[SOLVED] Is Literotica the Right Place for Me? (It is)

[YmaOHyd]

(May she live forever)

I guess I deserve whatever misfortunes I receive.

 

[Comshaw]

KOS, I'm at a loss as to what exactly you are seeking with this post. Yeah, I know, you have a question in the title, but that's only one of many you posed throughout this thread. To me everything you posted sounds like a conversation with yourself more than a request for advice from others. Which ain't a bad thing, 'cause push come to shove the one we need to please and the one we needs listen to them most is the one living in our skin.

Take the question in the title, "Is Literotica the right place for me?" You throw that out and we will kick it around like a battered soccer ball for days. Everyone is going to have their own take on it and their own advice as to whether Lit is good for you (and them) or not. The problem is that advice comes from our own little myopic view of the world, our own tiny bit of experience and it ain't even close to the view and experience you have. If we can't see what you see, feel what you do, how are we going to point out a direction to go? The best any of us can do is relay what we feel, the things that have worked for us and how it has affected us.

One of the things that struck me and that I need to comment on (because my inner desenter demands it) was the "informal rules" comment. Every part of society has them. Every group I've been associated with has factions and cliques. And those factions and cliques always have informal rules for the members. Most times, they also try to impose those rules on everyone who isn't part of that particular clique, but is part of the larger social group. You also have a few who stand on the edges, who aren't part of any of those tight little groupings contained inside the larger one. The AH isn't any different.

"Informal rules" are manufactured by someone to try to make others conform to what they think should be the norm. They have no power other than the disapproval of the maker, or the group the maker is part of. I don't pay much attention to informal rules. In fact, at times I've been known to break them just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough other than to say I'm still scratching my head as to what you are seeking. That doesn't say anything about you or your post. It says a lot about my inability to decipher what you need from the crowd here. Whatever it is, I hope you find it (or at a minimum, part of what you seek) at the end.

Comshaw

 

[yowser]

I do agree with the core of erotica being desire. That's actually a conclusion that someone who doesn't consume erotica realized after playing several porn games and really taking in their story.

I didn't come to Lit to gain money, I came here to skill up, which is what I've been doing over the past five years, even though I don't post a lot. My goal was always to try and get some level of constancy when it comes to publishing, something that I've failed way too much, and then I come to AH trying to see if there was something I was doing wrong... then I see that I was doing everything wrong... but then everyone is doing everything wrong, yet they remain constant by not following what people are saying?

First of all, thanks for a long and immersive thread, which doesn't often happen here.

I won't even begin to try to answer your dilemma (tri-lemma? multi-lemma?) You got yourself a good knot to untangle, and my only real hope is that the effort to do so is worthwhile for you.

Desire is in capitals, as it ought to be. One of the simplest and most complex drivers we have as humans. And the chance to dissect it, play with it, twist it and get it out there for others is both addictive and, I think, productive in multiple ways.

If I were to try to guess a number one reason to stay, it would be your 'skill up' business, something that is central to a lot of us. Here's a free playground (admittedly with some folks you don't want to play with, but it's not THAT hard to avoid them.) You get to experiment, fall out of the monkey bars every once in a while, try running with your shoelaces tied together, and make people laugh when you tell them your in-jokes. Upside, for me, is very high compared to the downside. Writing (and story telling) for many of us is not quite everything, but comprises a major part of our sanity.

 

[crookedletter]

I admit I haven't read this entire thread, but I'm a little confused as to the source of the distress. Is it the prevailing "wisdom" around AH? Or are you getting comments on your stories telling you you're doing it wrong?

A lot of people around AH have some strong opinions about how things should be done. Some of those constitute good advice if you're struggling to get off the ground. Some of them don't. But if anyone anywhere says there's only way right way to write a story, or two ways to write a story, or six hundred and twelve, they're wrong. There's no limit to how may ways you can write a story. There's no right or wrong way. There's just the story you want to write. Then the next one.

I'm about as far from prolific as you can get. I have three stories on here in a year and a half. (Hopefully 2026 will be a little more fruitful.) Those three stories have just about nothing in common, apart from sharing a writer and all having some sex in them. They're wildly varying lengths (6K, 11K, 23K), three different categories. Two have much higher view/vote numbers than the third. But they all have ratings I'm happy with. And no one has tried to tell me any one of them was the wrong way to write a story, whatever their legitimate issues have been.

I plan to write more, I plan to publish more. I plan to experiment. I have an idea for a second person 750 word story. I have ideas that are weird and that some people probably won't like. And I'll welcome and consider all constructive criticism. But if anyone tells me I wrote a story the wrong way I'll feel quite justified in telling them to stuff it. I hope you do the same.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Your post somewhat surprised me. I read and skimmed my way through this thread, but I'm still unsure where exactly the issue lies.

