Why do you write?

[iwatchus]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly. I want to know what success looks like for you.

From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

Certainly all six of these are true for many of these at some point, for some stories. But one or two of these are most important at any given time.

For me, I started out here looking for 4). Then I thought I cared more for 3). Then I shifted back to 4). Now it depends on the story. If I am writing just another Romance of LS story, I want the rating. I love comments and favorites, but at the end of the day, I look at the rating.

But about half of my stories are about exploring something new for myself, and I'm less driven by the rating. I knew Cupcake Caper was not going to be well rated, but it was a blast to write. I wrote my first novel a few months ago. It turned out reasonably rated, but I was happy that I was able to write a coherent 120K. One of my recent stories was both a new category and I played with point of view in a new way, that I guessed mostly worked.

For some authors, I think this choice drives category choice. If you really care about views and especially votes, there are only a couple of categories that make sense.

Me? At my heart, I'm a ratings whore and I know it.

 

[alohadave]

There are two different questions here.

Why do I write?

What do I look for when I post stories on Lit?

 

[StillStunned]

More and more, I define success by just finishing the story.

That might sound glib, but honestly, my own satisfaction at writing a story that I feel is complete outweighs how it's received. No matter how pleasing it is to get lots of views and a nice rating, and how hurtful it is if nobody reads the story or if someone bombs it, none of that can compare to just completing another story and getting it published.

 

[iwatchus]

I meant the latter.

EDIT: This was intended as a response to @alohadave's comment. The latter is What do I look for when I post stories on List?

 

[dirk2024]

Why I write? During the process, I'm not looking for anything other than becoming absorbed in the story.


After publishing, in my post coital, cigarette smoking afterglow, I look for rating. Of course I want views, but knowing people enjoyed my story feels good.

In the middle is submitting into another category. Five stories in five categories so far.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I write as therapy.

 

[onehitwanda]

Some nice ancillaries for writing are: likes, comments and the occasional email that flutters in. But none of them are why I write.

I write because I have stories in my head that need to be written, and Literotica gives me the easiest medium to free them.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

If just one of my stories makes one person's life more meaningful, then I have succeeded.

 

[hugh_jarce69]

It was #1 for me to begin with. I could’ve just left the stories on my hard drive. But I wanted to share them. Yeah I want people to say they’re good, but ultimately I want them to tell me they got turned on by reading them.
The process of writing is the best experience for me. I dream a number of scenarios but putting them in a story means I knit them all together. Which is very arousing.

Once published I spend far too much energy looking at the votes. My first non-con story received a 1 to begin with. I mean who the fuck does that? If you don’t like it just stop reading & find something you do like.

Now I have a few done I’m exploring new subjects. That was the aim about joining was to expand my ability. Doubt I’ll ever be an excellent writer but if I can attract a small band of followers I’m happy.

I’ve been surprised at how well some stories have done & how badly others have. But that’s all part of the learning process isn’t it?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

This feels more like a: What do we consider a win?

The first win is me being happy with what I've done with the story. I am often conflicted about this one as I'm a perfectionist in my soul, but on the other hand, I go out of my way to limit the total time spent on a story. I write long stories, and it can result in serious fatigue when I work on them for a prolonged time period.

The second win is the impact the story makes on the readership. That's mostly an amalgamation of rating and number of votes (less importance), views (medium importance), the number and the quality of comments (great importance), favorites (less importance), and finally, the number of followers that sign up as a result of the new story ( great importance)

 

[EmilyMiller]

Why do you write?

8) That feeling of achievement when authors whose work I have admired discover that I can actually write a bit

 

[SmilingLez]

At this moment, challenging (#6) myself is front and center. It is arousing to successfully insert my pov and "voice" in whatever I write.

Once my non erotic story gets posted, over 2 weeks in pending purgatory, I will have completed that challenge.

 

[Just4Sheets]

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

I'm not sure why I submitted my first story here, but once I did I was addicted to #3 (comments).

