CloverReef

My writing has absolutely evolved. A few things factor into it. I very much credit my years in fanfiction as a powerful foundation. Though my writing sucked back then, it was an excellent training ground for character development and crafting interesting stories using elements everyone involved was already familiar with. Also formal education played a part. I'm a high school drop out but I went out of my way to teach myself as well as seek out others who could teach me: take classes, read writing books, write essays and long discussions with my english professor mother. 
Plus there's the natural improvement that happens just online from writing a lot and communicating with other writers that I 100% believe has the biggest impact out of all the things I just mentioned. 

My writing has absolutely evolved. A few things factor into it. I very much credit my years in fanfiction as a powerful foundation. Though my writing sucked back then, it was an excellent training ground for character development and crafting interesting stories using elements everyone involved was already familiar with. Also formal education played a part. I'm a high school drop out but I went out of my way to teach myself as well as seek out others who could teach me: take classes, read writing books, write essays and long discussions with my english professor mother. 
Plus there's the natural improvement that happens just online from writing a lot and communicating with other writers that I 100% believe has the biggest impact out of all the things I just mentioned. 

As long as it's clear the story is in English, so readers don't get scared off, I think chapter titles are the one place you can go absolutely crazy without detracting from the story. Esperanto, klingon, complete gibberish. Might make the writer pause and wtf about it but it won't rip them out of scenes or mess with the pacing. Might even pique curiosity and make some party more attention for hidden meanings. 

How do you think your writing has changed over time? What lead to those changes? Do you remember every story you write?
I am not much of a writer, but I get and itch of an idea and must scratch it down once in a while. I have a smattering of stories written over the last 20 years, and I have forgotten about most of them. I stated that I never wrote erotica before, but apparently that isn’t true because I found one that I wrote 5 years ago - for an obscure home-brew video game of all things - and it was awful. I have no memory of writing it at all, so everything in it was a surprise. I realize how much I have changed even over 5 years – a better sense of reality, or depth, perhaps. Yet, I found another fanfic written even earlier, and I was on the edge of my seat and mad that I left it on a cliffhanger. I might even go back and try to finish and clean it up. So, it isn’t linear.
How do other writers reflect on their past stories?

I have no problem with titles in Latin, actually. I sort of like it, to be honest, and might have to brush up on my Latin.

Following the flow of the scenes is always fun when it uncomplicates things for you. I kinda hate it and kinda love it when the scenes force me out of my wordcount limits. Hate it because of some minor obsessive tendencies, and love it because it’s always nice when things flow at their most natural. It’s not too common that the scenes force a shorter or longer wordcount, though. Most of the time my control-freakiness gets nicely sated. 

I’ve been hmm-hawing about chapter lengths for what feels like every moment of my 32 years on this planet. When I was a beginner, I thought longer was better. I also thought long-winded was better. I was not very good at this shit. Then I decided shorter was better. Little bitsized 3kperchappie pieces packed with action and maybe smut. That was better. I do best with fast-paced stuff, I think. Then I thought even that wasn’t bite sized enough because I assumed all readers had gnat-sized attention spans like me. So I cut my average chapter down by 500ish words. It still worked with my style. My latest finished product was all of 50k, with 20ish chapters, and I think it turned out pretty good. 
But lately I’ve been thinking short isn’t always best, even in this post-vine internet age. Like, I feel like if people are taking the time to read my story, maybe they actually wouldn’t mind a little more story in each bite. It’ll be harder on my betas, sure. I find betas tend to get less excited when chapters get more than 2.5k and backlogs start to happen. But I’ve been trying to decide on a larger number anyway. Like maybe 3.5 to 4k. It’s still short by the standards of some writers on here, but I don’t think longer than that would work with my particular style. Or maybe it would. 
Obviously, I’m still not sure what to do.

Following the flow of the scenes is always fun when it uncomplicates things for you. I kinda hate it and kinda love it when the scenes force me out of my wordcount limits. Hate it because of some minor obsessive tendencies, and love it because it’s always nice when things flow at their most natural. It’s not too common that the scenes force a shorter or longer wordcount, though. Most of the time my control-freakiness gets nicely sated. 

