Joie J.

Huh!? What will Watkins do without you?

Otis is supremely cute. This was the butt stuff! Hehe, so cute! “Well, since popping your cherry tonight is out of the question--” “Why?” Did Otis act shy only when it was convenient? Hudson sucked in a breath. “Let’s say I’m not ready.” “Why?” Hudson groaned and grabbed Otis by the cheeks, pulling them hard. This ☝️part too is very cute! I like the way Otis countered Hudson's temporary offer. Hudson on the other hand will be so damn wrong to think a pragmatic person to be emotionless! I'm warning you Hudson, you hunk with a bug gun, if you make my little bro Otis cry, I'll treat you the way Hulk treated Loki! I don't think I'm gonna feel much sorry for the brutal demise of Olivia Bendecker for how she tortured Otis, but it's too early to make such comment. Otis, lil-Bro, have another hug from me.

Thank you so much for responding @Zombie! (Here, have a lame joke from me - nowadays, even zombies respond, lol!) I never much cared about writer's block 'cause stories come to me. Maybe not all the time but if I stick around, they do come. And I guess that's the case with everyone; stay put in your chair and stories will come to you. And yeah, prompts make that process much easier. Thanks for nullifying my guilt for using prompts.

Thank you so much for responding with your valuable inputs! It's so true; if you aren't motivated to write, inspiration alone won't suffice. Only this July, I was home alone on a weekend night and I had no compulsion to cater to for the next two days. Cherry on top, it was raining. So I brewed a cup of tea upto the brim, dimmed down the room light, opened my diary where I scribble my ideas and sat in front of my laptop screen....for 3 hours and NOTHING came out of me! Motivation must be there or else your inspiration will feel helpless and vice versa.

Going on a long journey without knowing where you are headed for - that's such a daunting yet intriguing advice to work with! Without a doubt, that's a fruitful advice as, pardon me for going off topic again but, Love in the Shadows is such an everlasting and passionate world to experience!!

I don't see why I won't get along. You all are offering me something I needed the most and could never ask for. Two years ago, when @Laura S. Fox first suggested me to join the GA community, I was somewhat sceptical. Why would some published authors ever help me? But now I know better. I'm not just thankful but grateful to you all. I look forward to sharing, discussing and improving my craft with you.

And now I don't know what to say! Obviously, I thank you for responding and then, I can't thank you enough for that gracious offer in the end. I didn't even clearly mention my problem with writing long form stories; I only brushed over the issue and you hit the nail on the head. The problem with writing too many short stories, for a long time, is that you may get stuck with that writing process, or better call it, the writing decipline. When I write a short fic, with a prompt or without, I don't spend much time thinking about the back story; maybe a little but not too intricately. A situation or an incident conjures up in my head and that's nearly enough. All left for me to do after that point is some fine tuning and I'm done. In short forms, you can get into the story very late and get out early and still it works. But that's not the case with longer formats. Hence, my trouble. I never learnt how to think a long story. Usually, I get a situation and the voice of one or two characters and that's it; I let that character work on its own through the synthesized situation. But plotting before or after that situation is a different ball game. I've asked other authors as well and they've all suggested the same as you did. I need to spend more time with one idea before deciding that there's no story to tell beyond a handful of scenes. Thank you @astone2292 for somehow understanding what I particularly needed and allowing me to seek for your invaluable assistance. I apologise for skidding off the the topic of discussion but I thought I must address the issue raised.

That is exactly why I signed up in GA. I was waiting to purchase the author's badge for when I have at least one finished story with multiple chapters in it. So far, I have written hundreds and hundreds of short stories, but no novel length story. I guess I just have to jump right in and start with what I have ready at hand. Short fics it is then.

Thank you so much for responding. Only I know how much this helps! Yes, I've witnessed people's imaginative powers first hand. The writing challenges I've participated in, so far, have shown me how a single image or a word can spark worlds or characters in creative minds that transcends genres and evoke dramas I could've hardly imagined in such diverse scenarios. And also, thank you for mentioning the GA Friday prompts, as I haven't come across them yet. GA is such a vast platform, I believe I haven't seen half of it. I will look into those prompts soon.

Oh yes, I very recently discovered them. I've only read a few stories and I unequivocally agree with you; authors on this platform have a wide and wild range of imagination. With time, I'll be reading more of them.

Thank you for taking a time out and responding in such details! As I've said before, I lack experience, especially in sharing my work with others and hence there is this dearth of feedback on my written pieces. I believe that's what bestowed these doubts in my conscience regarding my writing authenticity.

Thanks a lot! You all are way more experienced than I am, so your words are like assurance to me that maybe I'm still on the right track.

Wow and thank you! The "wow" is for how you came up with this effective analogy and thank you for what you said makes perfect sense to me.

And now you are defending him 😏😏😏 I guess this is the initial phase of your true love!

Let me share my personal experience with using story prompts, to give you an idea about where does this question arrive from. So I've participated in many of those daily or weekly writing challenges, posted on websites like Writer's Digest etc. And to be honest, I love writing flash fictions on spot, so much so that writing a Tuesday Flash Fiction has become a habit of mine. And some of the stories that I created out of a single word or a picture prompt had left me fairly surprised; I never knew such characters or worlds could take brith out of me. Then again, here's my personal tussle - using a prompt to write a story feels good but only initially. After a point it feels like although the creation is mine, the seed was planted from the outside and didn't come from with in. My own work doesn't feel pure to me, as if I compromised with my authenticity. Let me know, if you can, whether using prompt ever bothered you or not. And if it does, then to what degree do you allow yourself to use those "external seeds?"

For now, your Xpress will do 🙃

Wow! You are publicly declaring that you've got some severe hots for Connor!! 🤩

Look, Rusty is Sahara-in-Antarctica level hot and way more hotter than Jakub Józef Orliński (sorry Jakub). So whatever path he chooses, I'll be there in the audience, in his greenroom and in all the other rooms we both plan to share together 🙃 But yeah, I also won't him to explore beyond Opera.

Yup and I liked his banter with Rusty too. Yeah, he actually looks (reads) cuter. 😃

@J.El will always be there to purchase most of that dirty water!

Woooh, what a cool cool chapter! When Matty said, “So, no threesome? You, me, Jamie?” - I could almost here Watkins, Connor and @J.El screaming Maddox and Rusty! That's some high potential sexiness for another multiverse 😍 I wonder what Johnathan, Kane and Dex are planning? Must be something amazing. I'm eager to read when Rusty finally confronts Parker senior. I don't know why but something tells the that once Rusty's mum wakes up, she's gonna love and accept Matty beyond Rusty's expectation. Now that other things are getting sorted out, it's time for us to put on our boots and prepare for kicking Connor Williams' ass out of Sunny Hills. BTW, @J.El, I liked today's edition of the Xpress. Good job and keep it up. 👍

You see Rusty, how much I love you 😘 Always the first, just for you 😁

So far the reviews aren't very much in alignment with my expectations but I can still hope, right? Emerald Fennell didn't disappoint me with her previous works, like at all. Plus, as a huge admirer of Donna Tartt's The Secret History, my excitement is, I believe, fairly justified. If I'm not wrong then Saltburn is a story that deals with truly influential beauties and their horrors. What are your thoughts on this?

You can always try series like Smiley (2022) or Uncoupled (2022)....only if you have some free time and no intention to use them productively. 🙃