However, over time I realized the only place I get lots of comments is Loving Wives, so now I guess it's #5 (High Rating).

J4S

 

[GemmaGemmaGemma]

One of the many reasons I write is so that in the distant future, when all of my long published stories have faded from my memory, I can re-read them and pat myself on the back for writing stories that seem perfectly tailored for my own enjoyment

 

[AG31]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly. I want to know what success looks like for you.

From comments scattered around AH regularly, there are at least seven different definitions I have seen

1) lots of views
2) lots of votes
3) lots of comments
4) lots of favorites (hearts)
5) a high rating (or just an H)
6) a new category "conquered"
7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

Certainly all six of these are true for many of these at some point, for some stories. But one or two of these are most important at any given time.

For me, I started out here looking for 4). Then I thought I cared more for 3). Then I shifted back to 4). Now it depends on the story. If I am writing just another Romance of LS story, I want the rating. I love comments and favorites, but at the end of the day, I look at the rating.

But about half of my stories are about exploring something new for myself, and I'm less driven by the rating. I knew Cupcake Caper was not going to be well rated, but it was a blast to write. I wrote my first novel a few months ago. It turned out reasonably rated, but I was happy that I was able to write a coherent 120K. One of my recent stories was both a new category and I played with point of view in a new way, that I guessed mostly worked.

For some authors, I think this choice drives category choice. If you really care about views and especially votes, there are only a couple of categories that make sense.

Me? At my heart, I'm a ratings whore and I know it.

Why do I write: I don't write to see if I can be successful in some way. I write to put words to my fantasies, probably so I can continue to enjoy them, perhaps because I just like putting words to things.

What I count as success: None of those apply to me. My writing addresses quite a small niche. It would be silly of me to look for "lots" of feedback. What does give me a lot of gratification is when someone (one or two, for most of my stories) tells me, in some way, that they got it.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

The thing I get far too little of: engagement with the readers, whether in comments or this forum or via Feedback.

--Annie

 

[Rob_Royale]

When I finish my final edit pass and I'm happy with the story.

 

[AllAmericanMale]

When I write, which isn't very often, I write to give others an example of the proper way it should be done.

It's an inspiration to those that read it. An encouragement to demonstrate excellence. A benchmark to aspire to.

 

[PennyThompson]

i made a tier list!

(tierking.com if you're interested)

1) lots of views

I try not to care too much about this because I often publish in sleepy categories... But also because I don't feel like it's a very meaningful metric. It doesn't tell you if the clicker read the story, read it more than once, liked it, didn't like it, or even if they were human.

2) lots of votes

I guess it's good because it's a better representation of engagement than clicks are, but I don't really know how to parse it as a useful metric. Also seems very dependent on "category culture" ?

3) lots of comments

I love getting comments, both short and detailed, positive and negative (as long as it's constructive), named and anonymous, people I know and people I don't... it makes me feel warm and fuzzy every time one comes in

4) lots of favorites (hearts)

yes, but I do wish there was an easier way to know which list people are putting stories on! My favorite is being put on someone's custom public list though, because it can tell me a lot about how they're categorizing their feelings about my story.

5) a high rating (or just an H)

higher ratings certainly feel good and lower ratings feel bad, but there are so many variables that go into how and why people are scoring that I just can't let myself obsess about it too much. Breaking 4.5 and getting the H is meaningful insofar as I think it leads to more views and maybe more of other engagement, but I'm not convinced it's that important in the long run, and I haven't noticed a strong correlation between score and other metrics when I look at my dashboard!

6) a new category "conquered"

Not very important for me, I write a story and then put it in the category I think makes the most sense, I've never set out to write a Category X story in a strategic way.

7) a story that was interesting or well written or used some feature you wanted

For sure, i want to write the version of a story that I'm most pleased with, which isn't always the version of the story that I think would be the most popular. sometimes i'm writing towards a fantasy or a concept, sometimes towards an experiment in tone or style or structure, sometimes to provide closure to a character. if I can achieve the goal(s) I had for that story, I'm happy!

