Tell us about your lowest rated story

[thomas1965]

It’s clearly a Marmite work and I now realise I should have put it in a different category. You live and learn.

You can change the category when you re-submit it.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Seems risky feeding the trolls in LW (or poking them) - did you notice the rest of your category taking a hit because of it? I know others have reported spillover from that crowd. Hell, I've suspected it, too.

LOL. There may have been a hit to start with, but even my LW stories have done okay in the category. I guess I don't push the buttons that really bug people, so I skate down the middle. Now, I don't worry about it.You get to that point where your readers know what you write, follow you, read your stories and and enjoy them regardless of category. So now I just write all over the map and enjoy myself. I do like it when readers vote a story up, but I really barely look at the scores now, which is a lot different from my first couple of years here. State of mind - I don't stress about how my stories do at all, now, I just write 'em, knowing that the readers will come.... LOL

 

[Duleigh]

LOL. There may have been a hit to start with, but even my LW stories have done okay in the category. I guess I don't push the buttons that really bug people, so I skate down the middle. Now, I don't worry about it.You get to that point where your readers know what you write, follow you, read your stories and and enjoy them regardless of category. So now I just write all over the map and enjoy myself. I do like it when readers vote a story up, but I really barely look at the scores now, which is a lot different from my first couple of years here. State of mind - I don't stress about how my stories do at all, now, I just write 'em, knowing that the readers will come.... LOL

I tried a LW story but since my LW was having her affair with another LW I put it in Lesbian category

I spent 20 years in the USAF working on bombs and missile of all types... with God as my witness I had no idea that One
Bombs had seeker heads. I got hit with LGOBs (Laser Guided One Bombs) damn near out the gate. I swear there's an underground One Bomb info network telling these guys where to train their sights

 

[Priscilla_June]

My lowest score was Maternity Paper Chase. I posted it without really understanding what category it should be in (or at least what the majority of people thought it should be in). I actually was quite proud of the story and thought it more spoof like and not all that ultra-serious.

It involved a pregnant woman (which is why I put it in the fetish category) who had to prove to her boss she was eligible for maternity leave by stripping down and eventually getting fucked.

Apparently people strongly felt it belonged in non-con/reluctance. I was sort of baffled at first because I thought I wrote her being rather into the situation and going along with it. So it got bombed big time in the beginning stages until the edit to move to nc/reluc category was approved. It crept up to a respectable 4.36 today but I think it would have done a ton better if I had put it in NC initially.

https://literotica.com/s/maternity-paper-chase

 

[FifthEstate]

I’ve read other authors discussing “typical” story scoring arcs for multi-chaptered stories. I have published only multi-chaptered entrees on Lit—4 stories that are made up of 36 chapters. They don’t all follow a similar track in terms of clicks, favs, and scores, but there are similarities. But the thing I find most interesting is my highest favorited chapter has the lowest score of all of them. It has also been voted on the most—over 1,100 votes on 156k clicks. It is the first of an 8 chapter story which likely explains the high fav and vote rating, but the scoring doesn’t really make sense to me.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I’ve read other authors discussing “typical” story scoring arcs for multi-chaptered stories. I have published only multi-chaptered entrees on Lit—4 stories that are made up of 36 chapters. They don’t all follow a similar track in terms of clicks, favs, and scores, but there are similarities. But the thing I find most interesting is my highest favorited chapter has the lowest score of all of them. It has also been voted on the most—over 1,100 votes on 156k clicks. It is the first of an 8 chapter story which likely explains the high fav and vote rating, but the scoring doesn’t really make sense to me.

It's may be a case of stories which don't take risks get rate well because no-one hates it or goes out of their way to downvote them, whereas stories which do take risks and divide the audience get a lot of low scores, but also are unique enought for others to think they're worth favouriting. A few of my lowest rated stories have the highest number of favourites.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

It's may be a case of stories which don't take risks get rate well because no-one hates it or goes out of their way to downvote them, whereas stories which do take risks and divide the audience get a lot of low scores, but also are unique enought for others to think they're worth favouriting. A few of my lowest rated stories have the highest number of favourites.

This is my experience. Especially as many of my stories don't get that many views so may only get 12 votes in their first week, so the scores vary wildly. As soon as you add any 'extra' material that isn't key to the category, a large chunk of your audience will downvote it, but some will love having more of their interests catered for.

