srb wrote:Hello, this is just a thread from a lurker who wants to give some advice on how to make webteases of a higher quality. These are just personal observations, I’m sure you all think I’m wrong.
Here is some advice of what to NOT do in a webtease
· DO NOT post a tease that’s not a tease. If all you have is a story, then just write a story, or an illustrated story. A webtease isn’t just a story, it’s more of a interactive story. So if all you are going to do is just talk while the audience reads and never invite them to stroke, edge, touch themselves, whatever, then it’s a story. And take it from someone who writes stories, there’s nothing wrong with that. But don’t post it as a tease.
I thought I'd contribute to this thread, finally. Lots of interesting ideas here.
But I have to say I disagree with the opinion about stories quoted above, since
I like teases that tell a story, and having an illustrated story, even with no directions, really works for me
. And it seems that the readers here know what to do and respond well to this. Examples are the webteases "Tonight An Orgasm Will Cost You..." (
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=6763, which is presently the 3rd highest rated webtease here, and the sequel "Tonight An Orgasm Will Cost You... Part 2 (Next Week, Mon.-Tue.)" (
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=7077, which is at the moment (January 15, 2010) the highest rated tease and won TOTM for December 2009).
I agree with those who say to
use Word or some other editor to put together the tease at first. I personally use SeaMonkey's Composer for this, making a webpage with the tease. However, it doesn't do spell checking, so Word is probably better for non-native speakers or those whose English isn't the best.
I suppose that won't help with flash teases, but then like some others I also prefer regular webteases.
I completely agree with those who say to
revise and rewrite, giving yourself days between the initial version and when you revise, to really see it. I like to revise as much as possible before putting it into the Milovana editor, as then it's possible to insert and rearrange easily.
When revising scenes, I think it's worthwhile to
add more to them, to make them a bit "over the top". Think about what you're trying to do and then do
more of it. More intense action, more adjectives, more descriptions, drag out the details, etc.
When revising, it's important to
use the preview feature of the Milovana editor to look at how it actually works in Milovana's format (in particular with the pictures as they will be seen by your readers).
I've found, as I pointed out long ago (
http://www.milovana.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=297) that the size of the pictures that show up in Milovana's editor depend on their orientation.
If possible I like to choose pictures that are wider than they are long/tall, as such pictures don't get compressed as much. But starting with a high quality picture is essential.
I agree with many who stress the importance of
continuity in the story and editing. It's like a movie, you don't want a couch in the scene to move around while the actors are discussing something. So, the more one page is similar to the next (same model, same clothing, or lack of clothing, same place), and the more the model's movements are sensible and natural, then the more the reader is not distracted.
I've often written the words first and then added the pictures later. This is particularly true for my best work. For example, with "Lori's Fantasy-Based Teasing" (
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=7174) I had the complete story first, which I posted to orgasmdenial.com's story board, before I had the pictures put to it. But at other times, I find the pictures very hot and write or extend the story to get one or more of them into the tease. I can easily imagine starting with the pictures and just putting words to them, and have done that a few times (maybe I'll post some of these someday). If you start with the pictures, at least imagine an outline (and a beginning and end) of what you want to do.
I think it's important to
match the picture's emotional content (usually the model's expression)
to the words. I usually work from a single set of pictures for a given scene in a story (to help give continuity), and then to illustrate a bit of text, I try to get one key phrase from the text (e.g., "Not yet dear") and look for pictures that have that emotional content or that resonate somehow with it. (Sometimes the picture is actually expressing something like the opposite emotion, if the character is being a tease, etc. I just look for what "works" for me, in the sense that it turns me on the most of all the candidate pictures.)
I prefer to have the words broken up into very short paragraphs, which are much easier to read than a long paragraph, and especially so when there's a really hot picture next to them! I've often found that I can use a 3 paragraph format:
1. some context (continuity from previous page, narration, setting up..., e.g., "She rolls over, looks at you and says:")
2. Something the character in the picture is saying that the picture is illustrating (e.g., "Not yet, dear")
3. Some reaction to that (e.g., "You are horribly disappointed.")
There are many examples of this in the story Lori's Fantasy-Based Teasing and in the "Tonight An Orgasm Will Cost You..." series (
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=6763 and
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=7077). It's not a hard and fast guideline for me, but just something that I've noticed seems to happen and to work often.
I agree with this advice:
do not to put too many words on one page of the tease. My rule of thumb is that the words should never flow down much past the bottom of the picture (or at least not much past the end of the picture). Certainly in the preview you shouldn't have to scroll the browser down to see the text. If the text is too long, then I either rewrite to shorten the text, or I try to put in a second picture and split the words on the page, giving half of them to the first picture and half to the second. Sometimes I've even used the same picture twice in a row, and this seems fine to me in many cases. After a while, you'll get a feel for how many words will fit and can judge this before you put the tease into Milovana.
I've been experimenting with story teases in which only the women speak, and "you" are given stage directions. This is because all the hot stuff is usually what the women say (for me).
The ultimate realization of this idea is when "you" don't say anything at all, and the whole tease is just the woman speaking, as in "Total Devotion" (
http://www.milovana.com/webteases/showtease.php?id=52, which is one of my favorites, and where the woman doesn't expect any answer). That was fun to write and "works" I think, and I think is a technique that is fairly often used in good teases where there is a top or domme who is the main character.
As I've pointed out many times, I think that illustrating stories and letters can make for compelling teases. See my post
http://www.milovana.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4717 on various board posting and stories that I've illustrated and if you like them, I urge you to try the same trick.
Finally, I agree with those who say you should just
do what you like and find turns you on. If you can read your tease without wanting to masturbate, then it needs work. Conversely, if when you read it you get all turned on, you're doing it right!
Enjoy!