Claire_RA
Virgin
- Joined
- May 7, 2025
- Posts
- 17
Hey everyone,
I'm pretty new here and published two stories so far. For both stories, but especially the second one, I got a very specific question that I would like to get some feedback on. Did I put these stories in the wrong category? The two stories I published are:
Venus' Touch
Venus' Touch is somewhat of an experiment. This is my attempt to write a story where it is generally unclear whether the sex was (fully) consensual or not. I wondered what a sexual encounter between a man and a woman would have to look like where both might afterward genuinely think "Was this ok?" - not as an excuse but as a genuine question. I published this story in other places and added a poll to it there, asking my readers: "Was the sex depicted in the final chapter consensual?" And I gave them the four options:
Given that responses to that question vary so much, I am happy that I achieved my goal in depicting the ambiguity. But when I posted the story here, I naturally wondered where to put it. I thought about putting it in the noncon category but this is certainly not the type of a story a noncon reader would expect. Ultimately, I put it in Romance because for 3.5 out of 4 chapters this story reads like the beginning of a romance story or romantic comedy even. I tagged it as reluctance and added the short description "A romantic encounter that blurs the line of consent" to convey the ambiguity of the story.
When it was published, it got immediately downvoted with 2 or 3 1 star ratings. I was told before that there is a sizable share of Literotica readers that dislike noncon stories very much and wondered whether this was just people downvoting a story on principle for including ambiguous consent without being put into the noncon category. The story started with a rating around 3.5 and has since then clawed its way up to 4.28 out of 5 with a total of 40 ratings. But I wonder, should I have put this story in the noncon category? One reader commented "Didn't feel like a Romance", suggesting it might have been better placed in another category.
Sweet, Sweet Mess
Sweet, Sweet Mess is a story about a woman running into her ex after 6 years who is now married. He ultimately cheats on his wife with her.
The initial negative reaction to this story was even stronger than for Venus' Touch. The story started with a 2.8 average rating after the first 20 or so votes and has since then moved up to a 3.57 average rating after 74 votes in total. Despite being published two weeks later than Venus' Touch (May 10 vs May 24) it has already eclipsed the latter in views and number of ratings. Two people have commented how they did not like cheating and therefore disliked the story, one of them praising the writing though despite his disdain for the subject matter.
I tagged the story as "cheating, affair, adultery" and thought that this would make clear what the story is about, but only realized later that Literotica does not show these tags when it displays the story on the "new stories" page. Quite a few readers seem to have felt blindsided by the cheating in the story, expecting some sweet, heartfelt tale. And again I wonder: Did I hurt my story by putting it in the wrong category? If there had been a category for cheating, I would have put it there. A potential Drama category would also have been a nice fit. In hindsight, maybe the Mature category would have been a better fit? But I associated that primarily with older characters and with my two lead characters only being 27, I didn't consider it.
Either way, I am curious to know what you think. Should I have chosen different categories for those? Is it common that stories receive poor initial ratings and then recover as time passes? Do readers on Literotica downvote stories because they didn't include what they expected when they clicked on it despite acknowledging that the story itself might be well written? Feel free to share your own experiences with your stories here, too. I'd really like to get a feeling for how much the choice of the right category matters.
I'm pretty new here and published two stories so far. For both stories, but especially the second one, I got a very specific question that I would like to get some feedback on. Did I put these stories in the wrong category? The two stories I published are:
- Venus' Touch (Romance, 10.4K words)
- Sweet, Sweet Mess (Romance, 4K words)
Venus' Touch
Venus' Touch is somewhat of an experiment. This is my attempt to write a story where it is generally unclear whether the sex was (fully) consensual or not. I wondered what a sexual encounter between a man and a woman would have to look like where both might afterward genuinely think "Was this ok?" - not as an excuse but as a genuine question. I published this story in other places and added a poll to it there, asking my readers: "Was the sex depicted in the final chapter consensual?" And I gave them the four options:
- A) Yes, completely consensual
- B) Yes, but there were problematic aspects
- C) No, but calling this rape would be too much
- D) No, this was rape
Given that responses to that question vary so much, I am happy that I achieved my goal in depicting the ambiguity. But when I posted the story here, I naturally wondered where to put it. I thought about putting it in the noncon category but this is certainly not the type of a story a noncon reader would expect. Ultimately, I put it in Romance because for 3.5 out of 4 chapters this story reads like the beginning of a romance story or romantic comedy even. I tagged it as reluctance and added the short description "A romantic encounter that blurs the line of consent" to convey the ambiguity of the story.
When it was published, it got immediately downvoted with 2 or 3 1 star ratings. I was told before that there is a sizable share of Literotica readers that dislike noncon stories very much and wondered whether this was just people downvoting a story on principle for including ambiguous consent without being put into the noncon category. The story started with a rating around 3.5 and has since then clawed its way up to 4.28 out of 5 with a total of 40 ratings. But I wonder, should I have put this story in the noncon category? One reader commented "Didn't feel like a Romance", suggesting it might have been better placed in another category.
Sweet, Sweet Mess
Sweet, Sweet Mess is a story about a woman running into her ex after 6 years who is now married. He ultimately cheats on his wife with her.
The initial negative reaction to this story was even stronger than for Venus' Touch. The story started with a 2.8 average rating after the first 20 or so votes and has since then moved up to a 3.57 average rating after 74 votes in total. Despite being published two weeks later than Venus' Touch (May 10 vs May 24) it has already eclipsed the latter in views and number of ratings. Two people have commented how they did not like cheating and therefore disliked the story, one of them praising the writing though despite his disdain for the subject matter.
I tagged the story as "cheating, affair, adultery" and thought that this would make clear what the story is about, but only realized later that Literotica does not show these tags when it displays the story on the "new stories" page. Quite a few readers seem to have felt blindsided by the cheating in the story, expecting some sweet, heartfelt tale. And again I wonder: Did I hurt my story by putting it in the wrong category? If there had been a category for cheating, I would have put it there. A potential Drama category would also have been a nice fit. In hindsight, maybe the Mature category would have been a better fit? But I associated that primarily with older characters and with my two lead characters only being 27, I didn't consider it.
Either way, I am curious to know what you think. Should I have chosen different categories for those? Is it common that stories receive poor initial ratings and then recover as time passes? Do readers on Literotica downvote stories because they didn't include what they expected when they clicked on it despite acknowledging that the story itself might be well written? Feel free to share your own experiences with your stories here, too. I'd really like to get a feeling for how much the choice of the right category matters.
