The Pairing Guy

Yeah, I generally agree with you. Such a plot point is almost contrived by definition, and unless the character is completely confident about his* sexuality(meaning that he's had sex with people other than his love, is basically comfortable with what he's being asked to do, and won't let it affect his emotions), it is degrading to them. Just thought I should throw the idea out there, though, because many writers don't seem to mind doing it. *in your case, her

Less than 25, actually... This is probably the first time I've ever been called mature. I once got a bunch of condoms just so my friends would think I was having sex(which I was, but I sure wasn't using condoms). Of course I've since moved on to the point where I don't give a fig if my friends think I'm getting any or not, but... My brother is actually saving his virginity until he's married, which is a little too mature for me.

But your past self isn't really the same as your present self, either.

Timeturner? Why get so complicated, when you can just use cloning?

Well, to directly answer the topic's question, I have to say that I'd refuse. I just don't understand why people get so excited about threesomes. If it's a M/M/F setup, well, I find it very weird to have another guy in the room while you're having sex, even more so if he's actually participating. If it's a M/F/F setup, then I'd feel greedy, and of course I have to do twice the work(I'm not worried about my reputation, but for whatever reason I really feel I have to make it enjoyable for whomever I've having sex with). Plus, I really don't think I want to be with any woman who would be willing to share me with another woman. That's not even bringing up the whole mixed-up situation with emotions, or the protection issue. StSe's comments really should be reemphasized, because the situation there can get really messy. I met a guy once who did a threesome. He said he was sure he was being careful, but he still got one of the ladies pregnant. Maybe he was just a stupid klutz, but from what I understand, it is harder to make sure you're using your protection properly in that situation. Anyway... if you're interested in a threesome, I would think it wouldn't matter much what the two girls look like. Of course, I'm of the opinion that 90% of all women between 18 and 40 are attractive, so perhaps you should take that with a grain of salt. I think the most important thing is that your friend gets you someone who isn't interested in being strangled(**shudder** yeah, I wouldn't want to do that either). Best of luck.

This challenge was inspired by the GS classic "Sins of the Flesh"(also known as "Sibling Love") by Moridin. For those who haven't read it, the story is about Felix and Jenna being in love. Deciding they don't care about their love being wrong, they begin fornicating. After a night and a morning of making love, however, they become worried about what other people will think if they have a baby and decide to give up their incestuous relationship. The challenge, in a nutshell: Write a sequel to "Sins of the Flesh" in which Felix and Jenna do have a baby, and how they deal with it. There are two possible ways this could happen. Felix inseminated Jenna twice in "Sins of the Flesh", so she could have gotten pregnant then. Or Felix and Jenna realized they couldn't resist each other forever and resumed their incestuous relationship. I have a slight preference for the second possibility, but either way the writer wants to do it is great with me. Now, general challenges don't seem to generate much interest, so to satisfy this challenge, you must take one of the two choices below. (Or if you want, you can follow both paths in one long fic.) Path A - Show how everyone reacts to Jenna's pregnancy: Felix and Jenna themselves, their friends, and their neighbors. Incest is highly taboo, especially in pre-industrial societies like Weyard where family was considered very important, so this should not be a story about everyone saying "Oh well, incest, we can learn to accept that!" Even their friends should at the absolute least be disturbed by the revelation and disappointed in Felix and Jenna, if not outright hostile. How do Felix and Jenna deal with this? Do they give the baby up to a normal couple? Move away to a new village and not tell their new neighbors that they're siblings? Or do they break up for good? If they do, which of them will take care of the baby? Path B - Fast forward to when Felix and Jenna's baby is grown up, five years old or older. What is he like? Children produced by incest are likely to have health problems, mental retardation, etc., and if his peers know how he was conceived, he'll be ostracized. How does he deal with this, and knowing that his parents are brother and sister? Or do they keep it secret by not raising him together? Sex is optional(I think two siblings having a baby is enough to qualify the fic as adult fiction), but if you want to put some in, I have a few suggestions I can offer.

