The now fully official Author’s Hangout Halloween 2025 competition support thread

[EmilyMiller]

My story now has a score of 4.3 with 10 votes.

Fingers crossed it recovers.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Fingers crossed it recovers.

Well, on the upside, I've never gotten this many votes the first morning before.

 

[WittyUserName]

That's crazy, I had a guy mention losing his virginity when he was sixteen without it getting bounced.

Yeah, and the rules specifically mention you can say that.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Hey, New here and am finishing up my first submission. It's probably overreaching to go for something like entering a competition, but it's a gothic horror piece and that seems appropriate.

My concern is that the main character gets drugged at a party and, well...
I'm aware the lines can be a little gray in areas like this with NC/R(I read the FAQ first), and I'm looking for a little guidance on whether this scene will pass muster with the mods.

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

The process for assessing whether non-consensual sex (which this clearly is) gets a pass or not is to submit it to @Laurel and not to post text that may well later get rejected on the forums. This is publishing without going through the process. I’d ask you to go through the correct adjudication process. Or at least go ask your question in a separate thread to this one. Thank you.

 

[ChazRhys]

The process for assessing whether non-consensual sex (which this clearly is) gets a pass or not is to submit it to @Laurel and not to post text that may well later get rejected on the forums. This is publishing without going through the process. I’d ask you to go through the correct adjudication process. Or at least go ask your question in a separate thread to this one. Thank you.

Sorry. Deleted. Can I submit partials to this laurel?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Sorry. Deleted. Can I submit partials to this laurel?

I have done - in other areas - and have got a reply. @Laurel is the co-owner of the site and - as far as anyone knows - the only person who reviews submissions; so her word is final.

Click on the link above and then start a conversation. A word of warning, she seems to be very occupied or possibly indisposed at present. The other option is to submit your story and see what she says.

You can post snippets of unpublished work here. It’s not generally seen as OK by the site to post potentially questionable content pre-publication to seek guidance. Such text is often redacted, as the site sees it as trying to get around their controls.

So:

Here are three paragraphs from my WIP, do you find it interesting.

Here is an scene which might veer toward underage, what you do guys think?

 

[EmilyMiller]

There is now a front page announcement about the Halloween comp, so maybe we are moving in the direction of normal service being resumed

 

[StillStunned]

There is now a front page announcement about the Halloween comp, so maybe we are moving in the direction of normal service being resumed

And the Dark Fairy Tales anthology has been added to the sidebar. Big day for both of us!

 

[EmilyMiller]

And the Dark Fairy Tales anthology has been added to the sidebar. Big day for both of us!

Yeah - if they’d just add my story to the comp now…

 

[TheDok]

You can see many of them by doing a tag search for “Halloween 2025”

My problem with this is that the competition is already skewed to writers with more followers, and if these authors already have higher scores when the competition truly starts (when the list of all stories is listed on the home page- most readers won't know until then), then readers will decide not to bother voting for the stories with lower scores and less followers. Kind of removes the point of it all IMO and a serious mistake if Laurel wants as level a playing field as she can get. Just saying, and I know I'm not going to win, I'm competing to get a little more exposure

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

Yeah - if they’d just add my story to the comp now…

Did it otherwise publish today? If so, that's concerning.

Otherwise, I counted 20 stories on the Halloween list. Seems low. I'm wondering if they're doing a slow-drip addition of new stories to the list.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Did it otherwise publish today? If so, that's concerning.

Otherwise, I counted 20 stories on the Halloween list. Seems low. I'm wondering if they're doing a slow-drip addition of new stories to the list.

My story was published - after a resubmission as it was initially caught in the black hole.

As you know, this is not my first rodeo, and it had the right text in the Note field and I included the Halloween 2025 tag. And I had also previously been conversing with @Laurel about it.

It’s an error by the site. I’ve read about it happening to other people, but they always seemed to get the error fixed quickly / pretty much immediately. That’s not happened to me.

It’s kinda ironic that I’m publicizing a comp (here and on BlueSky) that I’m currently excluded from. The margins with comps are so narrow, that any adverse event can have an impact.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You can see many of them by doing a tag search for “Halloween 2025”

Did you get published?

