The Official Authors' Hangout April Fool's 2018 Support Thread

RubenR said:

Somehow I did get an idea for a story, but in order to make it work, it would have to be placed in the 'wrong' category, and that's unlikely to happen (apparently, you can't put the 'B' in 'Romance' at Literotica).

It's not like I'm making fun of it (I already know that 'funny stories' is not my field of expertise) but it would definitely spoil the story line when people know from the beginning that 'He' won't end up with 'Her'.

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It's also hard to write a story that clearly belongs in Loving Wives ... but then to tweak a few scenes so you can squeeze it into any other category

Haulover said:

It's also hard to write a story that clearly belongs in Loving Wives ... but then to tweak a few scenes so you can squeeze it into any other category

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I got one into non-con. It wasn't really non-con either, though. Very mild and brief reluctance, more like. My character (Nate)'s just finished shagging this lady's husband, as punishment for said husband doing worse things to a bunch of girls, and the man's wife comes downstairs and finds them at it.

Nate then seduces the guy's loving wife. She is loving, too. Right up until she finds a bloke shagging her husband in her husband's secret sex dungeon.

I know, formulaic, but you do what you can.

Sad part is, when I tagged it 'loving wives', I naively thought it referred to 'loving wives'.

https://www.literotica.com/s/nates-evil-exploits-pt-09

Personally, I think Ellie, the loving wife in question, is just lovely.

JasonClearwater said:

I got one into non-con. It wasn't really non-con either, though. Very mild and brief reluctance, more like. My character (Nate)'s just finished shagging this lady's husband, as punishment for said husband doing worse things to a bunch of girls, and the man's wife comes downstairs and finds them at it.

Nate then seduces the guy's loving wife. She is loving, too. Right up until she finds a bloke shagging her husband in her husband's secret sex dungeon.

I know, formulaic, but you do what you can.

Sad part is, when I tagged it 'loving wives', I naively thought it referred to 'loving wives'.

https://www.literotica.com/s/nates-evil-exploits-pt-09

Personally, I think Ellie, the loving wife in question, is just lovely.

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I made that exact same mistake on the very first story I posted here. I naively thought any wife who would enjoy a mmf threesome with her husband had to be the definition of a loving wife...silly me!

yukonnights said:

I made that exact same mistake on the very first story I posted here. I naively thought any wife who would enjoy a mmf threesome with her husband had to be the definition of a loving wife...silly me!

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I think most wives are more open to a mmf than a ffm. One will get a 'Oooh, really?' followed by the hurried purchase of things [by her] to put in your bum, while the other will get your face slapped, and suspicious looks every time the granny over the fence chats to you while you weed the garden.

JasonClearwater said:

I think most wives are more open to a mmf than a ffm. One will get a 'Oooh, really?' followed by the hurried purchase of things [by her] to put in your bum, while the other will get your face slapped, and suspicious looks every time the granny over the fence chats to you while you weed the garden.

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I think there's a thread in Fetish/Sexuality that supports that theory. Now personally, I hate having to read all those nasty threads about that kind of stuff...but as an "artist" I feel I must do the research...but now I fear we may have jumped the rails on the April Fools thing

Thus, making a quick correction: I'm wondering about contest story length again. The Valentine's Day winners were; 8 pages, 5 pages , and 5 pages. Does this seem to be a pattern for most winning entries in the contests? I intentionally went the other way on my entry thinking folks would be wanting a quicker read in order to work through all of the entries. Or maybe there's no correlation at all?

yukonnights said:

Thus, making a quick correction: I'm wondering about contest story length again. The Valentine's Day winners were; 8 pages, 5 pages , and 5 pages. Does this seem to be a pattern for most winning entries in the contests? I intentionally went the other way on my entry thinking folks would be wanting a quicker read in order to work through all of the entries. Or maybe there's no correlation at all?

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Well, the winning story from the 2017 April Fools contest was 11 LIT pages and Xelliebabex' "Her Fairy Tale Life" which won the 2017 Valentines Competition was 19 LIT pages so I don't think length is a factor.

