I've been pondering something in the past, and that was where should I post some of my chapters. Back in the day, parts of me wanted to post in stories that had plenty of other contributors, so stories like Humilatron's "Video Game Humiliation" story since I thought that was one of the more reasonable ways to get noticed. Somewhat, I did learn that, just because it's always in "Recently updated" doesn't mean your own chapters are going to get noticed, at least not immediately. I then went to go publish some random chapter in random public stories and gained somewhat of a list of contacts with some people, with some inviting me to more of their public stories that usually went nowhere. As of right now, I've been exclusively writing on stories where I'm somewhat established. Stories that I did agree to help in back in the day, but I can't even remember what the last thing I wrote was as I type this (I'm not kidding). But enough about me, let's talk about my question. What is the best thing to do when writing a chapter, in a public story? Is it better to find a populated story and write there in hopes you'd be established as a casual writer there? Is it better to necro a story that hasn't been updated in a number of years, because you want an ancient author's works to be noticed, as well as yours (a thought process I also previously had). Is it better to follow in the footsteps of my uncles and drop my load before hitting the road (that is to say, publish one or more chapters and rarely publish there again). Is it better to help cultivate a story, in the case that, if the story blows up, you'll be within the proximity of the blast. Or is it just better to write your own stories. Sorry if none of my writing makes sense, even as I type this, my brain's getting foggy.
I just write my own stuff for the hell of it. I think my stories do all right, when I remember to feed them. We chewed the fat on this recently in another thread. First, you need to define "success". Then you can try to optimize for specific types of reader responses. You can probably drill down on this the same way we attempted to drill down in that thread: Do both or Look at other authors who have done both then Compare their views and likes.
Aside from seeing your enemies driven before you? I just try to write without pressure. I keep track of public stories I've added to, as well as my own and ask myself what I want to add to. Some days, you have a lot of momentum and get a lot of writing done really fast. Other days, you struggle to write a single chapter. In each case, you're still accomplishing something. I also think that you shouldn't put too much stock in vague metrics like likes, favourites, or views. I would guess that most perverts just view this website without an account, and I imagine that for at least one person, my story encapsulates all of their desires. Our writing does matter, even if it's only appreciated by one person. Secretly and somewhat hypocritically, my goal has been to get 5/Day 1/Month at the top of interracial. It's at the top of the second page, currently. Will it ever be at the top? Perhaps never, soon I will be grappling with the real titans. But having a goal like this I think is helpful and keeps me motivated.
