JetKL

Personally I greatly dislike those stories with a propensity to have less than 1000 words in a chapter. Mine are usually 2500 words or more, with rare exception. I find less than that, and chapters become a hassle to read, there is little or no point to defining a chapter from simply a few paragraphs, and ultimately I stop reading rather quickly. Occassionally I'll enjoy a short one shot or something of that nature. As a general rule I find that those fictions with tiny chapters tend to be childlike and redunat. The less words you use the more precise your language and description need be. Every word counts, something quite a few writers forget when posting short chapters with an 'I'm sorry this is all i have ad I haven't posted in forever' comment. If your going to post 140 words... why bother at all unless there is really a lot of meat there.

In my experience as long as you know enough about your own writing process, its easy to set and meet deadlines. The worst thing you can do as a writer is set yourself up for failure. Examine how you wite, what works as motivation and what doesn't. Sometimes battling writers block for me is as simple as switching between typing on the computer and handwriting chapters. You're brain thinks differently. Some stories I can outline extensively and stick to that, some I end up changing things up entirely. It's important that you continue to explore and analyze your process. A day and a half might be an exaggeration for a lot of people, it would depend on your writing deadlines. Sometimes I can manage a few days off without issue sometimes i can bang out some chapters quciker than expected and I can afford to take a month to myself to focus on my primary career or deal with problems that come up. It's all about taking a good look at what you need to do and scheduling yourself appropriately. Like most businesses, writing is time management. Unfortunately this is a real time business. Meaning that there will be hard deadlines that can't be missed if you work in certain portions of the writing world, such as journalism. If you are a contracted writer you may have deadlines set up in your contract which means that when you sign anything or submit a book for publication you need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. If deadlines aren't your thing,don't submit work that isn't in its first full draft. If deadlines help maybe submitting a few prospective chapters is just the thing to motivate you to finish them. Don't be afraid to push yourself, but don't set yourself up to drown in work either. Moderation and honest self examination is your best friend.

I agree some authors never go back and reread anything... couch cough (the plethora of badly written and unedited Nanowrimo stories). I think that so much of the issue lays with OOC moments. If the style and mood of the chapter is one way than a signifigant change in vocabulary or flow needs to be poinent. The things people say during sex is usually the biggest issue that I have. One man might say 'suck my cock' another 'blow me' another might just shove his dick in his partner's mouth. People are comfortable with certain phrase or words and its those variations and that specificity that really makes a sex scene great.

Daunting that you'll miss writing or daunting that a day and a half is too long a hiatus? I've taken some hiatuses... I've been writing forever. Submitted my first novel to publishers when I was sixteen.... oh god I have to laugh at how bad it was now that I know better. Now I'm running a weekly update site. I add extra chapters for donations and readers have been keeping me busy recently. I've posted four chapters in four days, lol. Work is work, even if you love it. Some writers write moreother work less. How much you work depends on what you want out of your writing career.

If you want a hiatus from writing i usually find it best to build up a stock of chapters and post them regularly. That way you can continue to post and receive feedback but there is no pressure to write and no need to until you run out of stock. If you need a mental break, take one; but sometimes it's best to push through a frustrating plot point or few chapters rather than toss your hands up. Too long is the moment you realize you miss writing. Than it's been too long. Not a moment before that, unless you're making a livng writing. Then too long is a day and a half, lol.

Pel, Just be honest about what you write. I doubt anyone in the class is going to turn toyou and scream "burn in hell you perv". When it finally came out amongst my friends and even some of my professor's that I write erotica to pay tuition there were more than a few turned heads. Most people just think its cool or funny. It started a 'holiday porn' mailing list for me when some people wanted to read what i wrote. I write some hardcore stuff. I'm talking bondage, S&m, threesome, male/male, f/m/m, f/f, f/f/m, even non-con, lots of 'kinky' shit. In my experience, most people never ask for the details and when they do they don't say anything against it. Just say you write erotic fiction and everything will be fine. Most people know and except that erotic fiction and porn exist. There may always be that first awkward feeling when you say that you write erotica for a living but really no one is that awkward about it. Getting perspective from people who may not know the ins and outs of AFF standards and general practices will be a really great learning experience. Plus watching people blush is fun. Female or not, what you write isn't strange. For everything you've ever written there will always be something more extreme or more hardcore or more profane. Just a fact of life. Jet

