why a story didn't perform well

[gunhilltrain]

A GIF is worth a thousand words.

Hah, bestiality is not allowed on Lit. Unless it's a mythical cat-like creature of some kind. You can fool around with a unicorn but not a horse (as Catherine the Great was alleged to have done, but that probably never happened).

 

[StillStunned]

Hah, bestiality is not allowed on Lit. Unless it's a mythical cat-like creature of some kind. You can fool around with a unicorn but not a horse (as Catherine the Great was alleged to have done, but that probably never happened).

I'm not sure what my post had to do with bestiality.

 

[lovecraft68]

For taboo, backseat stories are the biggest surefire.

You're right, and even as someone who is a fan of the taboo genre, I don't see what the huge appeal is to this scenario.

 

[SimonDoom]

You're right, and even as someone who is a fan of the taboo genre, I don't see what the huge appeal is to this scenario.

Usually, Dad is in the front seat driving. The scenario heightens the whole crazy Oedipal appeal of it and the dramatic/taboo tension. Son is snatching Mom from under Dad's nose.

 

[gunhilltrain]

There are several factors on why a story may not have garnered the performance you were hoping for.

My advice is to not take it personal, and view the number of votes or comments on a story as a meter of engagement. You could also gauge the interaction based on users favoriting the stories.

You're not going to please everyone. You will get negative comments and some that are spiteful from anonymous cowards trolling and so forth, that's just how it goes on this site. The bottom line is to not take it personal or let it get under your skin.

I think an author should write whatever they want, and not care about the critics. You have absolute freedom to write whatever you want, and the only person that really matters for pleasing at the end of the day is yourself. You're not going to win over critics, but if you consistently write long enough and put out more material, you'll gain followers and an audience.

I was going to say that you can go for popularity if that is your highest priority. Even that may be difficult to achieve. If you look at your followers' profiles, they will likely be following dozens or maybe hundreds of other authors. Thus is possible to, say, have 180 followers and get five votes. You are lost among their endless distractions.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Usually, Dad is in the front seat driving. The scenario heightens the whole crazy Oedipal appeal of it and the dramatic/taboo tension. Son is snatching Mom from under Dad's nose.

I tried inverting the trope in my first attempt in I/T. The stepmom (I don't do blood relatives) drives a truck for a living and take her stepson along, while looking for the right opportunity. That is certainly possible on U.S. 50 in Nevada, the "Loneliest Highway in America." 192 votes so far which is fine for me. "Oh, White Freightliner, won't you haul away my pain?"

https://classic.literotica.com/s/trucker-mom-1

A front-seat trope? The stepdad is back in Reno.

 

[lovecraft68]

Usually, Dad is in the front seat driving. The scenario heightens the whole crazy Oedipal appeal of it and the dramatic/taboo tension. Son is snatching Mom from under Dad's nose.

Fiction has to fiction, and as discussed often, we all have our own limits of how far we can stretch it and where we say "Um, no"

If you can fuck someone multiple times 2-3 feet behind someone and they don't know? Either the kid has a 3 inch dick or mom is a gaping hole that doesn't feel anything.

But other than my personal reality boundaries, its so easy to write one its a joke.

But to your point of getting mom under dad's nose I have three anthologies published called if Dad only Knew and each of the 9 stories is mom screwing her son with dad somewhere in the vicinity. I've never used the backseat trope. I have personal disdain for it. I don't need the attention bad enough to try one.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I don't usually browse the NonCon stories, so I opened your second story to see the rating, currently 3.56 versus the 4.15 of your first one.

Right from the start, I can see a problem. As someone else here said, you posted Chapter Two of a multi-chapter book. But the stories posted here on LitE are stories the readers click on to read ... as a story. Chapter Two does not give any background to build the characters or scene for the new reader. You assumed the reader has already read Chapter One (which posted months earlier). Very few readers will go back to first read Chapter One. And even of those who read that first chapter, many of them have read plenty of other stories since then and don't hold the scene in the mind.

Your first paragraph in CH2 had me question "Why is she embarrassed? What ordeal?" You're making ME work to try understanding what I'm reading!

