Is there room for slow burners on this site

[dontcallme82]

Hi all,

Amateur writer here just starting out. I have read a fair few stories on this site over the last couple of years and found a number of stories that I have enjoyed.

I have found many stories either unbelievable or too over the top for my liking. Not a criticism as I guess this type of writing allows for a wider range of writing.

I have just had my first story published. The idea is for a slow burner and the story is to build into a darker place with more intense sexual activity as the story progresses.

I was just wondering if that type of story works on a site like this. If not a huge amount happens in the first couple of parts will people find this boring or are people willing to wait for the story to build?

 

[SimonDoom]

Can you provide a link to your story submission page? That will enable people to find your story(ies) and answer you more specifically. You don't have a link and I could not find any stories under your name.

There definitely is a big and appreciative audience for slow burn stories here at Literotica, but it helps to know how to do them.

I think it's a mistake, for example, to publish your story in many separately published chapters, where for a long time the first chapters do not feature sexual activity of the kind that readers of that category are looking for. It's better to finish the whole story and publish it as a single chapter. Otherwise, your readers will give up on your chapters before getting to the sex they are looking for.

New writers often don't have a clear idea what a "short" or "long" story is at Literotica. So they publish stories in many short chapters -- a short chapter being one under 3750 words, which is the average for a Literotica page. Chapters of stories like this tend not to do well, either in getting the maximum number of views or high scores.

More specific information and a link to your story would help in answering this question.

 

[Voboy]

I concur with Simon.

Yup. Slow burns are greatly appreciated here.

No. Do not separate them into chapters.

Many, many, MANY readers appreciate a build-up over several pages. I consider one of my stories short at about 15k words; most are longer. All get read.

 

[karaline]

I have a story where they don't 'get down to it' until chapter 5, about 25,000 words in. There's lots of sexual tension before hand obvs. It did okay.

It maybe of note that it was the third story I published on Lit, and the second I'd published in that category

 

[SimonDoom]

To be a little bit more specific:

I've written multi-chapter incest and exhibitionist stories that have done well.

The incest story was a "slow-burn" story in the sense that actual, full-blown incestuous sex did not happen until the 8th and final chapter.

But along the way, each chapter provided some kind of incestuous activity, longing, desire, etc., even though it started out relatively modest and became more intense with each chapter.

The key was that, while the story built over time, each and every chapter provided at least some of what the incest readership wanted.

Not everyone -- some readers didn't want to wait and gave up on the story before it finished. I had a few impatient and angry reader comments along the way. But enough were satisfied that it worked. I was satisfied, both artistically and from the standpoint of the reception it got.

But it wouldn't have worked if for the first 4 chapters there was no incestuous activity of any kind.

 

[sirhugs]

Like they said, but I would add that slow burners do attract trolls. so though the scores tend to be high, expect some negativity.

I also think there is room for chapters if a story is very long. I submitted "Who's Vanilla Now?" in 4 chapters on consecutive days, because as one story, it would have been hugely long. Not war and Peace, but more than most Lit readers can swallow in a sitting.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Agreed with the above.

 

[Voboy]

The key was that, while the story built over time, each and every chapter provided at least some of what the incest readership wanted.

A thousand times yes.

OP, if you do go multichapter, I'd ensure every chapter had payoff.

There are, of course, examples of successful stories that don't. But you're asking for opinions, and here's mine as a longtime reader: I'm not reading your multichapter work if it's four chapters of no sex. And I'm much more likely to read one longer piece than any series.

YMMV. I'm just one reader.

 

[dontcallme82]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Seems I have likely made the mistake of breaking my story into parts. So far I have part 1 published and part 2 was submitted for approval today.

They probably could have gone together very easily as both parts are in the same destination.

Part 3 will be a continuation of the story in a new setting so I am happy for this to be separated from the first chapters.

I have generally enjoyed reading shorter stories here so that is what I went for.

 

[ttvttp]

Don't you need to link your stories.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

If it's less than about 15k words (5 Lit pages) definitely submit it all as one story. Longer than that, you could split (and will probably get better ratings if you do) but also consider where to do so.

