Rejected for underage - main character is 28?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Can someone help me figure out what the deal is? I got my first chapter of a story rejected for "underage characters" yet I clearly state that my main character is 28 years old. ???

The only possible thing I could think of, and this seems weird to me, is that there is a brief interaction between a man bribing a kid on the street to go spy for him and come back 5 minutes later. The kid is not involved in anything sexual in anyway. There is another kid, about 13 who moves some luggage. Again, not involved in any sexual activity at all, and appears for only a few sentences.

Do you guys think that's what did it? I was so excited to see this thing go up and now I'm all bummed.

If you want to see for yourself and maybe help me decide if that's what the problem is, the chapter is on my blog, and if you do a page search for the word "Graves" you will come to the relevant section.

 

[lovecraft68]

Can someone help me figure out what the deal is? I got my first chapter of a story rejected for "underage characters" yet I clearly state that my main character is 28 years old. ???

The only possible thing I could think of, and this seems weird to me, is that there is a brief interaction between a man bribing a kid on the street to go spy for him and come back 5 minutes later. The kid is not involved in anything sexual in anyway. There is another kid, about 13 who moves some luggage. Again, not involved in any sexual activity at all, and appears for only a few sentences.

Do you guys think that's what did it? I was so excited to see this thing go up and now I'm all bummed.

If you want to see for yourself and maybe help me decide if that's what the problem is, the chapter is on my blog, and if you do a page search for the word "Graves" you will come to the relevant section.

I think it is what did it.

There is only one person who approves stories here (Laurel) and she is approving close to a hundred a night.

each story only gets a brief skim and she probably saw 13 and the knee jerk reaction was to boot it.

What you can do is in the notes field of the submission process is state the character in question is not involved sexually. You can also click on her name at the top of the forum page and send her a private message with your story name and explain it.

Another thing is...is there a reason these tow have to be kids? If there is that is fine, but you could avoid an issue by making them 18

But I think an explanation will get it through

 

[sr71plt]

If there truly is no one under 18 in any sort of sexual situation in your story, simply send it back with a note to that effect in the Notes box. There's only one editor and she's scanning 100 or more stories a day and can't look at each one in depth. She's also the only one who can help you on this. The forum users can't do anything more than spin wheels with you on it.

 

[DeathAndTaxes]

Thanks guys!

sr71plt - I was not meaning that I wanted forum users to help me directly, just for more knowledgeable types, such as yourself and lovecraft68 to clue me in on what I ought to try, which you have.

Appreciate your quick replies! Off to resumbit...

 

[Bramblethorn]

Can someone help me figure out what the deal is? I got my first chapter of a story rejected for "underage characters" yet I clearly state that my main character is 28 years old. ???

The only possible thing I could think of, and this seems weird to me, is that there is a brief interaction between a man bribing a kid on the street to go spy for him and come back 5 minutes later. The kid is not involved in anything sexual in anyway. There is another kid, about 13 who moves some luggage. Again, not involved in any sexual activity at all, and appears for only a few sentences.

Do you guys think that's what did it? I was so excited to see this thing go up and now I'm all bummed.

If you want to see for yourself and maybe help me decide if that's what the problem is, the chapter is on my blog, and if you do a page search for the word "Graves" you will come to the relevant section.

That might be it. The other possibility - on a quick skim, I noticed that your character has a newly-hired maid but I didn't see any mention of her age. I don't know what the typical starting age was for an 18th-century lady's maid and Google isn't helping, but I'd be surprised if it was over 18.

 

[DeathAndTaxes]

That might be it. The other possibility - on a quick skim, I noticed that your character has a newly-hired maid but I didn't see any mention of her age. I don't know what the typical starting age was for an 18th-century lady's maid and Google isn't helping, but I'd be surprised if it was over 18.

You make a good point, Bramblethorn. I had intended that maid to be about 22 or so, as she is intended for a short spin-off of this story, and there is some implied sex between her and one of the side characters in this one. If it gets rejected again, after yesterday's resubmittal w/note) then I will go in and make sure her age is clear. And if worse comes to worse, I can rewrite the two kids at the port as men also, but I'd rather leave it how it is, if it can be helped.

Thank you!

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Just let her know what"s up, when I posted the first part of Twisted Twins, I got the same thing you did. The difference is, I didn't mention their ages at all, I figured it would be assumed that college students were over 18, so it was fine. I had to leave a note explaining, and snuck in there that they were 22.

 

[RejectReality]

If the under-18 characters aren't anywhere near the sex, there's no need to artificially age them. They may be a trigger for a quick-skim rejection, but if you point it out in the "notes" section on submission or re-submission, they shouldn't be a problem.

