an unusual underage edge case

[MillieDynamite]

You mean, in the beginning, he has no street smarts where I had plenty of street smarts and little book learning when I was younger.

That's a pretty good description. He is disciplined, he is learned. All his "friends" are adults. But he has little experience beyond anything, that has been taught to him. That sort of character is pretty unfamiliar to us and difficult to put in a box.

So he is mature in some areas and immature in others. The same could be said about many if not most adults. Overall, his emotional stability, discipline and intelligence far outweigh his other characteristics in my opinion.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I still don't think that's really the same thing, since Peter Pan is essentially a story about children (the brief epilogue with Wendy as an adult notwithstanding), and Peter himself is canonically the boy who never grows up, while Dune is a story about a character who is a teenage boy at the beginning but then a grown man for much of the narrative. And it's also different since the Peter Pan stories where the characters are adults (such as Hook) are later "fan fiction" by other writers, while the life of Paul Atreides from age 15 to death is part of one story written by Frank Herbert and told in the "official" series of books.

To take another example, I don't think any reasonable person would seriously object to erotic fanfiction about Tarzan just because roughly half of Tarzan of the Apes is about his boyhood—as long as the story doesn't suggest that it takes place when he's underage. If that were the case, where do you draw the line? Any story that has tiny little bit from the characters' childhood is now off-limits?

Yeah, under that standard, Superman and Batman would both be out. And if you write Darth Vader fanfic based off the original movies, and then Lucas makes a prequel showing Vader as a kid, would that retroactively put the fanfic in violation?

The intent of the rule seems obviously to be to stop people from just saying "In this version of the story they're all 18+ (*wink*)," or stories that trade heavily on readers' associations with the parts of the original story where the characters are underage. (So, for example, although Dorothy ages up to an adult in later Oz sequels by original author Frank L. Baum, it's the young girl from The (Wonderful) Wizard of Oz everyone remembers.)

That covers most of it, but I think there's also an aspect of wanting to steer away from stories strongly associated with under-age audiences. Literotica has a blanket ban on stories based on Harry Potter, Simpsons, and "Disney" (apparently interpreted narrowly, the fairytale/cartoon stuff that everybody associates with the Disney brand, rather than all the other stuff that happens to be owned by Disney). There are plenty of characters in those properties who are only ever seen as adults, but you can't publish a Monty Burns/Albus Dumbledore story here.

I haven't seen Laurel elaborate on why those three are banned, but my guess would be that it's about not wanting to be seen as trying to attract minors.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’m glad we can still get away with Simpsons or Harry Potter quotes or references in stories and plenty of Emma Watson adult fanfics that don’t mention her being in Harry Potter. Not to mention adult fanfics of Marvel Entertainment or Star Wars. [knock on wood]

 

[JaxRhapsody]

But in sequels Paul is older.
Ah, the dangers of replying before finishing the thread...

This came up a while ago with Peter Pan. An author here (sorry, I don't remember who) asked Laurel if using naturally aged characters in later works would be kosher. The response was no.

Ah-ha!!!

 

[Wifetheif]

Herbert as a novelist could get away with a lot more than we can in a moderated fiction site. Paul at fifteen kills another man in hand-to-hand combat and, under tribal law, inherits the man's wife and children in that he is now the husband and father. The new widow, after expressing shock that one so young took out her veteran warrior husband quickly explains to Paul that despite, being at least thirty or thereabouts, she is still "Young" and asks Paul if he would like to get undressed. Now that that image is lodged in your head, remember that you CAN'T continue the story here!
(For the record -- In the novel, Paul never sleeps with his "wife" nor does he divorce her, leaving her in limbo throughout the original three novels.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

Real life has as much variation in sex rules as anything you can think of in fiction. The age of consent for girls in Vatican City is 12, but they're not allowed to have sex with parents, siblings, and other "close" relatives. In New Jersey, the age is 18, and then she legally can have sex with any other consenting partner 18 and over, including siblings, parents, et alii. But it is illegal for her to marry any of those relatives.

The moral? It's Laurel's site; follow Laurel's rules.

