In A Rut?

[LitRiter]

I have a little problem. I keep writing stories, and I enjoy writing things with a romance in them, but I feel tied down by the genre (and not in a good way). I've tried to step outside the bounds, as it were, but have noticed my scores go WAY down when I do.

Should I continue to write the romances (whore that I am to the readers), or should I continue to throw other stories out there (which seems to actually anger some)?

If anyone would care to see my latest post, up today, here is the link:

Small Town Whore

It's a romance.

LitRiter

P.S. - I have several readers who might think this is directly aimed at them, and I can assure them it is not. If we correspond at least semi-regularly, it's because I value your opinions and input.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I have a little problem. I keep writing stories, and I enjoy writing things with a romance in them, but I feel tied down by the genre (and not in a good way). I've tried to step outside the bounds, as it were, but have noticed my scores go WAY down when I do.

Should I continue to write the romances (whore that I am to the readers), or should I continue to throw other stories out there (which seems to actually anger some)?

If anyone would care to see my latest post, up today, here is the link:

Small Town Whore

It's a romance.

LitRiter

P.S. - I have several readers who might think this is directly aimed at them, and I can assure them it is not. If we correspond at least semi-regularly, it's because I value your opinions and input.

can you do both? you might do each of them half as often of course-- but you might gain readers that you wouldn't otherwise reach.

Not to mention making yourself happy.

 

[jomar]

I'm no expert, but you won't grow unless you branch out and get outside of you comfort zone.

I just started a multi-chapter story I'm putting in the LW category because I'm curious. I expect it to get hammered. But if it was in the EC category I'm pretty sure it would get decent marks.

Write for you. Not for a meaningless rating.

 

[TE999]

I have a little problem. I keep writing stories, and I enjoy writing things with a romance in them, but I feel tied down by the genre (and not in a good way). I've tried to step outside the bounds, as it were, but have noticed my scores go WAY down when I do.

Should I continue to write the romances (whore that I am to the readers), or should I continue to throw other stories out there (which seems to actually anger some)?

If anyone would care to see my latest post, up today, here is the link:

Small Town Whore

It's a romance.

LitRiter

P.S. - I have several readers who might think this is directly aimed at them, and I can assure them it is not. If we correspond at least semi-regularly, it's because I value your opinions and input.

If you feel you're getting stale, you're not enjoying writing as you used to or are in a rut...odds are you are.

Write a story in another cat...something totally opposite of a romance...try your wings. Fans are great and scores are gratifying...but if you're not reveling in your creativity, then what's the point?

 

[Darkniciad]

You can always do what I did. I had a similar experience just from exploring stories about other characters in my world -- let alone other genres.

That prompted me to create another pen name to house my exploratory stories ( LesLumens ) Though I don't try to hide that they're both me, it seems to help separate the readers, and I don't get anywhere near as much complaining about "why are you writing something else when I want to read about..."

If you keep it secret, the stories will be completely judged based on the content, rather than what your regular readers expect from you. I do that with my third pen name *laugh*

That's one sure way to find out if you're just not quite capturing the readership in a new genre, or if your regular readers are trying to discourage you from moving away from what they expect from you.

I keep Dark logged in through IE, Les through Firefox, and my third name through Chrome, so I don't even have to log in, log out to switch between them, just pop open a new browser when I want to post a story in another name.

 

[LitRiter]

I Understand

I understand the need to branch out, that's how I fell in Romance in the first place. I started as many sicko's do, writing Non-Con and a First Time. It's funny, but my second posting (I think) was an explanation of my Non-Con story. To this day, many years later, the explanation is MUCH more popular, but the other has far more reads.

When I wrote my first Sci-Fi I thought I had found my niche, but it turns out that was the beginning - my Sci-Fi was a Romance with Time Travel and Starships.

I can understand the lure of using multiple identities, but come on, don't readers know? Everyone uses key phrases, unique words, and worst of all, the exact same sex scene in every single story? Okay, not really. So far I've avoided the thought-exercise of typing lurid descriptions of Joy of Sex and Kamasutra.

