Interest Fishing?

[BenJepheneT]

I never reached trending with my GL... T.T

not enough sex material, my lass. it's not truly GL the readers want. it's blatant, one dimensional relationships where reward is worth more than the effort. it doesn't matter whether it's harem, BL, GL or SQL. people don't want deep characters. they want creative caricatures. it doesn't matter if they have a depth of a roadside puddle, or as entertaining as a glass of sour milk. they just want two women with exaggerated personalities tsun over each other.

so do that. disregard your plot, pacing, story, theme, character goals and motivations. just think of the most contrived and convoluted set pieces for a romantic encounter for the sake of comedy. do that, and you'll shoot to the trending in no time.

 

[AliceShiki]

not enough sex material, my lass. it's not truly GL the readers want. it's blatant, one dimensional relationships where reward is worth more than the effort. it doesn't matter whether it's harem, BL, GL or SQL. people don't want deep characters. they want creative caricatures. it doesn't matter if they have a depth of a roadside puddle, or as entertaining as a glass of sour milk. they just want two women with exaggerated personalities tsun over each other.

so do that. disregard your plot, pacing, story, theme, character goals and motivations. just think of the most contrived and convoluted set pieces for a romantic encounter for the sake of comedy. do that, and you'll shoot to the trending in no time.

>.>
<.<

Well, my characters already had an established "it's complicated" relationship from the very first chapter, so... This would never work for me! XD

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

not enough sex material, my lass. it's not truly GL the readers want. it's blatant, one dimensional relationships where reward is worth more than the effort. it doesn't matter whether it's harem, BL, GL or SQL. people don't want deep characters. they want creative caricatures. it doesn't matter if they have a depth of a roadside puddle, or as entertaining as a glass of sour milk. they just want two women with exaggerated personalities tsun over each other.

so do that. disregard your plot, pacing, story, theme, character goals and motivations. just think of the most contrived and convoluted set pieces for a romantic encounter for the sake of comedy. do that, and you'll shoot to the trending in no time.

Ah, finally, a man who knows how things work. I approve.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I never reached trending with my GL... T.T

*petting Alice - huggle - chan* I know how it feels.

 

[AliceShiki]

*petting Alice - huggle - chan* I know how it feels.

*hugs back*

 

[BenJepheneT]

Ah, finally, a man who knows how things work. I approve.

To all Yuri/Yaoi/Genderbending-Lord fans out there-

It's not that I don't allow you to have certain taste in media. It's totally within your right.

It's also within my right to say that your taste is bland and insipid and might I add, fucken tasteless.

Bam get owned homo

 

[AliceShiki]

To all Yuri/Yaoi/Genderbending-Lord fans out there-

It's not that I don't allow you to have certain taste in media. It's totally within your right.

It's also within my right to say that your taste is bland and insipid and might I add, fucken tasteless.

Bam get owned homo

You're technically right in saying you have the right to say that... That doesn't make your comment any more truthful though.

Like... GL and BL are just shoujo, really, that's all they are. The only difference is that in GL you substitute the Male Lead for another Female Lead, and in BL you substitute the Female Lead for another Male Lead... That's it. Everything else is the same as shoujo.

The reason people enjoy GL and BL is because often times in shoujo you end up finding that one annoying perfect Male Lead, or that one annoying ruthless Bad Boy Male lead, that has a soft spot for the Female Protagonist and only her and nobody except her... Those two extremely stereotyped Male Leads are sadly extremely widespread in shoujo. (Of course the good authors don't do that, but... Well, not all authors are good ones.)

So... What do you do when you get sick of finding terrible male leads? Simple, you remove them from the equation at all. Which leads you to GL where both Female Leads are equally important and well-developed, making for a good story.
Or you decide to put another Male Lead there instead, which leads to BL. Because suddenly there is no longer a blank self-insert female lead that wishes for a perfect guy in the story, now we can have proper characters because the FL is no longer a self-insert and the ML is no longer a wish-fulfillment.

That's basically why GL and BL are popular. The vast majority of the audiences of those genres actually came from shoujo due to wanting a breath of fresh air, and then they fell in love with how well-made they were.


Gender Bender is a bit more complex and different people may seek different things from it, but... For me, I basically want drama. I want a very specific kind of drama that only Gender Bender provides... The drama of being confused about who they are and what their preferences are.

