1. Archerland Updates By Nick Archer

Really, it’s more of an evolution than revolution. The main change is a clarification of focus.

Change: Updating the Mission Statement (also reflected on the Index [main page] and Suggest a Story <file:///C:/FrontPage%20Webs/Content/suggest.htm> pages.)
What: Added additional verbiage to reposition Archerland as a story site for adults. "--Archerland is a fiction site intended for adults. I want the fiction here to focus on the human condition, what it means to be gay, stories of being outed, of the penalties of promiscuity, of yearning for society's (and family's) acceptance, of prejudice and fear. Stories here tackle such timely topics (ripped from the headlines, as they say) as gay marriage, gay adoption, and coming out as an adult."
"--What you will NOT find here: child porn, tales of intergenerational relationships (boylove), bestiality, scat/watersports, heavy BDSM, raunch, fisting or other kinks, "daddy" or slave stories or boyband/celebrity or slash stories." Note: This has always been a standard for Archerland.
"--The main emphasis of Archerland is on adults and their relationships to each other, to their families and to society. Therefore you will not find many stories in which the main protagonists are teenagers."
Why: In response to authors and readers who wanted to read stories about High School characters and younger. Archerland has always featured mainly adult stories, but I wanted to reinforce that part of the Mission Statement. I don’t want trouble or questions from "officialdom." I instituted this rule not to be mean or arbitrary but to protect myself in case an author took a walk on the scary, wild Nick-can-get-sued-or-thrown-in-jail side.
Finally, there are plenty of fine sites that feature young authors (see Links for Readers 3) and I felt adults needed a "playspace" of their own.

Change: Removal of the Galleries, except for Park Forest
Why: The pictures were never part of Archerland’s mission; they were an afterthought to gain web traffic. They took up too much "virtual real estate" and were never updated since they were first put online.

Change: Navigation
What: New text links at the bottom of all pages in addition to the spiffy JavaScript navigation bar at the top.
Why: Additional navigation for those with slower browsers or the confused.

Change: Removal of some graphics
Why: Faster loading pages

Change: Separating the Links for Readers pages, updating Links for Writers
What: The Links for Readers were separated into three pages. Links for Readers is for non-commercial personal and showcase sites. Links for Readers 2 features professional sites, published authors and commercial sites. Links for Readers 3 is for sites that feature stories about youth and resources for youth. Also all links on the For Readers pages have some sort of description about the site.
Why: I felt the change was needed because the three types of fiction pages have very different audiences.

Change: Establishing a new page Discover: Great New Authors
What: For newer authors or authors with a small amount of online writings. Also, for authors who may need some editorial work.
Why: I created the page to help authors who show a lot of promise but needed a boost and support that the other Archerland authors can provide.

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2. Essay: War Movies With Dad
By Nick Archer

Some boys are lucky enough to have something in common with their dads.

With my dad, it was war movies.

Most boys share a love of sports, a skill or trade, hunting or the outdoors with their fathers. I never gave my dad the traditional reasons to make him proud. I was never an athlete. I hated -- and still hate -- to sweat. I’m uncoordinated, which also nixed my musical aspirations. I played the saxophone in elementary school and by junior high I realized I really had no musical talent. I hated hunting. I just couldn’t bring myself to kill Bambi’s mother. Dad spent the first week of every December shivering in the woods. Not my idea of fun! At Scouts, I was teased and ostracized, so that was out of the question. My Scouting career lasted about two disastrous years. I would never be that Eagle Scout.

My dad was a mechanic - excuse me, auto technician - until he retired. He was always fascinated by the inner working of cars. We never had a new car when I was a kid. They were always older models that dad had carefully and lovingly pieced together. He tried to interest me in cars. When I became a teenager, of course I was interested but only to the extent when I could borrow the car. When I was close to getting my license, Dad insisted that I learn ‘the basics’ of car maintenance; how to change a tire, how to check the oil and other fluid levels. For this, I bless him to this day.

