Why is it that my trashy story about strippers with bad directing and multiple plot holes that I basically only made to test out the episode portal is getting more reads than a story I genuinely like writing about? Is this what readers really want? 
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Apparently.
Donāt worry. While trashy stories tend to be popular, there are many, many people that avoid such things like the plague.
āQuohog. his x mark.ā
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I think so. My first story was published with very basic directing, very short episodes and quite a cliche plot and it got a lot of reads. I donāt think it is that bad, but it gets entertaining somewhere in the later chapters. I started to revamp the first episodes, but didnāt get far with that. And the weirdest thing is whenever I tried something non-cliche in a new episode I literally lost followers 
Besides this I know I put much more effort from the beginning into my other two stories, but people are still reading the first one, which was completed like 5 months ago.
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Same here, I have this story named Gangsta and itās HORRIBLE. (It has 14,000 reads.) At the time when I thought of the idea, it seemed cool. (I created it when I first began episode.) Itās about the MC and her best friend getting kidnapped by these 2 guys who some kind of stripper company. Stockholm Syndrome also has a part in this story. My story could be better but I really donāt feel like going back and editing things even though I should. Episode messed around with my chapters and I really donāt feel like going back to fix. Thatāll be A LOT of work. I was thinking about discontinuing it but my fans are sending me fanmail saying that they love my story and etc. So, I agreed to keep writing it and Iām trying to make each chapter interesting. Wow, I wrote a lot. My apologies! 
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Iād like to ask everyone here a question, without any judgment, Iām just genuinely curious: Why do you write and publish these stories that you yourselves find trashy and/or clichĆ©? Is it because you didnāt think of them like that at the time?
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haha i basically started out my story to test out the portal and learn on it. I decided to make my mc a stripper because it sounded fun at the time and i thought i could add more depth to it. After two episodes I realized I wanted to write something with better directing and more action but since i already wrote it i decided to publish it because why not?. LOL
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Yeahā¦my story didnāt see trashy/cliche at the time but then I decided to re-read my entire book and I wanted to jump off the nearest cliff into a ocean full of different sharks. Thatās how bad my story is lmao.
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also this story doesnt really have that many reads on it but its growing much faster than the story i actually like writing about lol
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Oneās trash is anotherās treasure.
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@Eleanor_W-15 I see (: And when you say itās a confidence thing, are you referring to the number of reads, the fan mail, or both? Does that push you to keep writing a story that you might not be happy with?
@episodereaderfan From what Iāve gathered so far, it seems like most people do it just for fun and to test out the Writerās Portal. Then their story somehow gets more popular than a story that takes a lot more work to write. Maybe itās something with Episodeās current target audience? Itās the weirdest thing :ā)
@DuhTacos God damn Well, I think thatās just part of being in a creative fieldā¦ The cringe when looking at your previous works is always tough but somewhat worth it. I think I can definitely relate to that feeling!
@Lemniscate ā Too wise for this community :ā)
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Ouchā¦ That sucks, people in the fan mail can be really harsh for no reason. But Iām really glad that you didnāt let that abuse get to you to the point of quitting. Learning from your downfalls: a great way to better yourself 
Congrats!
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Honestly my first story was born from randomly written dialogues and scenes that I found funny. I liked my characters too but something was missing: the story 
I published it because it was fun to write and I thought I would get somewhere with it in the meantime. But if you asked me what was it about, I probably couldnāt give an exact answer even now that it is completed. At that time I rarely had any idea what I would do with an upcoming chapter, while now Iām on episode 5 with my new story and I already know how it will end. Iām not ashamed of that āclicheā story though, Iām actually proud of myself that I could finish it somehow
Since yaāll talking about fanmail, I want to say something relating to @Eleanor_W-15. I forgot which story it was but I was replying to my fanmail when one said āCONTINUE THIS STORY OR IāLL KILL YOUā. I didnāt take it literally I just laughed it off and replied with, āI will continue this story, you donāt have to try and kill me. lmao.ā Messages like that or related to those donāt bother me. When they say things like that, it makes me laugh. A lot of people on the internet are just all talk. 
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I had a fanmail that was the opposite. They threatened to kill themselves. I believe I answered like āthis is serious. Please donāt message me things like this. I will report the next one.ā What did they think I would say? Beg them not to? Like damn, kid.
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Woah, I like how you handled the situation, I mean those that type of stuff is serious but that person just probably wanted attention. Iāve came across people like that, smh.
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No one here seems to have planned their story before starting to write them, right? I personally make a really detailed plan of everything that will be featured in my stories before I even think of writing the first draft 
I could never start writing the story without at least knowing its main events and how itāll end.
@Annieways Thatās actually kind of interesting :3 Do you think you could sort of call it a āSlice of lifeā? And youāre right about feeling proud to finish a project. Most of the time itās so hard to finish a story, even if youāve been at it for a while.
@DuhTacos They really are! I think the ones that can really get under your skin are less the empty fan mail death threats like that and more the ones where they tell you how much your story sucks despite how much hard work youāve put into it. Ugh, and donāt get me started on those āmore sex scenes plzzzz! I want to f~ck [insert male character here] and [insert father figure character here]ā and āwhy is [insert male character here] not a romance choice?ā or āiām telling all my followers not to read your story if you donāt update in the next week, b~tch!!!ā
Of course, all we can really do is get some thicker skin, unfortunately. Youāve also got some extreme and disturbing cases like @HumanBean mentioned, and in that case, what the hell are we supposed to say?! 
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Yes, you could call it a āslice of lifeā I guess, it fits better than a āstoryā
Well, this wonāt be my lifeās project for sure and since I didnāt know what I was writing about, I was rather proud of the fact I could close it somehow, but thanks 
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I find a lot of those type of stories in the trending section. While they may be popular, not everyone likes them.
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I find my story is not cliche and not your typical plot and it is not as popular as some of the before mentioned plots, so I totally get your point and the posterās point too.
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Everything that you just said is so true. I donāt even have anything to say to all that, all I know is that itās true. People who say things like āiām telling all my followers not to read your story if you donāt update in the next week, b~tch!!!ā and etc are just truly pathetic to the point where it makes no sense.
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