Annoying whiny thread

I know, I know. Pot. Kettle. Black.

Why is it, that I feel (I know) I’m getting better as a writer, but the reaction to my stuff is getting worse? It feels like the two things are inversely proportional.

I don't think reactions to my work have gotten worse overall, but I'm pretty sure there are readers who prefer my earlier stories here to the later ones.

I haven't read your stories (please don't take that personally! I very rarely get time to read stories here these days) so you'll have to gauge whether any of this is relevant to you. But for me, I think part of it is that writing stories has provoked me to think more about storytelling, and my personal standards for "good story" have shifted in ways that don't always match what the fabled Average Reader is looking for.

My first story here was a HEA romance, and there are plenty of readers (me included) who enjoy reading that kind of story. But I don't want to tell it over and over. Sometimes I want to kick against the conventions - okay, what if I write a story about two people who are very fond of one another and have some great sex, but ultimately decide that they aren't going to spend their lives together? What if one of the characters is a sex worker who doesn't need to be rescued by a knight in shining armour? What if the main character has a romance but it's not the centre of the story? Can I write a love story that follows through until dementia and death do us part, where the loved one has some really unappealing personality traits? Can I do all those things, and still have stories that leave (many) readers feeling glad that they read them?

Those are higher-challenge stories. Readers aren't always going to see those self-imposed challenges. Even if they do, that doesn't guarantee it's what they wanted to read. So I get some readers who will tell me, at considerable length, how much the ending of the new story sucked and how I should make it more like the old one. I've seen the same for other authors that I've edited for.
 
Those are higher-challenge stories. Readers aren't always going to see those self-imposed challenges. Even if they do, that doesn't guarantee it's what they wanted to read.

For my work, I think, this is the crux of it. When I first started, my stories were sweet and romantic May/Dec stories with lovely happy endings and readers love that shit. And when I was writing them, I thought I'd found my niche and would just sit and color with my happy little MILF stories.
Until I discovered the forums, and you lot have twisted me into the depraved purveyor of smut that sits naked before you. (And I am too.) Ever since, I've been writing all sorts of wonderful nastiness including things like polyamory, interracial, non-con, incest, wife swapping, breeding, swinging, group sex, and even a bit of humiliation. What's next? Tentacle porn? It may be. I realize that not everyone is into these types of things that were previously reading my work. So if my rating scores drop, I think I can chalk it up to that with a fair bit of certainty, IMHO. My comments have also followed suit.
And I think it's because people love to say, "I enjoyed that, it made me happy." But they don't enjoy saying, "I was good until the zombie clown with the horse-cock strap-on. Then you lost me." Most people grew up with Thumper's mom's rule. "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."
 
Stats from me - showing pretty consistent across the board across 201 days. The early rise was Alena's Game rolling out at 2x ch per week and then a couple of special event entries. Obv I don't have a decade of stats, but it doesn't bear up the theory of a general slide unless it's multi-year...?
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The generally downward trend of your graph over the latest period is what I am seeing in general. My incest stories are still the highest views per day, but even they are noticeably down from similar time spans over the past few years. Scores remain high (I actually lost three votes somehow) but comments are static.
 
The easiest thing to do is to download your stats from the Literotica submissions page, sort them by date and then add =AVERAGE(D2:D6) into the first free column (J2) and then cut and paste it all the way down.

Unfortuntaly as a married man, I'm limited to a sample size of one otherwise I'd be asking to see your bell curves straight away.


As people are going to say, it takes all sorts and generalizations. I suspect (and I've read some but not all of your stuff) that the early stories had a nice mix of straight into the sex combined with an effective inner dialogue for the character as you were writing real stuff. On that basis, there's often not a lot for people to complain about and a lot for the trousers-around-ankles brigade to love (not that there's anything wrong with that). The longer and slower your burn, the more likely people are to find that where you end up isn't where they wanted to be. I find that in the range 5-4 there's not really that much difference in quality of writing, it's how neatly the kinks on display match what the majority is looking for.
Girls sometimes know how too use Excel too 😊.

Em
 
Stats from me - showing pretty consistent across the board across 201 days. The early rise was Alena's Game rolling out at 2x ch per week and then a couple of special event entries. Obv I don't have a decade of stats, but it doesn't bear up the theory of a general slide unless it's multi-year...?
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Impressive piece of work, but as for myself, I just don't care that much. It's just some literature site, not ridership on the Long Island Rail Road or some such thing where more important issues are at stake.
 
The generally downward trend of your graph over the latest period is what I am seeing in general. My incest stories are still the highest views per day, but even they are noticeably down from similar time spans over the past few years. Scores remain high (I actually lost three votes somehow) but comments are static.
Just to be clear - the bump on the left was due to stepping up the pace of releases - a couple of chapters a week for Alena's Game. Otherwise, it's usually just a single chapter or standalone a week - so that's why I'm saying it looks pretty flat outside of the story challenge spikes.
 