If I understood you correctly, your problem isn't with Lit's content rules, but with the AH?
But what do you mean by policing? No one here has any power to enforce anything. We share our thoughts here on what we like and dislike, and sometimes we share some strong opinions, but I don't see anyone bullying or attacking others for the kinks or type of stories they write.

Sure, there have been posts criticizing NC, a certain type of LW stories, sexualized racial inequality, etc. But with the exception of maybe several posts in the three and a half years I've been here (oh god, I sound like Simon now), I've not seen anyone directly attacking others for writing such stories. I mean, we share thoughts, we rant sometimes here, but that's what this place is all about.

I've criticized the type of story you seem to like to write, the really short ones, but not on principle, but because they seem to flood the site. There's nothing inherently wrong with them; I would love some kind of separation between stories based on length.

But also, I've never attacked anyone here for writing such stories. In a way, that's the good side of this place. We can express our likes and dislikes without ever going personal. Me or anyone else disliking some concept shouldn't prevent anyone from writing it. I've never judged anyone here based on the stories they write. It's only what they post on the forum that can sometimes trigger discussions/arguments.

So in that sense, I think the AH would lose plenty if you were to leave. I really mean that.
In the sea of Americans, Brits, and Australians, it's good to hear thoughts from someone who comes from a different culture and who expresses different ways of thinking. I also often feel like an odd AHer, as much as for my general criticism towards the site as for my significant cultural differences compared to what I call "The Westerners," who are an overwhelming majority here in the AH.

Don't fucking leave. But also, I'd appreciate it if you could express, in much fewer words, what exactly you find to be the glaring issue with the AH?

I mean, other than the fact that many of them are worshippers of Laurel.

Yeah, I couldn't help myself here.

The abridged version is that there seems to be a complete disconnect between AH and Literotica, like it's two whole different places instead of one cohesive place. And it is this disconnect that makes it feel like AH and Literotica are two whole different websites instead of part of a whole. Tone doesn't translate into texts really well, but I really find it extremely ironic, and very hypocritical to be on a place where all of us are here to write erotica, and there's a certain group who can't seem to keep their power tripping to themselves. Of course, I could just be paranoid. Maybe 25 years of being told what to think, what to do, what to consume, what to criticize, who to consider enemies, who to consider friends from people who have way more power than Laurel and Manu have already has gotten into me, so I have zero tolerance for power tripping users whose comments shouldn't have stuck into my brain like a damned parasite, but they are.

Whether this is just a me issue, or it's a legitimate issue remains to be seen. It's likely that it's just me, but I needed to say all of that, even if I broke the max character count more than once.

addendum: I think some of the advice given here about writing is bad, but then I think pretty much any writing forum or how-to resource that one might find is going to have a significant percentage of bad advice, because people love giving advice and are chronically bad at distinguishing between "this works for me" and "everybody needs to do this".

I'm beginning to think that all advice here should be treated like hats on a hat store.

I concur.

And I find it immensely amusing that OP seems to allude to a prevailing lack of acceptance for shorter forms of writing on Lit, while simultaneously wording those sentiments in such a way that they have exceeded the incredibly generous word count limit for posts, twice.

The irony is not lost on me, clawed friend, I'm aware of that. Maybe that irony is what has gotten the views to this thread. If I'm hoisted by my own petard, then fuck it, allow me to blow myself up in style™.

KOS, I'm at a loss as to what exactly you are seeking with this post. Yeah, I know, you have a question in the title, but that's only one of many you posed throughout this thread. To me everything you posted sounds like a conversation with yourself more than a request for advice from others. Which ain't a bad thing, 'cause push come to shove the one we need to please and the one we needs listen to them most is the one living in our skin.

Take the question in the title, "Is Literotica the right place for me?" You throw that out and we will kick it around like a battered soccer ball for days. Everyone is going to have their own take on it and their own advice as to whether Lit is good for you (and them) or not. The problem is that advice comes from our own little myopic view of the world, our own tiny bit of experience and it ain't even close to the view and experience you have. If we can't see what you see, feel what you do, how are we going to point out a direction to go? The best any of us can do is relay what we feel, the things that have worked for us and how it has affected us.

One of the things that struck me and that I need to comment on (because my inner desenter demands it) was the "informal rules" comment. Every part of society has them. Every group I've been associated with has factions and cliques. And those factions and cliques always have informal rules for the members. Most times, they also try to impose those rules on everyone who isn't part of that particular clique, but is part of the larger social group. You also have a few who stand on the edges, who aren't part of any of those tight little groupings contained inside the larger one. The AH isn't any different.

