The Official Authors' Hangout Summer Lovin' 2024 Contest Support Thread

[MyBareTorso]

I'm really unhappy with my story - even after the wonderful @FreyaGersemi offered her invaluable input which got me out of the rut I was stuck in. It just feels far too sad for a summer story. And despite a lot of effort invested to move away from that, towards an ending of growth and healing, it just seems bleak and depressing to get through the pages in order to reach that subtle ray of sunshine. Even the sex in it is kind of sad. Blah. I'm hoping I can fix it on time.

Summer doesn't *always* have to be happy...sounds like you've put in a lot of effort, so I hope you can get it to where you'd be happy to hit publish on it.

 

[Rustyoznail]

@Devinter - Nothing wrong with a bit of summer rain.

Edit - MBT beat me to it.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

It just feels far too sad for a summer story.

Perhaps we've jinxed each other!

Hey, everyone, I have a story all done and as I'm reading it over, it's terrible for a summer story. It takes place in summer. The female lead (an Alternate Freya-verse version of Cynthia) is bright and warm and "sunny." And she mentions that she loves the summer. At one point, they go to a carnival. But that's about it. It just reeks of the warning: "Please don't just submit a normal story that takes place in a pool." It's a normal story that takes place in the summer.

Oh. Okay. I was going to ask what you all thought about me submitting it (with my sad habit of "subverting tropes" and all that), but I guess I answered my own question.

Maybe I'll rewrite some parts and make summer a more integral part of the story. But maybe not. I'm probably too stubborn. I should try to NOT write a summer story next time!

@Devinter, at least you'll have company wallowing in despair over our missed opportunities.

 

[Wineandcheese]

Finished mine last night. It’s just a tiny bit shy of my target length of 7.5k. After reading Freya’s post, I’m nervous about it being adequately “summery”. But I’ve got bikinis, lakes, campgrounds and tents. I think I’m okay.

 

[Voboy]

Perhaps we've jinxed each other!

Hey, everyone, I have a story all done and as I'm reading it over, it's terrible for a summer story. It takes place in summer. The female lead (an Alternate Freya-verse version of Cynthia) is bright and warm and "sunny." And she mentions that she loves the summer. At one point, they go to a carnival. But that's about it. It just reeks of the warning: "Please don't just submit a normal story that takes place in a pool." It's a normal story that takes place in the summer.

Oh. Okay. I was going to ask what you all thought about me submitting it (with my sad habit of "subverting tropes" and all that), but I guess I answered my own question.

Maybe I'll rewrite some parts and make summer a more integral part of the story. But maybe not. I'm probably too stubborn. I should try to NOT write a summer story next time!

@Devinter, at least you'll have company wallowing in despair over our missed opportunities.

My holiday story is shaping up like that. The contest theme is not integral, except that the main characters meet at a practice for a Thanksgiving football game.

They could just as easily have met at a Little League practice for a summer theme, a Drama Festival mixer for a Valentine theme, an art gallery opening for a _____ theme... you get the idea. Don't worry. If it's a good story, the readers are unlikely to punish you.

 

[MyBareTorso]

Perhaps we've jinxed each other!

Hey, everyone, I have a story all done and as I'm reading it over, it's terrible for a summer story. It takes place in summer. The female lead (an Alternate Freya-verse version of Cynthia) is bright and warm and "sunny." And she mentions that she loves the summer. At one point, they go to a carnival. But that's about it. It just reeks of the warning: "Please don't just submit a normal story that takes place in a pool." It's a normal story that takes place in the summer.

Oh. Okay. I was going to ask what you all thought about me submitting it (with my sad habit of "subverting tropes" and all that), but I guess I answered my own question.

Maybe I'll rewrite some parts and make summer a more integral part of the story. But maybe not. I'm probably too stubborn. I should try to NOT write a summer story next time!

@Devinter, at least you'll have company wallowing in despair over our missed opportunities.

Just throw in lots of references to summer, the sun etc...you'll be right! If you wrote it with the intention of entering it, I'd say go for it...

