The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[cw5523729]

Ok, so I’ve got three stories in this event so far:

Dear Santa in Letters and Transcripts is a kids letters to Santa, and has no sex at all. (Since the narrator is a kid.) It’s got a 4.6 score, but I don’t know why. No sex at all but still Hot? Weird.

Hey, I read porn lit and still love a good Hallmark Christmas movie.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Hey, I read porn lit and still love a good Hallmark Christmas movie.

That's why I combined the two for my contest entry this year lol.

 

[Voboy]

Not to derail the thread too much, but how do you keep this sort of documentation organized and up to date?

I used a wiki for a while, and now Google Docs. They're both okay but neither makes it easy.

I just have a doc on which I list all the titles, grouped and cross-referenced. Then, each story has a background document listing the cast of characters (among other things). I add to those mini-biographies, so the latest story in which a character appears usually has all the salient bits.

So it ends up working somewhat like this: I'll decide that a new idea has legs. That will lead me to dredge up a character or two from the past to help populate the new story. I'll go to the latest background doc that character is in, copy-paste the bio into the new story's background doc, then add pertinent data as the new story unfolds. That, then, becomes the "controlling" bio of that character.

My story features my recurring character Laura a bit, for fans of hers.

One problem with a shared universe is managing the fact that most readers won't be familiar with the back stories that you know, and trying to summarise what's important without info-dumping.

I never bother summarizing prior events.

I take a Tolkien-ish view of this sort of thing. He had tens of thousands of words' worth of background matter for everything that made it into publication, and he felt (as I do) that those words lent depth and resonance to the tale even if the reader doesn't know the material. I am far from Tolkien, but I get the same sense from Irvine Welsh (who also writes in-universe) and there is enough extant material that you know there must be much more, allowing the mind to wander.

Of course it would be easier if I just wrote the sex and didn't try things like 'L has a girlfriend A who is also in a relationship with a guy L is shagging too, and L and her mate R both treat the other couple as surrogate parents, R learning how to do BDSM off A and to be human from the other guy, all goes well until A dumps L and the other guy...'

I enjoy mentioning people in multiple stories who, honestly, have no role other than to be "that one person that other people talk about." My favorite is a character of mine named Gretchen Berry, who is often encountered by main characters but has no arc of her own. Even I don't know what's true about her. The beauty of writing this way is that continuity is not terribly important: it's fine for characters to have their own, flawed understandings of other characters' motives. Who cares if those understandings differ from others?

 

[talemestories]

Not to derail the thread too much, but how do you keep this sort of documentation organized and up to date?

I used a wiki for a while, and now Google Docs. They're both okay but neither makes it easy.

I am looking into Obsidian right now as an open source alternative. It seems super promising.

I used to love the concept of wikis but their time sadly passed. I still think it was one of the greatest ways to collaborate but obviously I was wrong.

 

[ChloeTzang]

I've been tying all of my stories, with a couple of exceptions, into a shared universe as well. It's a hell of an exercise trying to line up timelines, especially at the micro level, since most of my stories so far have taken place over less than a year.

It's worth it, though, because now I get all these ideas of fun ways to play with the cast of characters in the sandbox I've created - most of which will never see the light of day out of sheer abundance of possibilities. It also means I never have to say goodbye to my characters, because they could always pop up again, which is great for my overly sentimental mind.

LOL. I feel like the odd one out here. I just track everything in my head

 

[Lord_Libido]

LOL. I feel like the odd one out here. I just track everything in my head

Same. The good Lord blessed me with a great memory. Never had to study during school.

 

[redgarters]

To my own considerable surprise I have written and finished a short Winter Holidays story. Hoping to post in a day or two, praying to the Powers That Be that the Demons of Pending Purgatory will look the other way. This is not the droid story you're looking for.

If my inner Obi-Wan is found lacking and the story gets transported to a small cell on Detention Block AA-23, then I guess I'll wish everyone here good luck and try to enjoy having a nice little entry for new years or something

 

[Lord_Libido]

To my own considerable surprise I have written and finished a short Winter Holidays story. Hoping to post in a day or two, praying to the Powers That Be that the Demons of Pending Purgatory will look the other way. This is not the droid story you're looking for.

If my inner Obi-Wan is found lacking and the story gets transported to a small cell on Detention Block AA-23, then I guess I'll wish everyone here good luck and try to enjoy having a nice little entry for new years or something

Trust me. Those demons are too busy watching my story edits.
My stories
My Winter Holiday Story

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Same. The good Lord blessed me with a great memory. Never had to study during school.

Yeah, I can remember most of my stories, but also don't mind an excuse to re-read a story of mine.

I'm far from the best writer around, but my stories are certainly the best aligned to my own interests...

 

[ElectricBlue]

LOL. I feel like the odd one out here. I just track everything in my head

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

 

[Erozetta]

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

Three at minimum.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

Three at minimum.

I mostly go off memory, but I'm 17 chapters deep in my main series, plus a handful of spinoffs, and I'm mildly obsessed with avoiding contradictions, so I use a long planning document.

Could I do it from my head? Yeah. Am I too neurotic to risk it? Also yes.

