The Official Authors' Hangout Valentine's Day 2018 Support Thread

....Just remember: rifle barrels get very hot after firing, so think twice if your characters try to insert them anywhere. ....

Only through a hajji's eyeball.... and then breaks the butt on the next one's skull. That's before he falls back on his kukri and his ka-bar. As in....

...and the only thing that mattered now was killing hajjis. Killing hajjis until his ammo ran out and then he had his knives and his hands and he’d tear their throats out with his teeth, ram his hands into their chests and rip their beating hearts from their bodies, jam his fingers through their eye sockets and suck their brains out if that was the only way he could continue to kill them and he knew this was the end. There was no retreat, no escape.....

That's not the romantic part by the way....NOT your average Valentine's Day romance.
 
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Well, I'm a couple of steps closer. Finished some in-progress work, and completed one of my long edits.

May start trying to nail down my Valentine's story tomorrow. I still need to get another edit rolling before the weekend is over, so I have the time to edit two more on my days off next week.

With the launch thread already up, the possibility of getting this story done in time is slipping away quickly.
 
Well, I'm a couple of steps closer. Finished some in-progress work, and completed one of my long edits.

May start trying to nail down my Valentine's story tomorrow. I still need to get another edit rolling before the weekend is over, so I have the time to edit two more on my days off next week.

With the launch thread already up, the possibility of getting this story done in time is slipping away quickly.

January 19th is almost two whole weeks away. This weekend and next weekend, all next week and half of the following week. You can do it, she says!!!!!

There's no "may" :eek:, there is only "I am"! :D
 
( Pardon my ID morphing )

The idea I have is a long, involved romance with serious obstacles for both protagonists, which are also the inciting factors drawing them together. The more I think about it, the more I think the initial concept still fits best with the Thanksgiving to Christmas period, and needs tweaking to work for Valentine's day.

I'll play around with it, and likely toy with the idea of "Violet Valentine" which I've been kicking around and writing openings to for at least three or four years now. LOL Having broken into that category with a short story recently, and thus having less concern of an unknown readership, I may have a better chance of finally getting that story rolling than the other.

I suppose I could always dash off a quickie in this name, too. If I can't get either of the others rolling, coming up with ideas as RR isn't as difficult. Not nearly as much meat on the bones. Just need a concept and a way to mix up the sex from what I've written recently.

Also, I'm another partial step closer. Just finished the text-to-speech listen of "Serpentine Destiny".
 
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I've never posted any stories on Lit, but I have a rough draft of one that I'm thinking I might polish up and enter in the Valentine's Day contest. I was wondering if there is a specific time frame where posting it is best? Is important to get it posted right at the opening or is somewhere in the middle okay? I'm not sure I'll have it ready when the contest opens and, well, frankly, I'm only considering entering to get some feedback on my writing, not really to win.
I'd appreciate any advice from the seasoned veterans!
TIA,
lilli
 
I've never posted any stories on Lit, but I have a rough draft of one that I'm thinking I might polish up and enter in the Valentine's Day contest. I was wondering if there is a specific time frame where posting it is best? Is important to get it posted right at the opening or is somewhere in the middle okay? I'm not sure I'll have it ready when the contest opens and, well, frankly, I'm only considering entering to get some feedback on my writing, not really to win.
I'd appreciate any advice from the seasoned veterans!
TIA,
lilli

Honestly, it doesn't really matter as long as you get it in before the closing date and time. I've put one on 20 minutes before it closed off. You'll get more eyes on your writing the earlier you get it in but really, mostly its that first few days when your story is new that you get the bulk of the views. # of views will also depend on the category you submit your story under. Some are more popular than others.

Comments and feedback - you likely won't get much in the way of feedback on your writing from the comments, but that said, if you get your story up and then go to the story feedback board, you'll get more.

The main thing is, just get it in :D
 
Really, there's no particularly good time to post to the contest. So long as you're in it, you're getting top billing on the main new stories list that day, and continued ( though limited ) exposure on the contest page for the full duration of the contest.

