Story Content

[mtnman2003]

I have been reading stories, and contemplating my next story.

After much thought, have other authors looked at the types of stories that get the highest votes, most readers, etc. to see what the readers look for?

Seems how quickly can the stories get to the fucking, sucking, etc. Makes me wonder why so little voting get done. Readers cum before the story ends, straighten up the pants, put away private parts, and go on to the next thing in their day or evening. Skip the end of the story and voting.

But definitely focused on the type of stories that attract viewing.

Thoughts?

 

[OldnotDead]

To try and figure out how to improve voting and ratings at Lit, seems to me to be an almost impossible task. Other than the obvious one of avoiding grammatical errors, I'm not sure there is anyway to write to get ratings.

Then you add in the 'downvoter' factor and my own conclusion would be that if you do succeed in getting high ratings, someone will come along and try to hurt you.

I don't have much posted here so far, but what I have put up and what will follow represents stories that I wanted to write. Following some suggestions from other writers, I think I improved the telling a bit with their help. While my rewrites were focused on telling the story better and making the reading smoother, I wasn't really thinking about whether one thing or another would help or hurt my ratings.

To me the key is to write something with enthusiasm. Then to try and make it as good as possible so that the emotions in the story are communicated to the reader. It makes it a lot easier to deal with feedback and ratings if you are comfortable with what you have produced.

 

[oggbashan]

There have been several past threads about this.

These are generalisations:

Incest scores highly. Short, snappy sex scenes which push the right buttons quickly within a single Lit page help.

Romance and worst of all non-erotic languish forever without votes. The lowest scoring of all goes to non-erotic poetry.

The easiest way to work it out for yourself is to go to Top Lists and see what is scoring very high vote numbers and a consistent score well above 4.75.

Whether you want to or can write high scoring stories is up to you. It is better to write what you are good at and live with the ratings.

Og

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Sci-fi/fantasy also will score high if it's pretty good, the down side is you get relatively few reads and votes so that score is fragile and a troll can really hurt you.

If you are really concerned with score then try one of the popular categories so you can collect enough votes that a few low ones don't kill you. Only thing there is you still have to write a good story to get good votes.

Hopefully you will get to the point quickly where score means little to you. I think it would be a fairly hellish existence if I attached a lot of meaning to my scores as they fluctuate wildy from story to story, week to week and sometimes even day to day.

Write a good story, one you are comfortable with if not proud of and be content with it. See what your feedbacks say and adjust to what people are saying. Over time your skills should improve and with that your scores should rise no matter what category you are writing in.

-Colly

 

[Alex De Kok]

I dip into popular genres, but write to please myself. I actually started a whole family incest story, just to see if I could. At present it languishes, unfinished, on my hard drive. So many other, fun, things to write . . .

Alex

 

[mtnman2003]

Appreciate the feedback. I do not write FOR the votes. I actually write to relive the experience or create a new pictue for the mind.

What the readers do to themselves with the story, well........

My main question actually relates to the direction and timing it takes to get to the erotica of the story. If too much background, character development, etc exists, will the reader page down until the wording is erotic? Do they look for key words? Finish the fucking scene, and go to the next story. Without much more than the search for the erotic.

Again, thanks

Mtn

 

[Alex De Kok]

My main question actually relates to the direction and timing it takes to get to the erotica of the story. If too much background, character development, etc exists, will the reader page down until the wording is erotic? Do they look for key words? Finish the fucking scene, and go to the next story. Without much more than the search for the erotic.

Again, thanks

Mtn

I find it virtually impossible to write a sex scene without some form of rationale, usually in the written story, sometimes only in my head. As long as I can visualise the reason, I can write the scene. I tend to be wordy, although I think I may need to defer to Og in that department. I enjoy a slow build-up, although I don't think I always succeed, although enough readers have told me in feedback that they enjoy the stories that way that I see little need to change my style. Snippettsville has been good for me in attempts to write tighter prose.

Alex

 

[Chicklet]

Appreciate the feedback. I do not write FOR the votes. I actually write to relive the experience or create a new pictue for the mind.

What the readers do to themselves with the story, well........

My main question actually relates to the direction and timing it takes to get to the erotica of the story. If too much background, character development, etc exists, will the reader page down until the wording is erotic? Do they look for key words? Finish the fucking scene, and go to the next story. Without much more than the search for the erotic.

