The AH Tip/How To thread

[lovecraft68]

Lot of folks come here asking for category advice. Either which category their piece should go in, or what works/doesn't work in a category.

Often someone here will reference a How To they either find to be useful on the topic be it one they wrote themselves or by someone else.

In that light, I thought it would be a good idea to have a thread where authors here can drop advice and tips on any topic they choose to help newer authors, or experienced authors new to a category.

If there is a link to a How To relevant to your tip, feel free to link it.

I want to be clear that any advice given here should be in the spirit of "This is what I find works or does not work" and not meant to tell people what they should or should not write, that is solely up to them. This is meant to simply provide some information on what, from experience, we have found works, and doesn't work, in specific categories or topics.

This thread is not meant to turn into an argument. If you have experienced something different than what another author posts, feel free to mention it, and bring up how something else worked for you, but let's avoid running debates, we can start other threads for those.

The intent here is to create a sort of repository of our combined knowledge of categories, readers, pitfalls and dos and don'ts, that everyone can both add to, and learn from.

 

[lovecraft68]

Category: Incest/Taboo

Simple tip. Any element of non-consent will not fly well with many of the readers.

For an extreme kink, taboo readers generally enjoy their fantasies here to be sexy and fun. They don't mind depth or conflict, or more serious matters in a story, but abuse and non con are mostly frowned upon.

My theory on that, based on being both a writer and reader in the category, is that fans of the genre are well aware that in real life incest is rarely the hot taboo we get here, but rape, abuse, and overall ugliness. It's also a reminder of what people who don't like the subject matter think a lot of people here are promoting by writing or supporting the category, and know all we support is harmless fictional 18+ consensual fantasy, and we condone real life pain and misery.

Like I said in the opening post, this isn't telling you not to do it, write as thou will, but its a warning to be prepared for some heat in the comments section. Keep in mind non con and incest are trump categories. NC will always be placed in NC, taboo in taboo-often by the site even if you try otherwise-and neither base has much of a tolerance when it comes to seeing the other 'real life crime kink' mixed with theirs.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Category: SciFi&Fantasy

Many types of stories can fly in this category. Every sexual theme has its audience here, and out of those, futanari and breeding/impregnation/harem work the best. In general, sex with Elves, Orcs, Vampires, and such races is well-received. But don't be too shy with more exotic ones, such as non-anthropomorphous races - furry, tentacles, aliens... they all have their audience here. It is a welcoming Category in general that tolerates almost any exotic fantasy you might have.

The most important thing to know is that readers come here mostly to read a good SciFi or Fantasy story. They prefer long or chaptered stories with fleshed-out characters, interesting plots, and imaginative world-building. Sexual themes matter, but these things matter more. Readers of this category will gladly read such a story even if it has no sexual content (some readers even prefer that), although a good romance is always appreciated.

So feel free to write whatever you wish; It is likely you will find an audience for it in this Category. But if you want followers and high scores, then long, imaginative stories that feature some of the popular sexual themes (without overdoing the sex) are the way to go.

 

[AchtungNight]

Category- Celebrity & Fanfic.

Research your subject. Portray them close to their public persona and include trivia if it helps your story.

Write a positive portrayal of your subject. A negative portrayal will upset your subject’s fans.

 

[intim8]

So feel free to write whatever you wish; It is likely you will find an audience for it in this Category. But if you want followers and high scores, then long, imaginative stories that feature some of the popular sexual themes (without overdoing the sex) are the way to go.

Thanks for this write up. It is very pertinent to a WIP, which will be a fairly hard SF novella or novel length story. But I have a question (if this thread isn't meant for questions, let me know).

How are muddled consent issues taken in SF here? My opening chapter has a sex scene which is deliberately written to be uncomfortable rather than sexy, becasue there are power dynamics in play that make consent, on both sides of the encounter, much less than enthusiastic.

Two human cultures that don't understand each other at all, one primitive almost to the point of living in the stone age and one with FTL travel and concomitant weaponry, are thrust together. One member of each are situationally pushed into a ritualistic 'taking' that clearly neither of them want, but that both, for different reasons, see no way out of.

This dynamic sets the baseline for the rest of the story (working title is "The Taking"), along with a mystery about how the primitive culture - a "lost" planetary colony - has fallen so far.

Is that going to squick with the SFF category readers? Just to illustrate the tone, below is the very short opening sort-of-prologue before it drops back to tell the story of how it got to that point. (And that story has some pretty gory violence, which may be another issue.)