Those who've been here a lot longer than me would know best though.

yukonnights said:

Thus, making a quick correction: I'm wondering about contest story length again

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Longer stories engage readers more and get higher votes. I don't think that padding your story with more sex is what those up-voting readers are looking for. I think they want more story. My two highest-rated stories/parts are ~27,000 words and ~24,000 words--they're novella length, and they both have plots that go well beyond sex. One of those is in I/T and the other in Romance.

Longer, more engaging stories may get higher ratings, but the flips side is that they may get so few votes that the rating isn't very meaningful. That's not an issue with contest scores until the scoring is over, when the low-votes story may plummet in the ratings.

ChloeTzang said:

Well, the winning story from the 2017 April Fools contest was 11 LIT pages and Xelliebabex' "Her Fairy Tale Life" which won the 2017 Valentines Competition was 19 LIT pages so I don't think length is a factor.

Those who've been here a lot longer than me would know best though.

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NotWise said:

Longer stories engage readers more and get higher votes. I don't think that padding your story with more sex is what those up-voting readers are looking for. I think they want more story. My two highest-rated stories/parts are ~27,000 words and ~24,000 words--they're novella length, and they both have plots that go well beyond sex. One of those is in I/T and the other in Romance.

Longer, more engaging stories may get higher ratings, but the flips side is that they may get so few votes that the rating isn't very meaningful. That's not an issue with contest scores until the scoring is over, when the low-votes story may plummet in the ratings.

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Thanks to both of you. Your answers confirmed what I was thinking...the longer stories seem to be what folks are looking for. Now the question for me to answer is: Do I have it in me to write one that long in a month??? And spring is starting to make her appearance and is calling me to come outside... I don't think the one I have in mind has the legs to run that long and still be interesting....Hmmm, so many decisions to make

(I do have one in progress that is currently 25,678 words...but alas, no April Fools connection )

yukonnights said:

Thanks to both of you. Your answers confirmed what I was thinking...the longer stories seem to be what folks are looking for. Now the question for me to answer is: Do I have it in me to write one that long in a month??? And spring is starting to make her appearance and is calling me to come outside... I don't think the one I have in mind has the legs to run that long and still be interesting....Hmmm, so many decisions to make

(I do have one in progress that is currently 25,678 words...but alas, no April Fools connection )

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Surprise ending to your current work in progress - surprise - it was all a dream!

JasonClearwater said:

Surprise ending to your current work in progress - surprise - it was all a dream!

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I'm afraid that would prompt a string of well deserved 1 star votes that would even put the Trolls to shame

ChloeTzang said:

... so I don't think length is a factor.

Those who've been here a lot longer than me would know best though.

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A decade or so ago longer stories USED to struggle to get the minimum 25 votes. Many Lit stories were 1 or 2 pages and it seemed there was no appetite for anything over 3 or 4 pages. Authors used to get down marked and complaints that the story was TOO long. But Literotica has changed significantly. There are many more active users i.e. actually reading and writing than there were. The number of dormant usernames is still massive but the traffic on Lit has grown. There is now a readership for much longer stories.

JasonClearwater said:

Surprise ending to your current work in progress - surprise - it was all a dream!

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yukonnights said:

I'm afraid that would prompt a string of well deserved 1 star votes that would even put the Trolls to shame

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"It was all a dream" and Deus Ex Machina endings are unpopular. I have one 'it was a dream' story and another set that started as accounts of a dream. Both seem to work but I was very aware that the dream scenario could backfire.

oggbashan said:

A decade or so ago longer stories USED to struggle to get the minimum 25 votes. Many Lit stories were 1 or 2 pages and it seemed there was no appetite for anything over 3 or 4 pages. Authors used to get down marked and complaints that the story was TOO long. But Literotica has changed significantly. There are many more active users i.e. actually reading and writing than there were. The number of dormant usernames is still massive but the traffic on Lit has grown. There is now a readership for much longer stories.

