Maybe you have a scene that feels flat. Dialogue that sounds wrong. An idea that needs an outside perspective. Two characters who are supposed to have incredible chemistry but currently have all the sexual tension of a tax return.

That’s what Workshop Wednesday will be for.

What Can I Workshop?

Pretty much anything connected to your writing. With a maximum of 800 words for any story snippet posted.

● A scene or excerpt you want feedback on
● A plot you’re struggling to develop
● A character who isn’t quite working
● Dialogue you can’t get right
● Worldbuilding questions
● An RP premise you want help developing
● A partner-search post that isn’t attracting the kind of writers you’re looking for
● Questions about pacing, characterization, tension, description, POV or other aspects of writing
● Or an idea you want to bounce off some other writers

Your work doesn’t need to be polished.
Actually, that’s the point.

How Do I Participate?

Workshop Wednesday is not confined to this thread. Make your own post so your question or writing gets its own discussion. Use the Workshop Wednesday post flair so other members know you’re looking for feedback.

And please tell people what kind of help you’re looking for.

“Thoughts?” can be difficult to answer.

“Does this dialogue sound natural?”

“Is the attraction between these characters coming across?”

“I’m worried I’m dumping too much exposition here—where would you cut?”

Those give your fellow writers somewhere useful to start.

If You’re Giving Feedback…

Be constructive.

You don’t have to like everything you read. You don’t have to pretend something works when you don’t think it does. Useful criticism is absolutely welcome here.

But remember:
Critique the writing, not the fantasy.
Someone asking for help with their craft is not inviting you to shame their interests, kinks, characters, pairings, or preferences.
Explain why something isn’t working for you when you can, and remember that the goal isn’t to rewrite somebody else’s story into the story you would have written.

And if something simply isn’t your thing?
You can keep scrolling.

Don’t Have Anything to Workshop?
You can still participate!

Browse today’s Workshop Wednesday posts and see whether another writer could use your eyes, experience, or ideas. Sometimes the thing one writer has been fighting with for three days is immediately obvious to someone encountering it for the first time.

So drag out the troublesome scenes. Bring us the stubborn characters. Show us the plots held together with string and increasingly desperate notes to yourself.
The workshop is open.

Welcome to our very first Prompt Adoption thread…

Every writer has them…. That plot you thought of at 2am and swore you’d write someday? The character concept you absolutely love but can’t find a story for? The story idea that’s been sitting abandoned in your notes for six months? The wonderfully specific scenario your brain created that you simply don’t have the time, partner, or inclination to write? Today we are giving those ideas a chance to find a new home.

How Does Prompt Adoption Work?
Post the ideas that you are comfortable in allowing other writers to explore in the comments below. They can be as simple or as detailed as you like. Although any snippets of a story may not exceed 400 words. It can also be as simple as a single sentence concept of a story, or a setting or characters.

See something in the comments that sparks your imagination? Adopt it! Reply to the original comment to let the writer know their wayward little plot bunny has found a home, then take it away and see what you can make of it.

A Few Ground Rules
By posting in this thread you are giving other writers permission to use and adapt this idea. That means the person who adopts it may change characters, settings, dynamics, details, or take the story somewhere completely different from what you originally imagined. Please don’t post anything here that you aren’t comfortable seeing another writer make their own.

Likewise, adopting a prompt doesn’t give you exclusive ownership of the underlying idea. More than one person may be inspired by the same prompt, and that’s perfectly okay. Nor may you use the idea for commercial purposes.

This is not a partner-search thread. Posting a prompt for adoption means you’re offering the idea to other writers; it doesn’t mean you’re volunteering to write or roleplay it with whoever adopts it.

All regular r/DirtyStoryWriting rules still apply.

What Can I Post?
Pretty much anything that might give another writer somewhere interesting to begin. Maybe it’s an entire premise you’ve abandoned. Maybe it’s a character biography. Maybe it’s just a single setting.

Maybe it’s just:
Two rival treasure hunters discover the artifact they’re fighting over is considerably more interested in them than either expected.

Or:
Someone realizes halfway through a masquerade that they’ve been flirting all evening with the one person they absolutely shouldn’t be.

It doesn’t even have to be explicitly erotic. Give people the bones of an interesting idea and let them decide what happens next. And if you’ve got more than one homeless plot bunny rattling around in your notes? Bring them all.

Let’s see what this community can do with each other’s abandoned ideas.

Happy adopting!

Our first ever r/DirtyStoryWriting Writing Challenge is officially complete!

First, a huge thank you to everyone who participated in in Writing Challenge No 01: "The Almost", whether you submitted an entry, read the stories, upvoted, left comments or joined the discussion in the challenge thread. We had three writers submit entries to our very first challenge, which I'm calling a pretty damn good start. Let's give u/Natalie_And_You, u/Simsimbaby, and u/SmashMyKeys a round of applause for their entries into the challenge.

Second, the first challenge us some useful feedback about these events should work going forward.

You Asked for More Time - You Got It!

One of the biggest pieces of feedback was that announcing a challenge on the Monday and closing submissions that same night simply didn't give people enough time to brainstorm, write, edit and participate. Fair point! Going forward, Writing Challenges will be announced in advance rather than functioning as a single-day event. Writers will have a few more days to work on their submissions before the challenge deadline.

We're also working on a Writing Challenge calendar so you'll be able to see upcoming challenges ahead of time. If something catches your imagination, you'll have time to start thinking about it before submissions open. More details on that soon!