"Informal rules" are manufactured by someone to try to make others conform to what they think should be the norm. They have no power other than the disapproval of the maker, or the group the maker is part of. I don't pay much attention to informal rules. In fact, at times I've been known to break them just for the hell of it.

Anyway, I've rambled on enough other than to say I'm still scratching my head as to what you are seeking. That doesn't say anything about you or your post. It says a lot about my inability to decipher what you need from the crowd here. Whatever it is, I hope you find it (or at a minimum, part of what you seek) at the end.

Comshaw

You can take it as me trying to share a journal of my thoughts with you, however, my intention is not to outsource the answer. What I'm asking, and it's what even people like you, who are at a lost of my posts here have given me, is perspective. Yes, I know that everyone has a different answer to that question, but if I have a different answer from each one of you, and zoom out to see the whole picture, maybe I could find my own, or maybe I won't, but I'll have a much better understanding out of all of you, especially those with accounts as old as yours, enough that I'll learn something at least. This is my version of calling in a huge amount of experts and ask what do you think is my problem. There are answers I won't like, there are answers that I'll like, there will be answers that'll make me go "oh, so that was the thing that I was doing wrong!"

So those informal rules, yeah, I'm bringing those into question, publicly, because if I'm having an issue with that, then there might be someone who also does, yet they are afraid to speak out. Have you ever thought how could this rules influence so much potential talent that we're not seeing because they are "not good enough"?

YEP, WE'RE BREAKING THE CHARACTER LIMIT AGAIN!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Writing (and story telling) for many of us is not quite everything, but comprises a major part of our sanity.

It's a lifeline for me. It has saved my life in many ocassions.

I admit I haven't read this entire thread, but I'm a little confused as to the source of the distress. Is it the prevailing "wisdom" around AH? Or are you getting comments on your stories telling you you're doing it wrong?

A lot of people around AH have some strong opinions about how things should be done. Some of those constitute good advice if you're struggling to get off the ground. Some of them don't. But if anyone anywhere says there's only way right way to write a story, or two ways to write a story, or six hundred and twelve, they're wrong. There's no limit to how may ways you can write a story. There's no right or wrong way. There's just the story you want to write. Then the next one.

I'm about as far from prolific as you can get. I have three stories on here in a year and a half. (Hopefully 2026 will be a little more fruitful.) Those three stories have just about nothing in common, apart from sharing a writer and all having some sex in them. They're wildly varying lengths (6K, 11K, 23K), three different categories. Two have much higher view/vote numbers than the third. But they all have ratings I'm happy with. And no one has tried to tell me any one of them was the wrong way to write a story, whatever their legitimate issues have been.

I plan to write more, I plan to publish more. I plan to experiment. I have an idea for a second person 750 word story. I have ideas that are weird and that some people probably won't like. And I'll welcome and consider all constructive criticism. But if anyone tells me I wrote a story the wrong way I'll feel quite justified in telling them to stuff it. I hope you do the same.

As I said above, it's the disconnect that I sense between the story site and AH. Comments are comments, and many of them are just noise. I might just consider AH also just noise from time to time, but I guess I came here and now leave disappointed. Like I said, I thought coming here would help me to post more stories, but I was surprised to find that the opposite effect has happened on me, and my process has tried to shift into the way things are supposed to be done rather than the way I want to make things. Stupid that I allow myself to this, I know! That's precisely another reason I posted this wall of text while also complaining about short stories not being well received: I want perspective. I don't want AH's opinion, I want YOUR thoughts. I want to know why is Literotica the right place for you, and why it isn't the right place for you. I want perspective, not from AH, but from you, as an individual.

 

[old_prof]

I'm beginning to think that all advice here should be treated like hats on a hat store.

Absolutely true and well said.

 

[TheLobster]

Absolutely true and well said.

This applies to all writing advice everywhere for all time, and you can probably also drop “writing”.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I'm beginning to think that all advice here should be treated like hats on a hat store.

Stealing this for future use.

 

[LongLostSole]

Ah yes, the ceremonial “Woe is me” thread, clearly not bait for ego-fluffing and validation-farming. Those only come from people with nothing to offer a forum but performative despair wrapped in faux vulnerability. You can always tell because they’ll write a whole novel about themselves while swearing all they know how to write is short stories.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Ah yes, the ceremonial “Woe is me” thread, clearly not bait for ego-fluffing and validation-farming. Those only come from people with nothing to offer a forum but performative despair wrapped in faux vulnerability. You can always tell because they’ll write a whole novel about themselves while swearing all they know how to write is short stories.