One stepped forward, pushed by a group of the others. Naked, her posture timid but putting on a brave face, she didn't look like a leader. She looked like a test case, a sacrificial lamb.

When I made no move, she looked up at me. "You take," she said, her hands at her sides, one holding the tiny dagger.

I just stared, not sure what she was saying. She looked around at the scattered bodies. "You take," she repeated.

It was an accusation. Yup, I was guilty. Guilty as hell. We'd just killed nearly every man in her tribe. I could plead self defense if we were back home, but here, I was guilty. "I'm sorry," I said.

She just looked at me as if I hadn't said a thing. Maybe to her, I hadn't.

She raised both hands to her chest and put them under her breasts. She lifted them. "You take."

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Thanks for this write up. It is very pertinent to a WIP, which will be a fairly hard SF novella or novel length story. But I have a question (if this thread isn't meant for questions, let me know).

How are muddled consent issues taken in SF here? My opening chapter has a sex scene which is deliberately written to be uncomfortable rather than sexy, becasue there are power dynamics in play that make consent, on both sides of the encounter, much less than enthusiastic.

Two human cultures that don't understand each other at all, one primitive almost to the point of living in the stone age and one with FTL travel and concomitant weaponry, are thrust together. One member of each are situationally pushed into a ritualistic 'taking' that clearly neither of them want, but that both, for different reasons, see no way out of.

This dynamic sets the baseline for the rest of the story (working title is "The Taking"), along with a mystery about how the primitive culture - a "lost" planetary colony - has fallen so far.

Is that going to squick with the SFF category readers? Just to illustrate the tone, below is the very short opening sort-of-prologue before it drops back to tell the story of how it got to that point. (And that story has some pretty gory violence, which may be another issue.)

I don't mind the questions here and I think the OP doesn't mind them as well. I believe he meant this thread as a guide. I suggest to @lovecraft68 and @AchtungNight and all others who post the guide here to use bold font for the title like I did, to make such posts easily distinguishable from posts like this one where we answer questions. Just a thought
Now, on to your question:
The way you are presenting it, I don't think it would be a problem. If I am not mistaken, both sides are reluctant and there is no raping or sadism, and as far as I can understand from your words, the dubcon/reluctance part isn't there because of titillation but because it's an integral part of the story.
You can release the story of such length integrally or in chapters, but in that case, I advise no less than 10k words per chapter, especially for the first couple of chapters where you need to pull the reader in by building up the whole setup - the world, the plot, and the characters.

 

[intim8]

I advise no less than 10k words per chapter,

Thanks, that's a helpful tip. There's a natural break at about 7K words where I was seeing a chapter break, after which the story goes into a long flashback that starts to set up the mystery part of the story and explains how this mission to the lost colony got started. (That itself includes some sex, some fairly normal, but some of it a little creepy in an entirely different way, including a semi-senile 160 year old ridiculously wealthy man and his "nurse").

I will definitely keep in mind that ~10K+ suggestion as a rule of thumb. I can probably tweak the break point here, or just keep the opening incident and the back story in one huge leading chapter.

From my general reading of SF and some I've read here, I do know that a lot of the "rules" of how to start a story, particularly the one about "no world building up front" kind of get reversed. I do like starting this one in media res, and putting the back story after, but I think from my reading the genre outside of Lit, it should work.

If I am not mistaken,

You're not. Though some will find tittilation in that first scene. It's mildly rough.

Edit: I just realized I can actually trace my influences on that. It's a little bit "Quest For Fire" and a little bit Piers Anthony's "The Barn".

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Thanks, that's a helpful tip. There's a natural break at about 7K words where I was seeing a chapter break, after which the story goes into a long flashback that starts to set up the mystery part of the story and explains how this mission to the lost colony got started. (That itself includes some sex, some fairly normal, but some of it a little creepy in an entirely different way, including a semi-senile 160 year old ridiculously wealthy man and his "nurse").

I will definitely keep in mind that ~10K+ suggestion as a rule of thumb. I can probably tweak the break point here, or just keep the opening incident and the back story in one huge leading chapter.

From my general reading of SF and some I've read here, I do know that a lot of the "rules" of how to start a story, particularly the one about "no world building up front" kind of get reversed. I do like starting this one in media res, and putting the back story after, but I think from my reading the genre outside of Lit, it should work.

You're not. Though some will find tittilation in that first scene. It's mildly rough.

