The SCOURIES reader – for both fans and serious scholars…

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scouries

Literotica's #1 Author
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Apr 5, 2005
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4,989
[size=+2]THREADMASTERS STATEMENT OF INTENT[/size]​

…I’ve received thousands of requests from readers on various topics over the last two years. After much musing on the subject I’ve decided to start this thread that I hope will offer my fans some insight into both my stories and the Literotica site in general. At the same time I hope that what follows here will also turn out to be a gold mine of information for future generations of serious English Erotic Literature scholars.

On this thread I hope to (among other things):

* Reproduce reviews and critiques of my stories that have appeared here and elsewhere,
* Give updates on worldwide sales and vote figures of my work,
* Comment on important political questions of the day,
* Help improve this site by giving timely advice to Manu and Laurel,
* Publish my picks for winners of various Literotica contests,
* Discuss advanced sexual techniques,
* Share e-mails I’ve received from my fans,
* Help fix the shambles that is the Contest system at Literotica,
* Give advice to aspiring young authors,
* Pose the hard questions we all have for our leaders,
* Preview coming ‘Scouries’ stories,
* Analyze and do my best to solve issues that are perplexing Literotica authors,

And of course finally, to provide background information on my stories. To take the reader behind the scenes, to give him or her an insight into the genesis of my plots and my characters. To give the reader the real story and talk about the real people who inspired and appeared in my greatest works.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO POST FEEDBACK ON THIS THREAD​
Or if you prefer e-mail it to me. I'd love to hear your feelings on both my written works and my ideas and suggestions for improvements to the site.

to be continued – jrs
 
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New story out

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Numbers

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our leaders

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20.gif
 
Wow, you must be incredibly important...

Who are you again?
 
As a total newbie, I have to ask: Is this guy serious?

Because, I mean: My god, it's full of stars.

Scouries -

The highfalutin tone of your words will make it hard for anyone to take you seriously as a voice of authority. Consider your audience, please. :)

Furthermore, this is at its heart a discussion board. Making it so that people cannot have discussions is counterproductive to its intent, and forbidding people from posting on the thread won't really get you readers.

You may be the next D.H. Lawrence, but humility will get you further than condescension.
 
fcdc said:
As a total newbie, I have to ask: Is this guy serious?

Because, I mean: My god, it's full of stars.

Scouries -

The highfalutin tone of your words will make it hard for anyone to take you seriously as a voice of authority. Consider your audience, please. :)

Furthermore, this is at its heart a discussion board. Making it so that people cannot have discussions is counterproductive to its intent, and forbidding people from posting on the thread won't really get you readers.

You may be the next D.H. Lawrence, but humility will get you further than condescension.

Oh, he takes himself quite seriously, I promise you. :D
 
cloudy said:
Oh, he takes himself quite seriously, I promise you. :D

Kind of fun to watch, huh? :D I like your laughy smiley thingy.
 
scouries said:
Ex-Con’s Cock by scouries

Reviewed! Repasting review here:

I am not the target audience for this story, as incest does nothing for me. I enter this review only as a fair critique of your writing, subject matter aside:

Your setting is not bad. Being originally from upstate New York myself, nothing seemed out of question as far as that. You pay attention to the surroundings, and it shows.

Your writing is fairly solid, although weakened in parts by cheesiness like "nooooo" and "yesssss" and whatnot. As a well-formed piece, the story fails because of executional errors like that, and various other nits. It could have used an editor going through with a fine-toothed comb.

Maddy's transition via Stockholm syndrome is unconvincing. She adjusts too well. While you do not show the situation from her POV, she would be reacting far differently than she reacts. She did not feel like a real character to me, but a device to drive the story along, built on cliched expectations of teenage characters.

Perry's behavior as an ex-con is also unbelievable. He reacts precisely as the plot dictates him to react, not as a believable character: When he wants sex, he takes it, and when he's supposedly faced with a moral crisis, he's crushed by it temporarily. Human beings do not react like that; people who are conquerors (as I imagine Perry is, as he has been portrayed in your story) remain conquerors, and do not transform temporarily into milquetoasts and then back again into conquerors.

The writing style itself feels serviceable and pedestrian. While there are no glaring errors besides missing commas and the like, there is also no sense of an authorial voice. I would encourage you to develop a distinct voice, as it didn't come through here.

I hope this helps.
 
