Variety is the spice of life?

[mostlyintact]

Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new to Literotica still. I have a few short little "porn" pieces up, but anything that I'd dare to call literature is still in the works.

Anyway, when I find a story I like, I naturally look to see what else that author has written. It always surprises me when someone has all of their work (I've seen 80+) in the same category.

I'm really curious to hear people people's thoughts on that. I always figured erotica was neat because it let you explore the myriad of experiences we haven't gotten to have in our lives. And I can only imagine that some of these really good writers would create genuinely unique pieces if they took their finely honed skill set to another genre on occasion.

So my question to writers with one specific category is, "why?"

 

[sunandshadow]

Well, I don't have any work on Lit, but if I posted my stuff here it would all go in the science fiction and fantasy category. That doesn't mean it has no variety - one story might have incest, another might be about impregnation and breeding, a third might be a rather vanilla romance. But science fiction and fantasy has been my favorite genre since I first started reading novels, and it influenced what I thought about. When I was playing pretend with my toys I sent them to colonize mars or sent them to magic school. So science fiction and fantasy is just "me", it's my mindset. Further, as a reader I demand happy endings and I love reading about people's inner thoughts and feelings, so romance is a great genre for me, while horror and tragedy aren't my cup of tea at all. I don't write 100% romance, maybe more like 80%, but romance is also "me", while dark genres are very not "me".

That doesn't even get into the fact that I and many others respond strongly to some theme which is most naturally explored with 2 or three particular fetishes, and irrelevant to most others. And men in particular seem to have an imprinting instinct, where one event that gets them extremely sexually excited as a teen or young adult results in them having a fetish for something associated with that event for the rest of their lives.

 

[damppanties]

So my question to writers with one specific category is, "why?"

No one reason, I don't think.

Some people write what interests them and only one category / genre might be interesting.

Others want to build a fan base and cater to audience expectations, so don't venture out of what their readers want to read. I know people who have made different ids according to what they write.

Some authors feel they can't so as good in other genres as compared to the one they write in. This might be true, might not be.

For some people, it's not about experimentation or exploring a category. They write for other reasons.

sunandshadow, imprinting is an interesting theory.

 

[Feotakahari]

I write science fiction and fantasy because I like designing new worlds, because I like designing new magic systems, and above all because I like designing new species that don't necessarily think the same way humans do. (Some of you may have figured out by now that if I ever call a creature by a common name like "demon," it's for sheer brevity--for instance, my "werewolf" is a living embodiment of the concept of the predatory animal in humanity's collective unconscious.)

Edit: For what it's worth, I did once write a story in Transsexuals and Crossdressers, but it's my lowest-rated story to date. Apparently, my recurrent difficulties with writing descriptions are more obvious in realistic than speculative fiction.

 

[Darkniciad]

Just because a pen name has a solid list of one or very few categories doesn't mean that the author only writes in those categories.

I have three pen names. I did it specifically to keep different types of stories separate. I've written in 20 different categories ( with plans to fill in two more in the near future ) but you couldn't tell by looking at any one of my pen names.

 

[Boxlicker101]

Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new to Literotica still. I have a few short little "porn" pieces up, but anything that I'd dare to call literature is still in the works.

Anyway, when I find a story I like, I naturally look to see what else that author has written. It always surprises me when someone has all of their work (I've seen 80+) in the same category.

I'm really curious to hear people people's thoughts on that. I always figured erotica was neat because it let you explore the myriad of experiences we haven't gotten to have in our lives. And I can only imagine that some of these really good writers would create genuinely unique pieces if they took their finely honed skill set to another genre on occasion.

So my question to writers with one specific category is, "why?"

Some people just like to write about incest or gay men or some other category and stick to those categories. Personally, I write in every category except illustrated stories and audible stories.

By the way, welcome to Literotica and the Authors' Hangout.

 

[oggbashan]

I write in a variety of categories but many are fetish involving women's clothing.

Why?

Because my first erotic writings were for specific Yahoo Adult Groups, and the fetish ones responded more than any others.

 

[sr71plt]

Like Dark, I write different genres under different pen names. But even though I write mainly one genre under my forum name, I have stories in a wide variety of categories (21) even under this name. Stories in these categories do better under other pen names, though, so it seems reasonable I would continue the pen name specialization.

 

[PennLady]

I just write what I get ideas for, much of which is inspired by what I read, or listen to, or watch. That's a small range, I suppose, but there are lots of ideas in that range.

 

[Babeslady]

I am intrigued by the idea of different pen names for different categories. I don't think it is a bad thing but I am curious about why people chose to go down this road.

Personally I have set a challenge for myself to write an entry in as many different categories as I can this year in the interest of self development. I will be using the same pen name for them all though. I don't think I could keep track of too many different 'personas'

 

[sr71plt]

I am intrigued by the idea of different pen names for different categories. I don't think it is a bad thing but I am curious about why people chose to go down this road.

