Story rejected

[lovecraft68]

You've never said you had a story under 750 words. Piece of cake in editing time required.

I can't introduce myself in less than 750 words

 

[sr71plt]

I can't introduce myself in less than 750 words

I figured as much. I look at people asking for an editor here for what is already 80,000 words and building, and I think, dude, that's 40 hours of editing time right there--for free--if you do a half-competent job.

 

[legerdemer]

I can't introduce myself in less than 750 words

Hello, I'm Mer. Nice to meet you. May I offer you a handkerchief from keeping your knives from getting blood all over the place?

*wiggles toes*

 

[lovecraft68]

*wiggles toes*

That's all I got out of that post

 

[ThisNameIsntTakenYet]

I can't introduce myself in less than 750 words

Exactly my problem as well. If I sit down and start writing I'll have 750 words without barely having a start of a story.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have written 750-word stories, but I packaged them together within a framing device to fill three LIT pages. I have written 750-word introductions to longer stories. I don't think I have any 750-word text blocks -- but with judicious paragraphing, I have 750-word monologues.

I have 50-word plays but I know better than to post them here. I had a number of under-750-word poems and songs up but took them down because possibilities. I have 750-word taglines lying about somewhere but they're pretty ugly. And a 750-word Author's Note (shudder...)

There's the solution to a too-short story: an Author's Note or prologue or epilogue or apologia or doggerel expostulating on your state of mind or whatever. It's called padding.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

I'm failing to see a relationship between a story not meeting minimum wordage requirements and the perceived quality of other stories.

If you want to see the connection, consider the following story (abbreviated for convenience).

-------------------------

He fucks her.

(Repeat that line 249 more times.)

-------------------------

It should be accepted—if only under Ogg's device of giving multiple short stories whose length totals at least 750 words. If you make each line into its own paragraph, it even has 250 paragraphs!

Not to mention an extended relationship that includes multiple sex scenes!

If the quality's too high for you, I could misspell all of the words.

I could even throw in bad grammar by misconjugating the verb!

 

[sr71plt]

If you want to see the connection, consider the following story (abbreviated for convenience).

-------------------------

He fucks her.

(Repeat that line 249 more times.)

-------------------------

??? That's the same story. That's not comparing the length of one story with the writing quality of another story.

Another salient point here, as well, is that we only have 8inthebox's word for it that his/her story is better in content/grammar than the ones being slammed as a comparison with an under 750-word story. I offered to check that out, and 8inthebox backed off.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

Exactly my problem as well. If I sit down and start writing I'll have 750 words without barely having a start of a story.

LOL! Yep me too.
I just checked my Halloween story which I swore I would finish by tonight,but it's only a page and a half on google docs and it's 725 words already! And really the story hasn't started, it's just been the buildup process so far.

I am too damned wordy!

 

[ElectricBlue]

...we only have 8inthebox's word for it that his/her story is better in content/grammar than the ones being slammed as a comparison with an under 750-word story. I offered to check that out, and 8inthebox backed off.

Pilot, you're such a tease! That's priceless.

 

[lovecraft68]

LOL! Yep me too.
I just checked my Halloween story which I swore I would finish by tonight,but it's only a page and a half on google docs and it's 725 words already! And really the story hasn't started, it's just been the buildup process so far.

I am too damned wordy!

My Halloween entry is 32k

But all of my stories are in the 6-8+ page range. Just how I write. I could break them into chapters and go for higher chapter scores and pad my story count, but...I could care less about either.

 

[CoffeeWithMonkeys]

My Halloween entry is 32k

But all of my stories are in the 6-8+ page range. Just how I write. I could break them into chapters and go for higher chapter scores and pad my story count, but...I could care less about either.

I broke my longer one into 4 parts which made it 7 pages here I think, but if I submit another long one I'm not sure I will split it up.

My Halloween one is up to 2000, I might get it finished tomorrow! Could do it tonight but my daughter wants to play the Sims because I bought her a new stuff pack for it today, so after dinner I'm going to give up my laptop to her.

 

[CarlusMagnus]

??? That's the same story.

That's easy enough to fix:

-------------------------

He fucks her the 1st time.

He fucks her the 2nd time.
.
.
.

-------------------------

Only need 123 more paragraphs. (Or stories, if you wanna go Ogg's route.)

Are you suggesting that this is a quality story? Even though it's told in the present tense? (Or that these are quality stories?) I'll grant you that it's probably not the worst story (collection of stories) you can find around here, come to think about it…

If you're not making that suggestion, I can throw in some misspellings and grammatical mistakes. (Do you have any idea how many different ways there are to put a misspelling in each and every paragraph/story here? And let's not even think about grammatical errors, punctuation errors, diction errors…) And I could put everything in the second person:

-------------------------

You fuck yourself the 1st time

(etc.)