 

[cw5523729]

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

I do it by memory but "working" is probably a stretch

 

[ChloeTzang]

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

Yeah - I a;ways have half a dozen stories in my head at any one time that I work on in parallel and it all just sits there gestating - I work on one and think of the others and hop backwards and forwards - and the old stories just sit there as well at the back. If I do make notes, it's in the story I'm working on and its usually to remind me to flesh out a scene.

The only thing I have a sort of spreadsheet of is story ideas and those are more one liners than anything else. Plus a big backlog of party written stuff I will go back to and look at now and then.

 

[taytay4eva]

And of course the first things I see after flipping through my newly published story are all the editing mistakes and name changes that I missed! Fuuuuuck!

On the plus side, at 4.56/16 it is certified HOT, which is always nice. I'm not expecting to win the contest but it'll be nice to get enough votes to be on the list.

Also, though, this is my first sex-free romance that I've submitted into the "romance" category instead of into the "non-erotic" category, so I'm excited that it's being as well-received as it is.

 

[MelissaBaby]

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

Yeah, well, you didn't burn out half your brain cells before you were 25, like some dumbasses did.

 

[dreams_in_words]

Me too. I read all these threads about spreadsheets and reams of notes and so on, that folk use to record who, what, and when is in their stories, and I'm thinking, am I the only one with a working memory? Good to know there's at least two of us!

Sounds like the fan/editor of George R.R. Martin who keeps track of everything in 'A Song of Ice and Fire' and Mr. Martin checks with to make sure there are no continuity errors

 

[BryanRichardson]

My fourth story for this contest was just published: https://literotica.com/s/chrissie-weekend-in-the-bush in Novellas.

The story also marks the last category I needed for Survivor, so Yay!

 

[Voyeurkenneth]

My fourth story for this contest was just published: https://literotica.com/s/chrissie-weekend-in-the-bush in Novellas.

The story also marks the last category I needed for Survivor, so Yay!

Congrats. You survived!

 

[TurinTurambar]

My entry for this contest just got published this morning. It took a couple of tries and a few false to get a story completed for this, but I managed to get one done before the deadline. And now that it's done, I'm trying to quickly finish a shorter story after a hopefully good idea popped into my head last minute.

https://www.literotica.com/s/sorority-holiday-scavenger-hunt

A story of a festive sorority scavenger hunt. Full of snowmen, mistletoe, and gifts wrapped up only in ribbon.

 

[taytay4eva]

My entry for this contest just got published this morning. It took a couple of tries and a few false to get a story completed for this, but I managed to get one done before the deadline. And now that it's done, I'm trying to quickly finish a shorter story after a hopefully good idea popped into my head last minute.

https://www.literotica.com/s/sorority-holiday-scavenger-hunt

A story of a festive sorority scavenger hunt. Full of snowmen, mistletoe, and gifts wrapped up only in ribbon.

Congrats and good luck! I've just submitted an edit for my own submission, just a few word changes. Not sure it'll go through, since edits seem to linger for ages longer in submission than not, but I've got my fingers crossed.

I'm trying to get a second story submitted as well, one I've only just started in on, but hey, I've got till December 6 to do it! It's gonna be another Sammi Elf story, and while I can simply publish this month, if it gets published as part of the winter holiday contest then it's kind of in a story collection, which is neat, to me.

 

[talemestories]

My fourth story for this contest was just published: https://literotica.com/s/chrissie-weekend-in-the-bush in Novellas.

The story also marks the last category I needed for Survivor, so Yay!

Well done.

 

[redgarters]

My entry just published, after just the same 72 hours pending as usual. The Do Over is my shortest story and not really a contender for the prize, I think (seems the readers already agree on that point), but I'm very happy with it.

 

[taytay4eva]

My entry just published, after just the same 72 hours pending as usual. The Do Over is my shortest story and not really a contender for the prize, I think (seems the readers already agree on that point), but I'm very happy with it.

As long as you're happy with it, that's what matters! I thought that mine was pretty good, but the score keeps dropping. It's sitting at 4.35/51 right now. Like, it wasn't a perfect story, but I thought it was at least a 4.5l I want to tell myself that it's because I shouldn't have submitted it in the romance catagory, and that it would have done better if I'd just submitted it as a non-erotic like all the other times I've submitted stories without sex, but still. It does wound the pride.

 

[MegaTank]

As long as you're happy with it, that's what matters! I thought that mine was pretty good, but the score keeps dropping. It's sitting at 4.35/51 right now. Like, it wasn't a perfect story, but I thought it was at least a 4.5l I want to tell myself that it's because I shouldn't have submitted it in the romance catagory, and that it would have done better if I'd just submitted it as a non-erotic like all the other times I've submitted stories without sex, but still. It does wound the pride.

Well, maybe you just got a few bombs that will be swept away later.

In other news, my NCR story "Does she know its Christmas" is finally in full draft stage at about 26.5 thousand words, a real door-stopper compared to my other stuff. I'm gonna sleep, then edit and submit it tomorrow. Not expecting a miracle, but maybe it'll do well.