Your Literotica Successes & Failures in 2019

[RetroFan]

With the year 2019 coming to a close, did you write any stories that were smash hits or at least successful, getting praise from readers with plenty of views, favourites and high scores? And at the other end of the scale, did you publish any works that were not successful, getting poor scores and negative reviews, or stories that just plain flopped?

I did reasonably well with my typical stories in Erotic Couplings and First Time set in the past. An Erotic Couplings story about a bitchy actress and a young male stagehand in 1930s Hollywood, and two First Time stories about a pretty tomboy and a young sailor in World War 2 and a young Vietnam veteran and his friend's younger sister in the late 1960s were successful. I also had some success writing for specific markets in the fetish genre.

Not so successful were my attempts to enter the Incest/Taboo genre. My lesbian story about two stepsisters wasn't well liked, and neither was a voyeurism story about a young guy who gets a crush on his foster sister. Most hated was an Incest fantasy/comedy series I wrote mid year about a nerd swapping bodies with his twin sister's jock boyfriend. It was similar to the reaction to films such as 'That's My Boy', 'Dirty Grandpa' or 'Freddy Got Fingered'. I've never seen such vitriol outside of Loving Wives before, and all I did was attempt to make people laugh (which they clearly didn't).

What are your experiences in your 2019?

 

[whowrotethisshit]

My biggest hit was in Incest/Taboo which I didn't expect because it was essentially a noncon dad/daughter thing and I figured I'd be burned on the noncon part.

My biggest flop was also in the Incest/Taboo genre with She Owes Him. Everyone hated it, everyone let me know it. Some of the better feedback was it was stereotypical, which, yes. Also, I wrote that story in like four hours so I could have put more work into it. But it was just something rattling around in my head. And I do these stories for free.

Toward the end of the year, I put up a lot more work and the hate started to flood in. I've written for money and I've written for free and I've had my work critiqued and I'm used to the little (and big) stabs. However, seasonal depression and a lot of personal life stuff mixed with all the negative stuff on here has me real, real low.

Kindness has been lacking around these parts lately. For me anyway.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've only published four stories so far in 2019. From a numbers standpoint, it's been a "meh" year. My two incest stories have done fine, objectively, but not as well as incest stories I published in 2017 and 2018. It's too soon to make any judgments about my two latest stories, one an exhibitionist story playing on the "mailgirl" concept and the other a very quirky and somewhat category-defying anal story published for the Oggbashan event. They're doing OK but not getting huge view numbers.

For most of 2019 my drive to write was lower than in the previous two years, so it was a down year in that sense. But in the last month, my enthusiasm has revived, and I'm working eagerly and with a fair degree of productivity on several stories. I'm less focused on numbers than before, and I'm mostly interested in exploring subjects that interest me personally, regardless of how I think they will be received. I regard that as progress, and as a form of success. That said, I still enjoy seeing my older stories continue to pick up views, votes, comments, and favorites.

I look forward to 2020.

 

[gordo12]

I published 10 stories this year (would have been 11 but I held back) all in LW.

From the readers perspective they enjoyed two of them the most.

Fido: which is a story of a cheating wife seen from the perspective of a dog went crazy. 54 out of 55 comments pretty much said it was absolutely hilarious. (in LW yet) One anon told me I had no sense of humour. It was also the first story that Lit decided to intervene. They removed the word Tinder and did a global replacement with "a dating app". Naturally that produced some rather stupid sentences but it seemed everyone was laughing so much nobody mentioned it. I was a bit pissed over that but let it go.

Following Laura's Footsteps: was my Winter Contest entry and did very well. I put it in LW despite the fact it was a Romance story. One of the characters got mentioned over and over, they loved her. Almost every comment out of 55 was positive. The story was compared multiple times to a modern "Christmas Carol". It got a record (for me) 71 favs and gained me 52 followers. Strangely enough I left sex out of it

I also published two Westerns that did reasonably well. Readership was lower but the comments for the most part were positive. I made the mistake of asking them to let me know if they liked Westerns and got this comment.

"Yes I like Westerns. Just not from you!"

