Writing for Lit - chapters, do's, don'ts and hardwon learning.

[jezzaz]

So been writing for Lit for a few years, - specifically Loving Wives, though dabbled in other catagories - and a few things have leapt out at me that I think I'd share.

Firstly, Loving Wives readers appear to be split between three camps (with some overlap).

1) Women haters, who want women to be seen in a bad light and have maximum retribution brought down on them.

2) People who are interested in reading a story, rather than just violent retribution.

3) People who want stroke stories.

and there is a 4th category, that of cuckolds or cuck wannabes, who want to see women go out and get laid and the guy sit at home and wait, and, preferably, salivate. Personally, I find these stories a bit much, but then I'm not a huge BTB kind of guy either.

I've found that while people appreciate good writing, good writing will not get you out of the mindset of the story they want to see. It doesn't matter if you are the greatest writer alive, if there's a cheating woman in the story and she doesn't get hers, you are gonna get chastised for it, regardless.

Something else I've noticed is that how you present your story matters.

I release mine in chapters. I wait till the whole thing is written (because I'm constantly adjusting early parts of the story dependent on how things change later on), then submit in chapters of 10-12k words, all in one go. Laural then drops them on successive days.

I'm starting to rethink this, because while the last two stories I've written have been well received, but people have been complaining about the story and the characters on each successive chapter, without waiting till the story is resolved.

For example, the current Ingrams story is a slow burn, and the last chapter is where the big stuff happens. But I'm getting crucified for chapters being 'boring' or 'not full of sex'.

So either I've got to rethink how I write my stories, so each chapter has it's own ups and downs and sex and stuff - like you would an episodic TV show - or, just stop posting as chapters and force the reader to read the whole thing in one go. StangStar06 does this, and I'm starting to think that this is a better approach.

My feeling is also that most of the readers on Lit aren't looking for nuance. The more I write, the better I think I am getting, but the nuanced what I write is. But the readers don't seem to be responding to that. They want blatant, black and white situations, with some snappy dialog, lots of sex and that's about it.

I don't think I'm necessarily growing out of Lit - that's just an arrogant thing to say - but I do think I'm developing as a writer in a direction that isn't as Lit Friendly anymore. I don't see things as black and white, but that's what most people seem to want, judging from the comments I'm seeing.

On the other hand, can you really judge from the comments anyway? It's the vocal minority (on both sides) that seem to comment.

Dunno. Just scratching my head as to where to go next once I'm done with the Ingrams series.

 

[legerdemer]

So been writing for Lit for a few years, -....

I'm starting to rethink this, because while the last two stories I've written have been well received, but people have been complaining about the story and the characters on each successive chapter, without waiting till the story is resolved.

For example, the current Ingrams story is a slow burn, and the last chapter is where the big stuff happens. But I'm getting crucified for chapters being 'boring' or 'not full of sex'.

So either I've got to rethink how I write my stories, so each chapter has it's own ups and downs and sex and stuff - like you would an episodic TV show - or, just stop posting as chapters and force the reader to read the whole thing in one go. StangStar06 does this, and I'm starting to think that this is a better approach.

My feeling is also that most of the readers on Lit aren't looking for nuance. The more I write, the better I think I am getting, but the nuanced what I write is. But the readers don't seem to be responding to that. They want blatant, black and white situations, with some snappy dialog, lots of sex and that's about it.

I don't think I'm necessarily growing out of Lit - that's just an arrogant thing to say - but I do think I'm developing as a writer in a direction that isn't as Lit Friendly anymore. I don't see things as black and white, but that's what most people seem to want, judging from the comments I'm seeing.

On the other hand, can you really judge from the comments anyway? It's the vocal minority (on both sides) that seem to comment.

Dunno. Just scratching my head as to where to go next once I'm done with the Ingrams series.

I am the last person who should be commenting, given the difference in our respective level of experience. But what your post tells me is that you're asking the question as if you are pondering how to please a commercial audience rather than the one on Lit, who gets your life's blood for free. If the former, by all means, write to please and appease your audience, but at least get paid for it. Here, write to please yourself foremost! Do what YOU like best, what turns YOU on most, what flips your switch. Screw the rest. The readers who see and appreciate what you're trying to do will comment on it; the rest, who gives a flying fuck?

Just me two cents.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Jump out of the LW pool, maybe?

Never jumped into it myself, but the AH threads indicate the feedback there is volatile and unforgiving - you've identified the reader base yourself - that was an interesting profile read for me, who's not even gone to that pond.

Maybe pitch a slightly different type of story to a different audience, elsewhere on Lit? Depends what you're in the pool for in the first place, I guess.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I won't touch LW or comment on it. I don't go there.