He had a workshop full of tools in the basement. Sometimes I would go downstairs and just stand there, breathing in the scent of the grease, paint and freshly cut wood.

He was always interested in tools. I remember the times he and I went to Sears in Orland Square and we inevitably ended up in the tool department. Once he turned to me and said, "Tools always fascinate me. Don’t they interest you?" Well, I was too polite - and smart - to say ‘No way! I’d rather set my hair on fire.’ Instead, I stood there bored out of my skull and counting the minutes until I could get away to the bookstore in the mall.

Dad was also something of a handyman and when my parents bought a new house in 1972, he went about painting and wallpapering the walls as if he were an artist and the walls were his blank canvas. He filled the tiny closets with additional shelves and created two whole walls of shelves in the basement. He liked woodworking and produced bookshelves and even a cradle from his basement workshop. He stripped and refinished furniture. He was rightfully proud of that house and he stayed there almost 15 years after my parents divorced. But that pride also had a downside. He would never let me mow the lawn, for example, because as he said, I never "did it right."

None of this deterred him, or my mom. They still searched for something, anything, that we could do together. They still searched for some kind of common language in the form of an activity that would interest all of us.

My mom and dad did finally hit upon something that we could enjoy: camping. We did a lot of camping when I was a kid. We always had a blast. The first piece of camping equipment my parents purchased a huge, old-fashioned tent with metal poles. I can still remember the odor of that tent; mildew, canvas, Scotchguard, and humans. Dad had a complicated folding ritual that to me resembled the reverence of folding the Stars and Stripes after Taps. Somehow he fit the whole tent in a military duffle bag.

To this day, I love camping and it spurred my interest in nature and the outdoors.

There was another thing that dad hit upon, quite by mistake, I’m sure; war movies. Dad used to take me to war movies on rainy Saturdays when he couldn’t get anything done in the yard or when my mom was satisfied with the wallpaper in the main bathroom.

I remember seeing most of the great, near-great and not-so-great war movies of the late sixties and early seventies with him. We saw Where Eagles Dare, The Boys of Company C, and Von Ryan’s Express. In those days before widespread video recorders going to the show was still a treat.

I actually liked the war movies, and still do. There’s something about a war movie. There’s the violence, of course. Strange that I, probably the most peace-loving person imaginable, would like the violence. The plot always moved along at a quick pace. No boring talking. And, of course, the good guys always won. I liked that predictability and Dad did, too.

I think the last movie we went to see together was Das Boot. It is a German film about the crew of a U-Boat during WW II. It was probably about 1981 or 1982 and I was still in college and home for a weekend. It was showing at the dollar theater at Brementown Mall.

I suggested that we go together and he surprised me by saying "I didn’t think you’d be interested."

I didn’t think he’d be interested. The film was in German with English subtitles (it has since been dubbed into English for the video and DVD release.)

We both really liked it.

I graduated from college and moved out on my own and lost those times we shared in the dark theaters. When dad got a VCR, he rented instead of going to the theater. Dad’s hearing loss also had something to do with it. Even with a hearing aid, he found it increasingly difficult to hear what was going on. At home, he could adjust the volume to a level he could hear, usually to the level of a jet aircraft.

But every time I saw The Longest Day listed in TV Guide, I watched it.
-----

I inherited a lot of things from my dad.

I look a lot like him. When I shaved my moustache off last June, I took a look in the mirror and thought Jesus, I look just like him. I, like him, will be battling my weight for the rest of my life. Even though I’m going through a rough time in my life right now, I still believe in the American Dream. It’s the belief that hard work, truth and loyalty will eventually out. I got that from my dad.

But all my beliefs were shaken in November. Dad told me he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

In the early 90’s, he bought a plot of land on a heavily wooded mountain in central Pennsylvania. He had been going there to hunt deer the first week of December for at least a decade before he decided to retire there.
I guess you could call the house a raised ranch with a loft. It was still unfinished when he moved into the ground-level basement/garage while the rest of the house was being finished. The house is some distance from the main road and he has to plow his half-mile driveway himself.