Ahhh Loving Wives

 

[NotWise]

Kindness has been lacking around these parts lately. For me anyway.

it's unfortunate, but the holidays aren't usually the time when people get out of their funks. I wish you better days and lots of sunshine.

I only put out five stories this year, and two of those were shorts. I'm generally pleased with the results -- in one case, more pleased than my readers -- even though I know they could be better.

My biggest disappointment wasn't in anything I did, but in what I didn't do. I didn't complete "Wolves of Winter," and I didn't write part 4 of "A Valentine's Day Mess."

 

[MelissaBaby]

Well, for the most part I spent 2019 marching through my Mary and Alvin series, which ought to conclude in 2020. I am pleased that I have been able to keep to my schedule of a chapter published each month, and that it has been well received. Without giving any spoilers, I would say that Chapters 20 and 21, which dealt with an extremely personal issue in my own life, were particularly fulfilling to write.

The low point was probably the reception to the story I wrote for the One Night In event, which, although well received by readers, elicited some very disheartening criticism from a couple of my fellow authors.

On a personal level, it was a fine year, full of love and laughter. When I think of where my life was five years ago, and where it is now, I can hardly comprehend how blessed I am.

 

[oggbashan]

I have submitted probably more stories than any previous year, including the four sets of incomplete ones.

2019 is the year I was diagnosed with lung cancer so I have a reason for trying to finish and publish so many of the stories that have been incomplete for years but my muses keep given me more ideas. Although I submitted eight stories for the Winters' Holidays contest I still have two more in progress. I'll have to finish them because I may not be around for Christmas 2020.

I'm delighted with the Pastiches of Oggbashan initiative. I just wish my recent stories had been better received but never mind - there are more on the way...

 

[Inkhorn]

I only have 3 stories up for this year; a fourth was returned because of paragraph length, but I haven’t bothered to fix it yet.

”Rebirth” in LW received a great deal of attention, good and bad. It was one of those stories where I found that I had to write and couldn’t stop (much as many readers would later wish that I had.) While there are some changes I might make if I do a rewrite, on the whole I’m rather proud of the piece.

”Donald’s Harem” in Non-Con, my first posted story, was just a silly little thing to get myself started. It wasn’t supposed to be taken too seriously, but oddly enough people did. It scored higher than I thought it would, though, and I’m still debating a more in-depth rewrite.

“The Major’s Orange” in Non-Erotic is (oddly enough) my disappointment of the year. It was well-received by those who voted and commented, but didn’t really attract much attention. True, it’s a flash story and not erotic, but I had hoped for greater interest. In retrospect, perhaps I should have submitted it as part of the holiday challenges/contests...

 

[ChloeTzang]

Well, I got 8 stories up on Literotica this year, which was a few less than I planned. And I missed getting stories in to some of the competitions and I’m still writing the one for Ogg and my Wine and Old Lace entry. On the plus side, the “One Night in...” event and Geek Pride event were both fun to organize, with some great stories.

Also on the plus side, “Tales from Old Shanghai” won the Valentines Day competition and Huginn ‘s Yule won the Winter Holidays completion, and I think they’re both some of my best writing so far, so a great start and a great end to the year.

On the negative side, my Troll Bait story, “White Wedding,” dismally failed to bate the trolls. And it was such fun to write too. *

 

[ChloeTzang]

Well, I got 8 stories up on Literotica this year, which was a few less than I planned. And I missed getting stories in to some of the competitions and I’m still writing the one for Ogg and my Wine and Old Lace entry. On the plus side, the “One Night in...” event and Geek Pride event were both fun to organize, with some great stories.

Also on the plus side, “Tales from Old Shanghai” won the Valentines Day competition and Huginn ‘s Yule won the Winter Holidays completion, and I think they’re both some of my best writing so far, so a great start and a great end to the year.

On the negative side, my Troll Bait story, “White Wedding,” dismally failed to bate the trolls. And it was such fun to write too. *

And I’m not sure if it’s good or bad, but writing “No Tan Lines” got me really interested in boats. Which is a problem because the sea is a looooooong way away from me.

