Quick Poll

[HobokenSweat]

I’m deep into a story that could go one of two ways, and I’d love to get a sense of what you, the community, lean toward. Without giving away details or characters:

Option A: The story follows the “high road” — it burns hot, then collapses into heartbreak. No neat resolution, no easy fixes. The kind of ending that lingers because it hurts. A friendship is destroyed. Would be lovers struggle to work together... but forever apart.

Option B: The story leans into physical love — two women giving in to desire, letting passion crash through all the barriers. Messy, intense, bodies tangled, hearts pounding. Love (at least for now) wins. It's hot... it's sticky.

So, my question is: when you’re reading something like this, which payoff hits you harder? The catastrophe that leaves you breathless, or the sex that leaves you glowing?
Please drop a quick reply. Even a one-word answer (Collapse / Love) helps me get the pulse.
Thanks for weighing in — your reactions matter a lot to where this story heads.

 

[EmilyMiller]

It’s impossible to answer this generically. The pay off will be wholly to do with how you have established the characters, what they mean to each other, other events that have occurred, and so on.

Don’t crowdsource stuff like this, the replies can’t really give you any meaningful answer.

 

[Baztrachian]

I’m deep into a story that could go one of two ways, and I’d love to get a sense of what you, the community, lean toward. Without giving away details or characters:

Option A: The story follows the “high road” — it burns hot, then collapses into heartbreak. No neat resolution, no easy fixes. The kind of ending that lingers because it hurts. A friendship is destroyed. Would be lovers struggle to work together... but forever apart.

Option B: The story leans into physical love — two women giving in to desire, letting passion crash through all the barriers. Messy, intense, bodies tangled, hearts pounding. Love (at least for now) wins. It's hot... it's sticky.

So, my question is: when you’re reading something like this, which payoff hits you harder? The catastrophe that leaves you breathless, or the sex that leaves you glowing?
Please drop a quick reply. Even a one-word answer (Collapse / Love) helps me get the pulse.
Thanks for weighing in — your reactions matter a lot to where this story heads.

My advice, for what it's worth, is to start writing and just let the characters evolve organically and see where it takes them.

 

[StillStunned]

When in doubt, always go for tragedy.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I agree with most of the others. Either option can be good but the best story will be determined by how it is developed That is in the writer's hands, not in some generic poll, and is what determines how a story is ultimately perceived by readers.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Write both endings--just a few paragraphs for each. Skip the entire rest of the story.

Which ending do you want to write toward?

--Annie

 

[StillStunned]

Skip the entire story, and write two new ones based on the envisioned endings.

 

[THBGato]

Option B every time.

Sorry, the world is too fucking full of tragedy right now. Give us a happy ending please! (Bear in mind I, unlike many chipping in here, actually read your stories!)

Thanks for weighing in — your reactions matter a lot to where this story heads.

By the way, you sent me a story via feedback. Um... thanks! Did you want me to do anything with it? Were you looking for feedback? Or was it a bonus extra for regular readers?

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

My advice, for what it's worth, is to start writing and just let the characters evolve organically and see where it takes them.

100%. When in doubt, just write your characters and let them tell you where they want to go. As Emily said, crowd sourcing stuff like this is not going to get you any kind of usable answer. Only you and your characters know.

 

[Robin_Starveling]

If others decide the course of your story, it’s no longer yours.

B will get a higher score. A is the one to remember.

I would eagerly read any text, regardless of its content, on one condition: from the first word to the last, I am unaware that I am reading.

 

[nice90sguy]

Unsuprisingly, happy endings generally score higher here over unhappy ones. That factoid hasn't change my choice of what to write one jot.

BTW I clicked on this thread because I had a mad, wild hope that the site allowed polls like it used to. I was the Nate Silver of the AH:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/poll-happy-sad.235102/

 

[gunhilltrain]

I’m deep into a story that could go one of two ways, and I’d love to get a sense of what you, the community, lean toward. Without giving away details or characters:

Option A: The story follows the “high road” — it burns hot, then collapses into heartbreak. No neat resolution, no easy fixes. The kind of ending that lingers because it hurts. A friendship is destroyed. Would be lovers struggle to work together... but forever apart.

Option B: The story leans into physical love — two women giving in to desire, letting passion crash through all the barriers. Messy, intense, bodies tangled, hearts pounding. Love (at least for now) wins. It's hot... it's sticky.

