Smut Marathon: Thoughts

I signed up for the Smut Marathon with absolutely zero expectations. I’ve never participated before, and I only heard about it a few months ago when I started my blog. Apart from what I do for this blog, I’m not much of a writer. I always enjoyed writing in school, but haven’t had any practice in a long time. My main goal in entering the Smut Marathon was to get some feedback from experienced writers to help me fine tune my skills and improve the posts I put out on my blog. So far, I have been surprised at how much fun it has been, how nice it’s been to feel that competitive edge again. Mostly, I am flabbergasted at how well I’ve done!

My strategy so far has been pretty relaxed. I go with the first thought that pops into my head and ruminate over that for a couple of days before I even open up my laptop. I think about the story I want to create, and I play around with certain phrases in my mind. When I am finally ready to write the story, I write it out quickly and try not to overthink it too much. Then I go back and edit and make sure the word count is correct. I really get into dissecting the phrasing and grammar once the story feels right. I really try not to spend too much time tearing it apart because I know I’ll nit pick it to death and it might lose something good in the process.

It isn’t until after I’ve submitted the story that I begin to worry and stress over every word, wondering if I’ve made a typo or a glaring grammar mistake, though, I never go back and read my story again until the Voting Round. The days leading up to the Results Round are excruciatingly long!

Round 1:

The Assignment was to write about the moment when two people first see each other. No dialogue was allowed and the story had to be between 30-50 words with a 1-2 word title.

My Story:  I kneel, naked and obedient, eyes to the floor while fancy men’s shoes shuffle by, voices low and taunting. Wet. Ready. Slut.

Delicate ankles atop wine suede heels fill my limited view. My chin slowly rises, recalcitrant. Shameful wide eyes meet hers, teasing and enticing. My cunt flutters.

I liked my story a lot until I read the other entries, which were all amazing. Some were funny, some were dark and twisted, and most made me feel super horny. It was interesting to read the feedback on the stories and see how that matched up with my own feelings.

I did very well in the public vote with 10 votes. I think a lot of readers must get off on submission scenes. I didn’t do as well with the judges picking up one vote from each of them, and I think that helped me in round two. My story needed a little more meat to it, a feeling that it goes beyond just the scene described. Overall, I did really well in this round, much better than I ever expected and finished in 10th place! I never expected to be in the top half of the results as I was up against so many talented writers.

Round 2:

The second assignment was to use one of the entries from round 1 to expand on what happens next. The submission had to be between 100-125 words with a 2-3 word title.

I knew right away which story I wanted to use. I thought that The Letter by Sienna Walker was fabulous and left a lot of room to expand upon.

Tanned skin, lean muscle, a mouth that curves with the hint of a smile: the new mailman delivers in more ways than one. He raises a hand and I picture it around my throat, pinning me down as we fuck. I smile and walk inside, leaving the front door open.

I continued the story with The Mailman’s Wife:

I open one eye, peeking into the monochrome cast of early morning. The window, a white square against the dark wall, reminds me of an open door and the shapely silhouette that took my brazen invitation ten years ago. I roll over to the warm spot, only recently vacated.

“Sleep. I’ll go start the coffee”, he’d whispered.

I rub my hand over the rumpled sheets and burrow into their softness, seeking the remnants of his touch, his scent. I still feel his soft mouth and a tenderness in my scalp. He’d pulled my hair as he sleepily fucked me, a slow slick friction that enticed me from dreams with a gentle throbbing orgasm. Mornings like this make me glad there’s no mail on Sundays.

I was really happy with my submission. I even slipped a little Harry Potter reference in there!Again, I wrote it mostly in my head before putting it to paper. I had jotted down a couple of phrases that came to mind as I thought it over, slick friction, a white square against a dark wall, monochrome cast of early morning all fit well with the imagery of the idea. I felt pretty confident until Friday before the results came out and I started to get nervous, thinking that I had gone in the wrong direction by making such a large jump in time. I didn’t remember any other stories that had done that. Four other people expanded on the same story as I did, and I was the only one who took it in a completely different direction. I didn’t know if that was a good or bad sign.

I woke up early Sunday morning because I couldn’t sleep, knowing the results would be posted. I was in for a big surprise because I placed first in the round overall! I honestly couldn’t believe it and kept going back to check to make sure I read it correctly. I got 12 public votes and 13 votes from the judges, which, combined, put me at the top. I laid in bed next to Sir waiting impatiently for him to wake up so I could tell him the news. He knew I was nervous, and when I told him he was ecstatic alongside me. We certainly enjoyed our Sunday celebrating!

To me, the most interesting part about the Round 2 results was that the two people who chose to expand upon my story did extremely well. Jo Henny Wolf won the public vote with She owns me and E.L. Byrne won the judges vote with She’s Perfect. I found that to be extraordinarily surprising and and flattering. Both are very talented writers and remain in the top of the standings at this point, and I look forward to what they both submit in future rounds.

I have time scheduled tomorrow to work on Round 3. I have a story in mind and we shall see how it turns out!