If you write for yourself... why publish at all?

[Mister_Chris]

In another thread I started regarding attracting views, two positions emerged.

The first position was that you should write for yourself, publish it, and not give a damn what the scores and views were. All the enjoyment was found in the writing.

The second position was that you should write for your audience, not for yourself. Writing two page strokers might not be fun as a writer, but it would reward you with higher scores and views. Give the audience what they want.

Both are good positions. But it begs the question - if you're writing for yourself, why publish here on Lit at all? If all the fun is in the writing... why publish?

Accordingly, I would suggest that everyone publishing on Lit is in fact interested in both views and scores, no matter what position they may state.

Comments?

>MC

 

[jomar]

I was one of the ones to say write for yourself. Then you share and others find it and enjoy and the world is a better place and all. But sure, you could write for yourself and be private...but yeah,we all enjoy the attention and praise if we're honest.

I've done it both ways. My Marion series took a turn and got good marks so I tried to replicate it. My White Trash was for me and a hoot to write. Others too, I've experimented with a variety of writing styles and topics.

Have fun and the readers will find you.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I didn't care about the audience. I like the ego boost that comes with positive feedback, and I love the feeling of connection that comes with being able to write something out of my head and make somebody on the other side of the world happy or sad.

But I don't try to chase that audience in what I write. If I wrote with a mindset of "what will get the best votes?" I wouldn't enjoy it. So I try to cultivate an attitude of "people might hate this but I'm gonna post it anyway", and sometimes they surprise me by liking it

 

[lovecraft68]

The trick is write your way and sit back and watch people come to you. There is a fan base for everyone and every style so you can have the best of both world here.

That is unless you are totally obsessed with the best scores/votes etc...possible then there are formulas to write by that will get those.

But you can write your stories your way and they will come to you so I think both is easily accomplished.

I did an essay on how to "nail it" in incest. I mentioned in it that I believe people should write the story they want to write, but if you're goal is to get the best possible numbers then this is how to go about it in the incest category

Thing is if you look at my stories, I do write some that way, but others are the opposite of what I say to do for good scores. Yet I have them anyway because the more time I write here the more people "come around" to me.

Its like converting people to your religion

 

[RejectReality]

Nobody says you can't tailor your submissions to the reader interests while still writing what you like. It's exactly why I have three pen names and post on four different websites.

I choose my categories carefully, decide whether a story is going to fly at one site or another, organize my stories in different pen names so when I write outside the box of what my readership expects from one, it's always within the box of another.

All the while, I'm writing what I want, from 1k words to 450k.

Odds are you're going to eventually gain a following here no matter what you write, so long as you keep posting new stuff. It's up to you what you want to get out of what you're writing.

 

[mykellm]

I write for multiple reasons. I write because I enjoy it. I write so I can read it later. I write so I feel a sense of accomplishment. I write so I can entertain other people. I write so I can get other people off. I write so I can educate other people.

I write for both myself and others.

 

[sr71plt]

Why would you think that writing to satisfy yourself has to be mutually exclusive from wanting others to read it and appreciate it? I think the premise is fuzzy.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I write what I would want to read, so I guess I write for myself. As for scores and comments, I can take them or leave them. If you look at my stories here on lit, very few have scoring or comments turned on.

Do I like get comments or high scores? Sure, but I can take them or leave them as my list of stories shows.

 

[GirlChris]

I write for multiple reasons. I write because I enjoy it. I write so I can read it later. I write so I feel a sense of accomplishment. I write so I can entertain other people. I write so I can get other people off. I write so I can educate other people.

I write for both myself and others.

This.

Then again, I usually find myself writing for my close friends, people I know and can cater to. I'm much too shy to post anything serious anywhere because I have, like, 3% confidence in my writing. (I think I've posted two things here about two years ago in one short-lived bout of courage, maybe?)

 

[litmlove]

In another thread I started regarding attracting views, two positions emerged.

The first position was that you should write for yourself, publish it, and not give a damn what the scores and views were. All the enjoyment was found in the writing.

The second position was that you should write for your audience, not for yourself. Writing two page strokers might not be fun as a writer, but it would reward you with higher scores and views. Give the audience what they want.

Both are good positions. But it begs the question - if you're writing for yourself, why publish here on Lit at all? If all the fun is in the writing... why publish?

Accordingly, I would suggest that everyone publishing on Lit is in fact interested in both views and scores, no matter what position they may state.

Comments?

>MC

1st - Validation. There is no worth in claiming to be a master if you can't prove it to others.

2nd - Writing to channel the Zeitgeist is an incredible skill. Being popular is a worthy justification of writing no matter how clumsy the writing. Adolf Hitler, Stephenie Meyer and EL James deserve every fetid dollar they earn.