If you want ratings, post a long story (10+ Lit pages) as one submission. People who like it will vote and vote nicely; people who don't like it will rarely get to the end and will rarely vote. And you won't have to put up with as many comments telling you how to write your story.

My stories tend to focus on character development, use foreshadowing, plot twists... my stories rate decently, but I imagine it's a smallish and dedicated fan base. There are readers who do want nuance. Just not most of them. Hot sex isn't essential here; you can get red H's on stories with little to none. That said, the highest ratings seem to go to chapters with one or two hot sex scenes. But plot and good characters raise an entire story.

 

[Sammael Bard]

If you want ratings, post a long story (10+ Lit pages) as one submission. People who like it will vote and vote nicely; people who don't like it will rarely get to the end and will rarely vote. And you won't have to put up with as many comments telling you how to write your story.

Nah....if they don't like it, they just go to the last page and give you a 1 star. They have to vote and let their displeasure known to the author.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Nah....if they don't like it, they just go to the last page and give you a 1 star. They have to vote and let their displeasure known to the author.

Is that a general statement for all genres, in your experience (I've not been around long enough to spot all of the reader habits), or is it something unique to the LW shark pool?

I can see that people with their own special collection of issues might do that, but would a more reasonable, normal (I know, define normal) person bother doing it?

 

[SamScribble]

I am the last person who should be commenting, given the difference in our respective level of experience. But what your post tells me is that you're asking the question as if you are pondering how to please a commercial audience rather than the one on Lit, who gets your life's blood for free. If the former, by all means, write to please and appease your audience, but at least get paid for it. Here, write to please yourself foremost! Do what YOU like best, what turns YOU on most, what flips your switch. Screw the rest. The readers who see and appreciate what you're trying to do will comment on it; the rest, who gives a flying fuck?

Just me two cents.

I agree with Mer. Although I would probably have said 'my two cents'.

 

[lovecraft68]

I agree with Mer. Although I would probably have said 'my two cents'.

Me would agree her.

Its how me speaks in Bizarro world.

 

[Sammael Bard]

Is that a general statement for all genres, in your experience (I've not been around long enough to spot all of the reader habits), or is it something unique to the LW shark pool?

I can see that people with their own special collection of issues might do that, but would a more reasonable, normal (I know, define normal) person bother doing it?

No, not all genres have the same audience. Since the OP mentioned LW, I said it for this particular category. You'll see at least 3 comments on an average of a new story that says "Didn't read dis crap...gave it a 1 *". That's how most LW trolls roll.

Most of the time (in other categories) if people find it boring enough, they will leave it in between. You'll rarely find a comment that's similar to the above mentioned outside LW.

 

[jsmiam]

Even though I'm new, and even though I'm a critic of NOT having a good way to avoid chapter stories (which I personally hate), you should still do whatever makes you happy.

For every 1 (maybe more than 1?) me who hates chapter stories and would avoid them all if I could, there are others who like them longer and want them. Do what you like!

And possibly author's notes at the top, so you can at least say you tried to warn readers what type of story it is, before they start reading? Chase away the people who won't like it, and who you won't like right from the get-go.

 

[49greg]

Even though I'm new, and even though I'm a critic of NOT having a good way to avoid chapter stories (which I personally hate), you should still do whatever makes you happy.

For every 1 (maybe more than 1?) me who hates chapter stories and would avoid them all if I could, there are others who like them longer and want them. Do what you like!

And possibly author's notes at the top, so you can at least say you tried to warn readers what type of story it is, before they start reading? Chase away the people who won't like it, and who you won't like right from the get-go.

As for warning the readers that it's a LW/cheating wife story, I've done it, and it didn't scare the trolls off. I suspect they just immediately went to the end and one bombed and gave the usual trollese comments.

But I've only done a couple of LW stories.

As for multi chapter vs single long story, I prefer both. LOL. No really. If I have time to sit and read, I'll go for the long story, although I wish lit put the total pages up at the top of the first page.

But if I don't have time to read the whole thing I prefer chapters, that way, if I don't have time for a long story, I can start and finish the first chapter and come back to the remaining one(s) later. Of course I could save the url of the page I need to come back to on a long single chapter. But I'm lazy and don't want to hunt for the paragraph I stopped at.

 

[legerdemer]

I agree with Mer. Although I would probably have said 'my two cents'.

yep, autocorrect sucks....

 

[rjordan]

As for multi chapter vs single long story, I prefer both. LOL. No really. If I have time to sit and read, I'll go for the long story, although I wish lit put the total pages up at the top of the first page.

I second that! I'd rather know that than how many Favorites the story got which tells me nothing. The first thing I do when I open a story is hit End to see how many pages there are. Then Home if I want to continue on. If it's 1 or 2 pages, I'll read it then and there. If it's more, and it looks good, I'll save it to consider again later.

rj