To all the writers here who have never posted their stories, what holds you back?
It's an odd question, and the poster appears to have reverted to guest status, but I'll have a shot at answering.
I write non-fiction for a living. That, combined with copyright issues, is one reason I won't be posting on this board.
I've written novels by way of experimentation, and some included explicit sex scenes but, there again, I won't be posting them here. Far, far too long for a discussion board.
A few years ago I did post half-a-dozen erotic stories on the xHamster website. Those were also something of an experiment. The reader reactions were puzzling. The story I enjoyed writing most, about two young wives discussing sexual problems over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, was downvoted to oblivion, and I still don't know why. Perhaps male readers weren't turned on by the female POV, or perhaps a dialog-driven story didn't appeal to them.
The story that received the most upvotes was something I wrote as a reaction to BDSM images posted to the xHamster site. Most of those images struck me as unsavory, to say the least, so I cobbled together a much milder story about a young woman who is sympathetic to the needs of an elderly and very lonely widower who enjoys discipline. Readers asked me to pen a sequel with an escalated SM factor. I declined.
There's another reason I won't be posting stories here. I find the design of the site very hard on the eyes, and not conducive to longer pieces. I see that some authors have increased font size and inserted line breaks to improve readability, but that strikes me as an unsatisfactory kludge.
I've enjoyed some of the stories I've read on this board but, as is the case with the OP of this query, the authors appear to have moved on.
From time to time I also dip into the Kristen Archives. Is it my imagination, or did the archive once feature starred stories that "Kristen" had flagged as being of exceptional merit?
L.