760 chapters, including a new chapter 20 ending, End: I Really Am His Whore. Likes are down, which combined with steady progress means that I'm now officially through the backlog, and every chapter with 5 or more likes has a sequel! Now, in addition with keeping up with any chapters that hit the 5 likes threshold, I start working on the chapters with 10+ likes, which get second branches. These go from the most-popular chapters 9s on downward, which currently looks like: https://chyoa.com/chapter/Make-Me-Pregnant.435303 31 ******* https://chyoa.com/chapter/Make-You-Pregnant.435542 25 *** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Erupt.472352 23 ****** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Creampie-for-Lana.436563 22 * https://chyoa.com/chapter/What-Is-This-Place.403155 22 https://chyoa.com/chapter/Tubful-of-Cum.439413 20 *** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Inseminator.446817 19 ****** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Rub-It-In.463442 17 ***** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Not-Yet.474194 17 ** https://chyoa.com/chapter/You-Won't-Breed-Anyone-Else-But-Me.506135 16 ** https://chyoa.com/chapter/Conceive-More.484670 16 * https://chyoa.com/chapter/I-Want-To-Be-Raped.432148 16 https://chyoa.com/chapter/A-Good-Tonguing.437773 16 https://chyoa.com/chapter/Challenge-Accepted.479754 16 # is number of likes; "*" represents a bookmark ...which I think goes some ways to show what I mean when I say that impregnation/pregnancy-related branches are the most popular so far.
Thank you for all the data, it's interesting to try to interpret it. A few quick things: 1) How much does date effect a liking? Obviously, the older the post the more chance there is for people to react with it. 2) How much should we write for an audience? I wrestle with this. I do this fun, therefore I don't have to worry about getting a product sold. However, it is fun when more people interact with your story, so there is a desire to be popular. 3) Though I do enjoy the challenge of writing something that isn't my kink (like a F/M BDSM scene) I can't write on a subject that is a turnoff for me, such as impregnation/pregnancy.
In general older posts accumulate more likes, just because they're around longer. And this appears to be true regardless of how deep it is in a story. It's not an absolute rule - there are several chapters with zero likes/bookmarks, and dozens of others that get to a certain level and just sit there. Because of the way I've been doing it, there are older chapter 20s and younger chapter 9s, but generally speaking the older chapter 9s have more likes than the older chapter 20s, if that makes sense. Maybe one of these days I'll just link the spreadsheet. I do this primarily for me, which is good because I rarely get any requests or direction in the comments! But I generally try to follow a given story in a branch - I only have a vague plan for most of these, because of all the branching. A few times I've gotten requests for specific stuff, and I try to cater to that as far as possible without tripping over my own plotting/things I won't write. Without more feedback from the readers, likes are usually my only guideline for what's popular/what they want to read. I wouldn't recommend that you write in an impregnation scene just for the sake of trying to cage a few likes out of people. If it flows naturally from the story, if it's something you're into and want to write, that's one thing. But writing for CHYOA should never be a chore you suffer through. (If you're doing a Patreon and it gets to be your most-requested-fetish and you're getting paid money, that's a little different. But for most of us this is just for fun/some kind of self-therapy to express our sexual urges.) Speaking just for myself - there's some stuff I don't do (scat, violent rape, etc.) though I might play with threatening the latter to increase tension. There are things that don't turn me on, but which I find might fit the trend of the scene and which I might experiment with, just a little. For example in Mark Her Territory I have an evil Lois Lane urinate in another woman's mouth - and watersports are one of those things normally on my no-way, no-how list, but I decided to experiment with it this one time. I'll probably never do another scene like that again, even if someone requests it, but sometimes pushing boundaries a little is healthy.
Back in my first iteration of my career, Patreon wasn't a thing and commissioned work was a way to get some income. There are a number of fetishes I'd never write normally that I (literally) cheerfully wrote when there was cash on the table. It was enlightening in a lot of ways -- not the least of which being I could find a given kink utterly squicky and still write about it in depth and take pride in the work... if the commissioner was friendly and fun to work with. And then sometimes they weren't. That's when I learned I could vomit mid-sentence and then finish writing the sentence. On the whole, I prefer Patreon.
777 chapters, including a new chapter 21: Epilogue: Lois Is Late. Response to the secondary options has been positive so far; some of the chapters written have attracted sufficient likes/bookmarks to justify their own sequels, so I'm pursuing those new branches before moving on (in the spreadsheet, I've got things color-coded: white for no-sequels, yellow for one-option-written, orange for one-option-but-due-for-a-second-option when they hit 10+, and red for two-options-written). There's currently six chapters with 5 likes which need first options written, so that's the priority...and when those run out, I go back to writing the second options for the orange chapters. Going to be out of town this weekend so no updates, but I'm sure there are branches you haven't read yet...