Dad has never been a communicator. And he is basically a loner. When my parents divorced, he never remarried and never even dated as far as I know. He lived in the house where we grew up until Dad retired in '96.

About a year ago, his doctor discovered a spot on his lungs despite the fact he had stopped smoking after his heart attack in the mid-eighties. In typical fashion, I found out about the cancerous spot from my sister.
The doctors removed the spot and that was the end of it, or so we thought.

He started chemotherapy in October. Of course, I know the effects of chemo. He's weak and tired quite a bit. The last time I talked to him, he sounded short of breath. In addition, his oncologist is in Altoona, an hour's drive away.

So I started worrying. Who's taking care of him? Who's driving him to his doctor's appointments? Who's plowing that driveway? Who's cooking, doing laundry, cleaning the house? His friends are helping, I'm sure, but they all have their own lives and families.

And so, I did a rather precipitous thing. I offered to move in with him. Logic always worked best with Dad and so I listed benefits for him and for me. I would keep house, drive him where he needed to go. My sister couldn't do this what with her family and house. My mom is remarried and living in Arkansas. So that left me. It would benefit me, too, I admitted to him. I would get a fresh start. It's clear that it's just not happening for me where I’m living now. I could sub part-time or even transfer with Office Depot or Borders. Lastly, although I didn't tell him this, I would be able to be there for him and the time he has left. I didn't want to live with that regret. I had to at least make the offer.

I was fully aware of the drawbacks. I would always be The Kid. It would be difficult bringing friends over let alone any kind of sex partner (not that I have so many offers these days.) I would be giving up a big part of my independence. It was not an easy offer to make. I had a lot to lose.

I talked to my sister and my mom about the plan and they both approved. In fact, my mom said she had thought of the idea a long time ago. When I asked her why she hadn't mentioned it to me, she said, "Sometimes it has to come from you."

But Dad said no.

If I had any doubts about where I got my fierce independence and lone wolf tendencies they were dispelled when he said no. Dad is not the most sensitive man in the world, but I'm sure he realized, however dimly, that I had to swallow my pride to make the offer.

Maybe he'll change his mind later and I plan on asking him again. One of my friends advised to just move out there. Maybe a lot of snow this winter will make him reconsider.

I’ll muddle through as I always have. Maybe this will give me the inspiration to finally get off my lazy ass and try to get something published. Maybe it will be the push I needed to make some changes in my life.
But I’ll still worry about him. I think about him a lot.

And I wonder if he’s seen Saving Private Ryan. Dad would like that movie a lot.

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3. List: 7 Famous People I’ve Met
By Nick Archer

Richard J. Daley - Mayor of Chicago - Came into the B. Dalton store I was managing in downtown Chicago. A tall, muscular guy in a double-breasted suit cased the place before Daley entered. The Mayor bought a bunch of travel magazines and the bodyguard paid for them by peeling off several bills from a large roll of cash.

Scott Turow - Author and lawyer - Scott was one of the first to write legal thrillers. I met him at a Manager’s meeting. Nice guy and very intelligent.

Caroline Cooney - Young Adult Author - Wrote The Face On The Milk Carton among others -- Again at manager’s meeting. She gave a talk about young adult books and getting kids to read.

Gladys Knight - Singer and author - at a manager’s meeting (beginning to see a pattern here?) She had just published an autobiography and gave a talk during which she mentioned she liked Kraft macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs in it. (At the time there was a TV commercial featuring her with The Pips for Kraft.) When I got to the front of the line, I mentioned I also like hot dogs in my mac and cheese and we shared a laugh. Very nice woman and very down-to-earth.

Dixie Carter - actor (Designing Women) and author. - very pretty and very petite. She read an excerpt from her book, which wasn’t yet published. Instead, I asked her to sign a daily planner B. Dalton had given us. She wrote "Be still my heart," and signed her name.

