Statistical Analysis of Stand-Alone LitE Stories

[8letters]

I posted here a statistical analysis of the results of all the stories published on LitE. And I said there that the results weren't meaningful because chapters have such a different look than stand-alone stories. And I promised to publish a statistical analysis of stand-alone stories.

This is the results of stories taken seven days after they were published, for stories published on 9/7 through 10/15 except for stories published on 10/2. I'm only going to analyze stories in categories that I consider "stories", which are:
[Table functionality was broken in a forum update, so the table has been replaced by a pic of the source spreadsheet]

 

[Bramblethorn]

Thanks, this should be really useful for those "how many views is normal?" posts we get every so often.

Average 31.2 comments for each Loving Wives story... oy. Can you give the median for that? I'd be interested to know whether that's from a few extremely "popular" stories or just the norm for the category.

 

[lovecraft68]

Those average I/T numbers seem really low from what I remember when I used to pay attention a few years back. Even lower when you consider that they're elevated by authors like Silkstockinglover, beachbum and others who get huge numbers.

 

[8letters]

I couldn't access this thread for a while, so I didn't get all of the initial posts done that I wanted.

Now, I'm going to slice the above data by different attribute. I'm not sure how meaningful cross-category data is, but it's what I've got.

By number of pages:
[tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

F-K Grade​

[/td][td]

Stories​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]# of Pages[/td][td]

Count​

[/td][td]

Views​

[/td][td]

Favorites​

[/td][td]

Rating​

[/td][td]

Comments​

[/td][td]

Level​

[/td][td]

Red H​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]1[/td][td]

674​

[/td][td]

11.7K​

[/td][td]

10.5​

[/td][td]

3.93​

[/td][td]

3.3​

[/td][td]

8.5​

[/td][td]

6%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]2[/td][td]

312​

[/td][td]

17.0K​

[/td][td]

18.5​

[/td][td]

4.13​

[/td][td]

6.2​

[/td][td]

8.4​

[/td][td]

22%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3[/td][td]

119​

[/td][td]

19.5K​

[/td][td]

28.4​

[/td][td]

4.21​

[/td][td]

9.7​

[/td][td]

8.4​

[/td][td]

41%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4[/td][td]

61​

[/td][td]

17.3K​

[/td][td]

23.4​

[/td][td]

4.39​

[/td][td]

8.0​

[/td][td]

8.8​

[/td][td]

56%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]5[/td][td]

27​

[/td][td]

26.3K​

[/td][td]

34.8​

[/td][td]

4.32​

[/td][td]

19.5​

[/td][td]

8.1​

[/td][td]

46%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]6[/td][td]

25​

[/td][td]

19.7K​

[/td][td]

36.1​

[/td][td]

4.62​

[/td][td]

10.4​

[/td][td]

9.4​

[/td][td]

84%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]7[/td][td]

11​

[/td][td]

19.6K​

[/td][td]

45.4​

[/td][td]

4.58​

[/td][td]

9.5​

[/td][td]

8.8​

[/td][td]

82%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]8[/td][td]

8​

[/td][td]

26.9K​

[/td][td]

36.3​

[/td][td]

4.52​

[/td][td]

10.3​

[/td][td]

8.2​

[/td][td]

57%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]9[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

29.0K​

[/td][td]

60.1​

[/td][td]

4.72​

[/td][td]

33.1​

[/td][td]

7.6​

[/td][td]

100%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]10[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

79.5K​

[/td][td]

187.3​

[/td][td]

4.67​

[/td][td]

59.7​

[/td][td]

12.5​

[/td][td]

100%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]11[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

28.5K​

[/td][td]

30.0​

[/td][td]

4.59​

[/td][td]

7.0​

[/td][td]

9.7​

[/td][td]

100%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]12[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

22.4K​

[/td][td]

51.0​

[/td][td]

4.52​

[/td][td]

14.5​

[/td][td]

9.2​

[/td][td]

50%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]25[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

27.9K​

[/td][td]

32.0​

[/td][td]

3.66​

[/td][td]

88.0​

[/td][td]

6.2​

[/td][td]

0%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]26[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

6.1K​

[/td][td]

8.0​

[/td][td]

4.74​

[/td][td]

3.0​

[/td][td]