It was written to please a - now sadly departed - Lit girl. The first two chapters were transcripts of PMs to her.

Em

Huh. I didn't expect THAT. I just summed up the word count. I am mildly intrigued now, so I guess I should read the story.
I've read it. No wonder she ran away from Lit! :p
Joking aside, it was actually quite sweet, but in my opinion, the story is also a perfect example of what could have been achieved, had you taken a different approach. ;)
 
My all-time highest rated story remains the second story I published, 6 and a half years ago. My most popular story, by far, was published 6 years ago. I sometimes wonder, why can't I duplicate the success of those stories? But I don't let myself get obsessed by the question. I enjoy statistics, but at the same time I recognize the need not to get too tethered to them. You cannot control reader reaction, and you shouldn't try. I think the healthiest way to deal with the ups and downs of reader reaction is to just keep writing what you want to write and to focus on your own development and satisfaction as a writer. Get whatever satisfaction you can from reader feedback, but don't get dependent on it.
 
I've read it. No wonder she ran away from Lit! :p
Joking aside, it was actually quite sweet, but in my opinion, the story is also a perfect example of what could have been achieved, had you taken a different approach. ;)
She had input to what happened next in each chapter. They were her requests. She was at the beginning of the journey to explore her sexuality and interested in girls and being tied and spanking. She wanted me to go faster, but I quite liked taking my time with her.

I know why she left and it was neither me nor any other female.

Em
 
I've read it. No wonder she ran away from Lit! :p
Joking aside, it was actually quite sweet, but in my opinion, the story is also a perfect example of what could have been achieved, had you taken a different approach. ;)
Oh and it was episodic as that’s how we interacted. She only asked me to publish it after I sent her what became Ch. 02. I think she got a buzz out of it being semi-public. She used to tell selected people it was her in the story.

Em
 
I was teasing you, of course. But what I meant was actually the approach to the whole story structure. I felt this story required a different, slow burn approach and building of characters and the slow build up of sexual attraction. You actually did quite fine, considering the length.
 
I was teasing you, of course. But what I meant was actually the approach to the whole story structure. I felt this story required a different, slow burn approach and building of characters and the slow build up of sexual attraction. You actually did quite fine, considering the length.
It was never really meant to be a published story and is quite unlike anything else I have written. Maybe Coffee with Dylan is closest (about a male Lit friend) but that had more thought put into it. I have to finished Ch. 02 sometime. Got caught up writing for events.

Em
 
She had input to what happened next in each chapter. They were her requests. She was at the beginning of the journey to explore her sexuality and interested in girls and being tied and spanking. She wanted me to go faster, but I quite liked taking my time with her.

I know why she left and it was neither me nor any other female.

Em
I used to do request stories. The Reluctant Representative was one of those. The woman that I did for sent me an outline of "what happened" I wrote the story and posted it but sent it to her first. She loved the story, which is one of the best rewards you can have on a requested tale. I never quite knew if it happened to her or was a fantasy. I stopped doing requests because it was always a cuckolded story, and they were never well received.
 
I used to do request stories. The Reluctant Representative was one of those. The woman that I did for sent me an outline of "what happened" I wrote the story and posted it but sent it to her first. She loved the story, which is one of the best rewards you can have on a requested tale. I never quite knew if it happened to her or was a fantasy. I stopped doing requests because it was always a cuckolded story, and they were never well received.
I did precisely that with The Pornstar Experience and the guy I wrote it for (for free) loved it, if no one else did.

But with “Gemma” in The Kiss, it started is being flirty with each other in a three-way conversation (she was introduced to me by a mutual guy friend) and her saying “write something for me”. It went from there.

Em
 
I did precisely that with The Pornstar Experience and the guy I wrote it for (for free) loved it, if no one else did.

But with “Gemma” in The Kiss, it started is being flirty with each other in a three-way conversation (she was introduced to me by a mutual guy friend) and her saying “write something for me”. It went from there.

Em
I've never charged anyone for a story that I got to publish. I've been offered money by one guy, but it was a tale that grossed me out, so told him to find someone else.
 
8 out of my 10 worst rated stories were written in 2023.

That’s just so depressing.

Em
 
8 out of my 10 worst rated stories were written in 2023.

That’s just so depressing.

Em

It doesn't mean they're bad stories.

It could just mean you've drawn more attention to yourself and hence also drawn more trolls.

It could also mean more readers besides friends you've made here are reading and rating. And they're being more subjective and not simply dishing out a 5 because they like you.

Nothing wrong with a four, or even a three, really.
 
I have one dead on 4.5.

Two on 4.49.

Two on 4.48.

And one on 4.46.

It’s fucking annoying is what it is.

Em


Me, watching story ratings teetering on the brink of the Red H:
 

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