Why do you write?

[WaxPhilosophic]

I can't draw for crap, and I'm a mediocre musician at best.

 

[DEFCOM5]

1) lots of views

That was my original intent. This is why I wrote strokers in R/NC. IT worked but made me feel dirty.

2) lots of votes

Votes is a two way street. Love when they are reflective of comments. Hate the 1 bombing

3) lots of comments

I crave that the most. Meaningful comments from authors I respect make my day

4) lots of favorites (hearts)

Not my top priorities. A nice to have

5) a high rating (or just an H)

I am a whore for H.

6) a new category "conquered"

This will come when I am proud of my writing. May be.

7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

I am not writing for myself yet

8) I write to get followers

 

[H. Jekyll]

Oh am I late to this thread! I started writing because I was looking for sex stories and almost all those I found were so bad. Not many "The Story of O" quality, you know? Like so many others, I thought: "I can do better!" And it was easy. This was back in 2000, when internet stories were posted mainly on newsgroups, or bulletin boards, before the Web -- the Alt.Sex.Stories.Moderated newsgroup mainly. Most of you have probably never seen a "newsgroup." Well, anything -- and I do mean anything! -- could be posted (I've posted a now long-out-of-date essay on that, about the first quarter century or so of sex story posting). Literotica is so lame in comparison. It refuses to allow many a story that would have been featured at ASSM.

Today I write mainly LW and Romance stories. I'm not one of the most popular writers at Lit, though I do okay, and I think I'm one of the best "writers" hereabouts. Whatever. I write because I feel compelled. I write because I love it. I have things I'd like to say, and I sometimes like to take on the "BTB" (aka, the Literotica Loving Wives Mafia) crowd. I'd like to get higher scores and more comments, but I think I'd write whatever, because I can.

 

[iwatchus]

Could you post a link?

https://forum.literotica.com/thread...rotica-and-what-do-you-get-out-of-it.1636305/

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Why do I write? Because if I don't write, I die of anxiety.

This. I have stories in me and if I don;t let them out they ransack my soul. When I'm on my death bed I can say, "Well at least I got that story done and out there."

Reasons 1-5 do not factor. If they did, I'd have quit long ago.

Reason 6 doesn't factor. I never write to a category. Category placement is simply a way to get the eyeballs onto my story - you know, what they are actually for?

Reason 7 I suppose is the closest to my truth. When I finish something that I think is good, that I think is well-written, and that I think think that at least one person out there will enjoy as a reading experience, then I submit it and consider it success.

 

[CalBishForNow]

This seems like the wrong time to ask.

I started writing because I like the idea of writing fiction, I like jerking off, and I found that writing erotica was a kind of fiction I could stick with well enough to finish. That was years ago. I started writing here 13 months ago. Since then I've hit "publish" 25 times. I know I can write erotica. (I know I'm just barely getting started compared to some people, I know, but it seems like a good number of times as measured in stories and word count.) I could keep writing this kind of thing indefinitely, until I run out of ideas that have any appeal in my ideas file or hit some score or other milestone that feels like there's no point trying to get past, and I'd enjoy it. There are worse hobbies.

But it would be nice if I were putting this time into hobbies that I could actually tell people about, and maybe have some use of some kind. I did NaNoWriMo last year, not with the official organization because of its problems, but still, I put 50,000 words into a story in November, in a genre I can tell people about. Now the official organization is gone but I'm trying to do it again. So for the next month I'm doing a lot less erotica and a lot more other writing. I assume I'll be back here more in December.

 

[AllAmericanMale]

Let us know when that happens. Can't wait.

View attachment 2575125

^---- another big fan.

 

[DeMont]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly. I want to know what success looks like for you.

From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

Certainly all six of these are true for many of these at some point, for some stories. But one or two of these are most important at any given time.

For me, I started out here looking for 4). Then I thought I cared more for 3). Then I shifted back to 4). Now it depends on the story. If I am writing just another Romance of LS story, I want the rating. I love comments and favorites, but at the end of the day, I look at the rating.

But about half of my stories are about exploring something new for myself, and I'm less driven by the rating. I knew Cupcake Caper was not going to be well rated, but it was a blast to write. I wrote my first novel a few months ago. It turned out reasonably rated, but I was happy that I was able to write a coherent 120K. One of my recent stories was both a new category and I played with point of view in a new way, that I guessed mostly worked.

For some authors, I think this choice drives category choice. If you really care about views and especially votes, there are only a couple of categories that make sense.

Me? At my heart, I'm a ratings whore and I know it.

@iwatchus,
My dear colleague, I write for myself. That's my plain, simple, and honest answer.

If I happen to hit any of the "bonus" points you listed, well, that's just the icing on my cake.
Deepest respects,
D.