7.2​

[/td][td]

100%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]35[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2.4K​

[/td][td]

6.0​

[/td][td]

3.68​

[/td][td]

4.0​

[/td][td]

5.5​

[/td][td]

0%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]----------[/td][td]

----​

[/td][td]

-----​

[/td][td]

----​

[/td][td]

----​

[/td][td]

---​

[/td][td]

----​

[/td][td]

----​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]All[/td][td]

1253​

[/td][td]

15.0K​

[/td][td]

17.1​

[/td][td]

4.07​

[/td][td]

5.8​

[/td][td]

8.5​

[/td][td]

20%​

[/td][/tr]

By Flesch-Kincaid grade level:
[tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

Stories​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]F-K grade level[/td][td]

Count​

[/td][td]

Views​

[/td][td]

Favorites​

[/td][td]

Rating​

[/td][td]

Comments​

[/td][td]

Red H​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]00.00-03.99[/td][td]

27​

[/td][td]

22.9K​

[/td][td]

27.8​

[/td][td]

3.82​

[/td][td]

7.9​

[/td][td]

4%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]04.00-04.99[/td][td]

66​

[/td][td]

15.0K​

[/td][td]

14.7​

[/td][td]

4.02​

[/td][td]

4.0​

[/td][td]

8%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]05.00-05.99[/td][td]

129​

[/td][td]

14.7K​

[/td][td]

15.2​

[/td][td]

3.99​

[/td][td]

5.2​

[/td][td]

13%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]06.00-06.99[/td][td]

225​

[/td][td]

18.4K​

[/td][td]

21.4​

[/td][td]

4.11​

[/td][td]

8.3​

[/td][td]

19%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]07.00-07.99[/td][td]

233​

[/td][td]

15.1K​

[/td][td]

16.9​

[/td][td]

4.09​

[/td][td]

6.8​

[/td][td]

21%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]08.00-08.99[/td][td]

188​

[/td][td]

14.4K​

[/td][td]

16.3​

[/td][td]

4.14​

[/td][td]

5.0​

[/td][td]

26%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]09.00-09.99[/td][td]

143​

[/td][td]

12.4K​

[/td][td]

13.7​

[/td][td]

4.09​

[/td][td]

5.6​

[/td][td]

23%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]10.00-10.99[/td][td]

94​

[/td][td]

12.4K​

[/td][td]

14.8​

[/td][td]

4.07​

[/td][td]

3.7​

[/td][td]

19%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]11.00-11.99[/td][td]

57​

[/td][td]

11.3K​

[/td][td]

13.9​

[/td][td]

3.98​

[/td][td]

2.5​

[/td][td]

20%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]12.00-12.99[/td][td]

33​

[/td][td]

9.9K​

[/td][td]

12.5​

[/td][td]

4.07​

[/td][td]

3.8​

[/td][td]

38%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]13.00-13.99[/td][td]

16​

[/td][td]

10.9K​

[/td][td]

7.8​

[/td][td]

3.80​

[/td][td]

1.6​

[/td][td]

29%​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]14.00-99.99[/td][td]

42​

[/td][td]

19.4K​

[/td][td]

29.7​

[/td][td]

4.00​

[/td][td]

7.4​

[/td][td]

27%​

[/td][/tr]

By story rating:
[tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][td]

Average​

[/td][/tr][tr][td].[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

# of​

[/td][td]

F-K Grade​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Rating[/td][td]

Count​

[/td][td]

Views​

[/td][td]

Favorites​

[/td][td]

Comments​

[/td][td]

Level​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.95-5.00[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1.8K​

[/td][td]

3.0​

[/td][td]

3.0​

[/td][td]

9.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.90-4.94[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

3.0K​

[/td][td]

5.5​

[/td][td]

0.0​

[/td][td]

9.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.85-4.89[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

7.9K​

[/td][td]

20.7​

[/td][td]

7.4​

[/td][td]

9.0​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.80-4.84[/td][td]

15​

[/td][td]

17.6K​

[/td][td]

41.6​

[/td][td]

12.2​

[/td][td]

8.0​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.75-4.79[/td][td]

23​

[/td][td]

27.2K​

[/td][td]

63.9​

[/td][td]

16.4​

[/td][td]

