The millennium goal

[darkoverlord6]

When I started writing on this site in May, 2017, I set some arbitrary goals for myself.

One was to get a story in the "Hot Zone" with a coveted 'H," that took me seven months and ten failed stories first. When I look back at that earlier work I can see why.

Honestly, it's all pretty terrible. I wince when I read those old stories that at the time I thought were pretty good. It shows how much growing up I had to do as a writer.

My second goal was to get 1,000 followers. I have no idea why I decided I would feel successful when I hit that number. It just sounded like a nice, round one. Given how crappy my early work was, and the fact that I mainly write in categories that draw less interest (Mature Romance and Romance) it seemed like getting there was going to take awhile.

It did.

I only got 49 in 2017.

In 2018 I added 347 for a total of 396. I guess my writing was improving and i was starting to draw a few more views.

In 2019 I landed 554 for the year bringing me to 950.

Yesterday, I woke up to see that I had finally surpassed my goal in one surge, going from 996 to 1,006.

It was nice to finally get there and obviously I hope I keep adding to that total. This has been a mostly rewarding experience. I've learned a lot from the other authors on this site and think I am a much better writer and story teller now than I was almost three years ago.

Now, if I could just win one of those writing contests

 

[OneAuthor]

Kudos on having a thousand followers! I'll be thrilled when I get to a hundred.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Kudos on having a thousand followers! I'll be thrilled when I get to a hundred.

Same here (on both counts)

 

[SyleusSnow]

Wow, congrats! I think followers is a better indicator of success than any red H.

I started writing in 2017 as well, and was floored that my first story got an H. 15 stories later, each with an H, and I only reached 300 followers last September.

Grumble.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Wow, congrats! I think followers is a better indicator of success than any red H.

I started writing in 2017 as well, and was floored that my first story got an H. 15 stories later, each with an H, and I only reached 300 followers last September.

Grumble.

Don't grumble. I have 84 chapters/stories since 2014 and I've not got to 300 followers yet. My most viewed story has 62,000 Views, but it's in Incest, so how hard is that? 75% of my stories are Red H, and ten of those are higher than 4.80. The stories that are most important to me have between 4k and 10k views.

I'm an outlier, and I'm quite content with that. If all I wanted was numbers I'd write incest stories, but they don't do much for me - my mum's dead and my sisters are my sisters, ffs .

 

[MetaBob]

Pretty sure I'll never get to 1K followers. But this thread reminds me that I should follow Belle, who deserves it, so I will. Others may (do!), but there's so much.

 

[SimonDoom]

Congratulations on reaching your goal. Keep it up and you'll reach the Top 250 author list. Right now it takes 1735 followers to be on it, but the number creeps steadily up.

Keep publishing stories to multiple categories, as you've done, and you'll keep expanding your audience and followers.

Publishing incest stories, of course, is the most sure-fire way to boost your follower numbers.

 

[SolarRay]

Yesterday, I woke up to see that I had finally surpassed my goal in one surge, going from 996 to 1,006.

Congrats! I'm deeply impressed. I am also working on the 1000 follower count / millennium goal, just for fun. This should be the year I achieve it, now that I've just crossed into the 900s. It hasn't been easy, especially since I don't do incest and, as SimonDoom said, that's a sure fire way to build lots of followers.
Kudos to you and best of luck on your next goal!

 

[darkoverlord6]

I know, I don't do incest either except for one story of mine about a man having an affair with his sister-in-law that for some confusing reason got put under incest by the moderators.\

By the way Electricblue66, I think your writing is wonderful and your drawings are amazing. I envy you that I can't even draw a decent stick figure

 

[Vix_Giovanni]

Dripping water hollows the stone
Congrats!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

By the way Electricblue66, I think your writing is wonderful and your drawings are amazing. I envy you that I can't even draw a decent stick figure

Thank you.

Re drawings - other than bad school art way back when, I had not drawn anything until I took myself off to an adult learning "Drawing for Beginners" class five years ago: 6 x 3 hour evenings with a tutor. I then did a Life Drawing class run by the same organisation, but a different tutor.

