The Balancing Act: Writing a crowd pleaser vs what you think is the better story

[onehitwanda]

My lady garden of course

well... there goes my intentions of being a good girl today.

 

[SimonDoom]

In a year's time, which garden will please you more when you revisit it?

My answer to this is that I derive more pleasure from having planted many different types of gardens than I would have from planting multiple gardens based on the same aesthetic principle. Also, thanks to my crowd-pleasing gardens, I get more visitors to my other gardens than I would have if the crowd-pleasing gardens didn't exist.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

This isn't a true choice. There isn't one universal type of story that will be accepted by all, or at least a huge majority of readers in a certain category. There are always two or three major groups of readers who prefer certain types of stories and kinks, and numerous smaller groups of readers who like some more niche stuff. Even if you are giving your best to please everyone, you will never be able to do it. Assuming you are chasing good ratings, best you can do is recognize and then try to please the most radical major group in a certain category and hope that other groups won't bomb you.
All that being said, I don't understand why would anyone do such a thing. We aren't writing here for any financial gain, so the satisfaction of writing a story that you yourself would like and appreciate doesn't even begin to compare to anything else. If you are trying to build a large following and create a Patreon, then I suppose you should drop all categories except I/T and LW

 

[SirBurnInside]

Right now I just write individual stories that are in my head and then post them when I'm happy, and often the tales are wildly different than each other, in all sorts of different categories and featuring different kinks.

None of them did I write thinking about how many followers will this get me? Or, does this one have a wide enough appeal?

If readers like what I put out then great... if they follow me it's wonderful, but I don't submit stories for any other reason than to put something out there for people to enjoy if they do happen to be into that stories particular promise or content.

 

[ronde]

I've always written stories that I want to write, and I write them the way I see them playing out in my head. If that means there's a sex scene or two, I put it in. If not, I leave it out. So far, it's working pretty well for me. The votes are nice and I do pay attention to the comments, but neither will change what I write or the way I write.

 

[Djmac1031]

Here's my current problem: I have several stories in progress, one in particular teeters on the edge.

I basically have two choices: go the traditional route, make it a basic incest stroker.

But I'm discovering a far more INTERESTING story is in there somewhere, but I don't know that the "usual" audience here would "get it."

Because it WOULDN'T follow the more "traditional" path.

I've decided to go the more interesting route, although it also has made it tougher to write.

It would be much easier to just write the expected version. And probably be more popular.

But I'll take the risk, because the other story interests ME more.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

It is a balancing act, isn’t it? A major part of the problem is the nature of this site. Readers want sex, they come here expecting sex. Sometimes, of course, sex isn’t what a writer’s vision needs for a good story.

Rock, meet Hard Place.

Actually I think here it’s usually…

Rock-hard, meet soft place…in most stories at least.

 

[onehitwanda]

Actually I think here it’s usually…

Rock-hard, meet soft place…in most stories at least.

You put the big bit in, you pull the big bit out, You put the big bit in and you move it all about, you do the hokey-cokey and you turn her around, that's what it's all about (woo)

I swear I'm not drunk again.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Is that a choice you feel forced to make? I feel sometimes, sure, the two things are not in opposition. But other times it seems I either write the story that at least aspires to have depth, nuance and realism, or the story readers are going to lap up and love it.

As just one example, I find HEA is unrealistic on almost anything incest. The moment, or even the affaire, of passion is not necessarily implausible. But a HEA, or really anything other than breakup and likely heartbreak for at least one of the involved? Please... Yet HEA is what many incest readers seem to want.

I find what I end up choosing is to make some stories lean more crowd pleaser, and other stories lean "better" stories. And it is a choice.

you’re writing material whose ultimate aim is to turn on and arouse those reading, that should be your first aim, however, the characters you write, once down on the page, will ultimately guide you to where you need to be. I believe if you write characters right, they will do your job for you and push your story in new and intersecting ways.

For example, when I started writing HAF I had an idea of how I wanted the ending to be. Now I’m at the end the characters don’t seem to want to go down that route and it wouldn’t be right for me to force them, so a new ending it is, one that will hopefully satisfy the readers that read and the pervs (myself included) who want to be turned on by what they read.

What ending are your characters pushing you toward? That is the question.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

My lady garden of course

No more legs!
No more lady gardens!

Goodness me. I’m at work, here.

 

[oneagainst]

But I'll take the risk, because the other story interests ME more.

That quote (and apologies for 'man'centric but that's the quote text): The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man persists in adapting the world to himself, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man

If we don't try and change expectations then how do we ever move forward...?

 

[onehitwanda]

No more legs!
No more lady gardens!

Goodness me. I’m at work, here.

Oh my God, those legs.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Oh my God, those legs.

It’s amazing isn’t it? A photo of someone swallowing a rainbow and all anyone focuses on are those legs.

For shaaaaaaaaame.

 

[onehitwanda]

It’s amazing isn’t it? A photo of someone swallowing a rainbow and all anyone focuses on are those legs.

For shaaaaaaaaame.

Listen, on a scale of 1 to 10 those legs go all the way to giraffe.

 

[tenyari]

Is that a choice you feel forced to make? I feel sometimes, sure, the two things are not in opposition.

I write what I think is the better story. I do that to such a degree that I often feel a need to put a disclaimer at the beginning warning people that some things in there will be written because they're what the character would do or think or how the story should be, and not for how the reader sees things.

 

[Erosfan]

I write about my fantasies and my real life experiences, so I write mostly for me. When others enjoy my stories and leave encouraging comments, that's my reward.