786 chapters, including a new chapter 20: End: It's A Start - which in the hands of a better writer would be an interesting starting point for a slow-burning story. Making some progress. I think the sprawling nature of the story might be intimidating to a lot of readers...still difficult to know what people like and don't like. I like the occasional dream-interlude chapter as something fast, trippy, and fantastic, but not sure how others feel about that. Looking back, we still haven't gotten to 20 chapters on any of the Lex Luthor/science/kryptonite transformation branches - by far the least-popular option, I guess, but I think in part that's because it's a bit self-reinforcing. The less popular chapters get fewer updates, fewer updates mean fewer views and likes - probably because readers think I'm never going to update/finish those branches. Which isn't true...every branch gets an ending...eventually.
The good news is: story just hit 800 chapters, and according to SmutMD is over 150,000 words. The bad(?) news is that likes/bookmarks are down. This isn't a showstopper by any means, as there's still a large backlog of chapters to write sequels to. But fewer of the new chapters are getting enough likes for sequels, which suggests waning interest, or the latest chapters have dropped in quality, or a combination of the two. Feedback is still minimal on what people actually like or dislike about my writing (the "Up My Game" thread basically died when I asked for that), so...likes and dislikes are all I have. I'm not sure how best to address this - I can keep doing as I am doing under the current rules and still have a couple months worth of erotica writing to do. At which point I'll ave a decision to make: keep going with the current plan (start tying off loose branches with "End" chapters, no matter how deep they are), or I can adjust the rules and lower the "bar" for sequels to 4+ likes, which would open up a lot more chapters to continuations. The latter would probably significantly increase the size of an already large CHYOA, and with interest waning I'm not sure if there's enough appeal to sustain it, beyond an OCD-level compulsion to improve my smut-writing game.
Just posted the 831st chapter. Chapter likes/bookmarks have settled into a handful of users liking/bookmarking new chapters and the (very) occasional surge when one or two new readers find a path they really like. The good news is: familiar readers who like the story tend to really like the story and keep coming back. The bad news is: there don't seem to be enough familiar readers liking the same chapters to consistently push for the continuation of storylines. there are 53 chapters currently sitting at 4 likes, which is one short of getting a sequel. I guess part of my original thinking about the second option for chapters with 10+ likes is that side branches might spur interest in the main branch, but I don't think the likes are quite showing that kind of pattern. By contrast, not too many duds: out of 831 chapters, there are only 11 chapters with 0 likes (most of these branches in the Lex Luther side of the story tree). That still leaves quite a bit of work to do under my current schema - without making any modifications (write 1 new chapter for each chapter with 5+ likes, and another new chapter at 10+ likes) if nobody else likes anything there are still 92 chapters to write (all second options on existing storylines). Which represents a couple months' writing at the current rate of about 2 chapters a day (minus some weekends). I had originally planned to have tie-off chapters for the "dangling branches" - the ones that don't get enough votes to continue - but I'm currently reconsidering that. It might be I would leave it up to gather a few likes while I work on a new (and very different) kind of story with conditions - I've been outlining it, trying to get the mechanics straight in my head and on paper before tackling the coding, and I'd like to "finish" LLNO before I get started on it properly. Still not a lot of feedback. One of the gambling branches is almost ready for an ending though - just needs one more like. I've got an idea for that...something that hasn't been done in any of the chapters yet.
851 chapters. There are 86 more chapters in the queue before we hit the thresholds, and likes/bookmarks should shift that a little, so I would estimate at least 7-8 weeks before the current queue is exhausted. Notable chapters include a new chapter 20: End: Double Vaginal which completes one of the betting/gambling branches.
