Reasons why a story is rejected?

[MarkoAaron]

I've recently submitted a story and I'm anxious to see if it will be posted.
I keep checking it every hour or so, to see if it's been posted, pending or rejected

My first attempt at a story was shattered when it was rejected, reason being; "Please fix the punctuation of your dialogue. The convention is that you include periods, commas, exclamation points, or question marks inside the quotes."

Note taken. I felt let down and just scrapped the whole story altogether.
Over the month, I've worked on a new story, careful to check my punctuation and grammar.
I even read stories of a few popular artists here on Lit to learn by example of how dialogue should be used.

I'm an honest person. I know my writing isn't the best and my work is amateurish, but I have the desire to write and form stories in my mind.

I'm just curious. What are all the possible reasons a story could be rejected for?
I know the guidelines of certain topics that are not tolerated.
Non-consent, bestiality, underage, etc.
For those that have had their stories rejected, what reasons were there?

P.S. Everyone recommended finding an editor to assist me.
That's not very easy, seems editors here on Lit are nearly nonexistent or they're just not interested.
I know they are only volunteers, so no hard feelings.

 

[sr71plt]

I think you would have done yourself better by finding out what was wrong with the dialogue punctuation of the first one and learning to do that right. Just writing another story isn't going to fix that. There are some basics to learn in writing, and there are grammar books that will help you learn basic grammar on your own.

I don't see the utility of compiling a list of all of the possible reasons for rejecting a story here. That isn't really what your problem is. That's just spinning wheels irrelevantly.

 

[MarkoAaron]

I think you would have done yourself better by finding out what was wrong with the dialogue punctuation of the first one and learning to do that right. Just writing another story isn't going to fix that. There are some basics to learn in writing, and there are grammar books that will help you learn basic grammar on your own.

I don't see the utility of compiling a list of all of the possible reasons for rejecting a story here. That isn't really what your problem is. That's just spinning wheels irrelevantly.

The first story was a short one. I only had about 3 days in it. During which, I got the idea of a new story.
I was tempted to go head and start the new one; continuing the other one, later.

I've seen a posts of people getting rejected, but not saying why.
I was merely curious of reasons why a story could be rejected.
I'm still new, FYI. Still learning the in and outs. :b

 

[HandsInTheDark]

I don't see the utility of compiling a list of all of the possible reasons for rejecting a story here. That isn't really what your problem is. That's just spinning wheels irrelevantly.

In fairness, it does kind of suck to work on a story only to find out that it breaks some rule you didn't know about. (I was pretty annoyed when a story got bounced because a character's unstated age seemed young, even though at the end you find out she's neither young nor human.) The rules aren't precisely stated or even that easy to find.

So. No sex with real world animals. No sex or sexual intentions involving anyone under 18. No sexual arousal from killing. Rape simply for cruelty or violence's sake is disallowed. Follow grammatical rules. Avoid copyright infringement and advertising in stories.

Exceptions might be made if they are minor, essential to the plot and the story is awesome. The bottom line seems to be that if it squicks Laurel enough it will be rejected. She's fairly squick-proof, but don't go near that under-18 rule.

This may help you: http://www.grammarbook.com/ . There are online grammar and punctuation checkers; if you can't get past them, don't submit here.

 

[sr71plt]

There are very few limits here, Hands. I don't think you should be surprised by the content ones that exist. On something like dialogue punctuation, though, there isn't a reason in hell if you want to write and post for others to read not to learn the basics yourself before you go public with your writing. The OP's stated response to being rejected for that wasn't to clean it up, it was to just write another one. That's hardly getting the point of the rejection.

 

[NotWise]

The OP's stated response to being rejected for that wasn't to clean it up, it was to just write another one. That's hardly getting the point of the rejection.

The OP did say that the correction was noted, so I assumed that he incorporated it into his second story. Correcting the original story to get it accepted might have been a more useful exercise.

I've heard other new author's talk about their story being rejected for what seem like relatively minor violations. Maybe in Laurel's quest for consistent format getting punctuation inside the quotes is more important than it sounds to me. I sometimes wonder if the stories rejected for seemingly minor problems actually had a plethora of other problems, and Laurel simply picked a clear case as her justification rather than trying to detail everything.

 

[MarkoAaron]

There are very few limits here, Hands. I don't think you should be surprised by the content ones that exist. On something like dialogue punctuation, though, there isn't a reason in hell if you want to write and post for others to read not to learn the basics yourself before you go public with your writing. The OP's stated response to being rejected for that wasn't to clean it up, it was to just write another one. That's hardly getting the point of the rejection.

