How did you know?

I've just accepted that I might be completely wasting my time. I tell myself that even if my WIP turns out terrible, at least I'll be able to say I wrote a novel. That's more than most people ever manage. I've gotten some good feedback here and there, but it's mostly of the friends and family variety, and who's to say they're not just being kind?

I've thought a lot about the Dunning-Kruger effect lately. The worst part about it is that if you're really bad, you lack the judgement to recognize that you're really bad. I think I'm a decent writer, which may mean I'm absolutely terrible and simply incapable of recognizing that fact. It's a tad unnerving.

Nobody read my writing until I'd been doing it for a while. A few years, maybe. I didn't even submit anything until I'd been writing fiction for 3.5 years. That's how long it took until I believed I had something worth submitting.

So I received some feedback/criticism, though not much initially. Any reassurance I received was from people who had never read my writing (parents, etc), so they didn't know how bad it was. Thus, I never found this reassurance particularly helpful in the long run.

Though I sort of suck at taking criticism, I didn't let any feedback I received dissuade me from writing. I just kept at it. That's pretty much it. But I think that time management, figuring out what I need to do and doing it, plowing ahead no matter what...those have always been strengths of mine (sometimes to a fault). I can look back and see where I've succeeded in the past in non-writing endeavors as a result. So in part because of this, I could convince myself that writing would be the same, if I put in the effort. That this was something I could get better at.

Having said that, I knew that I might not get good enough, but didn't let that stop me from writing, because how would I know if I didn't try? I think that ultimately, you have to find a lot of your motivation from within. Other people's reassurance might help you get through a tough day, but that is what keeps you going month after month, year after year. At least, that's how it is for me.

Critiquing other people's work in SYW (haven't done this recently, but I used to) can help you learn to spot problems in your own writing, too.

Anyway, I think I am now a decent writer and have sold a few things to an e-pub, and when I get rejections, they are frequently personalized. So I don't think I am delusional about my own abilities, though I definitely still have room for improvement.

You might find this Ira Glass quote helpful

Reformed Gypsy said:

Or did you just go balls to the wall, damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead?

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Pretty much. I just decided to go for it. The first feedback I got was from a publisher, when I was offered a contract.

As I've begun self-publishing, this is definitely a big concern of mine. Especially since I feel like it can be challenging to find betas and critique groups willing to take on erotica. Even if you find a beta who likes erotica, it can be challenging if they like different subgenres or kinks than you do.

When I write stuff that I make available for free, I don't worry as much. I know I'm not the best writer in the world, but I know I'm not the worst, either. And I always do my best. Publishing for money is more daunting, because I feel like there's more riding on it. If someone clicks on a free story and doesn't like it, they can back button. If they buy a story and don't like it, then they may feel like they've wasted their money. But what I do is get feedback when I can and ask myself if I would be satisfied with my stories if I spent money on them. But ultimately, I can only do my best, and it's never going to be possible to make everyone enjoy my work.

I wrote fanfiction for years because I wanted an audience and I knew I wasn't good enough to publish original fiction.

It was actually really helpful. It's really rare to get constructive criticism, but I got feedback in other ways. I learned how to tweak a summary in order to get more views. I learned how to pace a story.

I paid attention to which of my stories were popular and which weren't. I learned I'm good at humor but shit at drama. I figured out why. I paid attention to what other writers were popular and figured out why.

And there was always encouragement. With original fiction... it's so much more difficult. I probably would've given up.

I've been a fan of erotica for over thirteen years, but didn't start writing until February of 2014. Writing has always been one of my "things" and one day it just sort of...happened. I sat down and wrote a short story. Then, I posted it to Literotica. It got a surprising number of positive reviews, which encouraged me to continue. The next story I wrote was twice as long. The third piece turned into what is now my first novel (completed the first draft last week, woot!). I continued to write shorts and have had a few stories accepted into forthcoming anthologies. I also have a blog.

If you're looking for advice, I'd say just go for it. Start with flash fiction or short stories and see if you like it. Post it in the SYW section here once you've accrued 50 posts. Though, I'll tell you, it's easy to get addicted to the quick gratification of writing, finishing, and then gaining feedback for short stories. If you're still having fun after two or three shorts, try something longer. Craft (writing) books are your friends. Just keep in mind that erotica and romance differ slightly when it comes to showing vs. telling. Readers want and expect a bit more emotion and inner reflection than what you'd find in a typical mainstream or, say, sci-fi/fantasy story.

Well, that's the end of my ramble. Good luck!

