Feedback appreciated. I am not sure how to make the women any more embarrassed.
Even women who are okay with being nude, can be embarrassed in context.
Most people do not take the time to write to me. Yours is the most feedback I may have ever received.
Story too short, too long, it's like dicks.
You can't please them all with that.
Don't write dialogue but build up, etc. I can't adopt the style and voice of another author and literally stop telling stories the way I would tell a story if I were talking to you.
It's not possible. You may as well say to someone from Alabama "Your accent is dumb. Talk British." as to tell me to stop using dialogue to show the reader the action and emotion through tone and non verbal queues.
too much dialogue, I'll tell you my thoughts on abandoning the only tool I use to show instead of tell below.
While it is true I often start with things already in progress - that is because your second point of greek tennis with too much dialogue.
How do you build up to action, if you aren't allowed to use dialogue?
viewtopic.php?p=51023#p51023
Here is Itty Bitty Titty and Red Bottom Club - no nudity, no sex, no nothing. it starts at the ABSOLUTE start before anything has changed for Katie.
Admittedly, one of the mods themselves responded to encourage me, but no one else did. I just got bored of waiting for anything to happen in the story and wanted to jump to when it did. Writing about her day, and even her bath felt dull. It is needed for a story like that, but i put it away for another day.
Many people do want you to start at the very, very beginning before it all goes down. However, I sometimes enjoy starting with a family that happens to be nudists for example without going back twenty years to when they decided to do it. In this case, this particular narrative relied upon this being routine for the family.
I can assure you it's not that I start in the middle every time. I had another story right before this "Summer Vacation" that starts at the absolute start. Silence. I deleted it since there were no responses after 1100 reads. It was nice and slow. A bimbo Aunt that dotes on her nephew, a tomboy that he's going to be sharing a room with, a Jenna Ortega cousin-type, and a sexy grandma that sees her husband in his face.
The only where to go was up with that story. I could have gone in all four directions or several. No responses, no feedback, nothing. Written in third person. Not one person thought to click thank me, or comment. I'd have loved to done it a little collaboratively. My intention was to have him spend a nice summer in a very small cabana with a lot of sweaty women in bikinis, and a tom boy who doesn't keep her shirt on but can still be embarrassed, especially of his boner and her stiff nipples. "Jeez...their pokey, stop staring at them, wil ya...I am as flat as a pancake, nobody knows I am a girl."
"Yeah, they do, Ash. They are just polite enough not to say anything when you skateboard shirtless."
(pesky dialogue)
Then before that a 1950s Domestic Bliss/Milford wives sort of slow build about a woman waking up at the start of her day. I didn't write about her marriage, and college years. I picked that day because I wanted a slice of life in domestic 1950s for her. Her twin sister was visiting.
She was going to go through how she was largely humiliated all day long, doing work while the guys have fun and her twin clucked like a chicken as she covered her laughs that her sister had all these obligations, while she was a "modern" woman that was able to sit at the table while her sister served. Then I was going to have her sister wake up in bed with the woman's husband. He's convinced she's his wife.
The real wife (the domesticated one) is walking out the door with her sister's husband "Thanks for the visit, bye!"
But I never got far. Zero replies. Admittedly, it's in the over the top "Peach Valley" but to make it impactful that the main character knocks her sister out with sleeping pills when she realizes she doesn't have to be a sex toy to her husband and get spanked regularly to keep her in line, I leaned into the W.H. Sheldon Disciplinary Academy's guide for good wives.
Then before that. A 1950s short story, about a camera crew that shows up at somebody's house for a documentary. No feedback. Started at the start. It was admittedly over the top but I made all these pictures of a big-titty 1950s girl doing jumping jacks and I wanted to write a story around it.
Then before that, "Red Bottom Club" , a girl works at a diaper store and her boss chides her. Her friend admits a secret - she gets spanked at home for shopping but she says it helps her overcome her urge. She goes home and her mom has a walk down memory lane about her as a younger girl and wants to give her a bath like the old days.
The family finds out she agreed to be bathed and has a good laugh. No nudity happens, how can it get slower? got a guess for how many responses? It's less than one. I was going to have her and her friend be the charter members of the "red bottom club" and it couldn't have started slower or any earlier. So it's neither of those things why there is no reader engagement.
So it's not starting with her waking up literally at the start of her day that is the problem. It's just that i probably overstayed here. I thrive on interaction and working with other creative people to collaborate. That doesn't really happen. It's just do less dialogue, write shorter stories, write longer ones, make them have more enery, make them slower.
I can't please everyone, so I try to write a story I would have enjoyed reading. If I don't do that - then I won't be into it. i am not a machine or a writer for pay. I write for pleasure. To me, there must be rich dialogue with texture.
Think about this;
"Hey, where are the scissors?"
She continued knitting.
"I said where ARE THE SCISSORS?"
Ethel calmly placed her knitting on the dresser and sighed. "They are right where I always keep them, Henry."