8.8​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.70-4.74[/td][td]

30​

[/td][td]

16.1K​

[/td][td]

30.8​

[/td][td]

6.0​

[/td][td]

9.0​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.65-4.69[/td][td]

30​

[/td][td]

26.9K​

[/td][td]

46.5​

[/td][td]

11.6​

[/td][td]

8.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.60-4.64[/td][td]

42​

[/td][td]

21.4K​

[/td][td]

35.2​

[/td][td]

9.7​

[/td][td]

8.6​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.55-4.59[/td][td]

44​

[/td][td]

21.5K​

[/td][td]

28.9​

[/td][td]

4.9​

[/td][td]

9.1​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.50-4.54[/td][td]

56​

[/td][td]

17.5K​

[/td][td]

25.2​

[/td][td]

3.5​

[/td][td]

8.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.45-4.49[/td][td]

56​

[/td][td]

18.4K​

[/td][td]

22.5​

[/td][td]

3.1​

[/td][td]

7.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.40-4.44[/td][td]

63​

[/td][td]

10.5K​

[/td][td]

10.8​

[/td][td]

2.2​

[/td][td]

7.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.35-4.39[/td][td]

57​

[/td][td]

14.4K​

[/td][td]

14.2​

[/td][td]

3.4​

[/td][td]

8.2​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.30-4.34[/td][td]

70​

[/td][td]

14.7K​

[/td][td]

16.0​

[/td][td]

2.9​

[/td][td]

7.9​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.25-4.29[/td][td]

53​

[/td][td]

16.0K​

[/td][td]

16.8​

[/td][td]

5.2​

[/td][td]

7.5​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.20-4.24[/td][td]

61​

[/td][td]

14.2K​

[/td][td]

15.2​

[/td][td]

5.7​

[/td][td]

8.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.15-4.19[/td][td]

44​

[/td][td]

13.2K​

[/td][td]

12.2​

[/td][td]

2.5​

[/td][td]

14.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.10-4.14[/td][td]

50​

[/td][td]

11.5K​

[/td][td]

11.5​

[/td][td]

2.3​

[/td][td]

8.6​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.05-4.09[/td][td]

57​

[/td][td]

13.9K​

[/td][td]

12.1​

[/td][td]

7.1​

[/td][td]

7.8​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.00-4.04[/td][td]

59​

[/td][td]

12.0K​

[/td][td]

10.2​

[/td][td]

2.6​

[/td][td]

8.2​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.90-3.99[/td][td]

72​

[/td][td]

17.0K​

[/td][td]

13.0​

[/td][td]

6.1​

[/td][td]

7.9​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.80-3.89[/td][td]

64​

[/td][td]

10.4K​

[/td][td]

8.7​

[/td][td]

4.1​

[/td][td]

8.6​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.70-3.79[/td][td]

48​

[/td][td]

14.7K​

[/td][td]

11.3​

[/td][td]

7.3​

[/td][td]

7.9​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.60-3.69[/td][td]

47​

[/td][td]

11.7K​

[/td][td]

9.6​

[/td][td]

7.1​

[/td][td]

7.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.50-3.59[/td][td]

36​

[/td][td]

13.3K​

[/td][td]

11.6​

[/td][td]

9.9​

[/td][td]

8.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.40-3.49[/td][td]

21​

[/td][td]

10.3K​

[/td][td]

7.0​

[/td][td]

3.3​

[/td][td]

7.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.30-3.39[/td][td]

19​

[/td][td]

12.5K​

[/td][td]

9.7​

[/td][td]

12.5​

[/td][td]

7.8​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.20-3.29[/td][td]

9​

[/td][td]

21.5K​

[/td][td]

18.9​

[/td][td]

33.6​

[/td][td]

8.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.10-3.19[/td][td]

14​

[/td][td]

17.9K​

[/td][td]

13.4​

[/td][td]

10.2​

[/td][td]

7.2​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.00-3.09[/td][td]

17​

[/td][td]

10.3K​

[/td][td]

8.7​

[/td][td]

3.6​

[/td][td]

7.7​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.75-2.99[/td][td]

21​

[/td][td]

15.4K​

[/td][td]

11.3​

[/td][td]

9.1​

[/td][td]

8.0​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.50-2.74[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