 

[Blind_Justice]

My biggest failure in 2019 was not being able to continue "The Rembrandt Legacy." I have the story fully mapped out, I have around 50k words in two huge chunks which even read pretty well - but several trips over my internal timeline require that I rewrite one of those two chunks almost completely. That sucks. The story was originally meant as my contribution to Geek Pride Day this year. Didn't pan out.

My replacement plan turned into my biggest success this year though. "Mud & Magic" has gone from a quick "apprentice fucks his co-students in a wizard's tower" stroker to a veritable epic and to my own surprise, it's raking in pretty decent scores too. I've written more than in the last five years combined (in part to keep a semi-regular schedule for my Patrons) and somehow it seems to pay off. The nicest compliment I got all year was "You have finally found your own distinct voice." Talk about an ego boost.

The flip side of having a long, self-writing series is that I didn't get to write anything else. I would have loved to do a collaboration piece, something out of my regular wheelhouse. I would have liked to add a chapter or three to "Fading Stars", because that thing still hangs off a cliff. Maybe in 2020. "Mud & Magic" has an end in sight, the question is when I'll get there

 

[bushyTrail]

I published my first two short novels this year, when I subscribed.
One,"Gumdrop", was a about a somewhat niche fetish (hucows) and I'm generally satisfied with its performance, all things considered. One of its chapters ranks around the top 1.5% of the category (I'm talking about rating, of course), which seems to me a good (albeit fleeting) result.
The other one, "The invisible hand" was about control and social acceptance of BDSM. I personally think it's better than "Gumdrop": it has more to say, being more grounded, and it came out more imaginative and better written. Unfortunately it seems that very few people read it and the few votes it received were not great. Go figure!

 

[Sonatatre]

I have published three stories this year, which is pretty normal for me, but it might be my highest word count published during a single year.

First stroy was a Futanari story in the Transgender and Crossdresser category that focused on anal and went under the name “Tall Girls are Assholes. It was my first attempt of writing a less likeable main character that was a bit antisocial and could not quite handle herself. Her past had made her dislike tall women, but she overcame it as they helped her in a lot of ways. It got some strong comments on it, a high rating, and I guess the views are fine too, even if they might have been a little disappointing at first.

Second was a third chapter in my series “Futanari Breeding Agency”. I took on a big sex scene that continued to grow, making the chapter become very long. Some found it too long and thought it made it confusing as they moved around in the locale, and other people being around and interacting with them. A learning experience that I hope helped me grow as a writer. It got good views for being the third part, and very high rating. Only a few comments, but that might be because of being a third chapter too, or the length drained people before they got to the end to comment.

Third story I published was my first take of Mother/Son incest in “All Moms Love”. Quickly learned that there is a lot of views in this category, and the story quickly broke my record for number of votes on a story, with a good rating at 4.64. I got a taste of how strong minded some readers can be, wanting the story to be tailored to them and their wants. 24 comments right now, with some disliking some elements I put into the story, some liking the story despite those elements, and some positive to everything.

Overall, I think that this is my most successful year so far. Maybe not the best story ideas or execution, but a testament that I am starting to become a stronger writer, and even if I still have a long way to go, my writing is good enough for many to enjoy the stories I create even with their flaws. I broke the milestone of having 1 million total views spread out over the 17 stories I have posted on Literotica

I am very excited for the new year, wanting to post both new stories and follow-ups on series. I am inspired by comments, feedback, views and ratings, hoping it will help me put out even better stories for readers to enjoy, and be brave to tackle new elements when it comes to themes, plot, characters and fetishes.

 

[wastelandwriter]

As Long As We're All Having Fun

Almost all of my stories are at a 4.6 and up even to a 4.9, so I'm proud of that. I tend toward stories that have enough plot to form an engaging structure, but they point mostly toward a lot of indulgent fun rather than tension and complexity.

"Alien Vacation" is a sci-fi story about a guy playing host to a disembodied psychic alien lady who occupies his body for a sex-filled Earth-bound vacation. It leans hard into the happy fun stuff and keeps the plot light. I started 2019 by posting a satisfying stopping point with the 12th chapter in January. I'm happy with the series and the end point, but I'd like to come back to it soon.

