Winter Holiday 2024 Contest Support and Seasonal Story Discussion Thread

[AlexFourways]

I need guidance lol I'm very new haha

On the top line, on the right, you will see your name (not mine ). Click on it and you get a menu, and the thing you need for this task is Account details Signature. (You may want to look at the others) But... click on that - see below...

Write what you want to write - including a link (using the last but one icon (like a very lazy 8) to either your story or your story home page.

Hope this helps and is easy to follow!

 

[Duleigh]

On the top line, on the right, you will see your name (not mine ). Click on it and you get a menu, and the thing you need for this task is Account details Signature. (You may want to look at the others) But... click on that - see below...
View attachment 2430491
Write what you want to write - including a link (using the last but one icon (like a very lazy 8) to either your story or your story home page.
View attachment 2430494
Hope this helps and is easy to follow!

Putting a link to your stories, even if you only have one, is incredibly helpful.
You can put a lot of things in your signature but don't get carried away with graphics. And you can only put 2 links in your signature, so choose wisely.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Welcome to the AH @Starchild1983, and congrats for getting a story up.

With your sig, be aware that if you are using a mobile device, you may not see it. It's off by default.

 

[rebel_code]

Putting a link to your stories, even if you only have one, is incredibly helpful.
You can put a lot of things in your signature but don't get carried away with graphics. And you can only put 2 links in your signature, so choose wisely.

If that's true, somehow I got away with having four links. Nobody tell, OK?

 

[REucalyptus]

Hooray! My submission to the contest, which happens to be my first-ever (and likely last-ever) attempt at writing erotica, is up! Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm pretty happy with it.

"The Killing" - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-killing

Also, three questions!

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

Thanks!

 

[secretLace]

Do the elves wake up and have a threesome while the shoppers look on in shock and amazement ?

That would have been a great one
Mine is a little more mundane where two women working in a upscale lingerie and fashion boutique have a dare and one get to be part of the christmas display.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Hooray! My submission to the contest, which happens to be my first-ever (and likely last-ever) attempt at writing erotica, is up! Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm pretty happy with it.

"The Killing" - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-killing

Also, three questions!

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

Thanks!

Congrats on getting a story entered - and never say never. When I joined, I thought I only had one story in me, and five years later I have 31 up. It becomes a good hobby.

1) Some people will give a story a 1* without even reading it. Why? It's the internet and they can. The site occasionally runs a sweep over the stories, especially competition stories, to clean out what they deem to be bogus votes (not just 1*, could be a 5*). Exactly what parameters are used isn't known, and discussion on the issue is frowned on.
2) Everybody votes according to their own thoughts. Some people put a lot of weight on grammar and spelling, others more on plot, sex, or believability. The stars have a suggested ranking but it's up to you.
3) I'm not a big reader here, so I only comment with my username. If there's an issue with a story, I PM the author so I can explain in detail what I'm talking about.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

Congratulations!!

(1) The stars at the end of each story are how a reader could rate them. 1-bombs are when a person purposely votes 1 star just to drag someone's story down. I mean, how could a story rate a 1? Even if it's not great, it's at least a 2 or a 3. In my opinion.
(2) Personally, I either rate a 5 or not at all. But that's just me. I'm too nice, I guess.
(3) Again, I'm probably too nice, but I always comment with my user name. I believe that if you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything. But that's me.

Again, congratulations!!!!!!

 

[Duleigh]

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

A bomb is a very low vote especially when the story's rating is fairly high. When you get a vote that drops your story's score more than a couple tenths of a point, that's usually a "one bomb." Trolls do that because it makes them feel like they're powerful instead of pathetic.

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

If a story was well written, with good grammar (good meaning better than my pitiful attempts) and had a clearly defined climax and a well crafted ending, that's always a five. I've only handed out a single one. It was a new story by a writer whose overall average score was 1.2 It was awful! Definitely a 1

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

I ALWAYS use my username when commenting on stories. If I don't want anyone to know that i said it, I'm just not going to say it. I hate hiding anonymously when you have a username. I've reached out to some severe critics because they used their username and we talked and became friends. Why would I deny somebody the joyful opportunity of becoming friends with me?

 

[Actingup]

Congratulations!!

(1) The stars at the end of each story are how a reader could rate them. 1-bombs are when a person purposely votes 1 star just to drag someone's story down. I mean, how could a story rate a 1? Even if it's not great, it's at least a 2 or a 3. In my opinion.
(2) Personally, I either rate a 5 or not at all. But that's just me. I'm too nice, I guess.
(3) Again, I'm probably too nice, but I always comment with my user name. I believe that if you don't have anything good to say, then don't say anything. But that's me.