Whoa, relax! My first story was bad, I pointed that out. It was rejected for bad punctuation.

I didn't jump right into working on a new story. I studied up and learned how to use dialogue.
I read stories where characters conversed, to get a feel for it.

My story that was rejected, was okay, but I was interested with my new idea.
I threw my first one to the side and started making notes for my new story.

I read stories and went on different sites to learn more about grammar. I even read the "How to make your characters talk" by Whispersecret.

I was just curious about what could stop a story from being posted.

I got the point of the rejection, that's why I studied before I began writing again.

If this post irks you, then please ignore it.

 

[MarkoAaron]

The OP did say that the correction was noted, so I assumed that he incorporated it into his second story. Correcting the original story to get it accepted might have been a more useful exercise.

I've heard other new author's talk about their story being rejected for what seem like relatively minor violations. Maybe in Laurel's quest for consistent format getting punctuation inside the quotes is more important than it sounds to me. I sometimes wonder if the stories rejected for seemingly minor problems actually had a plethora of other problems, and Laurel simply picked a clear case as her justification rather than trying to detail everything.

That's what I mean. There are plenty of other stories that have been rejected. It made me wonder what all the reasons could be for all these stories being rejected. As though punctuation had to be incredibly flawless in order to be posted.

Like I said, I'm still new. I don't know who decides if a story is posted or what those people are like. Reading the forums, it seems Laurel has a reputation that goes both ways. I've never spoke to her, so I'm not gonna assume anything, but I do notice what others are saying.

 

[NotWise]

Reading the forums, it seems Laurel has a reputation that goes both ways. I've never spoke to her, so I'm not gonna assume anything, but I do notice what others are saying.

Laurel is the sole content editor and the goddess queen of Literotica. She's been doing it for a long time (Lit is an old site) and she knows what she wants. People are sometimes going to react negatively to her decisions, and they will say so. I doubt that keeps her up at night.

If you disagree with Laurel's standards then you can post to other sites with different (usually lower) standards.

 

[MarkoAaron]

Laurel is the sole content editor and the goddess queen of Literotica. She's been doing it for a long time (Lit is an old site) and she knows what she wants. People are sometimes going to react negatively to her decisions, and they will say so. I doubt that keeps her up at night.

If you disagree with Laurel's standards then you can post to other sites with different (usually lower) standards.

Like I said, I don't know her. There are lower standard sites that can post erotic work, I've noticed Amazon will let about anybody post on there. I found stories that had misspelled words in the first paragraph. I guess Amazon doesn't have a proofread system.

I know on Amazon; authors can make money, but I'd like to stay on a website where stories are the main focus. Besides, your story is more likely to be read by more people on here than it would on Amazon.

 

[sr71plt]

Whoa, relax! My first story was bad, I pointed that out. It was rejected for bad punctuation.

I didn't jump right into working on a new story. I studied up and learned how to use dialogue.
I read stories where characters conversed, to get a feel for it.

As noted, Laurel has standards about such things and others meet the standards. In the long run you should be pleased to have learned to do it better.

I don't think that suggesting that Literotica lower its standards because other Web sites have lower standards is going to get much traction here.

My main question on the dialogue punctuation issue is whether British style, which is different from U.S. style, is being taken into account. The Web site uses U.S. style.

 

[MarkoAaron]

As noted, Laurel has standards about such things and others meet the standards. In the long run you should be pleased to have learned to do it better.

I don't think that suggesting that Literotica lower its standards because other Web sites have lower standards is going to get much traction here.

My main question on the dialogue punctuation issue is whether British style, which is different from U.S. style, is being taken into account. The Web site uses U.S. style.

I wasn't suggesting Literotica lower its standards. I was just pointing out that I knew of websites that accept lower quality work. Amazon for example. Please don't put words in my mouth, it's not very polite...

 

[sr71plt]

I wasn't suggesting Literotica lower its standards. I was just pointing out that I knew of websites that accept lower quality work. Amazon for example. Please don't put words in my mouth, it's not very polite...

What did you mean if not that? I don't think I'm putting words in your mouth. Why did you bring it up if a different interpretation was to be made of it other than the one I made? What does it matter to Literotica if others have lower standards--and what does it have to do with what you want to do on Literotica?

Sorry, but I think your taking umbrage is just bluster. I don't see another interpretation of what you posted.

Maybe at this point you should just leave bad enough alone.

 

[MarkoAaron]

What did you mean if not that? I don't think I'm putting words in your mouth. Why did you bring it up if a different interpretation was to be made of it other than the one I made? What does it matter to Literotica if others have lower standards--and what does it have to do with what you want to do on Literotica?

