Is the approval delay actually a good thing?

[Just4Sheets]

I have had 4 stories "Pending" for a while. The longest was over 20 days. During those 20 days I've reread those stories, making sure there was nothing that might cause them to be rejected. And with all those rereads I found things in the story that annoyed me .. maybe it was a repeated phrase. Maybe it was an awkwardly worded section that made me cringe a bit more each time I read it.

Today was the last day. I deleted all 4 pending stories, fixed every little thing about them that I didn't like, and resubmitted them as new. I don't know that this will help the time - in fact I'm pretty sure it won't. But I feel like all 4 stories are better than the versions I had up there.

I know most people probably wouldn't toss stories that have already been in the queue for weeks just to fix them, but I couldn't let it go. Anyone else ever done something similar, or am I just nuts?

J4S

 

[TheWritingGroup]

I've done that in the past myself.

--Annie

 

[SugarStorm]

I don’t think the delay is a good thing, but it definitely feeds my worst habit: pulling stories back the second I decide a sentence “doesn’t feel right.” Give me a few days and I’ll always spot something I suddenly hate and have to fix.

Honestly, reading my earlier work is like discovering old photos of myself with a terrible haircut. Can't stop cringing, but I also can’t look away.

 

[TheLobster]

I see we're starting to move to the bargaining phase.

 

[NotWise]

Rereading a pending story may be why it was pending for 20 days.

It takes a little experience to know when it's time to post a story, but once it's pending you need to leave it alone.

 

[Just4Sheets]

Rereading a pending story may be why it was pending for 20 days.

It takes a little experience to know when it's time to post a story, but once it's pending you need to leave it alone.

I certainly hope that's not why it was pending. I would expect once it was reviewed it would be approved or sent back .. not just sit in limbo forever. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

And if I reread it and things bother me over time .. isn't that just natural? Don Henley sometimes talks about "steely knives" from Hotel California and that it was a throwaway line and he wishes he had come up with something better. I think that's something all writers do. And if I'm waiting for a story to be approved and come up with an improvement like that, why not fix it?

 

[SmilingLez]

Denial:
Maybe if I keep checking, I’ll see my story and my prose approved.

Anger:
Why is it taking so fucking long; this silence feels like a slap in the face.

Bargaining:
If I send Laurel a message or change a sentence or two maybe they’ll finally publish it.

Depression:
Waiting like this makes me feel fucking invisible, as if my effort was all for nothing and my words don't matter.

Acceptance:
I admit that rejection might be final, and I have to accept this uncertain wait.


EDIT: I have a non erotic poem as well as a non erotic story pending.

 

[NotWise]

I certainly hope that's not why it was pending. I would expect once it was reviewed it would be approved or sent back .. not just sit in limbo forever. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

If you open a pending story there's a chance that you will send it to the end of the pending queue, resetting the clock. See this pinned post by Laurel at the top of the forum, including the clarification at the end.

And if I reread it and things bother me over time .. isn't that just natural? Don Henley sometimes talks about "steely knives" from Hotel California and that it was a throwaway line and he wishes he had come up with something better. I think that's something all writers do. And if I'm waiting for a story to be approved and come up with an improvement like that, why not fix it?

That's natural, but the better approach is to hold your story and do the re-reading before you post it.

 

[Just4Sheets]

If you open a pending story there's a chance that you will send it to the end of the pending queue, resetting the clock. See this pinned post by Laurel at the top of the forum, including the clarification at the end.

I believe she said that people accidentally edited their stories. I can say that there have been times that I intentionally edited my submission, and those times the date was reset. One of the stories I submitted clearly showed that it was submitted on 9/1, so I'm confident I didn't change anything. That along with having a decent amount of control over my mouse and keyboard.

That's natural, but the better approach is to hold your story and do the re-reading before you post it.

These are all stories I read multiple times before posting. That doesn't mean that over time I don't find little things that bother me about them. I guess I'll have to live with the fact that I'll never be the perfect writer.

 

[NotWise]

These are all stories I read multiple times before posting. That doesn't mean that over time I don't find little things that bother me about them. I guess I'll have to live with the fact that I'll never be the perfect writer.

Eee. About that... No-one's a perfect writer. We just learn to leave things be (usually).

 

[Comshaw]

If you open a pending story there's a chance that you will send it to the end of the pending queue, resetting the clock. See this pinned post by Laurel at the top of the forum, including the clarification at the end.


That's natural, but the better approach is to hold your story and do the re-reading before you post it.

You hit it on the head. From her post.

To Clarify: Simply clicking on a pending work will not send it back to the queue. However, we have had numerous cases where an author believed that they had "only clicked" on a pending submission but in fact inadvertently saved or otherwise altered it - thereby sending it to the back of the queue. For this reason, we recommend not clicking on or otherwise opening a submission form unless you intend to make changes.

A pending story can be opened and then closed without sending it to the end of the queue, but hitting the wrong button can cause it to be saved as an edit and then it goes to the end. I know I've been guilty of not paying attention in a circumstance like that, doing what I shouldn't without thinking, then later wondering what the hell happened or who screwed up, when I was the culprit all along.