 

[StillStunned]

Hello, is that a troll, or a revenant? How do you feel about Sylvia Plath?

 

[Z_TheWriter]

Ah yes, the ceremonial “Woe is me” thread, clearly not bait for ego-fluffing and validation-farming. Those only come from people with nothing to offer a forum but performative despair wrapped in faux vulnerability. You can always tell because they’ll write a whole novel about themselves while swearing all they know how to write is short stories.

Ah yes, the "Ah yes"-guy. Attempting to couch their offensive statements in a much overworked format of humorous and generalizing distance that mostly doesn't work. You can always tell, because they'll be the cynical old account who's like "I've seen it all before, in my... 9 days and 2 posts..."

 

[nice90sguy]

Remember, the AH is more than the sum of its alts.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Hello, is that a troll, or a revenant? How do you feel about Sylvia Plath?

Ah yes, the "Ah yes"-guy. Attempting to couch their offensive statements in a much overworked format of humorous and generalizing distance that mostly doesn't work. You can always tell, because they'll be the cynical old account who's like "I've seen it all before, in my... 9 days and 2 posts..."

I may have been a headless cam girl, but it's the first time I've drawn the attention of someone who is too much of a bitch to post using their actual account.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

How is it that it takes just one post to reveal T? That, my friends, is what means having a recognizable style.

@KittyOfSteele, I understand your post somewhat better now, but I'm still surprised at the impact that some of the words said in AH had on you. As you probably know, I find myself criticizing the website often, and I suppose many people now just roll their eyes when they see me post such criticism.

Yet, it hasn't always been so. Back when I first started criticizing, people would get very personal with me. The words "if you don't like it here, why don't you leave Lit and go someplace else?!" were often flung my direction. Sometimes, there were even some borderline insults. But I'm still here, successfully annoying faithful Litsers for a couple of years now! I'm considering registering a trademark at this point.

Anyway, my point is that it takes time to properly understand the dynamics of this place. Out of curiosity, can you give me an example of the power-tripping you mentioned? Maybe I'm just that used to the tone of the AH that I don't notice the intensity of some posts anymore. If I'm one of those who does the mentioned power-tripping, then all the better. I can't see myself from the side.

 

[StillStunned]

How is it that it takes just one post to reveal T?

Tilan, that's the name I couldn't remember! I could only think of his Plathfan alt. There was another one since then too, but I'm drawing a complete blank on that one.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Tilan, that's the name I couldn't remember! I could only think of his Plathfan alt. There was another one since then too, but I'm drawing a complete blank on that one.

Robin Starveling, I think.

 

[crookedletter]

As I said above, it's the disconnect that I sense between the story site and AH. Comments are comments, and many of them are just noise. I might just consider AH also just noise from time to time, but I guess I came here and now leave disappointed. Like I said, I thought coming here would help me to post more stories, but I was surprised to find that the opposite effect has happened on me, and my process has tried to shift into the way things are supposed to be done rather than the way I want to make things. Stupid that I allow myself to this, I know! That's precisely another reason I posted this wall of text while also complaining about short stories not being well received: I want perspective. I don't want AH's opinion, I want YOUR thoughts. I want to know why is Literotica the right place for you, and why it isn't the right place for you. I want perspective, not from AH, but from you, as an individual.

I think of coming to AH similarly as most of the writers' groups and meetups I attend in person. I'm not necessarily going to learn from people, to take their grumblings and musings about writing and apply them to my own practice. It's more just about being among writers, feeling part of the world of writers, to remind myself I'm a writer even when I'm not writing.

It's a bit like going to a bar to watch sports: the sporting event is the same if I watch it at home, but there's something about sharing that interest communally that appeals. Usually the shit people shout at the TV is asinine and flat-out wrong. But it can be fun to all shout asinine inaccuracies together.

I don't come away disappointed when a particular piece of writing advice or craft philosophizing doesn't resonate; in the end I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do, and to hell with anyone who thinks I'm a hack. But sometimes even disagreeing with such things keeps them circulating in my mind, reinforcing my own bad habits. (Which I mean as a good thing, weirdly.)

(I also come here because I work from home and this place is usually more interesting than my job)

 

[KittyOfSteele]

@KittyOfSteele, I understand your post somewhat better now, but I'm still surprised at the impact that some of the words said in AH had on you. As you probably know, I find myself criticizing the website often, and I suppose many people now just roll their eyes when they see me post such criticism.

Yet, it hasn't always been so. Back when I first started criticizing, people would get very personal with me. The words "if you don't like it here, why don't you leave Lit and go someplace else?!" were often flung my direction. Sometimes, there were even some borderline insults. But I'm still here, successfully annoying faithful Litsers for a couple of years now! I'm considering registering a trademark at this point.

