Positive impact of chasing that Red H

[EroticCupcake]

New writer here. My first big goal is to keep going. Second goal is to write something great (we'll see when that happens.)

I would say my stories under 4.5 are generally lacking that super hot sex scene, maybe the chapter was prioritizing plot or character and the sex was filler.

The lesson I see is don't break your chapter until you get to THE scene, and to do another pass to dial up the description. How many times does the reader need a description of her breasts? Probably three more times than appear in the first draft.

The red H isn't everything, but it seems reasonable to try to internalize the feedback that I can.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I write for myself. If others like them, that's great. But I don't need the elusive H to be happy with what I've written.

 

[Euphony]

Motivation is the key resource. Whatever you can control to bank as much of that as possible is worth doing.

Disagree that the Red H is much of feedback metric. Won't rehash AH staples but it is incredibly volatile as a metric. Category, reader fetishes, author popularity, length, titling, tags, all affect reception.

How many times does the reader need a description of her breasts? Probably three more times than appear in the first draft.

I suppose, depending on the audience, but over description is a thing. Hard to say w/o seeing the piece if 4+ times = over description but that feels like a lot and/or fan fetish service.

Nothing wrong with that per se but I wouldn't internalize it as a hard and fast rule.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Describing a character in great detail removes the readers' imagination from the equation. She had large breasts, she had small breasts, and she had the most perfect medium-sized breasts, should do more to let the reader build his perfect woman and not yours than carrying on three times about her melon-sized breasts, her humungous titties or whatever can do.

 

[lovecraft68]

There are too many variables that can bring a story up or down score wise to worry about. Write what you want, post it and let the cards fall where they fall.

 

[KeithD]

The lesson I see is don't break your chapter until you get to THE scene,

Way back before e-publishing and easy self-publishing, a common instruction of erotica publishers was to have a sex act in each chapter. That's somewhat relaxed now, but I still have it in my mind when I'm writing.

 

[AchtungNight]

You can also discuss sexual issues in a chapter of an erotic story and let readers imagine and think about things. If you need to pace out character and plot development. Sometimes these things can hook readers. But you may want to make the sex extra hot so you can reward those who stick with you if you do that. I always try.

 

[Comshaw]

New writer here. My first big goal is to keep going. Second goal is to write something great (we'll see when that happens.)

I would say my stories under 4.5 are generally lacking that super hot sex scene, maybe the chapter was prioritizing plot or character and the sex was filler.

The lesson I see is don't break your chapter until you get to THE scene, and to do another pass to dial up the description. How many times does the reader need a description of her breasts? Probably three more times than appear in the first draft.

The red H isn't everything, but it seems reasonable to try to internalize the feedback that I can.

I don't chase the BRH. I write stories that excite me, get my juices flowing or touch me in some way (no not that way!). When I post them I have my fingers crossed that the readers see it the same way I do. And if the scores are down or if the feedback via comments are mostly negative, I tend to back up, look at my story and try to figure out why. Sometimes what I like, what I am trying to convey out of my convoluted little brain isn't plain and straightforward enough for the readers to understand.

That said, I am not immune to an ego stroke and I like them BRH's when I get 'em.

Comshaw

 

[EroticCupcake]

I try to shoot for a minor and a major for each chapter, unless the major is the culmination of some setup and worth waiting for.

I've not completed many projects before writing here. As Euphony said, motivation is the key resource. Writing and releasing chapter by chapter and pushing each one seems to be working for me so far.

 

[madelinemasoch]

Describing a character in great detail removes the readers' imagination from the equation. She had large breasts, she had small breasts, and she had the most perfect medium-sized breasts, should do more to let the reader build his perfect woman and not yours than carrying on three times about her melon-sized breasts, her humungous titties or whatever can do.

I find that a lack of physical description of characters in stories does nothing good for me. I dislike this current trend I'm seeing on here where an author doesn't describe a character's physical characteristics at all, if very little. It leaves me unable to even remember the characters' names.

Plus, it's my story, so why shouldn't it be someone I find attractive? If readers disagree, sucks for them, they can write their own.

 

[MillieDynamite]

That's your choice as a writer.

I find that a lack of physical description of characters in stories does nothing good for me. I dislike this current trend I'm seeing on here where an author doesn't describe a character's physical characteristics at all, if very little. It leaves me unable to even remember the characters' names.

Plus, it's my story, so why shouldn't it be someone I find attractive? If readers disagree, sucks for them, they can write their own.

 

[Voboy]

I find that a lack of physical description of characters in stories does nothing good for me. I dislike this current trend I'm seeing on here where an author doesn't describe a character's physical characteristics at all, if very little. It leaves me unable to even remember the characters' names.

For me, it depends on the narrator. It's one of the reasons I like writing in FP: the narrator is a character, too. You can say things about their personality and motivations by the words they choose and the descriptions they include (or don't include). Just another way to add depth.

Plus, it's my story, so why shouldn't it be someone I find attractive? If readers disagree, sucks for them, they can write their own.

Hell yeah.

Way back before e-publishing and easy self-publishing, a common instruction of erotica publishers was to have a sex act in each chapter. That's somewhat relaxed now, but I still have it in my mind when I'm writing.

I would hesitate to post ANY work on Lit that doesn't include an explicit sex scene, unless I was posting in NonErotic (and I don't, really). That includes sub-parts of series.

 

[Euphony]

I dislike this current trend I'm seeing on here where an author doesn't describe a character's physical characteristics at all, if very little.

Inexperienced authors lean way more to overdoing it with physical description than under doing it. As with most things in the AH, not having the actual text in front of us, we play the probabilities.

It leaves me unable to even remember the characters' names.

