten inches has become baseline.
It is the average Joe length.

I realize though, that these are fantasies and for someone this might be a turn on.

I kind of wish there was a Universal tag system in place that we could hide stories that include "x"tag.

It could be very useful, but it should be paired with the possibility for users to tag chapters.

 

[Loeman]

Y'all DO realize that the risk of getting raped is why women don't just proposition men on the street for a quick hookup when they're in the mood, right?

Gah!

I'd say risk of disease and various social mores (perpetuated for a variety of reasons, risk of sexual violence being only a small piece of those reasons) are reasons why people aren't propositioned for sex more often.

I think rape has very little to do with that particular quirk of polite society, to be honest. I very much doubt that its often that a woman is about town or at a grocery store or what have you and she thinks:

'Damn, I'd really like to have some steamy casual sex right now, but wait, if I try to pick up a guy I might get raped while I'm actively seeking out a sexual encounter! I'd better just go about my business instead.'

Anyway, of course rape is bad. Writing or reading, not so much.

 

[Artican]

I need to figure out a standardized inner monologue format. It's just so open to interpretation on how to present it.

Also, rape is bad. I get why it is often romanticized as a taking of, or loss of control fantasy for men and women, but it still makes me uncomfortable to write about. As for stumbling onto fetishes you're not keen about, maybe if the descriptor tabs could be displayed on your next thread option, it would make navigating stories easier from a sexual content perspective. Like if there was a generalized code that would tell you - gg is girl/girl, t-girl is transvestite, R is rape. I used to read from a site that had a coding system like that for the stories in general.

My pet peeve would be numerical descriptors. Like when someone says you have a 21% chance of succeeding. Who calculates odds like that? Who talks like that? Where did they get their numbers from? Same goes for including measurements on a person unless the character noting this is a tailor or something. It just seems odd to me.

 

[merkros]

I've since gotten better at just leaving the chapter and finding something better. I kind of wish there was a Universal tag system in place that we could hide stories that include "x"tag.

If such a think was to be put into place, it should only prevent you from viewing chapters tagged as such....not hide stories completely. Many stories have non-consent/rape stuff. However, of those many stories only so many of them focus on that sort of thing. Other stories may only have one or two chapters of a hundred chapter story or whatnot that actually involve things one may view as unpleasant.

So instead of censoring out stories completely, it should only grey out the chapter. Much like how the conditional variables can prevent you from accessing certain chapters that you don't meet the conditions to access.

 

[Sthaana]

Now I know this is going to unleash a fire storm when I say it, but the author asked, so here it is:

Running into Non-Con in Sci-fi/Fantasy stories.

So I'm strolling along, reading a fun thread in a nice Sci-Fi story, everything's going fine, I'm getting all worked up, and...
BOOM out of nowhere there's a rape scene.

idk, I like rape-fantasies, but I´ll admit I´m not a big fan of realistic rape scenes. I think that´s precisely why so many (incl. my) rape stories are SF/Fantasy, since it´s in a fantasy world, where shit´s rough and life (and chastity) is cheap, it doesn´t feel quite so real. Stories about gritty, realistic irl rape is... well, I gotta be in a nasty mood...
Sure it´s "problematic", but just about all porn is to some degree. I think it´s a strength of the written (and drawn) medium, that we can work out our weirder fetishes and fantasies (which we can´t really help and which aren´t going anywhere anyway) in a more abstract form... *shrug*

Besides, consent is a tricky field anyway. What becomes of mind-control? Or body-swaps? Or stories where a character lies or cheats to get some pussy? Or ENF? Or teacher-student stories? irl all that stuff could be considered rape, and is defo super bad.
In the end it´s all fake anyway and there´s tags to mark it (though the tagging system could be improved upon), so I say just live and let fap.

 

[merkros]

In the end it´s all fake anyway and there´s tags to mark it (though the tagging system could be improved upon), so I say just live and let fap.

The tagging only matters if people tag properly. That's something that doesn't happen as often as it should. I have had to several times go in and tag scenes that have no tags and several popular stories don't have any tags set."

 

[Nemo of Utopia]

What I was posting about above is not so much the fact that I don't like non-con scenes, (I don't, but that's tangential), it's that I don't like running into them in stories that are neither tagged as having them in it nor in the easily excluded genre set aside for them. You want to write rape fantasies: that's your prerogative: but don't put them into stories outside the Non-Consent area without tagging them, that's where I was going with this.

 

[HaremStarter]

Unfortunately, as there is no incentive for proper tagging I don't see this issue being fixed. For me a chapter can take anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days to complete. Considering putting the proper tags on said chapter does absolutely nil to get my story more notoriety it's not a very high priority.

 

[Gertrude_Perkins]

Hi everyone,

I'm brand new here. I've resolved to write more in the new year- every day in fact. It can be anything (this comment counts,) but as I am a relentless and unrepentant pervert, erotica is destined to be the most common form.

I think writers tend to get too specific when describing their characters. Of course we have to do that to differentiate them, and often it's a particularity of the story, but it can really be alienating. Why not let the reader imagine the character as much as possible? When we're meeting a character in a story, usually it's because our protagonist is meeting them. How does the protagonist feel about the way they look, and sound, and feel?

I think objective measurements like cup size and dick length are silly in a story. Why say 'it was 10" x 6",' when you could say, 'she could barely fit her hands around it?' I mean if you calculated the cylindrical volume of his cock, am I going to be gratified by the figure? Show don't tell is the basic idea.

I don't need the D&D character sheet. Just write the way the voice perceiving them feels about it, and anything relevant to the story. Let the reader please themselves. We do too much work sometimes. With erotica, the reader is doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

 

[Sthaana]

OK, this one is super fucking dogdy (though tangentially related to the above complaint of excessive enumeration), but I find it pretty ridiculous and distracting when people keep adding super insistent "precisely 18-years old!!!!!" notes...

I get that it´s the (moral as much as legal) law and all, and I get not wanting to get into trouble, but it seems a bit disingenous to write a story about "teens" or "daughters/younger sisters" in a "high-school"and then having to explicitly
dial the ages up to the maximum. Like, if that´s really important to you (and if so, good on you for being a healthy, upstanding moral pillar of society) why not just write a story where it´s obvious that everyone is already of age, set at work or in college?

It´d be like writing a dark, gritty Fantasy or SciFi story about mind control or body modifications or whatnot and bothering to give everyone a safeword. Stuff like "Teens" and "High-School" etc. is already a pretty transgressive and morally dubious kink if
you think about it (much like incest, rape, mind control, slavery etc.), so trying to somehow clean it up afterwards just seems a bit silly, like being caught fucking a pig and being all: "No dude, it´s cool! We´re married and I´m wearing a condom! Besides, Baconella here is 18!", as if that´s the big problem.

I say, just keep the specifics vague and let everyone work it out with their own boner and conscience, how they choose to imagine something...