Most popular story ever

[NoCa]

Most popular story template, pretty much what Simon listed.

Write in incest. Do not publish anywhere else. Incest is king. Even if you hate incest yourself. 100% incest.
Make it mom/son. Nothing else.
Make Mom the sexual aggressor, as in she pursues son sexually, not son going after Mom (preferrably she mounts herself into his lap), thus absolving Son of any guilt or shame for wanting to fuck his Mom (hey she wanted anyways). This one is MAN-DA-TO-RY!!
Put ABSOLUTELY ZERO transgression (other than the incest itself) in the story, this may even include Mom being single (divorce/widow) so that there is no cheating.
Put ABSOLUTELY ZERO conflict in the story, nothing to get in the way of the sex, basically as little actual plot as possible.
Put in just enough build up for the plausibility of the sex.
Make sure that the smut ratio is minimum 50%. This means that if your word count is 10K, 5k of it should be actual sex.
Make your word count somewhere between 10-15k or at widest 7-20k.
Make your title and description as OBVIOUS AS ALL FUCK as to what will happen, spoil the ending even is ok.

These rules can be bent/broken to some degree and the story can still be successful, but these are things that the largest demographic out there are looking for.

Totally looking forward to see what comes out the other end

 

[PrimalDual]

"Me sister's big tits taste good. Just like me mum's."

Use that as your opening. Submit under Incest/Taboo. Guaranteed readership.

 

[PrimalDual]

Most popular story template, pretty much what Simon listed.

Write in incest. Do not publish anywhere else. Incest is king. Even if you hate incest yourself. 100% incest.
Make it mom/son. Nothing else.
Make Mom the sexual aggressor, as in she pursues son sexually, not son going after Mom (preferrably she mounts herself into his lap), thus absolving Son of any guilt or shame for wanting to fuck his Mom (hey she wanted anyways). This one is MAN-DA-TO-RY!!
Put ABSOLUTELY ZERO transgression (other than the incest itself) in the story, this may even include Mom being single (divorce/widow) so that there is no cheating.
Put ABSOLUTELY ZERO conflict in the story, nothing to get in the way of the sex, basically as little actual plot as possible.
Put in just enough build up for the plausibility of the sex.
Make sure that the smut ratio is minimum 50%. This means that if your word count is 10K, 5k of it should be actual sex.
Make your word count somewhere between 10-15k or at widest 7-20k.
Make your title and description as OBVIOUS AS ALL FUCK as to what will happen, spoil the ending even is ok.

These rules can be bent/broken to some degree and the story can still be successful, but these are things that the largest demographic out there are looking for.

Your way works too.

 

[PrimalDual]

I pretty much did exactly this in the Spring of 2017, and it worked. By 10 months it was number 1 on the 12 month most viewed list. 450,000 views in one year. It's well over 2 million now.

Keep in mind there is no ONE way to write a story that becomes popular. Many different kinds of stories achieve popularity. And writing a story with the most popular themes and cliches is no guarantee it will become popular. That said, here's my formula:

1. It should be mom-son or brother-sister incest.
2. 3 to 8 Literotica pages. Around 8,000 to 30,000 words.
3. The general tone of the story should be somewhat sweet and romantic, full of genuine affection.
4. Don't rush it. Take some time to build up the attraction and make it plausible.
5. You can use a gimmick to get them together, but try to make it at least a little, tiny bit plausible. Readers in this category don't generally demand too much.
6. Play up the taboo aspect to create romantic/erotic tension and conflict. Readers like tease and buildup. You want your reader to feel that combination of irresistible desire and "but I really shouldn't do that" that makes incest stories delicious. In my story, one of my readers told me that he came the moment son touched mom's panties under her skimpy dress. I knew I'd done this right when I read that.
7. Take plenty of time with the sex. Never hurry the climactic sex scene.
8. Give it a happy ending.
9. Contrary to Bamagan's very amusing pseudo-advice, keep the kinks simple besides incest.
10. Have some sort of fun twist or concept in the plot of the story, something that makes it a little different from other stories in the genre.
11. Don't get fancy with the title. Have the word "Mom" or "Sister" in the title.
12. The tagline should complement the title so they work together to both inform the potential reader what it's about and titillate and tease.
13. Search the tag feature to get a sense of what tags people use for this category.
14. Use all the tags. Always include something like "mother son incest" or "brother sister incest" as a tag. Go for the clear and the obvious.

I'm starting to think we've all done this.

Last Halloween I submitted two stories in the seasonal challenge - one I thought to be a pretty good and creepy story for the season, the other an intentionally terrible brother-sister story. Guess which one got the most readership and votes? (To their credit, one commenter said it was awful - but no one said they sussed out that it was intentionally so, though one of the regulars in AH did comment tongue-in-cheeck to another commenter.) I would have "improved" this story if I had had this fantastic checklist to work from, though I limited myself to ninety minutes start-to-finish.

 

[NoCa]

I'm starting to think we've all done this.

Last Halloween I submitted two stories in the seasonal challenge - one I thought to be a pretty good and creepy story for the season, the other an intentionally terrible brother-sister story. Guess which one got the most readership and votes? (To their credit, one commenter said it was awful - but no one said they sussed out that it was intentionally so, though one of the regulars in AH did comment tongue-in-cheeck to another commenter.) I would have "improved" this story if I had had this fantastic checklist to work from, though I limited myself to ninety minutes start-to-finish.