Alright, I've got a major bone to pick with all of you who say you "only" delete flames. In my experience, for most writers who say this, "flames" should be translated as "anything with even the tiniest bit of criticism". The review madlodger quoted, for instance, isn't even remotely a flame, not even a "soft core" one. I have a friend who reviews on Fanfiction.net. He placed reviews for three stories by the same author. I've seen these reviews, and they all basically said he liked the person's writing but that the particular story wasn't good, clearly explained why the story wasn't good and how she could do better in the future, and gave some praise for the writing. The writer responded by PMing him saying "Stop flaming my stories", and banned him from reviewing her works. I know what you're going to say: "But I'm not like that! I only delete real flames!" Uh huh. Sure. If they're real flames, why delete them? Are you afraid some reader is going to look at your reviews and say, "Wow, there are three reviews here giving highly detailed explanations of why this story is so great, but this one guy left a note saying "This story sucks balls and you should die for writing it it sucks balls so bad", so the story must be awful!" Be honest with yourself. If the review really was a flame, leaving it there would just embarrass the flamer. The only reason you would delete those reviews is because they are honest criticisms that people who saw them might take seriously.

This pretty much sums it up. I'll add that in most cases, even having read other fiction dealing with what you're writing about is enough. Not fan fiction, of course, since a lot of unpublished writers have no idea what they're writing about. Some people who write about sex don't even know what the body parts of the opposite gender are like. But reading published novels and literary magazines can really give you good background for what you want to write.

Well, you could write a story with different characters, which is probably what your readers are looking for. Failing that... well, it's hard to give suggestions without knowing what type of story you're writing. But here's a few: 1.Are you going to have villains in this story? Putting the villains in a romantic relationship with each other is a good way to give them more depth. Look at how many action movies give a romantic interest for the main villain. Take "Live Free or Die Hard" for instance. A lot of the tension between the hero and the villain comes from the hero killing off the villain's hot Asian face-kicking assassin. 2.Add a male with an unrequited love interest for one of your main characters, and later fix him up with a different woman. Okay, that sort of thing is usually cornball, but it is possible to make something like that work. 3.If one of your main characters has to pass a series of trials for some reason, have one of the trials be(or involve) intercourse with a man. You have to be careful this doesn't feel contrived, but most AFF.net readers seem happy to see stories where characters have to have sex for some practical reason.

Wait... this is for 2008 stories only, right?

Never mind - I found the pics. And the challenge has been met! I've posted the first chapter of the story. Chapter 2 should go up in a few days. It's a shame that no one seems to be taking up the Cecil/Rosa grindage challenge... If no one else takes it, I might go for that one after I get around to playing FFIV again. Don't know when that'll be though, since I got a bunch of new games for Christmas... I really hope that someone else takes that one on, I want to read it.

Indeed, an excellent guide, and I like Harley Quinn's additions, too. My only disagreement is about the Beta. Some people need them, some people don't. I have a friend who has never used a Beta reader, and in all of his published fics I've seen not even one misspelling, grammar error, or poor phrasing. Not even one. If he had ever used a Beta reader, he would have just been wasting that person's valuable time.

There are no vocabulary turn-ons. A good story is made up of strong sentences and smooth flow, not individual words.

No, it's not. Look right on the box... yeah, right on the front cover, the first thing you should have seen when you picked it up off the store shelf. It's rated "T". animefreakandgeek - Yeah, that's very true. Crossover fics just aren't worth the amount of work you have to put into writing them.

