Today's dystopic experience: spiraling about how I live in the bad country during WWIII and then being irritated that no one responded to a survey on my smut yet.

I'mma need more authors, especially in the #indiepub and #selfpub fiction space, to be increasingly selective with your use of sentence fragments.

volume i and volume ii knobs are being adjusted by a person ALT: volume i and volume ii knobs are being adjusted by a person

You can…you can organize?

Most of my work only involves a few characters at most, so if one gets cut their role/dialogue is usually absorbed by another person. I do think it helps even minor characters to feel less one-dimensional.

So there’s a big human and a little blind vampire, and I got 14k words into them finding each other and learning about a mysterious evil corporation. Wrote action scenes, backstories, the sexy bits…Then I realized I can’t write a mystery, so I gotta retool the whole thing.

“Our story isn’t grand heroics in an ongoing war. We aren’t bringing it to a close—we’re preventing the start. I am the start. I’m the warhead, the manpower, the secret weapon, but I’m flawed. I wasn’t supposed to be born blind. I was supposed to be like everyone else, but better. Stronger. Powerful in ways that humans wouldn’t believe because there’s no science to explain it. I’m too valuable to destroy, but that just means they won’t stop trying. We have to stop them from trying again.” “So they can do what? Destroy their food source? That’s ridiculous.” “Said the cow to the farmer. Imagine being penned up, milked, herded, butchered—” "I get it." "You don’t get it. You don’t get any of it, otherwise you wouldn’t be so mean to me."

From the paranormal thriller I started years ago, but got stuck because I wrote the characters too dumb and self-involved to solve a mystery.

www.smashwords.com/profile/view...
Some of my best work:

1) The Windshield Incident series
2) Stay Away From Her
3) No Regrets (worst cover art, though)

“You have a few paragraphs—I’m not going to call them ‘stories’—about getting caught in embarrassing clothes. Accidentally wore your roommate’s dirty jockstrap, accidentally went commando in the library…” he looked at me suspiciously. “You haven’t actually gone to work without underwear, right?” “They’re characters,” I reminded him. “So me saying that Sebastian reads like the world’s dumbest human because he can’t tell the difference between his own clean underwear and Toby’s much larger dirty ones, that’s a note you won’t take personally?” I gritted my teeth. “No.” “Because you know I’m not saying that you, Oliver, are bad. Just that what you wrote is bad,” Brody continued blithely. “Critique sucks because you have to get your work torn apart without being able to justify all your decisions. But ultimately, your work improves. You can get better.” “Thank you,” I said almost automatically. Brody’s smug smile told me he was planning something. “And with that in mind, let’s give you an experience you wouldn’t have without me.”

Current #WIP serial covers a long weekend between roommates. This is a snippet from Saturday.

The ADHD outline: write out of order, use bullet points to sketch the connections between the scenes I was excited to write about, go back and fill in the outline as the spirit moves me. Yes, it takes three times longer than other methods.

Oh, right. Uh…I have books in the #Smashwords sale, too. Buncha short stories and novellas about men who kiss each other. www.smashwords.com/profile/view...

Working on it

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” Will said. “I would!” Nabila retorted cheerfully. Just then, her mom called her to come set up the media room for a movie. Will stayed with me, just as I’d hoped, and watched our classmates play on the lawn. “Let’s hang out here. Act like we’re having a serious conversation,” I ordered when people started clearing out to go inside. Will leaned his head towards me. “Aren’t we already?” I suppressed a smile. “Yes, thank you for reminding me. Blah blah blah, something something serious?” “Yeah, for sure,” he replied to my nonsense, giving a head nod to some folks passing by. “Are you still something something parents blah blah your sister something college?” I watched Lola clock Will’s tone and choose to leave us alone. “Don’t smile,” Will warned me. Trying to look concerned, I sighed loudly, “Yeah, but we’ll get through it.” He couldn’t keep laughter out of his voice. “Okay, that’s a little much.” I watched our feet kick in the electric blue water. Will had cute feet, I decided. They were very proportionate. Compared to my ankles Will's were the graceful neck of a swan. Or like a…sexy…uh…horse. Some other fitting metaphor. They had a good shape. Will jumped and looked around when I covered his hand with mine. "I missed you," I told him, still staring into the pool. When Will didn't respond I glanced at him. "Sorry, is that weird?" He shook his head. "No, I get it." "Too much, though?" This time he looked at me and smiled a little before dropping his gaze. "Not at all."

From a to-be-titled WIP about high school seniors whose friendship blossoms into romance as graduation looms. This scene is from the prom after-party.

#WIP #mmromance

There are two serials with regular chapters due keeping me from working on a third WIP. Rude.