 

[reynold_biplane]

Herbert as a novelist could get away with a lot more than we can in a moderated fiction site. Paul at fifteen kills another man in hand-to-hand combat and, under tribal law, inherits the man's wife and children in that he is now the husband and father. The new widow, after expressing shock that one so young took out her veteran warrior husband quickly explains to Paul that despite, being at least thirty or thereabouts, she is still "Young" and asks Paul if he would like to get undressed. Now that that image is lodged in your head, remember that you CAN'T continue the story here!
(For the record -- In the novel, Paul never sleeps with his "wife" nor does he divorce her, leaving her in limbo throughout the original three novels.

A meaningless correction: She is his concubine and some time has passed in the story, so Paul could be 16 at that point. And a divorce doesn't seem desirable for her, since being the concubine of Muad'Dib grants her high status and she already has children.

Yes, Herbert could get away with a lot. It helps that he never dwelt on any of the strange sexual situations he created (at least in the books that I have read).

And sooner or later, one of his creations will utterly break my story, at least in regards to Literotica rules: Alia, the OG 8.000 year old vampire loli (she was given the genetic memory of all her ancestors at birth, including her pederastic grandfather, who eventually comes to dominate her personality). Her mere existence in the story would break the rules, since she has firsthand knowledge (through genetic memory) of her mother and brother's secret sexual relationship and that is not something, that can just be glossed over.
Altering her powers doesn't work, because that would break the whole story, unless I want to do a stupid handwave thing, where she has a memory blind spot somehow. Jumping ahead by 18 years doesn't work, because then we're missing a whole lot of important plot. Simply having her not appear in the story doesn't work, because she is an important character and quite frankly I do want to include her in the sexy action, if I ever make it to Children of Dune, where she is an adult and a canonical seductress.
But I still have a lot of time to think about that one. Her birth won't happen until at least 2 more chapters in my story.

 

[reynold_biplane]

Ok, it took a long while, but my story has been approved! I only had to edit it once to get rid of html formatting and changing the category. Here it is:
https://literotica.com/s/ch-1-imbalance

But now here's another thing. It is only one chapter so far, but I already made it part of a series. Otherwise the name would have been too long. But the name of the series isn't displayed anywhere. What do I do about this? Can I even edit the story again without deleting and resubmitting it? Turns out I really dislike the formatting without the indents and I need to make further changes for readability.

Edit: Actually, I left in one of the indents by accident and it is displayed correctly. It appears I didn't have to take that out at all. It's just that the generic rejection message made it sound like that was a problem. Also, do double line breaks not work? Or did the editor take them out?

 

[Bamagan]

Ok, it took a long while, but my story has been approved! I only had to edit it once to get rid of html formatting and changing the category. Here it is:
https://literotica.com/s/ch-1-imbalance

But now here's another thing. It is only one chapter so far, but I already made it part of a series. Otherwise the name would have been too long. But the name of the series isn't displayed anywhere. What do I do about this? Can I even edit the story again without deleting and resubmitting it? Turns out I really dislike the formatting without the indents and I need to make further changes for readability.

The automatic series updates generally occur up to several hours after the story posts. But if it's just the first chapter, I don't think the series generates until there's a second chapter with the same name. You can manually create one from your control panel, though.

 

[Bamagan]

Ok, it took a long while, but my story has been approved! I only had to edit it once to get rid of html formatting and changing the category. Here it is:
https://literotica.com/s/ch-1-imbalance

But now here's another thing. It is only one chapter so far, but I already made it part of a series. Otherwise the name would have been too long. But the name of the series isn't displayed anywhere. What do I do about this? Can I even edit the story again without deleting and resubmitting it? Turns out I really dislike the formatting without the indents and I need to make further changes for readability.

I think I misunderstood your question, sorry. If you've already created it inside a series, there should (eventually) be an icon of stacked paper or something that leads to the series data. The navigation controls for the series will probably not appear on the story until there is at least one other chapter to navigate to.

 

[reynold_biplane]

I think I misunderstood your question, sorry. If you've already created it inside a series, there should (eventually) be an icon of stacked paper or something that leads to the series data. The navigation controls for the series will probably not appear on the story until there is at least one other chapter to navigate to.

Ok, in that case I better put the name of the series into the text of the story along with the chapter name, to avoid confusion.

