'Wasting' a story.

[lovecraft68]

Received a comment yesterday which asked why I would waste stories. The person was anonymous, but the bulk of his comment made me wonder if they're an author here because they seemed to know about the disparity in votes and traffic in the categories here, which I don't think a lot of readers are all that familiar with.

The comment was in reference to the fact my last two stories were not in I/T or Mature where a lot of my work is, but one in LW and then my contest story in NC/R. Now LW is known for good numbers-not good comments, but you get attention-but the one I wrote was the type to incense and was an experiment of how people would react if none of the three people were likeable...would they choose sides, bash them all? Like it in the sense of reality where most people are kind of selfish and shitty?

As for my dub con story, its doing okay, but okay as in what that category sees for votes and attention, which is far less than my usual choice. The comment reminded me of a not so nice exchange here where another author asked me and another why write a story that doesn't seem appealing to everyone, note this person writes by the numbers formula stories, which is fine I don't questions people's motivations for being here, but people writing outside the lines should get that courtesy.

Point of this post is a general discussion of where you stand on this. I know there are people obsessed with numbers and will only write where the traffic is, and others who will give anything a shot if the idea comes to them.

Other point is, do you think any story is a waste? I don't feel they are, to the contrary, I feel if you're going to lock yourself into number chasing you're stifling your creativity and are you really a writer? Or just a panderer?

Thoughts?

 

[AlinaX]

The only waste is having a good idea but not doing it justice. I just wrote a short story, about 1600 words, and it does feel to me like I would be wasting a good idea to publish it as it is - but also I doubt I'll ever rewrite it.

It's a little frustrating that similar stories will get huge engagement in Incest and little in SciFi, but I'm more at home in the latter and don't see it as a waste in any way.

 

[lovecraft68]

The only waste is having a good idea but not doing it justice. I just wrote a short story, about 1600 words, and it does feel to me like I would be wasting a good idea to publish it as it is - but also I doubt I'll ever rewrite it.

It's a little frustrating that similar stories will get huge engagement in Incest and little in SciFi, but I'm more at home in the latter and don't see it as a waste in any way.

That frustration can happen within a category. My first work here was a long I/T sibling series, but it was dark, depressing, violent at times, and complex. Scores were good because it quickly developed a small dedicated audience, but views/votes and comments were well below average

I'm sitting here creating an actual story-and getting some catharsis from it-and getting 50 votes while "Look sis has boobs" are grabbing 1000. Disheartening, but like you said, the waste would have been to give up and not publish the rest of it.

 

[oggbashan]

If you have finished a story, any story, even if you think it isn't up to standard, not posting it would be a waste.

I have several earlier stories I think, now, could be better written, but I have left them posted as originally writen because they show how I have progressed as an author.

But: When I get comments like this on a story I think is just average, I wonder if there isn't an audience for nearly anything:

From Anon on Bagged at the Opera (2003)

I'm a married female in her 30's, currently on anti-depressants that made my sex drive go fron 55mph to maybe 5 at best. (With my husband using every trick in the book--so to speak--at once).

That was well written, imaginative, and sexy. Plus, I think someone just FLOORED the gas pedal to the metal. Thanks. I needed that. Writer? Try to publish! You can do it.

 

[NotWise]

Write what you want to write, and damn the torpedoes. But you know that.

There are so many different ways to waste effort. The biggest waste in some of my recent stories has come from not sticking the landing. All that work, and then a semi-flop at the end.

My last story leaned a lot on the (non-sexual) tension between two characters then I forgot to use it in the ending.

Two stories back from that one was my Halloween story from last year. I didn't want to write a "horror" ending for the story, but I should have.

The story before that, maybe I forgot what the story was about and wrote the wrong ending.

The story before that was my only NonCon story. I must have gotten tired near the end of the story. Just to save time, I intentionally avoided writing a kink that belonged there.

I'm not worried about running out of stories, and I don't suppose you are either, so what's the problem if you "waste" one?

 

[SimonDoom]

The only waste is having a good idea but not doing it justice.

That says is perfectly! That's exactly how I feel.
I have no single guiding purpose for writing stories. I have written some stories with no purpose other than to get as many views as possible. That worked for me.
But I've also written stories where the purpose was to satisfy a bizarre imaginative kink, and I knew that the story wasn't likely to get that many views, or that it likely would draw a score that would lower my average. That worked too.
I don't think of it as a "waste" so much as a missed opportunity if I feel like I did not quite do justice to the story or give it the ending it deserved. I rushed the ending in my 8 chapter series and I regret that. I've had several commenters say as much, and they're right.

 

[DarkRaven13]

Wonderful discussion thread.

As to the numbers game ... I admit I look ... but I'm fairly new, and know I have a lot to learn and for me, its more of "Yay, someone liked what I wrote" kind of thing. I don't have the "H's" that I hear people talking a lot about ... and if I get there, then I do. I obsess about a LOT of things ... like, A LOT LOT .... but for some reason the story #'s are not one of them.

