What is your lowest rated story, and did you ever figure out the 'Why'?

[pink_silk_glove]

A good number of these 'lowest' scores aren't very low. Perhaps the thread needs a rule that you;re not allowed to post unless your lowest score is below 4.

 

[Voboy]

I've posted 105 stories. Another goes live in a few days.

My two lowest stories are 750-word entries, at 3.73 and 4.1. I don't blame the ratings; I wouldn't have put them much higher, mostly because I too find 750-worders unsatisfying. I won't post any more, and not because they seldom rate well; I'm not pleased with how they "read."

My lowest "real story" at 4.18/45 with just under 18k views and a mere ONE comment after more than five years on the site? It doesn't surprise me. I'd rate it much higher, but it's my only BDSM story and I am fairly ignorant of the readership there. I included a trope or two that run counter to the preferences of most BDSM aficionados.

But I wrote it as a present to someone I care about very, very much. She loved it. So it's fine with me. True to AH form, my next-lowest "real story" is in LW. Lol.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

My lowest rated story is the first chapter of my Swimming With Mum series, which was the first thing I ever posted to Literotica and is rated 3.91 (I've never put anything in Loving Wives...)

It's rated below 4 because it doesn't have any sex in it, only build-up. Lesson learnt: include some sex in the chapter, or expect lower ratings!

 

[Hypnobitch01]

I'll try to give it a read, as romance appeals to me. However, as I understand things, Romance readers prefer subtle or even implied sex. Perhaps you were too graphic. My stories lean to Romance, but because of the explicit and (mildly) kinky sex, I've avoided it as a category, keeping to EC, BDSM, NC/R and Anal.

Yeah that’ll do it, I tend to be pretty… descriptive.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Seeing a lot of 750 word entries in this thread. Perhaps as a general rule, we should turn off voting on them. Just a thought.

You can do that yourself, or just ride with the short story score penalty.

The trick with the 750 worders, I reckon, is to take pride when one does get a decent score, because that's a sign of good writing - it's got a meaningful range of votes, and you can get Red Hs (although it's harder).

My lowest score for a long time was a chapter in an Erotic Horror yarn. 3.86 at its lowest, but it's higher than that now. Son fucks dad whilst daughter sucks out mother. Seems even horror fans get freaked out by that, who knew?

It got to the point that I put a squick warning in the comments for the preceding chapter, to warn the nervous. I find it curious that the score is slowly creeping up, even years later. I put that down to people getting outraged by man on man, but reading it twice to make sure.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

My newest story Pathokinetic. It’s not getting many views and is sitting at a 2.6.

I’m really confused as to why, but it was my first time posting in romance so maybe it’s in the wrong category. It's also my first longer story so that could play in too.

I'll give that one a try, and come back with feedback if you want!

Generally speaking, I am a bit torn - on the one hand, it sounds very frustrating that something like "wrong category" can completely nuke a story that might have been loved otherwise.

On the other hand, it sounds like a good way to delude oneself a bit - "Oh no my story is actually amazing, it just didn't find the 300 million people who would have loved it if I had just found the right category and tags"...

 

[WeShallUnclench]

My lowest rated story is a male/male foot fetish story involving an anthropomorphic bird character

That sounds unironically amazing even though that is not a combination of words I find sexy

 

[MyBareTorso]

Unsurprisingly, my lowest rating stories (all in the mid-3's) all feature "failed" erotic situations (a premature ejaculation story for the 750 word challenge, a possible hook-up that doesn't pan out for the 750 word challenge) or slightly off-piste approaches to category (a violent but romantic prison story in Romance)...and then there's my recent "sharing" story in Loving Wives, which is my now my lowest rating story. Again, not hugely surprised by any of these scores...just heartbroken and emotionally destroyed.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

A good number of these 'lowest' scores aren't very low. Perhaps the thread needs a rule that you;re not allowed to post unless your lowest score is below 4.

It's like absolutely everywhere - all is relative.

On tumblr, you get a teenager whining about how getting only 800.000 notes on a post makes them feel like a failure or on the contrary comfortable as a "casual who is just having fun", while another person may have tried to even break a 1000 notes post over 15 years.

On lit, somebody (maybe even in one of my threads) shared a detailled comparison showing what the average rankings in each category are.

That might be a better metric of what a "low" score is.
The most conservative way to assess failure is "worse than most people".*

EDIT: Though of course with the thread question, the "relative" mostly applies to what everyone is used to from their own track record.

*EDIT2: For reference, here is the overview; hope the person who made it doesn't mind the repost (can't find the original post right now):

 

[WeShallUnclench]

Unsurprisingly, my lowest rating stories (all in the mid-3's) all feature "failed" erotic situations (a premature ejaculation story for the 750 word challenge, a possible hook-up that doesn't pan out for the 750 word challenge)

I deeply feel for you here, but can we maybe appreciate that it is kinda delightful we can sexually frustrate our readers

The thought of someone starting to jerk off to our stuff and then rage-quitting with a nuke rating because it didn't hit the spot (or actively disgusted them) makes the low rating somewhat entertaining

 

[Hypnobitch01]

I'll give that one a try, and come back with feedback if you want!

Generally speaking, I am a bit torn - on the one hand, it sounds very frustrating that something like "wrong category" can completely nuke a story that might have been loved otherwise.

On the other hand, it sounds like a good way to delude oneself a bit - "Oh no my story is actually amazing, it just didn't find the 300 million people who would have loved it if I had just found the right category and tags"...

It definitely is, that’s why I figure this is a good place to get some feedback. That way I know so I can get Chapter 2 as good as it can be.