Shoot, I was about to do just that. Well, since I've already written it, I'll put mine below here anyway. Yours is very good though, except that #1 leaves some loopholes in both directions(I've got a refined version of that same question for #1 in my litmus test), and I don't understand what #4 has to do with Mary Sues. Makes me feel that I mostly wasted my time making my own. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with Mary Sue litmus test, some writers really do need something to make them stop and realize that the characters they're creating are just obnoxious and annoying to readers. The problem with the litmus test quoted in the first post is that whoever wrote it plainly doesn't have any idea what a Mary Sue is! What you have there is a Self Insertion litmus test. A Self Insertion is completely unrelated to a Mary Sue, and it boggles my mind that some people manage to get them so mixed up. Anyway. 1.Are there any likable characters in your story who are not fond of your OC? If no, add a "+". 2.Is there any character in your story who would most likely win in a fight with your OC? If no, add a "+". 3a.Does a character from your fandom fall irresistibly in love with your OC? If yes, add a "+" and go to 3b. If no, move on to 4. b.Does he later become disillusioned with your character and break up with him? If yes, erase that "+" you just put down and go to 3c. If no, move on to 4. c.Does another character start a relationship with your OC after his break up? If yes, put that "+" back up and go to 3d. If no, move on to 4. d.Does the character start a relationship with your OC out of pity? If yes, erase that "+" you just put up. 4.Does your character get invited to a menage a trois with two fandom characters of the opposite sex? If yes, add two "+"s. If your OC originated the idea and the fandom characters said yes, add one "+". (Same rules apply to moresomes.) 5.Is your character wiser and more experienced than any of the other good guys in the story? If so, add a "+". 6.Do the other characters in your story say things to your OC solely as a setup for a witty or impressive response from your OC? Here are some examples: "Any last words?" OC asked. "What is your name?" - (That's a real life example, believe it or not!) This is this guy's final breaths of sweet life... and he's spending them on learning what your OC's fricking name is? Why would he even care what his name is? "Boy, it's cold," Fandom Character said. OC nodded. "As cold as death." - If the two characters have been waiting for hours in snow and ice, this is a reasonable bit of dialogue. But otherwise, why should Fandom Character make such an inane comment? "You'll rue the day you interfered with my plans!" Fandom Character roared. "Only because that involved seeing you naked!" OC smirked. "I mean, yecch!" - In the fandom, is Fandom Character a raving idiot? If no, why would he make such a pointless threat? 7.Does your character ever do anything that you think he shouldn't do? If no, add a "+". Zero "+"s - Rest easy, no Mary Sue here. One "+" - You may have a Mary Sue. Probably not, but it's worth reviewing the character. Two or three "+"s - At the least, your character has strong Mary Sue tendencies that should be fixed. Four or more "+"s - Full blown Mary Sue. Throw out that character and get a new one.

Vincent's lover(can't remember her name now) was about the same age as Tseng, so I think that one is without possibility. You can't become pregnant at 6 months old. I think ZombieDuke was confusing Tseng with Sephiroth.

Personally I feel it's perfectly acceptable to end things that way. The last thing we writers should be doing is forcing our characters to have passionate sex. It's a lot more believable when the characters' conflict with each other is allowed to interfere with their having a second round, and it doesn't even make the story any less hot. Plus it gives you plenty of room for a sequel!

They have their own category now under "Games", just like Zelda.

Yeah, that's probably true. I was just griping, basically, though I do think the FF IV section has probably lost a couple potential fics because some folks won't write Rosa because "Rydia is hotter", but can never come up with anything for Rydia because her lemon potential isn't as high. But yeah, the domination of VII is unfortunate... great game, of course, but the characters just don't make very good smut in my opinion. I recall reading a pretty good Cid/Shera lemon a while ago, but that's it. I don't mind that there's so much out there for VII, but it's sad that IV gets kind of gypped in the bargain.

But it's never as painful as the real thing, either. Some folks would never go for BDSM in real life, so for them, it can be interesting to read about it. If they would just... **sniff** give it a chance... Neither, actually... My fascination is with pairing off a man with a woman. You may consider me a modern-day Noah, leading them into the ark two-by-two, and after a 40-day pleasure cruise, leading them onto dry land so that they and their new progeny may go forth and populate the land, never forgetting to take an occasional roll in the hay. A pair of boobs certainly ain't half-bad either, though. (thumbs up) (stands stock still, hoping that Sephiroth will go past him and keep walking)