 

[EmilyMiller]

My problem with this is that the competition is already skewed to writers with more followers, and if these authors already have higher scores when the competition truly starts (when the list of all stories is listed on the home page- most readers won't know until then), then readers will decide not to bother voting for the stories with lower scores and less followers. Kind of removes the point of it all IMO and a serious mistake if Laurel wants as level a playing field as she can get. Just saying, and I know I'm not going to win, I'm competing to get a little more exposure

My honest advice, based on three years of experience, please stop thinking that:

1. Comps are any sort of even playing field - they are open to all sorts of shenanigans and manipulations and weird external factors
2. Comps results are in anyway correlated with quality of writing

What they are is a fun way to reach new readers. Make that your objective and tell yourself that the result is essentially due to Brownian Motion. You’ll be a lot less stressed.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Finally made it to the list. Now do I want to join a club that would admit me as a member?

https://www.literotica.com/stories/contest.php/halloween-2025

View attachment 2568750

 

[StrangeLife]

Comps results are in anyway correlated with quality of writing

I keep telling myself that...

 

[BryanRichardson]

I am very happy that my first story has 4.2k views and over 100 votes in about 12 hours.

I expected the Crossdressing category to be fairly slow, but it appears to be pretty active.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I am very happy that my first story has 4.2k views and over 100 votes in about 12 hours.

I expected the Crossdressing category to be fairly slow, but it appears to be pretty active.

Those are good figures

 

[EmilyMiller]

I keep telling myself that...

It’s an easy hypothesis to prove. While some excellent stories end up placing, it’s not hard to find some winners that have you scratching your head in disbelief.

 

[MelissaBaby]

My problem with this is that the competition is already skewed to writers with more followers, and if these authors already have higher scores when the competition truly starts (when the list of all stories is listed on the home page- most readers won't know until then), then readers will decide not to bother voting for the stories with lower scores and less followers. Kind of removes the point of it all IMO and a serious mistake if Laurel wants as level a playing field as she can get. Just saying, and I know I'm not going to win, I'm competing to get a little more exposure

I get why that would seem to be the case, but it has not proven to be. Many readers with small followings have won contests. Other factors play in as well; category, length of the story, etc.

Where authors with greater followings do have an advantage is in being assured that they can get the qualifying number of votes. But that advantage can be erased by getting your story submitted early enough to get the needed votes.

And by the way, there will not be a “final list” until the deadline, as stories will keep being added as they come in.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Did you get published?

I have not submitted yet, I’m going to take another day or two to give it one last polish. It will probably still be the earliest I ever got a contest entry submitted.

Meanwhile, my resubmitted Crime and Punishment story is still in pending limbo.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Meanwhile, my resubmitted Crime and Punishment story is still in pending limbo.

Sorry

 

[Actingup]

My problem with this is that the competition is already skewed to writers with more followers, and if these authors already have higher scores when the competition truly starts (when the list of all stories is listed on the home page- most readers won't know until then), then readers will decide not to bother voting for the stories with lower scores and less followers. Kind of removes the point of it all IMO and a serious mistake if Laurel wants as level a playing field as she can get. Just saying, and I know I'm not going to win, I'm competing to get a little more exposure

Have a read of National Nude Daisy, which won the Nude Day Comp this year despite being only the author’s second published story on the site (under that name, anyway). The story is hugely assured, competent and engaging, and was scoring 4.92 at time of the win. Number of followers is not a barrier.

 

[old_prof]

The Nude Day competition is the only one I followed closely (the only one I have entered). None of the three prize winners were big name established writers on the site. I had less than 100 followers and had been writing for only a few months. I'm not sure how many followers @Actingup had at the time, but he had fewer than 20 stories total (although some truly excellent ones, unlike me).

My comment to someone earlier today is that there will be a pool of solid stories that will separate out quickly. Almost all of the big name writers will be in that pool -- they all know what they are doing and write consistently good stories. Within that pool, it felt pretty random to me, depending on whose story connected.

 

[EmilyMiller]

The Nude Day competition is the only one I followed closely (the only one I have entered). None of the three prize winners were big name established writers on the site. I had less than 100 followers and had been writing for only a few months. I'm not sure how many followers @Actingup had at the time, but he had fewer than 20 stories total (although some truly excellent ones, unlike me).

My comment to someone earlier today is that there will be a pool of solid stories that will separate out quickly. Almost all of the big name writers will be in that pool -- they all know what they are doing and write consistently good stories. Within that pool, it felt pretty random to me, depending on whose story connected.

And new writers have had less time to accumulate haters. Lack of haters, as opposed to prevalence of lovers, tends to win comps as low votes have such a disproportionate effect. And no, the sweeps are far from comprehensive.

As I’ve said before, the best advice for wining a comp is, “Try to avoid being hated.”