The Man In My Bed chapter 4: To my surprise, Adam pulls back before I do. "So, hey," he says, a smirk curling one side of his mouth, "did you remember what we did last Friday night? Should I refresh your memory?" Another wave of heat floods my skin. "I did remember." "So you know I'm up for, like, other ways to find 'momentary satisfaction?'" Now I can't keep a smile from my face. "We're on a pretty tight deadline; what do you have in mind?" Adam's expression turns naughty. "I want to leave," he informs me with a nip to my chin, "with your cum on me." Say Thank You chapter 3: What I meant to say was something like, I'll read about it, like in that other, much better story. What I actually said was, "I just need a refresher." Brody stared at me as I realized what I had said and flushed hotly. Lie, and quickly. "No, what I mean is, um, I need practice." "Do you want to practice on me, Oliver?" my roommate asked as though he was making sure he'd heard me properly. When had he gotten so close to me? How was I now seated between his legs? The laptop got set on the coffee table and I watched Brody's big hand settle on his knee, just beside my head. "Ollie, if you want to suck my cock to remember what it's like, you have to tell me."

Every week the higher tier on Ream chooses the Sunday release. Which chapter would get your vote?

#serialfiction #WIP #gayerotica #reamwriters #mmromance

I’ve always been a pretty good liar. As an undiagnosed ADHD kid who had been raised by strict parents, to avoid getting in trouble I had learned early on to keep my cool, pull believable details together, and keep the excuse simple. So what if I had accidentally minimized one of my secret documents instead of closing the window? It wasn’t a big deal. I could get out of this. “Oh, okay,” I laughed sheepishly, “You found my writing exercise. That’s embarrassing.” Brody swiveled the laptop back to him on the kitchen bartop, looking unconvinced. “Toby’s big hog was punishing my mouth. I was gagging and choking—’ there’s only one C in choking, by the way ‘—and I wanted more.’ You’re trying to tell me this is for an assignment?” “What, you have my schedule memorized?” I retorted. That was good. Make it seem like he’s the weird one. His dark eyes narrowed at me. “It says, ‘He blew a fat load and I sucked it all up and smiled at him and said thank you and he said good boy and left.’ Ollie, this is fucking porn.” Of course I couldn’t fool the Creative Writing major into thinking my smut was a school project. In order to sell the lie I had to resist the primal desire to leap over the counter and smash my laptop to pieces. Believable details. Keep it cool. Simple excuse.

I'm always lowering the tone here. Ch. 1 of current serial "Say Thank You."

If your book cover is generative AI, how do I know that the contents aren’t also AI?

By the time I publish I'm usually so sick of looking at my own work that I don't read the epub. But I was redoing the cover art for one of my books, so I downloaded a copy to check the layout and *immediately* found a typo. Is there a way to burn the whole internet down real quick?

#writerproblems

Every day, Kamala Harris is proven more right.

Ream A membership platform built by authors for authors.

The premise of one of my ongoing stories is that a guy has been writing bad erotica starring his straight roommate, and the roommate finds it…and then makes him edit it. It's some of the most fun I've had with characters in a while.

reamstories.com/page/mk24tos...

#WIP #gayerotica #mmromance

“I don’t know what the fuck I’m looking at,” I whispered, turning the camera so he could see the rows of tools. “Pick whatever you were thinking of when you wrote it,” Brody advised. “Whatever you’ve used before.” Okay, now I could tell he was messing with me. One of the employees, a heavily tattooed woman wearing a harness over her tank top, put herself in my path. “Do you need help finding something?” “Oh, uh…no—” “Give them the phone,” Brody ordered. I handed the phone over in silence as the woman grinned conspiratorily. I put my earbuds back in their case. “What are we looking for today, sir?” the lady asked cheerfully. “Let’s imagine that someone has exaggerated his experience with ring gags,” I heard Brody say as she walked away.

In "Say Thank You," a current ongoing serial, from what'll probably be the 8th installment. The POV character tries to hide the depths of his inexperience from his straight roommate, who is helping edit the gay, kinky erotica our MC wrote.

There's a good chance this gets cut.

Every once in a while, when I'm ready to quit working out, I remind myself that I just need to be strong enough drop a Nazi on his head. And a lot of them are skinny because of all the meth, so…I'm getting pretty close.

Yes, but then they have to contend with their mobster families.
books2read.com/u/49Bpo8

A cat named Taylor is sending me

I'm coming from a 🏳️‍🌈 angle, but…

For the love of it
-Literotica
-Lush
-GayDemon
-Reddit

For profit
-Kindle
-Smashwords
-Eden Books

For either/both
-Patreon
-Substack
-Ream

That's the tip of the iceberg

Genuinely, what the hell does this accomplish? WHY.

From my current serial "The Man In My Bed," ch. 1

In one of my WIPs Earth is ruled by four organizations, all which began as either tech or mining companies. Is that unique or is it predictive?

Aaron puts himself between Jay and Crispin
reamstories.com/page/mk24tos...

Writing a mystery. Couldn’t make it convincing because I like writing about the dumbest dummies who are surprised when someone kisses them—how are they ever going to find a clue?

Types: I may be alone in this, but I don't mind a ginger Mr. Darcy.

Thinks: I am the bravest boy.