Now, as to the more interesting question of "wasting a story" (outside of the #'s game) ... I was struggling with that just last week. After finishing it, then placing it aside for a day I re-read it assuming I was going to do some edits. However, I couldn't even get to editing. I felt the story was so poorly written. I like I had written a story that I was just sooooooooo UNHAPPY with. I loved the storyline. But my writing execution just felt horrid. I put it aside for a week before I even picked it up again. I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to trash it (waste it) ... or do a massive re-write.

Just yesterday, I looked at it again. And put it aside.

Then I picked it up again and decided, perhaps a massive re-write was not needed ... but just....some work.

I'm still not fully happy with it, but I couldn't bear to toss it out. Like many of you have stated, perhaps sending in a story is still......writing a story.

I do feel bad on one hand as I have gotten a lot of support and feedback from some of you. With VERY good suggestions and tips and information on writing. I feel as if by submitting this story, even with some re-writing ... that I have ignored what others have taken the time to share with me. If you are one of them, please accept my apologies....i know i did not heed your advice on my most recent submission.

Anyway ... to waste or not to waste .... I guess I am falling (somewhat reluctantly) on the side that says to hit the submit/publish button.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Tough topic. I write chaptered stories, with 10k+ words chapters and even so I get an impression that I could have made a much longer, more detailed story and thus use the idea "better". There is also the 'rushing' effect. When you have the plot completely outlined, and you just can't wait to get to the good part and write something exciting and clever, so you skim through the build up by 'rushing' to get there.

Truth is, we must make some rationalizations when it comes to writing. I usually dish out 10k words per week and thus I try to be efficient, while still writing on a decent level. I know I could put a lot more nuances and details, a lot more subtle additions that would make the story much better objectively, correct the grammar and wording (particularly important for us non native English writers)but then I would do 10k words per month...

We are all slaves to time and motivation and have to make compromises. Sometimes ideas will get wasted, but dishing out a decent story that could have been great is still better than not writing it at all.

 

[Mnkinkcpl]

I don't think any story is a waste, even some of the ones I wrote 20+ years ago that just take up room on my hard drive or dating myself further on hundreds of floppy disks both 3.5 and 5.25

Occasionally I will go back and read a few to see how far I have come or for ideas for a new improved version.

I have read a few very poorly written stories here (not to say that my stories are well written, since I know they are not.) that have sparked my own imagination. That happened Saturday night and I didn't even finish it before I spent the next four hours writing.

 

[soflabbwlvr]

I don't write stories with an intention to appeal to everyone. I write what is on my mind at a particular point in time. Usually I will have a category in mind when I start a story because I know where the story is going before I begin writing. Sometimes I finish a story and have to choose between two or more categories, and in those cases I post it where it will be best received. So do I waste stories by not writing for the most popular categories? Possibly, but I have no interest in those categories, so what would be the point of chasing numbers? If I did that, I would be wasting my time.

 

[Bazzle]

I have four or five stories in plot Cul de sacs. They are currently wasted. But once published and hated by the public. They are not wasted. As they out of my sad brain. Which is a relief.

Some ideas are wasted by some authors. Of it's badly written or the plot jumps missing out bits?

My numbers on here are average to poor. But hey ho.

B

 

[Defluer]

I wish I could "Stay in my lane" but it's impossible. I write the thing that appeals to me and pushes me forward. I do have a couple LW stories that are wasting away right now because I just don't have the heart to publish them. Or maybe I don't have the emotional fortitude to go through and edit them (Which is 100% nothing but a chore to me akin to cleaning the damn toilet. And I mean a dirty public toilet, not my own.) not when I know they're gonna get trolled after all that work.

Sometimes I think, "Could this idea be I/T?" because I know it will do better. But usually I can't twist the story to fit there. I wrote one series thinking it would not be I/T, but got put into that category anyway. Because of Sister-in-Law on Brother-in-Law action I guess. I got a bunch of comments on that about how it wasn't incest, shouldn't be in the category. Which I agreed with.

I do sometimes sneak I/T into my story, but only for me and maybe future stories. I did it with my latest Series 3 Times with a Geeky Rollerblader. Two characters are sisters (not that they do anything to each other) but because it's from the MC's POV we don't find that out, it might get revealed in a future story. And at the end the Sister IS watching on her doorbell camera. I stated it over and over during the course of the series that she watches the footage and the MC and Geeky Rollerblader do it in the backyard of the sister's house. So how is that for a waste? I had that popular genre loaded up in the story already but didn't include it on purpose. Because the story of the Geeky Rollerblader was not a story of incest. I served the story and not numbers.

 

[Trionyx]

Unless it is patently clear what I've written is awful, I go ahead and publish everything. I am surprised at how often I think a story isn't that good yet the voting suggests otherwise...and how often I think a story is pretty good yet the scores are lower. One of my most thought-provoking stories, at least in my opinion, didn't do well at all. One never knows in advance.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Interesting question. I have never been one that wrote for the masses. I have tempered some of my stories to have a broader appeal. With that said, my work is still more of an acquired taste than one most snap up and chomp down with their first reading.

