Idle thoughts on favored underappreciated stories.

[PrevertOne]

Recently, I've been dwelling on a story I wrote and posted a few years ago: The Big Blonde http://www.literotica.com/s/the-big-blonde-pinkie-invasion . It was the weirdest story I ever wrote but a personal favorite. I like coming back to it from time to time. I never got feedback from it though, and responses from other sites were either nil or polarized; too weird for some I guess but it got me thinking. I'm sure other authors have written stories they really, really put their heart into only to see it land with a thud. Does any author have thoughts on their personal favorites and why everyone else went "Meh?"

 

[lovecraft68]

My entire Siblings with Benefits series.

Yes, when you look at my page it has 48 H's out of 50 installments and many scores are well into the 4.7's....

But....

Everyone knows how big incest numbers are for views and votes. Many of those chapters were only getting 50/60 votes. That's in incest

The problem was the story was far to realistic and dark. Child abuse, sexual abuse, drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness and a shit load of violence....way to much for the light and flufffy incest crowd. hell, two chapters of the finale ended up banned.

Comments? I have chapters that have only three or four...in incest! That is.....pathetic Even now that its three years old and new readers have come and gone the vote totals on many are barely at a one hundred and not many comments.

The scores are high because it was a love/hate series(mostly hate) so many people jumped off very quickly and I was left with a small niche audience who supported it.

I purposely made chapter one dark, a kind of warning "see this, this is what you are going to get" and I think that was smart, it saved me from people sticking around longer and bombing.

The opening monologue was the sister describing an assortment of depressing memories of the city she had just flown home to and the sex scene between her and her brother comes out of nowhere and is...as much of a fight as it is sex. The BDSM crossover aspects were the nail in the coffin

But I was pleased with it, it was my vision and I did find some very appreciative fans and that's better than a lot of band wagoners....

Although the grammar is weak as it was some of the first things I wrote, the storyline is my best its dark, nasty, yet at the end a dark romance with ahappy ending.

The frustrating thing was writing this ripping my heart out for it because much of it brought up some painful memories of people I have lost to addiction, and seeing so little response, but "Hey, sis like my dick?" was getting hundreds of votes

So it was not for everyone, but I can one thing even if it sounds cocky. You will not find another series like it on this site. Not even close. Not saying that's a great thing, but different is not easy on a site this big.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

As I pointed out on another thread my highest scores are for my most violent stories, the green E story took 5 years to write and is a big meh with readers. Some I sold for real money aren't popular at all. I cant care less anymore as theres no explaining glory or infamy around here.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

Yes, most authors have tales that don't take off.

I read your story but, as this is the AH, will be brief. Think the category is wrong; should be humor. Non-human aficionados seem to look for more erotica than you gave.

I thought it fun but you ask a lot from your readers with your writing style.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

I just read it. Couldn't put it down. Well-constructed and well-executed, easy and enjoyable to read.

 

[Seanathon]

I had one of my recent entries meet with a relative thud (it's at 4.41 now but was much lower for a while).

One of my goals has been to try to write a story for each category, so I wrote this one for Exhibitionist/Voyeur. I included both elements (CFNM and voyeurism) but it was set in the eighteenth century and I think part of the lack of interest by readers was that they weren't interested in reading a historical romance (porn?) in that category.

I know at Literotica correct category placement is critical for story success (TxTallTales has a great How To on it) and I have switched previous stories to different categories and have seen them fare better there. So, not knowing where else on Lit to stick a story with a historical backdrop, I had it moved to Novels and Novellas.

It's only three lit pages but, according to the Survivor contest, stories in that category only have to be 7500 words to qualify as a novella. The story didn't land with a thud there, more like a whisper.

If anyone is interested, the story is Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

 

[Desiremakesmeweak]

Is it possible that only other writers these days appreciate what goes into a decently-written, flowing story...?

I read your story and almost immediately I could see the, well, almost loving care and attention that went into it.

It's a story pretty much for the sake of a story! And what the hell is wrong with that?! Nothing at all.

But why does a broader audience not 'get' the 'happiness' of, and from, a good - I would even say, authentically writer-craftsmanship piece of writing these days?

I think we are in an historical moment of social and cultural transition.

Far from saying that the art of reading is dead or dying, I personally think technology - even software - hasn't quite quite got there yet in terms of the zeitgeist...

eReaders and iPads 'seem' so advanced, but they are still less than where I can see all of this heading.

Whatever you do or think, do not abandon the basic track you are on, P-One. Not only do people's tastes change, but their attitudes and outlooks do as well, and at the moment, I see them for the most part approaching reading - even via on line facilities - as a 'yesterday' thing, and unlikely to be capable of rivalling 'Grand Theft Auto III' for thrills and entertainment satisfaction; even in the case of porn writing, or high end erotica fiction in text form.

And that is a big mistake on the broader public's part.

Writing is ALL about getting the logic straight, and managing the elements cogently, and possessing attractive ideas and turns-of-phrase, and having persuasive communication skills - being a very good writer will make you a good lawyer in such a way that no law school ever can hope to. Being a very good writer will make you a decent production control manager. Being a good writer will eventually... get you under the skins of many people and MAKE them 'come along' with you by your powers of communication.

Writers complain a lot about how little they get paid and how no one or not enough people appreciate them and their work.

But they've got it the wrong way around: people fail to appreciate writers at first blush at their own very great peril!!

Writers have the power to do things no one else in society has at all.

Sure right now society is making very heavy weather of educating itself properly, widely, and with any kind of satisfaction; everyone wants to 'be educated' in order to get a good job...

No one wants to read to pass the time enjoyably.

Show's how little they all know about what's going to happen next.

I can see a revolution - A Revolution - brought on by writers pissed off with the treatment they have gotten... ; ) I CAN really see this up ahead. Not by anyone else. Nobody else CAN. Nobody else has the power.