17.3K​

[/td][td]

13.0​

[/td][td]

12.6​

[/td][td]

8.2​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.25-2.49[/td][td]

11​

[/td][td]

8.1K​

[/td][td]

6.6​

[/td][td]

9.6​

[/td][td]

9.5​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.00-2.24[/td][td]

12​

[/td][td]

12.6K​

[/td][td]

8.8​

[/td][td]

12.3​

[/td][td]

8.5​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]1.50-1.99[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

4.8K​

[/td][td]

4.6​

[/td][td]

4.1​

[/td][td]

17.4​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]1.00-1.49[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

3.2K​

[/td][td]

3.0​

[/td][td]

3.8​

[/td][td]

9.4​

[/td][/tr]

 

[8letters]

Now for some crosstabs.

This shows how many stand-alone stories with ratings there are for each number of pages:
[tr][td]Range[/td][td]

001​

[/td][td]

002​

[/td][td]

003​

[/td][td]

004​

[/td][td]

005​

[/td][td]

006​

[/td][td]

007​

[/td][td]

008​

[/td][td]

009​

[/td][td]

010​

[/td][td]

011​

[/td][td]

012​

[/td][td]

025​

[/td][td]

026​

[/td][td]

035​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.95-5.00[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.90-4.94[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.85-4.89[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.80-4.84[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.75-4.79[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.70-4.74[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

8​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.65-4.69[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

9​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.60-4.64[/td][td]

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.55-4.59[/td][td]

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.50-4.54[/td][td]

20​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.45-4.49[/td][td]

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.40-4.44[/td][td]

27​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.35-4.39[/td][td]

30​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.30-4.34[/td][td]

39​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.25-4.29[/td][td]

29​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.20-4.24[/td][td]

35​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.15-4.19[/td][td]

31​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.10-4.14[/td][td]

39​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.05-4.09[/td][td]

40​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]4.00-4.04[/td][td]

41​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.90-3.99[/td][td]

50​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.80-3.89[/td][td]

44​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.70-3.79[/td][td]

37​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.60-3.69[/td][td]

34​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.50-3.59[/td][td]

21​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.40-3.49[/td][td]

18​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.30-3.39[/td][td]

14​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.20-3.29[/td][td]

5​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.10-3.19[/td][td]

8​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]3.00-3.09[/td][td]

10​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.75-2.99[/td][td]

15​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.50-2.74[/td][td]

4​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.25-2.49[/td][td]

7​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]2.00-2.24[/td][td]

8​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]1.50-1.99[/td][td]

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]1.00-1.49[/td][td]

3​

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[/td][/tr]

This shows how many stand-alone stories with ratings there are for category by each number of pages:
[tr][td]Category[/td][td]

001​

[/td][td]

002​

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005​

[/td][td]

006​

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010​

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011​

[/td][td]

012​

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025​

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026​

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035​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Anal[/td][td]

11​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]BDSM[/td][td]

39​

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13​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Celebrities & Fan Fiction[/td][td]

31​

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11​

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6​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Erotic Couplings[/td][td]

113​

[/td][td]

24​

[/td][td]

7​

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6​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Erotic Horror[/td][td]

13​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Exhibitionist & Voyeur[/td][td]

39​

[/td][td]

15​

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3​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Fetish[/td][td]

43​

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9​

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7​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]First Time[/td][td]

21​

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7​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Gay Male[/td][td]

52​

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14​

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2​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Group Sex[/td][td]

25​

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21​

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8​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Humor & Satire[/td][td]

4​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Illustrated[/td][td]

3​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Incest/Taboo[/td][td]

45​

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33​

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19​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Interracial Love[/td][td]

24​

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9​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Lesbian Sex[/td][td]

13​

[/td][td]

15​

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2​

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4​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Letters & Transcripts[/td][td]

4​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Loving Wives[/td][td]

46​

[/td][td]

42​

[/td][td]

18​

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6​

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6​

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1​

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1​

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1​

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[/td][/tr][tr][td]Mature[/td][td]

22​

[/td][td]

14​

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2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Mind Control[/td][td]

26​

[/td][td]

9​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]NonConsent/Reluctance[/td][td]

28​

[/td][td]

24​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]NonHuman[/td][td]

16​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Novels and Novellas[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Romance[/td][td]

16​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

6​

[/td][td]

3​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Sci-Fi & Fantasy[/td][td]

10​

[/td][td]

14​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

1​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Toys & Masturbation[/td][td]

8​

[/td][td]

4​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr][tr][td]Transsexuals & Crossdressers[/td][td]

22​

[/td][td]

11​

[/td][td]

7​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

2​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][td]

.​

[/td][/tr]

 

[SimonDoom]

8Letters, to be totally clear:

The numbers in the chart above represent 7 days cumulative numbers for each of the stories tallied, no more and no less?