Yeah, there are so many "rules" and I know how conflicting they can all get.
I would also advise not doing too much exposition at the start. The trick, in my opinion, is to do it gradually. Readers don't need the whole world explained to them right at the start. They do not care about it, yet. That is also why I advised a larger chapter for the opening. 7K is okay for chapter five or six but you might want to pull the reader in at the start and tickle their curiosity by giving them time to start liking the characters and the setup. Make them care. If you have natural breaks at around 7k words, then maybe just do a double first chapter or something?
Once again, this is all based on my own perception and experience so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[intim8]

pull the reader in at the start and tickle their curiosity by giving them time to start liking the characters and the setup.

Yeah. The initial 7K ends with the guy, the Captain of this mission, dealing with the guilt of both what he did with the girl and of getting the crew into the violent situation that none of them saw coming (in which one of the 7 crewmembers was killed). He pulls them into the lander, along with two of the tribe who he thinks will explain what is going on.

Then he takes the other five crew into a conference room and lets them vent on him. It's here where the crew characters - three women and three remaining men - start to get fleshed out. (We're in the Captain's head the whole way, 1p, so his character is getting fleshed out all allong). Then it goes to the flashback before the anticipated talk with the tribe members. A talk in which there will be both a language/culture barrier, with all the misunderstandings that entails, and unstated agendas on both sides.

I'm still pantsing the back story, but it is a full story in itself, not an infodump. Which is why I think it needs its own chapter, or three. But I could probably expand that aftermath scene considerably.

This has been a big help, thanks.

 

[SimonDoom]

A few overall pieces of advice, not pertaining to specific categories or stories:

1. Familarize yourself with the Literotica site, its format, and in particular its content regulations. Here's a link to the Literotica FAQs on publishing: https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing. Read the threads that are highlighted in blue at the top of the Author's Hangout forum. They contain generally helpful guidelines.

2. Come to terms with the Literotica content guidelines. There is a logic to them. You may not agree with the logic, or think the results are a bit weird, and you're not wrong, but you're not going to change them and it's better to figure out how to navigate them than to complain about not understanding them or insisting they make no sense and are wrong. They DO make sense, in a way, if you look at them from the point of view of the Site owners rather than from your point of view.

3. Be patient. Too often I see newbie authors come charging into this forum with high hopes and dashed expectations and minds full of confusion, and I think they just need to relax, enjoy whatever success they have, and take the time to learn the lay of the land. This is a two-person operation, so the feedback process is not perfect.

4. As far as category guidelines and choices, take advantage of the threads and articles that have been written on this subject. They will help you choose the category in which to publish your story. Depending upon the type of story you are writing, it may not be completely satisfying to you, but you've got a better chance of success if you take advantage of the resources. There are "how to" articles about what category to choose, what will and won't fly in certain categories of stories, etc.

5. Accept criticism. All of us get it. It's no big deal.

6. Be positive. There are no universal criteria for success here. Make success whatever you want it to be.

7. Get involved in the Author's Hangout in a positive way. You can learn a lot, and your stories may get more exposure.

 

[yowser]

A few overall pieces of advice, not pertaining to specific categories or stories:

This is all sound advice.

The only thing I would add is that new writers perhaps do a bit of reading (maybe in their favored categories) before posting their first effort. It can establish what 'works' for the various kinds of stories that appear here and by noting what sorts of elements come in for 'enthusiastic commentary' a new writer will better understand what will inevitably come their own way as 'criticism' (and not be such a shock to the system.) Plus, it is just fun to read some of the better stories here, much to be learned from just doing that.

Sure wish I had done that...

 

[SimonDoom]

This is all sound advice.

The only thing I would add is that new writers perhaps do a bit of reading (maybe in their favored categories) before posting their first effort. It can establish what 'works' for the various kinds of stories that appear here and by noting what sorts of elements come in for 'enthusiastic commentary' a new writer will better understand what will inevitably come their own way as 'criticism' (and not be such a shock to the system.) Plus, it is just fun to read some of the better stories here, much to be learned from just doing that.

Sure wish I had done that...

I agree with that, and I'd add it to my list. I firmly believe one of the best ways to learn to be a good writer is to be a good and diligent reader. I honestly don't know how someone can learn to write without reading a lot.

 

[THBGato]

Lesbian Sex

Lots can work here BUT what really seems to get the reads, reactions and high scores is the presence of barriers the two women need to overcome before they can be together.

This can be very simply that one of the women doesn't think she's a lesbian. Five of the current top ten in the Hall of Fame fit that description. Or it can be more complex: grief, physical separation, addiction, injury, controlling parents. That accounts for the other five. Go and read onehitwanda, JCMcNeilly, BrokenSpokes (and that's just for starters) to get an idea. Naturally, all of those stories are a LOT more than just two women overcoming the barriers to them being together... but surpassing those is at the crux of each.

