So it's been a little more than half a year, but what a half year! Lots of ups, lots of lows, but some things are just leveling off which is nice. I don't have nearly anything new written, at least not that's also finished, but thought I'd check in.
So for those who don't know, there's an adage called Sturgeon's law. It basically states "ninety percent of everything is crap." Meant to be applied originally to art but has generally been expanded over time, that truly "good" works make up an overwhelming minority.
Why am I bringing it up? Well, I have crossed over from just reading free stories to reading some of the paid stuff. I want to see how much of a difference there is, thinking in the back of my head that maybe some of my future work I might try to sell for some side something. Several of the early examples really did show "oh yes, there's a big jump, this is very well written." Some even annoyingly well written as a sometimes author myself, game recognize superior game.
But damn, there is a lot of crap out there. I cringe when I re-read what I've put out and there's a typo but I've seen typos in things people are actually asking money for, to say nothing of dry characterization and flat setting. "Oh, a billionaire/nobleman/warchief/boss wants me but he wants to dominate me, which I don't like but oh maybe I'll find out I do?" There are small libraries worth of stories where that is the sum total of the plot. And some of them are getting away with selling less than 10,000 word instalments as "books" in a series with that plot.
But maybe that's what sells and I'm the weird one for thinking there should be motivations and such with characters with enough personality they aren't just blank placeholders for the reader to self-insert. I've never been good at understanding what's popular and not.
Really makes me feel a lot more competent, and strangely appreciative of all the authors putting out work for free that absolutely is better than a whole lot of what is being sold.
I will assure anyone reading that I do not intend to lock the ending of this saga behind a paywall, I only got a following at all from these free stories and it would seem mean to change that. The worst I might do is if I write the events of the epilogue in more expanded form, *maybe* those might cost something if I get into that world, but I have mostly entertained the idea of selling stories for some of the other ideas I've had.
Mostly I just wanted to use my generic update to vent about what I'm finding in the state of paid erotica mediocrity. But hey, Sturgeon's law is holding up at least.
