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Could a really long story boost your score?

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CharlieB4

Professional Gambler
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
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Just something I was thinking of the other day. Now I know none of us do it for the scores or the adulation but...

I've heard about sweeps conducted by the admin that take out dodgy scores, high and low. I assume they have some way of working out if you have scooted to the last page and just put in your desired score 1or 5.

So if you have a long story and a reader reads a few pages then gives up and gives you a 1 it should be scrubbed and hopefully if the readers get to the end then they must like it. Of course you would still have to write a decent story but maybe instead of splitting something into chapters you should keep it together.

I'm waiting for the obvious flaw in my evil scheme, like the number of chapter stories in the hall of fame of lots of different genres.

Cheers

CharlieB4
 
Longer stories seem to score a little better, but I'm not sure about it having anything to do with an "This is going nowhere" on page 5 and tossing a bomb.

I think it has more to do with a faction of readership who wants more than stroke and pure porn and longer stories are generally...stories. That and a reader can see how long a story is before they read and anyone of the stroke and one handed read crowd is going to say screw this and never start it.

Having said that I should add that although I mentioned I don't length is the reason for a midway bomb-again people can see how long it is so its not like they are getting fooled- there are other ways to get a reader to stop and go "what the fuck" and get that one bomb that may be erased.

Length in combination with tossing something in that will offend some readers, along with content that does not quite fit the category has become a pretty successful formula for some here, especially in the contests.

As for the long chapter series vs a very long story. I have no issue seeing a long piece on a top list(example all time top rated incest story is 43 pages) because its one story. The endless chapter series are another story because as you mentioned you can see 20 chapters of them in the top 50 of a top list and dominating them.

The site claims they are going to chnage how that works. I think that might be the most far fetched very short story I've heard recently.
 
Add a squig factor in the middle and put it in the wrong category and you have a winning formula.
 
In my experience a longer story, especially if broken up into chaptered parts, tends to drop the quantity of views and votes with each succeeding chapter but the rating improves. Only those who like the story will keep reading.

If it is one long story in a single submission that effect is less marked. One bombs and adverse comments for a five or more Lit page story aren't unusual e.g. "Who would read 5 pages of this crap?".

But very long stories can deter readers from finishing and lead to very few votes.
 
Yep, I think that getting verbose with your stories will lift your scores at Literotica. In the real world, not so much.
 
I've seen a 19 Lit page story having a rating of 4.19 and a 10 Lit page group sex story with a rating of 3 point something, so don't get your hopes up on the fact that writing a huge pile of BS will automatically make it great.

Most of the times this formula works but it has to be decent in the first place. The number of comments, favourites and the number of votes against the number of views will also give you an idea of how many people actually finished it. That's one way to assess a huge story's appeal.
 
"My European Summer Vacation" (which I wrote) and "Quixotic Rapprochement" finished 2nd and 3rd in the Summer Lovin' contest. Both are long stories at 9 and 14 pages respectively. They're both brother-sister incest stories. "My European Summer Vacation" has 59 comments, 137970 views, 202 favorites and 1788 votes. "Quixotic Rapprochement" has 47 comments, 69735 views, 88 favorites and 733 votes. Was the difference in viewership because "My European Summer Vacation" has a title that catches readers' attention more? "My European Summer Vacation" is very upbeat whereas "Quixotic Rapprochement" is very melancholy. Did that have an impact on the stats for the story? If anyone has an idea, I'd love to hear it.

lovecraft68 said:
That and a reader can see how long a story is before they read and anyone of the stroke and one handed read crowd is going to say screw this and never start it.
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There's a way of seeing the length of a story before starting it? The only way I know of seeing the length of a story is to scroll down to the bottom and then click the drop down to see the number of pages. I usually just start reading and make a decision on continuing long before I get to the bottom.
 
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Rozalin_0123's Hallowe'en Contest 2014 winner Purely Sinful in the little-read Erotic Horror category is 19 LIT pages, about 72k words, and has over 200k views, almost 900 favorites, and a 4.89 vote. Yes, well-written long stories CAN get all the brownie points!
 
8letters said:
There's a way of seeing the length of a story before starting it? The only way I know of seeing the length of a story is to scroll down to the bottom and then click the drop down to see the number of pages. I usually just start reading and make a decision on continuing long before I get to the bottom.
Click to expand...

I almost always think I know how much material there will be in the story, ergo about how long it will be. I'm always wrong.
 
8letters said:
"My European Summer Vacation" (which I wrote) and "Quixotic Rapprochement" finished 2nd and 3rd in the Summer Lovin' contest. Both are long stories at 9 and 14 pages respectively. They're both brother-sister incest stories. "My European Summer Vacation" has 59 comments, 137970 views, 202 favorites and 1788 votes. "Quixotic Rapprochement" has 47 comments, 69735 views, 88 favorites and 733 votes. Was the difference in viewership because "My European Summer Vacation" has a title that catches readers' attention more? "My European Summer Vacation" is very upbeat whereas "Quixotic Rapprochement" is very melancholy. Did that have an impact on the stats for the story? If anyone has an idea, I'd love to hear it.


There's a way of seeing the length of a story before starting it? The only way I know of seeing the length of a story is to scroll down to the bottom and then click the drop down to see the number of pages. I usually just start reading and make a decision on continuing long before I get to the bottom.
Click to expand...

Here is the link to your story. Go to the bottom of the page and you see the drop box, but next to it, it says 9 pages. Many readers will look before investing.

https://www.literotica.com/s/my-european-summer-vacation

As for Quixotic Rapprochement the title was the big difference, that is way to high brow for a lot of readers. The fact it was melancholy I'm sure kept it down some and may have earned it some bombs by people who want their taboo stuff ultra fun an frolicky.

