Frustrated with my story ratings

[AndNowWeRun]

EDIT: Thank you for all the responses. Had never posted here before, so was a bit scared in case I incurred the wrath of the forum. lol. I'll read your replies fully later and reply when I can.

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I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing. I'd have ideas in my head already, and I'd be excited to— and then the 3's start swarming in. It's like people see the high ratings and want to see what all the fuss is about, then get snooty about it not being up to their heightened expectations, and they can't leave well enough alone, so they start lowering the ratings by a mile. And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

Also sucks considering that in the case of my 1st story, there was a long stretch where it maintained a high rating, then only after a while did the ratings plummet. It's like, come on, just let me have this.

Clearly, the first people to read my works are the ones who have shared interests. Everyone else? They just want to see me fail, they don't care about the content.

I never was an erotica writer, to be honest. I'm a poet who dabbles in flash fiction and some longer works of prose. When it comes to my stories here, I want to capture an experience, a moment, just like in my regular writings. But I guess people don't like that here. I guess they want something super long to jack/jill off to. I also have a super niche fetish most people seem to find bizarre and don't understand, so that probably works against me, too, if they can't relate. But that still shouldn't be a reason to just tank my ratings.

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing.

And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

Negative feedback is always hard to take. You either have to respond by accepting that this is a necessary evil of an anonymous website and keep writing what you think is good, or try to pander to the crowd by writing things that are popular and going for high ratings.

For what it's worth, I often find that my stories struggle in the first week or so, and then slowly improve over time as the casual reader stops looking at them and the only readers left are the ones who are really attracted by the content. Shorter works are particularly prone to this, unfortunately. But there's no way to avoid the occasional 1-star or negative comment.

Keep going

 

[TheRedChamber]

Don't be too disappointed.

I just quickly skimmed both stories - the first thing to say is that they are both very short. The conventional wisdom here is that longer stories score better, not necessarily because people thing they are better, but because the people who don't like them stop reading.

Secondly, humour is a tough category - it doesn't have a shared fetish for people to rally round and people have very different senses of humour. And while you final line did make me chuckle, as you say yourself, you have a particularly strange fetish that is as likely to confuse people as it is to excite.

Remember with a score of over 3 it is mathmatically the case that more people liked your story than disliked it. There's a feeling here on the AH that a story has to be over 4.0 to be a success (and ideally over 4.5). That's not always the case, some stories are like marmite - not for everyone and they will get downvoted, but others wil still enjoy it.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing. I'd have ideas in my head already, and I'd be excited to— and then the 3's start swarming in. It's like people see the high ratings and want to see what all the fuss is about, then get snooty about it not being up to their heightened expectations, and they can't leave well enough alone, so they start lowering the ratings by a mile. And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

If you are writing for a score there are three best options:

1 ~ Write in anal. Make the girl reluctant, but once her guy convinces her to try and he sticks it in, she suddenly agrees that taking it up the ass is the best thing evar, and how could she ever doubt him. Just make sure that she cums from the anal penetration. Instant 4.9.

2 ~ Write in incest. Have son sitting on the couch in the basement playing video games, then have Mom come downstairs and out of the blue climb onto his dick while he says "Mom, what are you doing? This is wrong!" before he knocks her up. Instant 4.8.

3 ~ Quit writing here.

However, if you actually just like to write and want to put your stuff out there to share with an audience, then just go ahead and do that and fuck the score.

 

[onehitwanda]

fuck the score.

But anally, and call it daddy, and get knocked up by it...

am I doing this right?

 

[Omenainen]

The more obscure your kink is, the more it could mean for those sharing it to finally find your content. I’m sorry you’ve found the ratings excessively discouraging. You could turn the voting off, but then you wouldn’t get the good scores either.

Trying to fulfill the wants of “the readers” is a failing task because there is no such thing. Who happens to read your stories when they’re published is a game of chance, and only by continuing to publish will you start attracting those who want what you’re doing. Try to focus on pleasing yourself, that is a goal you can for certain say you achieved or not, and in the long run it’s much more fulfilling. Pandering to readers would make sense if we got paid for it, but alas, we do not. And the scores go up and down and even if they’re up they maybe won’t stay there, so it’s not a good measure of success.

 

[TheLobster]

1 ~ Write in anal. Make the girl reluctant, but once her guy convinces her to try and he sticks it in, she suddenly agrees that taking it up the ass is the best thing evar, and how could she ever doubt him. Just make sure that she cums from the anal penetration. Instant 4.9.