Again, congratulations!!!!!!

I tend to rate between 3 and 5, although usually 4 or 5. I won't rate anything I haven't read in full, and I don't want to waste my time reading bad stories, so I never bother reading past the first page of anything that looks like it's below a four, unless it's in Loving Wives or similar and obviously getting hammered unjustly.

I used to read and comment anonymously solely because of the hassle of logging in. But I think it's more meaningful to stand by your pseudonym and login before commenting.

 

[secretLace]

I agree with always using your username in comments. As many have pointed out I'm a strong believer in "If you dont have anything nice or creative to say, then maybe don't say it."

Regarding the rating, I never vote below 3. If the story wasn't for me I just refrain from voting instead. It could be for someone else.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Hooray! My submission to the contest, which happens to be my first-ever (and likely last-ever) attempt at writing erotica, is up! Check it out and let me know what you think. I'm pretty happy with it.

"The Killing" - https://www.literotica.com/s/the-killing

Also, three questions!

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

Thanks!

I read your story and it was really good. You're a very talented writer. I've got a feeling it won't be a one and done, because everyone's already asking for more.

 

[Actingup]

I read your story and it was really good. You're a very talented writer. I've got a feeling it won't be a one and done, because everyone's already asking for more.

@REucalyptus I agree with Smuttyandfun - great story, great concept. Just one suggestion - twice I've had stories rejected for not being proper enough with dialogue tags. The first time was fair enough, but the second time seemed a bit arbitrary and I really had to speculate what was being objected to - I fixed it by resubmission with some changes to the 'inner voice' dialogue, but I don't know if that was the actual problem or not. Anyway, both times I was directed to check against the 'How to Make Characters Talk' essay in https://www.literotica.com/resources/writer-resources . I don't know if others have had the same experience or not, but mentioning this as a heads up in case it happens to you.

 

[AlbericGrunnion]

Argh! Took my story, which is a snippet of a much longer tale I'm working on and just pasted it in without realizing that it could be considered underage for some of the events. So lost about a dozen votes and a handful of comments.

 

[WriterPerson314159]

I always comment using my username, when I comment, because I think it’s the right thing to do (and the tasty way to do it).

Like @FreyaGersemi, I basically only rate a story when I can give it a 5. I think I may have given a couple of 4s. I’m not here for negativity. If it’s below a 4 to me, I just stop reading.

 

[Duleigh]

The Extra Special Magical Gift has been submitted!
My second one is going to be pretty miserable so I made this lighthearted and funny.

 

[Starchild1983]

On the top line, on the right, you will see your name (not mine ). Click on it and you get a menu, and the thing you need for this task is Account details Signature. (You may want to look at the others) But... click on that - see below...
View attachment 2430491
Write what you want to write - including a link (using the last but one icon (like a very lazy 8) to either your story or your story home page.
View attachment 2430494
Hope this helps and is easy to follow!

Thank you!

 

[REucalyptus]

@Actingup - (Not sure I tagged that right)

Thank you for the kind words!

I was just telling S&F that the lack of quotation marks in my story is a quirk I picked up from some of my favorite literary writers, like Cormac McCarthy. The idea, I think, is to let the words do the work without unnecessary ostentations. He rarely uses em dashes or semicolons or colons either, though I haven’t borrowed that tic.

Also, McCarthy probably thought it was a good idea for readers to slow down a bit, which definitely is a consequence of omitting quotation marks. But maybe that’s totally the wrong tempo for something on Literotica.

Anyway, I tend to think that it’s important to know the rules of grammar and style but that once you know those rules, you also get a sense of when it might be OK—or even most effective—to break the rules, and this is a matter of style I felt fine breaking.

That’s not to say that I made the right choice, just that I was consistent and I like the look of it without all the q marks.

 

[Actingup]

@Actingup - (Not sure I tagged that right)

Thank you for the kind words!

I was just telling S&F that the lack of quotation marks in my story is a quirk I picked up from some of my favorite literary writers, like Cormac McCarthy. The idea, I think, is to let the words do the work without unnecessary ostentations. He rarely uses em dashes or semicolons or colons either, though I haven’t borrowed that tic.

Also, McCarthy probably thought it was a good idea for readers to slow down a bit, which definitely is a consequence of omitting quotation marks. But maybe that’s totally the wrong tempo for something on Literotica.

Anyway, I tend to think that it’s important to know the rules of grammar and style but that once you know those rules, you also get a sense of when it might be OK—or even most effective—to break the rules, and this is a matter of style I felt fine breaking.

