Ginevra

I find this curious... I have a blatant Self Insertion fantasy posted in the XMen archive. It's labeled as such. No issues there. This fic has exactly 800 hits as of today. For a 4 Chapter fic. Yet it has 0 reviews and 0 ratings. That's a middlin' number of hits compared to the rest of my fics. I think that's too many to be random "Oops this isn't what I thought it was. Nevermind." My other fics with comparable numbers of hits do have at least some ratings and reviews. So it begs the question. Who's reading this piece? Are they afraid to admit it? So I thought I'd ask: Do you read Self Insertion pieces (deliberately)? Are you prepared to admit it? Don't think I'm whining...I'm actually kind of amused and a little puzzled. I thought that fic would either never get read by anyone but myself and my hubby, or I'd get "What the heck is the matter with you, posting crap like that!" Or "Self Insertion is too cheesy to demean yourself/myself/this fandom with."

So far I've written mainly hetero stuff, but I'm beginning to branch out into M/M and F/F stuff. So far all of my main pairings are M/F, but I include minor same sex relationships. I suppose I'm most comfortable with hetero, because that's where most of my personal experience is. I've never done more than a little flirting with another woman. Though I've certainly wanted to at times. Looking back at women and girls who I most wanted to be close to over the years, I believe I was actually attracted to them but just wasn't prepared to admit it to myself at the time. Probably just as well, I don't think my interest would have been well received. I have discovered that I really enjoy reading M/M stories when they are well written. There seems to be much less F/F content in the fandoms I read and write, so I'm not sure it's fair to judge on that basis. So far, my wildest stories, sexually speaking, are "Witness" and "Two XMen and a Jacuzzi." Both cover M/F, F/F, M/M and group sex. One of the reasons I write fan fiction is to push my limits as a writer...and that definitely includes writing with different types of pairings, in and out of bed.

Apparently, I am technologically impaired...That worked like a charm. Thank you.

I am having some trouble with using this feature. I've attempted to link three authors: One author is in the hp archive and has a 10 digit author number. That one works. The other two are in the x-men archive and have four digit author numbers (taken from the URL displayed in my browser when I'm on their profiles.) The two with four digit author numbers do not work when you click on the link displayed in my Recommended Reading section. Maybe I'm technologically impaired or I do not understand how the author numbers work?

I would very much like to have this option. I do enjoy having a dialogue with my readers. I've tried both methods mentioned above and neither is satisfactory, especially when someone has taken the time to give some real constructive criticism. For now, I've settled on replying within my stories at the top. I usually separate any particularly long winded replies so that those who aren't interested can go ahead and skip them easily (such as using a row of "*" before and after.) But, like I've said, I'm not really happy with that method.

Guess I probably should have done this sooner. So I'll introduce myself now. Hi ya'll! I'm totally addicted to reading an writing fan fiction. I started about seven years ago with some Gargoyles stuff on another site. Then I was out of it for a long time, just popping in once in a while to read. I got back into writing while I was pregnant with my lasted demonseed...um...son. There's definitely a hormonal factor in my creativity, especially when it comes to writing smut. I write mostly X Men related fics these days. But, you can find me lurking in Harry Potter, Cartoons, comics, television, and sometimes even in the originals section. I have a bent towards the darker, kinkier fics. I write mostly het fiction, though I've started to branch out with yaoi and yuri content. I may wind up doing some straight on yuri or yaoi eventually. We'll see. I am working hard to improve my writing skills...Hopefully there's a progression to be seen in my writing. Sometimes I go to odd places just to challenge myself with something new. And sometimes the only way to get a story or character out of my head is to write it out. Anything else ya'll want to know...just ask.

Love that...Sounds about right.

