Thoughts on teasers

[RomanSteel]

Stories with great background, history, and a lusty working up to "the deed" but leave you hanging left to your own imagination


I wonder if the response to posting them to Literotica would be well received.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[lovecraft68]

Stories with great background, history, and a lusty working up to "the deed" but leave you hanging left to your own imagination


I wonder if the response to posting them to Literotica would be well received.

What are your thoughts on this?

I think they would tank. It's one thing to have slow build up or even a chapter with no sex in a series, but nothing at all a "you fill in the blanks"

One bomb city.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

LIT readers demand cheap thrills.

 

[HeyAll]

I look at the story often, along with the scores, and teaser chapters are rarely ever recieved well, especially if it's teasing for the sake of teasing, or if it comes across as the writer is too lazy to finish the rest of the story.

But if you're up front and that it's a multi-part thing, and you're already getting a great story with that opening chapter, then it could still probably do well.

But if this is just one story with no pay off at the end, don't do it.

 

[lovecraft68]

I look at the story often, along with the scores, and teaser chapters are rarely ever recieved well, especially if it's teasing for the sake of teasing, or if it comes across as the writer is too lazy to finish the rest of the story.

But if you're up front and that it's a multi-part thing, and you're already getting a great story with that opening chapter, then it could still probably do well.

But if this is just one story with no pay off at the end, don't do it.

The part I put in bold is exactly what I would think, or if not lazy, I would wonder "What, they can't write a sex scene?"

 

[RodenAddison]

I think it's more likely to be well received in the Romance category.

 

[RomanSteel]

See I wondered if that would be a reaction too. "Is the author to lazy to finish the story"

Eeep! Not the case (at least for me). I've written plenty of stories through to the end, I was curious however. Sad that everyone just "get up and get off" but everyone has their own particular preferences.

Another question then:
How does one make a successful multi part story?

 

[Darkniciad]

See I wondered if that would be a reaction too. "Is the author to lazy to finish the story"

Eeep! Not the case (at least for me). I've written plenty of stories through to the end, I was curious however. Sad that everyone just "get up and get off" but everyone has their own particular preferences.

Another question then:
How does one make a successful multi part story?

Other than being good... *laugh*

Have the story finished before you start posting.

Post it regularly, but not daily. Submit a new one when the current one posts and you'll likely have about a five day interval. Somewhere between 4-7 days is optimal. If you submit multiple chapters at the same time, Laurel will automatically post all submitted chapters one after another. So don't do that, unless you really want them to post daily. IMO, you don't maximize your readership or tension that way.

Don't post a story full of nothing but 1 page chapters. Optimal range is between 1-1/2 to 3 pages to meet the attention span while still giving readers enough per episode.

Tell everyone in a note at the beginning/end of Ch. 01 that the story is complete, and how often you intend to post chapters. Since you should have the story done before you start, you can stick to this promise. Many readers are wary of multi-parts because so many don't get finished, and sticking to a promise of regular posting will make your next multi-part more popular because you've proven that you deliver.

 

[Stella_Omega]

A writer I know writes the first chapter with a little bit of action early on. Then she uses the rest of the chapter for buildup, ending it as the characters are drawing near the bedroom (or wherever).

She begins the next chapter with the sex she promised in in the previous one, ten starts the buildup for the next one...

Works pretty well, partly because she does manage to give you a finishing line at each chapter's end.

 

[RomanSteel]

Thanks Stella O.

 

[Darkniciad]

I should have specificed Lit pages in my post earlier. It's somewhere around 3200-3500 words per Lit page, I believe. I don't remember exactly the range, but that's reasonably close.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't see why a Lit. chaptered story should be any different in technique than most mainstream book chapters, where the end of a chapter gives some resolution, if only partial, to some element and some "teaser" element, if that's what you want to call it, to compell the reader to go right into the next chapter without putting the book down. Chapters aren't just salami chopped in certain word lengths--have have minor story arcs to them that exist under the overarching arc of the whole work. Dilemma to action to resolution/change. It really should happen in each chapter and then happen on a larger scale for the full work.

 

[lovecraft68]

A writer I know writes the first chapter with a little bit of action early on. Then she uses the rest of the chapter for buildup, ending it as the characters are drawing near the bedroom (or wherever).

She begins the next chapter with the sex she promised in in the previous one, ten starts the buildup for the next one...

Works pretty well, partly because she does manage to give you a finishing line at each chapter's end.

I do that a lot. I've used everything from sequence that turned out to be a wet dream, to describing a porn scene someone is watching (which will center around whatever fetish the story is about)

whatever the opening short sequence it feeds into the plot and takes the "edge" off the reader so they'll be more content to wait for some more action.

It's like giving them an appetizer, then the story is dinner and the climax the desert.

 

[beatrice_dreams]

I think it's more likely to be well received in the Romance category.

Really? I do believe even there (or especially there!) if you don't finish your story there is serious baying for blood. They start all very sweetly, with compliments and encouragement, after a few months they move on to loud whining, and if you don't feed the beasts after that, I expect your feedback inbox gets rather full of hate-mail!

 

[Dual_Triode]

Stories with great background, history, and a lusty working up to "the deed" but leave you hanging left to your own imagination


I wonder if the response to posting them to Literotica would be well received.

What are your thoughts on this?

So, I wrote a Valentine's Day Contest story that roughly fell into this class. There was plenty of tension and innuendo, but no explicit sex scene involving intercourse. I debated this decision and actually wrote two versions: one with explicit sex and the one without. In the end, I liked the "without" version much better.

This is not to say that there was no eroticism at all. Even in the romance category (candlelight, wine, and a soft kiss), there is some expectation of titillation and possible release. In my opinion, a couple of beers in a night club, passionate French kissing, and heavy scrumping in a dark corner qualified my story for the genre.

My story was not excessively bombed during the contest; it finished in somewhere in the middle. I received a lot of positive feedback, however, there was one public comment that accused me of the that laziness previously forewarned. I guess I left Mr. Anonymous holding the bag, so to speak.

I think that a well-written story will be appreciated regardless of the level of graphic detail. Eroticism plays between the ears rather than between the legs.

 

[Handley_Page]

A few decades ago, a magazine for me (and risqué at that), used to feature a serial story which featured some fairly graphic sex (for those days, anyway). The authoress used to split her story with what you describe as a teaser ending and I hated it.

 

[estragon]

Always leave 'em wanting more...but deliver.