The Official Authors' Hangout Winter Holidays 2025 Support Thread

[YmaOHyd]

If there's male/female sex and male POV, I'd put it in Romance. If there's male/female sex, strictly female POV and the thrust of the story is a person embracing their sexuality, there's a case for LS, but I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[Jorunn]

A few of my comments said my story was mislabeled. I used the 'lesbian' tag.. it's a lesbian ROMANCE. So, romance is accurate, isn't it? There are POV changes, one of which includes male/female sex, so lesbian didn't seem right to me... thoughts?

My Halloween story was like this - lesbian tag in Romance - ultimately a happy lesbian ending but with earlier male/female sex. I intentionally toned those down but got some comments those scenes were too brief. Not really a ‘spooky’ tale, I have considered a re-write and submitting it as a new Romance story with new characters, new ending, and only male-female sex.

 

[WittyUserName]

My Halloween story was like this - lesbian tag in Romance - ultimately a happy lesbian ending but with earlier male/female sex. I intentionally toned those down but got some comments those scenes were too brief. Not really a ‘spooky’ tale, I have considered a re-write and submitting it as a new Romance story with new characters, new ending, and only male-female sex.

Makes sense. Of course, if multiple people point out the same thing, it's something to at least consider. I figured people who read Lesbian would be upset at the fact that there was male-female sex. I guess I could re-write and leave that out, but eh, a bit late now.

 

[WittyUserName]

If there's male/female sex and male POV, I'd put it in Romance. If there's male/female sex, strictly female POV and the thrust of the story is a person embracing their sexuality, there's a case for LS, but I wouldn't worry too much.

Strictly female POV, but there's more than one POV. The story features identical twins. One twin is married to a guy, the other twin ends up dating a woman. Including both their POVs was important for plot, non-sex related reasons.

 

[YmaOHyd]

So yeah, I think if you have a POV character who's in a happy hetero marriage, I'd stick with Romance; I think you made the right call.

 

[WittyUserName]

So yeah, I think if you have a POV character who's in a happy hetero marriage, I'd stick with Romance; I think you made the right call.

Thanks! I just know that paying attention to criticism is extra important when several people point out the same thing, ya know?

 

[Voboy]

A few of my comments said my story was mislabeled. I used the 'lesbian' tag.. it's a lesbian ROMANCE. So, romance is accurate, isn't it? There are POV changes, one of which includes male/female sex, so lesbian didn't seem right to me... thoughts?

In general, I think many readers think of a same-sex focus as "trumping" most of a story's other attributes: Gay Male stories certainly work like that, so I'd assume Lesbian stories would have a similar dynamic.

If I'm not into GM stories but I am in the mood for a romantic story, and I click on a "romantic" story that turned out to be GM, I would feel like I'd been bait-and-switched. Because although I sometimes search by tag, I more often search by category.

I am not every reader. But I do believe that paying attention to "trump" topics is important when labeling a story.

 

[WittyUserName]

In general, I think many readers think of a same-sex focus as "trumping" most of a story's other attributes: Gay Male stories certainly work like that, so I'd assume Lesbian stories would have a similar dynamic.

If I'm not into GM stories but I am in the mood for a romantic story, and I click on a "romantic" story that turned out to be GM, I would feel like I'd been bait-and-switched. Because although I sometimes search by tag, I more often search by category.

I am not every reader. But I do believe that paying attention to "trump" topics is important when labeling a story.

I can see that, definitely. I wouldn't want to read a story like that either. I did consider lesbian, but since I included straight sex, I knew it would be poorly received in that category.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

When does a final vote sweep come through, if one does? Just before the winners are announced?

 

[Voboy]

When does a final vote sweep come through, if one does? Just before the winners are announced?

Yes, seemingly.

And there's no way to know when that will be, since there's no way to know precisely when the contest "ends" nor when the winners are announced.

Really, truly, it's not worth worrying about. The chips will fall wherever they fall. The whole thing is quite merrily opaque.

 

[Actingup]

Does anyone miss the old days when the support threads were full of posts like:

“I just lost 2 votes and my score went up .01”

In that spirit - there has been a very mild, gentle, caressing sweep in the last 10 hours, covering all stories as far as I can tell. Six of my stories lost a solitary vote, and one of them was a competition entry (the score actually went up by 0.03 to a whopping 4.38!)

 

[TurinTurambar]

Really, truly, it's not worth worrying about. The chips will fall wherever they fall. The whole thing is quite merrily opaque.