Writers will do it.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I was disappointed by the response to my story "Fallon's Final Fling." I had fun writing the story and was pleased with the final product, but chapter 1 scored poorly and there was a huge drop off in views for chapter 2. Subsequent feedback from other authors revealed some of the problems: the supporting characters were generally unlikeable; I posted in Noncon/Reluctance, but chapter 1 was almost entirely consensual; and, the dominant character was female.

I was attempting to create a supporting cast of women who were all friends of the bride, but not necessarily friends of each other--a mixed group of work friends, school friends and childhood friends who did not get along with each other, and whose only connection to one another was through the bride. Most of the complaints were directed at those characters.

Readers, however, rebelled against the notion of a dominant female in a Noncon story. LC rails against the category all the time, and to an extent he's correct--Noncon readers like to see men ravishing women. But that preference is not just a male preference; female readers almost universally demand that dynamic as well. Throw them into a story with a dominant female, and those readers will reject it. Which makes me nervous about the story I'm currently working on. Maybe I should think about posting it in Sci Fi/Fantasy.

 

[RetroFan]

One Erotic Couplings story I wrote was called "Penny & Michael's Forbidden Fun", which was set in 1962 and about a prim 18-year-old Catholic School Senior named Penny who falls for Michael, a guy in her year of whom her parents do not approve.

The story rated pretty highly, but very few voted on it (4.36 from 11 votes last I checked). One reader nominated it as a favorite, but it was un-favorited some time later. One comment, months after the story was posted.

I enjoyed writing it and thought it had plenty to recommend it; pretty girls (with a shower scene after the girls' gym class) and great-looking guys, a retro setting in the early 1960s and plenty of cultural references to the times, but the story received very few views compared to my other works.

 

[someoneyouknow]

I blame the Internet. People are now conditioned to scan whatever is written rather than taking time to

Oh look, kitten pictures!

 

[AMoveableBeast]

Nearly everything by stlgoddessfreya.

 

[PrevertOne]

Yes, most authors have tales that don't take off.

I read your story but, as this is the AH, will be brief. Think the category is wrong; should be humor. Non-human aficionados seem to look for more erotica than you gave.

I thought it fun but you ask a lot from your readers with your writing style.

One takeaway I got from this thread is that the right category can make a difference. I looked at The Big Blonde again and thought "Good grief! People are right." So I resubmitted it under Humor and Satire; not that it will make much difference in attention but at least it's in a more appropriate category. I also think that timing in submitting a story is also important. I recently submitted another story that's gone "thump!" (Return to Cheju Do http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?url=return-to-cheju-do-a-sequel ) but I think it's more a case of the wrong time. It was posted on Thanksgiving, Black Friday followed, then Cyber Monday, plus the Winter Holidays contest; with all those distractions I'm surprised the story got any attention, much less votes. I would like to thank Tio Narratore and Oggbashan for their feedback and compliments plus Desiremakesmeweak, by the way.

 

[oggbashan]

The story in the original post pushed me into starting another of my Unbirth fetish stories.

Whether I will finish it? I don't know. I have a reasonable premise, but the technicalities are always difficult with Unbirth, because it is impossible.

Humor? Fetish? Non-Human? Sci-Fi and Fantasy? I'm not sure. I am tending towards Fetish because that's where Unbirth aficionados will look for it.

Edited: I just checked for 'unbirth' in story tags. Of the five stories listed, four are mine.

 

[PrevertOne]

Yes, most authors have tales that don't take off.

I read your story but, as this is the AH, will be brief. Think the category is wrong; should be humor. Non-human aficionados seem to look for more erotica than you gave.

I thought it fun but you ask a lot from your readers with your writing style.

The Big Blonde is now officially Humor & Satire; appropriate I guess. Happy Holidays

 

[HeyAll]

I've mentioned this a few times here, but my thoughts on a story I've written usually don't match the reader's reactions.

Sometimes when editing a story, I'll go, "Wow, I can't believe I wrote this. This is amazing. People are going to love it!"

But then it gets a low-average score, not many good reviews, ect...

Other times I'll go, "This is pretty fun. Not bad."

Then it does great numbers.

A few months ago I wrote a story called Quarantined With Mom, and after I edited it, I thought, "Hmmm...this story might ruin my reputation...darn..." because before that I wrote a couple of realistic mother/son stories, and Quarantined was on the short and fun side. As it turned out, it did massive numbers on all levels. It's shaping up to be one of my most popular stories ever (top 3)

On the flip side, I recently wrote a lesbian story called Becky's Lips, which in my opinion, was one of the very best stories I've ever written. It got a decent amount of votes, but not much reaction. Which was very disappointing.

I've also written a number of nonconsent stories which I really loved, and all of them have surprisingly low scores, which I can't understand. Same with with an Anal story called Corporate Whore, which has a low score, despite the fact that I think it's good. But in hindsight, I probably put them in the wrong category. They should have been in bdsm, where I surprisingly got high scores.

Readers, however, rebelled against the notion of a dominant female in a Noncon story. LC rails against the category all the time, and to an extent he's correct--Noncon readers like to see men ravishing women. But that preference is not just a male preference; female readers almost universally demand that dynamic as well. Throw them into a story with a dominant female, and those readers will reject it. Which makes me nervous about the story I'm currently working on. Maybe I should think about posting it in Sci Fi/Fantasy.

Speaking of which, there are tons of female readers in noncon, scifi, and bdsm who enjoy a male dominating a female.

Especially with bdsm. When I started posting there, I've gotten messages from women who enjoyed it. Not men posing as women, but verifiable women.

The funny thing with incest is that you'll get comments & emails from people claiming to be "women" but it's obviously a man acting out a fantasy.