Just for fun: If your next piece were precision engineered to be among the Most Popular AND Highest Rated stories on Lit, what would it be like?

[burgwad]

Not what someone else's Most Popular and Most Favorited piece would be like. Yours. And not necessarily your masterpiece, either, but what you'd write if your goal was specifically to top the global Favorited and Ratings charts. Or, if you want to narrow your sights on a specific Genre Tag, that's cool too. However you want to answer, my friend: as long as you're vibing, we're vibing.

Am I asking so I can steal your ideas? Well, I'm never not fishing for ideas. But know also that I have had crippling writer's block for the last few weeks, so. I can't be held accountable for what I might do in the presence of a good idea right now.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Oh, that's easy. Based on my history, a romance of around 15-20,000 words. Slow burn, believable back story. A bit of tension before the HEA ending.

My romances get consistently high view numbers, good comments and score 4.7 - 4.8ish.

 

[tenyari]

If I were writing a story with the sole purpose being to get a huge pile of reads and 5-star ratings, with no other goal in mind; then it would be a super long, 100+ chapter epic story saga about a guy who is somehow special and has a pile of women that are obsessed with having sex with him.

Which is basically the premise of a whole lot of 'erotica' in various categories - minus the epically long part that you only get to if you're good at it.

I couldn't really call that story mine though. That's not the kind of thing I write. I have read a few of them though. Actually I've read a LOT of them because it's what almost ALL of the stories on these sites are about... But I don't get too far with a lot of them. However the top stories fit that format and add one more ingredient: good writing.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

It would have no plot. It would have multiple unicorn porn bimbo goddesses climbing all over our hero - just some guy with no physical description given for (save for inexplicably large genitalia) - for no good reason at all. He would make them all cum without even trying of course, since he's just that good. The end.

It would be called Getting Lucky because that's literally all that happens in the story.

 

[MrPixel]

...it would be a super long, 100+ chapter epic story saga about a guy who is somehow special and has a pile of women that are obsessed with having sex with him.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I discovered a couple days ago that I have a story in Fetish that is currently #41 out of 24,400 stories in that category (all time top list), so there's my surprise answer. It's my highest viewed story, and in my own top five in terms of score

Before that, I'd have said Mature was my most successful category, in terms of high scores and high comments. Comments wise, my top three categories are Mature, Erotic Couplings and Fetish.

If you want to top global lists, though, you write an incest story, because that's where the numbers are.

 

[RejectReality]

Hitting all of them is virtually impossible. The categories where you could top the favorites charts would ding you just enough on score even with a masterpiece that you'd fall short. The categories where you could get the score don't generate enough favorites.

Best chance would be a well-written older woman/younger man romance in Mature. That is the only scenario I can think of where you could possibly max out all the numbers.

 

[oneagainst]

I'm not sure I understand the question?? *All* my stories are precision engineered to hit Most Popular and Highly Rated.

It's just that my milage varies....

 

[muddie684]

A first-person narrated 24 chapter murder mystery starring a white female protagonist in her late 20s. She's an awkward and cute aspiring [insert] with an experienced male supervisor, probably black. This allows men to insert themselves into the male lead and makes women relate to her social insecurities. The protagonist would NOT be a police officer, to make it easier for women to insert themselves into her role, succeeding and overcoming where she does. The murder mystery is primed for cliffhangers ending each chapter. Sexual events would be in the third act of each chapter, driving towards each cliffhanger. I would shift to the supervisor's perspective for a chapter or two. Pretty much any fetish, kink, erotica genre could applied to this set of tropes.

 

[SimonDoom]

These are two separate goals. If you want to write the most popular story, assuming you mean most views, then you should write an incest story or an illustrated story. It's very unlikely that it would be the highest-rated story. If you want to write the highest-rated story, I'd suggest perhaps romance. I've never written a romance story.

I opted for no. 1 when I wrote Late Night on the Loveseat With Mom 6 years ago. I asked, how can I get the most views possible? I did some research, looking at what was popular. I wrote a mom-son incest story about mom and son on a loveseat together watching TV with drunken, loutish dad nearby. I tried to make the buildup and disrobing very "hot." It was unabashedly "tropy."

