Week 27 (November 30-December 6) Craft
When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

I try to be objective about the work I analyse. I would say I don’t strive to be kind nor harsh

#EroticMusings #WritingCommunity

A new month means a new divider toot, the prompts can be found here
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/110845744719634267

on the profile of @pentup

Or by using the # EroticMusingsQ, if you just eliminate the space between the # and the E.

And here you can find my collection toot for December of all Prompt Games I answer in December:
https://nerdculture.de/@AnnaSaultron/115644277450285375

Ere we go ;D

#EroticMusings #December2025

#EroticMusings Week 27 Craft - When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

Being mindful that you can't make brilliant stuff if you never make horrible crap.

We're taught not to be wrong, when there is real value in it. Make crap, write cringe, honour the mistakes you've made, acknowledge all you've learned from it, and recognize the value of the full quality spectrum of your creativity.

#writing #art

#ScribesAndMakers 1. What creative projects do you hope to work on this month?

I'll keep up on CharmedAway and hopefully build up a little more buffer (but given where I am in the story, it might be slow going).

I hope to do a few more pages of Tales from Hell.

I'll do something with elves (Maybe the Charmed Away elves? Not sure yet) for the #EroticMusings Christmas prompt. Just one image though, no getting carried away!

I want to go outside and gather some stuff for a summer altar.

#EroticMusings Week 27 Craft - When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

Combination of laughing at the silliness of some of my own mistakes and remembering some of the mistakes I've seen in print. :blobcatgiggle:

#eroticMusings Week 27 (November 30-December 6) Craft When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

If I am feeling judgmental about something I wrote, usually because I think it's boring. I remind myself it always turns out pretty good in the end.

#NMEM #NMPrompts

#eroticMusings Week 27 (November 30-December 6) Craft When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

I'm at a stage where I know I can write competently and the works I create are not "me" so editing them doesn't "hurt" - at worst I might be amused at an error.

I don't have to be especially nice to myself because I'm not harming myself.

(Not that I treat myself poorly in the first place at any time.)

#writing

Week 27 (30.11.2025 to 06.12.2025): When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

I don't.
I'm stubborn, or in nicer terms very focused on, creating outside of my head, what my head came up with.
I already know, from the beginning, that I am unable to reproduce what it is inside my head, exactly as it is.
So I try my best to do it 110% fail, get up, fix it as good as possible, tada and move on.

#EroticMusings Week 27 (30.11.2025 to 06.12.2025):

#EroticMusings 27 cont. I even think low expectations might be what drew me to erotica in the first place. No offence to other creators! There's a lot of really great erotica out there!

But I've enjoyed (ahem) more than my fair share of mediocre erotica and objectively broken porn games, simply because they caught me in the right way and pushed my buttons on the day, and it made me realise I could create something that some people would enjoy, even if it was flawed.

RE: https://mastodon.art/@pentup/115636776063065401

#EroticMusings 27: When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

There is a scene in the Boondocks TV Show where Thugnificent, a rapper who only exists within the show, is giving an interview. When asked to clarify lyrics from a song he wrote earlier in his career, he declines.

"'Booty butt cheeks,' 'Move them butt cheeks,' who cares? It's a song about ass"

It's funny, but it's true. The art isn't meant for study or close reading; it's meant to incite an emotion, a feeling, and cause action. The lyrics are less important than whether or not it makes you wanna throw ass.

#BeatPreyLove is somewhat similar. Yes, i love these characters and their designs and yes i want to improve as a writer, and yes i want to depict fleshed out characters in a believable urban fantasy world, but I'm writing Combat Sports Porn. Internal consistency and peerless prose are less important than if it the end result is sexy. If people want to fuck my characters, or want to know who my characters are fucking and how, or read my work and want to fuck anyone at all? Then I've done my fucking job (pun intended).

Self-kindness is putting things in their proper perspective. If my #erotica #writing incites interest or curiosity or joy or arousal, I'm fucking winning.

Edit:
The fucking in question: https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1867593/beat-prey-love/

#EroticMusings 27: When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

I can be very fussy and pedantic when it comes to critique, but with my erotic comics, I manage to be far kinder to myself than I might normally be.

I recognise that I'm still learning, and in the very early stages of my creative journey, so I know I CAN'T expect perfection. As long as I still see growth, evolution, and above all persistence, I'm happy.

Here's the upcoming #EroticMusingsQ's for December. The first is a whole week away (I just posted this week's final Movember question) but there's a bonus question you can answer any time.

#EroticMusings Final Question? Would you like Erotic Musings to continue into the new year? Any changes?