Some category readers seem fussier than others - Gay Male just want at least two guys and don't object to an extra guy or two, and can generally cope with a mention of kink or sex toys or women.

Whereas Anal readers often don't want to hear about toys or women's perspective, and definitely don't want discussion of sexuality or any fetishes. Erotic Couplings is often worse - only vanilla heterosexuality shall be mentioned!

 

[April602]

My lowest rated story is a true story on how I lost my virginity. The story is about how a young naive girl gets taken advantage of by a man 10+ years her senior. She is thrilled that someone has finally noticed her and she so desperately wants a boyfriend she is willing to do anything to have one.

I wrote the story for therapeutic reasons, it was good to write it all down.

I knew the story would not be well liked by some but I had to get it out. It is currently rated at 3.98
The story loses something as I followed lit rules and stated I was 18.

Have a read and let me know what you think.

https://literotica.com/s/lost-virginity-4

 

[Sexy_Singer]

My lowest rated story is a true story on how I lost my virginity. The story is about how a young naive girl gets taken advantage of by a man 10+ years her senior. She is thrilled that someone has finally noticed her and she so desperately wants a boyfriend she is willing to do anything to have one.

I wrote the story for therapeutic reasons, it was good to write it all down.

I knew the story would not be well liked by some but I had to get it out. It is currently rated at 3.98
The story loses something as I followed lit rules and stated I was 18.

Have a read and let me know what you think.

https://literotica.com/s/lost-virginity-4

Thank you for sharing such a hard story.

 

[HopelessDreams]

My lowest-rated story is VR Ventures Ch. 3: Unattainable, currently rated at 4.13. It’s about a teen who spies on her famous older cousins during their winter vacation, posted to the Incest/Taboo category.

This was somewhat of a diversion from my usual style; I mostly specialize in writing nonhuman sci-fi, though this story does contain a fair amount of that too. And though I did include several narrative tidbits that were meant to instill a taboo feeling in the readers, this story differs from most of the other incest/taboo stories I’ve encountered in that it doesn’t focus on the psychology of the characters grappling with the taboo, though they also don’t get into very taboo situations, at least regarding incest, and I even warned at the top that there would be no actual incest (leaving my readers to speculate about whether the incestuous aspect would instead take the form of innuendo, voyeurism, VR sex, or even non-blood-related family members).

This was the only story of mine that performed worse than I expected. I thought it was funny (and clever in some ways, though perhaps dumb in others), and that I’d given enough warning about what to expect (either before the story or not too far in), but maybe the story still wasn’t gratifying enough even for many of my readers who made it to the end. They might have found it psychologically upsetting if they were into idol worship as opposed to voyeurism of the celebrities acting childish and embarrassing themselves, and might have hoped that the characters would recover their dignity later. These readers might have felt especially cheated by the twist toward the end and the lack of a satisfying sex scene, especially if they hadn’t read the earlier chapters first to help prep them for what happened instead (though I did mention on my profile that the reading order for this series wasn’t important, and figured that people were unlikely to read this as their first chapter unless they'd read that in my profile first, as well as my warning in my profile about the genderbending in this series). And though I thought the title's mention of unattainability and VR could have been a slight tipoff that there wouldn’t be any actual sex, it would have still been reasonable for readers to expect some sort of final, sexual release for the protagonist (which either never came or happened offscreen). The story was certainly not non-erotic though. Perhaps it would have done better if I’d posted it to the Humor/Satire category (with a warning about incest themes), but I didn’t want to be presumptuous by assuming that many readers would appreciate my attempts at humor.

Its current score is actually higher than its usual (I've seen it range from 3.2 to 4.2). In retrospect I think this score range makes sense, but I don't feel a need to revise the story unless I receive feedback that points out valid flaws which I hadn’t considered before, and that I can find a way to fix without sacrificing anything more important to me. If any of you are intrigued enough to read the story, please let me know what you think of it.

 

[Plumbr]

There have been several stories on this site that I have enjoyed in the 3 to 3.75 range.

 

[Azuldrgon]

My lowest rating on a story was a 2.88.
It was a short chapter in my "Chrissy" series.

 

[Imstillfun]

My lowest score is a 4.01 for Bea’s tale. It was a poorly written story with no real direction and the sex was lacking for my normal stories. Throw in my BTB 1* bombers and that’s where it landed.