Dan Walker - former Governor of Illinois - Came in to the first B. Dalton where I worked as a customer. I believe this was after he got out of prison and it was probably close to a decade after he was governor.

Scott O’Hara - publisher and porn star - Met him at the 1995 American Booksellers Association convention in Chicago. I was with a friend perusing the gay/lesbian area of this huge convention. We were at the Alyson Publications booth and I had just met Sasha Alyson. My friend explained that he lived in Wisconsin and published a magazine. He seemed to be somewhat shy but a nice guy. He was also surprisingly short. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see his other assets.

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4. Humor: Why Men Are Just Happier
From The Net

Why Men Are Just Happier People
What do you expect from such simple people?

Your last name stays put.
The garage is all yours.
Wedding plans take care of themselves.
Chocolate is just a snack.
You can be president.
You can never get pregnant.
You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.
You can wear NO T-shirt to a water park.
Car mechanics tell you the truth.
The world is your urinal.
You don’t have to stop to think which way to turn a nut on a bolt.
Same work, more pay.
Wrinkles add character.
Wedding dress: $2000. Tux rental: $100
People never stare at your chest when you are talking to them.
The well-rendered belch is practically expected.
Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat.
You know stuff about tanks.
A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase.
You can open all your own jars.
You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness.
If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
Underwear is $7.99 for a three-pack.
Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.
You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.
Everything on your face stays the same color.
The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades.
You only have to shave your face and neck.
You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look.
You can "do" you nails with a pocketknife.
You can shop for 25 relatives on December 24th in 25 minutes.

No wonder men are happier!

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5.     Recommendations

By Nick Archer

Paul and Adam by Sarah
Her story can be found at her website Monkeys Ate My Ativan  and at Nifty in the High School section.
--What a well-written story! She reaches just the right balance between realism and romance. She really hits upon the right amount of high school drama (EVERYTHING is major drama for a teen) but never, ever goes overboard. It’s just excellent.

The William Carter by Chris
Can be found at Nifty and also at crvboy.com <http://crvboy.com/index.html>
--I like the Canadian flavor of the story. It’s VERY long and it is a little slow in places. The sex scenes are downplayed and very tasteful. It’s very well written.

Forking Farmers By Ulrich_1
Can be found at Nifty in Rural <http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/rural/forking-farmers>
--Yup, it is basically a stroke story, but what a story! Whew! Who says that a one-handed story can’t be well written? There’s only one kinda troubling reference to a kinky practice that a couple friends and I found a little troubling (you’ll have to read it to find out what I’m talking about.)

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6. Fun Quotes
Various authors

"If homosexuality is a disease, let's all call in queer to work: "Hello. Can't work today, still queer." ~ Robin Tyler

"I'd rather be black than gay because when you're black you don't have to tell your mother." ~ Charles Pierce

"Dear Abby," In response to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood. 'You could move.' ~ Abigail Van Buren.

"Why can't they have gay people in the army? Personally, I think they are just afraid of a thousand guys with M16s going, "Who'd you call a faggot?"~ Jon Stewart

"Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?" ~ Ernest Gaines

"Drag is when a man wears everything a lesbian won't." ~ Author Unknown

"The only queer people are those who don't love anybody....." ~ Rita Mae Brown

"The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision." ~ Lynn Lavner

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7. Writing Tips By Sarah
From her website Monkeys Ate My Ativan

So, not that I'm Ms. Super Writing Expert or anything, but I have picked up a few things in the 20 years I've been writing. Most of these things apply to all writing, not just writing for Nifty.

First of all, grammar matters. I know that most of us were scarred by horrific English teachers in seventh grade and the thought of diagramming a sentence sends about 90% of the population into fits, but it is important. If your story is poorly written, misspelled, improperly punctuated, then the reader will be distracted and pay more attention to what's wrong with the writing than what's right with the story.