My situation was similar to StoryofWoe -- it sort of "happened". After spending time reading on a fan fiction site, I tried writing, something I hadn't done before (not fiction) and had very good feedback, including some from one of the women who ran the site. My partner and friends encouraged me too. Two years later, a well-known publisher printed one of my short stories. Prior to that, I would not have guessed I'd end up writing fiction. I didn't even read much of it at that time.

Started writing-with-intent-to-publish in 1987, after being outraged at a stinker of a SFF paperback. Wrote a novel, made mistake of starting story near the end of a big arc. Wrote some more novels. Got an agent. Agent couldn't sell, and I couldn't write to the level he needed, so we amicably parted ways.

Sold my first anthology story in 1999. Stopped writing original fiction, picked up fan fiction: fun to write, fast feedback, great skills training. Had a commercial art career for thirteen years. Left it. Went back into writing original fiction after H1N1 fever dream showed me how to continue a stalled epic fantasy mms. Self-contained abstract of that finished mms placed fairly high in Writers of the Future, and third place in Random House contest. No agents interested after 70 queries. Trunked book, switched gears, wrote M/M erotic romance, pitched to seven publishers, got two offers within a month, picked one, found agent to help with the contract. (Trust me, in my case it was necessary.)

Sold two more short stories. Now working on sequel to romance, spinoff to same, several standalone books, and rebooted versions of my trunkbooks.

If I hadn't been doing fulltime work in other fields, or if money and time had allowed me to attend some of the big SFF workshops, it's possible I might have been published a decade sooner. Probably not. I needed the time away.

Out of all the interests and hobbies I've had in my life, writing is the only one that I've practiced consistently since I was a kid. I figured that if I keep at it, I'll continue to improve. Within a lifetime of writing, hopefully that'll translate into *some* good works.

As to how I came to erotica, well... it's just always been an interest of mine, and it seems that it's only now starting to become more mainstream. More marketable, at least.

Reformed Gypsy said:

Or did you just go balls to the wall, damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead?

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That about describes it. I had a whole world of smutty fantasies that insisted on being committed to paper. I didn't ask or need anyone's approval.

I checked the offerings at the local community college, no "Creative Erotica Writing 101." Puritanical midwesterners.

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There's a ton of stuff online, including some very excellent critique groups. But any community of 200 or more people is going to have a writers' group in it. It's just a matter of finding them. Your local bookshop owner or librarian, or even a high school English teacher, might be able to lead you there.

If you write erotica, you may not want to bring it to a live crit group. This is where online groups can be helpful. I have many friends who read my stuff, but they've never seen my face and I've never seen theirs.

I decided to do it and didn't stop until I did.

Being a successful author is a marathon, not a race, and while some find immediate success most have to work at it. I know a TON of writers that started when I did three years ago that threw in the towel after their first book didn't take off like 50 Shades. On the flip side of that, I know other writers that stared when I did, stuck with it, and quit their day job. The question you have to ask yourself is how committed to this are you, how much defeat/criticism can you take before you give up, and once you find success what are you going to do to maintain it.

Oh, and most importantly, what can you do now to make sure that you will love writing as much ten years down the road as you do now. If you don't love it, you're not gonna do it.

I had the great good fortune to get into fanfic in a fandom and forum that at the time had a culture of constructive criticism, not least because there were still dead tree zines around at the time and those cost *money*, so editing happened or the publisher didn't sell many copies of the next issue. And the even greater fortune to initially submit to a couple of zine editors who were good at editing.

Then I got ideas for original fic, and started writing them, and submitting them. And hanging around in writer forums (even if I lurked here for *years* before ever setting up an account, let alone posting). I have a couple of writer friends I can trust to look at something and tell me if it works, although I've been at this game long enough to run into the problem that my betas look at the page and see what they expected me to write, not what made it off my fingers and onto the keyboard.

I wrote erotica on and off for the past decade (dabbled in my teens, too, but even without the paper evidence now I know it would all be embarrassing), putting it out on some of the LGBT free story sites. Got some great feedback from readers, then started a tumblr a couple of years back, mixing short stories with more mainstream smut.

Last year one of my early readers (who subsequently became a tumblr fan) challenged me to have "get a book published" as my 2014 resolution. The story I was at the time halfway through seemed like a good candidate, and so I finished it and - with no small amount of help from the people on AW - submitted it to Loose Id and, to my surprise, it was accepted.

So, I'd say do the "full steam ahead" but be mindful of what you're writing and where you might like to take it later. Previous stuff I've written and put out there has been more "porn" than "erotica": still sexy, I'm told, but it wouldn't have made such a clean submission to a publisher.

-A.

Ann_Mayburn said:

I decided to do it and didn't stop until I did.