Anyway, my point is that it takes time to properly understand the dynamics of this place. Out of curiosity, can you give me an example of the power-tripping you mentioned? Maybe I'm just that used to the tone of the AH that I don't notice the intensity of some posts anymore. If I'm one of those who does the mentioned power-tripping, then all the better. I can't see myself from the side.

I don't know who was the one who called in for having a minimum of stories being 3K long if they owned the website, but that comment felt quite concerning. Being born into the language that has given birth to one of the most well known pieces of microfiction (the dinosaur), and being someone who has experimented by writing things that short through tweets, it felt like an entire body of work that I'm passionate about, and I really enjoy having fun at, was invalidated just because it should have an inflated number to be considered a story.

There's also a lot of the hypocresy in one particular thread about someone asking for help regarding the underage rule during the summer, and a lot of the reaction to that thread not only showed the true colors of many people here, but also gave me a pair of disappointments (some I've forgiven and let go) over a very draconian reaction of having 18-year-olds featured in an erotica. And I say hypocresy because some of these authors have written in T/I, and NC/R. I won't be dropping names out of respect, but it's a thread in which the OP DM'd me, and I think I was the first person they DM'd about it. They thanked me for not having that trigger-happy reaction to the possibility of breaking that rule, which can happen by accident.

The latter case ended up being a complete overreaction from both the OP as well as the moralists authors who just couldn't resist to give a lecture on why the niche that the OP and I shared is unethical because it ended up being that there was a problem with the story breaking the guidelines; something that was fixeable, but the author was frustrated enough to just try somewhere else, and with the answers they've gotten, would you blame them?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Anyway, I think I've had enough from this. I thank you all for taking the time to read me, and give me your answers, whether it was wisdom, confusion, a pat in the back, a punch to the face, or just being that weirdo who lives in a manhole and felt compelled to stand tall in their own grime.

There are a few takeaways from this thread that I'm leaving with, and yes, it's another journal entry that I'd like to share to this forum just in case anyone feels in the same predicament as I have. Again, this might be preaching to the choir, but I don't know... Someone on Google might be searching for an answer, and maybe this is it.

Your Writing IS Valid, Write Whatever YOU want.​

There were two things that bothered me: policing what others write, and having one way to write. These are two different issues. I'll start with the latter one.

The conclusion about stories needing to have more than a single Lit page to be successful is a rushed generalization at best, and a dogma at worst. While there is an argument that yes, stories that are the most successful are the ones that go on for pages, that doesn't have to be the case for you. The case here being what does equate to success for you. Are you chasing metrics? Engagement? Or are you just looking to post and that's it?

What I'm trying to say here is that, like all advice everywhere about... anything, really, it should be treated like a hat in a store. You try it on, and if it doesn't fit, then take it off. I don't know who was the one who originally set this metaphor? Probably one of those IT guys who worked at big tech, or something... I don't know, but I guess that's something I should just tattoo to my forearm to see it every single time.

You can write stories that go for pages, or you can write stories that are just at the bare minimum, it's fine. There isn't a set standard for what you must follow except the sweet spot that is between the guidelines of the site, and yours.

Which then prompts me to others policing the subjects of what others write, and again I go to the crime writing analogy that I had in my OP. Listen, unlike crime writers, we're all here not thinking about in the many ways we can kill people, we're all here thinking about the many ways we can fuck them. We all have our audiences, our interests, our tastes, our experiences... If you don't like schoolgirl erotica, fine, you don't have to. I don't have to like incest or non-consent, but that doesn't give me the right to censor those who write it. After all, the thing that we have in common with crime writers is not the dubious morality of our art, but that we are both doing the same thing: we are writing fiction. That means we are making stuff up. We wouldn't treat other fictional characters like real people, so why should we do the same with our own?

What I'm getting at here is that there should not be any filter when it comes not just to writing, but producing any type of creative work. People policing others is an imposition of a filter, and that's not ok. Besides, the guidelines of Literotica exist only and only to protect the platform, not to serve as a moral compass for anybody.

My conclusion to this point is a question that I think all of us should ask ourselves when dealing with people trying to police our content, whether it is here in the AH, or outside:

If they hold no power on what gets read and what doesn't, why should you listen to them?

