Snippetsville: General Discussion

[Guest]

Great work. You've managed to pick up the ambience of Snippettsville perfectly.

OK, now I have something to go by. I would appreciate hearing of more examples of the perfect Snipps ambience (now from others than Sweets I mean). I think none of my tales fit and am still feeling out of it. Knowing the correct ambience will help me decide whether to continue writing for Snipps.

seriously, Perdita

 

[Guest]

 

[jon.hayworth]

Perdita,

For my two pence worth - I have enjoyed reading the stories you have written. I agree with PierceStreet I they bring to Snipettsville an added dimension.
No town is an island - it only exists within a wider context, as do the inhabitants of that town.

jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Pierce and Jon. I had a discussion with WSO and understand a bit better now. Will think on it.

Perdita

 

[Alex De Kok]

Tales #9 is up!

Issue #9 of the 'Tales' has now been posted. Read and vote, folks. Link below.

Alex

Edited to add: After 5 votes, score was 4.40. Now 3.92 after 24.

 

[wildsweetone]

Massage Parlor

Jon, as per Tripping Triumph, my character Maggie is on the Massage Parlour Petition Committee, because she really damnwell wants to object.

 

[wildsweetone]

Happy New Year everyone! I've decided that as my new year was filled with unexpected sadness, today is my New Year's Eve. That doesn't mean I wont be here tomorrow though.

I hope you've all had a great Christmas and are back with eager anticipation for what Snippettsville is going to bring this year.



Stats Update:
Issue/Rating/Votes/Views

CI- 4.48 - 29 - 3938 (Christmas Issue)
1 - 0.00 - 00 - 13359
2 - 4.47 - 34 - 09113
3 - 4.24 - 25 - 04947
4 - 4.20 - 30 - 07071
5 - 4.76 - 21 - 04959
6 - 4.00 - 38 - 07819
7 - 3.89 - 28 - 13161
8 - 4.06 - 17 - 03208
9 - 3.92 - 24 - 03341

There are some fun things in the offing, one being Jon's suggestion of the Massage Parlor for Snip. Sounds like there's going to be a split in Snippettsville between the old and the new. I wonder whether the Parlor will stay. (Please head stories with 'Massage Parlor' to aide with editing).

PierceStreet's editorial comments are a great idea. I look forward to reading more of them.

Quasimodem has come up with a wonderful idea for Snippettsville. A Winter Carnival. I'll let him post the details out and then it'll be time to get our heads down and writing. The cut off date for the Winter Carnival stories will be 29 February (yes, 2004 is a leap year). The special Carnival Issue will be submitted to Literotica in the middle of March. (Please head stories with 'Winter Carnival' to aide with editing.)


Editing/Proofreading Groups are as follows:
Group 1
Perdita, PierceStreet, Champagne1982, Alex de Kok.

Group 2
Gauchecritic, Wantonica, MaxSebastian, Seattle Zack.

Group 3
Soupwarsproject, Jon.Hayworth, Lancelot Knight.

Group 4
Wildsweetone, Rhinoguy, Quasimodem, Sailorm72003.

Please PM me if anyone has difficulty with the editing expectations. I will always be about to help out should any group need an extra pair of hands. Editing/proofreading will continue as before. Group leaders please PM me if you wish to let another author take the lead.

An explanation for new authors - Once a week, I will hand out four stories (the next four from the 600 word thread) to the group leader, they will hand out a story to each group member, each person does their editing/proofreading job and sends the stories back to the group leader within the week of receipt, the group leader then gathers all four stories and PMs them back to me. I will go through them again and then forward the story back to the original author. The original author alters their story on the 600 word thread if they agree with the suggested changes, then notifies me by PM that their story is ready to be put in the queue for organising into Issues. The Issues are formally submitted to Literotica fortnightly (this does alter when Literotica has contests running - Laurel gets busy).

That's about it for now I think. I'll hand out the next four stories for editing and the 2004 ball will be rolling. Please go ahead and post any stories you've written and saved. After my break, I could do with a real good fiction fix! lol

wildsweetone

ps for Alex who is suffering from winter bugs,

 

[jon.hayworth]

WSO

Consider Maggie added to the "Stop the Massage Parlour Committee"

To date the committee has the following members.
Father Morrison
Pastor Niles
Mrs Niles
Hannah McGuire
Ethel Carr
Maggie

Members of the Snippetsville Council.
Dave Smith (nominated by PierceStreet) against Massage Parlour.
Teddy Johnson (nominated by Champagne 1982) For.
Alison Jenner (nominated by Alex de Kock)
Jack Carr (nominated by me) For - which is interesting considering his wife's position on the issue.