Thanks for taking the time to think about my topic. I'm finding that my stories are getting longer and longer, so the chapter question is becoming more and more important. I compose in Microsoft Word and prefer to keep the entire story as a single file, no matter how long or how many chapters. For me that makes life simple. Word lets me use spelling and grammar checking (Word hates dialogue ). It also lets me do quick checks on my word counts, either for the whole story or for whatever portion I've selected. When I'm satisfied with things, I simply cut and paste each chapter into the text box on AFF. I am almost completely ignorant of HTML coding, so I leave that alone. I've used a couple of different methods to divide chapters. For some pieces, it's pretty logical. The story essentially divides itself. But I do feel anything less than about 1,500 words is probably too short to be a separate chapter. I do like to have in mind a word count goal for each chapter. For something relatively short, that might be 1,500 or 2,000 words. About as much as I can read online in 10 minutes, assuming the rug rats give me that much peace. For something medium length I'm leaning towards around 3,000 words per chapter in a 38-40k word piece. For my monster piece of about 147k words, I settled on 3,500 to 4,000 words, though the first chapter is longer since it started as a oneshot. It wound up being a total of 38 chapters. I still can't believe I wrote what was essentially an entire novel in only two and a half months! (Just checked, file was created on 6/5/07 and last modified on 8/20/07) For each chapter, I usually have a couple of things I wish to accomplish in the story. I think having a word count goal helps me plan the chapter so that it has a beginning, middle and end, rather than just being where I stopped writing. When I get within 500 words of my goal, it's time to wrap things up. If I'm still 1,000 words away, then I probably have room to move the story along a little further. The story I'm most considering restructuring runs about 38,000 words. I wrote it in 2,000 word chapters which I now consider a bit too short. I may one day wish to write professionally, so I am quite serious about trying to develop my skills I think I have already improved greatly since posting my first piece on AFF, at least in my opinion -- I'm always trying to challenge myself, even on the fluffiest pieces. Part of that for me is setting goals. As a reader, I like chapters that take me around 10-15 minutes to read. I do read fast--so I hope my chapters don't take the average reader much longer 30 minutes at the most. I figure that's a reasonable amount of time for most people to sit still and read at the computer.

I often write stories that are long enough to require being broken down into chapters and I have been trying to make up my mind on several points. 1. How many chapters should you have? Do stories with many chapters turn readers off before they even give you a shot? Or do they feel shortchanged when it turns out that the chapters are shorter than they expected? 2. What is a reasonable length for a chapter? Do you plan a chapter to be a certain length in terms of words or pages? Or do you plan them to cover certain events or topics? Or perhaps when you change POV's or settings? Or do you use some other way to determine length? 3. As online readers, do you personally have a preference for how long chapters should be? Is your preference as a reader different from your preference as a writer? I have tried several different approaches and I'm finding myself tempted to go back and restructure the chapters on one or two of my stories. Before I start fiddling with things, I'd like to hear someone else's opinions.

How did I get into slash and fan fiction....Wow...Let me think. I am a voracious reader...Have been since elementary school. My mother read Marion Zimmer Bradley...And as soon as I could wade through the vocabulary, I did too. So in elementary school I was reading about same sex pairings among the "Free Amazons." Some of the male main characters also had male lovers. MZB encouraged fan fiction by editing and publishing anthologies of her fan's work as "Friends of Darkover." A little later, I started digging my teeth into Robert Heinlein. If Number of the Beast doesn't qualify as fan fiction with its "World as Myth" storyline, I don't know what does. Might even count as a "Gary Stu" though I'm not sure which character to peg with the title. And of course Heinlien was never much bothered by social norms in the sexual arena, though his M/M stuff was much more subtle than what you find in online fan fics. As an adult surfing the internet, I started running across fan fiction in the Star Trek arena first, I believe. Some of the best I found was Voyager related. Once I read some good Harry/Tom pieces, I saw the show in a whole new light. I was also looking for original stuff with a BDSM bent -- much of the best stuff was slash. Now I'm starting to add M/M and F/F to my fics. Not as the main pairing, but as side pairings. I don't see sexual preference as a yes/no, hetero/straight thing...but, more as a spectrum. I'm working on a straight hetero fic right now. In my last fic I had two couples that formed a four-way relationship over the course of the story. So now I'm actually feeling kind of restricted with this M/F piece. Maybe that's why it's going so slow. One thing I do dislike is when a cannon character is feminized too much. I'm really enjoying Gambit/Logan fics these days, but authors tend to make Gambit pretty much a chick with boy parts.