Try it, you might surprise yourself - I certainly did. There's a link to my Tumblr drawing blog on my profile, which I think works. But with Tumblr's inane "adult content" rules, access might be tricky for someone just trying to browse.

 

[OneAuthor]

Kudos on having a thousand followers! I'll be thrilled when I get to a hundred.

As of today, I have a hundred followers. And I am indeed thrilled, considering I haven't published any story content for three months.

 

[KeithD]

Congrats on achieving lofty goals.

 

[BelleCanzuto]

As of today, I have a hundred followers. And I am indeed thrilled, considering I haven't published any story content for three months.

Yay, OneAuthor, that's cool.


I was going to save this for the actual anniversary date, but here goes.
I published my first story here on 3/31/19.
21 stories in almost exactly a year.
As of today, 104 followers.

Not much, compared to some, but considering that I don't post in the most popular categories (by far), I'm happy with it.

 

[OneAuthor]

Yay, OneAuthor, that's cool.


I was going to save this for the actual anniversary date, but here goes.
I published my first story here on 3/31/19.
21 stories in almost exactly a year.
As of today, 104 followers.

Not much, compared to some, but considering that I don't post in the most popular categories (by far), I'm happy with it.

Thank you! I too don't post in a very popular category, so I'm very pleased to have 101 followers (I received one more overnight).

Congrats to you as well, Belle. We should have a virtual toast... which needs to happen soon, since I am starting to run low on my precious red wine.

 

[OneAuthor]

Congrats on achieving lofty goals.

Thank you so much.

 

[AlinaX]

Bouncing happily for a minute, having reached 1000 follows - yay!

 

[BelleCanzuto]

Bouncing happily for a minute, having reached 1000 follows - yay!

Yay! Thats a great milestone.

 

[SimonDoom]

Bouncing happily for a minute, having reached 1000 follows - yay!

Congratulations!

 

[Blind_Justice]

I've put my 49th submission into the queue a few days ago. Unless things go horribly wrong, my Geek Pride Day submission will be #50. Never thought I'd get that much mileage out of my D&D (or other tabletop RPG) storylines.

I've started in late 2012 (writing smut in English after almost fifteen years of keeping that stuff to myself and in my native tongue)
Been at it for the past eight years. Considering my scores, there has been some definite improvement. Most of my 539 followers appear to be relatively recent and mostly male. No idea why my stuff does not tickle the fair sex's fancy. Didn't get enough feedback in that regard.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

Congrats, AlinaX & Darkoverlord6!

I'm quite happy to see my twenty-odd stories have garnered me 100+ followers. Perhaps in a few years (or a decade) I'll get to 1K followers!

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

It took me from July 2019 until a few days ago to get to 63 followers. I was not posting a lot, and the stories I had posted were not my best ones.

I posted one reallly well-written father-daughter incest story and added 82 more followers in two days.

It's not just the stories you write, it's the categories as well. Post one really good incest story and watch your numbers skyrocket.

 

[lovecraft68]

Congratulations on reaching your goal. Keep it up and you'll reach the Top 250 author list. Right now it takes 1735 followers to be on it, but the number creeps steadily up.

Keep publishing stories to multiple categories, as you've done, and you'll keep expanding your audience and followers.

Publishing incest stories, of course, is the most sure-fire way to boost your follower numbers.

I remember when I first hit that list....I was #250 with 380ish.

It used to be a bit harder because for a long time there was a limit to how many authors someone could fav, so readers had to be a little choosy, now I don't think there is a limit so its easier to get faved.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

My goal... write what I want, for as long as I want and if I gather followers who like what I write and the way I write it, then all the better.

I also measure how well I'm writing by the hoard of trolls I have gathered. To bad there isn't a measure of how many of them are following you.

 

[SolarRay]

Well, I just reached the millennium goal and got my 1,000th follower.
With all the ongoing stress from dealing with the situation we're living through, I am more than happy to end the week with a little smile about this! I believe personal challenges are good and can be a motivating factor in the development of your skills. I think I've come a long way -- but know I have a long way to go still. So bring on the next challenge, I say.