Thank you to all those who left kudos for my last story. "A Space Oddity - Houston I have a problem".
That was the first time I had over 100 kudos for a story since "Taken by the Grey Folk" in March.
I kind of have a feel for what goes down well on some of the different sites I submit stories on nowadays. On Bigcloset, my highest-rated stories were the first part of Surgeon's Lodger, The Assult, with The Substitute Housewife Part 1, and Seven Years as a Wife being the top two.
Some of those had sex in the stories, but most did not.
I wonder if I should just edit out the sex scenes for this site?
Comments
I wonder if I should just edit out the sex scenes for this site?
My opinion... that and a five dollar bill will get you a latte in most any coffee shop... is that any detailed description of a sex act really does nothing to advance the storyline. In some cases the fact that the characters are sexually intimate can advance the storyline in that it give a reason for some of the things that happen in the story.
Unless you're writing erotica, there is no need for the reader to know what technique or or position was involved.
In my story, "JAN COMES OUT TO PLAY" sex is a part of the story. However the only evidence that the couple had sex is that they spent the night in the same bed and she (the GG) assures him (the Trans) that she didn't do anything she didn't want to. The story is 15474 words long and amassed 139 kudos.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
hi Patricia, I think the
Hi Patricia, I think the first few stories I wrote were crossdresser sex stories. They were quite well received, so I kept writing that type of story.
Often the plot is about writing a sex scene. I noticed in my later stories I seem to make the journey to the sex scene more detailed and interesting.
The way I write is odd. I get an idea of an event I want to happen then the story just springs up around it. A few times when I wrote trans characters, I just couldn't bring myself to write a sex story.
Last year I was writing a story a week, now it is about one per month. I don't have writer's block, I just can't be bothered. Space Oddity just popped into my head while I listened to David Bowie on the way home from work. I wrote that because I didn't want to forget.
Leeanna
Wait for their check to clear
Some people will tell you categorically that you shouldn't have any sex whatsoever in your stories.
There is no sex in real life, after all, so why should there be sex in stories?
I can tell you from experience that if you start to change your writing to please your critics, you will end up not writing at all. (At least for a while.)
Just remember that the responses you get will all be opinions. Opinions are wonderful things: everyone can have one. Everyone. And the glorious thing about opinions is that you don't need to know ANYTHING to have one.
If you are writer, you are the one behind the wheel, driving. Would you ask directions of every single person you encounter? What if you meet someone who says, "Why are going there? It isn't worth it." Would you turn around and go home?
Be strong. Believe in yourself. Don't second guess yourself.
Don't change your writing for other people until after their check clears.
- iolanthe
I can’t agree with this more strongly.
Getting lots of kudos and comments is great. It is. But you won’t feel good about them if you don’t like the story.
— Emma
Thanks. I am trying to do the
Thanks. I am trying to do the impossible. Trying to find a "winning formula". I don't suppose anything is that easy.
What really did surprise me is that Seven Years as a Wife, which did have sex at the very end did well on here.
On Literotica, it is close to being read 100k times. I keep meaning to put some stuff on Amazon. Perhaps I should start with that one.
Leeanna
Your style is distinctive
And just plain you. Some are a bit tawdry but I think I could pick out your work in a blind test. I prefer the kinder and gentler type but I realize that other forms exist and you present it well.
If I knew the secret of kudos, I'd tell you. Keep on keeping on..
Ron
Two things come to my mind
First is, sex scenes.
I think we are all old enough to know about sex at the slot-F/tab-M level, and in all permutations and combinations. So we can just fill in missing details ...
It's like we all know about cars, and "We got in my car and drove to the restaurant". is good enough.
Unless the car is special, and important to the plot: "This baby has 5 liters displacement and racing suspension - so of course I out-drove the CIA, FBI and "Bond, James" - and they were co-operating".
Unless the sex is special, and important to plot: "After several weeks of working with her, when I tried {mumble} she got her very first "big O".
Or we can just do the sex 1950's Hollywood style: "cut to fireplace. fireplace is burning merrily, abruptly flares up vigorously, settles down to cozy embers. Dawn comes with coffee and pancakes."
Or, the sex scene is how the other partner discovers extra, missing, non-standard or unexpected 'plumbing'.
---
Story and plot can trump TMI details (if we readers don't bail out first ...). I read one story with a detailed sex scene, I kept going "Eew' and 'ick' and skipped ahead a few paragraphs. Got to the end (almost didn't) and thought, "Aww sweet." And author did a Nice Ending that was clearly a New Beginning.
===
As for all the other plot, content, etc. stuff in a story - BCTS is >not< grade school or grad school: We don't tell you:
"By Friday you need to turn in 500/5,000 words on the topic of 'UV Reflectance of the Flower Petals of Genus Bore-ius Tears-ians and the Reactions of Typical Pollinators".
"Students with substandard submissions will be sent to bed with no dinner, no Kudos, and have their comments cut off."
If we are not writing what we want to write (or need to write), or what our Muse drops on us - anything from a phrase to the whole story - then what force ourselves to write is gonna be pretty bad.
I have not written much
I have not written much lately because I have not felt the need to. I think I write when I cannot express my "Leeanna" side.
I spent 3 days away and was Leeanna with a very understanding man for 3 nights. It sort of quelled that side of me for a while. I have this strange need to be seen by others as a woman. We went to for walks every night and I never got a second glance. It was empowering. I felt I was accepted as a woman, at least by passing strangers. I never got close inspection, by entering a shop or anything like that.
I am going away at the end of the week and may end up spending over 50% of my time as Leeanna with the same gentleman. I will get as close as I have ever been to living as a woman. This is something I have dreamed about all my life. It will be interesting, and hopefully, see me over the winter when I am stuck at home with no avenue but words to express myself.
Leeanna
Don’t worry about the numbers
There have recently been mentions of a decline in the readership here at BC and I certainly see far fewer reads than hitherto. (If nothing else, there’s that pretty long “In memoriam” list: we’re all ageing out!) Don’t assume that your more recent material is in some way deficient or not in demand.
As for sex in stories... if stories are about people, the characters are probably going to be motivated by sex, at times – because real people are, at times. It’s an important facet of adult life, and one without which we wouldn’t have been born. Some characters might be vulgar and exploitative, while others could be classy; others might be quite innocent – although probably curious.
I’d say the worst form of censorship is the kind you work upon yourself. Always write it your way. The human brain is a sex organ, and it’s enormous. Enjoy it!
Sugar and Spiiice – TG Fiction by Bryony Marsh