A Few Challenge Rules, Clarified

The first challenge also brought up a few questions that weren't addressed clearly enough in the original post, so let's get those settled for future challenges.

• One submission per writer, per challenge.
• Your submission does not have to be a standalone story. You're welcome to write something completely new for the challenge, use existing characters, or submit a scene that fits into a larger or ongoing story. The important thing is that the entry works with that challenge's theme or restriction.
• The 400 - 1,000 word limit will remain in place.
• As always, all of the regular rules of the sub still apply to challenge entries.

What Happens Next?

Remember that our Monday events alternate. Next Monday, the 24th of August, will be our first Prompt Adoption, where you can bring plots, characters, scenarios, settings, or those wonderfully specific ideas living in your head that you may never get around to writing yourself. Release them into the wild for another writer to adopt and make their own! Wednesday, the 26th of August, will also bring our first Workshop Wednesday where you may bring ideas, writing, plots, etc to users in the sub for helpful critique and suggestions. The following Monday, the 31st of August, Writing Challenge No 02 arrives.

There is more coming, so keep an eye on any pinned posts here in the sub for more details.

And finally: keep giving us feedback.

These events are new. We fully expect to adjust them as we discover what works, what doesn't and what makes people actually want to participate.

Thank you everyone who took part in our first event!

Welcome to our first ever Writing Challenge! This week we will be kicking off the exercise with the prompt:

“The Almost”

Write a scene centered around characters who desperately want to be together, but cannot. They can flirt. They can kiss. They can touch. But they cannot have sex. Maybe they get interrupted, or perhaps are physically prevented from the act. Whatever reason you decide they cannot cross the line and give in.

This challenge puts the emphasis on erotic writing. Tension, anticipation, body language, dialogue, pacing. It will work with any setting as well. Explicit content is not required, but is of course allowed.

Remember the rules for writing challenges:

• posts must be flaired with “Writing Challenge”
• posts must be a minimum of 400 words, and a maximum of 1,000 words
• all the other rules of the subreddit still apply

Recently we asked users what they would like to see happen with this subreddit. We listened to everyone's ideas and suggestions.

It's time to breathe a little more life into r/DirtyStoryWriting.

At its heart, this subreddit is a place for collaborative erotic writing: finding writing partners, sharing ideas, developing stories together and enjoying the creative side of roleplay. We would like to build on that by giving everyone more reasons to participate even when you aren't actively seeking a new partner.

So, over the next few weeks you'll start seeing some changes around the subreddit.

📅 WEEKLY COMMUNITY EVENTS

We're introducing three regular community days:

Monday - alternating weeks with Prompt Adoption and Writing Challenges

Beginning the 17th of August we will alternate between two events.

• Prompt Adoption will be a community thread where you can share plots, scenarios, characters, settings or other ideas that you are happy to release into the wild for another writer to use. See an idea you love? Adopt it, adapt it and make it your own. These will be contained on a single pinned thread for that week.
• Writing Challenge will be built around a theme, trope, scenario, restriction, opening line or other creative challenge. Challenge entries will be posted individually so writers can receive comments and reactions to their work. Entries will have a minimum word count of 400 and a maximum of 1,000. They must be marked with the "Writing Challenge" flair or will be removed.

Wednesday - Workshop Wednesday

Beginning the 26th of August. Have an idea you can't quite make work? A scene that needs another pair of eyes? Dialogue that feels flat? A character or world you want help developing? Workshop Wednesday will be our space for writers to ask other writers for constructive feedback. Workshop submissions will be posted individually allowing each writer and their work to have its own discussion. They must be marked with the "Workshop Wednesday" flair or will be removed. One important principle here: critique the writing, not the fantasy. Constructive criticism is welcome. Shaming someone for the subject matter they enjoy writing is not.

Saturday - Sharing is Caring

Beginning on the 29th of August, Saturday is for showing off. Each Saturday we will have a community thread where you can share an excerpt of your writing that you are particularly proud of. It might be a fantastic bit of dialogue, a scene that came together flawlessly, an introduction you loved, or simply something you wrote this week that made you think, 'damn, I did that well'. What this is not: a thread for critique and criticism. It's a chance to read each other's work, celebrate good writing and maybe discover writers whose styles catch your attention.

🏷 Post Flairs Are Getting an Overhaul

You may have already noticed changes to our post flairs. Some of our existing flairs no longer fit the way the subreddit is being use, while our new community events need a few additions of their own. We will be cleaning up outdated flairs, adding new ones, and generally trying to make it easier to tell at a glance what kind of post you are looking at. There may be some shuffling while we get everything settled, but we will announce any changes that affect how you should flair your posts.

✒ User Flairs are Coming Too

This one will take a little longer, but we also plan to introduce user flairs. We're still deciding exactly what those will look like and how they'll work. The goal is to give regular members of the community a way to express what kind of writer they are and, potentially, recognize people who contribute positively to the subreddit. More on that once we've worked out the details.

...and this is just the beginning.

None of these additions change the core purpose of r/DirtyStoryWriting. You can still come here to find partners for collaborative erotic writing and roleplay. What we want to add is the community around it. A place where writers don't disappear the moment they've found a partner. Where people can swap ideas, experiment with their writing, help each other improve, show off something they are proud of, and occasionally stumble across someone and think" 'Oh, I really want to write with them'. We'll be rolling these changes out gradually, seeing what people actually participate in and adjusting things as we go. Consider this the beginning of the next chapter for the subreddit.