Smokey’s World

Here I’ll tell you a bit about my writing, in the form of their collective dynamics and surroundings. A good place to start is geography. The Smokey Sagas feature characters—both main and supporting—from a number of different parts of the world, but in the grand tradition of horror lit King Stephen, whose stories are definitively set in the state of Maine, all of my stories are set and take place in a fictional enormous city: a town, countryside and downtown metropolis. Unlike John Hughes’ fictional Shermer (which is basically the same as his beloved Chicago), my city has no name. It is also, however, found in Midwestern America, just about halfway between Minneapolis and Chicago. The city itself has no name, but its counties, regions and streets do.

I am an American, and therefore feel the most sense is made by setting my stories here. Though I do not live in the Midwest, it is one of my favorite parts of the country. In writing my first couple Sagas, I didn’t worry about choosing a set location; it seemed less than important. It’s not vital in all cases, but I do feel it’s good to give the Reader that bit of geographical context, for a sense of completion. Some Readers like to be given this info upfront to carry with them throughout the journey.

Another thing I like to do is open many stories—not all, but several—with an image of the natural meterological scene going on outdoors, whatever the time of year. Every story is given a date and time, once more, for establishing purposes. This also may not be direly necessary information, but I like to be thorough. I enjoy painting the whole picture. Which leads me to the following paragraph.

Admittedly, I haven’t read a great deal of Lit stories other than my own. This may not make me a very attentive member; it’s a personal thing. There are reasons, they’re just very complicated. But I speculate nonetheless that my Sagas exceed the normal average length of many others’. I begin by typing them in Microsoft Word documents, 8-point Georgia font, and most of them range from nine up to twelve or thirteen pages in this format. On the Lit site, this translates to four or five pages. As this is a site for erotic stories, lots of authors keep their content to a sexual minimum. There’s clearly nothing wrong with this. I, on the other hand, like to elaborate.

I do consider my writing style decently unique. I like to create three-dimensional characters with detailed backgrounds. Most Readers respond well to well-developed characters, as this gives them an opportunity to find things in the characters to which they can relate themselves. So in writing characters I do my best to give them a balance between accessibility to your average Reader with common human traits, and uniqueness by giving most of them some sort of quirky or whimsical flair.

I consider the story good if I can shape it with an arc that moves things along and keeps the Reader interested—obviously—and also give it a bit of a twist that may or may not have been seen coming. I think it’s fun to throw things in that are wacky or illogical as well and make a Reader sit up and say, “...Huh?” There are lots and lots of stories out there already, making it already difficult to captivate a Reader’s attention to begin with. If things get boring and predictable, that’s...not so great.

I’m extremely grateful for Reader support and feedback, and for those who’ve shown me approval—especially on multiple occasions. More experienced members and authors told me if I wrote and posted on Literotica long enough, eventually I would begin garnering a fanbase. I was unsure if this was true, particularly if the quality of my stories was less than stellar, or not quite up to par, but I think I am doing something right, based on some of the reactions I’ve gotten. This has become such a big part of my life, it has me all but obsessed by this point. I have a YouTube channel as well, but its content stems from pop culture I’m a fan of, but didn’t actually create myself. Lit, on the other hand—this, these stories, are all mine. Directly from my imagination, a little inspiration here and there, but bottom line, they’re my own original stories. And I love writing them.

I think I’m pretty competent at this, and it isn’t often I come across activities I both am skilled at and genuinely enjoy. Perhaps this could grow into something more one day. For now, it’s a nice hobby. I try to put some real heart and emotion into my stories along with eroticism and intimacy, and I think it shows. It is now time to retire for the night, but I will certainly return to blog on this some more soon! Thanks for dropping by! —Smoke