It worked. It rose to be the number one story in views for its month, and after 10 months it was number one on the 12-month most-viewed list. It was fun to see if I could do that and to succeed.

If I were to try it again I would partner with a good erotic illustrator and do a mom-son incest story with illustrations and put it in the Illustrated category, because I think that's the most sure-fire way now to get big views.

If I were to try to "craft" a story to get a super-high score, I would make it fairly long--at least 7 to 8 Lit pages--and romantic, with appealing, well-developed characters. I would throw in something serious that one or more of the characters was trying to overcome, and give the story a happy ending. I would tone down my tendency to make things zany, because that turns off some and knocks the score down some.

 

[AlinaX]

A cuckolded husband gets his revenge by implanting a behavioural chip in his wife that makes her crave dirty sex with complete strangers, then kicks her out of the house.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My god, I pretty much agree with Tilan...

Want views? Incest. I tried that, while sticking to my own insistence on a story that was at least a bit realistic. It's had more than 4x more readers than any of my other stories (even the award-winning one), got a red H, but not a high score because it doesn't hit enough of what those readers look for (primarily an incestuous ongoing relationship).

Want a top score? Your classic formula, done well: two heterosexual characters, whose only kinky feature is she loves sucking cock. He's probably divorced. Some barrier stops them leaping at each other immediately. Maybe she had a relationship that reduced her confidence, but not too abusive because that's a downer. A couple side characters to confide in and provide comic relief.

Don't rock the boat too much or you'll get very few votes - which can go in either direction and be essentially meaningless.

 

[ElectricBlue]

To connect with your intended audience, it's important to recognize that they approach stories from a somewhat immature viewpoint. This doesn't necessarily correlate with their age or professional accomplishments; rather, it reflects a tendency to see the world in black and white, much like teenagers. Having reviewed countless comments and conversed with numerous writers, I'm confident in stating that most share a common trait of emotional immaturity stemming from past trauma.

You've said this as a generalisation, but what's the basis for this assessment? Your LW audience, or the broader world of Lit?

Based on comments received to my stories (none in LW), I'm not sure I'd agree. My mature story audience, for example, is exactly that: older men and women who want to read stories of consensual, empathetic intimacy, with some nostalgia for a lost youth and a bit of raunch as they get older. I don't get a sense they're damaged goods, such as those you describe.

My fetish audience are just kinky bastards who like breast milk, slinky lingerie, or long haired girls who don't shave their pubes, but again, kink meisters, not emotionally stunted adults.

I sense you have a singular focus, which might limit what you write.

 

[ExploringSoul]

People are fickle, so I 'm not sure I even understand what makes my current stories work for so many. I work damn hard on them to get them exactly like I want, but if other people appreciate them exactly for the same reasons, I'm not sure.

However, my publications so far are mostly one-act plays, i.e. some people come together in one location, perform a number of sex acts and part. (Actually, they seem to fall asleep a lot at the end, which my real-life partners may or may not find a fitting trademark. )

It's clear to me that there's a limit to how high you can score with those. You'll always have people that go "That's brilliant, but the effort doesn't quite compare to that other 50000 word story that creates its own world, lets the characters develop etc., so I'm not going to give five stars.".

So to score higher with a story that I can still get fully behind (we're not paid, so why write anything else, right?), I would have to portray realistic people that are likable and have some depth - which I think I already do - give them a bit more background and then have them go through some ordeal or evolution.

I actually have an idea for something like that, but I'm not sure I'm willing to put in the work. After all, more content also means more ways to mess it up for some readers. So there's absolutely no guarantee of success.

 

[TxRad]

I'm thinking maybe a first time story with a main character named Buster Cherry.

 

[oneagainst]

Just finished one story series with a sadistic villain MC, about to start another one with one MC who is a sociopath and another MC with a deathwish who breaks the fourth wall to call out the readers. I find myself agreeing with much of what @Tilan said. There's definitely a formula for high scores and high ratings. I think I've written enough now to attempt something different.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

I think relying on ratings to dictate whether or not you’ve written a masterpiece is a bit shallow and honestly restrictive to yourself, as an author… especially on a website where voting isn’t particularly regulated in any way and just about anyone can come along and effect that.

