Ever wonder if Lit is just not for you?

[gunhilltrain]

With all this BS I've been putting out, I almost forgot that you came here for advice. So the consensus here seems to be that you start posting chapters and forget about what the readers or anyone else thinks. Do you think you could do that soon, like maybe tomorrow? I have no idea what you've really got there, like how long the first chapter is or how many times you have read it.

Maybe not tomorrow. Give yourself a little break - like a couple of days - and if the thing really seems done (which you've implied that it is) then just submit the first chapter.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I write primarily in Romance and in Novels and Novellas, which are relatively peaceful quarters of Lit, so, although I get the usual one bombing, it rarely survives the sweeps, and the number of negative comments have been low.

But because I don't write in more popular categories, and I am very story oriented and do not write "strokers", I have not achieved a big audience. Nonetheless, over the course of five years and 65 submissions, I have gained a loyal fanbase and finally hit 500 followers. I've won three readers' choice awards. So, it's all good.

There have been times though, when I thought I didn't belong here. And it wasn't because of readers. It's been because of comments on the forum, either implying or directly stating that the only legitimate purpose of our stories was to get readers off, that the "Lit" meant nothing, that the "erotica" was the be all and end all.

For a while, I took it to heart. But I kept on keeping on, and now it just annoys me.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'd assume it is when your favorite movie scores a tiny weeny ten on the rotten tomato rating.

Oh, of course! They do one to one-hundred percent ratings. Maybe Lit should do that too. (Just kidding!)

 

[gunhilltrain]

I write primarily in Romance and in Novels and Novellas, which are relatively peaceful quarters of Lit, so, although I get the usual one bombing, it rarely survives the sweeps, and the number of negative comments have been low.

But because I don't write in more popular categories, and I am very story oriented and do not write "strokers", I have not achieved a big audience. Nonetheless, over the course of five years and 65 submissions, I have gained a loyal fanbase and finally hit 500 followers. I've won three readers' choice awards. So, it's all good.

There have been times though, when I thought I didn't belong here. And it wasn't because of readers. It's been because of comments on the forum, either implying or directly stating that the only legitimate purpose of our stories was to get readers off, that the "Lit" meant nothing, that the "erotica" was the be all and end all.

For a while, I took it to heart. But I kept on keeping on, and now it just annoys me.

I've heard that "definition" or purpose of Lit or erotica used here at times too. The way I see it - if that is what one wishes to do, then no one is stopping you. Just don't judge others who want to do something different.

 

[Escierto]

Nah. I don't wonder.

I just keep posting. Sometimes the stories work, sometimes not. It's no skin off my ass either way.

That’s the right attitude. When I see some of the moronic incredibly unrealistic stupid shit that is popular, I don’t want to be popular. People love crap.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I write primarily in Romance and in Novels and Novellas, which are relatively peaceful quarters of Lit, so, although I get the usual one bombing, it rarely survives the sweeps, and the number of negative comments have been low.

But because I don't write in more popular categories, and I am very story oriented and do not write "strokers", I have not achieved a big audience. Nonetheless, over the course of five years and 65 submissions, I have gained a loyal fanbase and finally hit 500 followers. I've won three readers' choice awards. So, it's all good.

There have been times though, when I thought I didn't belong here. And it wasn't because of readers. It's been because of comments on the forum, either implying or directly stating that the only legitimate purpose of our stories was to get readers off, that the "Lit" meant nothing, that the "erotica" was the be all and end all.

For a while, I took it to heart. But I kept on keeping on, and now it just annoys me.

Well, now I'm jealous. But what a lovely following you have. Romance, not quite my Bailiwick! Maybe a romantic overture now and again, in between all the murder and mayhem, fights with vampires, the creature plant consuming you while you make love, the Succubus fucking you to death, slowly, with great passion. Um, what else? Oh, well, I'm sure there is other shit I've written.

 

[PennameWombat]

A number of my highest rated stories have very little explicit sex in them. Those I focus in SF&F, NonHuman and N&N.