 

[8letters]

8Letters, to be totally clear:

The numbers in the chart above represent 7 days cumulative numbers for each of the stories tallied, no more and no less?

Yes. Today, I got the stats for stories published on 10/15. Yesterday, I got the stats published on 10/14.

 

[8letters]

Thanks, this should be really useful for those "how many views is normal?" posts we get every so often.

Average 31.2 comments for each Loving Wives story... oy. Can you give the median for that? I'd be interested to know whether that's from a few extremely "popular" stories or just the norm for the category.

18 is the median. 9 is the first quartile and 40 is the third. The story Let Go had 160 comments after one week. It's now at 171. Top 5 were 160, 112, 106, 102 and 94 comments.

Edit: The top story for comments was Big Fat Cock: A Hot Mommy Seduced by silkstockingslover with 172 comments. The next highest incest story had 33 comments.

Edit again: Loving Wives had the #2 through #38 most commented stories.

 

[NotWise]

18 is the median. 9 is the first quartile and 40 is the third.

I used the random story selection feature to sample past stories in LW and found that a lot of metrics have changed over time. For the values below, the samples are all more than 70 stories, except for the pre-2005 set, which is smaller.

Averages, all values are per story:
[tr][td]period[/td][td]comments[/td][td]favorites[/td][td]votes[/td][td]score[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-2004[/td][td]16.24[/td][td]15.6[/td][td]441[/td][td]4.09[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2005-09[/td][td]28[/td][td]23.1[/td][td]574[/td][td]4.06[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2010-14[/td][td]30.4[/td][td]26.7[/td][td]593[/td][td]4.06[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2015-19[/td][td]36.1[/td][td]49.9[/td][td]646[/td][td]4.07[/td][/tr]

Medians:
[tr][td]period[/td][td]comments[/td][td]favorites[/td][td]votes[/td][td]score[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]-2004[/td][td]8[/td][td]10[/td][td]419[/td][td]4.18[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2005-09[/td][td]9[/td][td]13[/td][td]293[/td][td]4.14[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2010-14[/td][td]14.5[/td][td]18[/td][td]294[/td][td]4.15[/td][/tr]
[tr][td]2015-19[/td][td]17[/td][td]22[/td][td]331[/td][td]4.10[/td][/tr]

Of course, the 2015-19 period isn't done yet. The results before 2005 are a little suspect because so many of the stories and comments and/or voting shut off and weren't included in the statistics.

Comments/story and favorites/story have both increased over time. The trend in votes/story and average score are not as clear. In almost every instance other than score, the average is higher than the median, so the distributions have long tails on the high side.

 

[RejectReality]

I'm fairly certain that if you run the same analysis on most other categories, you'll see a marked increase in favorites, and a marked decrease in comments.

That's the trend that's always been evident in my contest/personal stat tracking.

LW was always a cesspit, but the back-and-forth between the various camps has been steadily ramping up over the years, and that's what's causing it to buck the trend of decreasing comments evident pretty much everywhere else.

 

[HectorBidon]

8letters, the counts in your first table don't correspond with the counts and % stand alone figures in your table of 10/12. Is that because the new table is based on more days worth of data?

Notwise, where do you find the vote counts for older stories?

I'm not sure how meaningful cross-category data is, but it's what I've got.

Are there any trends that you think are worth mentioning?

 

[NotWise]

Notwise, where do you find the vote counts for older stories?

As with the new stories list, if you mouse over the gold star next to the rating in the random story lists, then it pops us the vote count. Views are harder to get.

Are there any trends that you think are worth mentioning?