I know that I have a problem with over-emotivesness in general. One person might say "fuck you" and another would say "fuck off" and the third would say "shove it". It's called character. Different people would say different things even if they all were put in the same situation. The issue I have with many of these sickeningly sweet scenes is the lack of realism. One minute a sexy man is leanng up against the bar and sneering a smexy grin at his possible catch for the night. The bait is set, the chaming man seduces his catch and they hed off to a corner or to someone's flat. One minute, that same smexy bar-leaning man, who can't express a single honest emotion prior to sex, is climbing into bed for a nice healthy helping of fucking. The next minute that same man is professing unending amounts of soft sweet poetry and love bunnies. Just doesn't cut it in my book. Now this doesn't happen necessarily at such a grand scale as my scene written above, but one fuck doesn't make an emotionally shut off person fall in love without damn good reason. People also don't go about spouting everything the feel. True deep emotions, people tend to keep to themselves until they can't any longer and somehow let them slip. I'm all for a cute and fluffy moment of honesty but there is something one of my writing professors told me. Everything you say in a conversation has to be earned. One person tells a story, the other persons natural impulse will be to tell a similar story of their own. It's a barter system. Person a: Here is a mildly personal story. Person b: I get that. I here is a mildly personal story Person a: oh you get it. now i'm going to up the pot. here is a more personal story Its a series of gives and takes. One partner has to d something to warrant that comment or that professed love not just spread their legs. Crass, I know, but you get my point. Not all stories are this bad. I just exaggerate for demonstration. A big flaw in character believability is the difference between me reading the next chapter of the posted fic and just passing it by the next time the author posts.

SummerRayne, My goodness. Everyone wants you don't they. I hope that I'm not too late to throw my hat into the ring. My name is Jet. I'm currently writing several original fictions at once. They update in rotation weekly with updates consisting of 2,500 words or more typically. Of the five stories in rotation I'm still looking for beta's for four of them. I realize that it's just too much work for one beta to do. I do a lot of my own editing which suffices for the most part; however, I always adore a second pair of eyes. I typically submit my work to a beta in the form of a word document and ask that they use the track changes feature. This allows us to exchange the file back and forth knowing who changed what and when. I’m looking for someone with a strong grasp of grammar and the ability to catch some of my awkward phrasing and kick its ass. I do not expect immediate turn around and I can submit updates to you a week in advance if you like. This time frame is negotiable considering that I mostly run updates from stock keeping two or three chapters ahead of what I post. I will fully credit you in the disclaimer at the heading of each chapter both on NoirRomance.com, AFF.net, and any other place they may end up. All of my fiction seeking Beta’s are Yaoi and available in all their unedited glory on NoirRomance.com and AFF.net. Feel free to check them out. Beats- When the village is suddenly without a healer, they may be doomed. After trading the Amba for a new one, no one was expecting it to be a young boy. Ero certainly wasn't. Posession- Connor paid the ultimate price for defending hat he believed in; he paid with his freedom. Now purchased by his thirteenth owner in a year, he may finally have to concede that this master is his last. Meanwhile, Selix, who has never known a life outside of his role as a pet, meets his second Master: a Master who has no great love for ownership. Light It Up- Sylis has trained all of his life to find his bondmate. Eric turns out to be a little different than expected. Bonded by strong magic and forced to stand up against even their allies, these two boys struggle to find the truth behind their connection. Debt and Ownership- Jake has always been forced to pay for his father's problems so he never thought that once he left home he would ever deal with them again. Turns out he once again has to pay off his father's debts. Feel free to examine them in more detail and get back to me if and whenever you like. I would love to hear from you. You can PM me hear or contact me at Jet@noirromance.com. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. -Jet

