Why do my stories keep bombing?

[Master_Vassago]

Ever wonder why your latest story, or stories just seem to bomb. I have a theory but I would like to get some other ideas as well.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

I voted that people just want porn and little/no story behind it, but I also believe that some folks are very protective of their own scores and do hamper others because of it. I think my stories are just too damn long which falls in the category of all sex with little/no story. Oh well. I'm not really interested in stories that have little or no story or character development. But I'm just a silly girl that likes to associate the feelings a character has with who that character actually is and what they're all about. Many are able to do this in a very short amount of words. I'm working on it.

~lucky

 

[Master_Vassago]

I often find myself in your boat lucky-E-leven. Except for the being a girl part. I like a story, most of mine do have a deeper character development and I just can't help that. I want to know more about what's inside each character or show them in a certain light before they get busy.

Plus I tend to be long winded. Eh, maybe I should try a few just sex stories and see what happens lol.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Master V,

I seem to be having the same problem. Of course I start from a much lower quality standpoint. These are some thoughts I posted on the Earth Day thread.

--

Towering Passion, the First Time story that joined the contest ranks back on 3/30 still has only 16 votes and 2500 views. The score is a respectable, but non-competitive 4.56.

My other entry, Handling Things in Central Park, which showed up 4/07 in Romance, is kinda, sorta, doing a little better. It has 17 votes and about twice the views but a very ho-hum score of 4.41.

I've got a hunch these figures may be trying to tell me something about my current writing style. I say that because an Interracial stroke story I submitter 14 months ago has gotten 70K views and 181 votes. And my entry in last summer's Nude Day contest, another Romance, has piled up 17K views and 82 votes.

However, my last submission prior to the contest was, "Burying Uncle Hirams's Ghost." an incest story involving cousins. I thought it was pretty good. So far, the reader's have thought otherwise. In six weeks, it's gotten 5000 views, 31 votes and a 4.32 score. If you can't even generate decent figures with with an Incest story, you are obviously not giving readers what they want.

I still like the support, kidding, and BS between contest writers. But if my numbers don't pick up, I may not enter any more unless I already have a story on hand that fits the category. Even my ego can only take so much pounding.

Rumple Foreskin

ps: I didn't vote because you didn't include a: "Hell if I know" category.

 

[tiger_smurf]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Listen to the people who have something real to say about your stories. Just work on making each story the best it can be. I personally enjoy character development in erotic stories, but there is a point where the tale needs to move on in the telling.

I always leave feedback on stories that I think deserve anything less than a 4, just to explain why.

-ck

 

[damppanties]

My take

Most readers don't care about the story one bit. They just want the sex to be good. If your words have hot sex + no story, then its good; if they have hot sex + a plot and a story, then really good; if you have mediocre three-line sex and a storyline, well, better luck next time; if you have no sex and no story, what exactly are you doing on this site?

It is an erotic story site after all.

I say this because my latest - the Earth day contest entry is not very good by my own standards. I just submitted it because I wanted to be in the contest - but it's doing well, better than I expected. It has no characterisation. It's just a two page tease session. And it's doing well...

edit: I didn't vote, because according to me, you have to have sex AND a story in it to please both camps... which isn't available in your options.

 

[Pure]

Hi MV,

i had a quick look at

trip to the movies 1, 3
breaking in a new sub

and the first two were rated 'hot.' I see at least 50 of your 125 stories are rated 'hot', so I don't really see the issue of bombing, though it seems there are fewer H's of late.

if you want an honest impression, the nonstandard punctuation and apparent lack of revision would tick off a number of people, but clearly hundreds disagree with me.

best,

J.

P.S. I did not vote. "Suck" is not what I'd say. But apparently you don't attend to certain routine details (to you).

 

[minsue]

I need to be able to vote for more options. I agree with #3-5.

 

[Green_Gem]

edited

 

[KenJames]

… a very ho-hum score of 4.41.