 

[TimDEnchanter]

....I wrote an Alternate Universe where highschool begins at 18 and ends at 21. I wanted to capture the drama of highschool sex without any of the ickkiness of underage writing...

Isn't this called "community college" in the real world? (Live at home... Few responsibilities... Take three years to graduate...)

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Isn't this called "community college" in the real world? (Live at home... Few responsibilities... Take three years to graduate...)

Yes, sure. But I went to community college, and it did not have even a portion of the drama of highschool. Everyone could drive, you could drop out any time, you had to pay to be there, and everyone was an adult.

Highschool drama generates (I think) from the fact that a bunch of young adults are crammed (largely against their will) into a single location. In my world, 18 year old are still legally minors. That means that worrying about "getting caught" by their parents is a much bigger factor in my Alternate Universe than in real life.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The line is clearly drawn as a rule, @MediocreAuthor, side step moving line deftly away from her story.

Yes, sure. But I went to community college, and it did not have even a portion of the drama pf highschool. Everyone could drive, you could drop out any time, you had to pay to be there, and everyone was an adult.

Highschool drama generates (I think) from the fact that a bunch of young adults are crammed (largely against their will) into a single location. In my world, 18 year old are still legally minors. That means that worrying about "getting caught" by their parents is a much bigger factor in my Alternate Universe than in real life.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

The line is clearly drawn as a rule, @MediocreAuthor, side step moving line deftly away from her story.

I have no particular attraction to 18 year olds, but I do remember being younger, and having strange feelings that I felt the need to hide from my parents.

Also I've heard a number of men online express the emotions that they had when they were in highschool. They were attracted to teachers and older girls alike, and I sought to capture that emotion (in a gender-bent alternate universe)... while staying safely within acceptable age limits.

 

[alohadave]

But I went to community college, and it did not have even a portion of the drama of highschool. Everyone could drive, you could drop out any time, you had to pay to be there, and everyone was an adult.

It was quite a shock to me going to school when people wanted to be there instead of being forced to attend.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Ok, it took a long while, but my story has been approved! I only had to edit it once to get rid of html formatting and changing the category. Here it is:
https://literotica.com/s/ch-1-imbalance

You've cocked up your title and subsequent chapters right from the start.

You should have titled it

Imbalance Ch.01

That way, Imbalance Ch.02 would automatically serialise - the algorithm runs on an alpha-numeric sort, taking off after a common block of title text.

My suggestion is to resubmit the first chapter as an EDIT, ask Laurel to change your title before you proceed any further.

While you're doing an edit, make shorter paragraphs. You've got the dreaded "wall of text", which makes it a bitch to read on a small screen. I'm surprised it didn't get rejected on that basis.

And forget about indents - Lit uses a standard publishing format, which is left justified, right ragged. Para indents won't happen.

 

[reynold_biplane]

You've cocked up your title and subsequent chapters right from the start.

You should have titled it

Imbalance Ch.01

That way, Imbalance Ch.02 would automatically serialise - the algorithm runs on an alpha-numeric sort, taking off after a common block of title text.

My suggestion is to resubmit the first chapter as an EDIT, ask Laurel to change your title before you proceed any further.

While you're doing an edit, make shorter paragraphs. You've got the dreaded "wall of text", which makes it a bitch to read on a small screen. I'm surprised it didn't get rejected on that basis.

And forget about indents - Lit uses a standard publishing format, which is left justified, right ragged. Para indents won't happen.

The full title is supposed to be "Programmed to Breed - Ch. 1: Imbalance". But that doesn't fit in the title, therefore I thought it would be best to have only the chapter in the title and the name of the series seperately. I thought the series name would also be displayed but I was wrong.

How do I even edit an already published story? I couldn't find a button for that. Not even one for deleting the story. What I did, is that I submitted the same story again with some changes and asking in the note to the admin that this story replace the older one.

About the wall of text, well it isn't supposed to look like that. I forgot to add line-breaks after I deleted the indents after the first rejection. And indents do work. The standard rejection notice seemed to imply, that they were part of the reason for the rejection, but that was a red herring. I took out all indents but left one in by accident. And it's still there and it works. So I put all indents back in for the resubmitted story. It looks good that way. In fact, it looks just like the original novel. That's the whole reason why I'm using them.

