Journey of a Literotica Writer Ch. 02

This chapter is on the story I first published, "Cambodia." To get to how that story came to be my first, indulge me in a bit of background.

For those that may be less familiar with the LW genre than others, there is a phrase that gets thrown around in the comment section a lot. That phrase is, "Zapped by the Martian Slut Ray." It's used to describe a wife that is in a happy marriage, and then, without any explanation, goes crazy with lust, and is unconcerned about anything other than having sex with someone other than her husband.

Casualty list includes, but is by no means inclusive: husband, children, his parents, her parents, people affected at place of employment, neighbors, dogs, timely mail delivery, endangered species... etc.

I started what was to be my second story published, "Zapped by the Martian Slut Ray." This one I wanted to put out there. I was cooking along, then I got to a point where I wasn't sure how to complete it. The bug to put something out, anything out, was really strong once I decided I'd write and post on Literotica, but I got stuck. This was something that would became a pattern for me. I'd get stumped, then think about other stories to write. So I wrote, "Cambodia."

I had an idea for a short story that I saw the beginning, middle and end. That is the only story I have ever written in one sitting, and I have a 750 word story that took longer. My inspiration was just whimsical. As a reader of LW stories, I noticed certain tropes and themes. Disappointing to me, is that few authors took those tropes to an unexpected place. There is a point for me as a reader, where if you see something you have seen many times before, you can predict where the story is going to go.

One of those frequently used devices in LW, is that of the wife having a conversation where the wife is feeling something is missing in her marriage. Almost all stories in that category have sex as the reason. I'm not sure how the thought occurred to me, but my thought was, "What if it was something else, but it looked like a similar conversation that readers had seen before?"

The most common disagreements in a marriage are about sex, money, children, and in-laws (specifically the mother-in-law). Your mileage may vary as to what order in which they are placed.

What I had in mind, was setting up a conversation that was ambiguous, that implied the wife was thinking about a lover, while the ending would reveal she was really wanting to adopt a child. I wanted to drop hints that it might be a conversation about something other than having sex with another man, but didn't want to give it away. I was worried that even the title might tip the ending. As it turned out, that was to be the least of my worries.

I dropped that unexpectedly on my editor of choice, Lue. After making the necessary spelling corrections, and an email exchange, I was ready to submit my first story.

I sent the story through the Lit submission process. This one was posted within three or four days after that. I would learn later, it isn't always that fast. I would check Lit daily to see if my story had posted. I didn't care about ratings, I knew this story was not going to be a classic. I just wanted feedback for people that had the same sense of humor. The rating system then was a 5 star system. As of now, still is. 3 stars means "average." If I got a 3, it wasn't going to hurt my feelings.

What happened when first posted, was it got an average rating of less than 3. It was a 2.97. I'd gone in thinking I didn't care about ratings, but damn. Below average? Less than a 3? Now I couldn't wait to get to the comments to see what the reasons might be. The thing I adore about the comments section, is there are people who will spend paragraphs explaining their thoughts. There are those that leave nothing more than, "1 star," without offering any reason why. I got those, and also got reactions that readers had put some time into.

I got comments that thought I portrayed women as bimbos, I have no idea where that idea came from. I've reread that story a lot, and that's probably the least bimbo character I've written. I got comments that disliked the story because of my choice of editor. There is a social component on Lit, that I was learning about. Stories are judged b some by who you are associated with. Thankfully, that is a minority. The comments were all over the map, but one comment summed up what many were expressing about the twist. It was this one:

"I'm glad the Piper took the criticisms of the twist kindly and didn't lash out. As this comment says, i wasn't so much a twist as a joke at the readers' expense."

It turns out, I had no reason to be concerned about dropping too many hints. Many readers were upset because they felt I was trolling them. I wasn't, but lesson learned. Worrying about subtlety to that extreme, would not be a problem going forward. If I ever rewrite the story and submit an edited version, I'll drop an additional hint.

There were also many comments from those that thought the wife was cheating, or harbored fantasies about cheating. I get that people skim stories, but this one was really short. It was a single Lit page, there was no page 2.

Comments from those who didn't like the story, comments from those who misunderstood the story, comments that felt I had written the story with the purpose of trolling, plus, (at that time), the comments being spammed with, "Hey. I'm horny and hot, check my link." Newer readers are thankfully spared that. Oddly, of all the criticisms, the one I didn't get was that there was no sex in the story. That was some solace, because I was writing on Literotica. So lack of sex was not the issue for most readers of LW.

There were the comments from those who got where I was coming from, and read the story the way I'd hoped for it to be read. There were many of those. Those were the comments that encouraged me to write again. I started writing with the idea of posting a story I wanted to write. The fact that there were comments from people that enjoyed it, was encouragement to continue to write my stories. There was an audience for that.

The icing on the cake was, I got an inspirational email from a well-known Lit writer. If I was on the fence, that was fuel to continue. My first story that I published, received encouragement from another writer that published stories I loved, and some readers that liked mine. That combination made writing a second story, and submitting, a foregone conclusion.

I wanted to see what happened next.