Serious Question for Mr Scouries

scouries said:
Numbers…

…to start off I thought I’d post some numbers relating to SCOURIES WORLD. I’ve always thought the site would be vastly improved if we just did away with the worshipped red [size=+2]H’s[/size] and simply listed the number of views, votes, and average rating next to each story on the various authors home page. I believe this would reduce much of the bickering and complaining about low scores and trolls. *snip*(my bold)

Why did you leave off your average rating?
And a request: Could you please provide links to each story, so we can go straight to them?
 
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Starkkers, here is the story he had advertised.

I reviewed it fairly, and I encourage others to do the same, as scouries seems to be desirous of our attention. (I am a critic; ask starkkers herself if you doubt me!)
 
Hats off to you Scouries. I wish it had been me. Oh you are the clever one.

Madonna, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and now Scouries. I don't care what you think about me he says with a smile, as long as you give me those views and votes.

The bottom line of course is dual in nature.

First, is the stuff actually good regardless of votes or views. I will never know for I will never view.

Second, will anyone pay for it. Votes are actually only genuine when there is money involved. If you are divine what have you published that actually has a pay check?

But who cares -- right -- Ah the rush of the conflagration, the excitement, contraversy, and of course traffic.

What better stroke story then the heady euporia of story feedback for rousing the crowd. No actual critique is needed. Why should that matter. Hats off to you my friend. You are so much smarter and craftier than I could ever hope to be.

My only problem is singular. Why the concern over traffic? Isn't the writing enough?

Or does the winner of votes actually get a tangible prize? I am too new in this world. If so, then double the accolades for you have achieved much.
 
story review

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Literotica contests

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scouries said:
I think some of you missed this request on my previous posts:
PLEASE DO NOT POST REPLIES ON THIS THREAD​

I think you missed this: we don't care. :D

btw: I certainly don't live and die by any votes, unlike you. I can't remember the last time I checked mine.

It might be time for you to break out the little tinfoil hat, though.
 
Suggestions

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Suggestion...

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Story review revisited...

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I don't have time to offer my reviews to these stories at the moment, as I'm studying. I will gladly get back to them after finals! I hope you're excited to receive my reviews!

However, I will give you some advice on how to write a blurb. It seems you need it:

scouries said:
by one of Literoticas best young, male, non-deviant, heterosexual authors.
... oh boy. Dude, you're into one of the major taboos out there, incest. I wouldn't be so quick to label yourself as straight and narrow. You're also missing an apostrophe.

This riveting tale, set in West Lafayette, Indiana, and just a stones throw away from the graceful buildings of America’s best engineering school, explores the consequences of a simple accident on the life of a twenty-one year old married, Purdue University graduates life.

You need to learn the miracle of the apostrophe, and also the miracle of the n-dash (hyphen), and the miracle of the comma. Your clauses are unwieldy. You need to proof-read. Try: This riveting tale explores the consequences of a simple accident on the life of a twenty-one-year-old Purdue University graduate. I would suggest striking the 'graceful buildings' blahblahblah stuff, as that's not relevant to your story.

The young woman, Allison by name, whose husband is far across the world, in Iran fighting for freedom against the forces of evil, those bastards who’d like to see America destroyed, is innocently placed in the care of her eighteen year old brother.

Holy wordiness, Batman! Allow me to try to rephrase: Allison's husband is far across the world, stationed in Iran. He is there fighting for freedom against the forces of evil, those bastards who would like to see America destroyed. Back home, she is innocently placed in the care of her eighteen-year-old brother.

Will, her handsome brother, who’s always lusted after his nubile sibling with her red hair and shining green eyes, sees his opportunity to finally possess the only girl he’s ever wanted. Can the lovely Allison resist her brother’s unwanted advances? Or will her fiery brother cuckold her hero husband?

To adjust the first sentence: Her handsome brother Will has always lusted after his nubile sibling, with her red hair and shining green eyes. Now, he sees his opportunity to finally possess the only girl he's ever wanted.

Full of romance and tragedy, love and humor, lust and sensuality, this work is a perfect answer to those who complain that twenty-first century erotica doesn’t match up with the work of earlier authors and centuries. This story could well be the harbinger of English language erotica’s future.

Here's where you lose me, and lose most readers with a sense of discernment. Your story is not at this point the future of English language erotica. Claiming that it "could well be" leaves a bad taste in people's mouths, because you honestly come off way too arrogant to live. You need to find a better way to sell your story, something that's true at the moment to its strengths.