Oh, and most importantly, what can you do now to make sure that you will love writing as much ten years down the road as you do now. If you don't love it, you're not gonna do it.

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That is the best advice I've heard all week.

Hmm... I did go full-steam ahead, but only after I'd made sure I had enough armor to weather potential torpedoes

In other words, I took a job I wouldn't normally have considered to save up enough cushion money to sustain me through emergencies. By the time I'd hit my savings goal, I'd been writing part-time for a little over a year, had six novellas out, and had earned around $200 in royalties

[As for how I got to that point--Like Beachgirl, my first feedback was a contract. I stumbled upon the concept of beta readers after my first release. I had no critique partners, had never met any other writers, and had never shown my MS(s) to anyone but my spouse (whose feedback had been--"I guess they're okay...I don't read fiction, though.") I did write fanfiction in my teens, however. I'd trunked 2 manuscripts before that first yes, and the handful of rejection letters I'd gotten had been form rejects.]

I want to write, whether or not I can make a living off it, so I do. My spouse's job (plus low recurring expenses--no kids, no mortgage, no student loans) provides enough stability (aka great health insurance) for me to embrace this potentially non-paying career with a clear conscience, at least for the next 2.5 years (this particular station is one that's not conducive for spousal employment in any event, so the opportunity cost until we switch countries is pretty low....)

Full Steam Ahead!

I too just went full steam ahead! I think it's just something you feel and you go with it when the wave takes hold of you.

I had been writing poetry for years and hardly got anywhere with it, until one day I saw an open submission call for vampire erotica. I had only ever written short stories for friends of mine, but I thought, What the hell? I scratched my chin, pulled out my laptop, started clickity-clackin, and, before I knew it, I had finished my first work. I submitted it to five publishers and within a month I got a revise and resubmit (R&R) and now I'm pending a contract. During the waiting period, I wrote another novella with a military theme and submitted that to just one publisher and got contracted within a few days.

I'm not trying to gloat here, I'm just saying that if you have it, then you will know. I'm not even saying that its like a 'destiny' or 'fated' type of thing, you just have to keep submitting and keep seeing what works and what doesn't work. Never give up. If you really want to get into erotica, just write, keep writing, take advice from editors/other writers in the genre, and keep resubmitting until you catch someone's eye.

It will eventually happen and if it doesn't, then try a different genre. Just because you can't write erotica or westerns or historical epics, doesn't mean you aren't good at sweet romances or sci-fi or poetry.

Just keep writing!

Cheers,

~MH~

Query Letters!

The other revelation to getting a publisher interested in your work is the Query Letter! After tons of rejections in other genres, I finally did some hardcore research on writing a good query letter and it paid off!

Keys to a successful Query Letter and publisher relationship:

1-Research the publisher (make sure what you're submitting is what they want to see and edit, edit, edit before submitting!)
2-Address the Editors by name
3-Personalize (Don't just write a blanketed letter, show them you know their publishing house and it's all about them)
4-Follow Submission instructions/guidelines to a "T"
5-Be Patient!
6-Don't retaliate if you get a rejection!
7-Listen to feedback and fine-tune your manuscript
8-Resubmit
9-Don't ever give up!

Cheers,

~MH~

I didn't know if I could write or not. I just started writing what came to my mind about a story I had already been thinking about. I didn't follow any rules except spelling and grammar. I definitely wasn't paying any attention to word length and being as long as it is, well over 260 thousand words, I was thinking about tightening it up as best as I can and putting it on it's own website.

My story has been a little different from my fellow writers on here. Frankly, my grammar and spelling is still subpar.Nevertheless, I never allow anything to stop my writing career including my own shortcomings. During my high school years, I spend three years attending journalism and poetry courses. I would win tons of poetry contests in middle school and high school due to my outrageous imagination and poetic skills. In fact, my writing got me accepted into a great art school at the age of 17. I used to write erotic poetry and short stories back in high school. However, my career did take off until I started writing hardcore porngraphic material for adult entertainment companies such as phone sex companies. Meanwhile, I would also sell gory horror short stories for mini punk zines at the age of 19. My self-publishing erotic career has been nice because I already had a build-in audience. Thus, my writing career was born out of trial and error

I actually started out as an artist. I've always loved to draw and create characters since I was in elementary school. From just doodles, I began to make simple comics and develop stories. When I was in middle school I got really into creating fan-characters and writing fan-fiction for my favorite video game series. Eventually in college this turned into writing and publishing erotic fan-fiction and original fiction online. Now I've finally finished writing my first novel and handed it over for editing! It's been a long process, but I'm excited to see what comes next... Hopefully, getting published or self-publishing.