LW is the only category I looked at, and that just because it's such an active category. The numbers I gave are for all stories. I also have numbers for standalone stories only. There are differences in the averages, but given the relatively small sample I don't think the differences in trend between standalones and chapters is very significant.

The difference between median and average is often large, and I think the median is a more valuable measure. I find the statistics even on my own stories to be skewed, so the median is a more common-sense measure of central tendency than the average.

If the difference between the median and average has grown over time (and it may have) then I think that shows increasing polarization among the LW readers.

 

[HectorBidon]

As with the new stories list, if you mouse over the gold star next to the rating in the random story lists, then it pops us the vote count. Views are harder to get.

Grrr. That's is a lot of effort per vote count, and you can only get it for a random subset of stories at a time. Still, though, I didn't know it. Thanks for pointing it out. Now I see why you based your analysis on the random lists. It would be nice if the vote counts showed up on Search. There is another field there called Lists, but it always seems to have the save value as Favorites. I'm not sure what it's there for.

The difference between median and average is often large, and I think the median is a more valuable measure. I find the statistics even on my own stories to be skewed, so the median is a more common-sense measure of central tendency than the average.

If the difference between the median and average has grown over time (and it may have) then I think that shows increasing polarization among the LW readers.

In the month of Lesbian stories I looked at the views were distributed exponentially, with the median equal to about 70% of the mean and the standard deviation about equal to the mean. The views were pretty widely distributed rather than being clustered around the mean. A higher mean-to-median ratio probably means a larger number of exceptionally high scores.

 

[Bramblethorn]

18 is the median. 9 is the first quartile and 40 is the third. The story Let Go had 160 comments after one week. It's now at 171. Top 5 were 160, 112, 106, 102 and 94 comments.

Thanks - that's pretty much what I'd suspected, but always good to confirm.

 

[8letters]

8letters, the counts in your first table don't correspond with the counts and % stand alone figures in your table of 10/12. Is that because the new table is based on more days worth of data?

That's correct. Every day, I get more data.

Are there any trends that you think are worth mentioning?

There doesn't seem to be an "sweet spot" page length. 1 page stories do awful. The general trend is that each additional page results in better statistics, hitting a plateau around page 5 or 6. I was really surprised that views appear to rise with page length. That could be because the longer stories tend to be in I/T and LW, which are highly read categories.

Looking at the rating by page length crosstab, it looks like the lower scores drop off with page length. Is that because people find longer stories better? Or is it because people will read to the end of a one-page story and give it a 2 or a 3, but won't slog to the end of a longer story that they aren't enjoying?

I was really shocked at how many one-page stories there were. If you had asked me, I would have said that there were at most a fifth of the stories published.

I was really shocked that a F-K rating of 6 to 6.99 seemed like the sweet spot. As I said in my first post, I thought it would be noise but it does seem statistically significant. And every category has an average F-K rating higher than that sweet-spot range. Looking at particular stories, it could be that the F-K rating is more a measure of how much dialog a story has.

I was surprised at how evenly the ratings were distributed. I thought there'd be a peak at some point and then tails to either side, but it's pretty flat from 4.6 to 3.6. I had thought there'd be a bigger positive relationship between rating and the other statistics. There's definitely a bump when you cross into Red H territory.

Later, I'll do a similar post for just I/T stand-alone stories to try to remove some of the cross-category effect.

 

[8letters]

Grrr. That's is a lot of effort per vote count, and you can only get it for a random subset of stories at a time. Still, though, I didn't know it. Thanks for pointing it out. Now I see why you based your analysis on the random lists. It would be nice if the vote counts showed up on Search. There is another field there called Lists, but it always seems to have the save value as Favorites. I'm not sure what it's there for.

If I were to try to get vote count for a story after seven days, I'd go to the 30 day top list and pull the vote number from there. It would be a pain to do so as the story could be on any of the pages. But the big problem is that I/T (and only I/T) has more stories submitted in a 30 day period than is on the 30 day top list.

 

[SimonDoom]

There doesn't seem to be an "sweet spot" page length. 1 page stories do awful. The general trend is that each additional page results in better statistics, hitting a plateau around page 5 or 6. I was really surprised that views appear to rise with page length. That could be because the longer stories tend to be in I/T and LW, which are highly read categories.