I also posted three chapters of "Divine Job Benefits" early in the year and didn't get to the fourth until this month. Divine is another happy wish-fulfillment series, essentially Aphrodite finding a good guy to be her sexy agent on Earth in a job with far more fun downtime than, y'know, job. I'm happy with it and plan to do more. The latest installment has my lowest voting score at a 4.2--which seems odd, given that I'm not seeing really any negativity in the comments. I wonder if that's the difference between posting early in the year and later? Or posting with a long gap?

It's unfortunate that many readers complain about story series taking too long between chapters on a site that is full of free stories. I feel like we should be able to accept that none of us are on a schedule. When a new story drops, cool, but if there's a long gap between installments it's not like anyone spent money on it. Also a lot of readers ask when a series will end and/or say they won't read until a series is finished--but where does that leave stories that are meant to be ongoing? Is there something wrong with saying "This series will keep going as long as I'm having fun writing it?"

 

[SolarRay]

It looks like I managed 6 stories in 2019.
My success would have to be "You Don't Know Me But We Are Lovers" -- a story I'm personally pretty proud of that won the Valentine's contest. A couple of other stories ("She's A Wild One" and "Do It or Lose It") surprised me with their especially strong positive response. "A Nude Troubadours Production" also did fairly well score wise.
As for the other side of the coin, both "One Night in Poughkeepsie" and "Sun, Sex, and a Summer of Love" didn't get as much love as the others, though both scored just fine and were a joy to write.
All in all I'd say it has been a good year here at Lit -- and a strange and transformative year for me overall.

 

[KeithD]

I posted 89 entries (many chapters in a longer work) in 2019 in this account, which I went to at the beginning of 2017 when my other main account (sr71plt) went dormant because the long list of holdings there became unwieldy to track when the new author’s page went into effect. The highlight, I guess, for the keithd account this year was zipping up to #4 on the GM all-time production list by the end of the year (sr7plt is #1).

Looking over my 2019 list, I can’t say there were any stories I thought were treated unfairly by the readers, taking into account that both I, as a writer and board commenter, and my main writing genre have a legion of detractors on Literotica. The keithd account is used mainly for GM (I have other accounts for other genres) and GM readers aren’t high on the list of either voting or commenting. The contest stories score the best, but they aren’t always the best stories of mine, in my estimation. I guess I would have liked a more enthusiastic reception for “Rainy Day in Tokyo” (https://www.literotica.com/s/rainy-day-in-tokyo). I was thoroughly taken with the atmospherics of that when I was writing it.

I go out to the edges with kinks and fetishes, and the readers tend to go there with me. My regular readers tolerate it and those liking the kinks/fetishes and feeling underserved by them e-mail me their appreciation for writing in those areas). I don’t get many slamming comments on these stories at all. Some stories written in this vein—a taboo area not usually written about—did get cool receptions. Thus, “The Summer After” (https://www.literotica.com/s/the-summer-after ) and “Me Too” (https://www.literotica.com/s/me-too-3 ).

I had particular fun picking out an unusual theme (lighthouses) and seeing how many different stories I could fire off on that: “Loose End” (https://www.literotica.com/s/loose-end). “Escaping the Lighthouse” (https://www.literotica.com/s/escaping-the-lighthouse), “Lighthouse in the Desert” (https://www.literotica.com/s/lighthouse-in-the-desert) (more were written to this theme, just not in 2019 or attributed to keithd).

I had some favorites while I was writing, because of various connections—past experiences, favorite themes, recent trips—and those tended to write themselves quicker and with more pleasure, including “Separate Tables” (https://www.literotica.com/s/separate-tables), “Tanglewood Entanglements” (https://www.literotica.com/s/tanglewood-entanglements), “The Nude on the Balcony” (https://www.literotica.com/s/the-nude-on-the-balcony).