Sorry, but I think your taking umbrage is just bluster. I don't see another interpretation of what you posted.

You've misquoted me in a few of your comments. The whole "lower standards" discussion was between NotWise and I, discussing that there are other erotic sites that have lower standards.

In your comment, you said "I don't think that suggesting that Literotica lower its standards because other Web sites have lower standards is going to get much traction here."

No one was suggesting that Literotica lower its standards.

I think you need to lower your opinion of yourself.

 

[JackLuis]

You've misquoted me in a few of your comments. The whole "lower standards" discussion was between NotWise and I, discussing that there are other erotic sites that have lower standards.

In your comment, you said "I don't think that suggesting that Literotica lower its standards because other Web sites have lower standards is going to get much traction here."

No one was suggesting that Literotica lower its standards.

I think you need to lower your opinion of yourself.

Save your pixels MarkoAaron, we've been telling him that for years.

I've put up some pretty bad stories myself when I first started on Lit. Self editing is the hard part of this hobby. You might try the editors forum to see if you can get some help, even a beta reader can help with the general errors.

If I could find a keyboard that didn't miss word spaces it would help a good deal. Thank god for spell check!

Just keep at it and don't get discouraged,.. yet.

 

[Ewobbit]

OP, I'll just say this, and take it with a grain of salt.

My first submitted story, under another pseudonym obviously, was rejected. The reason was listed as spelling. I came to the boards and bitched and someone mentioned the volunteer editors. I figured what the hell and picked one and sent it to him.

He sent it back with only two possible errors highlighted; "runneled" and "playa lake".

I looked them up to double check and they were correct. So, I resubmitted. And was rejected.

What the hell?

So, I picked a different editor and sent it to them. They highlighted the same two words. And that was all.

I changed "runneled" to "runnelled" as an equally acceptable spelling according to the Oxford Dictionary, but I left "playa lake" alone since it is the only acceptable spelling.

And submitted again. And was rejected again.

I tried twice more with two more editors who didn't even highlight those two words and couldn't find a thing wrong although I pointed out that it was rejected and cited the reason. After each one, I submitted again and was rejected again.

Four editors looked at it and could not find a mistake.

I sat on it for a year. I wasn't idle, but I didn't submit anything else I scribbled.

Then, one year later, I pulled up that story and read it. And still couldn't find anything wrong.

On a whim, I decided to change "runnelled" to "ran in rivulets" and "playa lake" to "pond" and resubmitted and was accepted with only those two changes.

Any time someone new discovers that story and sends me a comment, I always think "Thank you. But..."

However, I do tend to watch out for archaic phrasing and local colloquialisms in everything I've written since.

At the end of the day, we are kids taking a picture to our teacher, Ms. Laurel. It's up to her whether she chooses to hang it on her desk or not. And trust me, some that she has hung are finger paintings (myself for example) with few Salvador Dali or Van Gogh.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

The submissions process is what it is, and what it is is less than ideal. I learned the hard way not to submit .rtf files - the submission page takes them, but the site doesn't use an automated tool to convert them, and whoever does them by hand routinely messes up italics. (And this is odd, because a simple macro in Word will get you a replace command that replaces foo with <i>foo</i>). Bottom line, a .rtf takes longer to get visible and more often than not ends up damaged.

Rejections also seem somewhat random at times. Put differently, they are what you'd expect from a single person making hurried decisions.

As for "playa lake", any story that needs one is going to be an interesting story almost by definition; I think in your case I'd have contacted Laurel and cited the term in wikipedia. No one should have to abandon a term that descriptive for the generic "pond". Laurel can be reasoned with.

I do think the site owes the writers a list of misspelled words, when rejecting a story on spelling. Assuming they are using an automated tool to check spelling, that seems possible and reasonable. Maybe in the Glorious New Website, Coming This Year...

 

[Hypoxia]

I only submit pasted text and have had no problems there.

I don't think I've ever had a spelling approval issue -- and I use many obscure words and spellings. "Ma'am, you discomfit me!" I use many non-Anglish words but usually italicize them and often give translations. "Sí, todo listo, everything is ready." I'm pretty strict on getting my orthography right.

I think first-time authors get a closer scrutiny than us grizzled veterans. [/me cocks coonskin cap] My first submissions were rejected too. Gotta get the experience, kids.

 

[CharlieB4]

Know the Feelng

I've recently submitted a story and I'm anxious to see if it will be posted.
I keep checking it every hour or so, to see if it's been posted, pending or rejected

My first attempt at a story was shattered when it was rejected, reason being; "Please fix the punctuation of your dialogue. The convention is that you include periods, commas, exclamation points, or question marks inside the quotes."