Following the flow of the scenes is always fun when it uncomplicates things for you. I kinda hate it and kinda love it when the scenes force me out of my wordcount limits. Hate it because of some minor obsessive tendencies, and love it because it’s always nice when things flow at their most natural. It’s not too common that the scenes force a shorter or longer wordcount, though. Most of the time my control-freakiness gets nicely sated. 

Why do I keep envisioning the topic title to be “How long do you prefer c***s?”
In the end, it just comes down to preference, I think.  Shorter for a faster pace, longer to get more into it, and sometimes, the material calls out the length when a scene makes you feel the chapter’s “just right.”  For Jefferey, this means ep. 15 will be just over 1kwords, because though I wanted it longer, the scene was such that any longer would detract from the point of the episode.  I could go back, embellish that scene, but it’d be overdoing it.

I don’t necessarily see Dragon Prints as a sign of quality  – it’s a sign someone clicked, not that they read it. I guess at most it says “This summary/codes/title/pairing/fandom was appealing” and a big multiparter, where the parts are posted at intervals rather than all at once, will often have many more hits than a oneshot purely because each new chapter will bring it back to the front page, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s any better. The oneshot could be amazing!
For the celebrity thing… eh, I’ve said my bit on why I stopped doing ‘em, so purely in line with this topic - I sometimes think with celebrity stories folks don’t want to be commenting/reviewing positively on something the celebrity might have a lawsuit about later – but I guess the same could apply for many copyrighted works. I do know that if, say, I commented on a rape fic about a celebrity and them someone linked them to it on twitter, or a talk show host bought it up (as occasionally happens, it ain’t just mean tweets! Or, hell, a lot of these folks are waaay more into the internet than before, prolly find thm theirselves) I’d feel pretty bad for ‘em. Maybe other folks think the same thing and are less keen to have their reviews in that context, but quite happy to masturbate over it? But even that theory doesn’t hold up because there are people out there happy to use internet anonymity to tell someone to their twitter/IG whatever account that they hope they get raped/murdered/not allowed to be in another Star Wars movie. And those angry folks seem like they’d not be bothered reviewing celeb porn. Hell, some of ‘em are probably making the deepfakes. 
Having a quick look at yours, I see that three of ‘em only have one part, and the other one only has two parts – every single one of my unreviewed stories is a oneshot and I think that can have an impact as well, maybe more so than the domain thing (unless it’s a nosex multiparter in a really unknown fandom with other really niche tags or something!). Might even be more that factor than the celeb factor, because as you have with your big multi-parters once you get regular readers they’re keen to offer input, and feedback and interact, and guess about how things will go and so on. Just a thought.
When I was writing celeb stories I got the vast majority of my reviews by email, maybe you’d get some by sticking a “Hey folks! If you don’t want to post a review, email me your thoughts!” message?

I’m just using domain in the sense of AFF’s subdomains because when I went through my stories I did it by subdomain originals and movies etc. Genre’s a better term for general fiction discussion and you can have same genre stories in different subdomains. I’d say least likely to be reviewed on here is a oneshot nosex original story, or little known fandom. People’ll definitely review a shitty story with a fetish they like, often to say they want to see more of it. I speak as a writer of some pretty shitty stories with reviews of that nature! Same with certain popular fandoms where a particular character or theme will get reviews just ‘cos folks want to consume any media they can with it. That’s how it seems to me.
I’m sure you’re right that getting replies directly to the forum means you’re getting less on the story – those regular readers’d definitely be making at least some of the same comments as reviews!
Gotta rush, will comment more later!
 

I like the 3.5 to 4k length. It’s long enough to get in some action, and not too long to make readers wonder if they’re going to have time to finish.

I’ve been hmm-hawing about chapter lengths for what feels like every moment of my 32 years on this planet. When I was a beginner, I thought longer was better. I also thought long-winded was better. I was not very good at this shit. Then I decided shorter was better. Little bitsized 3kperchappie pieces packed with action and maybe smut. That was better. I do best with fast-paced stuff, I think. Then I thought even that wasn’t bite sized enough because I assumed all readers had gnat-sized attention spans like me. So I cut my average chapter down by 500ish words. It still worked with my style. My latest finished product was all of 50k, with 20ish chapters, and I think it turned out pretty good. 
But lately I’ve been thinking short isn’t always best, even in this post-vine internet age. Like, I feel like if people are taking the time to read my story, maybe they actually wouldn’t mind a little more story in each bite. It’ll be harder on my betas, sure. I find betas tend to get less excited when chapters get more than 2.5k and backlogs start to happen. But I’ve been trying to decide on a larger number anyway. Like maybe 3.5 to 4k. It’s still short by the standards of some writers on here, but I don’t think longer than that would work with my particular style. Or maybe it would. 
Obviously, I’m still not sure what to do.