 

[FifthEstate]

My lowest score is a 750-word hardcore IR story which wasn’t a surprise. It’s my second lowest that intrigues me. It’s the only Illustrated chapter in a four-chapter series. The sexy photos were supplied by one of my female readers who mutually agreed to be written in as a character in the story. However, the pics were all placed subsequently in one place on the 4th of seven pages (because that’s where the story dictated they belong).

Long story short, the chapter attracts three types of viewers: those who actually read it and judge it for its worthiness, those who go straight to the hot pics and enjoy them, and lastly those who complain there are only four pics in a seven page story. The first two groups give the chapter lots of love, the other group 1-bombs it frequently. The reason I know (aside from their sniveling comments) is that after 3+ published years, 300k views, and 1,000+ votes, the chapter score still moves upward every time there is a Literotica sweep. None of my other stories do that unless they are new.

 

[theWriterInTheNude]

My lowest rated story was the first I wrote and posted here. It had issues: paragraphs were too long for the medium, the writing style needed some revision, I wrote it all in a single weekend, and didn't do much editing. I hope I continue to learn something with each one I publish.

 

[Areala-chan]

First story I posted here has my lowest score. No specific issue, other than it's obviously not all that great compared to the stuff which came after, but it's still the most personal thing I've posted here outside of some poems.

 

[Voboy]

some poems.

Ah! Forgot about those.

My lowest poem is 4.05. Because it was put in non-erotic... meaning, 469 views. Lol. I think it's actually pretty good.

My top poem lacks a red H because not enough people voted on it. No comments, either. Funny little area, the poetry side of the site.

 

[RetroFan]

It's amazing how seriously some readers take the 750 word stories.

For example, the one I wrote earlier this year - Kyle's Revenge - I deliberately wrote to be the worst possible story I could think of, with a ridiculous, absurd and offensive premise, unlikeable characters and intentionally bad grammar. Nobody surely could have taken my story as anything but a joke, but the Incest Taboo readers for some reason took it very seriously indeed and attacked it ferociously.

 

[Fatdog25]

It was an Erotic Horror story written for the 2023 Karaoke Challenge. It simply wasn't horrific enough.

 

[OffNSFW]

My three lowest scoring stories are all cuckolding stories in the Loving Wives category. I'm sure it comes as a surprise to one and all.

My lowest scoring story ever, and the only one to fall below a 3.0, is "In The Box." Which is pretty funny, since I wrote the lead character as a parody of Loving Wives score bombers and their virulently misogynistic worldview.

 

[RetroFan]

It was an Erotic Horror story written for the 2023 Karaoke Challenge. It simply wasn't horrific enough.

I find the Erotic Horror readers frustrating in that they don't comment enough, be it good, bad or neutral. You really have to use your imagination to write these stories, so to get the sound of crickets chirping is disheartening.

I think the EH category was bigger say from circa 2007-2014 when vampire stories like Twilight were all the rage, Game of Thrones was starting and there were attempts at other fantasy adaptations in movies and TV shows, but readership and the number of stories has fallen away in the decade since then.

 

[Rustyoznail]

My lowest non-750 word story is https://literotica.com/s/festival-of-the-lost. It went into Scifi, and sits at 3.92 with 42 votes.

I wrote it for Halloween, and I set myself a personal challenge to incorporate all the dialogue from one minor character from the video game, Destiny. I was happy I managed a coherent story without repeating any lines, and I'm not surprised with the score. A niche game, in a slow category, and only a blow job as the finisher.

 

[WeShallUnclench]

It's amazing how seriously some readers take the 750 word stories.

(...) Nobody surely could have taken my story as anything but a joke, but the Incest Taboo readers for some reason took it very seriously indeed and attacked it ferociously.

There is a type of reader (possibly of person in general) who lose all sense of humor once they have their hands down in their pants

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My lowest rated story is Remote Communications at 3.75 in Romance. This is a story about a married couple grappling with suspicions and truths, appearances and evidence, the inclination to believe the worst versus hoping for the best.

The category likely played some part in the reception of the story, but since there was no sex in it, it seemed like a good fit when I submitted it. There is also an interracial twist at the end that some readers mentioned taking exception to.

 

[Voboy]

There is a type of reader (possibly of person in general) who lose all sense of humor once they have their hands down in their pants

I'm not sure we should blame them. Nobody likes being teased and blue-balled (blue-vaged?).

We should all know what this site is. We owe a payoff. If we don't give one, and then don't post in Non-Erotic, we can't complain about the readers' reactions.

I think this is why the 750-worders are overrepresented in this thread. They have to be REALLY special, in some way, to do well.

 

[MrStill]

Just to prove that I know nothing, my lowest rating story is The Project Trip Part 14 with a 2.75 average from 4 votes. Well, I thought the story was fine. Mind you, it got over 10K views, so I don't know, maybe they read it over a number of times just to confirm the score. For the record, Part 15 has a 4.75 point average from, um, 4 votes. Maybe it was the same 4 who were happy that it was the last episode...

 

[SimonDoom]

I think this is why the 750-worders are overrepresented in this thread. They have to be REALLY special, in some way, to do well.

I think this is right. To be blunt about it, for many readers appreciation of a story probably comes down to the single question, "Did it make me come?" I think that's why stories of a certain minimum length tend to do better. People want to settle in with a story, maybe while in bed, feel the buildup of arousal, and then have a good payoff. 750 words is too short for that. Judging from historical results even 3700 words seems to be too short for that. What's considered "short" by Literotica standards is actually fairly long by normal short story standards. The average New Yorker short story is a lot shorter than the typical successful Literotica story.