Being judged by past work.

[lovecraft68]

I received this comment last night on my latest story

by Anonymous05/16/14
Hard to believe

that the same person who wrote SWB came up with this.

By far this is not the first one of these I have received, but for some reason got me to think on this topic. The reason for the comment is that my latest story is a frivolous "porno" style incest romp. Not long on plot, but very long on wild taboo sex.

Now the SWB series ran for a year and a half over 50 installments and was a story driven, dark grim train wreck. Never had huge numbers or mass appeal, but the small core audience was very loyal and even now well over two years after completion some of those original readers still contact me. I also get a couple of e-mails a week from new people picking it up.

But that series was that series. It was a massive undertaking, very grim and brought up a lot of old issues within myself. There were times writing it was pretty much "suffering for my art" and when it was done there was a sense of completion, but also a huge sense of, "Oh, thank you." my wife echoed that because my mood during a lot of it was pretty down and depressed.

Having said all that most of what I write here now is fun stuff or occasionally a kind of sappy romance.

I get favorable remarks on all of it, but do continue to get comments and private feedback along the lines of "what happened to you" or even one from a month ago, "Man, you sold out"

I do have darker stuff that I have written since then but it goes for sale now. I have decided lit is for "fun" my choice and I won't let readers influence me, but it brought up the question in the thread title:

Do you have a series or one particular "landmark" story that seems to have defined you and people seem to try to hold you to? Do you think its flattering or insulting?

For me it falls under readers here in general seem to want the same thing all the time. I think as writers we grow and part of growing is trying different things and erotica allows for so many different variables that it would be a sin to not have fun with that many options.

As for the "selling out" remarks. Those do annoy me and nothing else comment wise here really does. I think its due to the reaction of, "Okay you sit there and bleed emotionally over a keyboard for a year and tell me you want to do it over and over again" Some people can write dark as a plot device and be detached. I write dark from experience and past pain and its not always fun, but I guess as authors on a free site we're scene a little bit as trick monkeys of sorts.

Thoughts?

 

[MrFoxwood]

This was a big part of my decision to create a new account, people are fickle and won't like the change. I think that when you're just a reader (yeah just), especially on a free site, it's kinda a bit pompous to bitch about a change in a writer's style or themes. If a reader wants more of a style you're no longer working in, there's nothing stopping them from having a go themself.

There's enough people writing in enough styles and enough readers looking for enough content that moaning about change is just lazy.

 

[MSTarot]

I think it really falls back on what do 'YOU' want out of your writing. Not what your reader wants out of it, but what do you want. Your're not being paid, after all, for these stories.

Your darker stories have a fan base, but so do your 'fluffy' ones. I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see a part two or three of "Home is Where the Heart is"

Would love to see where that story could go. After all she has kids his age, they would be mad as hell to find out that their mom is sleeping with this young guy. What about the ex- husband? He has money, power, he could make life hell. There is a huge potential for story drama and conflicts left there. You left a lot of meat on the bone with that story.



Is that selling out?

No.

It would be selling out if you wrote it even though you don't want to. I've talked to you about it you have no desire to go back and write more in that story.

Your S.W.B. fans are in the same boat. They don't want you to writer anything other than what they liked. So when you don't it "Selling out.


It's not, it's taking your writing to a different place. Exploring something different than what you have done. That is exactly what a creative writer should be doing.

A writer can come to this site and own a category if they choose. Stick to one type of formulaic story, in one category and lather, rinse, repeat. They can have a huge fan base, very quickly, because everyone knows that will be what they expect from his stories. They are filling the notch for that particular crowd.

Now, I could see it if you were being paid to drive in that same rut, story after story, but your not. How can it be selling out when there is no money?

For the comments?

Please. YOU, could get hundreds of glowing reviews simply by doing what you do.

It's when you branch out and touch that different story that your pleasing the inner writer. You're taking the risk that a story wont be liked.



Now, has this happened to me?

Oh, you betcha. I've been told that people love my romantic stories and hate my darker ones. I could write brother/sister incest romance all day and not satisfy them.

MST

 

[lovecraft68]

This was a big part of my decision to create a new account, people are fickle and won't like the change. I think that when you're just a reader (yeah just), especially on a free site, it's kinda a bit pompous to bitch about a change in a writer's style or themes. If a reader wants more of a style you're no longer working in, there's nothing stopping them from having a go themself.

There's enough people writing in enough styles and enough readers looking for enough content that moaning about change is just lazy.

I did consider a second name at one point. Most of my work my first two years here was incest with a couple of rough BDSM stories.

In the V-day 2012 contest I wrote a mature romance and thought about another name because the other work was so vastly different and incest has a high squick factor.