If a lack of physical characteristics leaves you unable to remember the character's names, it is likely the characterization problem extends far beyond descriptions.

Writing interesting characters is how they become memorable. Physical descriptors is only a part of that (and one area *most* newbies well cover)

Plus, it's my story, so why shouldn't it be someone I find attractive? If readers disagree, sucks for them, they can write their own.

No one said you have to write characters you find UNattractive (though, it is good practice to write outside your comfort zone sometimes.)

But we don't need every preference and fetish listed out in excruciating detail as if we are hunting down the FBI's Most Wanted.

 

[LanaBehave]

In some categories, I wonder if emotional tension plays more of a part in reception, scoring, and reviews than the graphic quotient of the content.

 

[ronde]

New writer here. My first big goal is to keep going. Second goal is to write something great (we'll see when that happens.)

I would say my stories under 4.5 are generally lacking that super hot sex scene, maybe the chapter was prioritizing plot or character and the sex was filler.

The lesson I see is don't break your chapter until you get to THE scene, and to do another pass to dial up the description. How many times does the reader need a description of her breasts? Probably three more times than appear in the first draft.

The red H isn't everything, but it seems reasonable to try to internalize the feedback that I can.

What you write depends a great deal upon what audience you're attempting to attract. If you're trying to attract readers who want to be aroused, a sex scene is probably a necessity. That said, any sex scene doesn't mean much if it's not the believable progression of a plot involving realistic characters. I have several stories that have little to no sex scene and they seem to do well.

The first step for you should be to read some of the highly rated stories on Lit in your favorite genre and see what makes them garner scores in the high 4's. I will guarantee you it's not the presence or absence of a sex scene, nor how much detail has been used to describe that sex scene. Any sex scene is about 90% the readers imagination if you allow the reader to do so. It's in the writing of the plot and the introduction and description of the characters that make the story. If they're believable and the sex follows naturally, the high scores will follow.

 

[samhasstories]

I write for myself. If others like them, that's great. But I don't need the elusive H to be happy with what I've written.

Couldn't agree more with this. I think this comes through in writing, too, when the writer seems to be enjoying themselves, rather than trying to elicit a particular response.

I find it gratifying when it seems that people have enjoyed what I've written. That's why I'm sharing in the first place. But ultimately the point is for me to enjoy the process of writing. It just so happens that I enjoy describing breasts...

 

[EroticCupcake]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think what I'm gathering is we all struggle with different things or have different goals with our writing. The further I get in to a story, the less I care about writing the actual sex part. My lesson is something about following your story while also recognizing (most) people are here for the erotica part as much or more than the lit part.

There was a BDSM story recommended recently (maybe My Friend is Domme?) and I found the author describing the Domme more frequently than I would as a writer, but as a reader it worked for me.

 

[ElectricBlue]

In some categories, I wonder if emotional tension plays more of a part in reception, scoring, and reviews than the graphic quotient of the content.

Often, I'd say. Intimacy and emotion works in stories, just as well as a pair of boobs.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Set your sites low, and your never disappointed with your score.

I, personally, don't aim for a red H. I just write stories. I pretty much assumed everything I wrote would land in the 3-4 range and so far they've all outperformed my expectations and I don't know why, but I'll take it.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Treating Lit as a game can be fun. A big part of the reason I wrote my first story was to see if I could get a red H. Building a story can be challenging puzzle — strategically select a theme, characters and scenes.

My second story was a tougher game — writing a LW story that gets the red H. A fun mental exercise.

 

[SimonDoom]

Way back before e-publishing and easy self-publishing, a common instruction of erotica publishers was to have a sex act in each chapter. That's somewhat relaxed now, but I still have it in my mind when I'm writing.

I think this is generally good advice. If you post a multi-chapter story in the Anal category, for example, it's good for each chapter to have an episode of anal activity. One way to make sure you accomplish this is in how you break the story into chapters. It doesn't necessarily require changing the story, just being mindful of the way you are splitting it into chapters.

 

[EroticCupcake]

I think this is generally good advice. If you post a multi-chapter story in the Anal category, for example, it's good for each chapter to have an episode of anal activity. One way to make sure you accomplish this is in how you break the story into chapters. It doesn't necessarily require changing the story, just being mindful of the way you are splitting it into chapters.

Yeah, this was the lesson I was trying to articulate. Some of my chapters that were relatively lower scored compared to the others didn't respect the reader in this way.

I did write "consent fetish" porn in a non-consent story / category and the readers reacted well, but that goes back to other comments about writing what you like and trusting the audience to follow.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a story in Romance that is over 4.85 and won a monthly a few years back. No sex.

To the other side of the coin, when I began here I wrote a very long taboo series and felt every chapter needed a sex scene. By the end it was like how many times can these people fuck? It did okay here, but when I published it in a series of e-books and edited through to add and take away, I was appalled by how much sex there was that I-and maybe because I wrote it-can see were shoe horned in.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have a short piece-about 6k-that I'm thinking of posting here. The thing is I know it'll get throttled in LW, but I can't see putting it in fetish. I suppose I could try EC, but its a straight up hot wife/cuck thing so to me LW is where it should go.

 

[Comshaw]

For me, it depends on the narrator. It's one of the reasons I like writing in FP: the narrator is a character, too. You can say things about their personality and motivations by the words they choose and the descriptions they include (or don't include). Just another way to add depth.



Hell yeah.



I would hesitate to post ANY work on Lit that doesn't include an explicit sex scene, unless I was posting in NonErotic (and I don't, really). That includes sub-parts of series.

Yeah, I did that with the first installment of my "A Common Man - A Tangled Web" 5 part series. No sex in the first installment at all. The readers let me know it too.


Comshaw