Can you picture them? Did you see Cats-eye glasses on Ethel's face and her in a beige sweater? Because that's how I wrote her. I am not the best writer but I could have also done;
He was annoyed because he couldn't find the scissors and asked his wife where they were. She got annoyed and told him they were where she always keeps them.
That's the norm here. That's called "Tell". The readers digest version. I try hard NOT to do that. I enjoy the details. I enjoy "SHOW". I do that with dialogue but within that dialogue I use book-saidisms to include actions. I do that with tone of voice, emotional reaction, facial expression and non-verbal.
The dialogue is how I tell the story. I am not trying to argue, just explain why I can't take your advice, and I can't accept that dialogue in my story, or not "Starting at the start" is enough to warrant no one ever responding to me. I've seen people gush over what was obvious Em-dash inspired AI slop before, so I am pretty sure it's a combination of things.
You don't like dialogue and you wanted this one to start earlier. So, yes - I would never have interested you long enough to read it. That's the chance I took by wanting to write the part I want to write and not slog through a poor copy of a story I've read a thousand times to set it up to get to it.
I've been told before that isn't good, but I won't ever change that, unfortunately. I still appreciate you telling me what you think the problem is. I do not think those are it, but it's certainly why you do not enjoy my stories.
I've got about 50 half-written ones that I stopped because nobody else replied, etc. It could be that I am a terrible writer, and I rush and I write too much dialogue and it could be that there just isn't a lot engagement from this group combined, but I know I am not as bad as y'all make me out to be.
Here is how I know that. I've seen four or five paragraphs that look like the ai prompt was "Write with as much purple prose and AI slop as possible, put an em-dash unnecessarily whenever possible." and seen words of positive encouragement on here.
For this one, which I am tentatively calling "Of all the stories nobody ever wrote, this one was the least written." or something like that in honor for the inspiration that made me stop writing it. "It's the internet, you have to just let trolls piss all over the place to establish who is the boss/dominant."
That's not me, either. I don't go where I am not wanted/welcome. So, rather than write it, I'll give up and write something else or write it elsewhere. It's a pity too because while you all want to see Heather's downfall. You've read that story.
There are a 1,000 versions of Heathers story on the Internet. That story has been told. "You wrecked my car, now pay off the debt".
I did not feel like writing that part. I wanted to write this part as the beginning of a new chapter in her life. I'd lose interest in Heather's story long before I got to the part i wanted to actually write about it if I have to write a hacky version of the same origin story.
Every fucking Spiderman movie has to tell the story of Peter Parker's Uncle getting mugged. It's boring as shit. I've seen it many times and seen it done better. So what I was trying to do was skip the part that was the set up. Most writers blow their wad on setup. I could refer back to that time quite easily (Which I did).
And it's really a question. Do you want dialogue? no.
Then you can't have slow build. Sorry.
There isn't much to tell you.
She got up, she took a shit, she made breakfast, all in silence without any thoughts.
There is nothing else that can/could have happened. I could have spread that out to six sentences at most without her internal monology and dialogue.
I just wanted a birds eye view into the family's day, and then I was going to have the follow up day be the payoff. So "How it began" WAS the first chapter. That WAS her routine for three years.
Washing, cooking, putting up with butt slaps, and teasing, and the family reviewing her behavior while she has to sit up and they get to slouch. Despite what you may think, she isn't apathetic and I thought I did a good job of literally TELLING the reader and SHOWING the reader he blushing and the feelings she has as she has to do her waddle in front of a room of clothed people.
The E + N of the ENF trilogy.
Just because she consents, didn't mean she wasn't reluctant. She was hardly eager. I don't really write non-consensual, so that's the best I am ever going to do in most stories.
Then on Sunday, the mom was going to be fucking her husband and they both learn that they've always wanted to push her a little further.
The mom walks out in her robe, and her daughter says "Yes, Ma'am," at some point.
This leads to her saying "You know you don't actually have to call me Ma'am, right? I've never really liked it. It makes me feel old."
"But you said..." Heather would have protested.
Her mother explains that she paid off her debt a long time ago. "Ah-Hah!" the reader exclaims on the other side of the page. "That's the twist!!"
Heather knows very well she could stop. The subtext is she is a humiliation junkie and does not want to admit that because it would be too embarrassing. She needs to feel like she has a debt to pay and she is forced into this, so she can keep being the Heather she is now. Bright and eager chipmunk.
"We told you on your birthday two years ago that you paid your debt and we were proud of how you put up with everybody's shit and you didn't have to keep doing it anymore."
"Yeah, but....no one gave me back my old room or my old clothes..."
"Well, you never asked...and when you walked out naked and made breakfast the next day, we just rolled with it. Over time, someone didn't like the food you made, and so we let the boys pick your diet. Someone started calling you fat butt because for a little while you were getting chubby and so they started making you do exercise and now you are hot, So, you've effectively become the family slave, I suppose. Is that what you want to continue to do?"