I'm such a romantic at heart that when I wrote a Loving Wives tale, it was re-categorized under Erotic Couplings.

** Sigh **​

LitRiter

 

[Darkniciad]

There isn't a soul who's outed my third pen name yet. I constantly get people surprised to discover that they're talking to the same person when they offer comments on stories as Les and Dark in close proximity, and I reply to both of them with one email, or mention a previous comment in a reply to a story in the other pen name.

My word choice in pure stroke stories is vastly different from anything with a plot. Ditto for fantasy as opposed to real world. The couplings and word choice are part of the mood of the story. I'll throw "cunt" in there when I'm writing something dark, even though I hardly ever use it for any other story. Likewise "dick" if I'm writing something that I want to feel a little juvenile.

Believe me, just keeping it a secret is more than enough to get a reading on a story, as opposed to what your regular readers think of the direction you're going.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I have a little problem. I keep writing stories, and I enjoy writing things with a romance in them, but I feel tied down by the genre (and not in a good way). I've tried to step outside the bounds, as it were, but have noticed my scores go WAY down when I do.

Should I continue to write the romances (whore that I am to the readers), or should I continue to throw other stories out there (which seems to actually anger some)?

If anyone would care to see my latest post, up today, here is the link:

Small Town Whore

It's a romance.

LitRiter

P.S. - I have several readers who might think this is directly aimed at them, and I can assure them it is not. If we correspond at least semi-regularly, it's because I value your opinions and input.

You may not be in a rut. You may be in a groove.

Romance stories tend to be well received by the readers in terms of voting, more so than most. Some other categories, Loving Wives in particular, are really savaged. Anal tends to not do that well too.

 

[_Lynn_]

I have a little problem. I keep writing stories, and I enjoy writing things with a romance in them, but I feel tied down by the genre (and not in a good way). I've tried to step outside the bounds, as it were, but have noticed my scores go WAY down when I do.

Should I continue to write the romances (whore that I am to the readers), or should I continue to throw other stories out there (which seems to actually anger some)?

If anyone would care to see my latest post, up today, here is the link:

Small Town Whore

It's a romance.

LitRiter

P.S. - I have several readers who might think this is directly aimed at them, and I can assure them it is not. If we correspond at least semi-regularly, it's because I value your opinions and input.

I write in the Romance and non-erotic cats for the most part. They are where I do my best. However, to keep from getting into that 'rut', I've done a few things.

One was the Kink Bingo. The prompts are far from romance. But they helped me to feel a bit more comfortable stretching out into those cats.

Last year I did a Halloween story, something I wasn't comfortable with at first. Once I started it, I had fun. The score isn't so hot, but so what? I proved to myself I could write one for that contest. .

A good friend challenges me when I back away from other cats. He knows I won't back down.

Branching out into other cats is a great learning experience, in my opinion. Sure, my best scores are where I'm comfortable writing. But I don't cringe looking at the low scores.

 

[LitRiter]

Anonymous Feedback

I have to share -

Firstly, I do not receive much feedback. I mean, I think my most controversial story received five public responses over a period of five years. I might get one email regarding a story, a great story (yeah, I wrote one - sue me) got me maybe three emails.

Small Town Whore (available in stores near you), has already brought in three emails. Two are very nicely written and like the story , while the third, also nicely written, was to inform me that a word I used in the story "term has been not used in the US for 75 -100 years".

I'm not THAT old. I guess the rural areas I've lived in really were backward.

Oh yeah, all were anonymous.

LitRiter

 

[Boxlicker101]

I have to share -

Firstly, I do not receive much feedback. I mean, I think my most controversial story received five public responses over a period of five years. I might get one email regarding a story, a great story (yeah, I wrote one - sue me) got me maybe three emails.

Small Town Whore (available in stores near you), has already brought in three emails. Two are very nicely written and like the story , while the third, also nicely written, was to inform me that a word I used in the story "term has been not used in the US for 75 -100 years".