I didn't and saw the results right away. A lot of people praising the romance and saying "I cannot wait to read your other work" and me thinking "Oh, but you can!"

But even after that I figured screw it. We have categories and tags and tag lines. People can see what each story is and honestly if you see a group sex story you like by me, but then decide "Oh, I can't read this, he writes incest too!" then screw them.

And I concur a lot (not all of course) readers are very fickle and particular and downright anal considering they have access to hundreds of thousands of stories for free

 

[oggbashan]

My earlier stories on Literotica were originally written for a variety of Yahoo Adult Groups that had a theme of particular fetishes, particularly Femdom with clothing. I read some of the 'stories' posted in those groups and thought "I can do better than that". The feedback from the groups' members seemed to agree with me. The now long gone Unbirth group were very helpful with my early writing on their fetish.

I still write fetish from time to time, not because of the response from Literotica readers, but because some of the Yahoo Groups still want stories on their fetish theme from me. I write them less frequently because Yahoo has wrecked the group structure, making them far less easy to navigate.

I used to think that I should drastically edit or even rewrite some of my early stories. The ones that need that most are Stag Party and Hen Party. But I have decided to leave them as they are as a reminder of how I used to write. I would struggle to write or rewrite them now.

I'm not the person I was when I posted my first stories on Literotica 12 years ago, and some of them were started five years earlier. My first erotic writing dates back to the mid 1980s, written in a stripped Wordstar on an IBM XT with a 360k floppy drive. None of those very early works survive in their original form.

I don't mind being criticised for my early stories. Some readers still like them, but I've moved on.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I received this comment last night on my latest story

by Anonymous05/16/14
Hard to believe

that the same person who wrote SWB came up with this.

By far this is not the first one of these I have received, but for some reason got me to think on this topic. The reason for the comment is that my latest story is a frivolous "porno" style incest romp. Not long on plot, but very long on wild taboo sex.

Now the SWB series ran for a year and a half over 50 installments and was a story driven, dark grim train wreck. Never had huge numbers or mass appeal, but the small core audience was very loyal and even now well over two years after completion some of those original readers still contact me. I also get a couple of e-mails a week from new people picking it up.

But that series was that series. It was a massive undertaking, very grim and brought up a lot of old issues within myself. There were times writing it was pretty much "suffering for my art" and when it was done there was a sense of completion, but also a huge sense of, "Oh, thank you." my wife echoed that because my mood during a lot of it was pretty down and depressed.

Having said all that most of what I write here now is fun stuff or occasionally a kind of sappy romance.

I get favorable remarks on all of it, but do continue to get comments and private feedback along the lines of "what happened to you" or even one from a month ago, "Man, you sold out"

I do have darker stuff that I have written since then but it goes for sale now. I have decided lit is for "fun" my choice and I won't let readers influence me, but it brought up the question in the thread title:

Do you have a series or one particular "landmark" story that seems to have defined you and people seem to try to hold you to? Do you think its flattering or insulting?

For me it falls under readers here in general seem to want the same thing all the time. I think as writers we grow and part of growing is trying different things and erotica allows for so many different variables that it would be a sin to not have fun with that many options.

As for the "selling out" remarks. Those do annoy me and nothing else comment wise here really does. I think its due to the reaction of, "Okay you sit there and bleed emotionally over a keyboard for a year and tell me you want to do it over and over again" Some people can write dark as a plot device and be detached. I write dark from experience and past pain and its not always fun, but I guess as authors on a free site we're scene a little bit as trick monkeys of sorts.

Thoughts?

Relax. Youre one of top writers here, everyone acknowledges your merits, and fuck those who don't. I mean, Ian Fleming wrote CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (how gay).

 

[sr71plt]

This was the most recent comment (from Anonymous) on my most recent story posted:

Yet another spy story

Fails to recapture the DP romance of The Exchange Student

In my opinion.

Well, yes, I write spy stories and this was one of those. And, yes, a story on a GM spy operation in the Mediterranean is only comparable to a story about a gay couple signing up for an exchange student to have DP fun in the sense that they both are GM stories. Other than that, what's your point in comparing a new story with an unrelated one from the past, Anonymous?

 

[HeyAll]

I once had a reader email me saying that some of my latest work wasn't as romantic or loving as my past work.

I emailed back saying that I aim to write a wide array of erotic stories- not just one kind.

Months later I got an email from that same person saying that he liked my new story because it was more on the romantic side, just like my old stories.

 

[MSTarot]

Well written but
05/28/13 By: Anonymous
I rarely post but thought I should say something one this one

I've read almost all your stories and most have been very good and very enjoyable, well desevering of the usual 5 stars. This one however I couldn't give 5*.