If there's a takeaway to this question is that the ones who have the true power here are the readers, and when I say readers, I don't mean just one amorphous blob that we put a noun upon, that feels like an abstract concept similar to "the algorithm." No, I meant readers as a group of people; readers who are also individuals. Individuals who think, who breathe, who feel, who have decided to give you their most valuable resource in life to check what you have to offer: they give you their time to read your story. You might not please everyone, and that's fine. If you're aiming to have an audience, then aim for depth of audience instead of mass. Views might seem low when you put them as a number, but have you seen how many people are 30 people? 60? 100? 500? 1000? 10000? Just go and search pictures with the words "a group of X people" and replace the X with any of these numbers, and you'll find how much reach you're getting in reality.

Journaling Prompts​

I started this thread with a question: is Literotica the right place for me? The best answer to that question is that only I can answer it. When I wrote that question, I didn't do it as a way to outsource the answer, but rather to see why others found Literotica as their right place for their stories.

To it, I actually came out with many journaling prompts that I'll use to reflect on this. I already answered a few of them, but here they are:

1. What is your definition of success?
2. What metrics should you chase?
3. Why are you writing?
4. Why are you publishing on Literotica?

Let's start with the first one.

What is my definition of success?​

Everyone's definition is different. Some would want to max out their stats, others would just like to learn. To some this is a hobby, to others is an outlet. To some is a launchpad for their authorial career, to others it's just an extension of their authorial career.

StillStunned's portfolio reminded me why I decided to sign up for Literotica in the first place: to experiment, to learn, and to have fun. I still remember the days when I started learning how to write erotica, and how every discovery was like "oh, so I just have to follow the porn logic to this." I have been already writing for years, and was trying to get a career into writing, but if it wasn't for erotica, I wouldn't have given myself the chance to write in English a lot more than in Spanish, which has given me extra fluency to the language after... almost ten years of practicing it constantly. I only decided to made the switch because I just couldn't help it; it was a genre in which I felt completely at home.

pink_silk_glove is also a reminder that writing, to me, is a lifeline. Writing has saved my life, quite literally, both in 2020, 2024, and 2025. And, also, in 2015 because that was the year I started journaling every single day, and that was also the year in which I finished drafting my very first novel, which opened up the can of worms that was the egg cracking and me realizing that the world wasn't weird, but I was the weird one. It's also a reminder that, if I have no reason to publish, then I should do it out of self respect.

Success to me consists in finishing the cycle. Creative work has three stages: the first stage, in which the idea lives in your head and you just have to get it out of it onto the page, then the second stage, in which the idea is now outside, and it can be edited for it to make sense into the world, and then the third and last stage, where the idea is out for everyone to see. As a species, art is one of our ways of communicating with each other, and I've been skipping the third stage for no reason other than pleasing others who don't know better than me about my own work.

What metrics should I chase?​

I've struggled with this as a musician before. You know what metrics are, right? It's the statistics, the thing that so many people here keep track of, and ocassionally make threads about. Thing is that there are metrics that can't be measured mathematically, or can be, but are hidden.

Naturally, when it comes to art, we're told to chase the big three: money, views, and praise. If those three are my only choices, then I'll be choosing money, of course!

But, newsflash! You can't monetize on Literotica! And that's completely fine! I didn't come to Literotica to make dough, I came here to do something completely different, a metric that to this day hasn't changed. I came here to skill up, to experiment, to practice, to improve my writing. I also came here to overcome a stage fright that was plaguing me because I was used to it as a musician, but not as a writer. And I'm writing stories to connect with a very specific type of people, like I don't know who they are, but I know there is someone out there who can just read whatever I post, and be like "damn... I felt that" in a very honest way... more so in the pieces that I've done the most soul searching rather than just acted in this blue collar way of writing for a profit, which is essentially the pulp ethos in its entire nudity.

But ultimately, I think I should learn from pink_silk_glove and chase the most important metric of all, which is self respect.

I think I posted this before, but Struthless has a video that deals with most of this, and there's an entire section regarding about metrics. I'll link it here if anyone wants to learn something about it.

CONTINUED...

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Why are you writing?​

This could be tailored to any craft, and it feels like a very intimidating "in your face question" taken at face value, but it's best to think about the why are you doing any creative work. In this case is writing. Why do you write? What do you get out of it?

What I get out of it? A lot of peace. Writing is my way to make the noise inside my head to shut up. It's my form of meditation. It's why, if I'm left without any control, posts end up breaking the character limit. And that's why I write: it's my way to breathe, it's my way to stay alive, it's my way of expressing myself, and I know I am damn good at it. It's what I do, and I really can't see myself doing anything else. I guess I'll be writing even from inside my grave because I've left so many bits and bobs everywhere at my house that there are things that I have no idea I've written and find them hidden inside an old notebook, or a book.

