Do you ever worry your stories are too similar?

[nice90sguy]

I'm done with experimenting with different styles of writing. Like my sartorial choices, I have a wardrobe I'm comfortable with. The bell-bottoms, skinhead braces, bomber jackets, dinner suits have all been given away to charity.

My storylines are never the same, but my writing style, kinks, and themes are. My stories aren't a great fit for Literotica, but publishing here gives me motivation to complete stories.

 

[Bazzle]

My stories all cover the same themes, I try and change the focus. But all contain smoking...

 

[Trionyx]

Every once in a while I try to push the envelope. In one romance the MMC died suddenly, something that was quite shocking to a lot of readers. More recently I chose to write a story almost totally all dialogue and in reverse chronological order. It didn’t score well but it was a challenge to write and it took me out of my comfort zone. I occasionally write with multiple points of view and I switch from first to third person (but not in the same story.)

Consider changing things up and you might find the challenge worth it.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Fairly new to the forum side but loving it here!

I'm nearly coming up to 70 stories and although I'm no professional writer, I think they're not bad. Most of them are rated hot, but then again I have ones that I almost knew weren't good when I wrote them!
Anyway, after that many stories I fear that they are all becoming the same or written too similar. I worry that people will get bored of my writing style and that I need to find a new way to write to keep people interested.

Really I'm looking for any advice, if any of you have this fear and if there's anything to overcome it? I'm tempted to write a completely new type of story just to test myself

I’m rather worried that the story that another member has asked me to write is going in the direction of being a Fragile clone.

Em

 

[Zootonius]

A comment about Rodney Dangerfield when he started doing standup on the college circuit:

How old are his jokes? So old these kids never heard them before.

New readers are finding Literotica all the time.

 

[ronde]

Fairly new to the forum side but loving it here!

I'm nearly coming up to 70 stories and although I'm no professional writer, I think they're not bad. Most of them are rated hot, but then again I have ones that I almost knew weren't good when I wrote them!
Anyway, after that many stories I fear that they are all becoming the same or written too similar. I worry that people will get bored of my writing style and that I need to find a new way to write to keep people interested.

Really I'm looking for any advice, if any of you have this fear and if there's anything to overcome it? I'm tempted to write a completely new type of story just to test myself

If you're concerned about your plots being similar, fear no more. Professional writers have been writing the same story over and over for centuries.

One that has always been popular is one character in distress saved from that distress by another character. Examples of this in recent history are at least half the western books and films ever produced, the "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" franchises, Jane Auel's "Earth's Children" series, and Ian Fleming's novels about an English spy. All are basically the same plot and vary only by time period and situation.

Check out Gustav Freytag on Wikipedia for a basic explanation of plot formation.

 

[YANKEE DAN]

NO. Just think about what people read, they mostly read their kinks. For example as a reader I read the same forced fem stories over and over and when i find one that is practically the same shit I get excited. Littlemissblair is one of my favorite authors (lesbian stories) and all her stories are basically: I lusted after a young woman and I feel bad about it. Man I wish there were more than 17 on here!

In fact I am INTENTIONALLY setting about writing multiple versions of the same basic story, why? So people into that kink have more slightly different versions of it to keep it fresh.

 

[lovecraft68]

NO. Just think about what people read, they mostly read their kinks. For example as a reader I read the same forced fem stories over and over and when i find one that is practically the same shit I get excited. Littlemissblair is one of my favorite authors (lesbian stories) and all her stories are basically: I lusted after a young woman and I feel bad about it. Man I wish there were more than 17 on here!

In fact I am INTENTIONALLY setting about writing multiple versions of the same basic story, why? So people into that kink have more slightly different versions of it to keep it fresh.

I think there's a high percentage of readers like yourself. Over the years I've become convinced that people want the same thing over and over and its when someone dares to do something off the beaten path that they get confused or lose enthusiasm.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo. Every day that's what I wanted for lunch, day after day and my mother(well foster mother) would say "Don't you want to take something else?" my reply was "But I like this, so why not?"

Same principle.

And I still like Ham cheese and mayo.

 

[YANKEE DAN]

I think there's a high percentage of readers like yourself. Over the years I've become convinced that people want the same thing over and over and its when someone dares to do something off the beaten path that they get confused or lose enthusiasm.

When I was a kid I was obsessed with ham and cheese sandwiches with mayo. Every day that's what I wanted for lunch, day after day and my mother(well foster mother) would say "Don't you want to take something else?" my reply was "But I like this, so why not?"

Same principle.

And I still like Ham cheese and mayo.

Hey Lovecraft fans unite! If you want to read some lovecraftian lesbian stuff check out my current ongoing one. Any of your stories Lovecraftian?

 

[Djmac1031]

I've been trying to branch out with more Third Person stories lately, but I still tend to find myself writing First Person, male perspective.

And I think that's because almost all of my main male characters tend to be me.

Sure, I give them different names, different jobs, different physical attributes. But their personalities still tend to reflect mine.

I'm sure if any readers went through enough of my stories, they'd pick up on those similarities.

I try to vary my women characters more, by age and physical appearance etc. But again, there are certain personality traits I prefer in women, and so my female characters tend to reflect those same characteristics.

Then there's the sexual themes; again, while each story I write is different, there are kinks that pop up again and again in each story.

I can't write about kinks I personally don't enjoy. Or have yet to experience.

So again, many of my stories share common sexual elements, to the point of even reusing particular phrases or descriptions, etc.

To date, I've never had any complaints about this. So readers are either not picking up on these similarities, or it's not bothering them.

 

[lovecraft68]

Hey Lovecraft fans unite! If you want to read some lovecraftian lesbian stuff check out my current ongoing one. Any of your stories Lovecraftian?

I'll check yours out, but no, nothing Lovecratian from me, I use the name in homage, plus I see it with the innuendo of Love-craft.
I have an off lit horror series, but that's not cosmic type horror either, although I do pay a nod to the 'great old ones' in it.

 

[Athalia]

I look at it this way: I don't write stories, I create characters. I try to make each character different, with different histories and attitudes and bodies. If I've succeeded, these characters will tell their own stories in their own way. I think that helps me cut down on instances of repeating the same tropes.

 

[12oclocktales]

Kind of reminds me of Arthur Conan Doyle who got sick of Sherlock Holmes and even killed him off, thinking he was done with him. The reading public protested so vehemently he brought him back, to their happiness, his misery. He was much more fond of his adventure stories, that no one remembers anymore. Sometimes people are happy with the same stuff over and over, though for the creator it might seem baffling.

 

[jehoram]

Kind of reminds me of Arthur Conan Doyle who got sick of Sherlock Holmes and even killed him off, thinking he was done with him.

Ian Fleming tried to do that with his James Bond character. He "killed" him in From Russia With Love, when the villain stabbed him with a poisoned blade in her shoe, but brought him back to life in the next book Dr. No. Maybe he was convinced at that point that novels were just starting to take off and there were still truckloads of money to be made.

The revival used the shaky plot device of having the person who responded to the call be an expert in the exact type of tropical poison in the wound, and able to prescribe the antidote on the spot.

 

[12oclocktales]

Another "strange coincidence." Like Holmes surviving the plunge over Reichenbach Falls to "fool his enemies." The shameless things authors will do to extricate their heroes from impossible situations! Perhaps the more dangerous the situation the "stranger" the coincidence.