Now we need some more nominations - before I am forced to go trawling everyone's stories for suitable candidates and bombarding you with PMs.

jon

 

[jon.hayworth]

WSO is out of touch until after New Year so we'll need to wait for her views. It's awkward these Kiwis having summer in the middle of winter

There is a solution to this problem - Snippetsville Council should lobby the United Nations to tow the islands of New Zealand into the Northern Hemisphere. In fact why not go the whole hog have a flat earth and we will all be in the same time zone too.

I can always think of an off the wall suggestion espeshially [sic] when I have had one or two or maybe more

jon

 

[gauchecritic]

Hannah is against the massage parlour??

Or do you mean really close up?

Gauche

 

[jon.hayworth]

Gauchecritic, affermative! Yes I know it sounds like it is going against character but, Hannah is against the massage parlour, for personal reasons go to page 5 snip stories and read "Hannah's Half-Sister".

jon

 

[gauchecritic]

Now you've reminded me I remembered. I read Snipps as they're posted and it looks like I forget them as soon as I've finished.

Gauche

 

[wildsweetone]

Now you've reminded me I remembered. I read Snipps as they're posted and it looks like I forget them as soon as I've finished.

Gauche

you're not alone gauche, welcome to the land of lousy short term memories.



i'm managing to remember some i think only because i am reading them:

1. when they come in,
2. when i am sending them out for editing,
3. upon receipt from editing,
4. when putting them in the Issueing queue.

and i still have trouble remembering details.

 

[wildsweetone]

Group 1 Editing and Proofreading slight change...

Group 1's Leader is now Champagne1982, Perdita is taking a break from the position.

Carrie will be sending out the stories soon, in readiness for G1 editing and proofreading next week.

Group 1 is
Champagne1982(Carrie), PierceStreet, Perdita and Alex De Kok.

Perdita, thank you for all your help with the work you have done for Group 1. You are very much appreciated.

 

[Quasimodem]

More on the Gauche Syndrome (actually, you can put damn near anybody’s name in there) because I believe we are soon going to have to do something more organized with the Character Database, to help keep things straight.

There are – I believe – less than one hundred original Star Trek episodes, and I can’t keep them straight (despite a friend you can repeat practically every line of dialogue – and some of the sound effects – for each of them, without pausing to think). No! I am not a Trekkie, nor do I intend to become a Snippie!


What I suggest is separating the characters into three or four groups:

I - Leaders and position holders.

These would include:


Tom Holt

Father Morrison

Rev. Niles

Hannah McGuire

Grayson Chilters II if he wasn’t in prison, and now it looks like # IV is to follow him.

Champagne1982 wrote about Randy McCrae who is a plumber, etc.

Seatle Zack’s Rupert Porter from “Leaving Snippettsville,” cloned from Jack Porter a background character in “Hometown Hotshot.”



II - Assistants, Helpers, and second bananas

These would include:

Archie McDougall

Father Ted

Jennifer Tilles

Someone wrote about a bank teller - unfortunately he, too, is in prison.



III - Background characters

These would include:


Carl Witherspoon almost undescribed character in “Hopes for Greens” recycled by Seattle Zack in “Grease Monkey.”

Clem Leggit from 'The Legendary Boater' and 'Sam Leachy's Scheme.'
Etc



IV - Spear carriers, shadows, and ghosts.

These would include:


Jimmy Dorset who has appeared in two stories - 'The Legendary Boater' and 'Sam Leachy's Scheme’ and still hasn’t established any character.

Mille DuBois who appeared in “Hometown Hotshot” and left town at the end.

Elizabeth & Kevin Dresden who appeared in “The Golden Oakes” dying in the end, and again in “Evidentiary Proceedings” where they were the victims in a murder investigation.




One person should be responsible for keeping the Character Database up to date, but, the writers must be held responsible for gathering the information from their stories and submitting it in a useable form to the CDb keeper.

To aid the CDb Keeper, the submission, by the author, of his/her latest story’s character updates, must be sent to the Cdb Keeper, before the story qualifies to be published. This would save the Cdb Keeper from being forced to collate the information any author failed/forgot to submit.