 

[Abbafan]

I'm mental. Not in the way they say I am, but still.

 

[al55]

I write to deal with a lot of trauma I had in my early life, it really helps me. Unfortunately, people don't seem to enjoy my darker stories - I hardly get any reviews or comments.

The people here on this forum are nice though. I need to post more!

 

[cw5523729]

First I started writing when I couldn't find a story that fit what I had imagined in my head already. Now I write mostly to imagine I have a more active sex life than I really do with a dose of "giving back to the community" thrown in for good measure. Oh, and to fill that constant, never ending need for validation.

 

[Erozetta]

Because my therapist told me I should in order to fight my tendency to catastrophize the results of anyone seeing my writing.

I've been slowly leaking old stories out over the past five years, and I've been skeptical of the reception of each one. I appreciate the reception, but at the same time there is this notion in the back of my head that says, "People are just being nice. Don't trust them."

Each release comes with the nausea and fear of thinking that at some point, people are going to catch on that I don't know what I'm doing and they will call me on it. But I keep gliding under the radar somehow. Well, that or they don't call me out because they don't think I can handle it, when, honestly, it would probably take my anxiety down several notches because I wouldn't have to feel like I'm pretending to be a writer while knowing I'm not nearly up to snuff on it.

I've never tried to fit in or belong. I don't think I'm capable of it. I sit to the side and observe mostly, when I do buck up the courage to participate, it usually falls flat, so I go back to observing.

So, I write for therapy, and I publish just to see what happens. It's a curiosity for me. Scores, comments, likes, followers, none of it matters to me ultimately. Though I do appreciate critical feedback, especially when that feedback calls my mistakes in stories, that's not why I write.

My writing is an ongoing experiment to see how people react/respond to stories that, by all marketing and general knowledge of categories and expectations within those categories, shouldn't work. (And doing so in a way where the story isn't insulting or talking down to the fans of the genre. For example: Step-siblings shouldn't work in I/T based on general feedback from writers here, but I've written a few that worked really well. By all accounts, they should've been bombed into oblivion just on the premise of being step-siblings instead of true siblings.)

I write to see how often I can create something that is the exception to the rule while also using writing to get demons out of my head and lowering my general anxiety around simply existing/taking up space.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Oh, and to fill that constant, never ending need for validation.

You have no need for validation. Not only are you inherently valid, you are indeed essential to all that is. It is difficult to believe this because our cultures beat the opposite into us from birth, but once you realize this, life gets much easier.

If you seek validation from without, then you believe that you are not completely valid and that is the reality that you choose. If you stop this, you accept yourself fully and then you are free of emotional baggage. you feel light and empowered and you start doing things just because you want to instead of trying to please others, and you will likely never be depressed again. Oh, there will be sad days, sad weeks, angry days, sure, but never prolonged depression. It's a wonderful thing.

And it's not a narcissistic I-don't-give-a-shit-about-anyone-else kind of thing neither. You will be empowered to do good things for those around you and those that you care about and it will be easier to make these choices because you are not limiting yourself.

The irony of misplaces selflessness is that if you do not love yourself, then no one else can love you. So if you only accept/like/love yourself 80% then no matter how much anyone else tries to love you, you will only accept 80% of their love, because you live in a belief where you only deserve 80%. So accept yourself, then like yourself, then love yourself, and then everyone else can love you too. In fact they can't until you do. And others will still hate you, and you will care very little. At most it will be disappointing.

To love is simply to empower, so empower yourself, validate yourself from within. To do this, go back to the first line in this post. You are valid and essential. Understand this. Take it into your bones.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly. I want to know what success looks like for you.

From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

Certainly all six of these are true for many of these at some point, for some stories. But one or two of these are most important at any given time.

In hindsight, my first comment in this thread was really in the spirit of Chloe's thread, which you already said you don't want to be redundant with.

So, for an answer more in the spirit of this thread: 7. Maybe a little of 5 and 6 but more about mastering things I like than about categories or scores for their own sake. I'm more interested in a high score in a category I enjoy reading than a score 1 percent lower in a category I've never touched before.

But mainly 7. I'm writing the kind of stories I enjoy reading, using characters and plots I find personally interesting. If I wanted to pick out my favorite stories I've written, there's something weird and unique about all of them.

1. Dancing Naked in the Moonlight? - my Halloween contest entry for this year. The characters of this story are more unlike me and people I know than most stories, less of an author insert fantasy. There's also some genre-bending, category-crossing stuff, which seems appropriate for a Halloween story.
2. Using the Hall Pass - Pt. 07 - an entry of my LW series with less sex than usual and, spoiler alert, a humorous, anticlimactic twist.
3. It Could Have Been Anyone - Pt. 04 - an installment of my first series after it really gets going. There's a little unreliable narrator stuff and some perspective switching. Also more personal/emotional connections.

