What do readers want?

[lovecraft68]

Or... hear me out... daughter sits on mom's lap!

Problem solved.

I've written mother daughter, but I have drawn a line in the sand with my muse. Under no circumstances, none whatsoever, not for fun, not for money, not on a dare, ever do a lap story.

 

[liliput1]

One of my dreams for this site is that eventually a bunch of disparate genre writers get together to write an interactive fiction where each writer takes the branch that is their milieu.

She presents her ass. She’s wiggling it at you. Do you:

1. Just caress it tenderly
2. Slide your dick in her pussy
3. Begin fingering her ass
4. Spank it
5. Think about your sister as you fulfill your obligation

 

[lovecraft68]

Want to throw I/T readers?

Give a realistic reaction to a situation.

Dad catches son jacking off to X-rated pics of his mother that he found on dad's pc and sent to himself

Porn trope: Dad understands, mom is hot, son is confused, obvious solution is to let son sleep with mom.

Me: Dad flies into a rage slaps him several times and tells him he needs to get the fuck out of the house.

Readers: Oh, I bet I know where this is....WTF?

 

[SimonDoom]

One of my dreams for this site is that eventually a bunch of disparate genre writers get together to write an interactive fiction where each writer takes the branch that is their milieu.

She presents her ass. She’s wiggling it at you. Do you:

1. Just caress it tenderly
2. Slide your dick in her pussy
3. Begin fingering her ass
4. Spank it
5. Think about your sister as you fulfill your obligation

Here's an exercise/challenge: As an author, imagine that you are all of those disparate genre writers, and write all their different parts yourself.

I don't think this is as difficult as some think it is. It takes imagination and empathy-- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Readers want to be entertained. They have various needs and desires and the like, but at the end of the day, they want to be entertained. It's really that simple.

 

[liliput1]

One of my dreams for this site is that eventually a bunch of disparate genre writers get together to write an interactive fiction where each writer takes the branch that is their milieu.


Here's an exercise/challenge: As an author, imagine that you are all of those disparate genre writers, and write all their different parts yourself.

I don't think this is as difficult as some think it is. It takes imagination and empathy-- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

Don’t know how that would work out in practice and also it wouldn’t move the needle that far with respect to this conversation. Seeing how people vote with their feet.

My other dream for Lit is a genre filter on the most popular list because I keep looking at it and then remembering that 95% of all of the stories there are incest stories. Not even T/I, just incest.

 

[anthrodisiac]

Here's an exercise/challenge: As an author, imagine that you are all of those disparate genre writers, and write all their different parts yourself.

I don't think this is as difficult as some think it is. It takes imagination and empathy-- the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes.

It's honestly not that difficult. Many of the genres play well together. You'd really only struggle with antithetical genres like erotic horror and romance in a way that's satisfying to lovers of both. But people enjoy a range of things, not just one genre unless they're super-niche in everything.

 

[StillStunned]

antithetical genres like erotic horror and romance

I have a story that's both Gothic horror and Ruritanian romance. But by modern standards of both genres it probably falls short. So not antithetical, but you probably can't go to the extremes of either genre without compromising on the other.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

You'd really only struggle with antithetical genres like erotic horror and romance in a way that's satisfying to lovers of both.

I just last week wrote a synopsis for a plot bunny about a benevolent-but-conflicted demon who possesses a guy and then gives him little nudges to boost his confidence to get him to finally talk to that woman he's noticed on the train to work every morning until finally helping them reach the inevitable, of course experiencing the act through him. If the story ever reaches completion, I'm going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to categorize it, but the categories you listed are two of the ones I'd consider (along with MC, NH, EC...) Really depends how the narrative plays out, but I have too many other WIPs to start actually writing this one right now.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I just last week wrote a synopsis for a plot bunny about a benevolent-but-conflicted demon who possesses a guy and then gives him little nudges to boost his confidence to get him to finally talk to that woman he's noticed on the train to work every morning until finally helping them reach the inevitable, of course experiencing the act through him. If the story ever reaches completion, I'm going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to categorize it, but the categories you listed are two of the ones I'd consider (along with MC, NH, EC...) Really depends how the narrative plays out, but I have too many other WIPs to start actually writing this one right now.

Sci-Fi & Fantasy wouldn't be too out of place. Doesn't sound that Erotic Horror to me.

 

[Trionyx]

How many readers are you talking about?
That's your answer as to how many things readers want.

I know it sounds like a smart ass response, but one of the few things I have learned since I started writing is that there are sooooo many different wants that it is useless to try and satisfy them. Best to write what you want and the appreciative reader will eventually find you.

 

[anthrodisiac]

I have a story that's both Gothic horror and Ruritanian romance. But by modern standards of both genres it probably falls short. So not antithetical, but you probably can't go to the extremes of either genre without compromising on the other.

More antithetical in spirit than practice, the (generally) darkness of horror and the (generally) lightness of romance.