Others, like my current Summer Lovin entry, have loads. I always at least try for a 'story' (this one, a thirty-something wife betrayed by her husband and his lover enlists a pack of twenty-somethings to get revenge. Of course, that includes her fucking the pack's brains out and hidden crushes being revealed.)

I did get a comment on a different recent story that (to paraphrase) "this is lit EROTICA." They actually liked my story (Lesbian category with a strong undertone of D/S) but felt I'd taken too long to get to the sex. Upon rereading, they were right, because two of my preliminary sections could've been condensed.

I mistakenly submitted once to Romance (it's no longer there). A key MC's thread involved her true love and them finally getting back together. I think it was her friends and their sexual rampages during a conference that, uh, didn't sit well .

 

[HopelessDreams]

I have seriously considered switching to another platform for posting my erotica, back around February when my new story and the edits to all my previous ones each took about 3 weeks to be approved. It seriously should not take that long. If Laurel really does vet each story after it is approved by the bots, maybe she should hire some helpers to do some of that for her.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I haven't seriously looked at other sites. I figuratively tripped over the doorstep and wandered in when I had the urge to finally get the random stories out of my head. For a hobby writer, Lit ticks what I need. A reasonably tolerant audience who like my stuff, fairly supportive to new writers, and a fairly sane forum where you can ask idiotic questions and not get your head bitten off.

 

[KeithD]

I have seriously considered switching to another platform for posting my erotica, back around February when my new story and the edits to all my previous ones each took about 3 weeks to be approved. It seriously should not take that long. If Laurel really does vet each story after it is approved by the bots, maybe she should hire some helpers to do some of that for her.

If that continues (the three-week thing to get a story posted), I don't really think this is the site's problem or that it wouldn't be a problem at another story site too. My submissions have consistently taken two or three days to post for a decade and a half. If you can't settle into that routine fairly quickly too, I think you need to look closer to home on the reason for posting delays.

 

[SandyWhitlock]

I try not to think about it too much. I know I'm not the best writer but I do strive to be better. What I post are purely erotica that hopefully get a few people off. If someone is looking for a deep exploration of self, I'm not the author for you.

I read a lot of romance with spice or smut with plot. My favorite trope is MMF but to publish stories here with that I feel I would get too many incelish boomers complaining about "cucks" and "homos."

Made the mistake of posting in loving wives once. If I ever do post in that category again, I'll shut off comments. Which is a shame because there may be one person who would give a good constructive comment.

Lit is the biggest erotica amateur site so that's why I publish here. Though to be fair I don't know a lot of other sites.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

So much good stuff here. Thanks.
Yeah I see that mentioned about readers wanting something to wank to, and if they aren't wanking by the 2nd page... well the writer is in big trouble by then. But I don't recall actually wanking while reading erotic stories. Maybe afterwards. Maybe a section gets planted in the memory and is effective fodder for many an evening. So I guess I just find it hard to relate to that 'requirement'.

About the "rotten tomato wounds"
yes it's a reference to the movie ratings thing, plus if memory serves, in the olden times an audience might throw rotten veggies at a play's actors for putting on poor performances.

I could've titled this thread something like: Highs & Lows of Lit or How to Not Allow Lit to Become an Emotional Rollercoaster.

 

[XerXesXu]

I’ve never thought about it, but , yes, Lit’s for me. I came to Lit to learn to write about sex. I’ve looked at other ‘serious’ literature sites since and found them precious – neurotics writing about their neuroses. It’s like choosing, videos of crocodiles grabbing gnu and dragging them into the river to kill and eat, over videos of kittens playing with balls of wool. I may or may not approve of crocodiles, but at least they’re life in the raw, and they’re certainly interesting.

