CalBishForNow
Yes
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2024
- Posts
- 27
I first wrote most of this with the Reviews & Essays category in mind, but then I thought I'd check out the forums for my first time, and it would probably make more sense here. Apologies for being long-winded.
I never thought too much about the craft of erotica until I started publishing stories here. I still didn’t think about it too much until I started writing in the Loving Wives category, and wow, was that eye-opening.
My first story turned into an 11-part series. I put it mostly in Group Sex except for three entries in Erotic Couplings and one in BDSM. Reviewing the numbers on my Published Stories page right now, the readership numbers for that series range between 2,000 and 10,000 views and the average rating is 4.47 stars with a few clear outliers. The series as a whole has 25 comments, not counting my own.
Seems good overall, right? But I had no basis for comparison until I tried LW. I went into it with some idea that it was more critical than other categories, but even so, like I said, wow.
My first LW story, Using the Hall Pass, had 37 comments and 21,000 views in two days. That’s not the number on the Published Stories right now; that was two days after publication. The change was so striking I took note of it immediately. They were of course very critical compared to my previous stories. Its rating at the time was 3.21 stars.
Part of the problem was because I hadn’t used tags, which some commenters pointed out. I had never even thought of them in all my years of reading stories or writing the previous series. But many readers in Loving Wives had definite, strong opinions about them. They had opinions about many other things too, as you can guess.
I’m surprised how little it has bothered me! I remember having problems with negative feedback on my writing in college decades ago and brief attempts in other genres since then. But this? Eh.
I've been able to take constructive feedback constructively so far. A lot of the comments weren’t positive or negative in the usual sense but were suggestions I never would have thought of. Positive comments meant a lot more in this category than they did in Group Sex. On the other end, some of the negative comments made me more concerned about the commenter than me or my writing.
Maybe it's easier to disassociate from venomous two-word comments than it is from my own judgment or people I actually know. Maybe starting in easier-to-please categories gave me the confidence I needed for Loving Wives. Maybe the high number of views and comments is a form of feedback all by itself. Maybe I've just generally grown a thicker skin as I got older, who knows?
I've continued Using the Hall Pass. Most are and will probably continue to be in Loving Wives. I haven’t continued to note the two-day figures but the average score is around the initial score of that first story. It seemed logical at the time to put Part 6 in Group Sex. It has a higher score, lower view count, and fewer comments than any other story in the series. Part 9 is nearly done now and I was on the fence for a while about whether to put it and some upcoming similar stories in Loving Wives or Group Sex. Based on reading Loving Loving Wives and some other recent threads here, I’m putting it in Loving Wives.
I'm not exactly aspiring to a high score in a challenging category or trying to figure out how to please all the different factions of that readership. I'm still just writing the kind of stories I want to write and I'm being honest about the category that interests me. I guess all I'm saying is, I encourage other writers to do the same.
I never thought too much about the craft of erotica until I started publishing stories here. I still didn’t think about it too much until I started writing in the Loving Wives category, and wow, was that eye-opening.
My first story turned into an 11-part series. I put it mostly in Group Sex except for three entries in Erotic Couplings and one in BDSM. Reviewing the numbers on my Published Stories page right now, the readership numbers for that series range between 2,000 and 10,000 views and the average rating is 4.47 stars with a few clear outliers. The series as a whole has 25 comments, not counting my own.
Seems good overall, right? But I had no basis for comparison until I tried LW. I went into it with some idea that it was more critical than other categories, but even so, like I said, wow.
My first LW story, Using the Hall Pass, had 37 comments and 21,000 views in two days. That’s not the number on the Published Stories right now; that was two days after publication. The change was so striking I took note of it immediately. They were of course very critical compared to my previous stories. Its rating at the time was 3.21 stars.
Part of the problem was because I hadn’t used tags, which some commenters pointed out. I had never even thought of them in all my years of reading stories or writing the previous series. But many readers in Loving Wives had definite, strong opinions about them. They had opinions about many other things too, as you can guess.
I’m surprised how little it has bothered me! I remember having problems with negative feedback on my writing in college decades ago and brief attempts in other genres since then. But this? Eh.
I've been able to take constructive feedback constructively so far. A lot of the comments weren’t positive or negative in the usual sense but were suggestions I never would have thought of. Positive comments meant a lot more in this category than they did in Group Sex. On the other end, some of the negative comments made me more concerned about the commenter than me or my writing.
Maybe it's easier to disassociate from venomous two-word comments than it is from my own judgment or people I actually know. Maybe starting in easier-to-please categories gave me the confidence I needed for Loving Wives. Maybe the high number of views and comments is a form of feedback all by itself. Maybe I've just generally grown a thicker skin as I got older, who knows?
I've continued Using the Hall Pass. Most are and will probably continue to be in Loving Wives. I haven’t continued to note the two-day figures but the average score is around the initial score of that first story. It seemed logical at the time to put Part 6 in Group Sex. It has a higher score, lower view count, and fewer comments than any other story in the series. Part 9 is nearly done now and I was on the fence for a while about whether to put it and some upcoming similar stories in Loving Wives or Group Sex. Based on reading Loving Loving Wives and some other recent threads here, I’m putting it in Loving Wives.
I'm not exactly aspiring to a high score in a challenging category or trying to figure out how to please all the different factions of that readership. I'm still just writing the kind of stories I want to write and I'm being honest about the category that interests me. I guess all I'm saying is, I encourage other writers to do the same.