Comshaw

 

[Just4Sheets]

I had a story sit in Pending for 24 days. I didn't come here to whine about it, I came to say there was a silver lining. I stand by that. Not sure where all the "you did it wrong" bullshit is coming from, but I did it right: I submitted my story and waited. Again, I have not and will not complain about this.

Eventually I decided there were things about my story I could have done better. The same thing happens when I write music. I'll be listening to my song in the car and think, "that was a bit awkward .. I should have spent more time on that line." The story was solid as I submitted it, but I decided to kill it and create a new one with some changes. Not to the overall story, but to some wording that I found awkward and some areas where I found myself overusing certain words ("moan" and "throbbing" are good examples).

Now I have submitted my new version of the story, and it might take another 3 weeks or more to get approved. If it does, that's on me .. and I'll have nobody to complain to about it except myself.

 

[Britva415]

Imagine having to open the Pending copy of the story n order to re-read it before it’s published.

I assumed OP was reading the story from their original document, not from a new instance of the Publish form.

 

[Britva415]

I have had 4 stories "Pending" for a while. The longest was over 20 days. During those 20 days I've reread those stories, making sure there was nothing that might cause them to be rejected. And with all those rereads I found things in the story that annoyed me .. maybe it was a repeated phrase. Maybe it was an awkwardly worded section that made me cringe a bit more each time I read it.

Today was the last day. I deleted all 4 pending stories, fixed every little thing about them that I didn't like, and resubmitted them as new. I don't know that this will help the time - in fact I'm pretty sure it won't. But I feel like all 4 stories are better than the versions I had up there.

I know most people probably wouldn't toss stories that have already been in the queue for weeks just to fix them, but I couldn't let it go. Anyone else ever done something similar, or am I just nuts?

J4S

I get what you’re saying, but it doesn’t make delays a good thing.

Especially the ones which are not due to the kind of user error mentioned above, opening the story from he Pending queue.

 

[Just4Sheets]

Imagine having to open the Pending copy of the story n order to re-read it before it’s published.

I assumed OP was reading the story from their original document, not from a new instance of the Publish form.

I didn't feel I needed to explain .. but of course I read my stories locally, not in the pending folder.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised at how many people write their whole story directly into the literotica draft section without having any backup elsewhere.

 

[Britva415]

I didn't feel I needed to explain .. but of course I read my stories locally, not in the pending folder.

Others seem to have assumed the converse. Or, at least pointed out that this is the reason the story approver has given regarding what causes delays.

Yes, she gave that reason, but it isn’t the only cause of delays.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised at how many people write their whole story directly into the literotica draft section without having any backup elsewhere.

...it's me. I do this. I have one handwritten, password protected copy on a device I can hide from my children but once typed up, Lit is it. We share too many devices and it's the only place I can avoid the risk of one of them stumbling across my writing. I do find myself wondering how many others there are like me now that you say it that way, though. *hangs head in shame*

 

[NuclearFairy]

...it's me. I do this. I have one handwritten, password protected copy on a device I can hide from my children but once typed up, Lit is it. We share too many devices and it's the only place I can avoid the risk of one of them stumbling across my writing. I do find myself wondering how many others there are like me now that you say it that way, though. *hangs head in shame*

There can be, like in your case, good reasons for it. The unfortunate part about it, is that sometimes drafts go poof, and then you'll have no back up elsewhere. Although, if you're waiting til you hit submit to delete your backup, then there is less chance of that happening.

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

There can be, like in your case, good reasons for it. The unfortunate part about it, is that sometimes drafts go poof, and then you'll have no back up elsewhere. Although, if you're waiting til you hit submit to delete your backup, then there is less chance of that happening.

I don't delete the backup at the very least until I see the story actually published. But, I'm going with a single example here (and one that if I'm reading things right will be published on the 27th?). Have a good note to self now, though - keep the handwritten copy safe just in case.

 

[Britva415]

...it's me. I do this. I have one handwritten, password protected copy on a device I can hide from my children but once typed up, Lit is it. We share too many devices and it's the only place I can avoid the risk of one of them stumbling across my writing. I do find myself wondering how many others there are like me now that you say it that way, though. *hangs head in shame*

How do you do revisions? Handwritten or in the publishing form?

 

[SamanthaBehgs]

How do you do revisions? Handwritten or in the publishing form?

I revise as I'm typing things up from the handwritten copy as my first wave of revisions (well, really second if you count that nothing gets into the publishing form without being approved by my Master first). Then I go through and do revisions in the publishing form (after having already hit "save draft" a million times as I was typing things up in the first place) until I am happy.

I do copy and paste into a word document that never gets saved to help with spelling and grammar as well, which is especially useful for catching typos (but gets really annoying because my writing style intentionally leaves the first person singular "I" as a lower case to signal the submissive authorial voice). I don't leave the computer until it's pasted back into the publishing form and the word document is closed without saving, however. Honestly, even that feels risky but I've caught too many things this way *not* to do it.

After all of that, my Master also re-reads and I would make any changes he wanted before submitting for publication.