Do you remember the day your first story was posted?

[HeyAll]

For me it was over 10 years ago.

I'd been reading erotica for a few years prior before deciding to venture in my own work. I had an account from a year ago named 'heyall' which I made to view the amature nude pics in the forum section.

I wrote a taboo/incest story and submitted it. I vaguely remember writing it and how odd it felt to write such a thing, or write at all. I had zero experience writing fiction, save for a few small things in the months prior.

Anyway, back then, I had no frame of reference for what a story can do. Meaning there were no Hubs back then. As far as I can remember, there wasn't a Top List, of if there was I didn't see it. And I'm pretty sure the stories didn't mention the amount of views it had, which I think came years later.

Around 10 in the morning I logged onto the internet and saw "Literotica Feedback." I had two messages. I wondered what it was and was suprised that people enjoyed my work. Getting email feedback never crossed my mind.

I log into my account and saw that my story was posted. It took me a while to figure out what the numbers were. Again, this is the old system. I was shocked by the number of views. I was also pleasently suprised by how many comments it got.

The comments were really positive. I also remember getting a number of comments about the bad grammar, which I didn't understand because I thought I was a good writer. But I later went back and did a better edit, finding a bunch of horrible typos the story had. In those days, my editing skills weren't good. I didn't think I needed to edit closely at all. I never realized that writing could leave behind so many errors when you type at speed.


How about you?

 

[KeithD]

Can't remember it, no. It was posted to a different site. I was read there by someone posting here who suggested I post here as well.

 

[sophism]

I remember being excited out of my mind. I wanted to be an novelist when I was growing up and even though I'm not on track to write fiction professionally, I've always returned to writing fiction on and off throughout the years.

My first submission was the first time I've published any writing for anyone to see so I was really nervous. Aside from stories I'd write with my friends in grade school, I stopped showing people my writing - and so it'd been a long time since I've heard anyone's thoughts about it.

The next day I definitely was checking my works page every hour to see the reception I'm honestly also still amazed that anyone reads my writing at all. My partner is convinced that the positive response is just a sign that I should be trying to try to write fiction professionally, but I don't think I'm all there yet lol.

Positive comments make my day. Constructive criticism is duly noted. But then the negative comments can get under my skin a little since I've kept my writing under wraps for so long.

 

[SamScribble]

Umm ... no. But then I don't remember much anymore.

 

[oggbashan]

Yes. I had been looking at Lit for a couple of months and finally decided that it looked as if I would get a better response to my stories than I was getting on some Adult Yahoo Groups.

I posted several linked stories on the same day and added more in the next month - all written sometime earlier. That was 19 years ago, and now Lit is the first (but not only) place where I put my stories.

 

[SimonDoom]

I sure do. Clearly. I'm coming up on the fifth anniversary of my first Literotica story -- publication date December 8, 2016. The Holiday Party.

It was a thrill. I'd thought about doing it for a long time, having been a reader of Lit stories since the early 2000s. I'd been working on a longer story -- In The Hallway -- for some time, but at the last minute, 24 hours before the winter holiday deadline, I put aside In The Hallway and I decided to write and submit a story for that contest. I wrote it, edited it, and submitted it -- about 4000 words worth -- in 24 hours, before the deadline. I think it was published the next day or so. The reaction was just so-so, and the score never reached 4.5, and that was a bit of a disappointment, but in retrospect completely understandable. It was a hastily conceived and written story about a man who meets and has an encounter with a sexy Christmas Elf at a holiday party. It was rushed because of the deadline. One of my lesser stories, definitely. But it was fun to do it, at last, after so much time thinking about writing. It was the first story of any kind I had ever published on the Internet. I never would have guessed at the time that I would publish 42 stories and would be publishing even more at five years and counting.

 

[MelissaBaby]

July 9, 2017, the first chapter of My Fall and Rise. i was scared shitless.

 

[gordo12]

i was scared shitless.

Yeah, that was me the night before I punched the submit button.

I remember the dread the next morning logging into Lit and then the shock of finding something like a 4.75 score and nice comments. It blew me away that people would like my writing.

It's a step in life I've never regretted.

 

[Djmac1031]

It's only been just over two months since I published my first story.

Still, it did a lot better than I expected, even with some rookie mistakes.

I figured I'd post it and it would disappear, buried under a slew of much better stories by much more talented authors.

So for any of mine to have done as well as they have makes me happy.

 

[NotWise]

Publication of my first story was a non-event for me. All I remember is that the reception wasn't what I wanted. I remember the morning my second story went live about a week later, because the number of views jumped by 1000+ every time I refreshed the page. I was thrilled.

 

[lovecraft68]

5/13/2010 The story Almost Perfect (irony, as this was no where near perfect)

In the BDSM category, a femdom story, but back in a time where femdom wasn't attacked by knuckle dragging real men incels.

It was my third try to submit it, first was kicked back because I didn't have enough spacing in between paragraphs, second time was grammar, as in my dialogue tags. Got some help with those and the story finally went live.

No idea what to expect. My wife found lit in 2008, signed me up in 2009 after I'd started writing some stories, but I didn't get the ambition to post until 2010. Back then I had no idea about vote totals and comments and what would be good or bad numbers wise.

I received three comments that day, all positive, and two private feedback, one very encouraging and hoping I would write more, one said the kids in his fourth grade class could do better.

I can't recall what it ended up with for votes, but it did get an H and held it for awhile. In fact, it held it until I came to the forums.

For those not aware of this, a story that starts with an A will take more trolling than others in you back list because when the trolls click your page its at the top so its the first one hit.