#Erotica #Comics #NSFWArt #WritingCommunity #MastoArt

When I refer to practicing self-kindness in this week's #EroticMusingsQ, that's not a saucy euphemism. (Or maybe it is? I'm not judging!)

#EroticMusings 27: When it comes to reflecting on and assessing your own work, how do you practice self-kindness?

#EroticMusings Week 26, How is masculinity visually expressed, highlighted, or accessorised in your work or setting?

Physical attributes play a part ( a big part in the case of "Brick", he's a huge beast of a man with muscles on muscles - but he's such a sap when he's not in warrior mode ) - but behaviour is mostly used to portray masculinity in its various forms - toxic to nice guy stuff.

Accessories play a nominal role for warriors of whatever persuasion. (Off duty - doesn't happen much!)

#EroticMusings Week 26, How is masculinity visually expressed, highlighted, or accessorised in your work or setting?

In how they carry themselves. The same amount of muscles and hair looks differently depending on the attitude, and poise of the character. Which, ultimately, is part of a depth of character and a dynamic established in the narrative.

#writingcommunity

#EroticMusings 2025.11.23 — Week 26 (November 23-29) Setting: How is masculinity visually expressed, highlighted, or accessorized in your work or setting?

Let's ignore that in a spicy story there is one obvious (and NSFW) way masculinity can be visually expressed.

Beyond that, it is surprising how much of what we consider masculine behavior is enculturation of gender roles, and since the story messes with these in a big way, I get to distill masculinity down for the reader to the essentials, especially since male aggression IS NOT SEXY. I certainly can't rely on modern masculine tropes or stereotypes, but nevertheless must convince a modern audience.

Visually, with the initial caveat, men look male. I touched on hair in an earlier #EroticMusings, but it comes down to what most women like in a man in the story, and in one case what a man likes in a man. Certainly, POV, Bolt (a woman), is only going to express or react to her preferences, for instance she does go on about men's beards. Nevertheless, she surprises herself when, as she faces her 30th birthday, that what she finds attractive in a man is the way men behave toward her, around her, and interact with each other. She felt waaaay different at 17.

Other visuals: Eye-liner (common). Grooming. Men in this society understand they need to be well packaged (as women feel pressure to be in ours), whatever your level of wealth. Bolt is a day angel; she and some of the men in the story have feathers. Not taking proper care of your molts, that is not sexy. (It's a running joke in the story). Extending one's own grooming to being able to preen a woman's wings, that is sexy. As is knowing massage. In fact, being skilled in such things is considered masculine.

Another man in the story is a praetorian. He wears armor as part of his work, and seeing him wearing all that metal that first time impresses Bolt beyond her normal sensibilities. The man in a uniform trope applies, apparently. Both sexes wear accessories like messenger bags, purses, hair clips, belts, shoes, and jewelry. However, one piece of jewelry is specifically masculine: a stud earring issued by the Genetic Registry Bureau. It can be silver, gold, or black steel with a ruby. Only one is worn at a time. Each represent a level of achievement women, and men notice, but it would extremely spoilery to explain it further.

[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory

#EroticMusings 26: How is masculinity visually expressed, highlighted, or accessorised in your work or setting?

My current roster of main characters are three cis lesbians (I plan to un-cis one of those in later books, though) and Erytan society has no other visible gender marker beyond "self-declaration".
Book three even makes the conscious decision of depiction trans man Marlius' formal attire as the same his cis female sister is wearing, simply because that's what everyone wears.
1/4

#EroticMusings 26 cont. Special note on facial hair: I very rarely use it, except for stubble, on my main characters. This is a technological limitation. I'd love to, but I worry that it would become very restrictive when it comes to that character putting their mouth on another character's mouth or elsewhere. Getting two soft bits to look good mashed together is already hard enough for me in Daz3d, without having to worry about a character's facial hair just clipping through the skin.

#EroticMusings 26: How is masculinity visually expressed, highlighted, or accessorised in your work or setting?

In a fairly stereotypical way, I must admit. My stories almost always include some genderqueerness and/or gender play, but the settings tend to be very status quo, or even a bit conservative and old-fashioned - the settings serve as a canvas for queerness, rather than being queer or challenging contemporary notions of gender in themselves.

Num. 17. #WebAuthorsCafe 11/24-30 (US Thanksgiving prompt) Do you ever do holiday-themed writing? Whether short pieces or portions of longer works.

I do sometimes try, but it's always a trap, and I end up 10% of the way through some way-too-big piece when the holiday arrives.

Prime example: Tales from Hell this Halloween (but I love it and I'm going to continue with it).

I must admit I've caved to the hegemony and put a potentially Christmassy prompt in #EroticMusings next month, too.