I'm glad you're still writing for yourself, 'cause I was going to go off on how you shouldn't write for the votes. I have found, for myself at least when I read erotica, that the stuff that gets my votes needs to start out really interesting. The solution to voter problems in my mind is to start with a hot sex scene and develope the story from there, go into the plot after both the characters have climaxed. That way you've got something for each party, the jerk-offs (literally) and the people looking for STORY. As long as you're writing well, you've got my vote. I personally like the longer stories, and unfortunatly some people don't like their stories *too* long - I'd suggest that you split anything up that's going to be more than two lit. pages long, for the short-attention-spanned readers.

that's my say.

Chicklet

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Appreciate the feedback. I do not write FOR the votes. I actually write to relive the experience or create a new pictue for the mind.

What the readers do to themselves with the story, well........

My main question actually relates to the direction and timing it takes to get to the erotica of the story. If too much background, character development, etc exists, will the reader page down until the wording is erotic? Do they look for key words? Finish the fucking scene, and go to the next story. Without much more than the search for the erotic.

Again, thanks

Mtn

Sometimes we would like to lump all readers together to get an idea of what they are like, but they are as individual as we are. What answers your question for one will be in direct contradiction to another. I think category has some bearing on this as well. Readers of romantic stories expect some build up. They are far more likely to give the writer some leeway in telling the tale before the demands of the flesh overwhelm them.

The one handed readers want sex now, if the characters start off naked so much the better. While that allows them to get their swerve on so to speak it will leave someone wanting tasteful erotica cold. If you check out Dr. M's backclick thread you will see that even among those of us who write the list of auto "i'm dones" varries wildly and what some don't mind some detest.

I write for a certain group of readers, they appreciate some build up and character development. Over time they have come to expect that from me. When I write a short little "quicky" sex story they are kind of let down, not because it is bad in and of itself, but because it wasn't what they expected. I think expectation, as much as content drives votes. If you give the reader what he/she expects you will get a good vote. The problem there is expectation varries as widely as taste.

-Colly

 

[MathGirl]

Originally posted by Chicklet I'd suggest that you split anything up that's going to be more than two lit. pages long, for the short-attention-spanned readers.

Hiya, Chickie,
You're right. It's especially important for the premature ejaculators.
MG

 

[gauchecritic]

Otherdarkmeat in a thread close by said:

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are."
-W. Somerset Maugham

Just substitute "Lit. stories" for "a novel".

Gauche

 

[OldnotDead]

Hiya, Chickie,
You're right. It's especially important for the premature ejaculators.
MG

Hey, MG, I resemble that remark. I can sometimes actually make it to a third page

 

[Icingsugar]

Hiya, Chickie,
You're right. It's especially important for the premature ejaculators.
MG

Hmm, doesn't the 750 word minimum rule just scream of discrimitnation against the prematties?

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Romance and worst of all non-erotic languish forever without votes. The lowest scoring of all goes to non-erotic poetry.

Og

Doesn't matter much (at all), but just wanted to say that's not exactly true. Non-erotic poetry scores in average the highest of all poetry submission except illustrated (which has less than 60 entries), while erotic poetry scores the lowest of all submissions in Lit.

A quick look at the top list will show you that 8 of the top 10 rated poems are non-erotic while the number of erotic and non-erotic submissions to the site is almost equitable.

 

[Dirty Slut]

What to write, and why?

To be honest, even if you write well, and produce a very good story you can easily get screwed here as far as votes are concerned. Hey, there are just spiteful people out there, and some of them are even writters with friends willing to down vote you so that their story has a better chance of winning in the monthly contests here whether it is better or not. (Somebody had to say it. LOL)

Soooo... if all you're writing for is votes, then you've already screwed yourself. Writing is a passion, a creative monument of the writer. The better story tellers bring their readers right into the story by showing, not telling. They show everything as if they were a word camera that has all five senses. In fact the better authors often have it said about their work that the book, or short story was much better than the movie. Why? Because a movie, no matter how good it is, only shows sights, and sounds leaving out the other three senses entirely. In erotica, there is the pheremone concept to deal with, and the touch, and taste of a lover that heightens the readers senses better than just hearing, and seeing it on tape ever could.

In conclusion: If you're going to write, then write first for yourself, and then edit for your reader if you plan on posting the story. Writing is hard work, so the pleasure that the writer gets out of it is in producing something that will stand the test of time...


DS

 

[FallingToFly]

Oddly enough, in the NonHuman cat it seems to be more about the story than the sex. One of mine, which has sexual overtones but no actual sex, hell not even a kiss, is actual on the top list in there. If you want to read it, link is in my sig, as I'm too lazy to pull it up and go through all that right now.

 

[3113]

*bump* (escaping crazy n-word posts)