What makes a story successful?

Also, can I just say: a HUGE thank you to Februs and Flopsy for actually hosting this site in the first place, without which I probably would never have had the pleasure of posting my stories at all. Sure, sometimes I think "I wish the site rules allowed this or that", but overall it's such an awesome place to be.

I really wanted to share them, because I really really enjoyed writing them, but I don't think I would have posted them on a personal website, nor on a totally public site. I'm so happy LSF exists

That reminds me of this


From another numbers person.

Thanks RosieRad ... much appreciated.

CS ..... may the math be with you.

... unless, of course, everything agreed perfectly with ME, in which case the word I'd use would be "harmonious."

This is awesome, thanks Februs!

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about you except that you like spanking and Futurama, I am willing to put you in charge of everything right now, in exchange for the gong show currently happening south of where I live.

That's a good point about reading one's own work Rosie. Likewise I re read my own stories, particulay my favorites, smiling at the jokes and feeling the tension in the protagonists. Of course these worlds were created by me and perforce push my buttons. Having said that I do like to read stuff far more severe than I would write but we have often addressed that topic.
As to v/c ratio, I'd give up writing if that was my pass mark.

I saw the title of this thread and thought that there might be some really interesting insights into writing style. I was dissappointed to see it fell immediately back onto the metrics topic
How to measure success by counting likes and faves and views is a topic that has been beaten to death !

On the surface, what really makes a successful story are original plots, credible characters, perhaps erotic scenes (depending on your taste). But certain writers have a magic sauce that really turns the heat up; it is those pieces of writing (think of SpankingTheatre's "Grimoire") that are really successful, regardless of how many eyeballs they attract. If we could decode the recipe he used and do something similar, then THAT would be a successful story. What made it successful ? It was erotic yet tasetful, it was non-trivial yet easy to follow, ... and so on.

The biggest compliment I have had on a story was: "Gail, I don't know how you did it - I wish I dod for my own writing. Your story is quite simple, but by the second or third paragraph I was drawn into it.....I will study this for my own purposes to see if I can work out how you did it."
So for that story, I was successful, if even for only one reader. The metrics don't count.

Hey... now that you mention it, that is what I want. There are some things I think I do fairly well, but other things I feel I suck at, and would love to hear advice from other authors, who are good at them, on how to do those things better.
I gotta run right now, but I think I'll post that question later. Thanks for the idea!

How to get better?
1) Read good writing to see how published authors do it. Read King, Asimov, Zelazny, Jim Butcher, and other good writers, and adsorb how they do it.

2) Write. Writing is a craft that you improve at by doing. Write stories - even if they don't work for you the act of writing will help teach you how to organize your thoughts.