I read to escape life and all the depressing things this world has way too much of, normally one of your stories will make me laugh and make the world that little less depressing.

I appauld the work you've put into this and look foward to reading your next work, though would appreciate it if you could make it a touch lighter much "A Ruined Life".


Even the ones that like what you write can't always be kept happy.

MST

 

[lovecraft68]

This was the most recent comment (from Anonymous) on my most recent story posted:

Yet another spy story

Fails to recapture the DP romance of The Exchange Student

In my opinion.

Well, yes, I write spy stories and this was one of those. And, yes, a story on a GM spy operation in the Mediterranean is only comparable to a story about a gay couple signing up for an exchange student to have DP fun in the sense that they both are GM stories. Other than that, what's your point in comparing a new story with an unrelated one from the past, Anonymous?

On the "Yet another" it makes me wonder why they read it?

If they are tired of those stories from you and they start and see it is another one, why do they keep on?

 

[lovecraft68]

Got this one today

by Anonymous05/17/14
another spineless idiot for a male character

For Christ's sake lovecraft, try something "a little different" in the vein of a main character that isn't verbally or mentally abused to the point of retardation. You're getting predictable.

So as I said in response to Pilot's troll. If I am getting predictable, why read on?

Also people who post as anymouse should not have anything to say about spineless males. Between the anonymous, it being an insult and whining about the females being the lead(trust me this kid "suffered" nobly in a threesome with the women saying, "now lick my pussy! Now fuck me!" ) this guy obviously escaped from the LW club for "real men"

 

[Acktion]

Yay! It's my turn to thump LC on the ear and tell him to quit thinking so much and get back to writing!

As always, considering my paltry 19 submissions that have yet to garner over 400 votes for any, my contribution should be taken with more than a grain of salt.

However, I don't think it's necessarily to do with Lit being a free site. I recently read a bashing diatribe about Laurell K. Hamilton's latest in her Anita Blake series. Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to think if a novel is in a series that it's going to involve the same characters doing the same sorts of things as the previous twenty books in the series. So, I really, really didn't get the pseudo-intellectual angst of the comment. I mean, the nineteenth book had pretty much followed the same formula as the previous eighteen so why was it all of a sudden an issue?

By the same token, I can't think of a single author who hasn't gotten some flack when they branched out and went not only outside of a series but outside of the genre with a new tale. (Talk to Stan Lee if you won't take my word for it.)

On the one hand, I think that it's just about the biggest compliment that an author can be paid if looked at in a certain light. I mean, they loved the characters and the story so much that it became the way they see you as the writer of that story.

On the other hand, I doubt there is an author who has ever set black print upon a white page that actively desires to be thought of as a one trick pony.

My two cents is this. Take the "sell out" comments as a compliment to your ability with the story you've told. Realize that it is always and forever going to be easier to sit back like some modern Tzar or Tzarina and demand to be entertained and critique the effort than it will be to do the entertaining. And understand that they are parroting the same pseudo-intellectual claptrap that they heard from one of their beret wearing classmates (or professors) in a class that they didn't have the intellectual acumen to fully comprehend and thought it sounded good.

You are still you. You will bring the same skills you learned writing the other one and some more you've picked up besides to the new tale. <shrug> Or you won't and it was better than you will be again if you want to be a candy ass and let them tell you what you should do.

Now that you're suitably pissed over being called a "candy ass", close the damn forums and get back to typing. A lot of us are waiting to see what the hell you come up with next.

 

[LadyVer]

Your lighter romantic stories are far easier and more enjoyable to edit. I agree with MST. I would like to see a continuation of Home is Where the Heart Is, too. He gave some good ideas. And many readers are looking for lighter stories to escape the reality going on around them, although it really depends on the themes and categories. I just edited a chapter today of an ongoing series I've been working on with a Lit writer. Although, the themes are dark with some bdsm and mind control, there are flashes of humor, and the story line is one that keeps me hooked.

With your story-telling skills, LC, I can see you excelling in just about anything you set your mind to. And your mechanical issues are not unusual for many writers, new and experienced, and you are learning to cut.

 

[PennLady]

If it is what you want to write, then you have not sold out. There's no requirement that just because you write romance or BDSM or anything else that you can't write whatever story you get a idea for.

If readers don't like it because it's not what you wrote before, that's unfortunate but to me it's their problem, not yours (or mine).

I also think it's fine if authors want separate names for separate stories; I can see where that might result in a fairer assessment of the story. I thought about doing it myself but frankly don't want to deal with it since I post on multiple sites.