 

[Devinter]

@Devinter, at least you'll have company wallowing in despair over our missed opportunities.

I welcome you warmly to my kingdom of trash!

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Perhaps we've jinxed each other!

Hey, everyone, I have a story all done and as I'm reading it over, it's terrible for a summer story. It takes place in summer. The female lead (an Alternate Freya-verse version of Cynthia) is bright and warm and "sunny." And she mentions that she loves the summer. At one point, they go to a carnival. But that's about it. It just reeks of the warning: "Please don't just submit a normal story that takes place in a pool." It's a normal story that takes place in the summer.

Oh. Okay. I was going to ask what you all thought about me submitting it (with my sad habit of "subverting tropes" and all that), but I guess I answered my own question.

Maybe I'll rewrite some parts and make summer a more integral part of the story. But maybe not. I'm probably too stubborn. I should try to NOT write a summer story next time!

@Devinter, at least you'll have company wallowing in despair over our missed opportunities.

I did a story a few years ago which was mostly complaining about the excess heat alternating with excess air conditioning, in a Vegas conference centre. Comments suggested it was the unexpected mfm threesome, rather than the sweat and aircon, which they didn't like...

I started writing a story for this, but it would become a novella, so I'm trying the last few scenes as a separate story. It may work.

For reference, would the title "Messing about on the River" be widely recognised as a song reference about boats?

 

[Duleigh]

I think my second one is finished. I'll let it sit for a few days and let my brain settle down then come back in and edit it and see if it's finished. It's based on a concept and I want to make sure that the reader will get the main concept along with the additional, boldly obvious, plot line

 

[Inkent]

Done! Undergoing final refinement by editor. Benidoom, it all goes wrong on holiday! It's rocked up coming in at just over 40K words

 

[TheLobster]

I’m still in the weeds with mine. Four chapters at 20k and there are two more coming. Should I finish it, it’s gonna be my longest submission here.

 

[OffNSFW]

I've got three scenes left, including the lynchpin sex scene that the whole thing has been promising so far. It's turning out better than I thought. It's a yearlong story, but it's bookended by scenes set at an annual beach party, which I think justifies the summer loving theme.

My two characters are a husband and wife who have a newfound awakening of their kinky side in middle age. Partly because I'm tired of writing stories about young people, who tend to be treated as sexier by default than older people. But it's been an unexpected opportunity to show characters working through the problems that inevitably crop up in later decades of a long relationship, like taking each other for granted, or watching your friend group get smaller over the years.

 

[Inkent]

My two characters are a husband and wife who have a newfound awakening of their kinky side in middle age. Partly because I'm tired of writing stories about young people, who tend to be treated as sexier by default than older people. But it's been an unexpected opportunity to show characters working through the problems that inevitably crop up in later decades of a long relationship, like taking each other for granted, or watching your friend group get smaller over the years.

Sounds like this will be an interesting read, looking forward to it!

 

[Inkent]

After some advice please. I can see it's permissible to split into 2 x parts and publish simultaneously. Am I best turning off the ability to score/post comments for part 1, and leaving part 2 for scoring and commenting?

 

[Voboy]

After some advice please. I can see it's permissible to split into 2 x parts and publish simultaneously. Am I best turning off the ability to score/post comments for part 1, and leaving part 2 for scoring and commenting?

How long are your two parts?

I'd STRONGLY encourage you to submit as one story, precisely because of questions like the one you're asking. This is a contest. Scoring matters. The more variables you impose on the scoring, the less evident it'll be how you're doing.

Posting as two separate entries gains you nothing, and probably loses a lot.

 

[Devinter]

I can see it's permissible to split into 2 x parts and publish simultaneously.

... What is the point of that, exactly?

Am I best turning off the ability to score/post comments for part 1, and leaving part 2 for scoring and commenting?

Is the idea that people who didn't like the first part won't bother to read the second part, and thus you'll be improving your overall score by doing it this way? It sounds like you might be trying to game the system a little bit.

