What is the worst mistake for a writer to make in writing ER

I think your's and mine ran off to acapulco together.

*SNORT*, omgs, I can't breathe! I'm havin' a booby-quake o' my own here. hehe :lol:

Booby-quakes? Slow day here on the ERWF. :P I can't stand stories without plots, either. Too much bad fiction goes like this: \"Hey, I hate you.\" \"I hate you too.\" \"Well, I hate you more.\" \"No, I hate you more.\" \"Let's have sex.\" \"Okay.\" They fell into a passionate, rage-filled embrace. All that, and the author never bothers to reveal why the characters had the sudden change of heart. It's not enough to write a good sex scene.

It seems all the really good ones have been covered. Hmm...maybe I can think of one more. Purple prose -- covered. Plot abortion -- covered. Poor character development -- covered. Poor plot -- covered. It seems like the stuff that makes for bad fiction makes for bad erotic fiction. One of my bad habits is that I tend to clump too much narrative together. I'm especially bad with this when a character is by himself. I let them get lost in their own heads too much, but that's also where I walk the reader through character motivation changes so...hmm... I think it's balance thing. A good amount of action, feeling, thought, and smut. Bad balance = bad mistake.

CB Potts: Anyone see my sanity? It must be around here somewhere... CB, I've just noticed on the Freya's Bower website that if you click on 'The Facility Trip' (yes, I know, sad...) It says 'People who purchased this produce also bought 'Motorpool' by CB Potts.' I'm honoured!

Hey there was this blog I visited that Faith posted a link to on the WCP forum today. This author talked about bad reviews, and this is pertinent to this thread, because every \"mistake\" discussed here has somewhere in publishing history been a smashing success, and likely will be again. And still get bad reviews and criticisms. http://tessgerritsen.com/blog/2006/09/10/yep-its-true-im-lurid/ So after you read that, remember you can still be true to your writing goals and your artistry, and make those \"mistakes\" and end up with a real hot story. The entire industry is built on opinion, doncha know. And ultimately it's only the reader that counts.

And hey, Lamia! CB! Nice to see your names linked by reader sales. :D

That is very cool That's what I love about writing in this genre -- I'm always in such good company! :P

Re: What is the worst mistake for a writer to make in writin
Measurements of a man's dick in the middle of a sex scene (or prior to...hell, anytime!). Length, girth, whatever. Also physical descriptions of a character from his/her point of view (notice how they're almost always a glowing report of physical perfection?) I was looking over this thread and saw this quote and forgot that I did JUST this thing in my book, The Taste Tester, which is coming soon from Liquid Silver. In fact, here's the excerpt. I hope you all think it actually works and isn't a mistake! The book is a first person account of a young woman as she writes about her sexual life in her blog. A Quick Interlude On Size Posted May 2, 2006 So I walk past Jack early this morning, who is on the computer, and when I glance at the screen I see a bunch of pictures of penises. “What the hell is that?” I asked, completely shocked that my very straight boyfriend is looking at cocks big and small. “Oh, this is so wild. I was checking out your site's usage statistics, and you got a referral from a message board on this site.” “And what site is that?” I asked, not sure whether I was worried or pleased that a site full of cocks would link here. “It's a site for men to improve the size of their penises.” I guess I knew these things existed, but I never really thought too much about them. I've had sex with more than a handful of guys, with I guess a fairly wide range of sizes, but I never felt any of them needed to get bigger. “Look here. This is so great. They all chart their length and girth over the time they are in the various programs.” And, damn, if Jack wasn't right. Each post had a man's penile measurements listed right under his name. One guy was six inches, but he really wanted to be 8 inches. Another guy had an impressive 10 inches as his goal. I was about to applaud these penile go getters, when it struck me that I really had no clue how big a large cock is. I mean, I've read that five inches is average, and that porn stars tend to be a good deal bigger than that, but, in real life, I had no clue if I had actually been with a guy hung like a horse or not. Then I realized I had the perfect -*test*-('") study right next to me: Jack. Jack wasn't the longest cock I'd ever fucked. I had an old boyfriend who was long enough that it hurt every time we had sex. He wasn't exactly big, because I remember thinking his cock looked more like a candle and not enough like something that would fill me, but he was definitely long--every time he'd thrust I was in danger of him hitting my cervix. But Jack wasn't that much shorter than that guy, and Jack was better proportioned. The trouble is, I have no clue how big either of them were. Jack could have been five inches, and my old boyfriend six inches, and it may be that I just have a shallow pussy. I really have no idea. So I asked Jack. “Hmm. How long is your cock?” I asked, trying to sound nonchalant, because this is one of those questions that could get real ugly if the conversation goes the wrong way. “Oh, it's 7 1/2 inches long,” Jack replied, without the sligh-*test*-('") concern that I asked. “I know I'm not the biggest you've had because you said you had someone who made you hurt before, didn't you?” “No, the more I think about it, the more I think you are the biggest. You're just not the longest. But that's good. I don't think I would like you much longer.” I could tell he was really pleased with my answer. And I'm glad he was pleased, because he has an absolutely gorgeous cock, and he should be proud of it. But only proud of it with me.

Personally I think it's ok because it's in dialogue and there's a good reason for it being there. I would guess that what daneny didn't like was the sort of 'his cock was eiight and a half inches and uncut' style description that gets ladled into so many porn stories. Just my 2c worth. :)

Yeah, used to do vol editing for Literotica and 70% of the stories had he pulled out his 8\" slab of man meat or she flaunted her 42 DD chest as opposed to actually describing said features. And everybody has, at one time or another, actually measured... just to see.

Maeve, I think you just showed the exception that proves the rule. It was fitting to be a part of the story. I suspect that nearly all of these \"don't do this\" things can be done IF the story fits. I was talking to MissWrite the other day about purple prose. That's something we all fear and hope we never write. However, if I had a character who was obessesed with all things Victorian and/or Renaissance, perhaps virginal and/or sheltered, and had them in a sex scene -- I'm inclined to think their narrative would be dangerously close to purple. (Mind you, I'm not saying such a scene or character would be good or interesting.) MissWrite was inclined to agree. It's when things are done that aren't befitting the story where the problems exist. I was reading on some website, I can't remember which one, where they were saying the no story should ever be post-apocolyptic and if you do write one then you have to start before The Big Event for it to make sense. I don't agree with that. I think they might be talking about stories where The Big Event is the plot and in that case I agree. If a destroyed world is merely the setting, I don't think you need to go into great detail about the before and after of the world. (Satisfy reader curiosity -- yes. Dedicate a chapter to it? I don't think so.) \"Full Circle\" takes place 360 years after The Big Event. None of the humans remember life before destruction and it's only part of the Vampires' back stories. \"Nyx's Knights\" is also a post-apocolyptic story (I need more coffee my spelling sucks.) and only one of the characters is old enough to remember The Big Event. His POV has not yet been used. How could I go into detail about The Big Event in this story without raising a few eyebrows?

Really, because Cantical for Leibowitz (which is awsome) happens after the big event, and no one knows what really happened. A lot of the nevers come about because so many people do them badly. There is never a never... just do it well. My 2c

I agree that all rules can be broken if the context is right. I should post the follow-up scene when she actually runs down to get a ruler and finds out her boyfriend exagerrated by half-an-inch. It's a really funny scene.

Well, and it all depends on WHERE you start mesuring from. And you've inspired me to mess with Brandon/Nicky a little. 'Cause, well, Brandon really is a size queen... even if he won't admit it.

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