Admittedly, it depends on the author and even the mood of the chapter. Shorter chapters that work well are usually humorous or sharply focused on an emotion like angst or pining.  Short chunks are sometimes a drive-by posting without character or plot advancement when an author wants to post something but is verbally flailing as to what. I've written shorter than a drabble when there is a total breakpoint for characters, and up to about 7k which are usually my finales. I prefer to write 1k to 4k. 
I like to read in that range as well.  I can and have spent many hours on one well written and gripping story. (I won a bet with myself as a teen and read a thousand page paperback in one twelve hour binge-) But one of the reasons for chapters is to control the pacing of the stories, balancing plot, character, and climaxes. I know I have to end the chapter when a cliffhanger appears, otherwise I’m wasting the tension and reader’s wishes to know what happens next. One of the sweetest things is to see comments from readers howling to know what comes next. If the chapter seems on the short side I may go back and add or elaborate on a scene, but my muse is usually insistent on stopping if the narrative hits a cliffhanger.
Another is to break the story into manageable chunks, as a writer and as a reader. (don’t we all tend to write what we like?)   Chapters longer than about 6k, if that is typically clear from story stats, already have a strike against them. They require longer blocks of time and I cannot count on uninterrupted time as I got older.  If I often get interrupted by RL I lose track of events and have to go backwards to refresh the story's flow.  Really long chapters above 15k are approaching novella (and I'm reluctant to even start stories like that in fandoms I follow). There are several fanfics I've loved but had ended up dropping as I could not easily reenter chapters partway through without a visual marker. (I cannot dog-ear a scrolling page like I did before reformatting electronic books) I kept looking a while back when I started revising an original for professional publication and found answers ranging somewhere below 10k but no upper limit. One of the better suggestions was a chapter that most readers can finish in about fifteen minutes. Guessing that is another story, but 5k in 15 min → 333 words/minute as words per page is a slippery value...
The time for editing long chapters or even stories is not a linear relationship either but a steep curve. I can easily edit a 1k flash in a day. A 2k is a day also. A 5k can run a week, even outside any time for a beta. A 60k novel? The sheer bulk is not just intimidating, but tracking all the bits of theme, character, plot and finicky details can drive you mad. I still have not come up with a way to organize it for my novels.
I have found as my life got busier, I enjoy strong shorter pieces more, as a reader and as inspiration. One of my favorite writers right now can write an evocative, insightful story that rips your heart out in under a thousand words, many times a week. (Sorry to ramble on in a topic about length but answering tl:dr would not explain why that applies to fiction as well)

I keep trying to tell everyone that Existential Dread’s gonna be the next big fetish.

Yep…. “Turned Gay By The Existential Dread That I May Actually Be A Character In A Chuck Tingle Book “

I’m convinced there’s some epic, heart-wrenching dramas behind those titles. 

There’s quite a few of them, although admittedly most of them are just “butt” and “pounding” repeated.

Like JayDee, I have an awful lot of stories posted, so I’m just going to list the ones that have received no reviews.

Fanfics:
Cartoons > Phineas and Ferb > The More, the Merrier - Dragon Prints : 1800
I’ve only posted 1 chapter of this so far, and said chapter is pretty much all setup, so I’m not completely surprised that there are no reviews yet.
Cartoons > Mighty Magiswords > The Princess Hire-ees - Dragon Prints : 683
I’m guessing that Mighty Magiswords doesn’t have anywhere near as large a fan base as the other fandoms in which I write. 
Cartoons > ThunderCats > Brides of Evil - Dragon Prints : 8317
I’ll be honest: This fic just isn’t very good. I co-wrote it with somebody on Inkbunny; our collaboration wasn’t a great experience for me and did not result in a great fic.
 