2 ~ Write in incest. Have son sitting on the couch in the basement playing video games, then have Mom come downstairs and out of the blue climb onto his dick while he says "Mom, what are you doing? This is wrong!" before he knocks her up. Instant 4.8.

1. "Mom, what are you doing? This is wrong! I should fuck you in the ass, not your pussy!"
2. Somehow have him impregnate her anyway.
3. Instant 5.0?!

 

[Rob_Royale]

For what it's worth, I often find that my stories struggle in the first week or so, and then slowly improve over time as the casual reader stops looking at them and the only readers left are the ones who are really attracted by the content. Shorter works are particularly prone to this, unfortunately. But there's no way to avoid the occasional 1-star or negative comment.

Keep going

Yes, this.

But, I'm also going to agree with some of the others. Readers are looking to be entertained for an hour or so, not five minutes. Your story length is hurting you. I realize you're trying to capture an experience, a moment, as you say, but the average reader is looking for more. We have a 750 word challenge that happens every year, that we as writers, enjoy. But we do it knowing the readers are gonna be less than thrilled with something so short, and vote accordingly. If you decide to try something longer, shoot for 5-12K, IMHO.

 

[StillStunned]

I just read "The Night I Met Myself", and I think you're writing is at the very least competent. Better by far than quite a few stories I've read down the years.

I agree with @TheRedChamber that length is probably the big issue. You begin with an intriguing concept, you give us some build-up and then... the sex scene is undercooked. Readers want it blow by blow. They want to see your narrator's lips exploring flesh, read about the metallic taste of her doppelganger's skin, share her excitement as the doppelganger's fingers excite the nerve endings in her skin...

I've only been publishing stories here for a year or so, and I remember the excitement of writing and wanting to get to the end to publish it. I remember feeling a bit embarrassed whenever I added more detail. Writing erotica can be an intensely personal experience. But trust me, if you can find the patience, and tap into that excitement, your readers will love it.

There was a bit on Mock the Week once, in the "If that's the answer, what's the question?" segment, where the answer was something like "Twelve minutes". One of the suggested questions was, "When a man says he's going to make love to you all night long, what does he really mean?"

That's what it feels like if you write erotica but gloss over the sex. Your readers want you to make good on your promise to make love to them all night long.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

1. "Mom, what are you doing? This is wrong! I should fuck you in the ass, not your pussy!"
2. Somehow have him impregnate her anyway.
3. Instant 5.0?!

If it were possible to get a 5.1, I think that would do it.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

1. "Mom, what are you doing? This is wrong! I should fuck you in the ass, not your pussy!"
2. Somehow have him impregnate her anyway.
3. Instant 5.0?!

No, no! Mom is too sweet and pure to consider something as filthy as anal! (According to a number of readers, anyway). Stick with the pregnancy.

For OP - it's a thing. The first few ratings will be 5 or 1, then you get those wanting to bring it down, then after your story leaves the New page there may be a small rise and maybe more after a ratings sweep. Short stories generally score low. If you want high ratings, a 15k word Romance should do it.

I/T and Anal will get you lots of votes, which at least saves you from the situation where you get plenty of views and almost no votes (glares at the GM and BDSM readers).

 

[Mastered_again]

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

Don’t get discouraged. Keep writing what you believe is the right way to tell your story.
Remember that most of those voting haven't written Jack shit.

 

[onehitwanda]

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

If the only reason you're writing here is for the ratings, then you are doomed to disappointment.

If you write elsewhere you should already be accustomed to criticism; you cannot be all things to all people, and sometimes you can't save all the puppies.

Write for yourself and treat the positive comments and ratings as a nice, unexpected, unanticipated bonus.

 

[RejectReality]

Give it time and keep writing. The longer you stick to it, the more followers you pick up. Their votes will steadily erode the power of the malicious and "meh" votes — including on existing stories.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I also have a super niche fetish most people seem to find bizarre and don't understand, so that probably works against me, too, if they can't relate. But that still shouldn't be a reason to just tank my ratings.

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

Don't be one of those people who are obsessed with EVERYONE loving their story and giving it a 5! And don't be one of those two-faced people saying, "read it, but if you don't LOVE it don't rate it."

If you want other people to read your story, then they should have a right to rate it accordingly. So, learn to accept that many times we will write something that MOST people will find "average" at a 3 or "kind of like it" and give it a 4.

