Long time lurker, finally decided to show myself

[Faellin]

I've been lurking these boards for quite some time now, about 6 years now. And I finally decided to join in the conversation and such.

The things i've usually done are simply reading interactives in my spare time, and I always wanted to contribute to some I really liked. But i've always been a bit nervous since i've never done any kind of actual writing before. So if anyone is willing to give me a few pointers, i'd be more then willing to accept them.

[Assimilation]

Okay, here's my tips and tricks.

1. Read the first post on the stickied thread in this very forum. I'm not being sassy here, it's stickied because it's generally good advice to follow for getting into writing an interactive. However, I disagree with some of the content and some of the tone, and I instead encourage you to hear out our differing voices and decide on the approach you take for yourself.
   
   
2. Just take the plunge and write a chapter if you are 1) inspired and 2) have time to actually write it. If you're poised to write something and second-guess yourself, remember this: just jump in. Life will ultimately recover from an interactive vore fiction chapter that turned out to have mistakes or doesn't end up communicating what you had in your head.
   
   
3. Almost all of us hate the first chapters we've ever written. I'm most embarrassed when I look at a handful of particular chapters of the several dozen I've written over the years, for which I was sort-of thankful when it was deleted from writing.com and embarrassed again when it was reuploaded on Eka's. There's a thousand cliches for this. My favorite one I've heard comes from the game development sphere: "The first 10 games you make are going to suck, so hurry up and get them out of the way." It applies to chapters here too.
   
   
4. Don't try to make it good, but instead try to make it good. How's that for another trite cliche? Basically what I'm trying to say is, if you're the kind of person who struggles to hit "submit" because you're not sure it's good enough, don't use "good" as a metric at all. Instead, ask yourself if your contribution shows you put in effort to make it good. As an example, there's a difference between someone with lazy spelling and someone with poor spelling—someone with lazy spelling has lots of nonsensical typos or incorrect spellings that were "sounded-out", while someone with poor spelling has as many mistakes, but it's because the words are the wrong form ("you're" instead of "your"), or you accidentally a word from a sentence, or your punctuation isn't exactly correct (i.e. things that a spellchecker might not catch). Other authors will usually be sympathetic that you made an effort despite your skill or experience; but no one likes a lazy co-contributor.
   
   
5. Dust off a thread line that no one has contributed to in quite some time and try your hand there at first. When people contribute to the same interactive multiple times over a short duration, they're usually extending a line or a few lines that they personally are getting inspired about. Do not think you're not supposed to also contribute there if you're similarly inspired to contribute there, but if you're afraid of stepping on toes with your first chapters, then the easy solution for you is to test first in a discreet location.
   
   
6. Despite my earlier example about spelling, spelling and grammar don't really matter at the end of the day. Some of the best stories I've read were pretty bad in terms of spelling or grammar. However, stories are good when the storytelling is engaging and immersive, not when all the letters are in the right order. Do the characters act believably? Are the emotions felt by the characters relatable to the reader? Is the sequence of events easy enough to follow? Do the situations in the story develop at an appropriate pace? Etc. Spelling and grammar are only important because they alter the amount of time a reader needs to put in, in order to comprehend what you've written. When you have walls of text without formatting for space and focus, people are less inclined to keep reading. When you have to decipher the intended meaning of a misspelled word, people are less inclined to keep reading. When words you not order have in, it might be hard to make sense of it, and people are less inclined to keep reading. But that doesn't mean the storytelling is bad.
   
   
7. Try to evolve your characters and settings over the chapters. People learn lessons from their experiences and make an impact on their world. Make your characters people. I personally love the powerful psychopathic predator threads, but it's easy for them to be a series of samey events with different set dressings. "She just ate the secretary and security guard! Now she took a dump. She just ate everyone in her first period class! Now she took another dump. She just ate everyone in the school gym! Now she just took a dump. The school principal called her to her office! She just ate the principal! What who could have guessed oh my god" Even if your character is a psychopath, you should find ways to introduce conflicts and show how their experiences are changing their approach towards these conflicts.
   
   
8. Last one for now: don't end the chapter on binary outcomes. I am 100% guilty of doing this myself on numerous occasions, and I wish I could delete those ones too without wrecking the chapters added on afterwards. The stickied post that I linked earlier also talks about how choices shouldn't be limited to "Sally eats Jimmy" vs "Jimmy eats Sally", but I want to also point out that your chapter itself shouldn't really lead into that situation in the first place. There's always an option 3 that you haven't thought about, which other potential contributors might want to write. "Sally attempts to eat Jimmy" and "Sally chooses not to... for now" means that option 1 is free for any possibility of Sally successfully or unsuccessfully attempting to get the darn vore done, while option 2 is free for any development that doesn't include Sally acting as a predator towards Jimmy.

Okay. I think I've hit enough points for now. I hope this was more encouraging than discouraging, and that you decide to follow through and write something!

[IvesBentonEaton]

Well, first of all, write. Two paragraphs isn't enough to evaluate your work, except to note the lack of capitalization in contractions starting with "I". Write about sometime you like; you'll lose interest quickly otherwise. When you have something you'd like to share, post it on "Work to be Shared!" in the forums here and see if anyone bites.

It's not much, but it's a start.

[TETRO]

Here's a few things that come to mind for me. This is general stuff without having seen your work:

>>>RP is writing too. One the things that gave me some good practice writing early on was role playing with Private Messages. Unlike instant messaging, they encourage longer posts and more time for setting the scene and developing characters. Plus, you get a sense for what works and what doesn't based on how your partner is reacting. It's not a necessity, but it helped me personally.

>>>Make sure you know some basic grammar. I'm no grammar expert or grammar Nazi myself, but without a basic understanding of things like capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphs, your work might get confusing to read. It's not like your 5th grade teacher is going to be marking your paper or anything, but if your grammar gets in the way of your audience understanding you, you might have to work on it a little. The key is isn't perfection, but readability, and the best way to achieve that is to try to aim towards the existing standards.

>>>Accept the fact that you'll suck, at least at first. It doesn't matter who you are, I guarantee you your early stuff is probably going to be pretty bad when you look back at it later. Just try to have fun, and don't worry about it. Start with something that flows easily. Sometimes you'll just get an idea to write something that sort of writes itself. Follow some of those threads and see where they go.

>>>Be original but don't force it. A fan fiction here or there can be fun, but try to create some OCs. Even if you use an existing setting, you want to try your hand at creating some of your own characters. Eventually you'll find that you're writing about people that your audience actually cares about, and not just someone sexy from a video game or anime. At the same time, don't be afraid to use a common troupe or cliche now and then. Sometimes you have to start be practicing on making something unoriginal before you're able to go out and try something unusual.

>>>Write what you enjoy, story-wise, (but also in a sexual way). Let's be honest here, if you're writing on this site, you're probably writing erotic fiction. Most things here are made to touch on people's kinks and sexually arouse them. You understand your own kinks, even if you haven't articulated what you like about them yet. Explore your sexual fantasies and take your time to describe all the details that really get you going. Don't worry about pleasing a wide crowd, just right about what turns you on, and other people with similar preferences will be able to relate. Also, everyone has a desired balance between story and titillation. Some want to really take their time to get to know the characters, and some just want to go right in for the kill. Experiment and find what your balance is.