The Official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2023 Contest Support Thread

[Trionyx]

Me three, or is it ‘me four’? There will be a bunch of new ones tomorrow. Maybe 200+ total?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

Increasing possibility that somebody is going to win this with 10 votes.

Got to have 25 votes for the score to count.

 

[StillStunned]

I have a bunch of 3s from my story that I'm quite willing to hand off to someone who needs to get to 25 votes.

 

[Bazzle]

I have a bunch of 3s from my story that I'm quite willing to hand off to someone who needs to get to 25 votes.

Ooh yes please

 

[FeralSmile]

I finished a contest submission story yesterday night; it's a light, humorous fantasy about an incubus possessing a young man. I was honestly torn about whether to post it in Humor & Satire or SF & F. I went with SF & F because I think it's perhaps a bit more fantasy than laugh-out-loud humor. I mean, I find it amusing, but humor's pretty subjective. I'm happy with it, and might even write more stories in that setting if it's well received. It was fun all around and I quite like the narrator's voice. The sex scene isn't much like the others I've written before, because it's told from the POV of a demon possessing a body, so there's a fair bit of detachment, and none of the intense personal connection I usually aim for.

I confess I rushed it a bit because I wanted to enter it in the contest. I don't expect it to win anything, but it's very much a Halloween story so I figured, what the hell.

After I finally finished rereading and editing and hit "submit", I realized I had another story stuck in my head, or rather the barest outlines of one. Honestly, I just knew it was about a man living in a house haunted by the spirit of a woman. I had no idea where it was going when I sat down to start, but I expected the man would probably get into a bit of ghost-fucking.

That was not where the story went.

Instead I ended up with an intensely dark and sad piece about emptiness and 19th-century spousal abuse. It wasn't until I was finishing the story that I realized the narrator, whom I'd initially envisioned as modern and alive, might well also be a ghost, and might indeed have been one for many years. I'd imagined him to be haunted, but upon reflection he's also haunting the reader.

It's Erotic Horror only in a fairly loose sense: there's sex in it, but it's not remotely sexy. The sex is pretty horrifying, honestly (it's not non-con or gory, but it's coming from a twisted abusive place). I put a warning up front because anyone who's read my other works would not expect anything like this.

It took me 2 hours to write (2am to 4am, local time), and stands at 1772 words. I don't intend, or indeed wish, to write more such. But then to be fair I didn't plan this one out at all or even know what it was about in advance; it just poured forth. I made minor edits, of course, to tidy it up and tie it together better, but the basic form is just as it arose. It'd doubtless have benefited from more time and reflection, but then I don't know that I want to spend more time in that setting, even if I had more time before the contest deadline.

Both stories will be published tomorrow.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Check yours again. I just checked and it's dated for publication tomorrow.

Yep mine is going through!

 

[BelleCanzuto]

ahh the 1 bombers or 3 bombers have hit my work...wonderful.

Mine too. Two 1 star votes out of 18; took out a big chunk of my score. Got another vote today that's higher. But I still only have 19 votes (pre sweep]. So, yeah, I'm definitely not in the running for this (not that my score at its highest was close enough to place)

I finished a contest submission story yesterday night; it's a light, humorous fantasy about an incubus possessing a young man. I was honestly torn about whether to post it in Humor & Satire or SF & F. I went with SF & F because I think it's perhaps a bit more fantasy than laugh-out-loud humor. I mean, I find it amusing, but humor's pretty subjective. I'm happy with it, and might even write more stories in that setting if it's well received. It was fun all around and I quite like the narrator's voice. The sex scene isn't much like the others I've written before, because it's told from the POV of a demon possessing a body, so there's a fair bit of detachment, and none of the intense personal connection I usually aim for.

I confess I rushed it a bit because I wanted to enter it in the contest. I don't expect it to win anything, but it's very much a Halloween story so I figured, what the hell.

After I finally finished rereading and editing and hit "submit", I realized I had another story stuck in my head, or rather the barest outlines of one. Honestly, I just knew it was about a man living in a house haunted by the spirit of a woman. I had no idea where it was going when I sat down to start, but I expected the man would probably get into a bit of ghost-fucking.

That was not where the story went.

Instead I ended up with an intensely dark and sad piece about emptiness and 19th-century spousal abuse. It wasn't until I was finishing the story that I realized the narrator, whom I'd initially envisioned as modern and alive, might well also be a ghost, and might indeed have been one for many years. I'd imagined him to be haunted, but upon reflection he's also haunting the reader.

It's Erotic Horror only in a fairly loose sense: there's sex in it, but it's not remotely sexy. The sex is pretty horrifying, honestly (it's not non-con or gory, but it's coming from a twisted abusive place). I put a warning up front because anyone who's read my other works would not expect anything like this.

It took me 2 hours to write (2am to 4am, local time), and stands at 1772 words. I don't intend, or indeed wish, to write more such. But then to be fair I didn't plan this one out at all or even know what it was about in advance; it just poured forth. I made minor edits, of course, to tidy it up and tie it together better, but the basic form is just as it arose. It'd doubtless have benefited from more time and reflection, but then I don't know that I want to spend more time in that setting, even if I had more time before the contest deadline.