And if you take my attitude toward it, I even find satisfaction when I can anger the trolls so much, they come back again, and again merely to give it another 1 to HATE it! Think about it. I get them to put even more emotional effort into it than those who love it.

 

[AchtungNight]

I don’t write for the ratings. I write to enjoy myself getting my stories out there. And I get more praise than the opposite. Yes, I turn ratings off, though. I generally get either low scores or number of votes- and this is not conducive to my continued writing as it was for you. People praise the quality of my work anyway. I hope enough people praise your writing that you can keep at it if you want.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

Two stories is too small a portfolio to despair over, too small to create a following. You have to hang in longer than five minutes.

 

[AchtungNight]

Eminem’s Lose Yourself is a great motivational song for me. And true in every word.

 

[KeithD]

Sorry, I don't have a mile to walk with putting priority to getting good ratings here.

 

[TheLobster]

Eminem’s Lose Yourself is a great motivational song for me. And true in every word.

Especially mom's spaghetti.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing. I'd have ideas in my head already, and I'd be excited to— and then the 3's start swarming in. It's like people see the high ratings and want to see what all the fuss is about, then get snooty about it not being up to their heightened expectations, and they can't leave well enough alone, so they start lowering the ratings by a mile. And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

Also sucks considering that in the case of my 1st story, there was a long stretch where it maintained a high rating, then only after a while did the ratings plummet. It's like, come on, just let me have this.

Clearly, the first people to read my works are the ones who have shared interests. Everyone else? They just want to see me fail, they don't care about the content.

I never was an erotica writer, to be honest. I'm a poet who dabbles in flash fiction and some longer works of prose. When it comes to my stories here, I want to capture an experience, a moment, just like in my regular writings. But I guess people don't like that here. I guess they want something super long to jack/jill off to. I also have a super niche fetish most people seem to find bizarre and don't understand, so that probably works against me, too, if they can't relate. But that still shouldn't be a reason to just tank my ratings.

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

Don't give up now; you're just getting rolling. I haven't read all of the posts here yet, but scores are highly unpredictable. Do you like what you've done so far? That's what's important. I got a 2.5 (two votes!) on a story, but I like it anyway.

Incest/taboo will get a lot of views for sure, as I found out recently (it's a stepmom!). I changed the trope mentioned above by having her driving a moving van through the Nevada desert. Sometimes an idea seems original if it's actually more realistic in the sense that there is a reason for it happening.

 

[StillStunned]

I will love my story even if...

 

[lustychimera]

If you want ratings and success in the form of popularity, start running those analytics.

 

[Melon_Morph]

I understand completely, but I wouldnt worry about it too much. Its clear that the quality of writing, creativity, etc. is not particularly correlated with ratings on this site.

I know that I am not a very good writer, but my first series managed to get over 4.5 on all 3 chapters, despite numerous typos and it being a fairly simple fetish story with flat characters.
On my next series that Ive been posting recently, I have made an effort to use proper style and proofread. But, for whatever reason, it has scored a fair bit lower. Im not really sure why that is, but Im not going to dwell on it too much. I would actually like some critical feedback so that I can learn what Im doing right or wrong.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I've only posted 2 stories so far, but both times they received 4's to start, which made me feel motivated to keep writing. I'd have ideas in my head already, and I'd be excited to— and then the 3's start swarming in. It's like people see the high ratings and want to see what all the fuss is about, then get snooty about it not being up to their heightened expectations, and they can't leave well enough alone, so they start lowering the ratings by a mile. And it's really discouraging and kills my motivation.

Also sucks considering that in the case of my 1st story, there was a long stretch where it maintained a high rating, then only after a while did the ratings plummet. It's like, come on, just let me have this.

Clearly, the first people to read my works are the ones who have shared interests. Everyone else? They just want to see me fail, they don't care about the content.

I never was an erotica writer, to be honest. I'm a poet who dabbles in flash fiction and some longer works of prose. When it comes to my stories here, I want to capture an experience, a moment, just like in my regular writings. But I guess people don't like that here. I guess they want something super long to jack/jill off to. I also have a super niche fetish most people seem to find bizarre and don't understand, so that probably works against me, too, if they can't relate. But that still shouldn't be a reason to just tank my ratings.

I dunno. I'm tired and depressed and thought I'd found an outlet here. Guess not :\

Stop caring so much. Readers have a myrad of reasons for voting; the quality, the context, because they wanna see the world burn. If creators gave a shit about their audience, then we wouldn't have things like a second season of Velma.