Looking at my spreadsheet, not counting stuff that just came out this week there are relatively few chapters that got zero likes. I think it might be worth looking at the six chapter 9 zeroes just to see...what went wrong. Yes - Okay, not the most evocative chapter name, and this is on the relatively unpopular Jimmy Olsen sissy-play branch. I thought playing with Lois as a dom might appeal to some folks as a change of pace, but as with a lot of the kinkier material in the story, I think it's buried too deep for those who might like it to actually find it. Fill Her In - From one of the Lois Lane/Lana Lang branches. As a branch this was popular enough to spawn several sub-branches, but none of them have gotten past chapter 13 yet. Part of this one might just be the lack of forward momentum: the chapters didn't set the readers on fire, the likes didn't come in fast enough, so the branches stalled out. On top of that, it's a short chapter and not a sex chapter - just a plot chapter setting up the next choice. No - Lois lying to Maria to get deeper into her confidence. A lot of the "investigation" branches tend to peter out without a lot of sex in them, I find. It's not that this is a particularly short chapter - Lois is spinning a sex-based fantasy to pretend she's pregnant to get downstairs - but I think I might lose even casual readers here who have no idea what's going on at this point and just see they aren't fucking. Red Kryptonite #30 - One of the odder Kryptonite transformations, Lois turns into a sphinx. Not a lot of furries on the board overall, and fewer still in this story - again, the buried kink aspect - which is why I guess this one just went under the radar for most readers. Moans - The Bizarro branches just haven't gotten as much love or attention as I thought they might, even though I think they have a lot of potential. This particular chapter was coming off a not-particularly-popular chapter 8, which probably explains part of it - but it's gotten a couple hundred reviews, so maybe the whole scenario just didn't appeal. Kick Free - Much like the above, except the preceding chapter had gotten 8 likes, earning this as a second option on the Lovecraft-stuck-in-a-tunnel storyline, which has mainly been playing with non-con and scary things in the dark. If anything, I guess I'd say there's less enthusiasm for options where Lois escapes or fights off her attackers unless it's an immediate set-up for more sex. Part of it is, I leave a few too many of these chapters "open," always ending everything except chapter 20s on a decision point of some kind. I have to say, views don't correlate with likes as much as you'd think. There are chapters with 1,000+ views with 5 likes, and 80+ views with 5 likes. Views generally correlate with age and chapter depth, which generally makes sense, and with a few exceptions later/deeper chapters have fewer views. The main exception appears to be a particularly salacious title, which appears to attract more clicks - I think a lot of the readers just look for the most recent updates rather than trying to read through a whole branch. This might be a situation where writing longer chapters is a drawback.
Chapter count: 872. Surprisingly robust with the likes/bookmarks this week, so not really cutting into the second-option chapters, but continuing existing storylines, including two new chapter 20s: End: Pregnant Porn and End: Lois Takes The Hit. Haven't been entirely happy with the quality of my writing this week, but no complaints so far.
890 chapters. Good progress this week, with several new ends/and epilogues, including End: Lois Gives Birth to A Cock, End: Lois Wins (maybe my favorite end so far), Epilogue: Lily Lane (which I thought came out rather well, for being mostly sex-free), Epilogue: Aftercare, Epilogue: Signs, and even a chapter 23 Epilogue: The Red Eyed Monster. Debating some sort of "leave a comment/get a comment" thread for comment sluts, just because for having nearly 900 chapters, there are very few comments - few readers care to suggest how they'd like to see a particular storyline play out, although I always try to accomodate when I can. It makes me think that if I ever do something on this scale again, I might try to make it more interactive from the beginning.
...and the 900th chapter is End: Blaze Chooses Lois. Which is rather romantic, in a "please fuck my ass" kind of way. I may yet someday do a dark ending where Lois is a druggie pregnant whore choking on cocks for money to feed her addictions but...yeah, probably not. Certainly not today. Quite a few likes/bookmarks this week, which means there's a lot more chapters to write! It's pleasant to see some of the chapters I enjoyed writing get a bit of attention, particularly the ones that have a bit more plot and a bit less sex in them...although sex chapters still lead by a wide margin. Still, maybe a couple of you read for the plots, wondering where the heck things will go next.
Life intervened, and I haven't written anything in days. But...now returning to our regularly-scheduled smut. For all 5-7 of you that regularly check out new chapters.
917 chapters, and still playing catch-up...and there is catching up to do. I'm pleased to say we now have 19 total Endings - storylines that have gone the full 20 chapters (and a little beyond, in a handful of cases). There are still 16 chapters that hit 5+ likes that need sequels to be written before I can get back to addressing the backlog of chapters with 10+ likes that need second options...of which there are many many. I still haven't written any "bad ends," and maybe that's a good thing.
933 chapters, still not quite at the rate I want to be at, and still playing catch-up as the likes come in faster than I can churn out chapters (it's a good problem to have). One thing I do notice is that users seem to prefer either liking just the latest chapters or they'll explore a particular branch. Older chapters aren't getting as many likes (which is fine, because nothing from before chapter 8's are getting updates from me, although other users are free to add new chapters branching off from existing ones there).
950 chapters, including a chapter by new contributor warhammer1231 "Error in Babies". I was toying with the idea of doing a multiples chapter if the previous decision got enough likes, but this goes a bit beyond what I had planned...though it might be interesting to see where it goes. I know the story has been a little light on "wackiness."
Going to be traveling for much of this week, so updates will be less. On the plus side, the "Lois Bets Her Brain" branch proved surprisingly popular and results in the first bad end: Bimbo Lois Lane. Honestly not terrifically comfortable with writing bad ends and not sure how this one came out, but we might see more if readers like that kind of thing.