As this one never had a large vote total (to date it only has 353) to insulate it, the score dropped with the trolling and its a 4.10 as we speak (50/50 its under 4 after this post.)

But that was the first, my second was a foot fetish story, which got less attention. MY third was my first incest story and when I came home that day to see 450 votes on that first day I thought something was Broken, I had no idea of the disparity in the categories back then, I was like holy shit!

 

[rescatooor]

I remember excessively checking Lit just to see if the story had gone up. As you do.

I remember seeing the first votes go in and being positively surprised at the positive response. A couple of comments came in saying that I should have not posted the story in romance, but it was still a better start than I had expected. After a shift at work, I was surprised that my story had over 50 votes and was bordering on a H. It was only four years ago that it went up.

It was a fairly basic story: just a man and a woman hooking up. It barely had a story to be honest. If I'm not writing a stroker, I do try to put more of a narrative into my works these days. Still, it was alright.

 

[Djmac1031]

5/13/2010


I came home that day to see 450 votes on that first day I thought something was Broken, I had no idea of the disparity in the categories back then, I was like holy shit!

My first story is also my highest voted on story with 469. But that's after being up for just over two months.

I can't imagine 450 in one day lol

 

[OpenMouth]

I remember reading it and instantly spotting a typo, and being horrified.

 

[Djmac1031]

I remember reading it and instantly spotting a typo, and being horrified.

Lol. That happens to me almost every story.

I did edit and repost one of my earlier ones, and even after that found a few I missed lol.

I'm just learning to live with them. And trying to edit better before posting

 

[SimonDoom]

For those not aware of this, a story that starts with an A will take more trolling than others in you back list because when the trolls click your page its at the top so its the first one hit.

!

This hadn't occurred to me. But the upside of a story that starts with the letter "A" standing by itself is that it will get more views, and therefore more votes, and therefore more favorites. My one story that starts with "A" consistently has had a score under 4.5, but I don't care, because for an Exhibitionist story it's done very well in terms of views (almost 250,000) and favorites (304).

My experience was somewhat like yours. I published several stories before I published my first incest story, and when I finally did the numbers were so completely different I did a double-take and said, Holy Crap!

 

[Djmac1031]

So what I'm hearing is I need to start writing incest stories if I wanna rack up the big numbers lol

 

[SimonDoom]

So what I'm hearing is I need to start writing incest stories if I wanna rack up the big numbers lol

Views and votes, yes. My incest stories on average receive more than three times the views and votes that the other stories do.

Writing a lot of popular incest stories is the best strategy for gaining favorites and followers, as well.

But those stories do NOT receive the highest scores. If it's high scores you want, another category would be better.

Loving Wives and Illustrated both get a lot of views. Loving Wives presents an even starker choice, however, between high scores and high views, because the scores in that category are on average rather low.

 

[RoperTrace]

Seventeen years ago on Lit.com

I can't remember the day exactly. I posted several within a few months. I had been writing stories a few years before that and lost at least two or three when a computer crashed the same week my mom or dad passed away.

They both passed in '99, so losing my stories at the time was no big deal. I did have them backed up on floppy disks but eventually moved to laptops that no longer used floppies. I've considered rewriting two of them, but doubt if they'd pass the non-consent rules now currently in place.

It was kind of a thrill to have others reading my stories, and getting emails or positive comments on them. Comments are 90 to 95% positive over the years.

 

[TadOverdon]

I don't remember the details. I remember discovering the Author's Hive, though.

 

[RoperTrace]

I remember excessively checking Lit just to see if the story had gone up. As you do.

I remember seeing the first votes go in and being positively surprised at the positive response. A couple of comments came in saying that I should have not posted the story in romance, but it was still a better start than I had expected. After a shift at work, I was surprised that my story had over 50 votes and was bordering on a H. It was only four years ago that it went up.

It was a fairly basic story: just a man and a woman hooking up. It barely had a story to be honest. If I'm not writing a stroker, I do try to put more of a narrative into my works these days. Still, it was alright.

I just read your story on your website: Distancing, and it's very timely and erotic.

 

[rescatooor]

I just read your story on your website: Distancing, and it's very timely and erotic.

Aww! Why, thank you! Always lovely to get compliments.

 

[Lovecraft_lore2]

I remember finding my story on Literotica. I was angry at the world and in the middle of a personal drama at the time. The woman who was sleeping with the guy in the dorm room next to mine stopped at my room to lecture me on life and how I needed to be a nicer person, she was wasted, totally naked, freshly fucked.

The next day her friend asked me to write down what happened as she was not sure she remembered what exactly happened, just that she remembered talking to me and that at some point during the evening she had had sex.

One of their friends had added to it and turned it into the core of a Literotica story.

I was not sure how I felt about it. Basically, I was annoyed that they didn't want to have sex with me, due to the anger issues. Yet, as a group, kept finding these guys who could be summed up as stupid failures in life to take on as romantic partners. One of these guys got expelled from college after getting into a drunken shoving match with a teacher's assistant after coming to class drunk.

 

[lovecraft68]

popular incest stories is the best strategy for gaining favorites and followers, as well.

But those stories do NOT receive the highest scores. If it's high scores you want, another category would be better.

What do you consider a high score? I see a lot of I/T stories above 4.7.

 

[rescatooor]

What do you consider a high score? I see a lot of I/T stories above 4.7.

I have one story with many typos and rather lazy writing at 4.2 (I was trying to finish it for a contest) and another story with 4.55 or so that barely has any story. I think for a story to score above 4.7 it would probably need to hit many right notes and be more than decently crafted.

Or maybe I just got a bit unlucky. Who knows.