 

[Wifetheif]

On the one hand, I am very grateful to Lit.com for making me a better writer. I started writing erotica to brush up on what I wasn't doing in my nonfiction work; dialogue, plotting, and storytelling. I still post here on occasion. Some of my early stuff is really cringe-worthy. I have a relatively large group of followers and they are nice but my main motivation is to write stories that entertain me as a writer and creator. Nearly all of my erotica is shrink fiction published under an alias on Amazon. I'm not making huge amounts of money, but I can usually cover one or two bills every month. This, of course, is more than any of us make for posting on an amateur site. I will probably never completely abandon Lit.com. It is a great place to park a story and get lots of views. But, because the stories here do nothing for my bottom line, I only place oddments and subject matter I can't tackle under my alias. My alias has a nice-sized audience that buys every new book I post on Amazon. Feedback is always a kick, especially when I realize that I have touched some of my readers on a very deep spiritual level. That side of Lit.com is irreplaceable. It is just one f my many homes on the internet, like any home, some days you can't stand it or the people in it, other days it is paradise.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

People who have been writing her much longer than I have would have to assess this: It may be that someone who wrote here long ago, gained many views and followers, then left for a long time, and just now returned, might have trouble restarting simply because of the vast increase in the volume of content that has built up here since then. Even a tightly-focused tag search might return so many hits that a reader might never see two or three appealing pieces by the same writer. Maybe it's like the expanding universe, which may prevent humanity from ever finding companionship.

Yeah, another bummer. Sorry.

 

[SamScribble]

Ifin, you was a whore, you'd be fucked out with that fucking in them stories!

Thank you, Millie. Being the whore that I am, I shall take that as a compliment.

 

[gunhilltrain]

If that continues (the three-week thing to get a story posted), I don't really think this is the site's problem or that it wouldn't be a problem at another story site too. My submissions have consistently taken two or three days to post for a decade and a half. If you can't settle into that routine fairly quickly too, I think you need to look closer to home on the reason for posting delays.

I don't think there are a huge number of such sites out there. Based on the other two I know about, they all have their quirks and weak points, including software issues. One of them also takes a couple of weeks at least to post because they have moderators who actually proofread everything! I guess that's pretty cool in its own way. They have fewer age restrictions than Lit, which gives more flexibility. On the other hand, with a number of moderators taking turns, one can have stories rejected for some strangely arbitrary reasons. (I think I've mentioned those incidents elsewhere.)

So Lit doesn't have an ideal management (all two of them plus their bots?), but I like it anyway. I just don't depend on it for everything I try to do.

 

[gunhilltrain]

So much good stuff here. Thanks.
Yeah I see that mentioned about readers wanting something to wank to, and if they aren't wanking by the 2nd page... well the writer is in big trouble by then. But I don't recall actually wanking while reading erotic stories. Maybe afterwards. Maybe a section gets planted in the memory and is effective fodder for many an evening. So I guess I just find it hard to relate to that 'requirement'.

About the "rotten tomato wounds"
yes it's a reference to the movie ratings thing, plus if memory serves, in the olden times an audience might throw rotten veggies at a play's actors for putting on poor performances.

I could've titled this thread something like: Highs & Lows of Lit or How to Not Allow Lit to Become an Emotional Rollercoaster.

Millie told me about the Rotten Tomatoes website and now, of course, you linked that to the old practice of throwing them at actors. That must have been a sight worth seeing. I wonder when the practice ended? Supposedly, in vaudeville days (up to the 1920s?) there would be a guy with a hook offstage who yank away a performer who was really bombing. I've heard about it often enough that I guess it really happened.

I had a comment about the advice you asked about, but I'll put that in a separate message.

 

[gunhilltrain]

So much good stuff here. Thanks.
Yeah I see that mentioned about readers wanting something to wank to, and if they aren't wanking by the 2nd page... well the writer is in big trouble by then. But I don't recall actually wanking while reading erotic stories. Maybe afterwards. Maybe a section gets planted in the memory and is effective fodder for many an evening. So I guess I just find it hard to relate to that 'requirement'.

About the "rotten tomato wounds"
yes it's a reference to the movie ratings thing, plus if memory serves, in the olden times an audience might throw rotten veggies at a play's actors for putting on poor performances.

