Snippetsville: General Discussion

[Weird Harold]

How much crime is there in Snippetsville

Mathgirl raise a question about "the other side of the tracks" AKA slums, low rent district, "the bad part of town" on the Map discussion.

Her categorization of the plot elements that would require that sort of area was "Crips Drug Dealers and other urban fun and games."

In my experience, small towns just aren't big enough to have "bad neighborhoods" of the kind she describes, and in general have a very low level of criminal activity.

The question is, just how restrictive should the Snippetville rules be about bringing crime into a small town setting?

IMHO, Snippetsville already has a higher "criminal population" than most small towns with two people who have "done time." Allowing much more in the way of habitual criminal behavior will, I think make Snippetsville lose it's small town appeal.

 

[wildsweetone]

new thread opened

Snippettsville Ambience

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=186859

edited to add... oops sorry WH i'm in catch up mode before i run to work.
Please jump on the Ambience thread and we'll discuss these kinds of things there.

 

[Wantonica]

Crime

Mathgirl raise a question about "the other side of the tracks" AKA slums, low rent district, "the bad part of town" on the Map discussion.

Her categorization of the plot elements that would require that sort of area was "Crips Drug Dealers and other urban fun and games."

In my experience, small towns just aren't big enough to have "bad neighborhoods" of the kind she describes, and in general have a very low level of criminal activity.

The question is, just how restrictive should the Snippetville rules be about bringing crime into a small town setting?

IMHO, Snippetsville already has a higher "criminal population" than most small towns with two people who have "done time." Allowing much more in the way of habitual criminal behavior will, I think make Snippetsville lose it's small town appeal.

Without jumping threads just now, I'd like to address your question. In case you don't know already, I live in a real life Snippettsville. Our crime consists of juvenile junk (mainly theft), basic traffic violations, drunken and disorderlies, occasional rapes and a very rare murder. There have been incidents of vehicular homicide, child molestation, and assaults with deadly weapons. That pretty much covers the crime. Today, the Sheriff was next door with some kids, indicating they committed some obstruction just outside of town, as the police officer comes otherwise.

Smiles,
Wantonica

The word count thing is giving me a headache. Shall we submit to someone to get a standard count, get the story back to correct, then submit?

 

[Wantonica]

Oops, forgot...

We do have a low rent district, which I described after Mathgirl asked her question. It is the apartments above the downtown business district, which consists of about two blocks. There is also an apartment complex at the edge of town which is government run and contains mainly welfare recipients. Much of the crime occurs in that location.

Smiles again,
Wantonica

 

[wildsweetone]

word count

The word count is the foundation block for this entire project.

Quasi said
My initial reaction to the wordage problem is that everybody should make it a point of honour to try to hit as close to 600 words as possible, but that a one percent ( six word ) margin be permitted.

Second, for those individuals whose word processor counts asterisks, they should be sure to discount the amount of asterisks included.

WH said
I think the practical solution to an "official" word count is to use MS Word 97's count for a target of 594 to 606 words with asterisks removed, since that is the word counting tool at WSO's hand.

It's important to keep the word count as close to 600 words as possible. There is a great skill being learned by doing this. Whether you find it difficult or easy, it is still a skill and in my opinion it's a skill that will stand authors in good stead in the future.

1. I would like to know how Literotica counts 750 words. Anybody know?

2. Does anyone have any idea if there is a 'word count' program that is free and can be downloaded onto all our computers, thus keeping us consistent?

3. It's not just an asterisk but it also appears that three hypens together are also counted as one word. It doesn't appear to be consistent and I'm unable to put a finger on how Word 97 distinguishes 'words' to count them, and which 'characters' or how many of them combined are counted as a single word. It's probably right under my nose, but I can't find anything in the 'help' on Word 97 to tell me.

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: word count

The word count is the foundation block for this entire project.
...
It's important to keep the word count as close to 600 words as possible. There is a great skill being learned by doing this. Whether you find it difficult or easy, it is still a skill and in my opinion it's a skill that will stand authors in good stead in the future.

I understand that an exact count of 600 words is the foundation of the project, but for submission purposes, I'd hate to see a story get rejected because of a difference in the way MS Word, Wordperfect, or some other word processor counts words.