However, I am not overly convinced that it's going to work out. If you post it all as one long story; Would a reader that isn't fascinated with your tale truly continue reading after reaching the half-way point, or would they simply click out of the story and read something else? I'd imagine that most people would simply move on. And if they are malicious enough to skip all the way to the end to leave a 1-star bomb rating without reading the full story, then I reckon clicking on the second part to leave the 1-star rating there isn't going to be something you can easily deter.

If you simply feel like the story is far too long to be posted as one singular upload, consider putting it into the Novels and Novellas category. As far as I know, voters there tend to be really kind. However, if the total length of the story is 30k words or less, I'd just post it as a normal story, personally. Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of luck.

 

[gordo12]

After some advice please. I can see it's permissible to split into 2 x parts and publish simultaneously. Am I best turning off the ability to score/post comments for part 1, and leaving part 2 for scoring and commenting?

This comment posted the other day answers your question perfectly. I had discussions with another author about leaving the epilogue off and posting it as a second story. He talked me out of it.
Not only did the readers love it but it won a contest.

Here is that comment:

If the epilogue wasn’t added, I believe the story would not have been 5 star story

 

[ElectricBlue]

After some advice please. I can see it's permissible to split into 2 x parts and publish simultaneously. Am I best turning off the ability to score/post comments for part 1, and leaving part 2 for scoring and commenting?

It's a contest. If you turn off scoring, it's no longer eligible for contest prizes.

Why would you do that, anyway?

 

[Inkent]

It's a contest. If you turn off scoring, it's no longer eligible for contest prizes.

Its over 40K long. My logic is that by allowing scoring against the second part, readers have (hopefully!) considered the whole thing and therefore score against the entirely . IS 40K too much to leave as a single entry?? I know there's plenty of readers that won't bother because they don't like the long read, conversely, those that do.

 

[Rustyoznail]

Its over 40K long. My logic is that by allowing scoring against the second part, readers have (hopefully!) considered the whole thing and therefore score against the entirely . IS 40K too much to leave as a single entry?? I know there's plenty of readers that won't bother because they don't like the long read, conversely, those that do.

I got third in a comp with a 36k story. I'd stick with the single entry.

 

[Voboy]

Its over 40K long. My logic is that by allowing scoring against the second part, readers have (hopefully!) considered the whole thing and therefore score against the entirely .

Every experience most of us have had would suggest that is a very bad idea, doomed to failure.

IS 40K too much to leave as a single entry??

Not at all.

I know there's plenty of readers that won't bother because they don't like the long read, conversely, those that do.

Yes. But your odds of high scores after a long entry are good. Your odds of high scores after a split entry are very, very poor.

 

[OffNSFW]

I've done one novel-length story on this site, split into individual chapters. You lose readers with each entry. That's just how it works. You're not going to get more people reading chapter 13 than you had with chapter one.

But, if someone sticks with something for 13 chapters, they must really like it.

 

[TheLobster]

You lose readers with single long submissions too, you just can't see it in the view count alone. You'd have to look at the vote:view ratio, which is a better indications of how many people make it to the end.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I've done one novel-length story on this site, split into individual chapters. You lose readers with each entry. That's just how it works. You're not going to get more people reading chapter 13 than you had with chapter one.

But, if someone sticks with something for 13 chapters, they must really like it.

There's always drop-off after chapter one, but after that you often get variation. It seems many people read new chapters regardless of previous ones, especially if there's changes in category.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

I've submitted mine. Yes, it's early, but for a long time I've submitted contest stories a week in advance, in case there's a bounceback and something has to be changed (although that's never happened to me). While this is pretty much an Erotic Couplings story, in terms of the characters' relationship and involvement, I had a hunch that the site might decide to put it in Exhibitionist & Voyeur, because there's some nudity that would be transgressive if it was seen by another person. So I've submitted it for E&V. Just as well, my stories aren't widely read when they're in Erratic Cufflinks.