Winter Holiday 2024 Contest Support and Seasonal Story Discussion Thread

[sack]

The 2005 list was a fun read. There are a few authors there I recognize and one (@sack) who's even in this year's list.

HA!! Does this mean I am now considered a "senior"?? Yes, I get my "senior discount" when I go to Dunkin Donuts!!

 

[taytay4eva]

Ah, the more votes my story gets, the closer I get to slipping below 4.5 and losing the "Hot" status that it has, but I still want those votes because I crave validation. The SUSPENSE.

Also, unrelated, but I wrote a superhero short story that's on reddit now! I'm pretty proud of it.

Not sure if it's ok to put it here as well, so it lives over there for now.

 

[NotWise]

Ah, the more votes my story gets, the closer I get to slipping below 4.5 and losing the "Hot" status that it has, but I still want those votes because I crave validation. The SUSPENSE.

Also, unrelated, but I wrote a superhero short story that's on reddit now! I'm pretty proud of it.

Not sure if it's ok to put it here as well, so it lives over there for now.

Lit doesn't care if your story is published someplace else as long as you own the copyright. The "someplace else" might care, but I don't know about reddit.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Ah, the more votes my story gets, the closer I get to slipping below 4.5 and losing the "Hot" status that it has, but I still want those votes because I crave validation. The SUSPENSE.

Also, unrelated, but I wrote a superhero short story that's on reddit now! I'm pretty proud of it.

Not sure if it's ok to put it here as well, so it lives over there for now.

You will probably see your score bounce back up a bit when the sweeps are done.

Maybe one of the data fiends around here can tell me if this is the case or not, but it seems like scores in general are lower on this year's contest.


Here's the current top five:






As I recall, last year there were four of five of us all around 4.90 before the final sweep.

 

[NotWise]

You will probably see your score bounce back up a bit when the sweeps are done.

Maybe one of the data fiends around here can tell me if this is the case or not, but it seems like scores in general are lower on this year's contest.


Here's the current top five:

View attachment 2441504




As I recall, last year there were four of five of us all around 4.90 before the final sweep.

If you got that list by searching for the contest tag, you should know that not all the contest stories have the tag. Mine doesn't, and I think I've seen higher scores.

 

[ChloeTzang]

As I recall, last year there were four of five of us all around 4.90 before the final sweep.

I've found the last few years the scores seem to be creeping higher. Either we're all better writers or our readers are more appreciative of our stories. Or maybe both.

On the other hand, my little story just cracked 4.0 so I don't think I'm heading for the stratosphere on this one. LOL. I'm totally impressed by the number of stories submitted though. Just amazing, and congrats to everyone that got one (or two, or three LOL) in. Good luck everyone!!!!!!

 

[MelissaBaby]

If you got that list by searching for the contest tag, you should know that not all the contest stories have the tag. Mine doesn't, and I think I've seen higher scores.

I understand that, but there is no reason to think that untagged stories should trend higher. It may also be a question of the timing of sweeps. I submitted at the last minute, so I don’t know if any have been done yet. I believe that last year there was at least one done about a week before voting closed.

 

[SimonDoom]

Has anyone observed sweeps happening yet? I'm curious because although I did not submit a story for this contest I did submit a story during the contest window and I wonder if its score might be affected by sweeps.

 

[thanagar]

Has anyone observed sweeps happening yet? I'm curious because although I did not submit a story for this contest I did submit a story during the contest window and I wonder if its score might be affected by sweeps.

I think there was one on Sunday morning. My story was getting hammered with 1s, and then it jumped 70 points. Still getting hit with them, but the rating is back closer to “normal”. Still not sure it’s going to be enough to get me into the top 3, tho. Ah well….

 

[NotWise]

Has anyone observed sweeps happening yet? I'm curious because although I did not submit a story for this contest I did submit a story during the contest window and I wonder if its score might be affected by sweeps.

I haven't seen any yet, but there usually are some small changes before the big, final sweep.

 

[Actingup]

I haven't seen any yet, but there usually are some small changes before the big, final sweep.

There's been a very minor sweep, I think. Both my stories lost a vote (but the scores didn't change).

 

[taytay4eva]

Is there a good place to come up with titles for short stories? I've got one written but can't submit it yet because it's just "superhero story 03" in my notes

 

[FreyaGersemi]

There's been a very minor sweep, I think. Both my stories lost a vote (but the scores didn't change).

Can readers unvote?