I'm not THAT old. I guess the rural areas I've lived in really were backward.

Oh yeah, all were anonymous.

LitRiter

That's another thing I should have mentioned. Based on my Romance stories, the scores tend to be pretty good, but there aren't very many votes and not much feedback. If you want a lot of votes, write in Incest/Taboo or Anal.

 

[JamesSD]

I also feel like you should mix it up, occasionally writing "crowd pleasers" to stroke your ego, while also putting out more experimental fare. Yeah, the stuff that doesn't fit neatly into a genre won't score as well, wont get as many votes, and probably wont' get as many comments. But considering you're not writing for pay and are presumably writing for "fun", you should write what you enjoy at least some of the time. It also will help the "genre" stuff seem fresher when you go back to it.

The other option is to try to do genre with a twist, although this can backfire badly if your goal is pleasing the reader. It's a gamble, but one that is great if it works.

 

[LitRiter]

One more thing...

Thank you all for your responses so far. You've all been very helpful and informative.

If I might impose, I have one other quandary.

I am 3/4 done with a tale that's grown rather organically, and I'm very happy with it (that means critical and popular failure looms) BUT the story reads better when I strip out about 75% of the sex. It's just fine with it, and the sex is integral to the plot (well, you know) but the things revealed (plot-wise) during the sex scenes simply come off as more mysterious when those scenes are removed.

Ex. A statement of "You don't know what I had to do!", followed by flashback. Reads okay, nine-nice and there's the sex content...but same statement, no flashback, and the mind makes up so much worse.

I wish I could submit it both ways, but if I were a reader that would seem kind of pompous, as well as ticking me off about reading the same identical story (mostly) twice.

Thoughts and opinions, please?

LitRiter

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Do you want to be popular or do you want to be good?

 

[LitRiter]

Do you want to be popular or do you want to be good?

Respected sir,

Yes.

LitRiter

 

[TheeGoatPig]

My favorite story that I have written is the least liked by everyone else

 

[LitRiter]

I'm no expert, but you won't grow unless you branch out and get outside of you comfort zone.

I just started a multi-chapter story I'm putting in the LW category because I'm curious. I expect it to get hammered. But if it was in the EC category I'm pretty sure it would get decent marks.

Write for you. Not for a meaningless rating.

I tried to write something for LW a few months back. I was curious, and wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. It posted, and I was surprised by the response, almost all of it positive.

Then I looked more closely and saw that it had been re-categorized and placed under EC.

As they say in Estonia, "C'est la vie." (They do in the French neighborhoods )

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think it was Carl Sandburg who said that youre not really a success until you dont give a shit about the money or making friends or what anyone thinks.

 

[LitRiter]

I think it was Carl Sandburg who said that youre not really a success until you dont give a shit about the money or making friends or what anyone thinks.

But could that be why almost everyone considered "artistic geniuses" are also considered pompous and self-absorbed sons of bitches?

I don't deny the truth of the quote, only that it seems to say that in order to be successful, you must first shrug off the opinions and feelings of everyone else. If you are creating art for yourself, that's great; but if the creation of art is for public consumption, isn't it important to consider the viewer (reader/listener) when composing the piece?

Writing for yourself can be very satisfying, and I applaud anyone who does it. I do it to some extent, through selection of my themes and characters, I guess.

My favorite story that I have written is the least liked by everyone else

A perfect example of writing for yourself. I agree that I like some of my stories more than the readers did (but then the readers don't know the characters as well as I do. Those descriptions weren't pertinent to the story).

I've decided to go try a middle route. What I've done is write the hell out of the plot, and I'm running through it again to make sure each character is true. Only where it is important to either the plotline or the characterization am I fleshing out (a strange term in this context) the sex.

Everywhere else, it can remain inferred or mentioned briefly, as it suits the story. If it tanks, well then I'll want plenty of good critical feedback to tell me why. Yeah, even if that just means twenty respectable writers/editors telling me the story sucked.