The 2024 750 Word Story Challenge Support Thread

[EmilyMiller]

That's smart. I didn't add any extra, explanatory text, although in retrospect I wish I had because it would flag it for the reader and the score might be higher. My 750-word stories consistently get penalized for being too short.

The problem stems from the fact I'm working with a default Word Template that has the automatic formatting. Previously, I had created a template that was just right for Lit stories, with none of the formatting, but I went back unwittingly to using the old one.

I see. I write plain text in Word and handcraft markup.

Emily

 

[SimonDoom]

Good news. The re-submitted story, adding seven words, was accepted within four hours and is slated for publication tomorrow.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Good news. The re-submitted story, adding seven words, was accepted within four hours and is slated for publication tomorrow.

I had a minor typo (thanks @onehitwanda ) on an already accepted story turned round in two hours. This is what the next few days look like:

https://imgur.com/a/wsASaoK

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

I’m just about to submit a Transgender & Cross Dressing story (another first), which will make it two weeks’ of 750ers.

Emily

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Well that's good. Impatiently waiting for @ShelbyDawn57 's Detention to post. She promised me... things.

Detention goes live tomorrow. Little BDSM, little fetish, some implied sapphism. What's not to like?

 

[MrPixel]

Well this is fun. My "mystery woman" story was kicked back for being 753-755 words. Deleted three and reuploaded. Apparently Apple Pages' word counter is that much different than MSWord's.

I prefer MSWord over Pages, but for various technical reasons I've been recently writing in Pages and exporting to .docx format. I have Word on another system and should spend a moment or two to discern the issue.

EDIT: Revision is approved and in the queue to go live tomorrow. That was quick! Thanks, Laurel!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Well this is fun. My "mystery woman" story was kicked back for being 753-755 words. Deleted three and reuploaded. Apparently Apple Pages' word counter is that much different than MSWord's.

I prefer MSWord over Pages, but for various technical reasons I've been recently writing in Pages and exporting to .docx format. I have Word on another system and should spend a moment or two to discern the issue.

You need to write a counterpoint to Detention using the stern teacher image. Would be interesting and probably fun.

 

[MrPixel]

Thanks for the suggestion, but that image elicited recollection of a young lady who was one of the "mean girls" in high school. Not attractive to me, in a number of ways. Looking forward, tho', to tomorrow's "lesson".

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Lesson: Make sure the document you paste into the text box has no automatic spacing. Get rid of all of the automatic spacing and manually insert spaces into the paragraphs. When you do that, the document as it appears in the text box will have the correct spacing, and the word counts for your documents will match (although I don't understand why this matters for the word count).

I always write in plain plain text and manually type any tags. Not a big deal for me since I'm quite minimal on formatting, maybe an italicized word here and there for emphasis in dialogue. In fact the only reason that I use a document file is because a simple text editor doesn't provide a running word count at the bottom of the frame to keep track of my progress and the general size of the project.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Submitted #14 - in Transgender and Cross Dressing (yet another first). Though Laurel has re-categorized my I/R attempt to Lesbian.

Emily

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Interesting one today. I submitted a story showing exactly 750 words in Word and Lit’s Control Panel.

Sent back:

‘Hello, and thank you for sharing your work! This story is showing as 747 words in Word, Google Docs, and the Lit Control Panel. Please either make the story exactly 750 words. Thank you!’

I’ve added three words. It now shows 753 words, exactly, in Word and Control Panel. We shall see.

Funny is one or two of mine were published as 748. One of them I made 752 to counteract and it was published at 751. That proves that whatever Laurel uses to review counts different than the site itself. She saw 750, but the site sees 748. MSWord also saw 750. Same thing happened to my 1k word story. Lit saw 999, but Lush saw 1001.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Well this is fun. My "mystery woman" story was kicked back for being 753-755 words. Deleted three and reuploaded. Apparently Apple Pages' word counter is that much different than MSWord's.

I prefer MSWord over Pages, but for various technical reasons I've been recently writing in Pages and exporting to .docx format. I have Word on another system and should spend a moment or two to discern the issue.

EDIT: Revision is approved and in the queue to go live tomorrow. That was quick! Thanks, Laurel!

I downloaded WPS and am going to see if I like that or not. After I finish what I'm doing, the next ones are gonna be written with that.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Submitted #14 - in Transgender and Cross Dressing (yet another first). Though Laurel has re-categorized my I/R attempt to Lesbian.

Emily

That would seem to imply a stratification or levelling of categories, some with precedence over others. It would be interesting to know what that was.

 

[Priscilla_June]

I’m pretty sure at least @EmilyMiller and @Djmac1031 did as well. Probably a few others.

I did!

 

[EmilyMiller]

That would seem to imply a stratification or levelling of categories, some with precedence over others. It would be interesting to know what that was.

It is frankly a lesbian romp with thee girls of different ethnicities. One white, one black, one Asian. I guess she is making my point for me. Sex is just sex, skin color is irrelevant.

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

I did!

And I read it - it was a strong concept.

Emily

 

[Rob_Royale]

Submitted, What's Good for the Gander, early on 2/6. It's an LW story with no sex. Just a husband realizing he's not fooling his wife and that she's capable of the same behavior. No date yet for posting.

 

[lc69hunter]

Mine got rejected, but I understand why. I had used a PM and my response to it in my story, and was told that private conversations were not allowed in stories. This is actually a good thing for me, because I can now just summarize his message, which gives me more space to add to my response that I had no room for under my original submission.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

OK. One more. Damn you Em...

Look for 'Juliana Jones and the Temple of Well Fuck Me.' Coming soon to C/E near you.

EDIT: Actually, that title's too long. 'Juliana Jones and the Golden Penis'

 

[Rob_Royale]

I got another idea but I'm gonna shelve it for next year.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Kentucky Johnson ... and her Secret Johnson. Guess what category that would fit in.

 

[other2other1]

I have just submitted my first-ever entry into a challenge, I hope you all enjoy the attempt to tell a story in just 750 words.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Cressie’s Custom Climax

 

[MrPixel]

Dedicated to the mature gentlemen amongst us: A Walk by the Lake

 

[Rustyoznail]

Not going to happen.

I'm betting one of the first comments will be be along the line of "dad should have gotten into the action sooner - 1*".

Well, voting has fallen off the "not new" cliff, but on the bright side, I didn't get anything like the above comment.

That's a win.