I am closing in 1,000 followers. A great milestone to hit on here. This is the only site I post on.
I have a few regular friends that email me here regularly, act as sounding boards, help me with finding mistakes in my work, etc and share ideas.
However, most of the time it's fairly solitary work in a vacuum.
I've some questions to ask.
I have recently become much better with AI art, and have been including it a lot in my stories to enhance and add to the story.
I recently posted a "Three Hole Golf Tournament" story as part of my anthology with some pictures that took the better part of an evening to produce.
https://storiesonline.net/s/31531/proper-women-an-anthology-of/12
I am not a fan of short stories, because once I fall in love with a character I want to keep living through them. However, I felt this was a good one. Short stories also have a pacing that only allows for the "Good stuff" and are written differently than long stories.
What I learned with my anthology though, is that most people won't read the last stories. I am not sure why. I guess they read the first story and maybe don't like that one, and so they give up after a few stories.
However, each one is different. The first few stories weren't the absolute best ones. What happened was readership dramatically dropped, which is unfortunate because I feel that the Golf story probably should have been it's own separate story and maybe would have been read more.
It's not that I care about "stats" of votes and readers. What I care about is sharing stories that potentially inspire people to write stories I enjoy.
If hardly anybody except a few determined perverts make it to chapter 12, then I failed.
So, I closed the anthology and from now on if I post a short story it will be standalone.
Thoughts?
My second question is about pacing for NIS: Breeder Program and visiting Aunt Scarlet.
NIS has 75 chapters, and I am on chapter 28. I've been posting about one chapter per day as I finish editing.
However, I usually throw in a Visiting Aunt Scarlet, which is currently up to chapter 24. I've only posted chapter 10.
The questions that I have is which one do you like best, and why?
Would you rather I focus on editing only one?
Readership is about even on them, but I think more people prefer the NIS story. The problem is that it will be ages before I can share Visiting Scarlet if I wait that long. (well about 60 days to be fair).
This story sat unloved for years and I vowed to finish it. I finally found a way forward with the story and have been inspired to do just that.
I'd like to know what people prefer? is the pacing good on posting? are you enjoying one over the other?
Give me some constructive feedback.