Here's one of my all time favorites: damn....god that was fuckin funny.... i;m seriouse i have read hundreds of stories and i have never shot rice out of my nose while reading it... really i was eating supper and then you started in the robin is a dick jokes... i fired rice onto my keyboard.... really rice from the nose... quite painfull actually..... Not exactly constructive criticism...But, Oh! What an image! I love it when my readers make me laugh. And here's another for the same story, left by an anonymous reviewer: nshth Huh? I even tried looking it up in the Urban Dictionary just in case it was some Netspeak thing that I just haven't encountered before. Nada. Nothing.

I've just recently joined this forum...apparently just in time to witness the drama. I think that question was already answered in greater detail than was really necessary in another post. I have been reading AFF off and on for years and have been submitting my own stories for around a year, I believe. My understanding from all these posts that I have been reading is that Jaxxy had an extended period of time during which she had limited access to the internet. Almost anybody can pop over to a friend's house and check her email or look at something quickly. But, running a large archive like AFF must take a lot of hands-on work. That would most likely require a very reliable connection and quite a bit of time online. Relationships that involve money and ownership often blow up. Ask anyone who's been through a divorce. As far as I'm concerned, if Jaxxy is the one who will be taking the bullet if AFF gets into legal trouble, she's entitled to have her name on the letterhead. Right above the bullseye. And she's entitled to protect herself if she thinks someone may be doing something that could result in legal or financial consequences for her. I did like some of the changes that were being made to AFF just before the transition and am sorry to see them put on hold. I came to the forum because I was following DA's link soliciting help with the category clean ups. I hope they will continue at some point. Personally, I don't have the balls to sign my name to "owning" something like AFF. I have a family to support and could conceivably lose my job over something like that. I'm sure my husband would lose his part time job at a church. Most of my family and coworkers would certainly be shocked if they saw what I've been posting here. The internet isn't always anonymous...

I read mostly X Men fics, though sometimes I browse through Teen Titans (Cartoons), some of the other comic fandoms, Harry Potter, and CSI. I've only started browsing the Original Stories, but I'm looking for essentially the same things there, too, minus the fandom characters. I come to AFF looking for two kinds of stories: 1. Stories with plot that show some of what happens "off camera" in the lives of my favorite characters. I especially enjoy darker stories and angst. However, I'm not into seeing cannon characters maimed or killed. I do like a bit of romance or sex in these stories, but they don't have to be too graphic. I don't mind OC's if they're well developed, but we've all encountered the ones that aren't. 2. Good smut that features my favorite characters (Nightcrawler and Gambit especially). I prefer M/F pairings but I read plenty of M/M and a little F/F. I've dabbled in the BDSM lifestyle and find it a bonus if a story includes some of my favorite kinks (ex. Spanking, Bondage, D/S, slavery, mild-moderate pain play, etc.). I enjoy reading about non-consensual and borderline consensual sex, though I'd never promote it in real life. BTW: If anyone has seen any stories with good needle-play scenes--send them my way. Any fandom...I don't care... Can't stand syrupy romances.... Anyway, I've found it so hard to find enough of what I'm looking for to keep me occupied that I'm writing it now. I often follow links from my reader reviews to what they've written. I'm hoping that if they like what I wrote, I'll like what they wrote.