Ho-hum? And I thought all my 4.00 – 4.49 scores were pretty darn good. (sob!)

I think views are related to title, category and maybe description, while votes and scores are related to satisfying reader expectations.

"Spying on My Sister" (Exhibitionist & Voyeur) startled me by receiving 76 votes within a few hours of being posted. At that point, its average score was only 4.09, probably because people were expecting an incest story, which it's not.

"Strapping it On" (Anal) is exactly what its title and category indicate. It has received far more views, votes and a higher score than any of my other stories.

I don't enter contests because I don't like writing to a topic or trying to meet a deadline. Also, I'm only competitive with myself when I'm writing.

 

[Liar]

Uuh. Hold on.

A count (give or take a few):

119 stories
53 H
2 E
2 W

It that is what you call bombing stories then you need a new dictionary.

Do you mean that recent stories doesn't get the scores your older ones got?

#L

 

[Pure]

Hi MV,

I fear I misinterpreted your question which referred to stories 'bombing', which I took to mean NOT getting high ratings.

I see 'liar' perhaps makes the same mistake...

Perhaps you meant, "Why are my stories lately getting an undue share of 1's. [=bombs]"

I'll let stand my previous comments, if that's the case; for there may be objective reasons for the 1's, as some punctuation practices are particularly disliked by the sticklers.

However I would add that some 1's are NOT objectively caused, but are due to motivated (competitors, enemies) or unmotivated [general vandalism] (e.g., on all top rated stories) actions.

J.

 

[oggbashan]

I just read and commented on one of your stories 'Creature of the Night'.

There were grammatical errors and typos - not many but enough to jar my concentration away from the story. We do have some grammar fanatics - perhaps they bomb you?

I'm not immune from typos or grammar errors either - just fewer of them if that story of yours is typical. Yet I'd be happy with the percentage of Hs you get.

I think that a discreet use of Word's grammar checker might help. It usually picks up changes of number and tense in verbs and should spot typos. Shame it can add in errors that weren't there before so be careful.

Summary: You don't have much to worry about and real bombing will be corrected by the system from time to time.

Og

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Well, forgive the bluntness, MV, but I did read your ED story and thought it was not only very weak, but almost downright negligent. It opens in third person and moves into first person with neither rhyme nor reason. It’s also Chapter 4 of a larger work, so there’s no context for what’s going on, and for all the talk about reader’s wanting story, this one has none. It’s basically a sex scene. To a casual reader it really seems like you just grabbed the first story that came to hand, threw in a few ED references, and posted it. I know you to be a fine writer, so this one really surprised me. I didn’t vote on it.

I disagree and have always disagreed with the emphasis on the importance of “story” and plot in porn. The act of sex is plot enough. A porn story should have enough plot to give special meaning and context to the sex, otherwise it’s no longer a sex story: it’s a story about something else that has some sex in it. When you start writing about what your heroine had for breakfast yesterday, or her trying day at work, you’re not necessarily contributing to the heat of the story. Very often you’re simply padding it and convincing yoursel that it now has "plot".

Not all of a sex story has to have sex in it, but it should all have some level of eroticism and sexual tension. A lot of the readers who want “story” in their porn are actually looking for love stories with sex in them. That’s fine, and I’ve written a bunch of those myself, but, personally, I don’t think that’s what most people come here for.

In any case, that’s not the problem here in MV’s story. What you’ve got here is an isolated sex scene with no context or meaning, a tenuous connection to the idea of Earth Day (sex outside? How original is that?), and sex itself that seems strangely lacking in heat and passion. Sorry to come down so hard, MV, and I have nothing but respect for you as an author of some really fine and imaginative erotica, but you fell down on this one. Maybe it is time you went back to the drawing board and re-examined what it is you’re doing, because this piece has the feeling of someone writing on automatic pilot. It might be time to take a leap of faith and try something new.

---dr.M.