 

[ElectricBlue]

People really don't like flash fiction. My latest piece is only 830 words, but readers are going out of the way to tell me they don't like it - usually I see one Vote per hundred Views. This one's getting one Vote per 33. Currently 3:64.

 

[TheRedChamber]

People really don't like flash fiction. My latest piece is only 830 words, but readers are going out of the way to tell me they don't like it - usually I see one Vote per hundred Views. This one's getting one Vote per 33. Currently 3:64.

I think its the principles of most people don't vote on a story they don't finish. But the shorter a story the more likely people are to finish it even if they don't like it. I think lower scores are inevitable for flash fiction but actually don't mean people liked it less than the longer pieces.

My lowest ranking story is also one of my shortest.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think its the principles of most people don't vote on a story they don't finish. But the shorter a story the more likely people are to finish it even if they don't like it. I think lower scores are inevitable for flash fiction but actually don't mean people liked it less than the longer pieces.

My lowest ranking story is also one of my shortest.

Agree this. Also, there's no "skip to the end and vote without reading" factor - every vote will hold, including the string of one bombs I saw it get. In a longer story, such votes would most likely get scrubbed. It's a warts and all rating, but not a surprise.

 

[CyranoJ]

Currently the lowest on all metrics -- views, faves, and overall rating -- is The Ballad of Little Bird. It currently clocks in at a 4.29 (my only story left on the site that doesn't have an "H"), and I suspect the reason is that since it wasn't tied to any kind of contest or anything similar, and since I posted it in a low-traffic group, almost nobody noticed it when it went up. Only seven readers have even troubled to rate it.

I signed it up for @SimonDoom's review thread on the Story Feedback forum because this is the story I'm actually keenest to get reader feedback on. It's much more restrained in terms of word count, and much more ambitious in what it's trying to accomplish with that word count, than pretty much anything else I have up here.

 

[gordo12]

Lowest ranked story is Cuck Delusions @ 2.99. I would write it again in a heartbeat. I thought it was tight and well-written, but I think one of the commenters hit the nail on the head with this assessment: The cuck crowd hated it (it shows their true mental state) and the cuck haters hated cuck in the title and voted it down without reading it.

 

[vividlyyours]

I rewrote one of my earlier stories, giving the characters and situations more substance and vastly improving the dialog. I edit the hell out of my stories in Word, so there are no spelling or syntax errors and the flow of the story is logical and smooth. I've submitted 20 stories since 2014, with ratings ranging from 4 to 4.67.

My most recent submission, On The Road (Reprise), seems to have attracted a troll. They anonymously posted a ridiculous comment that I needed lessons in remedial English and such, and gave the story a one-star rating that dragged its early total down to 3.67. i'm far from the being the best author here, but I know for a fact the story is far better than that (the crappy original is at 4.39). I deleted their comment, but the rating really bugs me.

Why do people do that? Because they can? Cripes, this is all in fun.

 

[EmilyMiller]

The premise of this thread is simple. Tell us about your currently lowest rated story on this site.

Super easy.

Harper’s Reckoning

25 36.7k ️ 3.33 / 560 84

I won’t spoil the plot, but let’s say it was not a traditional LW story. Many people liked it, a minority loathed it and weren’t shy to say so.

My weighted average rating is north of 4.5 (even including Harper’s) and my next worst rating is 4.06. So it’s a total outlier.

I think it’s a sweet story and I’m proud of having written it.

See also:

What I learned from publishing a Loving Wives story

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

Super easy.

Harper’s Reckoning

25 36.7k ️ 3.33 / 560 84

I won’t spoil the plot, but let’s say it was not a traditional LW story. Many people liked it, a minority loathed it and weren’t shy to say so.

My weighed average rating is north of 4.5 (even including Harper’s) and my next worst rating is 4.06. So it’s a total outlier.

I think it’s a sweet story and I’m proud of having written it.

See also:

What I learned from publishing a Loving Wives story

Em

I braved LW to read it and was glad I did.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I braved LW to read it and was glad I did.

Did you have at least two showers afterwards?

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

Did you have at least two showers afterwards?

Em

I used sandpaper and bleach, babe.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I used sandpaper and bleach, babe.

If you need your back scrubbed, you just have to ask .

Em

 

[onehitwanda]

If you need your back scrubbed, you just have to ask .

Em

I felt a great disturbance in the Force. As if a million voices cried out in passion and were, suddenly, gagged.