What does a reader want?

[Recidiva]

Holy shit! My wife's here! Or the wife of my alt or something like that.

Dammit woman, I've told you not to follow me here from the GB!

Hey!

I just wrote the most squickworthy smut of my life, as a prompt and I was compensated for it. I got nostalgic for the place. You know, back when I had shame and wrote tentative attempts at stuff like that where I hid it in a virtual drawer. As I should have.

And yet I am proud and I'm gonna do it again.

This crap's bad, I could not in good conscience let you, as my husband, associate me with such trash.

So you know. Shun me and stuff. Go ahead. Shun.

SHUN THE DISBELIEVER!

Or hugs. Hugs are good.

 

[Carnillia]

I love that kind of stuff

I'm in the process of starting a story that will be long and very informative. A story that will go on for a long time, before any sex is in it. It has adventure, action and fantasy.

I'm just wondering if readers enjoy that kind of stuff. A long story that isn't centered around that much sex. Or even if Lit is OK with stories like that. Don't get me wrong, sex is an important part of it, but it builds up over a period of time. There's a lot of story development and character development.

I've read a few stories here on Lit, most got to the sex pretty quick, but others went on and on and it happened later. Are readers OK with stories that get about 4 or 5 pages in before the "action" begins?

I love that kind of stories best than the ones that goes straight to the sex parts. I like multid
imensional characters that moves in grey areas, not just black and whites one. I like a story to build a moment more than just rush into it. I want sex scenes to mean something to the story you are telling. I like feelings not just lust. I want guilt and regret, I want people wondering and thinking. So, it is not just how long it takes to get to the sex part, but HOW you get there and what it means in the story you are telling. I am rfeader of the "loving wives" because I usually find what I'm looking for there. Maybe, if you haven't you could read some of the stories there to have a better idea of what I mean. I hope this helps.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

...I like multidimensional characters that moves in grey areas, not just black and whites one. I like a story to build a moment more than just rush into it. I want sex scenes to mean something to the story you are telling. I like feelings not just lust. I want guilt and regret, I want people wondering and thinking. ...

Read my stuff. https://www.literotica.com/s/why-i-hate-my-roommate-ch-01 is a place to start.

 

[Zodia195]

I am with most people here. I've learned that if I love what I am doing, it'll show in the writing naturally and others will enjoy it too. This is true for anyone in a creative field. Those who care about what they're doing will put the extra time and effort to create a product they love. It is terrifying thinking others won't like what you do, but have faith in yourself.

Oh I've found that my highest scoring story had no sex in it at all. And the one story that did have one sex scene (so far), it wasn't the highest score in the story. So there's definitely a place here for us writers who do stories with lesser (or no) sex in it. It's all about the story.

 

[Ldy_Sea]

My rule is very simple. I write for me. I am not getting paid, I am using this as a way to live vicariously through my characters. If the readers like it great. If they don't, great. It doesn't hurt me either way.

I can't believe the number of people that complain about minutiae on a site that provides them erotic stories for no charge and few ads.

Write what you want, describe it the best you can in Lit's limited field form, and que sera sera.

I did start adding an authors note to let readers know that what kind if any sex is in the story. That did cut down on the number of trolls who posted negative comments when something happened they didn't like.

 

[Zodia195]

Oh yeah, I always add an Author's Note too. This is a bit off subject, but if you have an Editor, add that Author's Note to thank them publicly. It shows the editor how much you appreciate them since editors tend to work for multiple authors. It also lets your audience know you're story is being edited. Most of my story complaints came from chapters where I didn't have an editor and people complained about the grammar.