Writing is my way to make sense of the world. Erotica is just a fun way to see it, but erotica is also my way to understand emotions, and I didn't notice that until I wrote my NaNoWriMo this year, and I found erotica to be the best genre to understand the human psyche, to understand emotions like fear and lust, and to see how... how similar we all are.

Why are you publishing on Literotica?​

To me it was both a form to get out there and perform, as well as a space in which I can improve upon my skills... and it's still the same. It's a good place to experiment, and it's very forgiving too. Stakes are quite low here in the sense that there's no pressure for publishing, and if there are any, then those are most likely to exist in my head.

Does this means Literotica is the right place for me? Yes, it totally means that.

There's Literotica, and There's Author's Hangout​

There's a reason why I didn't participate in AH when my account was younger: I felt it was a very unwelcoming place five years ago. And to a point my instincts were right. There are authors who have come here, but also ran away from here because AH is not the place they expected it to be.

I think the problem that AH has is that it feels to many like one of those rides in which you have to be this tall in order to get in? AH has that same feeling. Of course, users here already know that it isn't like that, but you can't deny that it feels that way, especially when people have come in here wondering if they can post in AH, or what are the requisites to post. It's quite tempting to do something tongue-in-cheek and tell them they must have a Literotica Gold™ account or something that doesn't exist, but that makes me feel like it only worsens the problem.

But yeah, if there's one thing to take from the OP is that there seems to be a disconnect between AH and Literotica. You don't have to be here to be an author, this is completely optional, but writing is lonely, and community is a way to make it less lonely. The problem is that AH is not the community that it seems, and one old user has shared me their thoughts through a DM, and all I can say is that they're right. Just that.

That doesn't mean there's bad apples here in AH, or the forums in general, because there's still a form of community. Different thoughts on writing, some give me a headache while I try to wrap my head around them, but others are interesting. Ways to weave the English language in manners that no English teacher has ever considered, and lessons that can be translated to other languages if the language itself allows it for it. There's good advice, there's bad advice, AH is a hat store filled with hats for advice.

But like fashion, there's always a deterrant. I do think AH has some toxicity, and I don't think it has to do with the diverse voices that are here. In fact, I love it that it isn't an echo chamber, and I'd be sad to see the next day it has turned into an echo chamber. But, for what is worth, I like it here, in spite of its quirks. No place is perfect. I don't feel at home, yet it's not like I want to feel at home.

Still, BobbyBrandt put it best in this thread: "Don't judge other's sins just because they are different than your own."

Numbers Prove Jack Shit​

This is where it should end, really. Numbers prove jack shit. Numbers don't really measure the quality of your work. They only measure the amount of clicks it has gotten, the amount of people who have rated it, how is the average score of ratings... They don't tell you whether something is good or is bad, and the Red H is something that shouldn't be considered as coveted as it is.

Do I sound like I'm raging against the machine? Possibly, I think I am. See, I have a story with a Red H that shouldn't have the Red H because it wasn't viral, so why do I have it? Is that story even good? I don't even see it as good. Actually, I put the majority of my stories in a list of legacy stories because I don't write that same way anymore. But the thing is that what the numbers say sometimes have a lot of dissonance with what I say.

But numbers don't prove the quality of your work, unless that's what you're chasing. Numbers are just numbers; they are just a form of metrics. We all write here for different reasons, and mine isn't the numbers. The only place in which stars matter to me is in Guitar Hero, and this ain't Guitar Hero. In fact, if there's a much better metric for me are some of the e-mails that I've gotten, which to me have felt way more personal than any comment left on my stories. But even then those are optional to me, as a form of extra reward for publishing.

I don't think the number of views should be an indicator of quality of work. Maybe for some people it is, but for me most definitely it isn't.

Why this isn't the right place, and why it is​

So, the bottom line is that there's two questions now: why is Literotica the wrong place for me? Why is Literotica the right place for me?

Well, Literotica is the wrong place for me for many reasons. It seems that the site lean towards longer works than what I can put out, and while I can change my process, it is a titanic effort that requires a lot more. It seems that readers like to stay in the site, burning page after page. Then there's the vocabulary. In the industry standard, a page is 250 words. On Lit, one page is 15 pages of industry standard. That means an entire novel can fit in 20 pages instead of hundreds; so I'm not sure how would anyone bookmark that. Its community of authors leave something to be desired. I know I write fast, but I don't think I'm fast enough to put out weekly novelettes as I'm striving for that type of constancy, so maybe my goals differ?