When I’ve written something I’m proud of that I know will resonate well with the audience and I find it lacking in ratings, it excites me. It means I’m doing well—well enough that someone has honestly felt need to leave a lower than expected rating out of jealousy or envy, even. Haters excite me. It honestly excites me more than solidly flawless ratings because I am not a flawless author, I have room to grow, I hate editing my work and I know I write things that are not popular and not pretty or romantic. I write gritty realism with a touch of erotica, and I am damn good at what I do.

A successful “masterpiece” to me would be a story where I connect with the characters as if they were real, living beings. Journeying with them through hardships, delving into their psychology and bringing them to life through literary prowess is what truly defines masterful art by my standards. It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to stress you, it might make you cry, and question everything. The success comes in portraying a story in a way that grabs your reader from their seat and keeps them engaged all the way through to the end with you. If I can accomplish that, no flawless rating in the world can touch that accomplishment.

 

[NoTalentHack]

Couldn't do it. My favored stomping grounds will never give the rating that's required to the stuff I like to write. Hell, even if I went with the flow and tried to make the story that's most likely to succeed in there, it wouldn't make it. I can't both write a story that's most "me" and will meet with the requirements, so I'd rather do the former.

 

[stickygirl]

Hetero romance with a happy ending, 4 pages, two fucks per page. 4.7 guaranteed.

 

[Escierto]

The most popular and highly rated stories here are absolute pieces of crap. Wildly improbable and unrealistic plot lines with predictably stupid outcomes. I have read some of them and promptly gave them the 1 stars they so richly deserved!

 

[NoTalentHack]

I forgot to mention a vital thing: add long and exhausting dialogues full of clichés that don't really mean anything. And most importantly, include confrontation. The most significant dialogue in the story must be between the main character and their oppressor, where the protagonist "defeats" the evil in the verbal battle and illustrates their moral and intellectual superiority. It beats me, but for some reason, they really like this crap.

The addendum to this is that you have to spell out everything, and even if you do spell out everything, some readers will still skim and go "but what about X?" If there's a twist of any kind in your story, expect a number of comments that are basically "how could you do this when you established that beforehand? You didn't explain it!" Even if you spend a whole paragraph going "okay, this was why you thought one thing, but another was true." I've had a couple people who have commented on Fathers, Brothers and Sons that clearly either skimmed, jumped from the start to the end, or lack basic reading comprehension.

 

[Blind_Justice]

If I were chasing views, it would he an I/T story featuring a large cast with everyone having their Happily Ever After.

I did write a nephew/aunt thing once and approached it like a fantasy story. That single joke tale has more views than all 54 of my other works combined and were it not for the unhappy ending, "More Than Video Games" would probably even rate pretty high. I mean, a 4.38 isn't half bad and all, but I deliberately kept them as friends rather than lovers and the commenters let me know all about it.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Based on what I've seen in the all-time stories list, it might be a mom getting penetrated by her son as she sits on his lap in the back seat of the family car. Dad and sis are in the front seat, oblivious to it all. For some reason, there is usually too much luggage in the interior for all four of them to have a spot. Don't believe me?

https://classic.literotica.com/s/sitting-on-my-sons-lap

Over fourteen million views. Going down the list, there are more incest stories with mommies and sisters. My favorite title: "Ohhhh . . . Mommy," I Groaned. That's so bad it's almost good. Nine million views. It's not until you get to #13 that you get the first cheerleader story and #14 the first job interview story.

 

[oneagainst]

If there's a twist of any kind in your story, expect a number of comments that are basically "how could you do this when you established that beforehand? You didn't explain it!"

Ah... the twist is the thing that makes it all worthwhile. I've been accused of bait and switch before but jeez, isn’t it a lot more fun to write and read than tab a into slot b?

 

[NoTalentHack]

Ah... the twist is the thing that makes it all worthwhile. I've been accused of bait and switch before but jeez, isn’t it a lot more fun to write and read than tab a into slot b?

The Bait and Switch is one o' them fancy Kammer Sutry moves, innit?