The authors learn what is important -- hitting a target of 600 words -- if they hit the mark exactly according to the way they count words. IMHO, If MS Word disagrees with their count, or they miscounted, it shouldn't completely disqualify them from consideration for submissison.

MS Word counts words consistently if not exactly accurately, but not everyone has MS Word to pre-count their submissions -- hence the 1% error allowance.

1. I would like to know how Literotica counts 750 words. Anybody know?

Last I knew, MS Word was Laurel's word processor of choice, so it's probably what she uses to count words if there's a question of a story being too short.

2. Does anyone have any idea if there is a 'word count' program that is free and can be downloaded onto all our computers, thus keeping us consistent?

There are word counters and add-on grammar checkers that include word counting for text-files. The only ones I've actually tried either use the typist's definition and count printable characters and divide by five or count spaces between groups of printable characters.

3. It's not just an asterisk but it also appears that three hypens together are also counted as one word. It doesn't appear to be consistent and I'm unable to put a finger on how Word 97 distinguishes 'words' to count them, and which 'characters' or how many of them combined are counted as a single word. It's probably right under my nose, but I can't find anything in the 'help' on Word 97 to tell me.

What printable characters have you found that MS Word doesn't count as "words" in groups of three? (I'd guess that "..." is NOT counted as a word, because it's a punctuation mark -- as are a dash and double dash. But since a triple-dash is not a punctuation mark, it must be a "word.")

 

[Alex De Kok]

A plea

Please, don't anyone add any locations to Snippettsville until I have a chance to finalise (or at least get near to finalising) the street map!

I have to locate those places everyone has already mentioned and leave some space for new ones. There will be a grid overlay on the map, so it should be possible to locate new businesses or dwellings with reasonable accuracy.

A further point about the grids. Weird Harold has mentioned in other threads about 'Homesteading' and identifying terrain features so that we don't screw each other's visions up. On the 'Snippettsville and its environs' map (presently with WSO for comment) I used a grid where each square is two miles across - four square miles. By estimating tenths of a square it should be possible to get down to WH's 0.2 mile figure. I've used a different approach to referencing a particular square from WH's suggestion. Each map has the columns of squares identified as A, B, C, etc reading from left to right and each row of squares numbered 1, 2, 3, etc from top to bottom. Thus it will be possible to identify a particular square by simply referring to it as B/3, A/7 etc. To more accurately locate a spot, add a 'tenths' estimate to each value of the reference, e.g D.3/4.2 etc. It will make more sense when you can see a map!

The Green Lake large scale map has each square on the grid representing a square mile (to get the whole lake on one map - it's about eight miles long).

There will be a Snippettsville street map and I've also realised I need a fourth map to indicate the layout of facilities at Green Lake - the Country Club, boat landing, tourist cabins, Bait Shop,...

We hope to be able to share the maps with the rest of you very soon. I pray I haven't made any major faux pas as I just don't want to have to redraw them...

Alex

 

[gauchecritic]

making words count

According to RSA (Royal Society of Arts) who are the standards body in the UK when it comes to things clerical, a word is three key strokes, whether letter, number, punctuation of space, if you hit a key to move the curser on then that's an alphanumeric character.

Whether this applies to anything software wise I couldn't say. But it would explain how an asterisk is seen as a word.

Gauche

 

[Weird Harold]

Re: A plea

By estimating tenths of a square it should be possible to get down to WH's 0.2 mile figure. I've used a different approach to referencing a particular square from WH's suggestion. Each map has the columns of squares identified as A, B, C, etc reading from left to right and each row of squares numbered 1, 2, 3, etc from top to bottom. Thus it will be possible to identify a particular square by simply referring to it as B/3, A/7 etc. To more accurately locate a spot, add a 'tenths' estimate to each value of the reference, e.g D.3/4.2 etc. It will make more sense when you can see a map!

That's a more standard method of referencing Map grids and should be easier to understand for most people. As long as people can figure out what map and where on the map, the actual indexing system doesn't matter that much.

Can you add "ticks" along the edge of the map or on the grid lines to help people estimate the tenths?

 

[Alex De Kok]

Re: Re: A plea

Can you add "ticks" along the edge of the map or on the grid lines to help people estimate the tenths?