If you went dark romance, some vampiric story, you might be able to do it, but the expectations from most modern-day romance readers is, unless they're of the supernatural/dark bent, something light.

 

[Voboy]

Not a rumble so much as that I read to experience another perspective or story vicariously, not to be told what my own actions and feelings are or would be.

...yes. That's what you think. But, in reality, you know deep down that you're just denying your basic urges, pretending they mean something else, the way your mom thought it was something else when she felt your cock hardening beneath her sweetly rounded ass during that long, long car ride...

See? We can link a bunch of different shit together! Maybe that's what readers want!

 

[BeechLeaf]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was actually pretty good. It worked.

 

[Voboy]

Under no circumstances, none whatsoever, not for fun, not for money, not on a dare, ever do a lap story.

meh. Challenge yourself!

Stock-car racer who avoids a pit stop when everyone else comes in for tires, and ends up ahead... boom.

Lap story.

 

[StillStunned]

More antithetical in spirit than practice, the (generally) darkness of horror and the (generally) lightness of romance.

If you went dark romance, some vampiric story, you might be able to do it, but the expectations from most modern-day romance readers is, unless they're of the supernatural/dark bent, something light.

Yeah, I took inspiration from Carmilla and The Prisoner of Zenda. Three years ago, I thought those were representative of the genres.

Mind you, I still think it's an amazing story.

 

[liliput1]

Want to throw I/T readers?

Give a realistic reaction to a situation.

Dad catches son jacking off to X-rated pics of his mother that he found on dad's pc and sent to himself

Porn trope: Dad understands, mom is hot, son is confused, obvious solution is to let son sleep with mom.

Me: Dad flies into a rage slaps him several times and tells him he needs to get the fuck out of the house.

Readers: Oh, I bet I know where this is....WTF?

Intervention and six months of therapy that he has to attend or he doesn’t get the car they promised him for graduation.

 

[liliput1]

I just last week wrote a synopsis for a plot bunny about a benevolent-but-conflicted demon who possesses a guy and then gives him little nudges to boost his confidence to get him to finally talk to that woman he's noticed on the train to work every morning until finally helping them reach the inevitable, of course experiencing the act through him. If the story ever reaches completion, I'm going to have a hell of a time figuring out how to categorize it, but the categories you listed are two of the ones I'd consider (along with MC, NH, EC...) Really depends how the narrative plays out, but I have too many other WIPs to start actually writing this one right now.

Twist, women are harder to get into and the demon is just there to make the swap during one of their more experimental sessions. Erotic horror.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Sci-Fi & Fantasy wouldn't be too out of place. Doesn't sound that Erotic Horror to me.

Also a reasonable one to consider, but hopefully you see my point.

For the record, I've never particularly been a fan of the single-category-per-story system, nor of the disparate subcultures, some toxic (I think we all know which one I'm looking at) that the approach ends up creating...

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Intervention and six months of therapy that he has to attend or he doesn’t get the car they promised him for graduation.

But without the car, how is anyone supposed to sit on anyone's lap???

 

[liliput1]

But without the car, how is anyone supposed to sit on anyone's lap???

Eight months. You want to make it a year, keep talking smartass.

 

[TheExperimentalist]

Twist, women are harder to get into and the demon is just there to make the swap during one of their more experimental sessions. Erotic horror.

Actually, in my synopsis, it does jump into her for the second round, just to experience stuff from her end, then rides with her until the train station the following Monday, where it finds some new poor sap who needs an internal boost, leaving them to grow without it, occasionally catching sight of them as they continue to ride together every day, rings appear, and eventually her belly begins to bulge...

 

[liliput1]

I hear polar bears.

 

[yowser]

What does it matter? We aren't being paid.

My curiosity comes from a place that posits that writing is a communicative endeavor. I totally understand 'only write for yourself' as an initial starting line, and like many here, I want to write stories that I would be interested in reading myself.

But the other part is the audience. If a work is just for you personally, it doesn't need to be published. But most of us are writing to be heard, somehow, for various reasons.

I don't seek to pander to readers' interests, but I find it instructive to know what those interests are, what readers relate to, HOW they like their funny bone tickled. On one level we are in a different place than the mainstream, where money and livelihood are major factors, yes, I understand that, but there are some of the other aspects of mainstream publishing that do work here too: fame, notoriety, the sense of making a dent in the world, a Connection with other humans.

The feedback loop here, as has been noted by many, is low-voltage and unreliable. I think more understanding of, and communication, with, readers is a worthy pursuit.

 

[Voboy]

I find it instructive to know what those interests are, what readers relate to, HOW they like their funny bone tickled.

If history is any guide? Fart jokes. Those turn out to be pretty funny in all times and places, from Roman grafitti to Chaucer.

That's about as accurate as you're likely to get, because you'll never know what "readers" think or want. A reader or two might reach out and tell you, but otherwise, they are an inscrutable mass.

Except that they're coming here, to read. That means they probably want to cum.