I will totally do intentionally terrible at some point.

 

[SimonDoom]

"Me sister's big tits taste good. Just like me mum's."

Use that as your opening sentence. Submit under Incest/Taboo. Guaranteed readership.

This is amusing, but it's not true, and to some extent I think it does a disservice to the category to say this. If I read a story like this I'd exit as soon as I read those two sentences. So would many readers.

People who don't like incest stories make fun of them, but they're pretty much the same as stories in other categories. The most successful ones tend to rely on themes that are so common they become cliches, but that's true of other categories as well. And it's NOT true that incest readers crave stupidity in writing. If you insist on that it means that you don't actually read the stories carefully.

ALL of the so-called "rules" of good writing apply as much to incest stories as they do to any other type of story. Better writing means a better chance of success (though it's no guarantee).

 

[SimonDoom]

I will totally do intentionally terrible at some point.

I don't recommend that. It's a waste of your time and it won't achieve what you think it might achieve.

However cliched your story, you should always try to write it the best you can. It's more artistically satisfying AND it's more likely to achieve success with readers.

 

[NoCa]

This is amusing, but it's not true, and to some extent I think it does a disservice to the category to say this. If I read a story like this I'd exit as soon as I read those two sentences. So would many readers.

People who don't like incest stories make fun of them, but they're pretty much the same as stories in other categories. The most successful ones tend to rely on themes that are so common they become cliches, but that's true of other categories as well. And it's NOT true that incest readers crave stupidity in writing. If you insist on that it means that you don't actually read the stories carefully.

ALL of the so-called "rules" of good writing apply as much to incest stories as they do to any other type of story. Better writing means a better chance of success (though it's no guarantee).

True. Incest stories are super common, but good incest stories are rare. There are countless revange stories, but there is just one Hamlet.

 

[Baztrachian]

I would hypothesize that maximum visibility means alienating as many potential audiences as possible, to the point where they feel compelled to view a disaster in the making. If so...
Interracial mom/son cuckolding with femdom BDSM. For revenge, the father whores out the daughter and her friends. They all reconcile in a fully pansexual group sex orgy with various fetishes. Following that, they get sex changes and do cross-generational impregnation. In a twist ending, the grandparents are alien cyborgs and peg the rest of the family with robo-tentacles. Just before everyone cums, the house starts teetering on the edge of a cliff. Stylized "The End" appears.

Sounds like The Aristocrats.

 

[PrimalDual]

This is amusing, but it's not true, and to some extent I think it does a disservice to the category to say this. If I read a story like this I'd exit as soon as I read those two sentences. So would many readers.

People who don't like incest stories make fun of them, but they're pretty much the same as stories in other categories. The most successful ones tend to rely on themes that are so common they become cliches, but that's true of other categories as well. And it's NOT true that incest readers crave stupidity in writing. If you insist on that it means that you don't actually read the stories carefully.

ALL of the so-called "rules" of good writing apply as much to incest stories as they do to any other type of story. Better writing means a better chance of success (though it's no guarantee).

My post was intended as satire. A distillation of some of the worst aspects.

Certainly your POV is broader than I expressed.

But I am still moved by the experience of knocking out an objectively terrible story at Halloween, posting it to Incest/Taboo, and getting a rating higher than various stories I put more work into and am prouder of.

Where you said "to some extent" it does a disservice, maybe that's the middle ground for us to agree on. There is a kernel of something that my bit of satire resonated with.

 

[NoCa]

My post was intended as satire. A distillation of some of the worst aspects.

Certainly your POV is broader than I expressed.

But I am still moved by the experience of knocking out an objectively terrible story at Halloween, posting it to Incest/Taboo, and getting a rating higher than various stories I put more work into and am prouder of.

Where you said "to some extent" it does a disservice, maybe that's the middle ground for us to agree on. There is a kernel of something that my bit of satire resonated with.

Indeed, when I say intentionally terrible, I intend doing something campy. So bad it's good.

 

[PrimalDual]

Indeed, when I say intentionally terrible, I intend doing something campy. So bad it's good.

My irritation with the genre was sufficient that I did not opt to go the extra mile like that.

 

[TheLobster]

And it's NOT true that incest readers crave stupidity in writing.

Quite right. After all, the Stupidest Incest Story Ever Written is currently only at 4.55.

(If you haven’t read that one yet, do it. It’s probably the funniest thing I’ve ever seen on Lit).

 

[drunkwombat]

Somebody said it above but I'll reiterate; give it a good one line description, it'll get you eyes on. I have a story that was published this morning and has gotten 3300 views so far, better than five other of my stories that have been out for weeks/months. The one with the most views is one of my lowest rated, (although the rating is based on few votes). I think both attracted people because I did a simple, catchy summary. That's my theory and I'm sticking with it.

Truthfully around here it's "lies, damn lies and Literotica stats", they're flat out wonky.

Best of luck!

 

[lovecraft68]

I feel like I hear the "Marcia Marcia Marcia" Brady bunch line when people keep saying Incest. Not that it doesn't get the big numbers, but sometimes you just need to hit the buttons in any category. This story debuted hot and heavy enough to place first in Earth Day (The final one) and 11 years later hasn't stopped. #6 most favorited story all time on lit.

Thing is, no one that I know of has ever touted First Time as a largely read category where you can score big hits.

You can follow a trend or be the one to break ground.