I posted new versions of some longer, chaptered pieces that were published to the marketplace some years ago, and most of these were received well at Literotica. No complaints there. These included “Beginning of Time” (https://www.literotica.com/s/beginning-of-time), “Cairo Surrender” (https://www.literotica.com/s/cairo-surrender-ch-01), “Floating World Bitten Peach” (https://www.literotica.com/s/floating-world-bitten-peach-ch-01), “My Neighbors Spa” (https://www.literotica.com/s/my-neighbors-spa-ch-01), “Pretender’s Fate” (https://www.literotica.com/s/pretenders-fate-ch-01), “Prophecy of Noto” (https://www.literotica.com/s/prophecy-of-noto-ch-01), “Ridden West” (https://www.literotica.com/s/ridden-west-ch-01-kansas), “Shores of Tripoli” (https://www.literotica.com/s/shores-of-tripoli-ch-01), “The Indian Doctor” (https://www.literotica.com/s/shores-of-tripoli-ch-01), “The King’s Men” (https://www.literotica.com/s/the-kings-men-ch-01).

 

[vanmyers86]

I started writing for Lit just over a year ago and consider this to have been an apprenticeship year, learning how to write entertaining and (I hope) arousing erotic/romantic fiction. In that sense, the entire year has been a success because I have learned more with each story and have made some good friends.

I also learned how much I still have to learn about writing and promoting my fiction, and that's been pretty humbling. When I reread my stories, I always spot something I would do differently now - but that's part of the creative process, and I suspect we all live with that.

 

[shabbu]

Shabbu, the coauthoring GM works account for Saab and habu/sr71plt/keithd, posted only three works to Literotica in 2019, but that’s a pretty full offering for the two authors, who are quite busy with their individual writings, working together on shared stories. The highlight of 2019 for them was that they would have won the 2019 Valentine’s Day contest with the GM “I Met a Man” (https://www.literotica.com/s/i-met-a-man) with a perfect 5.0 score, if the story hadn’t been swept down to lacking but one vote to qualify. This after having won that same contest in 2018 with “The Forever Man.” The low point was that their “The Tree of Idleness,” which has done very well in the marketplace, didn’t make it to Hot at Literotica.

 

[RelentlessOnanism]

This was my debut year when it came to publishing solo stories (I had co-written a story last year), so I've nothing to compare it with.

Generally, I was pleased with the response I got for my stories. There were a couple of stories that didn't score as high as I would have liked, but I'm reasonably content.

I wish there were a) more comments being left and b) more readers generally. I get the impression there are just a lot fewer readers around these days.

 

[UsuallyPresent]

I've started posting here this last half-year, and I'm quite happy with the response. I'm also happy to have finally gotten my thumb out and started putting these crazy ideas in my head onto digital paper. One long serial and 4 other stories in a third of a year? I feel like I'm doing pretty good. Now to keep it going!

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

Despite having been here for a few years on the forum, I only started writing halfway into this year. In that time I've manged to submit 3 stories, all of which have a red H and mostly positive comments, which exceeded my expectations, to put it lightly. The number of views and votes were also way more than I had expected when I started.

My first story, Undress to Impress, was written under a lot of pressure as I started writing it a week before the submission date for the Nude Day contest. In the end I think the time pressure helped me keep it brief, as the scenes I had to cut would have cluttered and slowed down the story. A good lesson learned there, and as it currently is my #2 story, it definitely did very good for a debut story.

The second was Runner's High, written once again with a lot of time pressure, from the Summer Lovin' contest this time. I had started earlier for this contest, but that story went nowhere and I had to scrap it. Still wanting to submit something for the contest, I quickly wrote Runner's High. Looking back, I'm not really happy with it. It did okay in score (although it is my lowest rated story), but this time the time pressure and lack of passion for the story on my part really showed I think. It had some illogical points (and a plothole, depending on who you ask).
I would have done a lot of things differently were I to rewrite it, but I decided to leave it be and move on. I think the biggest thing I learned from it is that I shouldn't write anything that I'm not excited about myself. It shows, and apparently results in a very generic story and worse writing.

My final story this year was Stuck in the Snow, for the Winter Holidays contest. It turned out longer than I expected, being longer than my first two stories combined. I had started well on time with it, but then life happened and my writing got delayed. It was a close call and I submitted it only a few hours before the deadline.
It did great though, and is my current highest rated story. The stats on it are staggering and I'm overall really happy with this story. I think it's my best writing so far, and a standard I'm aiming for in the future.