A dialogue based saga, this work seems ready for easy transition to the stage and/or big screen. Rumors are swirling in Miami that the author’s already negotiating with a major Hollywood studio and/or Broadway producer. French, Greek and Chinese translations are all well underway.

"Major Hollywood studio and/or Broadway producer"? Bubba, I was a film student for a couple of years in college. Screenwriting and stagewriting are two very, very different animals. You are lying, and it is clear to anyone who actually has even a scintilla of experience in the business. You also have no idea how screenwriting works if you claim that "a dialogue-based saga" is the way to get your work to film. Getting it to stage, yes. However, film does not rely on dialogue so much as it relies on action, expansion, and so forth. Things like My Dinner with Andre are the exception. Even the talkiest pictures have action in them, besides that one.

To those hoping to read this extraordinary tale be warned, copies are just flying off the shelves and those that hesitate too long may end up out of luck. Six day sales as reported this a.m. – Literotica – 59,282 copies sold and 411 votes received. Another unnamed bookseller – 4,143 copies sold and another 330 votes cast in favor. And comments received from reviewers around the world have been universally complimentary.

Define "complimentary." Your "copies sold" implies a purchase, not a view. A view is like someone browsing the title of the book in the bookstore. I've browsed the Omega Code series in the bookstore for laughs, but it doesn't mean I'll ever buy it. A vote is not a determinant of quality so much as it is a determinant of favor. An "omg so grate" review is also not a determinant of quality. If you're writing for an audience, fine, but one-line reviews do not constitute an audience.

I think some of you missed this request on my previous posts:
PLEASE DO NOT POST REPLIES ON THIS THREAD​

No, I saw it. I think you miss the point of a forum. A forum is designed for constructive dialogue and for discussion amongst people, not for some guy to stand on a soapbox with his megaphone and write only about his own stories.

Oh, by the way: I am not turned on by incest at all, and I am a passable fiction writer at best (my background is in screenwriting), but I will bet you any amount of money that I could write a more accomplished story than your first one, with that as the subject (after finals). Care to bet?
 
scouries said:
The suggestion is simply this – Allow every author to put up twelve stories a year free. Any story posted after your first twelve and up to fifty would cost you $10 each. Every story after fifty would cost you $20 each.

Your money suggestion sucks worse than anything else on this thread. I am a student. I make $5K a year (though I have a scholarship for school, so my actual net worth is around $50K a year with tuition and living costs covered). I am not going to shell out $20-$30 bucks at least - going up to $200 bucks or what have you - to post more than a story a month. I am a student with a vast amount of free time. I can type fast.

The way the system is set up now is that people who can post faster, post more. The way you suggest is that people who can pay more, post more. A plutocracy is fundamentally unjust. Free time is negotiable. Income is not. I admittedly do have a vested interest, as I would not - full stop - shell out money to post more than 12 stories a year. Lit would lose my pageviews, which is what it builds money on. If Lit wants to go pay, I would instead suggest a 'flat tax' to be a writer ($10 yearly? something?) and no cost to review. That way the quality of the site is not determined solely by those who can afford to pay lots of cash.

And these ‘survivor’ authors, you know, that contest where quantity apparently is more important than quality? Writing, rewriting, editing, polishing over three hundred stories a year? C’mon!

Lots of stuff that's come out from that contest is probably good. Lots that's come out is probably bad. That's determined by how good a writer someone is, not by whether they're following the contest.

I don’t think this small fee I’m suggesting will cause much of a drop in the number of stories posted. But even if it does, Literotica, with some 15-20,000 new stories posted every year, and its readers, might be better served if contributing authors were just a tad more selective when submitting stories.

Baloney. Presumably Lit makes money off of pageviews, as I've said. It serves them better to have a more active community.

The added cash might:
* allow monthly prizes to be awarded in a timely manner
* free up cash for technical improvements
* allow Literotica to hire someone (part time?) to answer customer queries
* hire more censors to speed up the story approval process
etc., etc.

Whoa. On one hand you suggest limiting stories to 12 a year, and on the other hand you suggest hiring someone to speed up the story approval process? I think you need to read your post.

And hey, if more money is needed for these improvements we could also start charging for posts made on Forum boards.

Destroy the community that has been built up? What a good plan! Why don't all forums work this way? - Oh, wait. None of them do. IMDB does not. Bravo TV does not. SciFi channel does not. And so it goes. Lit has an interest in keeping its members, not in driving them away.

