What Is Wrong With My Stories?

[Shendude]

Over the past month or so, I posted a number of new stories. With one exception, most of them have not been extended at all. This leads me to believe that either A: there is something wrong with my writing, or B: there is something wrong with the stories themselves.

Would anyone be willing to provide some constructive criticism so that I may do better in the future? Thank you.

I apologize if I'm coming off as whiny here, that is not my intention.

 

[Gunde]

You haven't necessarily done anything wrong. Chyoo simply doesn't work that way, it's pretty/very rare that a story is added and then starts growing straight away without too much effort from its creator.
Try adding more of your own threads to them and collaborating with others, adding to their stories.

 

[Kaitou1412]

It also doesn't help that most of your stories were approved on December 31 and they haven't been updated since. 49 stories were approved that day. I know I certainly skipped most of them that day and just read my old favorites that got new threads and saved the new stories I'd read for a less crowded day, so I wouldn't be surprised if other users did too.

You've been doing everything else right; your threads are above the average level of a Chyoo writer (IMO anyway, though I only read two or three - not my genres) and you're contributing to other stories. Gunde's tip is really all you can do at this point.

 

[tnadnuder]

If I had to guess, I'd say fear is a big reason. You've left a lot open for others to create/decide. A lot of writers would enjoy that, but they probaby think/realize that whatever decisions they make woul then have to allow for others to work off of, which is (or, atleast, sounds/seems) difficult.

I agree with the idea of adding more.

 

[deathofcards]

The two possible reasons would be that there are not enough threads in the story to grab people's interest. The second reason for me at least would be most of your stories seem a little too similar.

 

[DamianWhite]

The two possible reasons would be that there are not enough threads in the story to grab people's interest. The second reason for me at least would be most of your stories seem a little too similar.

I generally don't check out a story if it only has one or two threads, or if it just doesn't grab my attention. As deathofcards said, your stories are all along the same general theme, which at least in my case just isn't anything that catches my eye. Also, when I browse stories, it's generally by checking out the recently updated ones, and then I only go about 3-4 pages back. The longer a story goes without any updates, the less likely I am to read it. I don't know if other people are like this or not.

 

[tnadnuder]

I generally don't check out a story if it only has one or two threads, or if it just doesn't grab my attention. As deathofcards said, your stories are all along the same general theme, which at least in my case just isn't anything that catches my eye. Also, when I browse stories, it's generally by checking out the recently updated ones, and then I only go about 3-4 pages back. The longer a story goes without any updates, the less likely I am to read it. I don't know if other people are like this or not.

1] I must say that I am probably more likely to check out a story with fewer threads, as it leaves less ideas, etc. I have to conform to. However, that is also a reason I gave previously why people don't read/add to stories, as (esp. in sci-fi & other similar-type stories) I don't like setting-up anything future writers would have to follow.

2] I also must agree with DW, however, that I mainly look at stories with recent activity. That is 1 reason I think we need CHYOO 3 or something similar, as the current site seems to have a large backlog of stories that have remained untouched a long time with writers/editors that may be inactive.

 

[Shendude]

Thanks for the advice, everybody.

 

[Shendude]

Apologies for the necro, but I have another request, of a similar natures. While looking over my stories, I have noticed that several of them are rather low-rated: The Revolution Cums is 2.0/3; The Pervert Planets is 0.0/2; Planet of the Babes is 1.0/5; & Jacob and His Jinniyah is 0.8/6.

This seems to indicate that I'm doing something wrong. Would anyone be willing to provide constructive criticism, so that I can correct whatever issues their might be in the future?

 

[24ward]

Apologies for the necro, but I have another request, of a similar natures. While looking over my stories, I have noticed that several of them are rather low-rated: The Revolution Cums is 2.0/3; The Pervert Planets is 0.0/2; Planet of the Babes is 1.0/5; & Jacob and His Jinniyah is 0.8/6.

This seems to indicate that I'm doing something wrong. Would anyone be willing to provide constructive criticism, so that I can correct whatever issues their might be in the future?

Those ratings are busted, so disregard them. They are not an accurate gauge of your feedback.

 

[Gunde]

The (only?) way to see the rating of the individual threads of your stories (including those of other writers) is to do an advanced search.
1. Go to advanced search
2. Write in for example planet of the babes in the keyword field
3. Choose "story titles and synopsis" and "show results as threads"
4. Hit "Search"

Planet of the babes consists of four threads, all of which have got top ratings.

 

[Kaitou1412]

Apologies for the necro, but I have another request, of a similar natures. While looking over my stories, I have noticed that several of them are rather low-rated: The Revolution Cums is 2.0/3; The Pervert Planets is 0.0/2; Planet of the Babes is 1.0/5; & Jacob and His Jinniyah is 0.8/6.

This seems to indicate that I'm doing something wrong. Would anyone be willing to provide constructive criticism, so that I can correct whatever issues their might be in the future?

Wait. Are you viewing them from where everyone views them? Or are you viewing them from your Stories page? The bug only extends to the former; if one person casts more than one vote in the same story (like rating two different threads of The Pervert Planets), then the public pages cast it as a duplicate rating and ignore it, but the total votes still goes up, so the average suffers. And I have no idea what happens in the event the ratings are different. However, on your Stories page the bug doesn't exist. Different ratings by the same user on the same story go through and are added to the sum and, therefore, the average. You can read the real ratings for your stories on your Stories page (link up at the top of a page when you're logged in). And the ratings for your threads are viewable either through a thread search (Gunde's post), through your Threads page (right next to the link to your Stories page), or through your public profile (click on your username when next to a story or thread you wrote, scroll down your profile page, and click on "Threads"). For the threads, Gunde's lists them in order of most recently updated, the Threads page lists them in order of creation, and the profile groups them alphabetically by story and...then I have no clue.

Further, the fact that your stories, and not your threads, are the things with these low ratings is also noteworthy (lowest rating I saw for your threads was a 1 and it was for a thread that had next to no text in it). This speaks more about your choices as an editor than your choices as a writer. However, that's assuming the ratings themselves weren't venomous in nature.

As I said before, I'm not much for the Sci-Fi/Fantasy or Fan-Fiction erotica/porn stories, so I can't say too much on this. However, I can say that the best advice I can give until someone who's read your stories can give helpful feedback is not to sweat it too much. If you start second guessing yourself before there's any feedback, it's only going to lead to real problems in the long run.

 

[Shendude]

Again, thanks for the help, folks.

 

[Shendude]

Apologies for the further necro, BUT...

I currently have three stories that are ranked 1.0/1, which means they have genuinely been given a 1.0 rating; I was hoping someone could point out to me what's wrong with them. They are:

The Bonobabes
Empress Bambi, Sexy Tyrant
The Polygyny Chronicles

 

[whizzper]

Nothing's wrong with your stories actually. Just looked through a couple of recent votes, and someone went through starting about 515 AM this morning and voted 1 on a lot of threads.

Whether this person thought 1 is good and liked the threads, or s/he's a troll I don't know.

 

[Gunde]

Over the last couple of months, pretty much all new stories have been hit with 1-ratings.

 

[jakelyon]

Rating system is broken

The other thing to remember is that the rating system is just broken somehow also. It has some programming flaw that does not calculate right. Also I think some people think 1 is the best rating instead of the worst.