3rd - Writing to spec is a skill I respect in-of-itself

 

[TamLin01]

Writing for yourself doesn't mean not putting it out there for readers. It just means you don't feel beholden to tailor the content.

I also think it's kind of a silly phrase, "Write for yourself." Better to say, write what you think is good. That captures the sentiment better, and once you put it that way it becomes much more evident why it's the best way to approach your work.

 

[SamScribble]

Rather than literally ‘write for yourself’, maybe it’s a case of write what you would be happy to read yourself. Because if you’d happy to read it, chances are there are others who would also be happy to read it.

One of my own favourite stories, The Kitchen Table (www.literotica.com/s/the-kitchen-table-2), has not found favour with many. In fact it only has a score of 3.89. But it makes me smile. And, judging from the single reader comment and a couple of emailed comments I know that at least three other people have enjoyed it. Better that than a Red-H story that I wish I’d never written.

 

[tanyachrs]

I write for me and people like me.

 

[PervOtaku]

The internet is vast, if you write for yourself it's bound to be something that somebody out there will like. If you write to chase an audience, you might fall into a trap where the pandering becomes obvious, especially if you are trying to please too many people at the same time.

The more direct answer though, it's a hobby. I write a story because I have a story to tell, getting it written out is the only way to banish it from my head. But a story is no good unless it is shared. Now yes, I hope lots of people read and enjoy the stories and leave lots of comments and good votes, but really if they do it's just a bonus and if they don't I'm not losing any sleep over it. I'm not an ego-driven person generally, so the ego-boost from the readers is a treat but I have no dependency on it.

Now if I was writing as a primary source of income, I would be far more concerned about writing something that the largest audience possible can be expected to like.

 

[DivineDestiny]

I want to say I posted and said that you should write in which ever way gives you more personal gratification.

I, personally, write for myself; by that, I mean that I have a story to tell and I am going to write that vision and share it here. I don't have goals of being popular, I just want to write well, improve a little (more like a lot), and maybe other people will enjoy my brain child. I'm not going to alter my plot or make unrealistic characters simply to garner more views and favorites.

Not that kind comments and favorites aren't rewarding; sometimes they can be motivating. However, I post on Lit to explore writing in this genre, and so perhaps someone else can enjoy the vision bouncing about in my cranium.

On the other side of things, I have no issue with people who exclusively write to sate the general appetite for some kink or another. If it's views and ratings that drive you, write to improve those statistics. It's all about motivation and goals, and everyone is going to differ, which is poetic in its own way, I suppose.

 

[Mister_Chris]

enjoyed your comments

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I like the comparison of writing for Lit to that of a hobby. When portrayed in that light, it makes it much easier to understand why people would spend a lot of time crafting a story which might only find a limited audience... but which they still wish to share.

About 8 feet from me, sitting on top of my piano, is a hand built wooden car. It's about 9 inches in length, and it's not perfect; it's clearly hand built. It wouldn't win a wood workers award, and you'd probably have difficulty selling it... but it will live forever in my home, and in my heart. The fellow that built it, built these wood cars as his hobby; and he gave it to me in October, 2014... one of the last things he did, before he died. He was a good friend, and I miss him.

So, yeah. We write, because we care. We write, because we wish to share. And, just maybe, what we write will outlive us and find a home in someone else's heart... just as this little wood car found a home in mine.

Thanks, all.
>MC

 

[robertreams]

I write for immortality. I write in the desperate hope that I may leave a piece of my spirit behind, to carry that part of me into the afterlife.

Though I will have no awareness of it, one of my goals is to make someone laugh or cry or get angry, or jerk off: today and after I die.

And yes, I write for myself: because I love to mold words like clay into a finished product that gives me pleasure, a sculpture in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all those little nuances that make a story uniquely mine.

I write pornography because i have always felt there is a tremendous disconnect in the art world. We artists write and paint and sing of love and romance and the ultimate human connection or we push the fervid joining of loins, the squirting of juices, the glorious, horrible nasty, dirty things we do with one another. But I have always been pissed that art seems to do one or the other. In my stories (at least in some of them) I try to join the base and the sublime, for it is with and to the ones we love that we copulate, urinate, masturbate, lick ass, cum, squirt, fuck, suck, and do all those wonderfully nasty, dirty, wet things.

 

[Hypoxia]

"Only a fool writes, if not for money," Dr Johnson said. Are many fools here, yes? We write because we want to, or because some inner demon instructs us, or because... somewhere in the near-infinite complexity of human thought and emotion, something says, "Write."

 

[Handley_Page]

Who's in charge of our writing?
The readers or the Author?