The drama of being heterosexual at first, then getting genderbent and falling in love with someone that had the same gender they had previously... Or the drama of having a hard time accepting your body, and being unable to cope with it... I want drama! Give me the drama!

... A shame not all authors deliver the drama well, but the ones that do, usually end up making very good stories~ <3

 

[BenJepheneT]

You're technically right in saying you have the right to say that... That doesn't make your comment any more truthful though.

Like... GL and BL are just shoujo, really, that's all they are. The only difference is that in GL you substitute the Male Lead for another Female Lead, and in BL you substitute the Female Lead for another Male Lead... That's it. Everything else is the same as shoujo.

The reason people enjoy GL and BL is because often times in shoujo you end up finding that one annoying perfect Male Lead, or that one annoying ruthless Bad Boy Male lead, that has a soft spot for the Female Protagonist and only her and nobody except her... Those two extremely stereotyped Male Leads are sadly extremely widespread in shoujo. (Of course the good authors don't do that, but... Well, not all authors are good ones.)

So... What do you do when you get sick of finding terrible male leads? Simple, you remove them from the equation at all. Which leads you to GL where both Female Leads are equally important and well-developed, making for a good story.
Or you decide to put another Male Lead there instead, which leads to BL. Because suddenly there is no longer a blank self-insert female lead that wishes for a perfect guy in the story, now we can have proper characters because the FL is no longer a self-insert and the ML is no longer a wish-fulfillment.

That's basically why GL and BL are popular. The vast majority of the audiences of those genres actually came from shoujo due to wanting a breath of fresh air, and then they fell in love with how well-made they were.


Gender Bender is a bit more complex and different people may seek different things from it, but... For me, I basically want drama. I want a very specific kind of drama that only Gender Bender provides... The drama of being confused about who they are and what their preferences are.

The drama of being heterosexual at first, then getting genderbent and falling in love with someone that had the same gender they had previously... Or the drama of having a hard time accepting your body, and being unable to cope with it... I want drama! Give me the drama!

... A shame not all authors deliver the drama well, but the ones that do, usually end up making very good stories~ <3

Right, lemme rephrase my sentence a lil bit

To all Shoujou fans out there, you have all the definite right to your taste in media.

It's also within my right to say your taste is fucken trash. As trash as mine. And I read My Mobster Girlfriend and throughly enjoyed the generic dumpster fire that it is.

bam get owned you heteros/homos

 

[AliceShiki]

Right, lemme rephrase my sentence a lil bit

To all Shoujou fans out there, you have all the definite right to your taste in media.

It's also within my right to say your taste is fucken trash. As trash as mine. And I read My Mobster Girlfriend and throughly enjoyed the generic dumpster fire that it is.

bam get owned you heteros/homos

 

[weakwithwords]

I have a GL, I have a BL
Uhm
pen-pineapple-apple-pen

One score and one year ago, I bought a book called Legends. It's the one with The Hedge Knight and Debt of Bones. Just goes to show that even established authors can produce an anthology to garner attention.

There is a wuxia site where wannabe translators post translations for a series in a subforum. When they reach a quota, probably a hundred chapters, they get featured on the main site.

I've seen a few authors on this site blatantly put a "Should I continue?" poll at the end of the first chapter. The problem with this is that neither a weak beginning nor a strong start can indicate if a story will become interesting or continue being appealing.

 

[BenJepheneT]

There is a wuxia site where wannabe translators post translations for a series in a subforum. When they reach a quota, probably a hundred chapters, they get featured on the main site.

I've seen a few authors on this site blatantly put a "Should I continue?" poll at the end of the first chapter. The problem with this is that neither a weak beginning nor a strong start can indicate if a story will become interesting or continue being appealing.

I'm actually really fucken terrified of the state of webnovels at this point. It's not even about writing what the author thinks is their magnum opus but a Best Buy/Walmart type of customer pandering where they pump out uninspired copies with a small twist like some factory conveyor belt.

It's not even about writing good quality stuff. It's about how many people know your name, regardless of the things you put out.

 

[AliceShiki]

I'm actually really fucken terrified of the state of webnovels at this point. It's not even about writing what the author thinks is their magnum opus but a Best Buy/Walmart type of customer pandering where they pump out uninspired copies with a small twist like some factory conveyor belt.

It's not even about writing good quality stuff. It's about how many people know your name, regardless of the things you put out.

I disagree tbh. Getting your name known is certainly important, but it's not the only factor.