I'm not going to give you a lesson in grammar here, I'll just say that you should get a copy of Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" and read it. It's really short. You can read the whole thing in less than an hour, and you don't even have to read it cover to cover. Just flip to the chapter that applies to whatever you're having problems with.

Also, if you have a grammar check in your word processor, use it. This goes for the spell check, too. The spell and grammar checks don't replace careful proofreading, but they help a lot, especially for people like me who can't spell for shit.

Get a dictionary (something like the Oxford Collegiate Dictionary is inexpensive and it should handle all your spelling and definition needs). If you want a thesaurus, I recommend "The Synonym Finder" by J.I. Rodale. It's the best thesaurus there is for writers; though don't rely too heavily on it. Most of the time, the first word that comes to mind is the best.

2. Show, don't tell

You hear this a lot in writing instruction. This is what it means: if you tell me something, it's boring and easily forgotten and usually awkward. Showing the same thing is much more productive.

Show what the main character is like by the way people react to him. If he's nerdy, show people ignoring him or teasing him. If he's handsome, show people flirting with him, acting in ways that let the reader know that he's handsome without telling them outright. This not only gives the reader some idea of what the narrator is about, it also furthers the story and introduces other characters at the same time.

An example of telling:

Oh, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Nate and I'm 17. I've got chestnut brown hair and a defined, v-shaped, swimmer's body. All the chicks think I'm really hot, and I'm sure a lot of the guys do, too, but of course they never tell me like the girls do. I wish they would, because you see, I'm gay. I've known since I was a kid and I really want a boyfriend but I'm still a virgin because we live in a small town. Sometimes I go crazy thinking about all the hot guys I see in school!!! There's one guy that I like the most. His name is Darren and lucky me he's also my best friend. He's got black hair and brown eyes because he's Italian. What a sexy god he is, but I was always too afraid to do anything about it. I want him so bad!!!

Then one weekend Darren asked if I could stay over at his house while his parents were gone. Of course I said yes!!! When we were getting ready for bed I kept sneaking looks at his hot, Italian body. He's never shy about being naked around other people, and he just walked around the room while he was getting the shorts and t-shirt that he sleeps in. "You like what you see?" he asks me. "No," I say. "I think you do, Nate," he says, "and I have something to tell you. I know you're gay and I'm gay too." "Really?" I can't believe it. Darren came over to me and stuck his tongue in my mouth and I could feel his hard dick pressing against me. I get to my knees and started sucking it until he came in my mouth. Then Darren sucked me and it was awesome!!! "I love you," Darren said. "I love you too, Darren!"

Ready to vomit, yet? Actually, there are so many things wrong with those two paragraphs I'm not sure where to begin.

Let's begin with the exclamation points. A lot of people say you're only allowed one per lifetime. I'm going to go easy and say you're only allowed one every other chapter, and never more than one at a time. Multiple exclamation points are an immediate sign of amateurish writing. I know you want your writing to be exciting, but punctuation just won't do it.

Also, do you care about Nate? Do you care about Darren? Do you give a shit whether they live or die? I doubt it. You don't know anything about them, except that Nate can't write and Darren talks like someone in a bad soap opera.

Did you notice how the tense kept changing, even within individual sentences? If the story is in past tense, you'll say, "I got to my knees and started sucking it until he came in my mouth." (i.e. it already happened) If the story is in present tense you'll write, "I get to my knees and start sucking it until he comes in my mouth." (i.e. it's happening right now)

Actually, both of those sentences are pretty terrible, so don't use either of them, but you know what I mean.

Nifty is an *erotic* story archive. True, not all the stories involve sex, but if you want your story to be erotic you have to work on it. You can't just gloss over it in a sentence or two.

Sex is fun and hilarious. Sex is messy. Sex can be tragic. Sex is never perfect, no matter what Hollywood tries to tell us. Sex is an intimate connection between two (or more) people, and along with being fun and hot, it should also let us know more about the characters. After all, when are you more open and vulnerable than during sex?

