Nicely done, everyone! I really enjoyed this set of entries.
A few of my faves, since this thread's still kicking:
"The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious."
Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume
"It was a pleasure to burn."
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
Neuromancer, William Gibson
I think it's a great feature, thanks! I'd love to be able to access that page once I've signed in as well. (Or is there a way to do that and I'm missing it?)
In general yes, I find the tags informative and useful, though certainly not the only consideration. They can be useful as search terms, so maybe someone will find your story after it's moved off the front page if they're looking for something specific. I also appreciate when an author has fun with the tags. Frank Lee has some choice ones -- bumpin', humpin', cranking, yanking, spanking. Doesn't add anything to the classification, but lets me know he's got a sense of humor at the outset.
I think a site like Lush exists primarily for the entertainment and enjoyment of both readers and writers. From my observation, most of us come to this site to read sexy stories, post sexy stories, and feel good doing it. One of the side effects of that environment is that scores and comments aren't necessarily an accurate reflection of what most people thought of your work, and skew positive. Try to find a story that scores lower than a four on average -- I just clicked through about 10 random pages and found none. Then you've got the pros on the site, with hundreds of 5 ratings and effusively positive comments. Clearly, they're doing something special to knock it out of the park, and it's reflected in the ratings/comments. I'd say that you're squarely in the area of "doing something right" with your high scores and number of comments.
That said, we can all stand to improve, and I totally agree that constructive criticism is one of the best ways to get better as a writer. I think it would be cool if Lush offered some kind of "workshop" component for those interested in improving their stories, a la overmyknee's informal thread (which is a great idea, I'll definitely be taking a look at that). I don't know if Lush's comment system will ever quite provide the kind of critical feedback you're looking for, though.
Excellent, thanks. I figured that would be the case or else no one would want to address typos or other mistakes in their stories. But now I will edit without fear!
If I want to fix a typo, say, or correct a small issue with one of my stories, what will happen when I resubmit? Does the story lose all views, votes and comments and appear on the front page as if it were a new story, or does it simply update and retain views, etc.?
Thanks, I'm specifically looking for what formats correctly in Lush, if you have experience with that.
Yes! Brilliant show, super excited for the return. I actually blew through it during a recent bout with the flu when I had hours to kill. Couldn't stop watching it.
Who's your favourite and least favourite character?
I mean, gotta love Rick. I think with a lot of cable dramas out now -- Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Mad Men, all of which I love -- deal with anti-heroes, or ambiguous main characters, so it's nice to have a real "hero's hero" on TV, but one who is forced to make the kind of decisions that throw that ideal into question. I think the show does an incredible job of taking the zombie/horror tropes and discovering what happens when you put realistic characters into those situations. Michonne -- badass, not much to add there. But really the ensemble, the interplay and balance between all the characters, love em or hate em, is one of the core elements that makes the show so great. So it's tough for me to pick a "least favorite." I guess Carol's douchebag of a husband...I wasn't sad to see him get torn apart by walkers. Guess I saw that coming, though not the beautiful Amy, Andrea's sister around that same episode, that was sad.
Most memorable scene?
Rick's ride into a fallen Atlanta stuck with me. Loved the shot of him entering on horseback, only to find the city was completely overrun. Also when Jenner blew up the CDC. It's like, there goes your last hope of anything returning to normal -- there's really no going back.
Scariest or most shocking moment?
Dale's death was the one that made me realize, okay, these writers aren't fucking around. They'll kill anybody. It was shocking, but also compelling because he was the moral voice of the group, the only one willing to take a principled stand for preserving life over taking life for the sake of preventing a threat that may or may not exist. It's a fascinating question, and he was by far the strongest advocate for the "choose life" position. Without his anchor, does someone else step up to take on that role? Or does the moral makeup of the group break down or change? I think both of those things have happened to an extent. The aforementioned Amy from season 1 too, if only because I couldn't stop yelling at Andrea to get the fuck out of the way before she turns into a goddamn zombie!!! Great building of suspense/tragedy there.
Favourite season?
I loved the first, because you have people still hanging on to the old world, and figuring out what it means to live in the new one. Some of the most interesting turning points there. But it's great now, too. I love how we've gone on the journey with these people and they really have changed. Most are tougher, more hardened, and way better at killing zombies (like when they took out that prison...really great). I agree that the farm started to get stale pretty quick. Also because we were so used to moving quickly from one location to the next. But the last stand at the farm was certainly worth the wait. Talk about putting your main characters into a corner.
I heart this thread. That is all.
I don't have a preference in general between first and third person (your first and second examples). They're both standard formats for fiction writing, and I've read plenty of great erotic stories using one or the other.
I find references to "you" (second person, your third example) to be challenging as a reader. Unless the story is really compelling to me, a second person perspective will take me out of it. As you noted, you have to identify very closely with that "you" in order for it to work, so a writer risks alienating a large part of his or her readership out of the gate. I generally find it odd to be told what "I" am doing or thinking. Again, there are always exceptions, but that's been my experience.
I started high brow. I discovered my Mom's copy of Anais Nin's The Delta of Venus (a collection of erotic short stories) when I was becoming sexually curious at a pretty young age, and never looked back. Also in the not so distant past there wasn't a lot of easily accessible porn on the internets, and what was around was pretty poor quality. So erotica worth getting off to was a lot easier to find than decent porn.
Absolutely. Watching porn with someone as foreplay is super hot and fun. It also lets me know she's a little more sexually open and will be unlikely to have a hang-up about ME watching porn myself (I'm certainly okay with her watching porn alone).
1. Do you like watching women masturbate?
Fuck yes.
2. What turns you on about it?
It's always been and remains a huge trigger for arousal for me. Part of that may be the mystery it held for me when I was curious and learning about myself at a young age. Finding out it was something that girls do too just fascinated me, and the combined erotic/private/even somewhat aspects of it was just too much to resist. The idea got lodged in my brain as "oh my god this is fucking hot!" and never left. To this day I love seeing the expression of pleasure on a woman's face as she brings herself to orgasm, seeing her lost in her private world of lust in turn gets me incredibly hot.
3. Do you get interested in joining in or are you content to just sit there and enjoy the show?
In the beginning I was content to be a voyeur, through stories about masturbation (sites like Literotica), and then of course porn. Then when I finally got the chance to see a partner do it "live," I discovered the thrill of being watched while watching as well (typically, but not always, leading up to sex itself). That whole feedback loop (watching a girl get turned on by what I'm doing to myself, while I get turned on watching her play) is totally seductive for me. So if I have the chance I love to join in -- it's always hotter when we're both participating! In the past couple years camming with girls has been really fun for me to explore, too.
I definitely get aroused, anywhere from "nice erotic charge" to "can't help but touch myself" (if I have to finish the story later to take care of things, so be it)...my stories start as fantasies I've had, so it only makes sense that writing them out would turn me on. I feel like if I'm getting hot while writing it I'm on the right track.
Daily. Reading the stories on here is usually a good place to start. Lots of great material! I've found the stories involving 18-to-college-aged girls with men in power tend are ones I gravitate toward lately, but just about anything that's well written, sharp, and erotic can turn me on and get me off.