If people don't like your story, they won't read it. You need both, a way to get people's attention and a way to keep their attention. And keeping their attention goes hand in hand with making something with quality.

 

[BenJepheneT]

I disagree tbh. Getting your name known is certainly important, but it's not the only factor.

If people don't like your story, they won't read it. You need both, a way to get people's attention and a way to keep their attention. And keeping their attention goes hand in hand with making something with quality.

When I said getting your name known of course the factor of writing what people like is considered. But it's now less about writing what the author truly wants and more about what the readers really want.

I don't know about you but that just feels unfulfilling to me.

 

[Kldran]

In regards to interest fishing, I think my nonsense pile might sorta count. I've noticed some of what I put there gets a lot more views than the rest. The high popularity of one of the prologues I put there was part of what led to me eventually figuring out how to actually write the story (I spent more time thinking about it than I would've otherwise). The story it turned into has been my most successful so far by a lot, though I feel like it's mostly random nonsense. I got started with the plan of just writing smut, and ended up writing something that isn't smut, and is instead just kinda weird and random. My imagination doesn't like to do what I tell it to.

In regards to getting onto trending: When one of my stories got onto front page trending, it was when the story was updating five times a week for a while. I'd describe my story as unique. Readers/commentors have described it as like a 4-koma. I think I violate more rules of writing than I follow. I do at least try to keep my grammar and spelling decent.

 

[Sabruness]

This may be the widest idea on the terrible/terrific spectrum. We'd either strike some gold or dig up a hidden subculture of anthropomorphic foxes speaking entirely out of scat fetish poetry.

Either way, seeing as how far we've reached in site, I say this idea probably isn't worth doing anymore. It's hard to drag a crowd from their comfort zone by product alone without some big push or promotion from the site itself. As long as it has a LitRPG tag or a Yuri/Gender Bender/whatever genre tacked on to it, you can be sure you'll hit the trending tab at some point if you post enough.

- oh my dear gork, that's some awful heresy you're theorizing right there. *shivers*
Actually, Yuri/GL doesnt often appear high on trending, or in significant number. This latest stretch of time has just, so far, been a bit of an oddity due to the amount of GL trending. Usually it's isekai and/or self-insert cliche harem smut, the usual no-brow trash.

Maybe SH's had an influx of GL aficionados or people have gotten bored of the standard above-mentioned trash and realized that there's plenty of good GL out there to read.

 

[AliceShiki]

When I said getting your name known of course the factor of writing what people like is considered. But it's now less about writing what the author truly wants and more about what the readers really want.

I don't know about you but that just feels unfulfilling to me.

I feel like the most successful authors are those that want to write what the readers want to read~

Usually speaking, you'll have a hard time writing something with quality if you don't love what you're writing, after all~

In regards to interest fishing, I think my nonsense pile might sorta count. I've noticed some of what I put there gets a lot more views than the rest. The high popularity of one of the prologues I put there was part of what led to me eventually figuring out how to actually write the story (I spent more time thinking about it than I would've otherwise). The story it turned into has been my most successful so far by a lot, though I feel like it's mostly random nonsense. I got started with the plan of just writing smut, and ended up writing something that isn't smut, and is instead just kinda weird and random. My imagination doesn't like to do what I tell it to.

In regards to getting onto trending: When one of my stories got onto front page trending, it was when the story was updating five times a week for a while. I'd describe my story as unique. Readers/commentors have described it as like a 4-koma. I think I violate more rules of writing than I follow. I do at least try to keep my grammar and spelling decent.

Well, 90% of writing rules are more like guidelines of things that have more chance of working than anything else! XD

 

[BenJepheneT]

I feel like the most successful authors are those that want to write what the readers want to read~

I would agree with you if Stephen King didn't write a communal self-study sex education in his book which NO ONE ASKED FOR BY THE WAY

 

[AliceShiki]

I would agree with you if Stephen King didn't write a communal self-study sex education in his book which NO ONE ASKED FOR BY THE WAY

Emphasis on the word "most", there are always exceptions... >.>

 

[GDLiZy]

I feel like the most successful authors are those that want to write what the readers want to read~

Or you write some weird concept and bank on the fact that your story might become famous and influence future pop culture, but the trade-off is that your story might not get popular even until your death.

 

[AliceShiki]

Or you write some weird concept and bank on the fact that your story might become famous and influence future pop culture, but the trade-off is that your story might not get popular even until your death.

Well... It's certainly a dangerous bet! XD