Nikkular, I'm Jet. I'm currently writing 5 stories. One to three story updates a week so its a lot of work but since i'm currently without a beta you have your pick of my stories to work on. If you can do one, fantastic; however, if you want to take on more than that, I'm forever in your debt. Mainly I need grammar checks and some basic feedback. A few hard kicks in the head or harsh critism never hurts. If you can beta please contact me at Jet@noirromance.com or via PM. My body of work mainly encompasses humans though occasionally my characters have been shifters of sorts. My range extends from historical to fantasy to mob themes. While I do have experience with non-con themes and some edgy bdsm, I'm not writing hopeless drivel for the mentally fucked up. My stories have a point and are meant to really explore characters as people not 2D badly thought out cliches. Nothing's wrong with a little fluff now and then to cheer yourself up but that's not my goal. Many of my works feature Male/Male relationships, polygamous relations, bdsm or just plain kinky sex. Feel free to check out my work on AFF.Net or on NoirRomance.com. The stories that I'd like you to look into beta-ing are To Rule or Lovely Thorns, both are Het based fiction though in both there is some level of polygamy or m/m interaction. I understand that you may be uncomfortable irrigardless of there heterosexual basis. If you'd like to check them out or feel comfortable taking one of them on that would be great. -Jet

1. I understand what you're saying about the progression of male characteristics with age. I think that's what you're hinting to when you tlk about writing 13 year old doe eyed boys. I agress that to a certain level gender rolls and associations play a large part in how we view male characteristics. There are many types of men in the world. I do find that the general style of writing generally doesn't progress beyond young doe-eyed thing being taken care of by more experienced 'manly' men. Do you find this is the case in your writing? 2. I really really hate the whole straight guy becomes gay thing in stories. For the most part i find the methogs of canging sexuality of be annoying, inane and unbelievable. I have a huge problem with Rape being one of those motivating factors. That's why I brought it up, I was hopeing someone might play devils advocate and explain to me the train of thought for this type of writing. As a rule I generally don't read fan ficiton. There a are a great majority of original fiction writers both in the published and non published world that use this method on occasion. 3. I've seen lot of work with a 'straight guy' that becom a 'gay guy'. Once again I'm particularly interested in understanding the varying theories and methodologies of this particular style of writing. I have one mabe two fictions in which a 'straight' man enters in a 'gay relationship' though I don't remember consiously ever really thinking about them as gay or straight I tend t approach it was I would the building of any relationshi in a story. 4. Building the tension or awkward in a story is an art. While anti-intuitive as a person (one tends to try and make peoples lives easier in real life) I agree with you completely that the greatest of writers put their characters through any numbers of obstacles and then immediately put on their character hat and solve the problem from that point of view.

Hey all, I've found that working on more than one story at a time is definitely the way to go. I like to work in rotation, updating one story a week. This gives me plenty of room to writing and complete the stories I'm passionate about but the freedom to avoid the dreaded writers block. It's the best way that I've gound to keep the writing potent and free of redundency. There is a tendency in long writing for the chapters to blur together. The content seems to become more monotonous and less poinent and the characters just blend together at the edges. Even as a writer you can get so caught up in what's going on at the moment that you forget about the speedbump two chapters down the road. I find that writing outlines in advance helps prevent that but ultimately if you're switching stories between chapter updates you're more likely to take a step back and see the big picture more clearly. Like all writing its easy to get sidetracked and never actually finish writing it. I don't think that creating more stories helps that problem, but if you're that easily distracted, maybe there is something going wrong in the story itself, and that's why you find you're mind wondering. Happens to all writers. (Raises hand) Just have to keep working it until your excited about the work again. I always keep the full chapters of a story open when I write. You have to go back and read for the details because random characteristic inconsistencies and name swaps will piss readers off. I keep a cheat sheet. Name connection and physical features off to one side so that I can quickly reference, okay he has blonde hair or blue eyes not black hair like i wanted to write. Also helps create more well rounded characters and better discriptions even of side characters, suddenly when Jake sees Cindy's brown eyes he's reminded of Kelly's eyes and how they were more gentle and soft. That sort of the thing. Jet

Hey All, I just wanted to consult with some oher authors about Yaoi standards in Original fiction and even in fanfiction. 1. There is a tendency in a lot of fiction for the uke to suddenly become a woman with a penis. (Example: over exaggerating of slenderness, long lashes etc.) a) How do you combat this in your writing? How do you deal with it in other people's writing? 2. The use of rape as a way to get a straight man to become gay. a)what the hell is with the overuse and quick brush over with rape? It's a tramatic experience not a segway to gay sex. b)what are your ways of easing 'non-gay' characters into homoerotic situations? c)what do you think are some of the biggest problems with these scenarios?