EDIT: Nearly forgot the most important aspect. After a meal, the washing up must be done and both women must participate, with the way they touch one another as they move around the kitchen should be described. Vital genre component.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Mature - based on responses to my stories - readers love a strong successful woman who finds her happiness in a younger person who has more going for them than a young body. Keep it romantic but sexy and they stay together in the end.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

I would add to learn the basic Literotica formatting, such as bold, italics and so forth. Having well-placed emphasis or horizontal rules to break up text where necessary really improves the reader experience, as the stories can appear a bit wall-of-text otherwise.

 

[lovecraft68]

Mature - based on responses to my stories - readers love a strong successful woman who finds her happiness in a younger person who has more going for them than a young body. Keep it romantic but sexy and they stay together in the end.

I second this, the mature readership loves a good romance between an older/younger couple.

 

[Voboy]

Mature - based on responses to my stories - readers love a strong successful woman who finds her happiness in a younger person who has more going for them than a young body. Keep it romantic but sexy and they stay together in the end.

Yep.

Readers in this category value... well, not necessarily a "happy ending," but certainly not a sad ending. They like fulfilled individuals who wind up empowered and strengthened by their romantic entanglement.

Also, note that this category (Mature) supports two different readerships: people who value stories about old people finding joy in sex, and people who value stories with a strong emphasis on age disparity. But the readers tend to be tolerant. Unlike in some other categories around here, there is little tendency to "punish" a story that doesn't match up to a reader's preferred type of tale.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Avoid Erotic Couplings if you want exposure for your stories.

Incest is incest stories. People who want to specifically read incest go there. Mature is mature stories. People who want to specifically read mature stories go there. Anal is anal stories. People who want to specifically read anal stories go there. Erotic Couplings is just a euphemism for miscellaneous vanilla. Almost no one specifically wants to read miscellaneous vanilla so very few people look in there.

Furthermore, almost no writers specifically write for Erotic Couplings. It is just a place to dump stories that don't really fit anywhere else - and there happen to be a lot of those.

So particularly if you are a new or otherwise unknown/low profile writer, the most effective way to get views on your stories is the category new lists - not the 7 day yellow Ns, the last 25 submissions in each category. This is where most of your hits are going to come from. There are two factors to determine the amount of these hits. The first is how many eyeballs are on that category (how popular the category is) and the other is how long you can stay exposed on that list of 25 recent stories. Here are some examples.

Incest ~ Your story will probably be on the recent 25 incest list for 24 hours, maybe 48 tops - a very short time, but since Incest is overwhelmingly the most popular category, many many people will see your story in those 24 hours and you will get many many hits.

Anal ~ Anal has a smaller (but dedicated) readership so less people will see your story, however with far less submissions to the category (far less competition for views) your story will stay on the recent 25 for about three weeks! You will still get good viewership there (not as much as incest but you will do well).

Romance ~ Romance has a dedicated readership that is larger than anal, so you will get lots of interest there, but your story will only be on the recent list for three or four days, a pretty average amount, so the exposure will be good, not in the stratosphere with incest but it will be good.

Now look at Erotic Couplings ~ Erotic Couplings has almost no dedicated readership (it's miscellaneous vanilla after all and the masses mostly come here for kink) yet there are lots of stories submitted to the category so you will be on the recent 25 list for probably 48 hours max. It's the worst exposure ratio of all - low eyeballs and lots of competition for those eyeballs. It's exactly what you don't want.

Even invisible categories like Non-erotic and Letters & Transcripts get a better hit ratio.

Here's a comparison.

Incest story gets 10000 hits a day for 1 day on the recent 25 = 10000 hits.

Erotic Couplings story gets 500 hits a day for 2 days on the recent 25 = 1000 hits.

Letters & Transcripts story gets 50 hits a day for 30 days on the recent 25 = 1500 hits.

If you post in Erotic Couplings, you are effectively posting in an invisible category.

I'm not saying that you should just toss a cousin or a butt plug into your otherwise vanilla story just to post somewhere else, but if your story has enough elements to qualify for another category I highly recommend keeping it out of EC. If your story has two people with a deep emotional connection with emphasis on the relationship, try posting in Romance. If one of your main characters is past age forty, seriously consider Mature. If there is anything supernatural; at all, try Sci-Fi/Fantasy (if light) or Erotic Horror (if dark). You get the idea. If there;s anything in your story that can keep it out of EC, then stay out of EC. Erotic Couplings is a graveyard. It's where stories go to be lost and never read again.