I could've titled this thread something like: Highs & Lows of Lit or How to Not Allow Lit to Become an Emotional Rollercoaster.

You're getting two responses for the price of one. I had the notion that you have been over-thinking all of this, but maybe it's "over-emotionalizing" it? Maybe those are one and the same?

If I may pontificate further, any "creative" activity (I suppose Lit qualifies) requires some distance, some "dispassionate" reasoning, between the creator and whatever is being worked on. So what does that mean? Well, you called in an emotional roller-coaster. (I always hated being on the real ones.) Somehow you have to put those highs and lows aside because it's impossible to get anything done (not just writing) when that is going on.

I don't know if that is helpful but that's what I've got.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

You're getting two responses for the price of one. I had the notion that you have been over-thinking all of this, but maybe it's "over-emotionalizing" it? Maybe those are one and the same?

If I may pontificate further, any "creative" activity (I suppose Lit qualifies) requires some distance, some "dispassionate" reasoning, between the creator and whatever is being worked on. So what does that mean? Well, you called in an emotional roller-coaster. (I always hated being on the real ones.) Somehow you have to put those highs and lows aside because it's impossible to get anything done (not just writing) when that is going on.

I don't know if that is helpful but that's what I've got.

Definitely a lucky day here. Yeah it could something like that. Double-barrel Over-Everything.

You know, about the old days of rotten veggies, hooks... I picture an audience of people holding pitchforks, torches, knives, machetes, revolvers, saw-off shotguns... "Sure hope you're entertaining tonight."

 

[gunhilltrain]

Oh, lucky day because I posted twice. That thing with the pitchforks and such sounds like Frankenstein, or at least the movie versions.

There was a case where a dispute over two actors resulted in bloodshed, but if you read more closely it was a pretext for larger issues of immigrants versus nativists. Right here in New York, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot

Not sure what that has to do with anything, but it's sort of interesting anyway.

 

[oggbashan]

As someone who has been here for twenty years, and has nearly 500 stories posted, Lit definitely is for me.

But not all my stories are suitable for Lit, not because they break the rules, but because they have no, not even implied, sex.

In those years I have had two stories rejected - one for too much quotation and not enough original words - easily corrected; and one for a whole story about a commercial product. I removed the trade name throughout and it was posted for a few months before someone complained that even without the trade name, there was only one manufacturer, so that trade name was obvious. I haven't tried to amend and resubmit because I cannot avoid the problem that got it pulled.

 

[t_h_seacrest]

Oh, lucky day because I posted twice. That thing with the pitchforks and such sounds like Frankenstein, or at least the movie versions.

There was a case where a dispute over two actors resulted in bloodshed, but if you read more closely it was a pretext for larger issues of immigrants versus nativists. Right here in New York, too.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_Place_Riot

Not sure what that has to do with anything, but it's sort of interesting anyway.

Well it does help put things in perspective.
The prospect of low scores on an attempt to pen erotic fiction versus.... a helluva a lot more severe situations.

 

[burgwad]

I write primarily in Romance and in Novels and Novellas, which are relatively peaceful quarters of Lit, so, although I get the usual one bombing, it rarely survives the sweeps, and the number of negative comments have been low.

But because I don't write in more popular categories, and I am very story oriented and do not write "strokers", I have not achieved a big audience. Nonetheless, over the course of five years and 65 submissions, I have gained a loyal fanbase and finally hit 500 followers. I've won three readers' choice awards. So, it's all good.

There have been times though, when I thought I didn't belong here. And it wasn't because of readers. It's been because of comments on the forum, either implying or directly stating that the only legitimate purpose of our stories was to get readers off, that the "Lit" meant nothing, that the "erotica" was the be all and end all.

For a while, I took it to heart. But I kept on keeping on, and now it just annoys me.

I feel seen, MB. Thank you. Also, congrats on the followers and accolades.