Good point. I'll see what I can do.

Alex

 

[wildsweetone]

Grids I've previewed Alex's maps. They're easy to read and very easy to use for location purposes... as a woman, I know these things.

Word Count If I have the same program that Laurel uses then we are in sinc. The 6 words either way is acceptable with me. Gauche your comment on the RSA rang a bell with me though I always learned five characters made a 'word'. I wonder what that says about the evolution of the english language.

Here are some typical questions about our Project I have been recently asked, my answers follow in 'bold'.

The whole point of all this is to assemble the the Snippettsville stores into packages for submission as regular stories?that's one of the points, yes

The setting and character lists are to allow for consistency?yes

Authors can borrow another's characters with permission?Permission from the author is not necessary, but it is necessary to keep the character's traits and 'mould' the same as the original author intended. This may mean if you borrow one of my characters, you need to PM me and let me know of any changes you have made, or any 'growth' that you have given the character.

Stories submitted must receive two postive votes for inclusion in a package submitted to Lit?This is still up for discussion, but I believe it is better to have more than one single person involved in saying whether a story is acceptable or not. So yes, two positives please.

Is there still a hold on submitting new stories?Not that I am aware of, however you may want to hold off simply because things are not quite set up yet. There may be big differences in some of the 'settings'... i.e. If you borrow a house from another author, you may think the inside is different to what the original author had in mind, therefore it would be 'sensible' to wait until you've read the detailed description that will ultimately be in the Setting Database.

New Stories still go to "Snippetsville:600 word stories" now in the SDC?yes

Comments about stories still go to "600 Word Stories" still in AH?I am thinking about this. I think it's possible to use either the one you mentioned, or to dump that one and use the Gen Discussion thread. I am leaning toward the latter to keep the threads to a minimum. Your thoughts?

exercise
All this technical stuff is making my eyes glaze a little. I would like to make a suggestion that each author chooses one specific location that is contained in one of their own stories and practises writing up a detailed description of it. The details need to be non-fiction. i.e. There should be no mention of 'Evelyn liking the flowery curtains in the Kitchen', simply, Kitchen curtains have red flowers, or something similar.

This is to be in readiness for the Setting Database Discussion that I hope to open next week.

If you do not as yet have a particular story 'posted' for Snippettsville, nor have one sitting on your computer waiting to be posted, then it would be a good exercise to practise describing in detail a room in your own house, or the view from a public meeting point i.e. a park.

I stress that this is a practise. There may be two authors describing the same setting. Please double check that yours is the first mention of the 'setting', that gives you the automatic right to describe it fully, first.

You may like to go further (of your own accord) and draw your setting as a plan and then work from that plan to describe it in writing. This is totally up to each author.

I envisage there will be enough settings in and around Snippettsville for all authors to write at least one. So please use this practise time to good effect.

Please come back to this General Discussion thread with any questions or comments about your setting. DO NOT POST THE DESCRIPTION HERE YET I will advise you next week where they can be posted for all to see.

Above all, don't stress out! That's an order!

Enjoy

wso

 

[wildsweetone]

PierceStreet your PM box was full and did not accept my reply to your PM. It was not an important reply.


...did i scare everyone off with that last posting?

 

[Alex De Kok]

...did i scare everyone off with that last posting?

Not me. I'm too busy tweaking the maps!

Alex

PS: Soon, folks, soon...

 

[gauchecritic]

...did i scare everyone off with that last posting?

It's all that SHOUTING I think.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

Question on Word Length

 

[gauchecritic]

Re: Question on Word Length

I thought I didn't object to having a specific word length to the storys, but now I just wrote up a complete story and its only 383 words.

Sorry Pierce, that's not a story, it's a joke with a telegraphed punchline.

Gauche

 

[Guest]

 

[Guest]

Story requirements for Snippits

Sorry Pierce, that's not a story, it's a joke with a telegraphed punchline.

I'm glad Pierce St. agreed with this concise proclamation. However, it poses a question for me as a Snipps author. I'm not certain my two posts are "stories". I meant them as intros to two of my characters but standing alone, they don't seem like stories, especially the second. Are vignettes or slices-of-life acceptable?