Looking at the rating by page length crosstab, it looks like the lower scores drop off with page length. Is that because people find longer stories better? Or is it because people will read to the end of a one-page story and give it a 2 or a 3, but won't slog to the end of a longer story that they aren't enjoying?

I was really shocked at how many one-page stories there were. If you had asked me, I would have said that there were at most a fifth of the stories published.

I was really shocked that a F-K rating of 6 to 6.99 seemed like the sweet spot. As I said in my first post, I thought it would be noise but it does seem statistically significant. And every category has an average F-K rating higher than that sweet-spot range. Looking at particular stories, it could be that the F-K rating is more a measure of how much dialog a story has.

I was surprised at how evenly the ratings were distributed. I thought there'd be a peak at some point and then tails to either side, but it's pretty flat from 4.6 to 3.6. I had thought there'd be a bigger positive relationship between rating and the other statistics. There's definitely a bump when you cross into Red H territory.

Later, I'll do a similar post for just I/T stand-alone stories to try to remove some of the cross-category effect.

These are some interesting results. For the first time (unless someone has done what you've done before, and I'm not aware of anything like this except what Hector Bidon has done) we have real data to back up or refute guesses people make about how to make one's story more "successful" on Literotica. A few thoughts:

1. Re story length and success: I think there's a correlation between writer quality and story length. That's not to say good writers don't write 1 page stories. It's that unskilled writers are less likely to write a long story; they simply don't know how to flesh out a narrative. The key to success here, I think, is good storytelling. It's much more important than prose style, for example. Good storytellers are more likely to want to stretch out their stories, because they enjoy the process and they're good at it. They also tend to like lots of dialogue. So, it's not surprising that there are many 1-page stories written by unskilled writers.

2. I imagine story length also filters out negative readers. They don't finish the story, therefore they don't vote. Filtering has a big impact on story score; you can see that with the high scores that late chapters in long series receive.

3. Number of 1-page stories. I'm surprised too, but not so much when I think about it. I don't think they hit my radar. Most don't have high enough scores to interest me. Some do, and I enjoy them, but the majority don't register so I don't click on them.

4. The F-K numbers look a little screwy. There are some extreme disparities between categories. That makes me wonder how good the tests are. I suspect that the numbers reflect factors such as the amount of dialogue, as you suggest, or other facts that don't really bear upon the sophistication of the writing. The BDSM numbers, for example, seem totally out of whack. I don't know what would explain that.

5. It would be interesting to get an update on the numbers after a few months. By that time the score should have stabilized, so you'd get a better and more meaningful correlation between score and other factors. You may want to delegate some of the responsibility for doing that to someone else, unless you don't have a day job!

6. I'd like to dive into some of the data within categories. For instance, in I/T, what are the stats for different types of I/T? Or how about for the different types of LW stories? I'll bet that study would yield some extreme differences.

This is really great work. Thanks for doing this!

 

[8letters]

6. I'd like to dive into some of the data within categories. For instance, in I/T, what are the stats for different types of I/T? Or how about for the different types of LW stories? I'll bet that study would yield some extreme differences.

I've got the tags for the stories. Sadly, many stories aren't tagged. I think enough I/T stories are tagged with significant tags that there's some value at looking at the data by tags. LW, not so much. I currently have statistics on 124 stand-alone LW stories. The most common tags are:
wife - 53
loving wife - 30
husband - 30

The eight stories with the "adultery" tag average 63(!) comments whereas the eight "hot wife" stories average a mere 18 comments. But I'm sure there's many more of those type of stories that aren't tagged.

 

[davybyrne]

Really cool data 8letters!

How did you calculate the Flesch-Kincaid grade level? Is it based on the first page of each story?

 

[8letters]

How did you calculate the Flesch-Kincaid grade level? Is it based on the first page of each story?

I build a file of the whole story and then feed that into some software that calculates F-K grade level.

In the original thread, I had some discussions with another poster on F-K grade level. F-K grade level is meant for non-fiction and determining F-K grade level is not cut-and-dried for fiction, so the result varies with the software you use. The software I use appears to give consistent results, which I think is sufficient.