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I suspect that there is also more acceptance and people are more receptive to longer stories because they are more accustomed to reading ebook formats. The Lit readers today, as opposed to a decade ago, are more likely to use mobile apps/tablets/etc. while back then it was confined to (usually desktop) computers. Back then it was harder to read a long story in privacy, that has changed.
Not that I would personally know anything about that...I'm just guessing.

oggbashan said:

A decade or so ago longer stories USED to struggle to get the minimum 25 votes. Many Lit stories were 1 or 2 pages and it seemed there was no appetite for anything over 3 or 4 pages. Authors used to get down marked and complaints that the story was TOO long. But Literotica has changed significantly. There are many more active users i.e. actually reading and writing than there were. The number of dormant usernames is still massive but the traffic on Lit has grown. There is now a readership for much longer stories.

"It was all a dream" and Deus Ex Machina endings are unpopular. I have one 'it was a dream' story and another set that started as accounts of a dream. Both seem to work but I was very aware that the dream scenario could backfire.

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Thanks Ogg, That makes a lot of sense, and since I'm sorta one of those 'old school' folks, I suspect my concept of what is desirable in regard to length was a bit crusty.

lillianaZ said:

I suspect that there is also more acceptance and people are more receptive to longer stories because they are more accustomed to reading ebook formats. The Lit readers today, as opposed to a decade ago, are more likely to use mobile apps/tablets/etc. while back then it was confined to (usually desktop) computers. Back then it was harder to read a long story in privacy, that has changed.
Not that I would personally know anything about that...I'm just guessing.

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That seems brilliant, now that you mention it! Pretty smart for a guess, if you ask me Personally, I don't really enjoy reading the longer stories on a screen...and that no doubt shades my perspective. All really helpful input...thanks to all !!!

yukonnights said:

Thanks to both of you. Your answers confirmed what I was thinking...the longer stories seem to be what folks are looking for. Now the question for me to answer is: Do I have it in me to write one that long in a month??? And spring is starting to make her appearance and is calling me to come outside... I don't think the one I have in mind has the legs to run that long and still be interesting....Hmmm, so many decisions to make

(I do have one in progress that is currently 25,678 words...but alas, no April Fools connection )

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Well, be careful about your assumptions. I don't think it's the case that people here (i.e., Literotica readers) are looking for long stories. I think it's more complicated than that.

It does appear to be true that longer stories often get higher scores. But they don't necessarily get favorited more or get more views or votes. You can check out the various top lists for confirmation.

Two factors, from what I can tell, account for the good ratings received by relatively long stories on this site.

One is that a longer story will weed out the people who don't like it. The people who stick it out to the end are likely to be people who like it. This is my experience. My longer stories get relatively fewer votes relative to views, but the scores are higher.

The other reason is that there is a substantial readership here at Literotica for erotic stories that take their time and get you involved in characters. It's interesting to me because I'm not one of those readers, most of the time. I 'm busy and I have limited time and I usually prefer erotic stories that don't take too long to get to the point. But a lot of readers here are not like me in this respect.

Keep in mind that you cannot infer that much from scores. High scores do not necessarily reflect what Literotica readers want most. They do, to some degree, but they also reflect attrition: the attrition that results from readers dropping out of a long story and the attrition that results from readers dropping out during series. That's why a very high number of the highest-ranked stories here are chapters deep into a series. But if you look at their view counts, they are sometimes quite low.

If you want to know what Literotica readers "want", probably the best place to go is the list of the 250 most favorited stories. Those stories vary a lot in length, but most are not very long.

yukonnights said:

I'm afraid that would prompt a string of well deserved 1 star votes that would even put the Trolls to shame

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The shortest plot twist to end a story would probably be, "Mom!"

SimonDoom said:

If you want to know what Literotica readers "want", probably the best place to go is the list of the 250 most favorited stories. Those stories vary a lot in length, but most are not very long.

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But being favorited does you nothing in a contest. It's only the score that counts. A long story with a low number of votes has an advantage during the sweeps. The winner of the Summer Luvin' contest was a case in point. It was fairly long (8 Lit pages if I remember right), had very few votes and an unexciting score until the final sweeps. It jumped out of nowhere to take first place then disappeared into the middlin' scores again after the contest.