Obviously, the sooner you get the story entered, the longer you can take advantage of the latter.

It's absolutely one of the best ways to put your work in front of new eyes, no matter when you hit the submit button.
 
--snip--

The main thing is, just get it in :D

Spoken like one of the boys. :D

But, yeah lillianaZ. I've gone in early and I've gone in at the last possible minute with my entry one of the last Laurel posted. Arguably, there will be a longer time frame your entry is available the longer it is posted, but pretty much as long as it's there when people go looking for a little Valentine tail (literotically speaking), it's all good.

Having said that, I admit I'm struggling guys. I've started probably a round dozen or so tales and ended up deleting them and starting over or trying something different. I'm enjoying the attempts, which is what I'm really doing after all, but at this rate I'm starting to wonder if I'm going to get anything submission worthy wrestled into submission in time.

My lastest SNAFU is a weird thing where the gal's Mom (who he's actually interested in) asks him as a favor to ask her eighteen year old daughter out for her first date on Valentine's. (He's thirty-six.)

Got sidetracked on the way to the flowers and shit with an underground David and Goliath cage match and a five thousand dollar take on a self bet. Not too much romance in the air for the guy with three failed engagements and anger management issues so far.

I don't know. Maybe I'd be better off to go back to that Sweetheart and Beau of the National Livestock Show mess I started with back in early December. (And yes, I'm well aware the National Livestock Show in Phoenix, AZ actually happens between Christmas and New Years having been there, done that, and got the scars. But, less than ten thousand people are actually gonna know that.)
 
I have come to the conclusion that writing romantic and sexy while fighting the flu is just not possible for me. So, guess I'm going to at least wait until the vomiting and sneezing (often at the same fucking time) stops.

I can't write a thing when I'm bunged up. I find the snot somehow stifles creativity.

Just moved house and have so much left to do, I can't even think about getting a story in on time. I suspect a messy place also stifles.
 
My lastest SNAFU is a weird thing where the gal's Mom (who he's actually interested in) asks him as a favor to ask her eighteen year old daughter out for her first date on Valentine's. (He's thirty-six.)

I'm taking mine a little slowly to develop the main characters--in my head as much as on the page--and they're talking back. I lost a lot of sleep in the wee hours this morning because they wanted to stay up and chat. They convinced me that they're too preoccupied to plan something for Valentine's Day. It would be spontaneous.

As far as posting times, like others have said it really doesn't make much difference. I entered the VDay contest each of the last two years and both times my story was published on the 27th. I think that just for the heck of it I'll shoot for the same date again this year.
 
Spoken like one of the boys. :D

ROTFLMAO - I never even thought of it that way and now ..... I can't stop laughing.

Been working away on Fields of Gold and now I have to do some rework. My heroine is off to West Point and I don't know anything about that but I lost a couple of years of hot sex when they were going to be at College together. These darn characters that can't make up their minds. The good thing is the start and the end are all done bar a few minor details. Now I have to learn how to fly an Apache as well. Will these challenges never end!!!!!!:eek:
 
I've only submitted one story for a contest, on the last day, and it was probably my weakest story, so I'm no expert on timing.

I would think, though, that it would help to publish early because your story would be one among a smaller number of rivals, and readers, therefore, would be more likely to select it.

I'm determined to meet the deadline this time. I wrote a third of a Halloween story but couldn't finish it in time for the contest so I stopped. I don't want to do that again.

I've got the plot for this one pretty much worked out. As is somewhat typical for me, I've written the first page and part of the last, and it's the rest of it I have to finish.

It involves bondage -- something I think goes really well with flowers and chocolate.
 
I hadn't thought of that, but it's not a bad idea. If I incorporate that into the story should I give you credit?

I'd check out this story first. Bound Especially the tag line. :D A heart shaped butt plug sealed the deal.

It won the Valentines Day Contest in 08.
 
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Since this is the support thread, I feel free to ask a quotation-mark question. is this correctly written, comma- and quotation-mark-wise?