Originals:
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > Little Rose - Dragon Prints : 2750
This story is only 1 chapter in, so I’m not too surprised by the lack of reviews thus far. 
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > Curfew - Dragon Prints : 7106
Now this one’s lack of reviews surprises me. This story, about a young woman who is raped by a pack of specially trained dogs, was partly inspired by the popularity of one of my earlier stories, “Caitlyn’s Punishment,” which was about a woman whose sadistic husband forces her to have sex with a series of animals. (That story has 13 reviews, which is by far the most that any of my original stories have garnered.) Maybe the appeal of that “Caitlyn’s Punishment” had more to do with the sadistic husband than the animals, I don’t know. 
Erotica > General > Pony Dearest - Dragon Prints : 6120
I'm not totally surprised about this one. My furry stories don't tend to be big hits on AFF (unlike Inkbunny, which is exclusively for the furry crowd). What is more, although this is a story about anthropomorphic ponies, it's not an MLP story, so it may not appeal to a wide audience.
Original - Misc > General > A Perfect Mismatch - Dragon Prints : 2661
Well, it turns out y’all did me a favor by inspiring me to make this list, because in doing so, I realize that I put this story in the wrong place: “Original – Misc” instead of “Erotica.” I have just moved it. 
In any case, this story is part of an anthology series titled "Tales from the Glory Wormhole." Although authors can post their stories anywhere, the “hub” for the story is located on Hentai Foundry, where people can read the intro to each story and then click a link to go to the story itself. So reviews get posted on HF and not AFF. 
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > Dear Hazel - Dragon Prints : 3750
This story takes the form of a letter written by a man to the woman he desires. For that reason, nothing actually happens in this story, and maybe that’s why it hasn’t attracted any reviews. 
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > The Small Hours - Dragon Prints : 13625
Underage furry incest PWP clearly draws readers, but maybe not the reviewin’ kind. Also, it’s a very short story, so maybe people don’t feel like the time they spent reading it justifies writing a review. 
Poetry > Free Verse > Twins: An Incest Poem - Dragon Prints : 4941
If anything is less likely to attract reviews than underage furry incest PWP, it’s probably underage incest free-verse poetry.
Erotica > FemSlash - Female/Female > The Single Mothers' Support Group - Dragon Prints : 24128
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > Keene's Really Good Week - Dragon Prints : 24042
Erotica > General > The Playground - Dragon Prints : 12998
All three of the above stories are furry stories, so there we are.
Erotica > Threesomes/Moresomes > Satisfaction - Dragon Prints : 24595
I’ll confess that I’m disappointed by this one’s lack of reviews. I think it’s some of my best work in the feel-good incest genre.
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > A Day at the Beach - Dragon Prints : 59977
More underage incest getting plenty of hits but no reviews. 
Erotica > Het - Male/Female > Everything She Needs - Dragon Prints : 20904
This one I understand, because it’s a sequel (to a story titled "Wild Side"), and sequels are never as popular as the original. (The exception is when the sequel has the word “Daddy” in the title and the original does not.)

omg, that is the worst! Just seems so incredibly inconsiderate to me to ask someone to put hours or days or weeks into working on something and not even a friggin thank you. 

I’ll ignore that link in your signature…..
I had the rate bomber attack one of my earlier stories, Alaska Trekkers, before the feature went away.  At the time, I was rather new to AFF, and it nearly discouraged me away; to get that downvote seconds after uploading a new chapter … in hindsight, that sort of response time hints at a bot to me.  As they never said anything, all I could do is guess, and the tags are a likely culprit – but that’s the way my main characters are, I like ‘em naked.

omg, that is the worst! Just seems so incredibly inconsiderate to me to ask someone to put hours or days or weeks into working on something and not even a friggin thank you. 

I would like this comment a thousand times if I could. I fucking love Dorian. 

 
To me, there’s shit on this site that is totally perfect. Especially the vulgar stuff. Thanks to the subjective nature of our craft, we get to redefine perfection every friggin second for ourselves. If your story is gripping, you have characters I root for and it’s not bogged down with way too many excess words, to me, that’s perfection. (Oh and the mains have to be gay kuz I don’t stan a cishet dude. Just saying) And vulgar helps. 
Of course when people don’t review, I start to get in my head about what’s wrong with it until I go crazy and see issues that might not even be there, even though I reassure my friends all the time that review counts and dragon prints have nothing to do with quality. And I whole-heartedly believe that claim. It’s just the crazy happens. 

omg, that is the worst! Just seems so incredibly inconsiderate to me to ask someone to put hours or days or weeks into working on something and not even a friggin thank you.