Faced with a choice, she sighs and thinks about how scary it would be to return to her own life after all that humiliation. She is secretly loving this, and that's something Bob has known all along. Every time he gives her new rules he stops short of pushing too far. However, the "pussy whip" rule pushed Heather over the edge. She was going to beg to masturbate in tears after it was over. Bob knows why. Lisa just thinks her daughter is a wicked little slut that is way too horny, because Lisa is too.
The Mom goes back and tells Bob and he says he always knew that. That was the reason for the first day. To show all these signs that she gets off humiliation.
Humiliation kink to me is very satisfying when it feels like you have to do something embarrassing, but you can't stop your arousal and it becomes fairly obvious you secretly like it. That way the family doesn't feel like assshole jailors who are meanies. Can you imagine how abusive it would be if it was? On some level, everyone except her little sister and her twin probably knows she enjoys it. I dropped little hints about saving Mark's note and finding it endearing but to his face looking contrite.
So Bob walks out with a plan, he makes it up on the spot. "Your sister paid off her debt a long time ago, and it's time for her start dating..."
Stunned silence from the family. For three years, this was their new normal. Would Heather seek revenge for teasing her? That WAS the story I wanted to write. The sudden realization that their "normal" was over. How it got that way is the old trope of how it always gets this way. Even that was explained through numerous stories and inner thoughts peppered into the story.
I don't know what to tell you there. You didn't like it. That's okay. It won't get written anyway.
"But, obviously she can't just do that because she's become the family pet. She's way too horny all the time. So, we trained her on cooking and cleaning and you are older now. We have to train your sister to be less horny all the time. Your mom and I will pick dates for her and she'll wear her chastity belt on them until we feel enough time has passed and we can find her a new owner."
He doesn't know if his daughter will see this as a gift, but the choice is taken from her to stop or not. (it is a gift)
Questions shoot up.
"Can I help pick the guys she dates?"
"What do you mean owner? I am not going to have a boyfriend."
"Heather, you thrive as a pet. I think we all agree, that you need some rules, so the man I have in mind for you will treat you more like a pet, okay next question?"
The next day would be fun and exciting as they pile on the humiliation, with perhaps a finale where the dad says her wet pussy is the proof this is what she needed.
A possibility would be for a sequel "You know...it may help Kelly....and once we marry Heather off we do need a replacement, dear. I don't want to go back to washing dishes and cooking.."
That is why I did what I did.
That was the story. It's dead now, I lost interest in it after getting trolled on the thread I finally broke down and asked for feedback after hearing nothing.
But thank you for taking my request seriously and offering constructive feedback. I'll give it some thought.I probably won't ever get rid of the dialogue though. That's my favorite part, sorry.
It's part of how I show, without telling. The tool I have to tell is what you are used too.
They went outside.
vs.
"Hey, come outside, the weather is great!" is how I do it.
And I'll continue that. I don't think anyone has ever written that much to me about writing before, so thanks.
There are some things that I just haven't done. I have an outdated yahoo email that I don't want to change to something better. It's laziness probably but I just don't want to start using it.
I need to google other forums and find a new home for my stories. I recently started enjoying AO3 but I am not sure it's very collaborative.
What I thrive on isn't gold stars and pats on the back. Those are nice, but they can feel empty.
I enjoy specific examples where I may have done a better job of showing instead of telling but "Don't write so much dialogue, just chop it up into readers digest so we get the jist", no. I just wouldn't write.
I am more of a collaborative on the plot. Other than "Go back to three years ago, when everything first began and tell us that it all began...."
I wove it into the narrative and skipped to the good part. I literally have a dozen call backs to before Charlie, and such. That was intended to fill in the blanks and establish that people really do say "How did we start doing this?" or "Remember when she used to be able to..." etc. "Yeah, but she couldn't stop playing with herself around the house so we had to..."
You don't like it, that's fine. I am okay with it and I respect that. I wont take every idea someone gives me. What I do enjoy would be "How about when the family reviews her performance this week...this happens.."
I am not sure what I'll do, but I need to probably find a collaborative author group for erotic fiction. SOL has one but they are very insular/coffee klatch. It's not "Trolling" so much as you have the classic array of flame warriors.
https://www.flamewarriorsguide.com/
They remind me of my old Fido_Net BBS days. Ever one of those personas is there, and they generally talk about anything BUT writing.
Here, if you share a personal anecdote as I did earlier. "Dude that never happened" or if I express an unsolicited opinion on a thread about something someone will feel compelled to say its an invalid opinion. I said a skirt like this one girl was wearing in the 1970s film was rare to see and naturally someone said "No, it's not."
Okay, well it is for me and since they really don't even sell those dresses anymore, it's puzzling but not worth arguing. The only reason i wrote this much is hopefully it explains my position.
I was thinking more like story structure and direction, rather than to tell me to stop writing how I do and adopt the technique and voice of some other author.