-------------------------

Oh, wait! I should throw in a first line that says "They are both at least 18." (Or, for the second anthology, "You are now at least 18.") Don't wanna have my stories rejected because I didn't explicitly comply with the age restriction. Even if I have to delete the current last paragraph/story to keep the word count from exceeding 750.

 

[sr71plt]

That's easy enough to fix:

-------------------------

He fucks her the 1st time.

He fucks her the 2nd time.
.
..

Sorry, in both of those posts, I'm lost on how they are relevant to the issue indexed.

 

[lovecraft68]

Sorry, in both of those posts, I'm lost on how they are relevant to the issue indexed.

He's being sarcastic. Each sentence would fall under one of those 'six word story' type exercises in that writers challenges forum.

So he's saying just do that over and over until you hit 750 words and it would be a story or 150 short ones. So he's just kidding around.

As far as the OP and their claim of their grammar being better than the average story here, well first we'll never see an example of it.

Second, unless they are illiterate they are right to an extent. There are some stories posted here that are barely coherent. Yes, some do get bounced for bad formatting or dialogue tags, but a lot of things get through here that look like a 12 year old wrote them.

So its like any other rule enforced when the editor decides they want to pay attention to a story for more than thirty seconds otherwise its a free for all and onto the isolated blurt thread-the important part of the site-for the rest of the day.

I think the 750 word limit is about the only rule always enforced because its only a glance to see word count. Anything requiring more than a glance for the most part is a free ride these days.

 

[8inthebox]

??? That's the same story. That's not comparing the length of one story with the writing quality of another story.

Another salient point here, as well, is that we only have 8inthebox's word for it that his/her story is better in content/grammar than the ones being slammed as a comparison with an under 750-word story. I offered to check that out, and 8inthebox backed off.

I didn't back off. I decided that I didn't need to be talked down to by someone I've never met, who doesnt see the arrogance in believing that he should be considered the authority on what I write.

 

[8inthebox]

He's being sarcastic. Each sentence would fall under one of those 'six word story' type exercises in that writers challenges forum.

So he's saying just do that over and over until you hit 750 words and it would be a story or 150 short ones. So he's just kidding around.

As far as the OP and their claim of their grammar being better than the average story here, well first we'll never see an example of it.

Second, unless they are illiterate they are right to an extent. There are some stories posted here that are barely coherent. Yes, some do get bounced for bad formatting or dialogue tags, but a lot of things get through here that look like a 12 year old wrote them.

So its like any other rule enforced when the editor decides they want to pay attention to a story for more than thirty seconds otherwise its a free for all and onto the isolated blurt thread-the important part of the site-for the rest of the day.

I think the 750 word limit is about the only rule always enforced because its only a glance to see word count. Anything requiring more than a glance for the most part is a free ride these days.

And thank you. This is and was my only complaint.

 

[8inthebox]

I have written 750-word stories, but I packaged them together within a framing device to fill three LIT pages. I have written 750-word introductions to longer stories. I don't think I have any 750-word text blocks -- but with judicious paragraphing, I have 750-word monologues.

I have 50-word plays but I know better than to post them here. I had a number of under-750-word poems and songs up but took them down because possibilities. I have 750-word taglines lying about somewhere but they're pretty ugly. And a 750-word Author's Note (shudder...)

There's the solution to a too-short story: an Author's Note or prologue or epilogue or apologia or doggerel expostulating on your state of mind or whatever. It's called padding.

I understand the concept of padding. I'm not an idiot. Comments like this which talk down at me are the sole reason that I haven't just posted the story here. I don't feel a desire to prove myseld to people who for some reason feel they somehow have the stroke to talk down at people they don't know.

 

[oggbashan]

I understand the concept of padding. I'm not an idiot. Comments like this which talk down at me are the sole reason that I haven't just posted the story here. I don't feel a desire to prove myseld to people who for some reason feel they somehow have the stroke to talk down at people they don't know.

The posts on this thread are very mild compared with the responses you would receive on the General Board.

If you have been offended by some responses to this thread, please think hard before putting any of your stories on Literotica. Anonymous comments and 1-bombs would be far more hurtful. Authors have to develop a thick skin to cope with the readers' reactions.

 

[8inthebox]

The posts on this thread are very mild compared with the responses you would receive on the General Board.

If you have been offended by some responses to this thread, please think hard before putting any of your stories on Literotica. Anonymous comments and 1-bombs would be far more hurtful. Authors have to develop a thick skin to cope with the readers' reactions.