I know it's cheesy to use examples from my own stories, but I'm going to anyway.

In Chapter Eight of "Paul and Adam," Adam discovers that it turns him on to talk during sex.

"Fuck," I whisper. "Oh, fuck, Paul." I like the way the words feel in my mouth, like talking when we're doing something so amazing...."You like my tight ass?"

He nods, swallows hard.

"Say it. Tell me you like fucking my ass."

He takes a deep breath. He opens his mouth but doesn't say anything.

"I wanna hear you say it, Paul. I wanna hear you tell me how much you like it."

"I love it," he says finally, his voice shaky.

The scene is intended to be erotic, but hopefully it also tells the reader about the characters. If I've done my job well enough, the reader will understand without being told that Paul is shy in bed and that Adam is the more aggressive of the two. The reader should also understand that Adam, who was always so anxious about his sexual attraction to Paul, has now come to accept it so thoroughly that he can talk about it even while he's naked and vulnerable. I didn't state any of that explicitly, but hopefully I've shown it so that it's obvious.
___

Reprinted with permission

Visit Sarah’s site Monkeys Ate My Ativan and read Paul and Adam. Her story is easily the best High School story I read in 2004. Paul and Adam can also be found in the HS section at Nifty, but you miss her great sense of humor if you read it at Nifty!

Contact Sarah at geekwriter143@yahoo.com

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8. Gay Writing Tips By John Francis Part II
(Part 1 can be found in the December 2004 Edition)

9) The sex scenes are unbelievable. I’m bewildered by the number of gay stories out there showing young kids engaged in activities that noted porn star Jeff Stryker only dreams about. While fantasy is all well and good, I think good erotica is rooted firmly in reality. Don’t have your characters do anything that’s beyond what’s really believable or possible. As advanced as young teenagers are today, what with the easy availability of porno and adult images on the Net, I think it’s more interesting (and more realistic) to show neophytes struggling with sex. And don’t assume that everybody in your story needs to have a body of Adonis, and must be endowed with foot-long phalluses. Everybody’s different in real-life, and I think the characters in fiction should be the same way. I don’t mean your characters can’t be attractive - just keep it rooted in reality.
And people, please try to make the sex scenes work with the plot! Don’t just arbitrarily have your characters shed their clothes and start humping in every chapter, just because you feel like it. To me, the best gay fiction on the net are those that have a real plot and characters, along with the sex. Ideally, the story should still work even if somebody came along and snipped the sex scenes out. The stronger you make the story, and the more your readers really care about your characters, the more entertaining the sex scenes can be.
Finally, try to avoid making the sex scenes just one anatomical description after another. Sure, love, lust, and sex can all be different, and everybody has their own individual style and preference (and predilections). But I find the key is to concentrate not just on what the characters see and what they do, but also how they feel. Think about Tip #6: use all the senses to describe the sex between your characters. And alternate what they do in bed - hell, get them out of the bed, have them go at it in a car, at the beach, in an elevator, whatever and wherever’s possible in your story. Going through the same motions in every chapter is as boring as a 20-year marriage. Variety is the spice of life, and this is never more true than it is with sex.

10) They don’t keep the conflict going! Far too many writers out there (and you know who you are) insist on having nothing but "sweetness and light" in their stories. Nobody ever gets mad; nobody ever gets hurt. Everybody accepts them for who and what they are. It’s a nice thought, but real life is a lot harder than that. Conflict is what makes drama possible; without conflict, a story just lays there, like a lox.
Conflict doesn’t necessarily have to come from a villain. Characters can have arguments with each other, or with relatives, or even with themselves. Most of the major books on writing stress that the best stories deal with characters who have a moral conflict, where they have to make a difficult decision. That in itself can be a conflict. Every great novel has conflict oozing from every chapter; yours should, too.