To post a series, at a minimum, you need to provide a Prologue or condensed summary of the relevant material from the previous stories to reset the reader's mind in the scene.

Apparently there are readers who will read the latest chapter in a series but they won't bother to go back and start from the beginning. Too many distractions and short attention spans are the probable reasons.

 

[KeithD]

Apparently there are readers who will read the latest chapter in a series but they won't bother to go back and start from the beginning. Too many distractions and short attention spans are the probable reasons.

I almost always have later chapters with higher view counts than the first chapter, which makes me go "What the fuck?"

 

[gunhilltrain]

I almost always have later chapters with higher view counts than the first chapter, which makes me go "What the fuck?"

I usually don't have more than about twelve chapters. But yes, there can be some up and down fluctuations. I'm guessing that the taglines or the tags may draw in some people based on their own interests.

 

[lovecraft68]

Has anyone mentioned the first story is four months old and the other still has the new icon? Or is the OP comparing the first few days for both?

TBH, and as this thread proves, there are so many reasons a story sinks or swims its not worth worrying about. Just keep writing.

 

[lovecraft68]

I almost always have later chapters with higher view counts than the first chapter, which makes me go "What the fuck?"

Maybe they're opening it to save it, and then going back to chapter one?

 

[KeithD]

Maybe they're opening it to save it, and then going back to chapter one?

Or maybe they just scan through whatever is before them, looking for the sex, and responding to how well they like the sex depicted in that separate chapter. Maybe they aren't following the story at all.

Of maybe . . . or maybe . . .

 

[cadeauxxx]

I was going to say that you can go for popularity if that is your highest priority. Even that may be difficult to achieve. If you look at your followers' profiles, they will likely be following dozens or maybe hundreds of other authors. Thus is possible to, say, have 180 followers and get five votes. You are lost among their endless distractions.

This is good advice too, and you're right about the endless distractions. Literotica is a much bigger site than any alternative offering erotic stories on the net.

 

[SimonDoom]

Fiction has to fiction, and as discussed often, we all have our own limits of how far we can stretch it and where we say "Um, no"

Yep. This is a crucial difference for us as readers.

I personally have a high tolerance for improbable scenarios, as long as they are done with some artfulness. My willingness to suspend disbelief is higher than that of many other readers. I find the implausibility of these stories is what makes them entertaining. The key is for the author to cook up something, just something, that makes me say, "I'm in!"

 

[lovecraft68]

Yep. This is a crucial difference for us as readers.

I personally have a high tolerance for improbable scenarios, as long as they are done with some artfulness. My willingness to suspend disbelief is higher than that of many other readers. I find the implausibility of these stories is what makes them entertaining. The key is for the author to cook up something, just something, that makes me say, "I'm in!"

Dead on. Just give me enough to say "Yeah, I could see it." and I'm good. Its why I don't think taboo is as easy to write as people think. I mean, yeah, if its pure stroke sure, its sis instead of "Amy" but to try to come up with an actual story and some conflict and shred of plausibility its not that easy.

 

[gunhilltrain]

This is good advice too, and you're right about the endless distractions. Literotica is a much bigger site than any alternative offering erotic stories on the net.

I believe that is correct. Welcome to mass culture, where an endless stream of "content" is always being created. Hollywood used to be called "The Dream Factory," and I would emphasize the word factory. Lit was never to that scale, but we have at times used the image of an assembly line. We recently looked at how many stories are published here each week (or was it per month?), but I forgot the number. 400 or so?

 

[KeithD]

We recently looked at how many stories are published here each week (or was it per month?), but I forgot the number. 400 or so?

More like over a 1,000 a week. 197 entries today, and stories post seven days a week.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Dead on. Just give me enough to say "Yeah, I could see it." and I'm good. Its why I don't think taboo is as easy to write as people think. I mean, yeah, if its pure stroke sure, its sis instead of "Amy" but to try to come up with an actual story and some conflict and shred of plausibility its not that easy.

We have some prodigious readers here, and God bless them, but many probably underestimate how difficult it is to write even six-thousand words that hang together.

I like what Joe Gillis said in Sunset Boulevard. "Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along."

