Let me preface this by saying that I am not encouraging you to leave this site. You may love it.
I have written over 70 stories on this site, most of which are complete. I enjoy writing long stories with hundreds of thousands of words. I don't usually enjoy short stories because just when I fall in love with a character, they end it.
I like to see the complete journey and follow the mistakes, tribulations and evolution of a character as the story unfolds.
My kinks are not the mainstream. I primarily enjoy ENF/CMNF (embarassed reluctant nude female) type stories. I don't like to limit my kinks.
My stories aren't about kinks. The characters in the stories may be kinky and do kinky things, but the stories are about the people and predicaments they get into.
I enjoy stories with role reversal (authority gets turnabout), or power exchange or a bit of both.
However, I'll read a lot of engaging stories that I would never write.
I am not a picky eater. I do not have a list of taboo kinks either, so I am not a fussy eater who insists their peas never touches their carrots.
I can handle just about anything up to abuse, rape, etc. I don't enjoy stories about misery without a silver lining and I don't enjoy stories where the main character instantly wins and never has to try.
They need to be relatable. They need to be plausible on some level. I can get into a nude in school story even if it wouldn't work in our current uptight world.
It can still be with charaters I recognize in situations I can imagine.
When it gets into demons, futanari, yakatori, magic dinosuars, and beast slayers or wahtever - that's when I check the fuck out.
I've never begrudged anyone who likes those stories.
Yet, now that seems like as I scan the updated and new stories to be all there is.
I started writing in part because I thought if I wrote the sort of stories I enjoy reading, then other people would write some too.
I don't think it worked all that much, but I did manage to inspire one or two writers that exceeded my ability.
It feels like a losing battle now. It feels like I write and nobody could give a shit about it. It feels like this site is a place I do not recognize with stories focused on young adult fiction and Mary Sue soap operas.
I changed the title of this blog to "I drank all the ink, and the well went dry" because I've been here well over 12 years.
I've followed the update and new stories page very regularly. The site updates in cycles and over summer break and Christmas, you tend to see a lot of young adult type stuff.
I am used to droughts. What I am seeing now is the well running dry.
There were a few notable exceptions but today in particular has me depressed. It's like fishing and only pulling back turds everytime I cast my line.
You can keep casting but you might be fishing in the wrong hole.
It's just different now. I have gone through every category that I enjoy and sorted by biggest story first. I've sorted by most recent first. I've drank all the ink that was on their pages.
I've read EVERY Vulgus story at least four times each, some twenty or thirty times. (They are THAT good).
I got to come up in the time of Vulgus, Amanda Serve, Phil Phantom, and similar authors that were writing filthy predicament stories that delighted me.
I can handle that you don't get writers like that all the time. I am finding that the culture/site just changed.
Is it AI? or is it that the focus and tastes of the site have just left me behind?
Stories about beast slayers and magic and dinosaur worlds, havealways been on this site but it seems like that's all there is.
They've always been here, but it seems like it's just getting so much more distilled that it's all there is
Most of it feels written by AI.
It's kind of like the enshitification of television. There was a time when television shows like Friday night lights took risk and told stories.
Now, I don't even know what's on television because I gave up trying to navigate the myriad of streaming services to figure out which Kardashian's butt is bigger.
Creativity is no longer of value. Reality TV shows have never really been about reality but it's just not my bag. Mindless corny sitcoms have always existed but it feels like they won.
On this site the preponderance of stories about dragons and dinosaurs and magic hold very little interest to me because I can't relate to any of that. I enjoy fantasy stories like Star Trek and the Lord of the rings but for sexual situations I like to read about what I know.
Today, it just really hit home as I scanned story after story about beast slayers and dragons and magic and dinosaurs, and saw nothing about titties and ass in the real world.
I wondered if I had accidentally set my filters to g-rated.
There are a few soap opera style stories written on this page about people with fifty shades of Gray style lives. I'm from trailer parks and middle of america. I could go for a story set in England if it's Runcorn but not Hogwarts.
Clearly other people are really into those fantasy stories and I don't begrudge them their interest. I just can't say honestly that I have found anything recently that grabs me.
I have the privilege of being one of the reviewers on here and I haven't reviewed anything in a long time because I don't have anything I feel is worth reviewing.
I could be wrong about this but something has really changed. It wasn't overnight but it's finally hit me as I scroll three to four pages in updated or new and see that there's not one story that I would click on.
I've been increasingly stopped writing out of lack of inspiration.
I made a deal with myself when I started writing that I would read at least 50% of what I wrote. That would keep me sharp and inspired. It isn't that I planned to copy anybody's ideas.
It's that, as I write, I wanted to avoid becoming stale and constantly improve my technique through reading good authors.
Not only do I have difficulty finding a good story to sink my teeth into, but it seems like people just aren't really interested in classic Vulgus style ENF/predicament bondage, power exchange and tables turned role reversal, Filthy stories that i enjoy
I can say that it was never perfect but it used to be that I could find stories that appeal to me on a pretty regular basis.
The soap opera style stories where it's just a lot of melodramatic conversation have always gotten a far bigger population of readers and engagement then my niche.
It's hard to even quantify a soap opera story without calling out a specific example, and I don't want to denigrate anybody's story style. All I can say is that they generally move endlessly through conversation and sex.
The delicious scenarios that I enjoy are few and far between on this site.
I have about four or five stories that I probably need to finish, and then I should retire from creating new ones. I may take down a few that I no longe intend to complete.
I think, in terms of my passion, it's time to either find a new one or hang it up. It isn't just AI, it's that if you look at the most recent stories, it's almost like in a young adult book section.
The people who grew up with Percy Jackson and Harry Potter movies are writing the thing that they know about alien worlds and magic and Im a relic from a different genre.
I had a friend on here who writes stories about impossible scenarios where all the women are constantly horny and they chase after his main characters magic dick. No women behave like actual women. He writes them like they are men with tits.
Those are extremely popular.
Tears record stories that begin with crippling anxiety and abuse but never actually address any of it, where the shy guy gets pursued by every women he meets are nothing new for this site either. I used to call them Mary Suestories. I think people start recognizing that term and harem stories became the norm.
The main character who never has to try and never has any risk and never has to learn from a mistake and never has a real jeapordy, has become so mainstream that if they made Indiana Jones today he would just walk into the temple of dick and get laid/be handed the idol.
My characters get beat up, knocked down and overcome. My characters get put into the fire so they can feel some heat before they get forged into something else. Written a few like Twatmas and some babysitter stories where he got handed everything but I enjoyed the predicament of the other characters.
It's a bit like country music. There's a couple Jamey Johnson's and Luke Combs, but it's mostly album oriented Rock ballads with Southern accents and rap now. Time for me to stop listening or make my own.
Look no further than recent movies what's the big one coming out? He-Man?
That's for grown ups?
Btw, I mentioned "Beast Slayer" in particular a few times i n this blog. I do not meant to denigrate the author. that is just an example of one that made it apparrent that the readers and authors changed. I did click "Exclude" and frequently do on authors who write stuff I do not enjoy.
It was just a great example to illustrate my point. If you like that stuff, by all means enjoy it.