Note taken. I felt let down and just scrapped the whole story altogether.
Over the month, I've worked on a new story, careful to check my punctuation and grammar.
I even read stories of a few popular artists here on Lit to learn by example of how dialogue should be used.

I'm an honest person. I know my writing isn't the best and my work is amateurish, but I have the desire to write and form stories in my mind.

I'm just curious. What are all the possible reasons a story could be rejected for?
I know the guidelines of certain topics that are not tolerated.
Non-consent, bestiality, underage, etc.
For those that have had their stories rejected, what reasons were there?

P.S. Everyone recommended finding an editor to assist me.
That's not very easy, seems editors here on Lit are nearly nonexistent or they're just not interested.
I know they are only volunteers, so no hard feelings.

Your first story experience is similar to mine. My first effort was rejected three times, spelling and punctuation were given as the reasons. I knew my grammar was shit and I discovered I couldn't proof read to save myself. I left it alone and started another completely different idea but came back to it and rewrote it later.

My savior was the volunteer editor program. It took a while to get a response but eventually I found someone to help me. Even edited my first attempts were very rough as the editor was learning too. She helped me out with my first five stories then moved on. I'd recommend continuing to try the VEP. It takes longer to get one when you are a first time author but if you get some decent scores it gets easier.

I did learnt a valuable lesson with my efforts. I got an editor but didn't re-read the story after they'd edited it before posting. He'd just run it through a dodgy spell check/grammar computer program which butchered it. Still it got posted which surprised me.

I think we've all read stories with glaring errors and wondered how the hell they got through when ours had been rejected. I was curious so I tried a little ruse to test a theory. I wrote a short piece but didn't get it edited. When I submitted it I wrote in the notes field that it had been edited by a fictitious person. It was posted without a problem however I got flamed in the comments for the number of basic errors it contained. I proved a theory and also realized I still have terrible spelling and grammar and I can't proof read for shit.

I've had another story rejected because it contained sex with someone under eighteen. (It was a female teacher having sex with a student.) In Australia the age of consent is sixteen. The editor apologized profusely for forgetting that rule. We revised the story together and lifted the guys age to eighteen however we missed one line where he competed in a sixteen years swim race. The story was reported and pulled by the administrator, I changed that line and it was reposted and became my first H story.

Anyway my advice just keep trying with your writing and the volunteer editors.

CharlieB4

 

[sr71plt]

I don't think I've ever had a spelling approval issue -- and I use many obscure words and spellings. "Ma'am, you discomfit me!" I use many non-Anglish words but usually italicize them and often give translations. "Sí, todo listo, everything is ready." I'm pretty strict on getting my orthography right.

Neither have I and I use a lot of exotic terms. I'm surprised that stories would be rejected for a couple of misspellings or questionable words.

 

[karaline]

when i first started writing i came across the volunteer editor scheme, I emailed half a dozen of the people on the list. I think one of them replied to tell me she couldn't fit me in, the others didn't which was tricky -because I spent days wondering about etiquette. How long do you wait before you ask someone else? In the end I gave up I submitted my first story unedited and it was also rejected for dialogue punctuation.

To be fair i hadn't punctuated my dialogue at all, i had wondered while i was writing it whether one needed to but as all mine was quite brief so instead of checking i decided not to bother. With the rejection not they included a link to a very helpful guide on how to punctuate dialogue, i fixed the dialogue and resubmitted with a small note at the end of the story asking for an editor -i was inundated with offers.

I think you should fix up the dialogue and resubmit you're original piece, the writing maybe shoddy or amateurish, but some readers don't seem to mind that too much if the story appeals to them. You may get some helpful feed back that helps you improve your writing. its possible that you're overly critical of your own work (no bad thing) and in fact its not that terrible. The worst thing that can happen is you'll have evidence of how your writing was when you started, something to look back on and wince at.

best of luck what ever you decide to do.

 

[Hypoxia]

One impetus for my writing for LIT was having read stories with absolutely horrible grammar and orthography but compelling plotlines. I wanted so much to edit those fuckers so they were RIGHT. Then I thought, "Hey, I can do better!" And here I am. Grammar Nazis bother me little. Primitive spell-checkers are my friends. I've not been rejected lately. Whew.

 

[peyskip]

Don't get discouraged. The issue of punctuation is important, but it's a matter of conforming to the style sheet. It doesn't mean that you wrote a bad story. Read the criticism and. Learn. Don't feel bad.