That’s not to say that I made the right choice, just that I was consistent and I like the look of it without all the q marks.

Cheers! I think that it worked very well for this story - I just thought I'd mention it in case it becomes a tripping hazard - I'm still getting a feel for that here but others may like to comment. Some stories also seem to be let through with really terrible composition, spelling, punctuation etc, so maybe it's hard to predict? They may just have instantly recognised that you know what you're doing, which would be nice.

 

[MrStill]

I'm not saying that I'm Australian or anything, but someone's commented that the weather in my Xmas story False Gossip isn't cold enough...

 

[Actingup]

I'm not saying that I'm Australian or anything, but someone's commented that the weather in my Xmas story False Gossip isn't cold enough...

Ha! It's funny that readers have preconceptions like that. It's a fun read.

 

[AlexFourways]

@REucalyptus I agree with Smuttyandfun - great story, great concept. Just one suggestion - twice I've had stories rejected for not being proper enough with dialogue tags. The first time was fair enough, but the second time seemed a bit arbitrary and I really had to speculate what was being objected to - I fixed it by resubmission with some changes to the 'inner voice' dialogue, but I don't know if that was the actual problem or not. Anyway, both times I was directed to check against the 'How to Make Characters Talk' essay in https://www.literotica.com/resources/writer-resources . I don't know if others have had the same experience or not, but mentioning this as a heads up in case it happens to you.

@REucalyptus I commented on the interesting, but unsual, way of doing dialogue. It worked for me once I understood it, but it probably wouldn't work on a longer story, or if you had more than two people (even if it is just scenes with A and B, then B and C and back to A and B. When I first started, with help from another author they pointed me to Grammarly and the page 'A Guide to Writing Dialogue, With Examples' (I belive we can't do external links, or is that just stories). But I'll look at the link as well.

 

[AlexFourways]

(1) I've seen a few people mention rating or vote bombs--what's that about?

What others have said. I've started reading stories that I can't get past the first page and really might deserve a 1, but I couldn't do that without reading it all - so don't. But you get (I probably did) people who see my story is about 3000 BCE rather than 2000 CE so go to the final page and give it a 1, probably not reading 10%. It seems to happen more in competitions and challenges, giving me the impression that there might be authors either trying to 'up' their story by downing others. Who knows.

(2) I'm new to rating stories (or being rated) here -- how do you usually think about awarding your stars? For example, on GoodReads, I feel like grade inflation is king, and some people only give 4 or 5 stars, whereas I rarely give stories 1s or 5s. But here people's feelings are more involved...

As with Freya and others, to vote I will have read to the end, so it is usually a 5, sometimes a 4, only once in my year here a 3. As I said to (1) votes of 1 would be if I can't get past the first page, but I don't.

(3) How do you decide whether to comment anonymously or using your username on stories?

I read a lot on a tablet and reader that keeps logging me out, so if it's something simple I might not log in, but there again I might just not comment. But generally, if I want to comment I get on my computer, find the story and comment logged in. However, if I think it might (if it is a series) be me spotting a plot plant (Chekov's Gun) then I might DM the author instead of potentially spoiling or confusing other readers.
YMMV and the rest.

Thanks!

And Thanks to you for a nice work. Especially for me as I am a slow reader (partial dyslexia) who can get my mords wuddled sometimes!

 

[AlexFourways]

@REucalyptus​

As StillStunned (and other professional proof readers / editors here) have said. If you can (it's in Word under Review) use a screen reader before you ask someone else to proof read it. It surprises me with the hidden (to me) typo's of thought vs through and run on sentences that just keep going and really need to be broken up into two or more. IYSWIM (deliberate and a hint is the apperance of 'and' more than once)
I think that if you had run your story throught it, the untypical dialouge would have sounded strange.
Now if you are fortunate to have a proof reader (and I am prepared to volunteer to consider it) you might think doing a screen read first if not needed.
But 1. They might not spot some typo's if they don't use a screen reader as the human brain can autocorrect, or not, especially if both words might make sense.
But 2. If there are not niggles to distract them, then they have more time to sprinkle stardust on your story.
Again YMMV but I wish I had started using it a year ago!

 

[Duleigh]

I'm not saying that I'm Australian or anything, but someone's commented that the weather in my Xmas story False Gossip isn't cold enough...

If you were Australian my Bevvie detector would have gone off and I'd be making Dingaroo and Drop Bear jokes at ya, mate. I had a lot of fun making fun with "The Land Way Over" in my Discworld based story Enchantress