So, my question is: when you’re reading something like this, which payoff hits you harder? The catastrophe that leaves you breathless, or the sex that leaves you glowing?
Please drop a quick reply. Even a one-word answer (Collapse / Love) helps me get the pulse.
Thanks for weighing in — your reactions matter a lot to where this story heads.

Just curious, it's your choice to answer. The 73 stories you have here couldn't have all been written since February. So were they published on other sites first, or did you just have them in your files? Also, what is your connection to Hoboken? (Yeah, I'm pretty nosy.)

https://www.tribecatrib.com/sites/default/files/images/Screen Shot 2018-04-09 at 10_52_50 AM.png

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Start writing and make the choice when you get to that point in the story where you have to choose.

 

[nice90sguy]

https://www.tribecatrib.com/sites/default/files/images/Screen Shot 2018-04-09 at 10_52_50 AM.png

Wow, if people talk like that in Hoboken, I'm moving there!

 

[Baztrachian]

Unsuprisingly, happy endings generally score higher here over unhappy ones. That factoid hasn't change my choice of what to write one jot.

BTW I clicked on this thread because I had a mad, wild hope that the site allowed polls like it used to. I was the Nate Silver of the AH:

https://forum.literotica.com/threads/poll-happy-sad.235102/

Check this out...

https://www.poll-maker.com/

 

[gunhilltrain]

Wow, if people talk like that in Hoboken, I'm moving there!

Years ago it was an affordable working-class town. (On the Waterfront was filmed there, but the name was never mentioned.) Now, since it's just across the river from the Financial District, it's filled with Wall Street types. Oh yeah, Frank Sinatra grew up there too.

https://www.hobokengirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/on-the-waterfront-movie-hoboken-3-650x505.png

 

[HobokenSweat]

Just curious, it's your choice to answer. The 73 stories you have here couldn't have all been written since February. So were they published on other sites first, or did you just have them in your files? Also, what is your connection to Hoboken? (Yeah, I'm pretty nosy.)

https://www.tribecatrib.com/sites/default/files/images/Screen Shot 2018-04-09 at 10_52_50 AM.png

It took me years to build up the courage to put anything on here. I have tons of stuff in various stages of completion. I write scenes (sometimes just a line) and they sit until I'm ready. I don't sit down, write a story to its conclusion. One South Philly story that's not seen the light of day is 10 years old. My oldest (unpublished) story is from (probably) 1992.

The one in moderation right now took forever to write. It's highly technical in a medical sense and not only needed weaving into the larger South Philly world (which is just for me. I suppose I could write all of this in a vacuum, but I gotta link it all up.) but also had to be proofed by a couple of medical professionals of my acquaintance.

This is why things are all over the South Philly Canon timeline and the characters seem to flit in and out like ghosts. I'm working on no less than 8 stories right now.

Occasionally, something happens in the comments (as TBHGato can tell you) that fits so perfectly I edit it into an otherwise complete story and just hit send.

The connection to Hoboken is in the distant past. I was born there, at a very young age, and quickly took steps to correct the situation. The connection to South Philly is a mystery. I try to be specific... except when I am vague.

 

[HobokenSweat]

Option B every time.

Sorry, the world is too fucking full of tragedy right now. Give us a happy ending please! (Bear in mind I, unlike many chipping in here, actually read your stories!)



By the way, you sent me a story via feedback. Um... thanks! Did you want me to do anything with it? Were you looking for feedback? Or was it a bonus extra for regular readers?

I think I was wanting feedback for the final version of "The Shores of Heartbreak." I think. I've slept since then.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

It took me years to build up the courage to put anything on here. I have tons of stuff in various stages of completion. I write scenes (sometimes just a line) and they sit until I'm ready. I don't sit down, write a story to its conclusion. One South Philly story that's not seen the light of day is 10 years old. My oldest (unpublished) story is from (probably) 1992.

The one in moderation right now took forever to write. It's highly technical in a medical sense and not only needed weaving into the larger South Philly world (which is just for me. I suppose I could write all of this in a vacuum, but I gotta link it all up.) but also had to be proofed by a couple of medical professionals of my acquaintance.

This is why things are all over the South Philly Canon timeline and the characters seem to flit in and out like ghosts. I'm working on no less than 8 stories right now.