I'm tidying up a story that has reached 100k words and will be about 10 chapters, not all the same length, because I want a payoff (OK, sex scene) in each chapter. Some have the sex at the start then the emotions kick in later in the chapter.

Though I've not posted a multi-chapter work on Lit before, and the story straddles categories, so people will probably hate it no matter what. A few will like it, I hope.

 

[dontcallme82]

Don't you need to link your stories.

Apologies, have I broken some sort of a rule?

New to the site and to writing really so just trying to navigate myself round a bit.

 

[SimonDoom]

Apologies, have I broken some sort of a rule?

New to the site and to writing really so just trying to navigate myself round a bit.

It's not a requirement. It would be helpful so people could respond more quickly and more meaningfully to your question. The idea is simply that if you would like help from people in figuring things out, do whatever you can to make it easy for them to help you.

 

[dontcallme82]

It's not a requirement. It would be helpful so people could respond more quickly and more meaningfully to your question. The idea is simply that if you would like help from people in figuring things out, do whatever you can to make it easy for them to help you.

Thanks for the advice. I'm probably too much of a coward right now to invite excessive feedback. I am too much of a novice in every sense of the word right now.

 

[NotWise]

It's not a requirement. It would be helpful so people could respond more quickly and more meaningfully to your question. The idea is simply that if you would like help from people in figuring things out, do whatever you can to make it easy for them to help you.

It's easy enough to use the search function to find dontcallme82's story. I haven't read it, but I noticed that it's only 1.3K words.

 

[dontcallme82]

It's easy enough to use the search function to find dontcallme82's story. I haven't read it, but I noticed that it's only 1.3K words.

Part 2 is around 2.4k. So I guess they are on the short side.

I read one mini series here that I thought had good potential but it seemed to die out a bit early.

Guess I have enjoyed the shorter reads on here so that is what I went for.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

There is no absolute anything, no hard-and-fast rules about chapters.

As an example, hammingbyrd7’s The Preacher Man is, with a rating of 4.91, number 13 in the all-time best Sci-Fi list on Literotica. It’s 46 pages, 160,000+ words and 60 chapters. The thing is that it’s just one long story with 60 small breaks in the text saying ‘Chapter’. It seems to have been published as a brick, not as stand-alone chapters. So do whatever you think best.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thanks for the advice. I'm probably too much of a coward right now to invite excessive feedback. I am too much of a novice in every sense of the word right now.

You're not a coward and you're not alone in feeling uneasy about that. I think most new authors feel that. Even the best authors are novices at some point.

 

[KeithD]

there's a difference between "slow burner" and "nothing much happens for a while." If truly very little happens at the beginning of a story, you should be thinking why you've included it at all. Presume, though, that you mean there's no sex for a while(?) That's no problem here.

 

[Voboy]

Part 2 is around 2.4k. So I guess they are on the short side.

I read one mini series here that I thought had good potential but it seemed to die out a bit early.

Guess I have enjoyed the shorter reads on here so that is what I went for.

So, parts one and two are only about 4k words?

Frankly, I'd never post parts that short. If you're thinking of resolving this in the third part, and it's even 3k words, you're talking about 7k total for the complete story?

That's about two Lit pages. Still probably shorter than what a lot of folks would consider "average." Certainly not terribly long.

It's fine to be new, and asking advice is wise. On the other hand, if you're happy posting multiple shorts and they seem to be well-received, stick with it. As I said above, YMMV; there's no such thing as a "typical" reader or writer.

But think of it this way. Your Part One probably took five, maybe seven minutes to read and there was no payoff. Part Two won't post for like three days. Why would anyone come back for a similarly short-term way to pass the time?

 

[dontcallme82]

You're not a coward and you're not alone in feeling uneasy about that. I think most new authors feel that. Even the best authors are novices at some point.

Thanks. I think it's new territory for me. It's one thing to share opinions on a site about various topics but having a piece of work critiqued is new for me.