WSO, et al: any comments? judgments? proclamations?

thanks, Perdita

 

[wildsweetone]

I am meant to be working doing school planning for the week. Sneaked in here and I shouldn't have!

Gauche I tried hard not to shout... I think it was just the echo effect in here at the time

PierceStreet Stories are to be a tight fit between 595 and 605 words (the difference is allowing for my word processor program counting differently from others.) The entire concept of this township is based on the word count of 600. So, try bulking up your 'story'. Ask if you need help with it.

perdita said:
I'm not certain my two posts are "stories". I meant them as intros to two of my characters but standing alone, they don't seem like stories, especially the second. Are vignettes or slices-of-life acceptable?

WSO, et al: any comments? judgments? proclamations?

This is perhaps an opinion of contention that we all need to discuss and agree upon. I haven't had a chance to read over your two stories in detail as yet perdita (i hope to on monday).

I think that stories to be considered for formal submission should only be about life in and around Snippettsville. The reason for this being, we could end up with 1000 stories based upon characters lives before and after life in Snip.

I think 'back story' can be done at times. A brief sentence or two can often inform a reader of many events in a character's previous residence. If a character is going to be an 'outsider', a 'loner' etc., then it's possible there will be more back story to explain the character's thoughts or actions.

I think that 600 words is a feasible limit for writing complete 'stories'. A complete story can take place in the span of (for example) 10 minutes, or over several days. Quasi has written a story spanning two days. And most of us have managed to write complete stories on a single event.

As there are several stories being combined for each Snippettsville Issue, each story must be complete within itself.

Any thoughts, opinions, objections?

 

[wildsweetone]

Welcome

Hi champagne1982,

I've just seen you've signed up for the SG. Welcome aboard. I look forward to reading your stories at the next chance I come online. Please just ask if there's anything you'd like to know or need help with.

 

[Weird Harold]

This is perhaps an opinion of contention that we all need to discuss and agree upon. I haven't had a chance to read over your two stories in detail as yet perdita (i hope to on monday).

I think that stories to be considered for formal submission should only be about life in and around Snippettsville. The reason for this being, we could end up with 1000 stories based upon characters lives before and after life in Snip.

I think 'back story' can be done at times. A brief sentence or two can often inform a reader of many events in a character's previous residence. If a character is going to be an 'outsider', a 'loner' etc., then it's possible there will be more back story to explain the character's thoughts or actions.

I think Vignettes are going to be inevitable as the composite storyline of Snippetsville progresses and authors return to characters with established backstories.

I do agree that all stories should be set within the confines of the maps ADK has provided; brief mentions of people and events outsideof those boundaries are inevitable, but the main theme/events of each story should take place in Snippetsville. Otherwise, there is no point in defining and mapping anything.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Just to back WH up, here. Laurel uses Word 2000's Word Count program to count words. She doesn't use industry standards or any other programs. WH has the answers!

 

[Guest]

WSO: Thanks. I'll just consider what I've done good exercise, and at least I got to know my characters a bit. They can officially be taken out of any running for submissions. I'll work on stories fully set in Snipps. next.

keep taking care, Perdita

p.s. shall I delete them from this thread?

 

[Guest]

 

[wildsweetone]

perdita I'll leave the decision to you. Frankly they are good pieces of writing and I am not opposed to them staying right where they are. I think the 600 word story thread is the place where SG authors can post their Snip stories no matter what the end ruling is likely to be. It's good for us to see authors and their work and it will be an exercise for all of us to learn how to discern what is included and why some pieces of writing won't make it the whole way to Formal Submission at Literotica. Knowing my thoughts now, I leave the choice of 'stay' or 'remove' to you dear.

**Do any Snippettsville Group authors have signature lines turned off?**

All Authors - Urgent Comments Requested
Okey dokey as there are now two authors querying the word count limitations I stipulated between 595 and 605, the discussion is now open for all authors to make their comments and voice their preferences.

If at the end of this discussion there is a consensus of agreement as to a more 'acceptable' word count limit then I will seriously take this into consideration before setting the word count limit in concrete.

This is an urgent matter. The word count limit may affect stories currently being written. Please all step forward and make your thoughts known here.

wso