(The guy tells his future lover about the books he's taking back to the library.)

It might make it more clear to say; "Oh, I also read The Girl On The Train," he admits. [Since I'm not reading it in context with the rest of the conversation, this may or may not be relevant...just a thought.]

The italicas came from a "web search" about how to punctuate book titles...so may want to check on that a little more ; "That means you italicize or underline book titles (e.g., The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick) magazine titles (e.g., World, Sports Illustrated), newspapers (e.g., The New York Times, The Washington Post), plays (e.g., Hamlet, Our Town) movies (e.g., The Matrix, Spider-Man II), TV shows (e.g., The X-Files, Lost), and long poems (e.g., Song of Myself, The Inferno").
 
Okay, now I have a question; We were talking about getting a story through the system's spell checker a ways back, and in that discussion I mentioned that I better go do a trial submission just to see is all my many slang contractions would pass muster. Well, they all got red-lined. Obviously various electronic dictionaries are different because on my mac they are all okay.

In looking more into the use of these informal words, there seems to be a sense that these are acceptable for use in fiction, etc. As I said earlier, I think they are critical to the story since it's being written in the first person view of the main protagonist and the slang is the way he normally speaks.

So, anyone have any experience submitting stories with slang and/or contractions? Would a note to the editor make any difference?

If I can't get it through as written, looks like I may not be entering the contest after all :(
 
So, anyone have any experience submitting stories with slang and/or contractions? Would a note to the editor make any difference?


Slang and contractions are common in dialogue. I also use some contractions in narrative. I doubt that it will be a problem for Laurel, but a note the editor probably wouldn't hurt.
 
https://www.literotica.com/s/danica-pt-11?page=3

Geflon spoke first. "Well, I'm sittin' around, goin' through a mess of me duties, when this lad comes in wit' a letter from Griffith. I'ze sick an' tired of dealin' wit' the petty squabbles an' rot, so I tell'z everyone it's somethin' important I need to get to right away. I didn't have no idea I'ze tellin' the truth when I said it.

"Griffith was tellin' meself about the blade ye had discovered in the hands of a stinkin' orc. Now me lads ain't been in a good scrap for a bit now, an' they was gettin' soft. Seein' as how these critters kilt somebody who had been given a masterblade, I decides ta gather up me lads an' see what we kin do about payin' 'em back." The dwarf’s bearded face broke into a wide smile.

Yeah, dialect and slang isn't an issue. LOL
 
Slang and contractions are common in dialogue. I also use some contractions in narrative. I doubt that it will be a problem for Laurel, but a note the editor probably wouldn't hurt.

https://www.literotica.com/s/danica-pt-11?page=3

Geflon spoke first. "Well, I'm sittin' around, goin' through a mess of me duties, when this lad comes in wit' a letter from Griffith. I'ze sick an' tired of dealin' wit' the petty squabbles an' rot, so I tell'z everyone it's somethin' important I need to get to right away. I didn't have no idea I'ze tellin' the truth when I said it.

"Griffith was tellin' meself about the blade ye had discovered in the hands of a stinkin' orc. Now me lads ain't been in a good scrap for a bit now, an' they was gettin' soft. Seein' as how these critters kilt somebody who had been given a masterblade, I decides ta gather up me lads an' see what we kin do about payin' 'em back." The dwarf’s bearded face broke into a wide smile.

Yeah, dialect and slang isn't an issue. LOL

Thanks to both of y'all for the input. I'll do as ya sez, and pen me a note, then send it on in and blame youse both for the mess ;)

RR - That is some serious slang...nice work.
 
Maybe one day I'll start a new thread for short questions like these; they keep re-occurring, and it would be nice to have them all together. I wonder if such a thread could be placed in the AH, or if the Editor's Forum would be more appropriate.

Problem is, each new writer has similar questions, but with no knowledge of previous threads or how to find them. It's up to the regulars to remember the old threads, and provide links to them...
 
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