Well, The Pairing Guy has now entered the building... Does that help? And I don't know about the Battle game suggestion. Personally, my eyebrow doesn't even quiver in interest. Then again, maybe that's because all my interest is devoted to pairings. Jaxxy, I hear ya about the BDSM hate on AFF.net. I tagged my latest story for S&M(no bondage), and it picked up less than a third the hits of my non-S&M fic. Even plugging it in the "Promote Your Story" forum hasn't helped. I'm not a BDSM fan myself, but it's sad that so many people won't even try a story if it has any S&M at all. happy pairings, The Pairing Guy

Yeah, that part of her really stands out for me, too. I guess I didn't mean that her personality doesn't stick in my head, she is a memorable character after all. It's her mannerisms, the way she talks and stuff. I think if I wrote a story with her I'd get a bunch of reviews saying "WTF Rosa doesn't talk like that at all!" The funny thing is, I've seen more lemon with Rosa than Rydia. Thing about Rydia is, while she's slightly hotter than Rosa, there's no one good to pair her with. Edge is the obvious choice, but he's kind of a loser, and not too good-looking either. Pairing her with any other major character either smacks of pedophilia(like with Kain, since he met her as a little girl) or is just not appealing. Even though the main interest for me in a lemon is the woman, she's got to be paired with a guy who's attractive enough for her or I just won't like it. If we rate a person's sexiness from 1 to 10, I'd rather see a pairing between a 6 and a 6 than a 10 and a 3. You could pair Rydia with an OC, but that just doesn't work as well. I'm not saying you can't have good lemon with Rydia, but her lemon potential is nowhere near as high as her attractiveness. Rosa though can be naturally paired with Cecil, who ranks pretty high on the attractiveness meter. So everyone says Rydia is hotter, but you don't see much fanfic with her. FF4 would probably have a lot more fanfic if everyone would just admit that Cecil/Rosa is much hotter than Rydia standing by herself.

Well, I think she did a decent job of picking some really messed up ones, though I've definitely seen worse. What kills me is the plausibility rating. Doesn't she know plausibility in erotic fiction is kind of an optional thing? And the same goes for plausibility in fan fiction? When you put the two together in erotic fan fiction, plausibility is really optional. Most erotic fanfic writers don't even bother with it. Now personally I strongly believe that fan fiction should be believable or at least plausible, and there are other erotic fanfic writers who feel that way. But to think that the overwhelming majority write that way? That really is hilarious. And just because a story is totally implausible doesn't mean it's not good. I enjoy some stories like that, sometimes for the comic value, sometimes because they're still kind of hot. I mean, not plausible doesn't always mean totally messed up, in fact some plausible fics are really messed up too.

Um... None of the links to the stories work... and neither does the link to Haywire Hakaze's author page... and according to his profile, he hasn't been on this forum since July... Perhaps someone else should start this up? This is a good idea and I hate to see it die just because the original poster suddenly yanked all his stories off the site.

I wasn't originally planning to use this forum to promote my stories, especially after my first story got so much attention. But my second story is getting much less - not even a third as many hits, only one review, and not even one rating! - even though it's definitely a better story than my first. It's probably because of the S&M, but honestly guys and gals, it isn't that bad. First of all, the sex parts aren't all S&M, and I made sure that what S&M was there isn't as cheesy as it can be in some fics. Yeah, this is a smut fic, but it isn't completely without plot. I really did make an effort to show why the two of them would go at each other like tigers in heat. Besides, the Golden Sun section on AFF.net deserves a lot more attention than it's had lately, from both readers and writers. So if you've got the time, take a look at: Fandom: Golden Sun Title: A Moth to a Flame Author: The Pairing Guy Summary: Never one to give up, Felix slowly but surely works his way closer to Karst. But when you play with fire, you tend to get burned... Rating: Adult+ Pairings: Felix/Karst, Isaac/Jenna, hinted Isaac/Mia(but Mia isn't in the story) Feedback: If you've got it, post it, whether good or bad. I have a very thick skin. URL: A Moth to a Flame Thanks for clicking here. Hope to see you in the Golden Sun fanfic section! happy pairings, The Pairing Guy