Ricardo Responds!
I have had many comments and queries left at the foot of my stories on this site. Of the comments, some have been rude and insulting but for the most part they have been encouraging or even flattering. I read every comment made, maybe not immediately, but I check through all my stories at least once every week or so. I try to respond to most of these comments, and indeed, have developed quite an on-going correspondence with some of my regular readers! I do tend to lose my temper with some of the rude and insulting comments and have, in some cases, written back with some rather vitriolic responses of my own!
I have no objection to criticism; on the contrary, I rather welcome it. If a reader doesn’t like my story he can either go away muttering about how awful/unrealistic/crap it was or he write a comment and tell me. If he chooses the latter course of action then he brings his comment into the public domain and I then have the right and the opportunity to respond and defend my story or accept the critiscism. If this is all conducted in a civilised manner and I can see that the critiscism is justified then I'll probably write back and tell my correspondent so; I may even re-issue the story in an amended version or make sure other stories are treated in the manner suggested. On the other hand, if the reader can see a development or sequel which might be brought into play at a later date, then I should welcome his or her views. If it seems a good idea and fits in with my style, then I’ll certainly use it. I’ll also credit any reader with the suggestion at the head of the story (see ‘Mother’s Girl 2’). If I receive a suggestion which doesn’t fit in with my style then I’ll tell you that as well. One reader is constantly suggesting events which could happen in future stories concerning some of my existing characters. Unfortunately, they are rather too blunt for me, but the guy certainly has a vivid imagination and I’ve suggested he should write the stories himself! I don’t mean this to sound rude. He has the ideas; why give them to someone else?!
At the head of this text, I spoke of comments and queries. By far the most common query has been from readers who would like to write their own stories, who have asked me how to write. It’s this aspect which has prompted me to compose this particular piece. I don’t suppose it is going to do much for my overall ‘score’ or indeed give this piece a starring role in the ‘best ever’ category, but I get so much enjoyment writing these stories (it’s a diversion from the writing I do in ‘my other life’ away from this site) that I would like to encourage others to ‘have a go!’
How do you start? Well, in general fiction, that might be difficult, but on this site, the content is already broadly defined for you isn’t it? You must have an interest in the subject because that’s why you are surfing here anyway! You feel the need to write erotic fiction and there’s probably one particular category that interests you more than others, so you start with that. In my case, I’ve always been turned on by Corporal Punishment (CP) so that’s what my early stories were all about. I have a very broad and erotic imagination and so ideas have never been a problem, but I’ll make a confession here which may be of use to you………….
CP readership is dedicated but limited. One day, I decided to research the site to see what the subject matter was for those stories which seem to really take off and so I read all those which were approaching, at the time, the 100,000 readership mark. I discovered that they were what I should categorise as ‘on the edge’ themes, and the most common of these seemed to be ‘incest’. I am more broadminded than most but a lot of those ‘edge’ themes are too much for me. I’d feel uneasy writing about such subjects and I decided to leave them well alone, but although the practice of incest is a crime, I for one, have felt turned on by close female members of my family from my teen years upwards as I suspect have most members of the human race! Surely it’s better to get it out of your system through fantasy? After all, our womenfolk are sexually mature members of our own species and as such are available as the objects of active male (or female) sexual desire by any non family member. If, when I was at school, a teenaged school friend got an erection at the thought of fucking my Mother, then why shouldn’t I also get one at the same thought! I don’t have to tell Mother what I’m thinking, do I? And I’m sure my school friend won’t tell her how he feels! (Nor what he does under the bedclothes every night while thinking about her!)
With these ideas buzzing round in my head, I decided to write a story with incest as it’s central theme (although there’s a little bit of spanking as well!) and the result was ‘Keep it in the family’ which has far outstripped everything else I’ve written. Its approaching a readership of 30,000 whereas my most read CP story (‘Her first thrashing’ ) which has been around for much longer, has only about half that.
Another thought occurs to me here. It’s essential to get the title correct. ‘her first thrashing’
was originally written as ‘in the gymnasium’, but for a reason I’ll go into in next, I decided this didn’t have enough impact; furthermore, it didn’t give an instant clue as to what the story was about. This ‘impact’ thing I spoke of; One of my early stories (and I mean written years before I discovered XNXX) I called ‘OTK and the Aftermath’ (it originally appeared on a dedicated CP site)and that’s how it appeared on this site. I submitted with two others which rapidly outstripped it in ‘reads’ I asked the webmaster for permission to re-title it, but this apparently cannot be done. I came to the conclusion that the title was meaningless to readers not into CP (OTK means ‘Over the Knee’) and so I decided to conduct a little experiment. I made a slight edit to the story, put an explanatory paragraph in at the start and re-submitted it as ‘A good hard spanking for Sue!’ Nobody could have any doubts what that was about, could they? As I write this, the story in its original format has been read 5012 times and has had ‘no comments’ but the new version has had 7152 reads and has attracted 6 comments! Point made, I think!
So, what do you need to write a story? You must have imagination. Without it, you’re going nowhere (although many of my stories have their roots in truth ..... something genuinly from my past eg 'In at the deep end' ..... my school was like that! and 'Six of the best' was based on a story told me by a former girlfriend about an actual event at her school) You must be able to express yourself in word pictures. I liken it to imagining a scene like a stage set. Could be a school, an office, your own (or a previous) house, a leafy glade, your car …..anywhere. I then work out the characters who will appear on my ‘stage’, drop them down on it, and see where they go to! Are you writing in the first or third person? If it's the former are you telling this as yourself? If you are; are you writing AS yourself or someone else… I sometimes write as my female ‘alter ego’ Rachael and sometimes as an un-named 25 year old lesbian in the ‘Mother’s Girl’ stories. All adds to the challenge! And another thing; with what degree of intamcy are you going to address your audience? At the beginning of this piece I adopted an impersonal style adressing my readership in the abstract, but when I'd written three paragraphs and began to answer that question 'How do I start?', then I switch to a much more personal and intimate way of address .... almost as if we were enjoying a quiet drink together and I was giving a good friend a bit of advice!
Right! Imagine that you’re telling yourself a story; try to imagine the dialogue and make it realistic. Don’t over emphasise the dialogue part; you’re not writing a play and you’ll slow the action down (Its OK in longer stories but not in these). Try to see both sides of the conversation if you do insert dialogue. One sided speech is very obvious. Don’t drag the story line out. In most cases a short story will have more impact than pages of waffle. Think what sort of audience you hope to attract (and what use they will probably make of your story ………. Don’t be shy …. We’re all sexually active animals)
Above all.. HAVE FUN ……… nothing you write in this genre is going to win you the Booker Prize! Enjoy the experience of giving others a pleasant quarter of an hour or so!
Ricardo