 

[Master_Vassago]

Thank you all for your comments. Now here is where I chime in again.

Dr_M first of course since his was the last I read. Thanks, perhaps I needed a little dose of reality here. I don't think I'm on autopilot but this was written (the ED submission) into the series I was working on. This series was aimed at the wife, yep the one in real life so perhaps I should have kept it out of the contest and not thrown in a ED reference.

DM I do appreciate your comments and I also have that same respect for you so I don't take offense to it just chalk it up to good crit. and leave it at that.

Now to the others. Yep grammatical mistakes will kill me. Not typos, I rely on spell check for those, but I should go back and spend a little more time on the grammatical ones and with my word perfect it does often offer changes I just usually forget to go back and use that option. GOING TO DO THAT A LOT MORE NOW.

Also I'm not wimpering poor me here, I was just curious if the latest stories others have submitted have taken a whomping or not. I guess I'm used to higher marks generally and I just don't like low ones without explanations via feedback of why they oned me. I've had several stories start out high and then without a day or two of showing up on top lists they get destroyed.


I will say I'm not in this for the scores, although I really like the high ones. I just enjoy writing and having a creative outlet for my thoughts and needs. I write for me, plain and simple.



We all know that the contests story destruction happens, it's gotten to the point of leaving a sour taste in a lot of our mouths. But it is always going to happen unless the voting system changes. I personally don't think you should be able to give a one or a five unless you are logged into the system and can give a two sentence reason behind your vote.


Thanks again for all the input so far. No harm, no fouls here just wanted opinions.

 

[Master_Vassago]

I just suck at writing 2 14.29%
I really pissed some people off and didn't know it 0 0%
People just want porn and no story behind it 7 50.00%
It's that damn one bomber 0 0%
It's those damn one bombers 1 7.14%
People who see a high score feel their own stories are threatened 2 14.29%
Hey, MV you just suck. 2 14.29%


These are the results thus far. Just for those not motivated enough to go find out how everyone has voted.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I'm glad you took the criticism the way it was intended, as an honest objective opinion. As I say, MV, I have nothing but respect for you as a writer, but this one was weak.

As for voting, I'm been agitating for a while for a histogram dsiplay of the voting. This is a bar chart that would show how many 1's, 2's, 3's, &c a story gets. I've seen them on other sites, so they're not impossible to do. With that kind of system, you could tell whether a story that got 30 votes and rated a 3 got them as 30 3's or 15 5's and 15 1's. 1-bombs would stand out like sore thumbs.

---dr.M.

 

[Master_Vassago]

I'm glad you took the criticism the way it was intended, as an honest objective opinion. As I say, MV, I have nothing but respect for you as a writer, but this one was weak.

As for voting, I'm been agitating for a while for a histogram dsiplay of the voting. This is a bar chart that would show how many 1's, 2's, 3's, &c a story gets. I've seen them on other sites, so they're not impossible to do. With that kind of system, you could tell whether a story that got 30 votes and rated a 3 got them as 30 3's or 15 5's and 15 1's. 1-bombs would stand out like sore thumbs.

---dr.M.

That is simply how I took it DM. I am happy that you pointed it as bluntly as you did. I think maybe I didn't put into it the passion I normally try to.

I would second and stand behind you completely for the histogram of votes. I'd love to see how the voting goes. Now if I could just get the emails to each and every one voter I'd be really happy lol.

All in all writing is still completely enjoyable to me and I'll continue no matter what the votes are. I just need to spice things up a little and I do have one entry that was written strictly for the ED contest that should be posting soon. It's one story, not a part of any other and I think it should do very well. At least I had a lot of fun writing it. So I'm happy with it.

Thanks again DM, your words never fall on deaf ears with me.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

MV,

I also like Doc's idea on voting. It might cut down on a few of the one bombs and make the contests even more interesting.