I’m pretty sure I can’t mold my stories, those that are from my disturbed mind, into something totally in a Literotica sense of mainstream. I like to write darker stories, which I seem to avoid delving into here, than fly around here. Not that they will be rejected by Lit, but bad endings aren’t something you see on here that much. After all, no one gets out of life alive.

 

[DarkRaven13]

Interesting question. I have never been one that wrote for the masses. I have tempered some of my stories to have a broader appeal. With that said, my work is still more of an acquired taste than one most snap up and chomp down with their first reading.

I’m pretty sure I can’t mold my stories, those that are from my disturbed mind, into something totally in a Literotica sense of mainstream. I like to write darker stories, which I seem to avoid delving into here, than fly around here. Not that they will be rejected by Lit, but bad endings aren’t something you see on here that much. After all, no one gets out of life alive.

I like your stories

 

[MillieDynamite]

I like your stories

That's very kind of you to say.

 

[oggbashan]

A fair number of my long list of stories are in the Fetish category. That is almost a guarantee never to get an H because either my story exactly meets your particular fetish (with 100s of variants that's unlikely) or it doesn't and therefore you leave a lower vote.

 

[MillieDynamite]

A fair number of my long list of stories are in the Fetish category. That is almost a guarantee never to get an H because either my story exactly meets your particular fetish (with 100s of variants that's unlikely) or it doesn't and therefore you leave a lower vote.

A few of the many fetishes out there! Role Play, Objectification, Pregnancy, Exhibitionism and Voyeurism, Foot, Shoe, Nylon, Tentacles, Acrotomophilia, Breath Play (very, very dangerous), BDSM (with a whole list unto itself), Wax, Electrostimulation or Zappers, Gagging (only slightly different than breath play), Impact Play, Klismaphilia (also called enema play eeewww), Quirofilia (all about the fingers baby), Yoni Egg, Spectrophilia, oh, and don’t forget Fetishism = arousal to objects that have been in physical contact with desired person, Gerontophilia, Katoptronophilia = arousal to sex in front of mirrors, Knismolagnia = arousal to being tickled and many, many more.

 

[DarkRaven13]

A few of the many fetishes out there! Role Play, Objectification, Pregnancy, Exhibitionism and Voyeurism, Foot, Shoe, Nylon, Tentacles, Acrotomophilia, Breath Play (very, very dangerous), BDSM (with a whole list unto itself), Wax, Electrostimulation or Zappers, Gagging (only slightly different than breath play), Impact Play, Klismaphilia (also called enema play eeewww), Quirofilia (all about the fingers baby), Yoni Egg, Spectrophilia, oh, and don’t forget Fetishism = arousal to objects that have been in physical contact with desired person, Gerontophilia, Katoptronophilia = arousal to sex in front of mirrors, Knismolagnia = arousal to being tickled and many, many more.

I normally Google terms I don't know. But its like 50% of this would need to be googled by me! (I think I have a LOT to learn still.)

 

[PeytonMirabelle]

I'm sitting here creating an actual story-and getting some catharsis from it-and getting 50 votes while "Look sis has boobs" are grabbing 1000. Disheartening, but like you said, the waste would have been to give up and not publish the rest of it.

This is my feeling on the matter. We all know what kind of stories score really well here (in views, stars, and comments) and I think most writers could write boilerplate to those if they wanted to--if that's their goal.

Do I get disappointed when stories I consider trite or inferior to mine score better? Sure, a little. Does it stop me from writing the tales I enjoy writing? Never ... and at least a few others enjoy them, so it's all good. I always like telling my stories (even if I think I can keep getting better), so in that sense, a story is never "wasted."

 

[MillieDynamite]

I normally Google terms I don't know. But its like 50% of this would need to be googled by me! (I think I have a LOT to learn still.)

Almost anything can become a personal fetish. Who would think a man fucking a high-heel shoe as something sexy?

 

[DarkRaven13]

Almost anything can become a personal fetish. Who would think a man fucking a high-heel shoe as something sexy?

I will go one further....who in the hell thinks high-heels are sexy? Lol. Sorry...but again...

High Heels = The Devil

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, I'm 4' 10", so, you know, it helps make my legs look longer! They are not exactly comfortable.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The only waste is having a good idea but not doing it justice.

This is true, but it can also be a trap - the perfect becomes the enemy of the good. It's easy to spot the flaws in one's own work, much harder to recognise when it's good enough to be worth publishing anyway.

Sometimes I find it useful to remind myself that this isn't the last good idea I'm going to have, and once I've released this one - even if it's not quite perfect - I can start on the next one and learn from whatever I didn't manage to do this time around.

 

[HeyAll]

Not a 'waste,' even though it will get less views than incest, because it will reach new viewers.

With people going to the Hubs now, different readers read different things.

It's good to branch out and let new readers discover your work.