Observations

Well, here I am. Five years in as an author and one year in as a "Trying to get paid" author. I don't think of my time on Literotica as being misspent, no not at all. The connections alone that it made me are worth their weight in gold. I would not be even trying something like this without them So I owe all of this to them ... be it the friends that helped me or the naysayers that goaded me forwards.

Five years. Seems like I was just writing "Tit's for tats" sitting waiting for those first reviews to come in. How many comments since then? How many long nights getting stories ready for contest? How much listening to people talk crap about my friends, how the group I'm in can only win if we cheated? Some of the best writers I've ever met and they could only win by cheating? Sigh

Be it those first painful comments, the research, the mud throwing or the friendships all of that has been a gift. One I didn't see at the time as such, sure. But see that's the thing of it. We never see the bad as good when it's happening to us, only in hindsight. Now I'm a long way from being a great writer, hell I'm not even what I would call a good one yet, but I am a writer. And this writer has seen a lot in that five years.

Erotica is a tough arena to fight in. You're not considered a serious writer. Even the best paid are taken to task for every misplaced comma. Too many see it as an easy path. "Sex sells" That is almost laugh about, I couldn't buy the coffee I've drank in the time I've been writing. Contest winnings or not.

There area million authors walking this same trail up the mountain. That led me to think maybe a few of them have not seem the things I have, they have not been in the same muddy trenches, eaten the same dirt. Maybe telling what I've learned would be a help to them.

So I took the best 100 things I've noticed, be they rules, tips, simple common sense things and pilled them all into my first try at non-fiction. Will it float? Don't know, but like I always say.

"Time to roll the dice."

MST