Let me have it!

[Professor_Chaos]

Newfound Lake is a story I submitted more than 6 months ago. It starts off as an erotic coupling and turns into a romance, released in the former. It's about a guy and girl who've known each other most of their lives and practically hate each other. Still, they end up working the same summer job together on a lake. They become friends and more despite the odds. It's long (9 pages on Literotica) so if that's not your thing, no biggie. I'm looking for those interested in reading something long and involved but worth the ride.

https://www.literotica.com/s/newfound-lake

I'm asking for feedback all this time after because It recently hit more than 300,000 views on another site and only has under 30,000 here. I understand that views don't equal reads but Literotica has provided me with better feedback compared to any other site. That and I haven't received any negative comments on it here or anywhere else. There are some grammar mistakes I'm aware of and a comment reminded me of head hopping in one instance towards the end so I'm working on fixing that in future works.
The point of this post is to find out if I should use this story as the standard I hold myself to because I've only been writing for a year. Also, it's to find out from some more senior writers and readers what I can work on to better future projects.

 

[gordo12]

I'm not sure what you're worried about. Erotic Couplings category doesn't get a lot of views here. I picked some stories at random, some years older than yours, you had more views than any of them.

A score of 4.85 and the complimentary comments also says a lot.

Then the fact the story is in the Hall of Fame for EC.

Isn't that enough of a clue that you're on the right track

 

[Professor_Chaos]

Why

I didn't even know about the Hall of Fame part so that's cool. I had wondered if the story would've been better off or more appropriate in Romance but it doesn't really get romantic until the second half.

My first submission received a lot of criticism for mistakes and I was able to learn a lot and better myself as a writer because of them. I was looking for a similar reaction, trying to hear what people didn't like about it (Those that downvote and actually tell you why). Maybe it's disbelief that my writing has changed for the better so quickly but I was trying to wring out any other remaining issues. I'm going to be pumping out a bunch of new stories soon so I figured it was time more a more intensive critique.

 

[gordo12]

. I was looking for a similar reaction, trying to hear what people didn't like about it (Those that downvote and actually tell you why)

People who vote downward aren't always rational.

Black gets white pregnant...downvote
bi content...downvote
gay content...downvote

Hell I had a major author here downvoted a story because I had a character reading a newspaper and the landline rang. People don't do that anymore he says. BS I have both and so did a lot of other commenters that responded.

But the downvote was made.

You wade through the feedback and use what you can, but don't take the negative stuff too seriously.

Overall the numbers show great promise and that's what matters

 

[NotWise]

I didn't even know about the Hall of Fame part so that's cool. I had wondered if the story would've been better off or more appropriate in Romance but it doesn't really get romantic until the second half.

The Romance category doesn't necessarily reward stories for being romantic. Readers there are looking for stories in the Romance genre (which is different). At the very least, the stories need to leave the readers with a warm and fuzzy feeling. Otherwise, your story could be down-voted there.

Even if the Romance readers loved it, you may have still not beat the views and the score you got in Erotic Couplings.

 

[Professor_Chaos]

Wicked negative stuff never bothered me, luckily. So little that I wondered what was wrong when I stopped getting it. That first shotty submission of mine netted a "Don't quit your day job" Duh, writing is a hobby and I actually like my day job. It seems the best way to evaluate what to work on is a combo of feedback and ratings.

I agree with the category comment too. If anything it paid off to have a romantic end for an erotic coupling story. A slightly unexpected happy ending. A simple twist that I think any veteran reader on here would've seen coming. I would imagine in Romance the happy ending is expected and if not delivered gets a lot of downvotes from fans of it.