Occasionally, something happens in the comments (as TBHGato can tell you) that fits so perfectly I edit it into an otherwise complete story and just hit send.

The connection to Hoboken is in the distant past. I was born there, at a very young age, and quickly took steps to correct the situation. The connection to South Philly is a mystery. I try to be specific... except when I am vague.

I think Hoboken is just one of those very interesting city names. Speaking as someone from a long ways away who has never been there. Putting, "John was from Hoboken" adds an interesting gritty blue collar edge in my mind, even if the city is now something very different.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

When in doubt, let Fate decide the outcome. Flip a coin.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It took me years to build up the courage to put anything on here. I have tons of stuff in various stages of completion. I write scenes (sometimes just a line) and they sit until I'm ready. I don't sit down, write a story to its conclusion. One South Philly story that's not seen the light of day is 10 years old. My oldest (unpublished) story is from (probably) 1992.

The one in moderation right now took forever to write. It's highly technical in a medical sense and not only needed weaving into the larger South Philly world (which is just for me. I suppose I could write all of this in a vacuum, but I gotta link it all up.) but also had to be proofed by a couple of medical professionals of my acquaintance.

This is why things are all over the South Philly Canon timeline and the characters seem to flit in and out like ghosts. I'm working on no less than 8 stories right now.

Occasionally, something happens in the comments (as TBHGato can tell you) that fits so perfectly I edit it into an otherwise complete story and just hit send.

The connection to Hoboken is in the distant past. I was born there, at a very young age, and quickly took steps to correct the situation. The connection to South Philly is a mystery. I try to be specific... except when I am vague.

That's rather extraordinary. You had all that material available, and then - well, last March you were submitting a story here almost every day. You did say that you had to build up the courage to publish anything. But like most of us, I guess, once you go over the edge with the first one, it becomes easier. You actually did quite well with most scores except for that one in Loving Wives. I've had to learn to shake off slumps (it looks like my worst was a 2.33, but I think I know what went wrong) and stories that were never finished.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I think Hoboken is just one of those very interesting city names. Speaking as someone from a long ways away who has never been there. Putting, "John was from Hoboken" adds an interesting gritty blue collar edge in my mind, even if the city is now something very different.

There seems to be some confusion, because the name Hoboken may have had roots in both an Indian language and Dutch. The next town up, Weehawken, has four different possible translations. My favorite New Jersey name is Ho-Ho-Kus (yes, with hyphens) which is a an upscale suburb further north.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My favorite New Jersey name is Ho-Ho-Kus

My favorite Lenape name is: Lenapewihittuck, so much cooler than The Delaware. Not that it was very cool last time I went tubing down it, more like bath water .

 

[gunhilltrain]

I’m deep into a story that could go one of two ways, and I’d love to get a sense of what you, the community, lean toward. Without giving away details or characters:

Option A: The story follows the “high road” — it burns hot, then collapses into heartbreak. No neat resolution, no easy fixes. The kind of ending that lingers because it hurts. A friendship is destroyed. Would be lovers struggle to work together... but forever apart.

Option B: The story leans into physical love — two women giving in to desire, letting passion crash through all the barriers. Messy, intense, bodies tangled, hearts pounding. Love (at least for now) wins. It's hot... it's sticky.

So, my question is: when you’re reading something like this, which payoff hits you harder? The catastrophe that leaves you breathless, or the sex that leaves you glowing?
Please drop a quick reply. Even a one-word answer (Collapse / Love) helps me get the pulse.
Thanks for weighing in — your reactions matter a lot to where this story heads.

What category is this going in? Romance readers can be as picky as the Loving Wives people. That just don't like break-ups, although that's the way the modern world works. I have a Romance series ending that way, and as George Carlin would say, "I was dying out there." One character, observing the aftermath, says, "It's not 1905 any longer." She mentions this song, which dates back to the 1890s. Yes, Kubrick got his inspiration for HAL from this.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

There seems to be some confusion, because the name Hoboken may have had roots in both an Indian language and Dutch. The next town up, Weehawken, has four different possible translations. My favorite New Jersey name is Ho-Ho-Kus (yes, with hyphens) which is a an upscale suburb further north.

Well, if you want interesting names... no, it isn't photoshop it's outside San Antonio. Sandra Cisneros used it as the title of one of her books.