I can actually appreciate the opaqueness somewhat. Having the system being at least slightly unknowable keeps me from getting too invested and digging for all the information. I try to enter the contest mostly just for fun, but if there was a public leader board I'd spend far too much time constantly refreshing it and worrying over my scores.

 

[Voboy]

I can actually appreciate the opaqueness somewhat. Having the system being at least slightly unknowable keeps me from getting too invested and digging for all the information. I try to enter the contest mostly just for fun, but if there was a public leader board I'd spend far too much time constantly refreshing it and worrying over my scores.

The old consensus around here was that the site was making a deliberate effort to foil attempts to game the scores: if you don't know when the contest ends, you don't know when to submit all your fraudulent votes.

A side effect (a welcome one, in my opinion) was to prevent that kind of obsession. I think the best way to deal with these contests is to practice your zen meditation, and realize everything about the scores and results is essentially unknowable.

Nowadays, that lack of transparency can look like just another example of the site's incompetence: every glitch, however minor, is bound to raise hackles around here. But no; that's just the way it's always been.

I think it's unhealthy to obsess or worry about who wins and who doesn't. Quite frankly, the best story is not always the one that wins. That's just par for the course.

 

[MrStill]

In that spirit - there has been a very mild, gentle, caressing sweep in the last 10 hours, covering all stories as far as I can tell. Six of my stories lost a solitary vote, and one of them was a competition entry (the score actually went up by 0.03 to a whopping 4.38!)

I lost 1 vote and my score went up about 0.3 on my newest story.
Maybe they identified a very obvious 1 point troll and wiped them?

 

[Actingup]

I lost 1 vote and my score went up about 0.3 on my newest story.
Maybe they identified a very obvious 1 point troll and wiped them?

This is a secret that they don't like to discuss, but when we say 'wiped', there is literally a smoking, acrid crater at what remains of that troll's house right now.

 

[YmaOHyd]

This is a secret that they don't like to discuss, but when we say 'wiped', there is literally a smoking, acrid crater at what remains of that troll's house right now.

When the first bomb went through the window, Charles Parnell looked up and solemnly intoned, "that's miracle number one."

 

[Jorunn]

It is interesting that early in the contest people hate trolls and one bombs for lowering their score. But at sweeps time, people hope they had lots of one bombs, because sweeping those gives a bigger boost to their scores. Witching hour for me, so I will find out the results tomorrow morning.

 

[RoyalAuthor]

I only asked because I got hit with a series of obvious 1-bombs late last night, so I'm hoping those get removed. Not that I think I'm going to win, I just dislike knowing that virtually all of my stories have at least a couple of obvious bombs that never got swept away.

 

[Purechicanery]

I generally assume I had zero trolls and all the scores of one I receive are people who are genuinely mad about me not catering to their specific fetish, or who saw the typos I didn't pick up until after I'd published and were just furious at my amateur mistake.

 

[Voboy]

I just dislike knowing that virtually all of my stories have at least a couple of obvious bombs that never got swept away.

Yes, I understand that.

You're best off just... not caring. Lol.




Know that your story was good and the joy your readers are getting from it is a priceless reward. All the rest is just gravy.

 

[Actingup]

Yes, I understand that.

You're best off just... not caring. Lol.

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Know that your story was good and the joy your readers are getting from it is a priceless reward. All the rest is just gravy.

That's true, but I think it's okay to be annoyed by the mouth-breathers, just as long as our rage doesn't consume us in the process.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Well, 150 odd stories entered in the competition

And my apologies to the odd author whose story wasn't added to the competition page or which went into pending purgatory and never emerged. These were raised to LIT but the response from LIT on issues raised has been more or less non-existent, which is unfortunare but not something we competition organizers can do much about.

That said, may the best story win, good luck to all, and thanks to every one of you for entering (or attempting to enter as the case may be) a story into the last Literotica Competition of 2025!

 

[Purechicanery]

Thanks Chloe.

Bracing to be performatively mad at the results and how I was robbed and that's why I came in approximately 30th place.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Thanks Chloe.

Bracing to be performatively mad at the results and how I was robbed and that's why I came in approximately 30th place.

Put it down to experience and start writing for the Valentines Day competition!!!!!!!!

 

[Purechicanery]

Put it down to experience and start writing for the Valentines Day competition!!!!!!!!

I've already started my Valentine's Day story, and by started, I mean 'staring at a blank screen.'