Where do you find the list of most favorited stories?

NotWise said:

But being favorited does you nothing in a contest. It's only the score that counts. A long story with a low number of votes has an advantage during the sweeps. The winner of the Summer Luvin' contest was a case in point. It was fairly long (8 Lit pages if I remember right), had very few votes and an unexciting score until the final sweeps. It jumped out of nowhere to take first place then disappeared into the middlin' scores again after the contest.

Where do you find the list of most favorited stories?

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You're right. If your goal is to win a contest then what I said is not the best advice.

But I don't want to win contests. I want to connect with readers so that as many readers as possible who like my stories find them and enjoy them. I don't really understand why an author would want to get a higher score on a story if it meant doing things that resulted in fewer readers, especially appreciative readers. But to each his own. People should feel free to do on this site whatever satisfies their reasons for being and writing here.

Here's the list of the 250 most favorited authors on Literotica: https://www.literotica.com/stories/favauthorsv2.php

Here's the list of the 250 most favorited stories on Literotica: https://www.literotica.com/stories/favstoriesv2.php

SimonDoom said:

Well, be careful about your assumptions. I don't think it's the case that people here (i.e., Literotica readers) are looking for long stories. I think it's more complicated than that.

It does appear to be true that longer stories often get higher scores. But they don't necessarily get favorited more or get more views or votes. You can check out the various top lists for confirmation.

Two factors, from what I can tell, account for the good ratings received by relatively long stories on this site.

One is that a longer story will weed out the people who don't like it. The people who stick it out to the end are likely to be people who like it. This is my experience. My longer stories get relatively fewer votes relative to views, but the scores are higher.

The other reason is that there is a substantial readership here at Literotica for erotic stories that take their time and get you involved in characters. It's interesting to me because I'm not one of those readers, most of the time. I 'm busy and I have limited time and I usually prefer erotic stories that don't take too long to get to the point. But a lot of readers here are not like me in this respect.

Keep in mind that you cannot infer that much from scores. High scores do not necessarily reflect what Literotica readers want most. They do, to some degree, but they also reflect attrition: the attrition that results from readers dropping out of a long story and the attrition that results from readers dropping out during series. That's why a very high number of the highest-ranked stories here are chapters deep into a series. But if you look at their view counts, they are sometimes quite low.

If you want to know what Literotica readers "want", probably the best place to go is the list of the 250 most favorited stories. Those stories vary a lot in length, but most are not very long.

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Thanks for reminding me of this Simon. I think you're spot on that this is a factor in the longer stories. In fact, I've been leaning more toward the series approach for my new ideas lately. I've only posted one series so far, but the scoring and views are consistent to what you said.

I'm a little confused by the "favorite story" function though. I often go check out the profile of those doing this on my stories, and most often they seem to be "story collectors" with a massive list of very random works. I've mostly assumed these were people lifting stories from here for whatever reason. In some few instances the person does favorite one or a few specific categories of stories...but these are rare.

Anyway, very helpful words...now I just need to go hunt down that list of 250 most favorited stories (I'm hoping I don't have to read them all...which would no doubt further my education...but would take the rest of my life ) ETA: I see the link appeared while I was away - thanks Simon !

NotWise said:

The shortest plot twist to end a story would probably be, "Mom!"

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I actually lived through this "plot twist" once...actually, twice...I was a baaaad boy

Unfortunately, in the April Fools story I have in mind the characters are too old to care.

SimonDoom said:

You're right. If your goal is to win a contest then what I said is not the best advice.

But I don't want to win contests. I want to connect with readers so that as many readers as possible who like my stories find them and enjoy them. I don't really understand why an author would want to get a higher score on a story if it meant doing things that resulted in fewer readers, especially appreciative readers. But to each his own. People should feel free to do on this site whatever satisfies their reasons for being and writing here.

Here's the list of the 250 most favorited authors on Literotica: https://www.literotica.com/stories/favauthorsv2.php

Here's the list of the 250 most favorited stories on Literotica: https://www.literotica.com/stories/favstoriesv2.php

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Neither list means anything. They have both been manipulated and gamed for the last six or seven years. How about an author who hasn't posted a story in six years but is still in the top ten. He stays exactly 40-50 favorites above the guy below him who posts regularly.