For next year, I think I will either have to write faster, or I will need to focus less on contests and write some normal stories. I also did a lot of volunteer editing this year, which massively slowed down my own writing too. I hope to do less of that next year, which hopefully will leave me with more time for my own writing.
I have a ton of plot bunnies written down, and started working on two. I'm hoping to post those next year, but it looks like they're going to be very long stories so that might take a while still. Either way, it's been a good first (half) year as a writer, I think, and I'm glad I've met all these new writers on here. Looking forward to see what 2020 brings.

 

[OneAuthor]

My greatest success was finally starting to post some of my writing in August of this year. All of the chapters of "The Teacher's Pet" have been well received (so far, anyway).

My greatest failure, if it can be called a failure, was not being able to get my Winter Holidays story finished. Of course, I now have almost a full year to make it great for next winter.

 

[SamScribble]

I posted several stories this past year. Most did OK. There or there abouts. The ‘disappointment’ was Who Would Have Thought It? (https://www.literotica.com/s/who-would-have-thought-it)

I wrote it as a budding romance – between two middle-aged women – and submitted it as a Romance. Laurel decided that it was a Lesbian Sex story. Well, technically, the two women did engage in some gentle activity of a sexual nature. And they did hint at ‘the next time’. But I don’t think that either of them would have considered themselves to be lesbians.

If the story had been in Romance, I think it might have done OK. But as a Lesbian Sex story it is stuck down on 4.30. Still, Laurel’s the boss.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I shot myself in the foot with The Madelyn Chapters by badging it as Parts 6 onwards of the Floating World series and dropping it into Group, which meant fewer than expected people opened it, thinking it was part of an on-going series - which it wasn't, not really. And those Group readers - boy oh boy, they're not very responsive. I won't post there again.

But Madelyn was one of my favourite leading ladies to write: amoral, flawed, narcissistic, drives a fast car, wears fabulous clothes. I was nicely complimented by some fellow writers who said, "Ooo, I didn't like her," which meant I wrote her well. I think I fell in love with the other female lead, Juliette, who arrived in the story unannounced and stayed till the end.

I also learned quite a bit about soft core BDSM, and by doing the on-line quiz established that I'm mostly a voyeuristic, exhibitionist vanilla, which came as no real surprise. But my character Adam, and me too - apparently I'm a natural top. I had no clue about that. "That's because it comes naturally, you twat." More likely because there's no end of twaddle about it all - but I do fear for what seems to be vast numbers of self-badged submissives giving themselves up to self-badged daddys and doms. I can't help but think there's some fragile souls out there being badly damaged.

I liked the Maddy character (who was inspired by a real encounter, a woman I met in the street) so much that I wrote her again as Madeleine, quite different, quite real. That one (The Hyacinth House) became very meta, very self-referential, writing myself as a fictional character who was a writer. The first two parts did quite nicely - and, oddly, the second part has nearly the same number of Views as the first, which defies the usual logic of viewer drop. But the third part dropped right back (the only comment suggested I might have over egged the cake on that one - it was sort of a back-handed compliment).

And then someone comes along and wrote this:

Such Exquisite Poetry
Your words flow like music--rhythmic, flirtatiously dancing, rising and falling, yet rising a little further each time, reaching toward the sublime, halting climax. With fine, elegant strokes of your pen, you draw us deeper into the lives of your characters until we become a jealous picture on the wall, watching the sensuous, teasing ebb and flow and wishing, oh, god, wishing if only I could jump out of this frame and touch them, be with them, and share such anguished joy.

These stories are such a pleasure to read. I pray they're as much a pleasure to write. Thank you for the gift.

Which is one of the reasons I write, to garner responses like this.

Overall though, a good year. Oh, and I published some content as books and sold a few but not many. Also, Suzie. I got to know Suzie quite well .

 

[Cognantreverie]

I have only just started and posted five stories and two poems thusfar. I would say my greatest success is getting started this year and putting my work out to a greater audience. It was kind of a leap for me to go from a smaller audience that was almost guaranteed to give positive feedback to a bigger one of varied kinks and expectations.

Failures, I dont think lit likes my poetry lol. I write it often when I am in a mood and deep into a whiskey night but I am going to keep posting it because I like it.