So humbled to be, briefly, in this fine company.

I sit at your feet, Kimmi. Your kindness and support is so appreciated. Turns out, writing is difficult, and time consuming. Sometimes it doesn’t seem worth the effort. But a supportive comment from someone like you, or a helpful tip from a mod, is the encouragement needed to keep going. Thank you, Kimmi.

I’m late to the very unfun party. Hope you are on the mend, Dear Kimmi. - L

I have a few that are based on my actual experience — these I call “Girlfriend Nostalgia” stories. Everything else is making stuff up. A few stories walk the line … particular scenes may be drawn from my experience, or characters may be facsimiles of people from my actual life.

Ah, Kimmi, such a provocative question. And I find it very difficult to answer. For one, variety is the spice of life! I find many things sexy. For another, to pick one feels very vulnerable for some reason. I suppose because I can’t hide behind the voice of the characters. You are asking what I find sexiest. I don’t like this level of commitment! But, for you, I’ll play along.

I’m going to go with a story about voyeurism, fantasy, and masturbation. Not because being a peeping Tom is sexy, nor because masturbation is sexy. But fantasy! Longing for what we cannot have! How much time do we spend hard or wet through our lives, while we sit, thinking about sex? A lot. So, here you go:

https://www.lushstories.com/stories/masturbation/birds-eye-view

Thanks so much for contributing. I guess, sometimes we write for others; sometimes we write for ourselves (or a very small circle).

Thanks for participating in this forum, Kimmi. You are a fine, experienced writer compared to me, so I greatly appreciate your thoughtful comments. I think my question is partly serious, and partly emotional.

For the serious part, yes, I suspect there are specific do’s/don’t, as you point out, that contribute to “orphans”. Your observations re title, hook, and getting some sex in there early are no doubt on target. It’s probably all about the first two paragraphs. I think additionally, some genres just don’t get the love. If you are here primarily for a wank (nothing wrong with that), then you are going to give your precious time to those genres most likely to get you off.

Ironically, the genres that are hardest to write are most set-up to not get read. Even a bad milf or cheating story is likely to get a look, especially if there’s some deep dish cunnilingus within the first few bars. But horror, humor, historical, sci fi, fantasy… they require narrative and characters and the column inches to develop them. If the writer can’t get the banging going fast enough people will scroll on. But, I get it. You are 100% correct that Lush is a sex site. Don’t want to write sex stories that get people off? Best to move along.

I think, too, that some people like a twist, but many don’t— if it fucks with the genre itself. A cuck had better remain a cuck, as it were. Again, fair. Gonna get fancy? Then you’re gonna lose some folks who paid with their time to get exactly what they were looking for.

The emotional part, for me, isn’t about being hurt something didn’t get read, or voted on, as much as it is that I feel bad for the characters. I realize that is absurd. But my stories spring, primarily, from the characters. They become the muse that drives the narrative and I, irrationally, become attached to them. So, oddly, I feel bad for my plump, brown baker in a fetish story… and the Count in a historical story…and the femdom moderator in a humor story…and the adorable lesbian couple in a trans story … when they don’t get released into the world.

Do you have an “orphan” story that you think was especially good that received very few votes or even views? (“Good” = fun/interesting/original based on a low ego self-assessment 😉 )

This is not meant to be a grudge session. Rather a reflection on 1) what we think drives readership away, and 2) whether in the end we really care. Put another way, if a story we love falls in the forest, and no one reads it, does it matter?

A couple things related to this:

1) I neglected to designate one chapter in a series as being part of that series. Can I edit that story, only putting the series tag on it without any other changes, and not screw anything else up? Will it retain comments, likes, etc? Will I make life hell for our moderators?

2) Similar, but different, can I create a new series tag to tie stories together that weren’t originally meant to be a series? Say, a character recurs. And then same questions as above, would apply.

Buried in this question is another: Are series planned or do they just happen? As a writer, I’ve authored a whopping, one, of each. The first (La Bella y Il Mostro) was planned, because the narrative arc was just too long to burden the Lush reader in a single sitting. The other (Mrs. Miller) was forced upon me after the initial story, because a few readers persuaded me that the characters and situation warranted more attention. For that one, I introduced a narrative element in the second installment and then let it play out over two more installments. Both were o.k.; I think the planned “Il Mostro” was better (though voters disagreed!).

As a reader, and hopefully this does not offend, most series don’t interest me much. I think the Lush platform is much better suited to single episode stories. It’s hard to keep track of a series when you’re only popping in now and then. Character-driven series are a little easier: “Ah yeah, I remember her…vaguely.” But, it had better be a hell of a character to hold my interest for more than an episode. Plot-driven makes for a far better backbone for a long series. But it is nearly impossible to track successfully for more than a few episodes. And more honestly, it is unlikely to maintain my interest unless it’s a hell of a plot, complete with foreshadowing “page turner” endings.

And so…in my highly personal opinion, series should be rare; they should have a planned arc; and they should be brief.

Ah, this gives me pause. Of my own 39 submissions, only 17 pass the test. But, is this test a fair one for short erotic fiction? Many stories “fail” from the outset because the genre often has just two characters.

The real point of the Bechdel test is to provide a quantitative, objective assessment as to whether a film treats women as fully formed humans. That is something more than an object that is only relevant because “it” is titillating, or which is no more relevant to the plot than a gun or a car. The test is effective at exposing sexism, and even better at exposing lazy script writing.

I think written, short erotica needs different indicators. Almost by definition, erotica will treat its characters — male and female — as objects. It’s part of the point and why we are all here. But, I do think erotica is better when we have understanding of the characters, their backgrounds and circumstances, and their motivations. The work is more interesting, and sexier, when it does this effectively. The mind is our primary sex organ, after all.

So, if often only two characters, and the very point is that we celebrate that our humanity includes the fact that our bodies are objects of desire, what would the right quantitative indicators be? How would we objectively know that a story regards its characters — especially its female characters — as more than just bodies that fuck and suck?

Thanks all

System just spinning when I tried to submit a story today (3 tries). Anybody else having this problem?