8) That feeling of achievement when authors whose work I have admired discover that I can actually write a bit

I had no idea how much I would care about this until it started happening, so... yes this, very very much

 

[AG31]

I am not re-asking the question from Chloe's outstanding thread that still resurfaces regularly.

Could you post a link?

 

[EmilyMiller]

i made a tier list!
View attachment 2575123
(tierking.com if you're interested)

I try not to care too much about this because I often publish in sleepy categories... But also because I don't feel like it's a very meaningful metric. It doesn't tell you if the clicker read the story, read it more than once, liked it, didn't like it, or even if they were human.

I guess it's good because it's a better representation of engagement than clicks are, but I don't really know how to parse it as a useful metric. Also seems very dependent on "category culture" ?

I love getting comments, both short and detailed, positive and negative (as long as it's constructive), named and anonymous, people I know and people I don't... it makes me feel warm and fuzzy every time one comes in

yes, but I do wish there was an easier way to know which list people are putting stories on! My favorite is being put on someone's custom public list though, because it can tell me a lot about how they're categorizing their feelings about my story.

higher ratings certainly feel good and lower ratings feel bad, but there are so many variables that go into how and why people are scoring that I just can't let myself obsess about it too much. Breaking 4.5 and getting the H is meaningful insofar as I think it leads to more views and maybe more of other engagement, but I'm not convinced it's that important in the long run, and I haven't noticed a strong correlation between score and other metrics when I look at my dashboard!

Not very important for me, I write a story and then put it in the category I think makes the most sense, I've never set out to write a Category X story in a strategic way.

For sure, i want to write the version of a story that I'm most pleased with, which isn't always the version of the story that I think would be the most popular. sometimes i'm writing towards a fantasy or a concept, sometimes towards an experiment in tone or style or structure, sometimes to provide closure to a character. if I can achieve the goal(s) I had for that story, I'm happy!

I had no idea how much I would care about this until it started happening, so... yes this, very very much

Maslow would be so proud

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Why do I write? Because if I don't write, I die of anxiety. Part of the reason why the sickness I caught a few months back worsened was because I was unable to write, so my stress was off the roof because I was unable to write, thus starting a vicious circle of not writing, therefore disease getting worse, thus not being able to write.

Why do I publish? To complete the cycle. I know someone is going to resonate with what I write, especially now that it has evolved from the strokers that, while I'm not ashamed of them, do not represent the point in which I am at this moment, yet at the same time I refuse to delete because I like to have them there anyway.

Why have I stopped publishing? Rebellion... sort of. Currently there are two voices fighting in my head; one of them keeps yapping at me to post so that my name is on new stories all the time, or to go viral, or whatever, while the other tells me to not chase metrics and if I'm going to post, I should post with an explosion instead of rapid fire. Neither are good. I understand the latter's point, but the former's point is just something that I dislike. Metrics are stressful, algorithms suck, virality doesn't guarantee an audience, and this platform in itself feels both like the right place and the wrong place simultaneously, yet I don't leave because I know there's people here. I've interacted with readers in the past, and I liked to do that. Sometimes I feel that my best works go unnoticed, while my worst works get the most attention. Besides, if I publish a story that has zero likes, zero hearts, zero comments, zero everything, I'll leave it there, as a form of defiance for what the Internet stands for. Even here things are always too fast, with the same ethos of consume and dispose, stories treated more like potato chips (or bloody crisps if you are pedantic), and while that's fine for some, the two voices in my head haven't found an agreement to that. The only consensus is the one a third voice put to shut the discord off in my head: to be slow because being slow saves more energy than pumping out stories too fast.

 

[Rob_Royale]

When I write, which isn't very often, I write to give others an example of the proper way it should be done.

It's an inspiration to those that read it. An encouragement to demonstrate excellence. A benchmark to aspire to.

Let us know when that happens. Can't wait.

 

[PennyThompson]

Maslow would be so proud

 

[Writer61]

Procrastination