 

[8letters]

These are some interesting results. For the first time (unless someone has done what you've done before, and I'm not aware of anything like this except what Hector Bidon has done) we have real data to back up or refute guesses people make about how to make one's story more "successful" on Literotica. A few thoughts:

1. Re story length and success: I think there's a correlation between writer quality and story length. That's not to say good writers don't write 1 page stories. It's that unskilled writers are less likely to write a long story; they simply don't know how to flesh out a narrative. The key to success here, I think, is good storytelling. It's much more important than prose style, for example. Good storytellers are more likely to want to stretch out their stories, because they enjoy the process and they're good at it. They also tend to like lots of dialogue. So, it's not surprising that there are many 1-page stories written by unskilled writers.

Good stuff. I think the corollary to what you're saying is that even if you believe that the best way to improve as a writer is to write, your advice should be to strive to write longer stories. Writing more one-page stories isn't going to get a writer a significant increase in positive feedback.

This is really great work. Thanks for doing this!

You're welcome.

 

[SimonDoom]

Good stuff. I think the corollary to what you're saying is that even if you believe that the best way to improve as a writer is to write, your advice should be to strive to write longer stories. Writing more one-page stories isn't going to get a writer a significant increase in positive feedback.
.

I'm not sure if I agree with this. I think Literotica authors sometimes have the wrong idea of what length necessarily makes a good short story. As an example, the New Yorker typically accepts short stories of 2,000 to 10,000 words. 10K words is fewer than 3 Lit pages. I think it's a mistake to write a story with the idea you've got to stretch it out to a certain length. You should write it to the length that best suits the story, whatever that is. Anyone who reads a lot of great short stories knows that many of them are quite short by Lit standards, often no longer than one Lit page (<3750 words). So, it can be done, and one shouldn't be afraid to try to do it.

That said, I think there's a natural reason why the best-rated stories on this site tend to be over 2 Lit pages. I think it's because pacing and development are crucial to arousal, or to create an erotic experience for the reader, whatever that may be. It takes a certain amount of words to get there, for most readers. As an author you need to establish your characters, set up an erotic situation, build it up in a way that creates conflict and that's both plausible and stimulating, and then narrate the fulfillment of whatever the erotic desire/need/situation is. My experience is that it takes over 2 Lit pages to do this as well as I want to do it. Some other authors take more time with the buildup, and readers seem to like that.

But that's not to say it's the only way to do it.

 

[oggbashan]

...

I was really shocked at how many one-page stories there were. If you had asked me, I would have said that there were at most a fifth of the stories published.

I was really shocked that a F-K rating of 6 to 6.99 seemed like the sweet spot. As I said in my first post, I thought it would be noise but it does seem statistically significant. And every category has an average F-K rating higher than that sweet-spot range. Looking at particular stories, it could be that the F-K rating is more a measure of how much dialog a story has.

...

One page stories?

I think that new authors might have difficulty writing more than one Lit page when they start posting. An interesting statistic might be how many authors have only one, or less than five, stories posted. I think that number of authors might be the majority of Lit posters.

F-K Rating?

My story Breathless Stargazing is an obvious outlier but I think F-K penalizes longer sentences and multi-syllable words. Short sentences and more basic words can produce immediacy and pace in a story. Both are useful in erotica.

Of course dialogue tends to be shorter than exposition. More dialogue gets a better F-K rating.

 

[davybyrne]

One page stories?
F-K Rating?

My story Breathless Stargazing is an obvious outlier but I think F-K penalizes longer sentences and multi-syllable words. Short sentences and more basic words can produce immediacy and pace in a story. Both are useful in erotica.

Of course dialogue tends to be shorter than exposition. More dialogue gets a better F-K rating.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's the reverse... shorter sentences and simpler words leads to a lower F-K grade level, and longer, more complex sentences lead to a higher F-K grade level.

Dialog clearly is what seems to lower F-K grade, and I suspect some of the higher F-K grades and lower ratings are for stories with a lot of exposition and little dialog. I'm imagining dense and long paragraphs that are not reader friendly.

It makes sense that a grade of 6-7 is a sweet spot as it probably indicates a lot of dialogue.

 

[NotWise]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's the reverse... shorter sentences and simpler words leads to a lower F-K grade level, and longer, more complex sentences lead to a higher F-K grade level.

I expect that Ogg was equating "better" with "lower grade level." That's what I'd do, anyway.