 

[TheLobster]

Every sexual theme has its audience here, and out of those, futanari and breeding/impregnation/harem work the best.

(emphasis mine)

Maybe I'm misreading what you meant but I don't think SF&F is the go-to place for futa stories. I've seen them all over the place but mostly T&CG or Fetish, with some in Non-Human and indeed some in SF&F. But in the case of the latter two, it seems like the stories have other aspects that qualify them into those categories, irrespective of the futa theme.

My own take on it, for example, specifically had no fantastical or unrealistic elements at all, besides the necessary and obvious one, and it had done well in T&CG.

 

[StillStunned]

If you post in Erotic Couplings, you are effectively posting in an invisible category.

I'm not saying that you should just toss a cousin or a butt plug into your otherwise vanilla story just to post somewhere else, but if your story has enough elements to qualify for another category I highly recommend keeping it out of EC. If your story has two people with a deep emotional connection with emphasis on the relationship, try posting in Romance. If one of your main characters is past age forty, seriously consider Mature. If there is anything supernatural; at all, try Sci-Fi/Fantasy (if light) or Erotic Horror (if dark). You get the idea. If there;s anything in your story that can keep it out of EC, then stay out of EC. Erotic Couplings is a graveyard. It's where stories go to be lost and never read again.

This doesn't match my experiences at all. My EC stories have the highest view ratio of pretty much any category except I/T - more views per story than E&V, for instance, and about four times as many as SF&F.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

(emphasis mine)

Maybe I'm misreading what you meant but I don't think SF&F is the go-to place for futa stories. I've seen them all over the place but mostly T&CG or Fetish, with some in Non-Human and indeed some in SF&F. But in the case of the latter two, it seems like the stories have other aspects that qualify them into those categories, irrespective of the futa theme.

I didn't say it was a go-to place. I spoke of futanari as a sexual kink, not a fantasy kink. There are plenty of futanari stories in other categories such as TG. But this sexual kink works excellently when you combine it with fantasy races such as Orcs, giants, etc.
Futanari, as strange as that is, is a sexual kink, in my opinion. It represents a (cis) woman with a cock (usually large). Futas often have both sexual organs. I think that readers in general find futas more attractive than regular trans-women and thus stories that have them are quite popular. I have a theory why that is so but I'd rather not open that discussion

 

[AG31]

I suggest all ... who post the guide here to use bold font for the title like I did, to make such posts easily distinguishable from posts like this one where we answer

Excellent idea! I'd love tosee this become a norm for this sort of thread.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This doesn't match my experiences at all. My EC stories have the highest view ratio of pretty much any category except I/T - more views per story than E&V, for instance, and about four times as many as SF&F.

Likewise. EC for me is no better or worse in terms of reader response for my content. I've got 120 + chapters/stories across eighteen categories, with twenty or so submissions in EC. It's not noticeably an outlier for me.

My least successful category is Group - it's my "never post there again" category. The Vote/View is lower than other categories by a noticeable factor (20%, thereabouts), with just about zero comments. But then, I don't write orgies or gang-bangs, so maybe three isn't a crowd.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Using story search to figure out what's allowed on Literotica

The FAQs are helpful but they don't cover everything. Let's suppose I'm writing a story about two characters who get high on cocaine together, and after reading the FAQs I'm still not sure whether that's allowed on Literotica.

One way to check is to go look at what's been allowed in other stories:

• Go to https://search.literotica.com/.
• Click the gear icon for "advanced search".
• Enter "cocaine" in the first search field (substitute whatever word/phrase you want to know about).
• Choose "sort results by date".
• Click the blue Search bar at the bottom, and look at the results.

This search gets a lot of results. Checking the most recent, I find one which opens with a scene where the characters are doing lines of coke in a hotel room. Looks like that's allowed, then!

It's important to look at the dates, because content policy here can change. If I were to find a whole bunch of stories with "cocaine" up to, say, 2015, and little or nothing afterwards, that might mean that the site stopped accepting those stories around that date. At that point it might be time to PM Laurel, the site moderator, or ask in the Authors' Hangout. But if you can find recent stories with the kind of content you want to post, you're probably good.

 

[Rob_Royale]

This doesn't match my experiences at all. My EC stories have the highest view ratio of pretty much any category except I/T - more views per story than E&V, for instance, and about four times as many as SF&F.

I agree. If your story flops in EC, don't blame the category.