To condense or not?

[Camilleon]

Hello everyone,

I am kinda sorta writing a book based on past experiences. I posted a small piece of it here (see link below) just to see what kind of feedback I would get. Well, I've gotten a lot of responses asking me to continue the story. Here's my question:

The story is rather involved and a lot of it has no sex. Should I condense the story and post only the pieces with sex (since this is an erotica site, of course), or should I also post those pieces necessary to make the whole story?

Thank you for your suggestions.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=337127

Camilleon

 

[DocCIS]

Hello everyone,

I am kinda sorta writing a book based on past experiences. I posted a small piece of it here (see link below) just to see what kind of feedback I would get. Well, I've gotten a lot of responses asking me to continue the story. Here's my question:

The story is rather involved and a lot of it has no sex. Should I condense the story and post only the pieces with sex (since this is an erotica site, of course), or should I also post those pieces necessary to make the whole story?

Thank you for your suggestions.

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=337127

Camilleon

By no means an expert, but something doesn't have to have sex to be erotic. A bit of teaser here and there more than compensates. A good story is a good story so even if there are just "filler" chapters which are expanding characters or leading up to an experience or plot are more than sufficient.

Reading a lot of stories on this site many are not about sex, but just good stories...so I'd say keep writing and don't get hung up on the "erotic" portion so much. If you feel the need to include them make the stories longer so when you do hit a sexual part of the story everything builds up to it.

 

[Camilleon]

Thank you, Doc!

I wish I had given this more thought before I posted what I posted. I probably cut it off at a bad place - I don't know, maybe. I could probably fix that, but I am still unsure about posting the next part which deals almost exclusively with an internal struggle. Hmmm....

Everybody wants to know "what happens in Chicago". I could skip the internal struggle and go straight to "Chicago," or keep the struggle and let the story continue as it is.

...decisions, decisions....

Thanks, again.

 

[sr71plt]

This was posted to erotic coupling and all parts of work should be posted to the same catagory if you don't want to lose readers and attract critical comment/scoring. Unfortunately, as you post, this is an erotica site, so if you post segments to this catagory that are nonerotic, you'll inevitably also lose readers and attract critical comment/scoring. This is an issue best planned out before posting anything.

The choices at this point seem to be three: (1) rerun the entire novel to the novel section, where the nonerotic parts won't attract as much negativity (although, idealy, an erotic serialized novel has something erotic in every chapter--as the publisher sites of longer works will usually note in their submissions guidelines); (2) post only the erotic sections to this catagory in segments that are related but that stand alone as stories; (3) post it any way/where you want and just steel yourself against negative commenting and some low scoring.

 

[mjl2010]

My suggestion would be to use the novels and novella's category.

You don't get as many readers but, the ones you do get are usually more interested in good writing than erotica. Sex becomes secondary to the story.

You can always ask Laurel to move your story there or have it deleted and resubmit it.

MJL

 

[Camilleon]

I am much more interested in knowing whether my writing is good or not.

And thank you for your responses. After considering them all - you've given me a great idea!

Camilleon

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Quite frankly, of the 33 stories I have posted on Lit, only two are sex based stories. But still, my scores tend to be respectable. In other words, A good story is a lot more important than a good wank, even on Lit.

Some of the finest erotica has no sex at all. Try reading John Updyke and you'll see what I mean.

If the story is quite long you have two choices -

a) Cut it up into chapters, each of which are in themselves stories and post as Chapters.

b) Post the whole thing in Novels and Novellas.

The main difference is, the b option will get you few reads.

 

[sr71plt]

Quite frankly, of the 33 stories I have posted on Lit, only two are sex based stories. But still, my scores tend to be respectable. In other words, A good story is a lot more important than a good wank, even on Lit.

I think the essential point for this thread is that none of your 31 stories posted on Lit. that aren't sex based were posted to the Erotic Coupling catagory.

I don't think an author should be surprised at negative comments and voting if they post a work without any sex in it to the Erotic Coupling Catagory, whether or not other parts of that series have sex in them.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I think the essential point for this thread is that none of your 31 stories posted on Lit. that aren't sex based were posted to the Erotic Coupling catagory.

I don't think an author should be surprised at negative comments and voting if they post a work without any sex in it to the Erotic Coupling Catagory, whether or not other parts of that series have sex in them.

Actually one of this is posted in that catagory, I believe and has an "H". If you were going to pick a catagory to flee from it would be Loving Wives.

 

[Camilleon]

Jenny, what is the "H"? That must be a rating. How does it come about?

Also, is Loving Wives a bad category? Darn! I've been trying to convince my husband for years!

Thanks to all of you. You've been far more helpful than you realize. You've made me completely reconsider what I would have submitted - and that's good. I didn't realize just how inexperienced I truly am.

Camilleon

 

[mjl2010]

The H signifies the story has an average vote of 4.5 or higher, thus making it a highly rated story. The H = Highly Rated. I think you need at least 10 votes too. There is a minimum, but I'm not sure what it is.

MJL

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Jenny, what is the "H"? That must be a rating. How does it come about?

Also, is Loving Wives a bad category? Darn! I've been trying to convince my husband for years!

Thanks to all of you. You've been far more helpful than you realize. You've made me completely reconsider what I would have submitted - and that's good. I didn't realize just how inexperienced I truly am.

Camilleon

Yeah... what MJ said about the "H" is correct. As far as the various catagoies, each has its own weirdness. The general population of wankers...I mean readers tend to stay and do their reading in one catagory. Loving Wives tends to be tough. This catagory is geneally about wives who fuck someone other than their husbands at his urging.

It's my opinion that the readers in that catagory all had wives who cheated on them and they devour the stories there then vote their "1 bombs" with the righteous hand of God to teach the writers a lesson.