 

[alohadave]

You've cocked up your title and subsequent chapters right from the start.

You should have titled it

Imbalance Ch.01

That way, Imbalance Ch.02 would automatically serialise - the algorithm runs on an alpha-numeric sort, taking off after a common block of title text.

My suggestion is to resubmit the first chapter as an EDIT, ask Laurel to change your title before you proceed any further.

That's not really necessary. The system will likely pair Ch 2 to the first story without the first one having Ch 1. One of mine that Laurel changed the title to created a series automatically when it posted.

Worst case, a manual series is not hard to setup.

 

[alohadave]

How do I even edit an already published story? I couldn't find a button for that. Not even one for deleting the story. What I did, is that I submitted the same story again with some changes and asking in the note to the admin that this story replace the older one.

That's the way, though you are supposed to put EDIT in the title so Laurel sees it easier. It might just take longer when she reviews it this way.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How do I even edit an already published story? I couldn't find a button for that. Not even one for deleting the story. What I did, is that I submitted the same story again with some changes and asking in the note to the admin that this story replace the older one.

That's how you do it. Any change to a story once it's been submitted must go back through the site editor.

About the wall of text, well it isn't supposed to look like that. I forgot to add line-breaks after I deleted the indents after the first rejection. And indents do work. The standard rejection notice seemed to imply, that they were part of the reason for the rejection, but that was a red herring. I took out all indents but left one in by accident. And it's still there and it works. So I put all indents back in for the resubmitted story. It looks good that way. In fact, it looks just like the original novel. That's the whole reason why I'm using them.

I'm surprised the indents were allowed.

If you look at every other story on the site, there's a standard publishing template, which can be read by any device. While your device can render indents, there's no guarantee that every device will.

html errors and formatting getting stuffed up is one of the most common issues raised here. Maybe you're lucky, but your story is an exception.

Edit: FYI, the title field has a default length of 35 characters. Laurel will allow slightly longer titles, but discourages really long ones, presumably because of layout list issues wherever a title is displayed - which is in many places, not just your story list.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That's not really necessary. The system will likely pair Ch 2 to the first story without the first one having Ch 1. One of mine that Laurel changed the title to created a series automatically when it posted.

Worst case, a manual series is not hard to setup.

Yes, I know that. But if the guy knows he's got a bunch of chapters, putting Ch.01 in the first chapter makes it idiot proof.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Yes, sure. But I went to community college, and it did not have even a portion of the drama of highschool. Everyone could drive, you could drop out any time, you had to pay to be there, and everyone was an adult.

Highschool drama generates (I think) from the fact that a bunch of young adults are crammed (largely against their will) into a single location. In my world, 18 year old are still legally minors. That means that worrying about "getting caught" by their parents is a much bigger factor in my Alternate Universe than in real life.

If they still lived at home like I did; getting caught is a real concern. I got caught once because we either took too long, or my mom got off work early. Wasn't as fun as the time we got caught by the preacher in that church.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

If they still lived at home like I did; getting caught is a real concern. I got caught once because we either took too long, or my mom got off work early. Wasn't as fun as the time we got caught by the preacher in that church.

I mean sure, but there's something unique I feel about that sense of fear and embarrassment until the government recognizes you as an adult.

Basically every in community college has a car. But highschool freshman often can't even drive yet. A big point in the first chapter is about walking home from school. I didn't know anyone who walked home in college.

 

[djrip]

I mean sure, but there's something unique I feel about that sense of fear and embarrassment until the government recognizes you as an adult.

Basically every in community college has a car. But highschool freshman often can't even drive yet. A big point in the first chapter is about walking home from school. I didn't know anyone who walked home in college.

I went to regular college, not community. I think regular college is actually more high school like than community college, where the students tend to have jobs and cars and may be older than 18 when they start. For the first two years I lived in the dorm and most of the people there did not have cars, and we were all a bunch of 18 year olds who'd never lived away from our parents before, now without parental supervision and living together in large numbers, so plenty of high school like drama, just no danger of getting caught by parents coming home since we weren't at home. It's pretty much the same as a boarding school.