Having said that, its why I loved it. One of the best I've read, maybe the best next to Beyond the Borderline which was pretty damn dark.
 
lovecraft68 said:
Here is the link to your story. Go to the bottom of the page and you see the drop box, but next to it, it says 9 pages. Many readers will look before investing.
Click to expand...

OK, yes I see what you were posting. And, yes, whenever I am considering reading a Literotica story (which isn't often), I always check out how long it's going to be--and I rarely open anything that's more than three Lit. pages even if I had been considering reading it.
 
lovecraft68 said:
That doesn't work in this day of instant gratification and ADD/ADHD etc...if they don't get it all now, they forget they wanted it.
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If that's the case then they are missing out on a lot of sex in my stories, which are usually in the 4 - 6 page range.

But I still always leave them wanting more. Want proof, look at my comments :D
 
You do realize that someone puts that comment on nearly every story, don't you? :D
 
Basic storytelling skill and remembering your audience makes the difference. If your story takes 8,000 out of 10,000 works to get to the sex, you may discover low views and fewer votes.

While I've had good success with several novella-length stories, I do my best to remember the audience and load the story up with meaningful sex scenes. I don't want my sex scenes to be gratuitous. I want them to have value to the storytelling. Ultimately, that's up to the reader, but I think I do a pretty good job with that.

Don't write lengthy stories as a way to get higher scores. Write better stories.
 
sr71plt said:
You do realize that someone puts that comment on nearly every story, don't you? :D
Click to expand...

I swear I could end a story by killing all the characters and someone would still say "sequel!"

Back when I started I thought it was flattering, now its like you said. Its every damned story no matter what you have for closure. MY swb series went 50 chapters and wrapped up as neat as you could want it. The finale was full of "you could have them do this and they could do that and..."

My favorite was the several comments saying the next obvious step was them to have a baby.

Neither character could have children and that was stressed several times throughout the series.
 
lovecraft68 said:
I swear I could end a story by killing all the characters and someone would still say "sequel!"

Back when I started I thought it was flattering, now its like you said. Its every damned story no matter what you have for closure. MY swb series went 50 chapters and wrapped up as neat as you could want it. The finale was full of "you could have them do this and they could do that and..."

My favorite was the several comments saying the next obvious step was them to have a baby.

Neither character could have children and that was stressed several times throughout the series.
Click to expand...

I did kill off all the characters in one story and yes, I got asked for a sequel. :rolleyes:
 
TxRad said:
I did kill off all the characters in one story and yes, I got asked for a sequel. :rolleyes:
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My one-pager Best Blowjobs in the World ends with the MC being devoured by succubi. It got a few favorites and one comment: "More! I want more!" The only followup might be to track his soul being digested and spread as karmic fertilizer. Hard to make it erotic, though. Unless he fucks his way through Hell.
 
BuckyDuckman said:
Basic storytelling skill and remembering your audience makes the difference. If your story takes 8,000 out of 10,000 works to get to the sex, you may discover low views and fewer votes.

While I've had good success with several novella-length stories, I do my best to remember the audience and load the story up with meaningful sex scenes. I don't want my sex scenes to be gratuitous. I want them to have value to the storytelling. Ultimately, that's up to the reader, but I think I do a pretty good job with that.

Don't write lengthy stories as a way to get higher scores. Write better stories.
Click to expand...

My tongue was firmly planted in my cheek with this thread. Totally agree with writing better stores even if it may just be a distant dream. 🤔
 
Sequels

I think it's human nature to want more of something you like. If the readers get hooked by a story or its characters we should expect them to want more. Isn't that what Hollywood and TV count on?

It doesn't mean it has to be written but there are always possibilities like prequels, or maybe the Dallas device... it was all a dream.
 
The reason why I was musing on this topic is I was helping an author with a story and they suggested I read their earlier work to see how they put things together. I looked at the first page got to the bottom and saw there were 31 others, it was in NC/R and didn't bother continuing.

A month later the author expressed surprise at how the ratings for their first story had climbed and it was now on the verge of Hall of Fame. I had some spare time one rainy afternoon so I revisited it. Now it was a cracking story, well written, inventive, sexy and it got me hooked. Over the next two weeks it continued its climb into the Hall of Fame landing at three. That's when my theory was born, but it was the only stand alone story in the top ten.

The next week it made it to number one for one day before it was smashed from 4.88 to 4.75. Close to 100,000 views, 104 favs and around 500 votes I think.

I'll put a link below if anyone is interested. It was originally posted in Mind Control but got shifted by Admin to Non consent/ Reluctance early on.

https://www.literotica.com/s/control-enkindle
 
I can read a long story (?) say five pages as long as the story line is good... page after page of repetitious sex is just that...repetitious.
 
CharlieB4 said:
I think it's human nature to want more of something you like. If the readers get hooked by a story or its characters we should expect them to want more. Isn't that what Hollywood and TV count on?
Click to expand...
I distinguish between series, sequels, and cycles of episodes. Series and sequels depend on their predecessors. Story cycles are not so dependent; episodes needn't refer to previous events. Back when I watched TV, most shows were so structured. So my LEFT BEHIND is a serial in 3-chapters. A sequel would pick up some time after ch.3. A prequel (ch.0) might end far before ch.1. A story cycle episode would have shared characters but not be in any specific sequence -- a snippet distinct from other events.

It doesn't mean it has to be written but there are always possibilities like prequels, or maybe the Dallas device... it was all a dream.
Click to expand...
Oh shit, that kills it. Expect angry readers.
 
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