The result, any author would know that if his/her story required a visit from the police, it would be Tom Holt in an official capacity, or less formally, perhaps, Archie McDougall. If their character seems to suffer from a heart attack, they can call Doctor Jordan Giuseppe, or Randy McCrae if it is their house’s plumbing that needs work.



I tried an experiment, to see how many stories I could tie together. [The Ecumenical Hoodwink (adv.)] and managed to tie in an easy four, five at a stretch, stories. The story took a bit over an hour to write (mostly editing) and two days to research characters. That is why I make this suggestion, or I will support any other idea that will work.


*****

For anyone reading the stories in the 600 word threads, I just added five new stories. The fourth is the story WSO mentioned, which suggests a Green Lake Winter Carnival. The story utilizes my characters from the unpublished story “The Legendary Boater.” It is non-erotic (I have no desire to see either Sam Leachy or Clem Leggit in an erotic condition.) but it could work as an introduction to a special issue. Anyone who is interested, need only read the story, and they will understand the parameters.

 

[jon.hayworth]

I agree with Quasi, we have reached a point where we need someone who will act as the Keeper / Compiler of the Snippetsville Character database. I would go a step further and suggest this person will, by using the submitted stories and mails from the authors compile potted biographies.

OK I know it sounds formal but like any growing town Snip has outgrown ad-hoc approaches.

And NO I am not volunteering - I am not organised enough.

jon

 

[jon.hayworth]

I see no one has been here for a few days.

Has Mine and Quasimodem's suggestions scared everyone off???

The real purpose of this mail was to let people know I will be mainly offline until sometime next week. On Sunday evening I was running an anti Spyware program - on a compilation disk called "The Technicians Toolbox". The program seized control of my hard disk and caused it to run so fast it destroyed itself. I only fitted the disk about 10 months ago - but I have lost the docs from the online purchase because they were stored - you have guessed it on my H-D.

So until the parts arrive - I think on monday I am down and off-line.

jon

 

[wildsweetone]

I'm waiting to allow for anyone/everyone else to comment on Quasi's suggestion of a Character Database revamp.

Any comments? Any ideas on improving what we have? Any thoughts?

I don't think that the Northern Hemisphere folks are all still away on holiday are they?

 

[Guest]

Been busy (neglecting friends too). Anyway, I think Quasi's idea is great and very much needed at this point. However, I can't be anyone's database caretaker.

Perdita

 

[champagne1982]

A Snippetsville telephone book?

White pages with links to each issue they appear in...

Yellow pages xrefering to their occupations and names in the white pages.

A little daunting .. I could compile them into some sort of alphabetical list though if someone else would build the page they're to live on.


P.s My Valentine's Day story, Winsome Romance is waiting for reads and votes

 

[Lancelot Knight]

Editing Thanks

I want to thank group one for the close and perceptive reading of my short stories. While I didn't take every single editing suggestion, I did incorporate most of them, and I think that the stories are better for it! There were no egos, just a desire to improve the stories.

Thanks.

Lancelot Knight

 

[Guest]

 

[champagne1982]

If you compile it, I'll be happy to post it as part of the SV Help Pages. Future changes, after the initial compile, can be PM'd to me for inclusion.

LOL! I just had a thought that we'll have to be hiring a salesman to sell ad space in the yellow pages.

Snippettesville is growing up! A local phone book is a huge milestone!

 

[Guest]

 

[Lancelot Knight]

Character Database

I actually think this is something of a crossroads. What ultimately is the purpose of Snippetsville?

If the idea of Snippetsville is to encourage creativity, then a database is hardly called for. Yes, there will be overlap, there will be some confusion, there will be some contraditions. But so what? The purpose is to write and read good stories, isn't it?

However, if Snippetsville is more of a role playing idea, then the character database is called for.

For me, the interest in Snippetsville is in the fiction, and if someone writes a superb story that contradicts someone else's idea, I don't mind. But perhaps Snippetsville is more than that.

I guess each of us needs to ask him or herself that question. If we just want to foster story writing, then lets not get bogged down in minutia. However, if people want to follow the lives of the characters of Snippetsville, not dissimilar to following a series on television, for example, then it is another matter entirely, and a character database serves a useful funtion.

Lancelot Knight