Even writers in the mainstream do this. A writer's fan base is largely based on a genre formula that resonates--not on variety of writing. The base wants more of the same. And readers of some categories won't touch some other categories. If a writer openly writes in both, he/she stands a good chance of losing both fan bases. It's not really what can theoretically happen, it's what does happen in reality.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I am intrigued by the idea of different pen names for different categories. I don't think it is a bad thing but I am curious about why people chose to go down this road.

Personally I have set a challenge for myself to write an entry in as many different categories as I can this year in the interest of self development. I will be using the same pen name for them all though. I don't think I could keep track of too many different 'personas'

I have but one pen name thus far. However, sometime this year I plan to create a second for the sole purpose of posting stories in Loving Wives. The reason is that LW attracts the most horrific trolls, some of whom will 1 bomb not only the story they are reading, but any other stories by the author they have just bombed. In order to avoid collateral damage, I will house all future LW stories in separate neighborhood.

 

[sr71plt]

A point on my explanation. What is the pen name I have here that has the best ratings? (and my best pen name e-book sales, for that matter?) The one written from a mildy lesbian perspection.

I have a green E for one of the lesbian stories I've written under my forum pen name--but not nearly the favorable reader reception for lesbian stories written under this pen name than for those written under an exclusive lesbian stories pen name.

 

[Babeslady]

A point on my explanation. What is the pen name I have here that has the best ratings? (and my best pen name e-book sales, for that matter?) The one written from a mildy lesbian perspection.

I have a green E for one of the lesbian stories I've written under my forum pen name--but not nearly the favorable reader reception for lesbian stories written under this pen name than for those written under an exclusive lesbian stories pen name.

I had another thought about the original comment after reading this. There is likely a perception by readers (and some authors) that a person cannot write well about something they haven't actually done.

I would imagine for sr7plt that there would be an idea among some of the readers that he isn't able to write well about lesbians because he has no way of being one!!

Conversely perhaps some (obviously not all) writers stick to one category because that is what they know from experience or fantasy and the other categories either scare the hell out of them or they just don't have any idea what to write.

 

[sr71plt]

I would imagine for sr7plt that there would be an idea among some of the readers that he isn't able to write well about lesbians because he has no way of being one!!

I certainly don't write extremely graphic sex scenes for those stories for that reason.

I see "write what you know" as one of those sweeping generalizations with a grain of truth that neophytes then turn into an overblown mantra.

 

[lance gt]

I had another thought about the original comment after reading this. There is likely a perception by readers (and some authors) that a person cannot write well about something they haven't actually done.

I would imagine for sr7plt that there would be an idea among some of the readers that he isn't able to write well about lesbians because he has no way of being one!!

Conversely perhaps some (obviously not all) writers stick to one category because that is what they know from experience or fantasy and the other categories either scare the hell out of them or they just don't have any idea what to write.

I write in many genres, Lesbian being one of my better ones. Even though I'm a straight male, I did plenty of research and watched videos to get a better understanding. The challenge was looking at it from a female perspective and not mine. this gave me the inspiration to try different genres and explore my limits of writing. I have several names I write under, mostly to see if it's the story, or the writer that is doing well.

I found the more I delved into unknown areas to write in, I had to broaden my scope of styles, as one doesn't work well for others , as it did in a genre that I wrote well in.

 

[TxRad]

I write the story and the category is the last thing i worry about. The only problem is sometimes the story is hard to fit into just one category or into a category at all.

 

[patdown]

I have only the one name and have stories in multiple categories, some written from a man's perspective and some from the female view. And I do try to mix it up. Sometimes people say, write what you know, well then how does science fiction get created? I like the variety and some stories seem too obvious or vain if written by one of the parties involved but from the other perspective makes for a better read.

I don't write series as many do. I like to see if I can take the characters from a story and have all or some of them come back in another story in some different category by being in different situations that are believable based on what the reader discovered about them in the previous story.

 

[amofiga]

I'm also relatively new here, but 15 years ago or so, I did some sort stories for two magazines that published erotic "letters". Of the three stories I've done here, one was in "BDSM" and two in "Incest/Taboo" although the second was multi chapters and covered some BDSM activity. I'm working on a story now that will probably be in "Loving Wives".

I don't set out to do something in one particular area or another. I get and idea, expand it, work it, and then decide where it should go based on the primary setting. I doubt that I'd ever try anything in the Gay/Lesbian area since I have no experiences there. I'd rather write from what I know rather than try to fake it. Although I have no actual experience with any sort of incest, the actions were still heterosexual so it wasn't much of a stretch. However, one of the stories that I did years ago was written in the first person as a woman so I was happy that I seemed to be able to "channel my feminine side".