I've just recently joined the forum and I'm finding it full of fascinating topics. I'm surprised to hear many of you say that your English teachers and professors discouraged you from writing fiction in first person. First person is inappropriate for some things, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with using it for fiction/fan fiction writing. I pick my POV to match what I'm trying to do with my piece. For most pieces, I choose a type of limited third person. Usually I designate one or two characters to follow closely throughout the piece, including some of their internal thoughts. I used this style with "Every Breath You Take." If it is a lengthy piece with a complex plot, I will usually choose one character per scene to follow. Sometimes it's fun to examine an event from several different POV's. I used this style with my novel-length story, "Witness." If I wish to change my focus character in the midst of a scene, I do try to make a proper transition between POV's. Since I've received no reviews stating that they had difficulty following my POV transitions, I have to assume that I'm reasonably successful. They certainly haven't been shy about the constructive criticism. When I really want to get to know a character, I take a walk in his/her skin. In other words, I write in first person. "My Name Is Brooklyn" was written as that sort of excercise. I suppose I would call it a sort of character portrait. Another use for first person for me would be for a story that conveys something very intimate. I have an ongoing PWP that is written in first person -- "Good Girls Don't Get Caught." It honestly never occurred to me to approach the story any other way. I haven't written a story in second person...Hmm....Something I haven't tried. One of the things I absolutely love about AFF is that I have the freedom to experiment with my writing. And since none of my readers know me personally, there's no axe to grind. So, hopefully the feedback I receive is honest and sincere. Anways...Thanks for letting me babble on... Ginevra

I generally write OC fics and I'm surprised I haven't been accused of creating Mary Sue's. Here's my latest and strangest work (I think): http://xmen.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600090256 I'll warn you. It's long--novel length. I used it as a sort of laboratory to experiment with reader requests and some of my own ideas. Never knew there were so many die hard Toad fans out there. I learned a lot from writing it and letting my readers lead me down some interesting paths.

I am married to a transvestite male. I would describe my husband as being bisexual with a preference for women and a generally hetero lifestyle. He enjoys fantasizing about men and has had some m/m experience. But, in terms of ongoing relationships, he prefers women. He dresses in women's clothing only in private or in anonymous settings. It is an intense sexual turn on for him. It turns me on only in the sense that I enjoy seeing him so into things. For me it is either neutral or a slight turn off depending on the situtation, how much into drag he's gone, and my mood at the time. I dis-like the term "bi-curious" but it probably does actually describe my own sexual orientation. Almost all my real life experiences have been hetero. I do have sexual feelings and thoughts for other women, but am more likely to fantasize about men. I have flirted with women on a few occasions and have subbed for a female dominant in non-sexual play. Unfortunately, I have never had an opportunity to explore those feelings in real life, as I haven't found anyone with whom attraction and opportunity were mutual.

Wish I'd signed up for the forum sooner...Wonderful resources...Good for a giggle or two and I think I'm starting to get too repetitive in my terminology. I prefer to tailor the language I use to the type of sex scene I'm writing. I am actually more comfortable with writing graphic sex than romantic sex...Go figure. I am so not a girly girl. If it's romantic lovemaking then I use avoidance and mild euphemisms. I might use words like hardness, wetness, folds, center, arousal, enter, driving, thrust, rocking etc. I do use the word "clit" because I really find most of the euphemisms I'm familiar with just too florid for me. "Pleasure nub" makes me want to gag. I also use this style if I don't want the sex to overwhelm the story. If it's casual or fun sex, I use soft-core to hard core terms. Sometimes I get a little clinical. I like the words dick, cock, and erection for the male. I dislike the word "prick" as it makes me think of someone who is stuck up. I like the words, labia, lips, and entrance for the female. I use the words breast and nipples almost exclusively without euphemisms. I rarely use the word "pussy" in writing because it feels so juvenile, though I might use it in bed when I'm feeling frisky. I have an aversion to the word "cunt" as I see it as a derogatory term. With fun sex and especially hardcore sex I like the monosyllabic words with harsh endings. It gives the prose a certain rhythm that I think adds to the excitement and is reminiscent of the rhythm of the act. Words like suck, fuck, cock, dick, etc. I am only beginning to add anal sex to my fics. So far I think I have used sphincter, ring of muscle, tightness, and tight heat.