want to write

[Lord Douche]

No offence Powerone, but most of your stories don't involve too much plot, at least not the ones I've read I was meaning a long story, with a detailed storyline and things like that. You need to have an outline of the storyline, rather than each individual chapter.
LD

[GaryWilcox]

I suspect that Parker... my favorite writer on BDSMLibrary, just a hair ahead of Woodsman'sGame, Kallie Thomas, and Faibhar... doesn't outline and just writes plots off the top of his head.

But that's because he's a brilliant writer-- not everyone can do the complex plot thing, planning or not.

For a new writer starting out, I do recommend habits of discipline. Outlining plots will probably help. But don't get locked in to something if you see a better path.

[Lord Douche]

Of course not. I've changed the direction of my story several times through writing it. It always takes a little thought, trying to keep it consistent with what happened previously, but that's half the fun!
LD

[Powerone]

No offence Powerone, but most of your stories don't involve too much plot, at least not the ones I've read I was meaning a long story, with a detailed storyline and things like that. You need to have an outline of the storyline, rather than each individual chapter.
LD

No offense taken. I just look at what the readers love. My stories have won two Literotica Readers Awards for 2003. My latest story on Literotica got 34,000 views in 2 days. I write for the readers not the writers. They seem to like my plots. As for long stories, I have never seen a "short story" that I could do in less then 17 pages.

P1

[LaJan]

And all I ever got was one single "Editor's Pick" at Literotica! Worse, they rejected all the stories I got to post here, saying something about them being "tasteless, worthless drivel"...

I am sooooo jealous. :[

No offense taken. I just look at what the readers love. My stories have won two Literotica Readers Awards for 2003. My latest story on Literotica got 34,000 views in 2 days. I write for the readers not the writers. They seem to like my plots. As for long stories, I have never seen a "short story" that I could do in less then 17 pages.

P1

[Powerone]

And all I ever got was one single "Editor's Pick" at Literotica! Worse, they rejected all the stories I got to post here, saying something about them being "tasteless, worthless drivel"...

I am sooooo jealous. :[

They reject about 1/2 of my stories also, though most for violence, rape, and underage sex. Gee, they sure do cut down all the good stuff. I love bdsmlibrary.com. Its the best for presentation of stories, no story rejected because of subject matter and all stories are given a chance on the front page. Most other sites just list them as they get them. The only way to get high numbers is to get high ratings right away and get on the Top listing.

[Lord Douche]

Worse, they rejected all the stories I got to post here, saying something about them being "tasteless, worthless drivel"...

That's a bit harsh of them! Unless they actually were tasteless, worthless drivel...
LD

[Carmenica Diaz]

I posted a few stories on Literotica but have decided not to update them for various reasons It's rather amusing as one of my stories is number one on the transgender top list.

[rob.wilson]

All the pieces of advice so far are worthy and make some interesting and valid points about the art of writing.

I know I tend to start off with the broadest of outlines and then the charaters tend to tell the story from there. Sometimes they surprise even me, which is interesting because I think charater development (along with grammer, spelling and words in general) tends to be my weakest area as a writer.

Find what works best for you.

[counterparts199]

What I've noticed is that about 80% of story writers don't have a plot. When they don't have a plot, they also forget to create characters that matter. This leads to quick, graphic exposures of events that are so anti-personal that you can really give a rats ass about reading it. Amazingly, this being the only thing the person is capable of, these particular stories are also unimaginative in the midst of their pure mindless gratuity (not that I'm begrudging gratuity).

I'm left thinking, gee guys, I could have written a shopping list of THINGS and skipped the disguise of a story, omitting say ... ... ten or so words.

Do you need an outline? NO. I often just write with an idea for the characters and a bit of a notion of how I want the character moved through the story to some vague ending. Then I let the magic work as I see my people interact. Others create outlines from the start, a very valid approach. But, when done, the reader shouldn't be asking, "Did that writer even have an outline?" That's a fatal review.

So, having said that, here are some rules :

1) Every story has to have characters that the reader can relate to. Win or lose, we have to care about what happens to them in order to care about the story. This takes a tiny bit of work.
2) If I've read exactly it a billion times before, why write it again? Can't we have one little biddy twist, for crying out loud?!?
3) Any story that doesn't have a plot is not a story, by definition.
4) Make dialogue that both counts and is believable. "Oh, I'm being skewered with a stake! This makes me so horny!" Right.
5) The best horror has the lowest body count. Consider. This might mean that it has more to do with how you go about saying it than how many knifes in the back one accumulates. One is a story - the other is a cartoon.