I've sometimes fussed about this-and-that concerning the contests. But all brown nosing aside, Laurel and Manu are to be commended for running contests that are FREE and which probably produce more valid results than any recent Florida election contest. No one must participate in these compositional competitions and folks that do aren't charged a fee.

Like MV, I'm a tad bothered (not to mention bewildered) by my recent totals, especially the number of views and votes. But those are a function of something in my writing, not the contests.

Thanks to Pure, the SDC is struggling back to life. In its absence, the only way to get an in-depth critique was to PM other AH folks and beg. Even then, it was just a one-on-one deal. That's a lot better than nothing but comments from several writers can give a more balanced view.

While I'm raving away, does anyone else have reservations about the new public comments? They seem to have dried up private feedback. And while the private ones could, at times, give useful advice and point out problems, the public comments, including the ones I give, tend to be limited to positive "atta boy/girl" pats on the back.

I now return you to your regular thread.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[gauchecritic]

My contest entries are all below 4 (except the humorous one my one Red H) I enjoy averages of 4 - 4.5 on the other stories.

The feedback is just the reverse. On older stories (which concentrate more on sex) I get "that made me so hard/wet" on the contest entries (which at the moment are more literary) I get "I really like the way you write" or "flat-out terrific" (public thanks for that one to a revered AH member).

So I'm in a real quandary about my scores for contests. But I'm still pretty sure I get bombed for being me, rather than any lack of story telling ability.

For some reason I have a massive amount of votes compared to reads this time and am really anxiously awaiting the bomb clearance. (but I'm thinking that the scores aren't necessarily bombs just 2s and 3s)

You think you've got it tough MV. I'm a right miserable S-O-B.

Gauche

Ooh ooh forgot to mention Pub.Com. These have increased along with the feedback and scores and range from "It suck" to "change not a thing." I love 'em

 

[cookiejar]

MV,

I also like Doc's idea on voting. It might cut down on a few of the one bombs and make the contests even more interesting.

I've sometimes fussed about this-and-that concerning the contests. But all brown nosing aside, Laurel and Manu are to be commended for running contests that are FREE and which probably produce more valid results than any recent Florida election contest. No one must participate in these compositional competitions and folks that do aren't charged a fee.

Like MV, I'm a tad bothered (not to mention bewildered) by my recent totals, especially the number of views and votes. But those are a function of something in my writing, not the contests.

Thanks to Pure, the SDC is struggling back to life. In its absence, the only way to get an in-depth critique was to PM other AH folks and beg. Even then, it was just a one-on-one deal. That's a lot better than nothing but comments from several writers can give a more balanced view.

While I'm raving away, does anyone else have reservations about the new public comments? They seem to have dried up private feedback. And while the private ones could, at times, give useful advice and point out problems, the public comments, including the ones I give, tend to be limited to positive "atta boy/girl" pats on the back.

I now return you to your regular thread.

Rumple Foreskin

I actually get more private feedback than public Rumply. My last private feedback said, "Let's chat on Yahoo." Subtle huh?

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I actually get more private feedback than public Rumply. My last private feedback said, "Let's chat on Yahoo." Subtle huh?

cookiejar,

You think it could be the AV? I'm a little light on the boob department, so maybe a nice ass shot like the one that recently graced the AH might do the trick. Of course, I've only got one ass to shoot, but it is a big target. Take a peek, if you dare, and let me know what you think.

One big ass

To quote he of the woeful wisdom, "One can't complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday."

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Guest]

Take a peek, if you dare,

"Rump", I was so excited, for like 10 seconds. You are too ________.

Perdita

 

[Guest]

Rumple, you are such a cutie...

Lou

 

[sarahhh]

Ever wonder why your latest story, or stories just seem to bomb. I have a theory but I would like to get some other ideas as well.

Hey dude, you didn't get "other ideas." You got a load of crap.

So I answered "It's that damn one bomber" and got it right.

Nobody else did.

What do I win?