The verdict is in

[StillStunned]

Nearly a quarter of all my stories (7 out of 29) have a score of 4.55 or 4.56. It can't be a coincidence that, of all the possible scores, these two make up such a large proportion. They must be indicative of my overall performance.

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

I'm sure that, if you really apply yourself and put in the hours, you can aspire to 4.57. I believe in you!

 

[Bazzle]

My literal average of all 67 stories (unweighted by number of votes) is 4.48. So I am not quite on average red H author, but I am close.


Hey ho.

B

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Attend, Grasshopper!

The only person against whom you are competing is yourself. Your goal is to write better than you did last year.

Speaking of last year, you’re been writing for less than a year. In that time, you’ve written several dozen stories, only a few of which missed the magic red H. You’ve also picked up a couple of unicorn scores, so it’s clear you can write and have the potential to write very well indeed.

Y’ain’t bad now. To get better? Keep writing. Get an editor or beta reader you work well with. Finish a story and sit on it unopened for a month - that’ll give you a fresh perspective. Go back and read your stuff and consider what worked and what worked better? Why did Rivals 5 get such an embarrassingly good rating? Spend more time polishing.

Above all, keep in mind that you’ve been providing pretty good entertainment for a lot of people. Let yourself enjoy writing your stuff as much as they do reading it.

tp

 

[samhasstories]

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

I'm no mathematician, but I think that assessment describes a rating closer to 4. Yours got bumped closer to 5 because of all the 5 star ratings you got. That means not everyone got terribly excited about them, but a number of people did. I would say that's about as good as anyone can ask for - you're never going to blow everyone away.

 

[AchtungNight]

You got better ratings than me, man. Even when I put ratings on. Be glad for that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Nearly a quarter of all my stories (7 out of 29) have a score of 4.55 or 4.56. It can't be a coincidence that, of all the possible scores, these two make up such a large proportion. They must be indicative of my overall performance.

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

At present (and obviously these things shift around) my most common score is 4.63, I have five of those. No other score appears more than three times.

Emily

 

[samhasstories]

It is an interesting phenomenon, mine do seem to gravitate to a standard rating. I just posted one this morning and assume it will follow the same trend - it starts off with beautiful ratings, I'm guessing because the people who are 'following' me are the first to read it, and then over the next couple days I'll go from thinking it's my best rated story yet to seeing it gradually settle in with just about the same 'final' rating all my other stories have. Which is fine, it's an overall positive rating.

 

[StillStunned]

It is an interesting phenomenon, mine do seem to gravitate to a standard rating. I just posted one this morning and assume it will follow the same trend - it starts off with beautiful ratings, I'm guessing because the people who are 'following' me are the first to read it, and then over the next couple days I'll go from thinking it's my best rated story yet to seeing it gradually settle in with just about the same 'final' rating all my other stories have. Which is fine, it's an overall positive rating.

It's curious, isn't it?

I appreciate everyone's kind and supportive words, but the reason for my post was just that I noticed the same scores showing up again and again. I'm not complaining - overall I'm very pleased with the reception my stories get - I'm just intrigued.

 

[Trionyx]

Remember that there can be a disconnect between how good a story is and the score/votes from the readers. IMHO some of my better stories are ones which push boundaries, use unconventional techniques or have less than a HEA ending and these tend to have lower scores. However, I am personally the happiest with them. I encourage everyone to write what you want while challenging yourself to write well and in the long term, you will be happier with the results.

 

[Omenainen]

You had me stare at my stats and draw graphs and all but I didn’t find similar phenomena in mine. I have 3-4 same or close by ratings but there’s many clusters of those.

(Also they range from 3.53 to 4.93 so quite versatile )

 

[SimonDoom]

Nearly a quarter of all my stories (7 out of 29) have a score of 4.55 or 4.56. It can't be a coincidence that, of all the possible scores, these two make up such a large proportion. They must be indicative of my overall performance.

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

I wouldn't conclude that from the data. It could be the opposite: maybe many people like your stories a lot, but there's something about them that causes a few to downvote them, keeping the scores from being higher.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Nearly a quarter of all my stories (7 out of 29) have a score of 4.55 or 4.56. It can't be a coincidence that, of all the possible scores, these two make up such a large proportion. They must be indicative of my overall performance.

So it's clear. People like my stories, but they don't get terribly excited about them. I suppose I can live with that.

My average score is 3.7ish. Get over it.

 

[intim8]

Unless the writing or storytelling is truly incompetent, very low votes are likely to be hate votes. And hate votes mean you reached them at an emotional level. Good job!

Now if they're all fours and fives, then yeah, it means roughly half the people thought it fell just short of the best possible. Hard to think of that as a bad review.

I wish lit would show us that breakdown.

 

[Writer61]

Woohoo! My average score has risen by 0.0022222 since yesterday.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Woohoo! My average score has risen by 0.0022222 since yesterday.

Okay, boys and girls. Over here, we have the Obsessives. And in that cage over there, witness the Compulsives.

You, madam - I must ask you to keep your little boy from poking ‘is stick with the ‘horse’s ’ead ‘andle into the cages!

 

[KeithD]

Unless the writing or storytelling is truly incompetent, very low votes are likely to be hate votes. And hate votes mean you reached them at an emotional level. Good job!

But not necessarily having anything to do with the story. You could have reached them at the emotional level here on the discussion board and they trotted off to punish you in the story file--the other end of making friends on the board and that being reflected in your story ratings. I've seen it happen; I've experienced it happening. That's only one reason that the ratings here are very mushy.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Have to chuckle... We have thread after thread about how the mystical red H doesn't really mean anything, others about how view counts, favorites, and likes are bogus, and voting is prone to uno-bombing. All these threads about how the numbers don't matter, yet here we are venting our obsessions with their intimate detail.

We are an odd bunch to be sure.

 

[KeithD]

"We"? Hardly.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

"We"? Hardly.

OK. "You!"

 

[pink_silk_glove]

You could have reached them at the emotional level here on the discussion board and they trotted off to punish you in the story file

No, that never happens. : P

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

And hate votes mean you reached them at an emotional level. Good job!

Not necessarily. My latest got bombed out the gate with more votes than views. What does that say. It has since recovered nicely with a much more normal view to vote ratio.

 

[KeithD]

OK. "You!"

You're having a little trouble with "I/me," I see.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Not necessarily. My latest got bombed out the gate with more votes than views. What does that say.

It says that votes update immediately but views only update on intervals. Nothing more.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

You're having a little trouble with "I/me," I see.

Nope. I'm perfectly fine with I/me. You should try it.