 

[FantasyXY]

I am sure that plenty of people will disagree with this, but based on the way my last rejection notice was formatted and content that was included in it, I am pretty sure that the first "read" by Laurel is actually done by a BOT.

I am sure that some stories do get to the level of needing to be read by a human (Laurel), but I'm thinking that the first pass that nabbed your story was a bot that simply looked for certain phraseology. (A friend of mine founded a company that build these kinds of bots and the things they could detect were amazing)

But like other posters here have said... Was it really necessary to tell the age of the boys that ran these errands?

 

[sr71plt]

I am sure that plenty of people will disagree with this, but based on the way my last rejection notice was formatted and content that was included in it, I am pretty sure that the first "read" by Laurel is actually done by a BOT.

Laurel would claim to disagree with you, because a few months she flatly stated there was no review bot (when most of us assumed for years there was--and were telling folks that without the Web site corecting that view). She claims to be dealing entirely with all of them herself.

 

[lovecraft68]

I remember her saying there is not "bot" but there is no way she is reading every word of every story so seeing a "13" in a quick skim is probably going to get a boot and she moves on .

 

[sr71plt]

But like other posters here have said... Was it really necessary to tell the age of the boys that ran these errands?

Wasn't the setting given the Victorian era? If so, the young age of manual workers may, yes, be integral to trying to establish the setting. Not every character in a story should be assumed to be having sex, so knee-jerk reactions to any mention of a number under 18 is really just that--a knee-jerk reaction (especially considering how loose many authors are playing with the 18 card anyway).

 

[Bramblethorn]

Wasn't the setting given the Victorian era? If so, the young age of manual workers may, yes, be integral to trying to establish the setting. Not every character in a story should be assumed to be having sex, so knee-jerk reactions to any mention of a number under 18 is really just that--a knee-jerk reaction (especially considering how loose many authors are playing with the 18 card anyway).

Pre-Victorian, yeah (early 18th century) and even if the age hadn't been stated, it would have been a stretch to imagine those errand-boys as being over 18.

 

[loneeyes]

it would have been a stretch to imagine those errand-boys as being over 18.

There are tons of characters on this site who are "over 18." While the author sets their age explicitly above the 18 mark, their mannerisms and descriptions make it clear they are supposed to be children. It's actually REALLY common. (Especially in the First Time section.) I don't think most readers would have an issue with it, one way or another.

 

[Bramblethorn]

There are tons of characters on this site who are "over 18." While the author sets their age explicitly above the 18 mark, their mannerisms and descriptions make it clear they are supposed to be children. It's actually REALLY common. (Especially in the First Time section.) I don't think most readers would have an issue with it, one way or another.

You may not have an issue with it, but I sure do. I don't read FT much, but I've occasionally found stories in other cats which are clearly trying to sneak under-age content past the mods, and I really don't appreciate it. I don't want to read about sex with minors, it runs contrary to Laurel and Manu's stated preferences for the site, and it risks attracting some very undesirable attention.

 

[DeathAndTaxes]

So the story was approved upon resubmittal with a note that all the characters doing anything sexual are of age. And because of what I've learned from this thread, I'm probably going to include a similar note from the get-go for some of the following chapters, as there are some flashbacks to [non-sexual] childhood events where age is mentioned, and that way I can hopefully avoid a similar sport of rejection-by-quick-skim in the future.

I knew before even submitting my first story that no one was actually reading, nor had time to read, entire stories, and that skimming was what was happening. I guess it just never crossed my mind that it would get kicked back because of an age mention, because of course, as the author, I already know quite well it isn't sexual, but I forget these things that might be red flags in a quick once-over. Sometimes you're too close to your own work to see the obvious. hehe

And yes, I felt that the scenes with the boys were more believable that way. The villain in the story is bribing some urchin to go spy for him. The kid is hungry and there's coin being waved in front of his face. An adult being bribed that way by such a skeevy-looking character as my villain would probably either flat out refuse, or start asking questions, which doesn't help my plot. So that's why the kids.

Thanks again everyone for being so helpful.

 

[Hypoxia]

So the story was approved upon resubmittal with a note that all the characters doing anything sexual are of age. And because of what I've learned from this thread, I'm probably going to include a similar note from the get-go for some of the following chapters...

I use some variant of this boilerplate in all my pieces now:

Author's note: This fictional story includes [warnings of categories, fetishes, turn-offs, etc]. If you don't like [whatever], stop reading. All sexual acts involve conscious humans of age 18+. Views expressed are not necessarily the author's. Your feedback is appreciated. If you like this, join the 1% and VOTE! Thank you.