Sorting/Ordering Stories by Series?

[AMWFlovefetish]

I was going to post this in the "How To...?" Section, but saw it was full of other non-technical How To's... So turning to my Fellow Authors for assistance.

I've seen other Authors who categorized the stories they had written into separations by Series or Category instead of just having them all bunched in random order, or order of submission/approval date.

Can someone give me a tutorial how I can do the same with my stories?

Thanks in advance.

 

[RejectReality]

Series grouping is done by a script on the website, and not controlled by the author. There are only two ways to group stories:

The first is chapters. My Title Ch. 01 ( Or Pt. or Ep. )

Things such as My Title Prelude and My Title: Epilogue will also group, though they may not appear in chronological order in your list if you aren't careful with the alphabetization.

The second is to use alphabet-fu.

My Title: A Story
My Title: Back Again
My Title: Catching Up

The "My Title" part will cause the stories to group as a series. If you're only concerned with the stories appearing together, that's all you need to do. If you want the stories to appear in a chronological order without using chapter numbers, then you have to plan it out in advance and alphabetize the titles so they remain in the proper sequence.

The code only looks for commonality in the beginning of the title. My Magic of the Wood series all contain the words "of the Wood" at the end, changing the first word with each new story, and those don't group.

 

[Hypoxia]

Example: I have a story cycle (not series) called A TASTE OF INCEST. Some share the same universe, some don't. Within that cycle are standalone episodes like A TASTE OF INCEST: A TASTE OF SPIRITS. Some are mini-series like A TASTE OF INCEST: A TASTE OF LEMONADE 01,02,03. Another story cycle is THE BOOK OF RUTH with standalone episodes BEFORE RUTH, COMING FAST, and EATING OUT, and a 3-chapter episode DOING RUTH 01,02,03. The titles automatically sort alphanumerically: B,C.D1,D2,D3,E, reflecting the chronological sequence. With such a naming system, I find it pretty easy to keep the cycles and series distinct.

 

[JKendallDane]

I have both chaptered stories and am also now in the process of posting the chapters of a second book of what will eventually be a trilogy series.

It can get to be fun trying to mix in the pretty standard and automatic chaptering the site's program does, with working up the necessary alphabetization required for keeping a multiple sequel series in chronological order on your author bio listing. And God help you if you just happen to have a standalone story or two that shares the first couple or three words of the title you are attempting to work with.

But hey...if we can successfully juggle multiple plot lines and characters that go rogue on you and just start doing their own thing, everything else should be a piece of cake, right?

 

[AMWFlovefetish]

Many thanks, RejectReality, Hypoxia, & JKendallDane for your very helpful replies!

I'll take all your tips into action. But for some reason, when I tried to log into my main Literotica account today, it didn't recognize my password.

When I clicked "Forgot Password" so I could reset it from my email, it said "No such user in the database" -- ! WTF...

But I see my profile is still up, as are my stories. I put a lot of work into the stuff I put up, and I don't want to lose it all and I don't want to have to start another account either.

Does anyone know what might be going on? Has anyone else experienced this today or recently?

 

[RejectReality]

I can't remember the last time I had to reset a password here, so I have no personal experience.

Did you only try it once? With a database this large, a hiccup isn't out of the question. The first thing I would do is try it again. Step number two would be to try it from a different browser. Sometimes scripts that will choke in one will work fine in another.

You might also try initiating the password reset from within the forum, rather than the site. The script here might be more friendly and allow you to do it.

Worst comes to worst scenario, you're still logged in here in the forums, so you could send a PM to Laurel:

http://forum.literotica.com/member.php?find=lastposter&f=7

You should be able to provide enough identifying information to prove it's you, and I should imagine she can initiate a password reset somehow. The bug information with password resets would also be valuable, so keep track of where you click to login, ( to find the password reset form ) what browser you're using, etc.

 

[49greg]

Not strictly in answer to the OP, but a suggestion about placing the stories chronologically that someone on the forum posted a while back, was to start your early stories with letters close to the end of the alphabet, such as "Zebra panties" and follow with gradually getting titles closer to the beginning of the alphabet, "Yellow bras", "X-ray eyes", "Well Worn Wool" Well Washed Sheets", "Way Out of Bounds" etc. This way, the posted suggested, a reader would look at your stories, and your newest would be at the top of your list.

The theory was that your older stories may not be as polished and refined as your newer ones.

Meh, it's an idea.

edited: That's a crazy long sentence I did there.

 

[JKendallDane]

The theory was that your older stories may not be as polished and refined as your newer ones.

Thanks to the Wayback Machine, I have an actual screenshot of my very first story from when it was originally published in 2009. I eventually pulled it down and did a serious rewrite when that story morphed into a chaptered series.

Every so often I pull it up from my files and reread it just to remind myself what the terms "editing" and "proper grammar" mean, that there are rules about using semi-colons, and that things like six exclamation marks and "Imma cccuuuuummmmminnngggg" in dialog do little more than light up a billboard-sized neon sign on your story that flashes "Total Amateur Here!" every three seconds.