Voting Improvements

Among the writing sins that I have committed with voting stories has been an unnecessary level of opacity on top of story structure that doesn't suit eroticism and other trappings that make it more difficult for a work to function as smut. 

The OG SSS is always going to be the first example of this. One of the issues with that story was that I saw it one way and readers saw it another, and I kept expecting readers to adapt to the story when I needed to adapt the story to them*. From my perspective, as someone who’s basically obsessed with the horror genre and old timey slasher films, to me it was perfectly natural that lots of girls would get killed off.

But readers saw the body count as failure on their part, and then there was the problem that while eroticism and bloodshed are often mixed to one degree or another in slasher movies—slasher movies are not smut. And bloodshed isn’t what most people want if they’re looking to be turned on. (I know that’s a generalization, but I hope what I’m saying makes sense here). Slasher movies are bloodshed first, boobies second. Smut should be boobies first, everything else second.

In my blind fever of trying to tell “Interesting Stories ™” I took my eye off the ball with the lewdness, and I was using or trying to use storytelling techniques from non-smut genres without pausing to consider if that would serve or inhibit the smut mission. I think what I was really doing was trying to bend smut into whatever shape it needed to be to tell whatever I was trying to tell, which wasn’t disastrous because people kept reading, but we can do better. One thing that I leaned into bigtime—and then stubbornly failed to notice was bad—was structuring my choices and votes like Telltale Games. I am not a Real Gamer ™. I like video games, but I suck at them, and 90% of what I know is from watching streamers or longplays, but Telltale Games, I could always play myself. Maybe that’s why I absorbed so much from them. (The closest I’ve come to real gaming is forcing myself to complete like 10 RE games myself because I love the franchise, but even that was all just on normal difficulty BUT NOT ASSISTED.)

Anyway, Telltale choices are often opaque; you don’t see the consequences until later. This adds lots of suspense at first, then it gets tedious once you realize the game generally won’t let you win cleanly and often denies you sensible options. It’s been obvious for a while that readers have struggled with the version of this that I’ve applied to voter stories, and it’s 100% on me for not doing something about it sooner.

Too many opaque choices, even outside of smut, are more annoying than interesting. And for smut, the choices should apply more to sex and romance than to plot and destiny. If plot and destiny were what you wanted, you’d just be watching Hulu or reading a normal book. But you’re here, for smut, so that’s where the emphasis needs to be.

So instead of Choice A = get laid while choice B = not get laid, both choices need to get you laid, but with different people or potentially with one situation being less optimal than the other. And furthermore, we will more clearly signpost that when possible. Because “Choose the red pill leads to kissing Barbara 3 to 5 business days later vs choose the blue pill and you kiss Summer next month maybe” defeats the purpose of the vote in the first place! The interactivity is meant to give you some control. It’s not control if you don’t know what the lever does when you pull it.

So, while we’ll still have the odd Telltale choice with delayed consequences and stuff, I’m going to be trying to make things more direct and logical by at least finding a balance with the types of choices we’ve had in the past with much more sensible smutty ones. In SSU, you choose between sitting with Apple and Colby or Kylie and Elsa. You aren’t choosing some huge plot point; you are choosing who you want to get closer to and potentially make out with later. Obviously, there’s room for things to get mixed up as we’re at the beginning of the story, but it really is that simple. Just like in real life! If you want to kiss someone, you find an appropriate way to spend time with and get to know them.

And in ORACLE, we’re a little more plot-driven for obvious reasons, but it’s a similar deal. I should have made this clearer, honestly—but the park is the Ivy choice and the food choice is the Steph choice.** And in the future, I will try to make this even clearer, because I could have written this: “Support the park thing, which Ivy will appreciate,” or “Support the food thing, which Steph will appreciate,” Barbara’s choices in that story won’t be to flirt with X or Y, but her actions will all have consequences for the people in her life, which determines who likes her and who doesn’t. She’s more likely to kiss the ones who like her.

All of this is to say is that I'm aware of these weaknesses and trying to work on them. That's it!

*In basically all the SSS stories up to this point, I stubbornly insisted on Halloween/Friday the 13^th pacing (everything in a single night) when I should have gone with Scream pacing (taking place over a few days) which would have been one gazillion times better for a smut story and having opportunities to kiss more girls. When SSS gets rebooted, it will probably be a full-scale Scream-style whodunnit like it should’ve been from the beginning.

**Don't worry, we aren't going to lock you into monogomy without super clearly signposting that. If we ever have another Faye situation, there won't any confusion.