Both stories will be published tomorrow.

That sounds like what happened with holiday story. Had a vague idea about a couple snow bound in a cabin, and well, things went sideways (Rusty read it for me, and I might have driven him to drinking).

 

[Rustyoznail]

Mine too. Two 1 star votes out of 18; took out a big chunk of my score. Got another vote today that's higher. But I still only have 19 votes (pre sweep]. So, yeah, I'm definitely not in the running for this (not that my score at its highest was close enough to place)

That sounds like what happened with holiday story. Had a vague idea about a couple snow bound in a cabin, and well, things went sideways (Rusty read it for me, and I might have driven him to drinking).

No more alcohol than usual, but I am keeping a nervous eye on the horizon.

I don't want to sound unsympathetic, as I've had stories in other comps die just out of the gates, but my story has stalled on 4.4x for the last 150 out of 250 votes! How can that happen?

Geez...

 

[MillieDynamite]

Give me a four, give me a point, give me a nine, give me an eight. What's that score?

4.98 yeah, sis, ba boom.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Well, I got a story in with entire tens of minutes to spare before the deadline.

After marinating for three years, "Eight Dates with the Dead" is finally done and submitted. First Halloween story since the wildly unappreciated Kyle the Weremoose Gets Lucky.

Yay me, I guess. Let the 1-bombs commence!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I got my final entry in with thirty minutes to spare.

No idea when it'll be published, but I'm just glad I got it done.

 

[StillStunned]

I got my final entry in with thirty minutes to spare.

No idea when it'll be published, but I'm just glad I got it done.

Good luck!

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Good luck!

Thanks! Hope yours does well, too.

 

[StillStunned]

Lust Demon's Orgy is up.

I have a couple of admissions to make with this one:

1. The title and description, while accurate to the story, are mostly to see how many readers I can attract by being very obvious.

2. The story was inspired by The Summoning, by @samhasstories. I was reading it and thought, "What if...?"

There's nothing complicated about this story. I had the idea and wrote it in a few hours while I was watching the rugby. It's about an orgy. With a lust demon. Get your wank rag out and read.

 

[StillStunned]

Here's something I've noticed from my vast experience of first entry in my first contest.

Usually my stories are rated either 4 or 5 stars, or 1 star. 2s and 3s are pretty rare. It's like people don't bother to vote unless they have strong feelings. Which is pretty normal, I think.

But my first story in the Halloween contest hasn't had a single 1, as far as I can tell, but quite a few 3s. Are the readers/voters more nuanced, or is this a way to drag down the competition without being eliminated in a sweep?

Anyone else noticed this?

 

[Rustyoznail]

I noticed it was 5/4 or 1 a few years ago,but lately by my calculations there's 2/3 votes sneaking in.

 

[Bazzle]

Yeah, I think 3's are the new 1's!

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'm up, and it does look like my early votes are 5s and 3s, but too soon to tell.

I barely made it in this year. As I mentioned upthread, I could not get a handle on my haunted motel room idea for a second year in a row, so I had to come up with another idea late in the game. Then, as I was doing a last read through, I realized that I had violated one of Laurel's cardinal rules no spoiler, sorry) and had to do some rewriting.

But I got it done in time. I hope you will enjoy it, and I'd certainly appreciate your votes, as you see fit to award them.

Watchers

 

[Kethandra]

If it doesn't work within 48 hours, I normally expect a rejection letter

Welp, I’m a fuckup. I swear I saw Malleable approved and ready to drop Friday midnightish, but it apparently posted this morning. BTW, Bazzle, thank you very much for the positive comment. I like (most) anonymous comments, but author and contest-entrant comments mean quite a bit more.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Is it just me or do typos seem to sprout like dandelions as soon as your story goes live?

 

[Bamagan]

Good grief. 199 stories entered, assuming there are none left in the queue (and that I counted properly).

 

[MelissaBaby]

Good grief. 199 stories entered, assuming there are none left in the queue (and that I counted properly).

I looked at the list and realized there was no way I could read all the entries. The number of stories submitted may explain why authors are reporting lower than usual view counts.

 

[Bamagan]

I looked at the list and realized there was no way I could read all the entries. The number of stories submitted may explain why authors are reporting lower than usual view counts.

Yeah, I abandoned it pretty quickly. I wish the contest page included the category and blurbs like the normal story lists.

 

[RainyDayPen]

Every morning now my older less viewed story in the contest now gets 1 star, for 3 mornings in a row. I'm at this point starting to get kind of suspicious. It's a bummer that people might get that weirdly competitive about it.

I am in a niche category so it only has 60 votes total since Oct 2nd. And these regularly timed one star ratings have brought it down from something like a 4.68 to a 4.60 - it stands out as unusual activity.

 

[StillStunned]

Just got my first 3 on my new story!

(I feel a bit silly posting this just below @RainyDayPen's post about 1s, like it's the LitE equivalent of a First World problem.)