The Official Valentine’s Day Contest Support Thread 2026

[SmilingLez]

What happens now that the Valentine's day contest is closed? Are ratings after the 6th no longer valid? Is there a sweep to get rid of the 1 bombs? Is the judging objective (rating to vote number ratio) or is there a subjective aspect to the contest?

 

[EmilyMiller]

What happens now that the Valentine's day contest is closed? Are ratings after the 6th no longer valid? Is there a sweep to get rid of the 1 bombs? Is the judging objective (rating to vote number ratio) or is there a subjective aspect to the contest?

You can keep voting up until results are announced on the 13th. This gives time for those stories submitted toward the end to acquire votes.

In normal circumstances there is more than one sweep over the final days. But in 2026? Who knows?

 

[MelissaBaby]

What happens now that the Valentine's day contest is closed? Are ratings after the 6th no longer valid? Is there a sweep to get rid of the 1 bombs? Is the judging objective (rating to vote number ratio) or is there a subjective aspect to the contest?

The winner is determined strictly by the score.

 

[Voboy]

In normal circumstances there is more than one sweep over the final days. But in 2026? Who knows?

In olden times, there were generally at least three sweeps: one around now, one with about two days left, and then the big bad one at the very end. But, as you say, in these days? Who can say?

 

[MelissaBaby]

In olden times, there were generally at least three sweeps: one around now, one with about two days left, and then the big bad one at the very end. But, as you say, in these days? Who can say?

This is how I've perceived it in the past. It's that third sweep that keeps you in suspense.

And for those who haven't participated in previous contests, sweeps can significantly scramble things. In one contest, I got boosted from about 4.55 to the mid 4.80s.

 

[TheLobster]

I've been procrastinating way too much on this — including having been chewed on by a 40k+ plot bunny that's only getting started — but in the end I managed to sneak in my story, Backup Valentine. It's 15k of friends-to-lovers in Group Sex.

 

[AbyssalAvatar]

I’m faring much better in all of this than I could have anticipated - I didn’t even expect to get into the list. Been great to read some of the other stories as well.

 

[StrentWriter]

It’s definitely been a great month watching the new stories come in and reading some truly fun short stories. Very much happy to have simply had a go - taught me much for next time!

 

[Trionyx]

A few more hours and days have gone by
With no limericks to read! We cry,
What is it with Em,
Always boffing him?
And that’s why we are left high and dry!

 

[KittyOfSteele]

There are no heroes in love, but there are heroes in keyboard.

Not paying much attention to anything else; just glad to see No Heroes In Love... posted after a while not submitting anything.

 

[EmilyMiller]

A few more hours and days have gone by
With no limericks to read! We cry,
What is it with Em,
Always boffing him?
And that’s why we are left high and dry!

You can take over next year

 

[caleb35]

https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/editing-published-work

and

https://www.literotica.com/faq/publishing/change-published-work-title

FYI, @StillStunned, the website did update my story based on my submitted changes, so thanks again for the links. It did take 11 days to process through the queue.

 

[SyleusSnow]

My humble contribution just went live. (and BTW, it was approved in under 5 hours. Yay, Laurel!)

Falling For The Garage Girl - His sixth grade crush grew up to became a mechanic, despite low literacy. Tutoring sessions draw them together, until a hug ruins everything.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My humble contribution just went live. (and BTW, it was approved in under 5 hours. Yay, Laurel!)

Falling For The Garage Girl - His sixth grade crush grew up to became a mechanic, despite low literacy. Tutoring sessions draw them together, until a hug ruins everything.

Yay

 

[EmilyMiller]

Non-limerick thread bump…

 

[YmaOHyd]

Slow rating day. My second story went live this morning -- Always and Forever. Had a pretty quick turnaround. Unfortunately I had to submit as a docx, and there are some formatting issues in the foreword. I wanted to paste text, as I normally do, but the macro I use to convert formatting to HTML was causing Word to hang, and as I only submitted ten minutes before the deadline I didn't have time to troubleshoot.

 

[SyleusSnow]

Slow rating day. My second story went live this morning -- Always and Forever. Had a pretty quick turnaround. Unfortunately I had to submit as a docx, and there are some formatting issues in the foreword. I wanted to paste text, as I normally do, but the macro I use to convert formatting to HTML was causing Word to hang, and as I only submitted ten minutes before the deadline I didn't have time to troubleshoot.

Congrats on your second story. Any chance that was my macro? Does it need fixing?

 

[EmilyMiller]

Slow rating day. My second story went live this morning -- Always and Forever. Had a pretty quick turnaround. Unfortunately I had to submit as a docx, and there are some formatting issues in the foreword. I wanted to paste text, as I normally do, but the macro I use to convert formatting to HTML was causing Word to hang, and as I only submitted ten minutes before the deadline I didn't have time to troubleshoot.

Good luck anyway, sorry for the frustrations

 

[YmaOHyd]

Congrats on your second story. Any chance that was my macro? Does it need fixing?

Replied via DM so as to not clutter the thread.

 

[MegaTank]

My story An Arrow in the Hand is now up. If anyone cares to drop by and chase away those one-bomb blues, I would appreciate that very much.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My story An Arrow in the Hand is now up. If anyone cares to drop by and chase away those one-bomb blues, I would appreciate that very much.

Yay

 

[anthrodisiac]

Huzzah! Snuck this in, kinda surprised it was approved this fast, deeply appreciated!

The Valentine Debt
Foxy succubus rom-com/redemption/moral gray areas/satire/dawww.

Don't tell my former self, but I'm kinda enjoying writing sweet/emotionally weighty rom-coms...

 

[EmilyMiller]

Huzzah! Snuck this in, kinda surprised it was approved this fast, deeply appreciated!

The Valentine Debt
Foxy succubus rom-com/redemption/moral gray areas/satire/dawww.

Don't tell my former self, but I'm kinda enjoying writing sweet/emotionally weighty rom-coms...

Yay

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Don't tell my former self, but I'm kinda enjoying writing sweet/emotionally weighty rom-coms...

No worries. In spite loving The Phantom of the Opera, my old self wouldn't have thought on writing a dark romance... when that's the only romance subgenre she always went for since Sin City first released. The movie; I came to the world too late for the comic, but on time for DooM. Talk about hypocrisy!

 

[ADirtyPerv]

Don't tell my former self, but I'm kinda enjoying writing sweet/emotionally weighty rom-coms...

I was all about fantasy for the longest time. If there wasn't a sword or a dragon, I wasn't reading it.

I haven't written the word "sword" in so long, and not one of my stories has one. The vast majority are just... Romance (T/I romance, to be clear). My former self would call me a pansy.