Thank you. I totally understand that. I have no problem with people critiquing my work. I feel differently about people who talk down to me as though they're somehow better than me. The inevitable trolling, I am not worried about. Other authors trolling me under the pretense of constructive feedback, I take offense to.

 

[oggbashan]

Thank you. I totally understand that. I have no problem with people critiquing my work. I feel differently about people who talk down to me as though they're somehow better than me. The inevitable trolling, I am not worried about. Other authors trolling me under the pretense of constructive feedback, I take offense to.

I'm sorry that you feel that way. The responses in this thread aren't that bad compared with many other threads on the Authors' Hangout. Newbies were treated far worse in the past.

 

[Laurel]

I am just stating that number of words seems like a strange reason to reject a story submitted. Especially when stiries are making it to the site which are horribly written. I don't know. I'm not trying to judge. Just disappointed I guess

Welcome to the site, and thanks for submitting.

Way back in the late 90s, we started Literotica as a place where anyone - from a seasoned author to a somebody writing their first piece of fiction ever - can put up a story for an audience. This was long before "social media". Back then, if you weren't a "real" author, you could put your writing up on a weblog (there wasn't even Wordpress back then) and hope that someone stumbled upon it. We hoped that by posting stories daily, we could grow an audience for new writers.

We don't determine "quality" - we allow the readers to make that decision using voting and comments. We also understand that one person's crap is another person's treasure. In general (at Lit and elsewhere), stories that are voted highly and positively commented are ones that the average reader is more likely to enjoy. (I've never been a fan of the type of movies that win Oscars or books that are #1 on the NYT bestseller list, but the previous holds true despite anomalies like myself. )

All of our Submission Guidelines are concerned with content (no under 18s, no bestiality, etc.) and basic readability (not all one paragraph, basic spellchecking and punctuation, etc.). For the purposes of this site, all stories must be 750 words or longer.

This is what has worked for us for nearly 20 years. Other sites have different limits/guidelines. That's fine. The Internet is a big place, and not every story is a fit for every site.

If you tend to write flash fiction / shorter fiction, you may consider collecting several works on a theme (enough to make the word limit) and submitting them in one submission form, as Ogg and others have done in the past.

Hope this helps, and feel free to PM me any time with specific questions.

 

[8inthebox]

I'm sorry that you feel that way. The responses in this thread aren't that bad compared with many other threads on the Authors' Hangout. Newbies were treated far worse in the past.

Again thanks. I guess that is my problem. Why do authors, established ones who were newbies themselves at one point, feel the need to treat "newbies" in any way other than constructively? What makes an author feel better than? Just because the responses were tame doesn't make them right.

 

[8inthebox]

Welcome to the site, and thanks for submitting.

Way back in the late 90s, we started Literotica as a place where anyone - from a seasoned author to a somebody writing their first piece of fiction ever - can put up a story for an audience. This was long before "social media". Back then, if you weren't a "real" author, you could put your writing up on a weblog (there wasn't even Wordpress back then) and hope that someone stumbled upon it. We hoped that by posting stories daily, we could grow an audience for new writers.

We don't determine "quality" - we allow the readers to make that decision using voting and comments. We also understand that one person's crap is another person's treasure. In general (at Lit and elsewhere), stories that are voted highly and positively commented are ones that the average reader is more likely to enjoy. (I've never been a fan of the type of movies that win Oscars or books that are #1 on the NYT bestseller list, but the previous holds true despite anomalies like myself. )

All of our Submission Guidelines are concerned with content (no under 18s, no bestiality, etc.) and basic readability (not all one paragraph, basic spellchecking and punctuation, etc.). For the purposes of this site, all stories must be 750 words or longer.

This is what has worked for us for nearly 20 years. Other sites have different limits/guidelines. That's fine. The Internet is a big place, and not every story is a fit for every site.

If you tend to write flash fiction / shorter fiction, you may consider collecting several works on a theme (enough to make the word limit) and submitting them in one submission form, as Ogg and others have done in the past.

Hope this helps, and feel free to PM me any time with specific questions.

Thanks very much. I appreciate your response. As I said above, I was in no way criticizing you or your site. I believe I even stated that I should have read tge guidelines closer. I can certainly appreciate the difficulty you must face in keeping the content flowing, so thank you for your efforts. Keep up the good work.

 

[Laurel]

Thanks very much. I appreciate your response. As I said above, I was in no way criticizing you or your site. I believe I even stated that I should have read tge guidelines closer. I can certainly appreciate the difficulty you must face in keeping the content flowing, so thank you for your efforts. Keep up the good work.

No worries at all! We appreciate all feedback and comments anytime - just wanted to clarify. Thanks again, and looking forward to reading you!