The top 250 favorite stories used to be a mix of stories across the board. Now it is a list of incest stories. Totally meaningless.

And what everybody is trying not to say is I will not hesitate to load up 25 screens (about 250 pages of a paperback) and roll my ponderous verbiage right over the top of anyone who dares a peek in my closet full of skeletons. The only reason I did as well last summer as I did is that 35,000 people didn't have the stamina to make it to the voting screen.

*sigh* Fine. Fine. I'll be serious. For maybe sixty seconds.

In all seriousness, I think it's a mistake to rate your personal success or failure as a writer on something as intangible and fickle (not to mention as easily manipulated by a third party) as votes, top lists, etcetera. OR to compare your efforts to anyone else's results.

At the end of the day, you are you and shouldn't be trying to be anyone else. And the story you have to tell is the story you have to tell and shouldn't be forced to become something else just because someone else might not care for it as much today when they encounter it as they do something else they read. Or as much as they might have if they read it tomorrow or last week sometime.

When it all comes tumbling down and the results are in, you owe it to any potential readers to make your effort legible. But, you owe it to yourself to make your effort the best damn one you could make in that time and space. And if that's a one screen giggle, a four-screen stroker, or a twenty-five screen love child of Danielle Steele and Zane Grey, then so be it.

And it's April Fools Day! If you can't let your hair down and have a little fucking fun NOW, when will you?! (And yeah, seriousness got eaten by the little fairy on my shoulder going, "I'm bored.")


And I'm off to see just what the hell this idiot hiding in the six foot pink bunny in the corner is going to see when the two (hot as hell, of course) lesbians come in...

Although, I'm getting a little bored with that. Hmm. I wonder what I could make of a prank involved a rattlesnake they thought was dead coiled in a toilet and biting the guy in the nuts...

"You gotta suck the poison out!"

*five hours later*

"Shouldn't we call a doctor or something?"

"What for?"

"The snake bite."

"What snake bite? Oh, the snake was dead. April Fools."

There are long stories in the bottom of the rankings in every single contest. There are Romance and Sci-Fi stories that never come close to the top 3 spots in every single contest. There are popular authors with huge followings who never get within hailing distance of the winner's circle in every single contest.

Unless you write a good story, all the advantages in the world don't mean shit.

Read the winning stories. Not on a sliding scale based upon the competition, or your own personal preferences, but on their own merits. The contests are imperfect, but I have yet to read a winning entry that wasn't a solid story that was a deserving winner.

Not every good story can win, but only a good story can win.

TxRad said:

Neither list means anything. They have both been manipulated and gamed for the last six or seven years. How about an author who hasn't posted a story in six years but is still in the top ten. He stays exactly 40-50 favorites above the guy below him who posts regularly.

The top 250 favorite stories used to be a mix of stories across the board. Now it is a list of incest stories. Totally meaningless.

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Good point. You know more about that than I do.

I'd put it this way: all the various numerical measures of success at this site are just approximations, prone to manipulation and imperfect. To my mind, the numbers aren't the goal, but they're useful. The goal (to me) is reaching readers who might like what I write, and who can give me feedback so I can keep getting better. Winning contests and getting high scores and earning favorites can help toward that goal in various ways, but they're not goals in themselves.

RejectReality said:

...

Not every good story can win, but only a good story can win.

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The converse is also true. Good stories can have low ratings. In the past when I used to run the Authors' Hangout Last Place (tm) Contests for the stories that were lowest rated at the end of the final sweep, the winner of Last Place was often a good story that was just unpopular.

oggbashan said:

The converse is also true. Good stories can have low ratings. In the past when I used to run the Authors' Hangout Last Place (tm) Contests for the stories that were lowest rated at the end of the final sweep, the winner of Last Place was often a good story that was just unpopular.

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A public rating system like Lit's measures popularity, and that's all. You can post a good story in the wrong category and make it very unpopular.