11) They summarize the plot at the end, or at the beginning of the next chapter. Don’t spell things out. Let the reader discover for themselves what’s going on. Readers are smarter than you think. If something isn’t clear, chances are they’ll tell you about it. If they forget what happened in the last chapter, they can go back and read it for themselves.

12) Finally, they take criticism personally. When you post your stories on the net and invite comments, sometimes, people will react negatively. Outright nutcases, personal attacks, or spam can be a problem, but if someone takes the time to raise some significant points about your actual work, and they do so in a rational, honest way, don’t just ignore them - at least consider what they have to say, and give them the courtesy of a reply. Remember that they’re not criticizing you personally - they’re just criticizing words on a page. Don’t overreact. Count to ten, relax, remind yourself that it’s just one person’s opinion, and get on with it. And you never know: maybe the reader has a point. If a single person is confused or troubled by one aspect of your story, maybe others will be, too.
Some writers that I’ve talked to in Email tell me, "you must be wrong. Why, I have a thousand readers who love what I do." That may well be true, but just because you get a lot of accolades doesn’t mean you’re terrific at your craft. Look at your own work objectively. If you see any evidence of violating rules #1-#10 above, chances are, your work could stand some improvement. Amateur writing does not have to be amateurish! If your goal is just to satisfy a small audience of fans who read for free, more power to you. But if you really want to be a good writer, you’ve got to work at it. Chances are, you might be getting two thousand emails instead of just a thousand if you were a better writer.

All of the above tips are based on the assumption that the would-be writer is fluent in English and already knows the basic rules of spelling and grammar. (If you don’t, a terrific source is Strunk & White’s Elements of Style, which has been the standard for all basic writing courses for decades. I also like The Chicago Manual of Style, which goes into the same material in infinite detail.)

I won’t go into nitpicks, like whether or not you use HTML or text-only to post your stories. (I think HTML will at least more-closely resemble conventional typesetting, and that’s bound to be easier to read than plain text.) Just think about putting the greatest effort into what you write. Some of the best stories I’ve ever read on the Net have been those that were just regular, dumb ol’ ASCII; and some of the worst-written stories had fancy Flash-enhanced graphics, ten typefaces on every page, and erotic illustrations. I’ll take good storytelling over fancy footwork anytime.

HOW TO BE A BETTER WRITER

Damned if I know. If I knew all the secrets, I’d be a best-selling novelist and live in Maui and sip Mai-Tais at sunset. The three most-successful commercial novelists I personally admire are probably Stephen King, Anne Rice, and J.K. Rowling - not necessarily in that order. They worked many years to get where they are, and all of them started by taking writing classes in high school and college, reading good books on writing, and working night and day at perfecting their craft. Their persistence made them very rich (over a billion dollars, in the case of Jo Rowling), and got them millions of adoring fans - and deservedly so.

Amazon.com reports that there’s well over a thousand books in print on fiction writing. You could spend your life reading them and not necessarily become a better writer. That having been said, the three main books on writing that I’ve found to be most useful are:

THE FIRST FIVE PAGES
by Noah Lukeman
Fireside Books
ISBN #068485743X

HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD NOVEL
by James N. Frey
St. Martin’s Press (two volumes)
ISBN #0312010443 and #0312104782

and
ON WRITING
by Stephen King
Pocket Books
ISBN #0743455967

Each book runs about 300 pages and costs under $10 each in paperback (half that if you pick them up used). Each one is useful to a point, with solid gold nuggets of wisdom scattered throughout, but none is perfect. I’ve read at least 25 or 30 books on writing (and have a shelf full of dozens more I haven’t yet cracked open), I’ve taken a half-dozen college-level classes on writing years ago, and I made a pretty good living as a writer and editor for a half-dozen newsstand magazines for over two decades. I readily admit that I’m far from knowing all there is to know about writing. But the three books above taught me more about writing fiction than anything else I’ve seen, heard, or experienced.