 

[gunhilltrain]

Or maybe they just scan through whatever is before them, looking for the sex, and responding to how well they like the sex depicted in that separate chapter. Maybe they aren't following the story at all.

Of maybe . . . or maybe . . .

That reminds me of what I did at thirteen or so when I had books that my mom would leave around the living room; I'd look for the "dirty parts." I remember in high school talking about The Godfather novel. Somebody would say, "Have you read page 35 yet?" (or whatever the number was). That was the scene where Sonny seduces his girlfriend Lucy Mancini upstairs during Connie's wedding reception. It took a couple of years at least before I read it from cover to cover.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I'm not sure what my post had to do with bestiality.

Thread drift. You used the phrase "Hairy pussy mother-son impregnation incest" (post#5). Then Wanda responded with a gif of a purple cat, and I ran with that. You see how easily these threads get diverted?

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I like what Joe Gillis said in Sunset Boulevard. "Audiences don't know somebody sits down and writes a picture; they think the actors make it up as they go along."

This is something that a lot of writers would do well to keep in mind. You're creating a reading experience that will live on infinitely longer than your experience writing it, and that it is the ultimate goal of your process. The writing experience (as wonderful and cathartic as it may be) is merely a means to an end, than end being the reading experience. Once it's done and out there, the writing experience no longer matters (other than perhaps your own nostalgia, or to gauge your progress as a writer). The reader does not care that it took you six years and nine drafts to write it and why should they? They're going to sit down one afternoon, weekend, whatever and read it cover to cover and they don't need nor want the burdens of your expectations.

Meh, so-so story. 3.

But I slaved over it! Can't you see the emotion that I poured into it?

Oh, I had no idea! :0 In that case, 5!

Yeah, right, more like: I don't care if you carved it into tablets on mount Sinai in front of a burning bush. It was meh. You get a 3.

And rightly so.

The writing experience is hardly insignificant, but it is for the writer and the writer only. It is the reading experience that lasts the test of time, that dozens or hundreds or thousands or millions of times it will be read and hopefully enjoyed or at least have some profundity. Admittedly it's a tricky thing because the moment that one starts pandering to the audience one loses authenticity, but at the same time while writing the story that you feel inside you that needs to be told, it is wise to understand that the purpose is to create that reading experience, to make that connection, to emote, to provoke, to yarn, and that that is the ultimate end.

The irony of it is, that the less expectations that you put upon the audience, generally the better the work will be received. It's hardly the only factor, but it is a factor and linear in that sense.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

You've got the think like a buisness-person. What does the audience want?

Sure it you wanna pander. Still gonna only please some of the readers, some of the time.

If you write it, they will come... eventually. And hopefully cum.

 

[Flybynite1892]

Best example of this ever: https://www.literotica.com/s/high-voltage-mittens-1

(Posted two years after the previous chapter.)

This is a fucking banger of a catch-up prologue, damn. Thanks for sharing.

 

[gunhilltrain]

This is something that a lot of writers would do well to keep in mind. You're creating a reading experience that will live on infinitely longer than your experience writing it, and that it is the ultimate goal of your process. The writing experience (as wonderful and cathartic as it may be) is merely a means to an end, than end being the reading experience. Once it's done and out there, the writing experience no longer matters (other than perhaps your own nostalgia, or to gauge your progress as a writer). The reader does not care that it took you six years and nine drafts to write it and why should they? They're going to sit down one afternoon, weekend, whatever and read it cover to cover and they don't need nor want the burdens of your expectations.

One thing to keep in mind is that Joe was a screenwriter, and he doesn't completely acknowledge the limitations of that role. Yes, a movie needs a script. Some of the worst cinematic fiascoes have happened when the director starts filming before the script in finalized or even completed. At that point, there are so many fixed costs involved with the production that delays can be disastrous.

Yet a script is like a framework with the final design is in the hands of others: the director, the producers, the cinematographer, and so forth. Any big setpeice scene is at best going to be barely sketched in by the writer. On the hand, a writer working alone on a prose piece has only words to, say, describe the Battle of Waterloo. The whole thing lives or dies on how the words are arranged. But at least the writer is spared the hassles of presenting something visual for a camera to film.

Yes, this was about a movie scene for the Battle of Waterloo.