In time I will probably see a few comments on my stories and no doubt some will be unflattering. But inviting comments through the forum might be a bit too much right now.

 

[dontcallme82]

there's a difference between "slow burner" and "nothing much happens for a while." If truly very little happens at the beginning of a story, you should be thinking why you've included it at all. Presume, though, that you mean there's no sex for a while(?) That's no problem here.

I guess by slow burner I meant the levels of depravity increase as the story goes on. I have read numerous stories that start off hard to bring you in but in my opinion they lose a bit of interest after that.

The first chapter is short at 1.3k words and there's a sex scene in it and character building. So I wouldn't say nothing happens.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I think it's a mistake, for example, to publish your story in many separately published chapters, where for a long time the first chapters do not feature sexual activity of the kind that readers of that category are looking for. It's better to finish the whole story and publish it as a single chapter. Otherwise, your readers will give up on your chapters before getting to the sex they are looking for.

Publishing as a single chapter is one way to do it. But I've also seen stories lead with something like "note: there's no sex in this story until chapter XX" and used it once myself, and IME that also works quite well.

Readers will often be very patient waiting for a payoff, if the leadup is interesting and they know the payoff is coming. It's a matter of making sure that they do know the payoff is coming, and aren't scratching their heads thinking "is this going anywhere?"

 

[dontcallme82]

So, parts one and two are only about 4k words?

Frankly, I'd never post parts that short. If you're thinking of resolving this in the third part, and it's even 3k words, you're talking about 7k total for the complete story?

That's about two Lit pages. Still probably shorter than what a lot of folks would consider "average." Certainly not terribly long.

It's fine to be new, and asking advice is wise. On the other hand, if you're happy posting multiple shorts and they seem to be well-received, stick with it. As I said above, YMMV; there's no such thing as a "typical" reader or writer.

But think of it this way. Your Part One probably took five, maybe seven minutes to read and there was no payoff. Part Two won't post for like three days. Why would anyone come back for a similarly short-term way to pass the time?

I actually have around 8 parts in mind. Much will depend if I am a good enough writer to keep the story going properly. Sometimes my vocabulary lets me down a bit and I use the same words too often.

If I am able to change the story up without making the scenes too repetitive then I will complete the chapters.

I have never read any of the long stories on this site and focused on the shorter stories. So I guess for my first story that is what I will focus on but in time I may change up a bit.

 

[Brutal_One]

I had the same issue with launching a story series here in the beginning. In one respect it was a much longer story that I had written literally years ago just never published.

In one respect it was good to have the story to tell but in understanding Lit erotica and having two separate stories rejected I was not about to give up. One story in particular was just not going to work on LIT but the other I knew should and given it is a long ‘open ended’ story arc it was what I wanted to try and make work.

Because I was writing and trying to improve the original and introduce a few key characters I issued it over the first 4 chapters with chapter 2 and 4 being an ‘experiment’ of sorts in writing the same dialog conversation from each characters perspective but with their thoughts separated.

These were all relatively short - 1 LIT page.

I did get to my first sexual scene in chapter 5. Then it was back for a few chapters with more story and plot development.

The first few chapters did reasonably well though by no means massively read. In short there were enough readers to like I guess what story I was trying to tell and the characters I wanted to write about.

I also had a further three or so separate chapters all making the same reference to one event between three of the characters before the actual sex scene (and only the second such scene).

So my advice is to write how it suits how you want to plan and write, in particular if it’s important to build up to things. In my own example writing say the first five chapters as one chapter may arguably have been better but would not have allowed me to experiment with the 2 chapter dialog in chapter 2 and 4 and ii is chapter 4 that received the H rating and this a chapter without sex. I doubt that would have happened had I not decided to issue in the way I did.

It’s unlikely that will happen again but the point is each author / writer submitting and getting published has their own journey to take. For absolute sure getting advice on the craft of writing in this forum is highly recommended as you do get excellent advice and direction at times from very experienced contributors.

Congrats too in getting published for the first few!

Brutal One.