I don’t think it’s necessary to point out the obvious advantages of this pay as you play system.

Oh, oh, I know! Let me guess!

  • Stifling discussion.
  • Permitting discussion to be governed by people with throwaway cash to spend it on porn.
  • Destroying whatever sense of community that this forum, and Literotica as a site, has.
  • Ruining its own financial reserves through decreased pageviews.
  • Driving people away from the site out of frustration at the posting system.

Please tell me, am I close? That's what would happen, after all. You need to learn how The Internets works.
 
scouries said:
SUGGESTION #2 – Improve the way Stories are Presented on this Site
Things like font, font size, borders, titles, etc., etc. Right now we’re failing!


Using Verdana on a website meant for internet usage is industry standard. It is not the standard for print media, but this is not a print site.

Why is 60% of the space on the screen unused?

The human eye can scan significantly less text space on the screen than it can on the printed page. Columns should only be 400pt-ish across or else they will be unreadable. Again, industry standard.

Again and again readers tell me in their e-mails that they find stories difficult to read on Literotica. Many tell me if they find a story they like, they copy it and paste it in their word processing program and then adjust it (change font, font size, etc.) so it’s readable.

They are most likely printing it out thereafter. Print and screen viewing are entirely different. Sort of like stageplays and screenplays.

I often do the same myself, or, if it’s an author I know (for example daniellekitten) I look and see if I can find the story posted elsewhere. It would make much more sense if you could just comfortably read them as presented on this site.

You can read them comfortably, for online viewing. That is going to be more uncomfortable than print viewing. That is the way online views work.

Literotica is designed with valid HTML. That means a blind person or a person on a PalmPilot can use it.

Literotica also validates as W3 standards-compliant CSS. That means that its design structure is solid.

The only thing I see as specifically, glaringly hideous is the LITEROTICA: EROTIC STORIES background, and even that is not that bad, because it is in blue, not lime green or bright red, and the contrast is not as sharp as it could be (it could be plenty less sharp though.)

Other than that, the site achieves its purpose. It needs to be standards-compliant and flexible to upload stories. It does not need to look like Mucha himself designed the public face of the site.

I must admit, that being an amateur when it comes to computers I’m not even sure if it’s doable and how much work would be required to implement it if it is possible.

You need to read up on the way the web works, versus the way print media works. Literotica achieves its purpose as a website and without significant cruft. Trust me, there are far more worse-designed sites on the web. The graphics may not be so hot, but that is not a design critique; that is an art critique.

But isn’t there someway to improve the way Literotica presents our stories? We could use some of the money raised above.

It presents stories according to web standards, designed for viewing on the web. If it wanted to offer print versions, that would not be a bad idea - but it's rather different than what you're suggesting.
 
Have you noticed that both of the stories that he has reviewed are his OWN? Seriously, I thought that I was vain! Get a life, man! This is partially about literary talent and partly for fun. It's not an excuse for shameless publicity seeking!

When you reviewed and bashed my Nude Day story (and bear in mind that you couldn't even spell my username correctly, nor the name of the lovely Miss Nielsen), I took a sudden interest in checking out your stories, to see on what basis you appointed yourself Grand High Chancellor of Lit. To put it mildly, you lack originality. It's mostly incest or cuckold stuff, from what I can tell. No original twists or themes on it, either. I'm a fan of incest and quite uninterested in cuckolding, so this is not about category. You seem to be what someone else called "formulaic". That gets old. It's like watching 8 sitcoms that all make the father/husband look like an idiot: it gets monotonous (which is a large part of why I don't watch most sitcoms anymore).

Your suggestions all seem to be about turning Lit into a cash cow and devaluing merit in terms of stories. Not all of the best writers are the richest, and some of them happen to prefer certain categories. Get over it. Let me guess- you're a trust fundie with an obsessive interest in certain categories that never win. Hence your proposals. Again, get a life!

And the guy who noted that this was a forum for discussion is right. It's not your soapbox, pal.
 
Ooh, Sev, he's gonna so scowl at you really mean-like for posting in his thread.

Do it some more. :D
 
cloudy said:
Ooh, Sev, he's gonna so scowl at you really mean-like for posting in his thread.

Do it some more. :D

God forbid that any dissenters should post in his thread. :rolleyes: ;) :D
 
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