I find it a "I wonder if This works" sort of thing.
If I think it works, I'll put it up.
If it don't, I wont.
Scores are a tertiary consideration IMO.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/begs-the-question

Please consider the real meaning of BEGS THE QUESTION. Its a WHAT THE FUCK! or HOW IN HELL DID YOU REACH THAT CONCLUSION? expression of incredulity NOT notice of a wrong question asked.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I write for immortality. I write in the desperate hope that I may leave a piece of my spirit behind, to carry that part of me into the afterlife.

Though I will have no awareness of it, one of my goals is to make someone laugh or cry or get angry, or jerk off: today and after I die.

And yes, I write for myself: because I love to mold words like clay into a finished product that gives me pleasure, a sculpture in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and all those little nuances that make a story uniquely mine.

I write pornography because i have always felt there is a tremendous disconnect in the art world. We artists write and paint and sing of love and romance and the ultimate human connection or we push the fervid joining of loins, the squirting of juices, the glorious, horrible nasty, dirty things we do with one another. But I have always been pissed that art seems to do one or the other. In my stories (at least in some of them) I try to join the base and the sublime, for it is with and to the ones we love that we copulate, urinate, masturbate, lick ass, cum, squirt, fuck, suck, and do all those wonderfully nasty, dirty, wet things.

Feelings are things like mad, sad, glad, afraid, ill, hungry, thirsty, sleepy, horny, etc

THIS i have always felt there is a tremendous disconnect in the art world
is a thought.

 

[oggbashan]

I write and post to get the stories out of my head and to get my Muses off my back for a few days.

Once I have posted a story on Literotica it is 'finished', 'completed' and 'ended'.

I can forget it and move on to the next one, two, three part-completed stories stuck in my head. If I wrote as much as the Muses think I ought to, I would be posting two or three stories a week.

But those I have posted are history and I can forget them...

 

[sr71plt]

T When portrayed in that light, it makes it much easier to understand why people would spend a lot of time crafting a story which might only find a limited audience... but which they still wish to share.

The kicker here is that, though limited, the audience at Literotica is large for just about anything you could imagine to write. I don't think I've ever seen views of less than 1,000 on anything here. This is a goldmine for floating your "small niche" works. They wouldn't stand much of a chance to be published in the mainstream at all and if you put them out yourself, you could only count on a couple of dozen sales at great expense to you before the e-book revolution came along. So, for Literotica, think of the flip side of that "limited audience." It's limited but larger than you'll find almost anywhere else. And free to use.

 

[Handley_Page]

Thanks, everyone, for your comments. I like the comparison of writing for Lit to that of a hobby. When portrayed in that light, it makes it much easier to understand why people would spend a lot of time crafting a story which might only find a limited audience... but which they still wish to share.

Thanks, all.
>MC

I'm not convinced by the "write for Lit" thing.
I feel it more as "Lit is a place for me to put my story"

 

[soflabbwlvr]

In another thread I started regarding attracting views, two positions emerged.

The first position was that you should write for yourself, publish it, and not give a damn what the scores and views were. All the enjoyment was found in the writing.

The second position was that you should write for your audience, not for yourself. Writing two page strokers might not be fun as a writer, but it would reward you with higher scores and views. Give the audience what they want.

Both are good positions. But it begs the question - if you're writing for yourself, why publish here on Lit at all? If all the fun is in the writing... why publish?

Accordingly, I would suggest that everyone publishing on Lit is in fact interested in both views and scores, no matter what position they may state.

Comments?

>MC

I don't agree with this dichotomy. "Views" and "Reads" are not the same. Getting readers to view a story is only the first step in getting them to read the story. When I decide to read stories on Lit., I will generally click on 5-10 stories, but I only get past the first three paragraphs on 1 or possibly 2. The stories I click but don't read still get a "View", even if I didn't read it.

There's no way of knowing how many actual reads a story gets, but the prior thread didn't ask that question. It asked about views. Reader satisfaction is an entirely different concept.

I write primarily for myself--but that doesn't mean I don't want my stories to be read. I think they are worth sharing with readers who enjoy the same interests as I do. I don't pander to readers, but I do take reader expectations into account. For example, I have learned through experience that the Noncon audience doesn't care much for Femdom stories. So when I write a Femdom story, I put it in Fetish. I haven't changed my story, but I do place it where an audience that is more likely to enjoy it will find it. Similarly, I would avoid posting anything in Loving Wives if at all possible. The story I am currently finishing is tailor made for LW, but it sure as hell will not go there.

It is quite possible to write the story you want to write in the manner you want to write it, and still have it widely read. Pandering to the lowest common denominator is a shortcut to success, but it is not a necessary route that everyone must follow.