Lukeman’s book gives a good rundown on the top 25 things not to put in a novel - specific items that will immediately turn off editors, agents, or anybody else who knows how to recognize amateurish elements. James Frey’s original book (a classic that’s been used in college-level writing classes throughout the 1990s) goes into great detail on how to build up the strengths you already have, and figure out what works and what doesn’t. His second book, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques for Dramatic Storytelling, isn’t quite as good, but provides another dozen or so good ideas that can help any budding novelist.

King’s book is more a general philosophy on how the process works; the first half is a biographical essay on how and why he came to be a writer, and the second goes into the nuts and bolts on writing. King also gives the very good advice that to be a good writer, you also have to read - a lot. And by that I mean published books with solid literary merit, not just amateur Net fiction. I find a steady diet of the latter can actually hurt you in the long run, simply because the truly good stories out there are hard to find.

I’ve also gotten a good deal of useful info from the Writers Digest "Elements of Fiction Writing" books, particularly Monica Wood’s Description, Orson Scott Card’s Characters and Viewpoint, and Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure. Each of those is under ten bucks in paperback. David Gerrold’s Worlds of Wonder, mentioned above, was also useful, and David’s experience as a storyteller and writing teacher will be beneficial, regardless of your story’s genre.

Another good (and free) resource is Lars Eighner’s Lavender Blue, which is available for free here on the web:
http://www.io.com/~eighner/index.html

While it purports to be a short document on how to write gay fiction, the reality is that Lars stresses a lot of good, solid writing principles that will work for all types of fiction. Many of his concepts are echoed in the other books I’ve read, and if nothing else, the price is right. Lars wrote many fine erotic stories in the 1980s and 1990s, including work for some of the biggest gay publishers in North America, and his comments are earthy, precise, and to the point.
I hope by offering these general comments, those of you who are thinking about writing gay fiction, or want to improve the quality of your work, will find what I have to say to be useful. At the very least, I hope my ideas will stop writers from making these same mistakes over and over again.

God knows, I don’t profess to know-all, see-all. But I figure if I can stop just one more bad erotic story from being posted on the Net, and help the author find a way to improve their writing, my life will have served a purpose!

-The Pecman
16 May 2004
thepecman@yahoo.com

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10. Contact
To contact the editor, Nick Archer, please use the Hotmail address: archerland@hotmail.com

To submit a story, review, article or essay, please use the Yahoo! address: archerland2005@yahoo.com

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11. Write for The Archerland Journal!

I’ll repeat this every other month. You can also find the guidelines at: http://archerland.disbelieve.org/newsletter.htm
Got something to say? Whether you're a writer or a reader your opinions matter! Write them down and submit them to The Archerland Journal! Here's what we're looking for:
-- Reviews -- Books, movies, music, concerts, TV, whatever! Note: No negative reviews of unpublished material (IE from Nifty, eroticstories.com, literotica, etc.) Why? Flame wars! We don't need no stinkin' flame wars! Published materials, however, are fair game!
-- Recommendations -- Ditto above, but you can also include unpublished gems you find on the Internet. Remember to tell us why you liked the story.
-- Writing Tips -- Got some ideas about how to help writers improve their writing? Jot them down and send them along.
-- Essays -- Your thoughts or reflections on your personal life, other people's lives, current events.
-- Recipes -- make them easy, please! Stuff a single guy could cook
-- Poetry -- Short, pithy poems, please. No Canterbury Tales
-- Links -- links to articles, web pages, things you'd like to share.
-- Fun -- humorous emails, stories or jokes from the Net
-- Lists - a list of anything

Nick Archer is the editor and he reserves the right to edit for content, mechanics and length (although he'll discuss it with you first.) TAJ is usually published the last week of the month to give you an idea of deadlines. To submit an article or just give Nick a shout, email him here: archerland2005@yahoo.com

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Thanks for reading! The next issue will be out the last week of February.