These are old-ish forums. Old-ish forums survive on the backs of veteran posters. Even if the early pioneers of these forums were open-minded, these folks tend naturally to be dreamers and wanderers and to excuse themselves before too long, and to leave behind them the old dogs who are either too weary for new tricks or were never much into "tricks" to begin with.

This social dynamic self-selects for traditionalism and hierarchical logic: newbies may get with the program or see themselves out. Loyalist newbies and apprentices become servants of the veteran cause. Whatever arbitrary variables describe the culture of the veteran cohort become faithfully upheld community-wide values. Prejudice takes root. Well-meaning community members know to apologize for it, but t urge good-natured complacency. Less patient community members proudly and at times viciously uphold it.

The arbitrary values that rose to prejudice on the Lit forums are summarized, I think, succinctly by how you’ve labeled them: The Almighty Stroker. What happened to succeed became, at some point before you or I got here, what deserved to succeed. And stories or authors that deviate from pursuing the perfection of the Almighty Stroker are at best only politely tolerated. At worst, these dorks get picked on.

Yeah, okay, I’m venting. Sorry. Once you get a little social/org psych under your belt, you start to see (and resent) these dynamics everywhere you see them. The inevitability of prejudice. The tragedy of the commons. The Literotica forums.

Meanwhile, I admire that you found the middle path, MB. It’s heartening. You seem to speak of a place where dorks are safe and not unappreciated.

 

[SamScribble]

I feel seen, MB. Thank you. Also, congrats on the followers and accolades.

These are old-ish forums. Old-ish forums survive on the backs of veteran posters. While Lit’s forums’ welcome committee is hardly uncivil, they swiftly and venomously reproach anyone whose first posts question old institutions and/or aren’t sufficiently reverential in tone. It’s tolerable at first, until you find yourself accidentally falling out of lock step, and now suddenly it’s your turn to either stand up for yourself or get busy bootlicking.

This social dynamic self-selects for traditionalism and hierarchical logic: newbies either get with the program or see themselves out. Loyalist newbies and apprentices become servants of the veteran cause. Whatever arbitrary variables describe the culture of the veteran cohort become faithfully upheld community-wide values. Prejudice takes root. Well-meaning community members know to apologize for it, but t urge good-natured complacency. Less patient community members proudly and at times viciously uphold it.

The arbitrary values that rose to prejudice on the Lit forums are summarized, I think, succinctly by how you’ve labeled them: The Almight Stroker. Vets and Lit loyalists prize those authors/stories that happen also to be best at thriving under the blind tyranny of Anon. What happens to succeed became, at some point well before you or I got here, what deserves to succeed.

God forbid you cast your lot with the throngs of dreamy-eyed newbies bemoaning year after year the malignance of the five-star rating system. To question this system is to question the very hierarchy itself, and to disrespect the survivalist weirdos who’ve mastered the bloodsport they invented. Git gud. Get over yourself. Know your place. Etc.

This kind of culture is sort of inevitable in older online communities. Even if the early pioneers are open-minded, change-loving tinkerers, these folks tend naturally to excuse themselves for the next new thing on their horizons, and to leave behind them the old dogs who are either too weary for new tricks or were never much into “novelty” to begin with.

Yeah, I’m venting. Sorry. It’s not just here on Lit. Once you get a little social psych under your belt, you start to see these dynamics everywhere. The inevitability of prejudice. The inescapability of dogma. The tragedy of the commons.

Meanwhile, I admire that you found the middle path, MB. It’s heartening.

In defence of ‘the veterans’, I’m not sure that they dismiss newbies’ protests against such things as the scoring system out of fossilised tradition. I think they are usually just saying: ‘This has be discussed many times over the years, and the site’s owners have never shown any inclination to make any changes. Bang on if you wish; but it probably won’t make any difference.’

Also, I don’t buy into the idea that every tale must lead to an orgasm. Some of the highest rating stories I have posted here are anything but masturbatory. Three or four of them are even labelled Non-Erotic.