The third one on that list is my highest-rated story, but the other two are lower than average, even taking category into account. I'd consider them among my favorites regardless.

 

[AG31]

Why do I write? Because if I don't write, I die of anxiety. Part of the reason why the sickness I caught a few months back worsened was because I was unable to write, so my stress was off the roof because I was unable to write, thus starting a vicious circle of not writing, therefore disease getting worse, thus not being able to write.

Why do I publish? To complete the cycle. I know someone is going to resonate with what I write, especially now that it has evolved from the strokers that, while I'm not ashamed of them, do not represent the point in which I am at this moment, yet at the same time I refuse to delete because I like to have them there anyway.

Why have I stopped publishing? Rebellion... sort of. Currently there are two voices fighting in my head; one of them keeps yapping at me to post so that my name is on new stories all the time, or to go viral, or whatever, while the other tells me to not chase metrics and if I'm going to post, I should post with an explosion instead of rapid fire. Neither are good. I understand the latter's point, but the former's point is just something that I dislike. Metrics are stressful, algorithms suck, virality doesn't guarantee an audience, and this platform in itself feels both like the right place and the wrong place simultaneously, yet I don't leave because I know there's people here. I've interacted with readers in the past, and I liked to do that. Sometimes I feel that my best works go unnoticed, while my worst works get the most attention. Besides, if I publish a story that has zero likes, zero hearts, zero comments, zero everything, I'll leave it there, as a form of defiance for what the Internet stands for. Even here things are always too fast, with the same ethos of consume and dispose, stories treated more like potato chips (or bloody crisps if you are pedantic), and while that's fine for some, the two voices in my head haven't found an agreement to that. The only consensus is the one a third voice put to shut the discord off in my head: to be slow because being slow saves more energy than pumping out stories too fast.

Just curious, ignore if too personal. Why were you unable to write? A physical thing? Writer's block?

 

[AG31]

I write to deal with a lot of trauma I had in my early life, it really helps me. Unfortunately, people don't seem to enjoy my darker stories - I hardly get any reviews or comments.

The people here on this forum are nice though. I need to post more!

Hullo! I too write darker stories with relatively low readership. I looked at yours but won't be reading them, as I am drawn to stories with male MCs, even though I'm female. Anyway, glad you spoke up.

 

[alohadave]

I write because I've had this idea of wanting to be a writer for a long time. Never actually did any writing until a couple years ago when an author I follow was talking about NaNoWriMo. It sparked something in me to give it a shot.

Turns out that I'm more in like with the idea of being a writer than actually doing it. Writing is fucking hard and I haven't written enough for it to get any easier or to feel any better about my writing.

I have ideas and plot lines that come to me all the time. When I try to write them, my brain keeps getting in the way. I have this thing that I self-censor anything I think that anyone else will read, and it makes it 100 times more difficult to go beyond surface level.

I envy writers who make it look easy, and who have a way with words.

 

[al55]

Hullo! I too write darker stories with relatively low readership. I looked at yours but won't be reading them, as I am drawn to stories with male MCs, even though I'm female. Anyway, glad you spoke up.

Thank you!

 

[Candy_Kane54]

This is why I write:

 

[cw5523729]

I have ideas and plot lines that come to me all the time. When I try to write them, my brain keeps getting in the way. I have this thing that I self-censor anything I think that anyone else will read, and it makes it 100 times more difficult to go beyond surface level.

I envy writers who make it look easy, and who have a way with words.

You could always look to collaborate with other writers. Sometimes the idea and plot lines is the hardest part. If you don't have a good plot to begin with, it doesn't matter how good of a writer you are.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Because I enjoy writing.

 

[StillStunned]

Because I enjoy writing.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Just curious, ignore if too personal. Why were you unable to write? A physical thing? Writer's block?

Caught a horrible case of dyssentery that lasted for weeks. No physician has any idea as to why or how.

I lost weight, which was a goal that I had. But I didn't mean to lose it via disease.

The issue here is that the gut is connected to the brain, and emotions have an impact on the gut. Anxiety is one mental illness that affects the gut, hence the vicious cycle of not writing, therefore my health not improving, therefore being unable to write because I can't sit down for more than thirty seconds to write.

 

[xXxplorher]

Can't... not.

Spent several years twirling about on guitar. Couln't entirely get my FEELS out.

I do think tech might have add to it, which might be sort of interesting/unfavorable to say? I like pushing words around. Phrases. Pieces. I like yanking from one thing and going, "it looks better THERE!".

I might not have had any patience required to write the crap I have if not for the Keyboard.

Would have been all trapped up in my mind instead.

 

[EmilyMiller]

View attachment 2575286

Can I just make sure this gif is from season 1 or 2?