Hey all, I've done the NaNoWriMo thing sometimes its just the motivation need just to get some words on the paper, or screen in some cases. Has anyone else noticed the trend of NaNoWriMo stories becoming excuses for poor writing or lack of thought or even worse no sense of editing what so ever! I'm not bashing the practice of aiming for a word count goal. I think a lot of great writing has come of it and its a great way to combat writers block. However, I think that if you're going to do it for a second or third year maybe you should consider upping the anti... not just in word count but in quality. Write your daily count, get the juices flowing, and then go back and tear it up to find the good bits. I know that even my edited stories have bits of crap still laying around (worshipping the beta god) so I can't even imagine why some writers use NaNoWriMo as an excuse to post unedited or unfiltered work. I agree with cute-kid9 when he/she says just to get in on paper first and then worry about editing it later, but I don't think that leaving it that way until december is a fantastic idea either. Pel, I totally understand what you're saying about Dialogue occasionally being awkward. The best thing I've found to fix that and read it out loud. Sometime when you hear it out loud you find so much of the crap that you missed, and you get a real feeling for a natural conversation. Also, this may be kind of creepy but just listen to conversations you have with different people in your life. Imagine talking to your friends or a stranger. Consider the difference between how you behave and talk at a job interview versus your best friend since preschool when you talk about your crush , versus your parent when you know you're in trouble. It'll help give you a feel for interaction. Just keep working it. All writing sucks at the begining. Think about how badly you wrote in the second grade "I like my dog Bob. He poops on the carpet. Mom gets mad". Really bad but back than it was brilliant. Everything comes with time and practice. Well those are my thoughts. -Jet

Star- I'm Jet. I'm currently writing 5 stories. One to three story updates a week so its a lot of work but since i'm currently without a beta you have your pick of my stories to work on. If you can do one, fantastic; however, if you want to take on more than that, I'm forever in your debt. Mainly I need grammar checks and some basic feedback. A few hard kicks in the head or harsh critism never hurts. I love the way you think about a Beta and an Author being a team. I definitely agree and would love to team up with you to create fun and amazing work. If you can beta please contact me at Jet@noirromance.com or via PM. My body of work mainly encompasses humans though occasionally my characters have been shifters of sorts. My range extends from historical to fantasy to mob themes. While I do have experience with non-con themes and some edgy bdsm, I'm not writing hopeless drivel for the mentally fucked up. My stories have a point and are meant to really explore characters as people not 2D badly thought out cliches. Nothing's wrong with a little fluff now and then to cheer yourself up but that's not my goal. Many of my works feature Male/Male relationships, polygamous relations, bdsm or just plain kinky sex. Feel free to check out my work on AFF.Net or on NoirRomance.com. Thank you for your time. Jet

Hi All, I'm Jet. I'm currently writing over 6 stories. One story updates every week, which means these stories work in a rotation schedule. Its a lot of work but since i'm currently without a beta you have your pick of my stories to work on. If you can do one, fantastic; however, if you want to take on more than that, I'm forever in your debt. Mainly I need grammar checks and some basic feedback. A few hard kicks in the head or harsh critism never hurts. If you can beta please contact me at Jet@noirromance.com or via PM. My body of work mainly encompasses humans though occasionally my characters have been shifters of sorts. My range extends from historical to fantasy to mob themes. While I do have experience with non-con themes and some edgy bdsm, I'm not writing hopeless drivel for the mentally fucked up. My stories have a point and are meant to really explore characters as people not 2D badly thought out cliches. Nothing's wrong with a little fluff now and then to cheer yourself up but that's not my goal. Many of my works feature Male/Male relationships, polygamous relations, bdsm or just plain kinky sex. Feel free to check out my work on AFF.Net or on NoirRomance.com. Thank you for your time. Jet