 

[AlexFourways]

Is there a good place to come up with titles for short stories? I've got one written but can't submit it yet because it's just "superhero story 03" in my notes

I'll share (again) the technique I use. I use the 'rulers' below in Courier* font (or any monospaced font) and it enables me to try out various titles before you have to submit it as part of the New Story process. I have put example - joke - ideas as I know nothing about your story!
12345678901234567892123456789312345
This is The Title and Can’t be Long
Superhero Sam Saves Saturday Night!

123456789012345678921234567893123456789412345678951234567896
This is the summary of the story or teaser, depends on you!
Can he serve up the sausage pizza that Contrary Mary desires

This is the summary of the story or teaser, depends on you!
*so all characters are the same width, and the above are nearly the limits of 35 and 60 characters.
Note the summary doesn't have a ? as there is no room!

It enables you to test out different titles and summaries before you get to the all important submitting a draft. Part 1 of my soon to be published android story series "Do Androids Dream of Electric Love?" Went through a dozen options, with my Beta readers commenting on what they thought of title and summary.
YMMV of course.

 

[TheLobster]

@AlexFourways You can insert your text as a code block to make it render in monospace font. Your guide rulers look like this then:

12345678901234567892123456789312345
This is The Title and Can’t be Long
Superhero Sam Saves Saturday Night!

123456789012345678921234567893123456789412345678951234567896
This is the summary of the story or teaser, depends on you!
Can he serve up the sausage pizza that Contrary Mary desires

 

[AlexFourways]

There's been a very minor sweep, I think. Both my stories lost a vote (but the scores didn't change).

I haven't seen any vote drop and my newer story had 3 more votes since this morning with an an average of 3, strongly impling a vote of 1 or 2 since the typical votes are 4s and 5s.

 

[TheLobster]

Is there a good place to come up with titles for short stories?

Creativity isn't exactly punished here, but many authors would attest that straightforward and downright mundane titles work best if you want to garner views.

Especially if you include straightforward mentions of the sexual acts involved.

Doubly-especially if you make those funny and/or memorable.

So something like Her Ass Is His Kryptonite or With Great Power Come Great Orgasms should do rather well

 

[AlexFourways]

@AlexFourways You can insert your text as a code block to make it render in monospace font. Your guide rulers look like this then:

12345678901234567892123456789312345
This is The Title and Can’t be Long
Superhero Sam Saves Saturday Night!

123456789012345678921234567893123456789412345678951234567896
This is the summary of the story or teaser, depends on you!
Can he serve up the sausage pizza that Contrary Mary desires

OK Lobster and thanks - if only I knew what a Code Block was... Is that Inline Code as in Font [More options] >_ Hmmm...
12345678901234567892123456789312345
This is The Title and Can’t be Long
Superhero Sam Saves Saturday Night!
Yep! Thanks

 

[TheLobster]

OK Lobster and thanks - if only I knew what a Code Block was... Is that Inline Code as in Font [More options] >_ Hmmm...
12345678901234567892123456789312345
This is The Title and Can’t be Long
Superhero Sam Saves Saturday Night!
Yep! Thanks

I used the "Code" option here:

 

[NotWise]

Can readers unvote?

Registered members can change their vote, but I don't think the can unvote.

 

[AlexFourways]

I used the "Code" option here:
View attachment 2441760

OK, I used this...

Which also worked - but there must be a subtle difference... (may have been doing things with computers since 1975 (when 8k ram required a thing as big as a 2 draw filing cabinet) but they keep (thank goodness) keep changing things!)
Anyway, I hope that is of assistance to taytay4eva and anyone else.
I'll also share StillStunned (and other professional editors) advice to use a screen reader to find things like 'whilst' vs 'whist' and others I can't remember at the moment. YMMV as ever!

 

[Voboy]

Is there a good place to come up with titles for short stories? I've got one written but can't submit it yet because it's just "superhero story 03" in my notes

Often, if I'm stuck for a title, I'll choose a nice-sounding line from the story itself and use it as the title.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Is there a good place to come up with titles for short stories?

many authors would attest that straightforward and downright mundane titles work best if you want to garner views.

For what it's worth, my top five viewed stories are:

The First Blowjob
The Valentine's Day Triple Play (but the description may be the real draw with this one)
Fingered in the Dark
Alex Fucks Cyn
Here Cums Santa's Cock

You have to snag readers first with the title. Then with the description. Then with the first couple of sentences of the story. If you fail at any point, you will have lost them.

Just my experience.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

Registered members can change their vote, but I don't think the can unvote.

Interesting!!! I was not aware of this. Thanks for the info!!

 

[NotWise]

Interesting!!! I was not aware of this. Thanks for the info!!

I should have said, if you see the number of votes drop, then the site has removed votes. That's a sweep.