Then again, Literotica is also the right place for me because it's a very diverse platforms. All the things that say it's the wrong place for me can be said for the things that I do, and yet I've found that it's not true, not just for me, but also for other authors who write very short stories. Short works can coexist with long works, and actually, I think they should coexist because it's another offer, and people read those. Literotica might not yield any cash, but it can yield a lot of experience points, and those are more valuable in the long run. There's resources here that shouldn't be taken for granted. Just knowing that there are editors where who are volunteers, like editors who are willing to work for free to do something that it's normally a thing you have to hire someone to and pay them money? I mean, you might get what you pay for, but the option to not drop a huge amount of cash into something that will be a flop is something to be grateful for, and you'll learn from this too. And in spite of its quirks, AH still has some things that make it a good place after all. If not, why do I still keep coming back here, dropping these posts that would make the normal N&N reader blush?

 

[TheLobster]

I think the problem that AH has is that it feels to many like one of those rides in which you have to be this tall in order to get in? AH has that same feeling.

AH is essentially your average web forum from the 2000s teleported into the 2020s. If you were on the internet back then, you instantly recognize the atmosphere (or vibe, as kids these days say). But because places like this are so rare on the internet nowadays, it may feel unwelcoming to those who didn't remember the web before Facebook et al.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I don't know who was the one who called in for having a minimum of stories being 3K long if they owned the website, but that comment felt quite concerning. Being born into the language that has given birth to one of the most well known pieces of microfiction (the dinosaur), and being someone who has experimented by writing things that short through tweets, it felt like an entire body of work that I'm passionate about, and I really enjoy having fun at, was invalidated just because it should have an inflated number to be considered a story.

There's also a lot of the hypocresy in one particular thread about someone asking for help regarding the underage rule during the summer, and a lot of the reaction to that thread not only showed the true colors of many people here, but also gave me a pair of disappointments (some I've forgiven and let go) over a very draconian reaction of having 18-year-olds featured in an erotica. And I say hypocresy because some of these authors have written in T/I, and NC/R. I won't be dropping names out of respect, but it's a thread in which the OP DM'd me, and I think I was the first person they DM'd about it. They thanked me for not having that trigger-happy reaction to the possibility of breaking that rule, which can happen by accident.

The latter case ended up being a complete overreaction from both the OP as well as the moralists authors who just couldn't resist to give a lecture on why the niche that the OP and I shared is unethical because it ended up being that there was a problem with the story breaking the guidelines; something that was fixeable, but the author was frustrated enough to just try somewhere else, and with the answers they've gotten, would you blame them?

The first example, yeah, that would be me.

That was just me expressing my thoughts and desires out loud, thoughts that have zero bearing on Lit's reality. I came up with that idea as a way to curb the flood of stories that get submitted to Lit and drown everything else. What would be even better is a kind of separation of stories based on length. I'd also love it if Lit implemented SOL's model of separating the completely new stories list from the list of story series that get updated by a new chapter. I think that would give stories a bit more shelf life.

But either way, there's absolutely no reason why my post should scare you in any way. Literally everyone who expresses some desires about the way Lit should be knows the likelihood of that happening. The answer is -273.15°C.

The second example about 18-year-olds has nothing to do with me, nor would I let people get to me with such moralizing posts. I've an 18-year-old having sex in literally every series I wrote. Whoever has a problem with that can kiss my ass.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

AH is essentially your average web forum from the 2000s teleported into the 2020s. If you were on the internet back then, you instantly recognize the atmosphere (or vibe, as kids these days say). But because places like this are so rare on the internet nowadays, it may feel unwelcoming to those who didn't remember the web before Facebook et al.

Well, I entered into online communities really late, back in 2007. Communities were mostly for WareZ things for me back then because I was one of the teenagers who pirated stuff for classmates... which isn't far off of me being the Jack Sparrow of this thread, having that little [T]roll coming out of the drain.

The first example, yeah, that would be me.

That was just me expressing my thoughts and desires out loud, thoughts that have zero bearing on Lit's reality. I came up with that idea as a way to curb the flood of stories that get submitted to Lit and drown everything else. What would be even better is a kind of separation of stories based on length. I'd also love it if Lit implemented SOL's model of separating the completely new stories list from the list of story series that get updated by a new chapter. I think that would give stories a bit more shelf life.

But either way, there's absolutely no reason why my post should scare you in any way. Literally everyone who expresses some desires about the way Lit should be knows the likelihood of that happening. The answer is -273.15°C.

The second example about 18-year-olds has nothing to do with me, nor would I let people get to me with such moralizing posts. I've an 18-year-old having sex in literally every series I wrote. Whoever has a problem with that can kiss my ass.

*Bonk* Shame!

In retrospect I do see your point though. Needless to say, a part of my brain took it the wrong way.

As for the second example, I know you aren't one of them.