The Official Authors' Hangout April Fool's 2020 Support Thread.

oggbashan

Dying Truth seeker
Joined
Jul 3, 2002
Posts
56,017
Although Valentine's Day contest is still running it is less than a month to the start of the April Fool's contest. I have posted this now for authors who take a long time to get started.

April Fool's (April 01)
themes: Stories (humorous or otherwise) of surprise meetings, humor, tricks, trick endings, and other themes of deception, chance, and/or misunderstandings (happy or otherwise)
starts: March 02
closes: March 20
winners announced: March 27

As usual, this thread is to SUPPORT and ENCOURAGE authors to enter stories in the 2020 April Fool's Contest. Get your characters muddled, confused and sexily tricked.

There is an advantage to entering stories in one of Literotica's themed contests, apart from the possibility of winning, and that is that your story gets far more exposure and attention than it would normally do.

Some of that attention might be unwelcome, some abusive, but some could be appreciative and helpful.

Wait for Laurel's notice of the start of the contest as a sticky at the top of the Authors' Hangout before submitting and follow the instructions in that thread.
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Haven't even got a plot bunny for this one yet...
 
So, I actually have an idea for this. I'm not sure that I'll be able to pull it off well, and I haven't figured it all out. I also keep thinking that it's obvious enough an idea that it must have been done before (but I'm too chicken to check). But, at least I have an idea, which is more than I can say about the last two contests.
 
I'm up to about 8,000 words on my AF story, with three internal sections and the end to write. There's a trick that builds as the story goes along and is acknowledged when one gets to the end, but there's a secondary, hidden trick revealed in the closing, which I've I concentrated on tonight. It has a good reveal at the trickery that occurs, but the actual trick itself isn't nearly as good as it sounded when I plotted out the story. I'm going to finish the remaining parts and start polishing, but if it doesn't improve, the secondary trick may go the way of the dodo.
 
Went walkabout during the valentines comp so maybe I can dress that story up for this contest, it was a little twisty so could work :\
 
I think I’d like to participate in this one, but it will be my first contest. Is there a typical length that most of y’all go for with contest entries, or should I just let the story be however long it ends up being?

Best luck to everyone. :)
 
I think I’d like to participate in this one, but it will be my first contest. Is there a typical length that most of y’all go for with contest entries, or should I just let the story be however long it ends up being?

Best luck to everyone. :)

Short is good; long is good; very long (over 75,000 words) is so-so unless you can hold the readers' interest.
 
I'm editing my story again now after a few days away - it's just under 20k words. It seems my first drafts use way too many 'ands' and 'buts' and long rambling sentences, which then expose some decent structure when pruned. Bit like work without the pressure of same-day deadlines.

I'm rather liking this one but it doesn't fit any one category well, so it'll probably get a few favourites and a terrible rating. At least the next story I want to work on is definite BDSM by anyone's standards.
 
Do you think there’s any potential in a story where the trick is no one ends up having sex?
 
My least favorite contest.

I've got a story all written for this one, but I'm loath to post it because I'm not sure it's good enough. I'll mull it, but by and large I might end up giving this one a pass.
 
My least favorite contest.

I've got a story all written for this one, but I'm loath to post it because I'm not sure it's good enough. I'll mull it, but by and large I might end up giving this one a pass.

I still have a little to go on mine, but I'm having this same issue. There's a good trick involved but it covers a three year period and the April Fool's Day tie-in at the end is really weak. I'm hoping I can strengthen it before the deadline for the added publicity. The Valentine's Day contest brought me more readers (or at least views) even if it didn't bring many new followers.
 
OMG I'm just bumping this to whine a little about my story. Cuz I still think it's a decent idea, and I think I have it all figured out now, and I like the characters so far. But OMG {whiny voice} it's SO hard (not the fun way).

I'm like 7k words into it and there's not a hint of sex yet and that's just really weird for me. And {whiny voice again} I just don't know....
And, like, what if it doesn't work out
Or, like, what if it's too obvious
Or, like, what it it's too subtle


{whew} Ok. I think that's better.
I shall resume. :caning: :rose:
 
Draft finished

I just finished the draft on my story. It stands at just over 18k words, with exactly one sex scene. That's very out of character for me. But the whole thing is just a different kind of story. Complicated, in order to make the trick work and seem plausible.

I dunno. Don't know what to think. I'll do some light editing tonight and then let it sit for a few days.

Ok, here's a question for those more experienced than I am: it features an interracial couple. But the racial differences are not the main point of the story, it's just a college senior and a guy in grad school. The girl happens to be white, and the guy happens to be African American. The story's told from the girl's perspective and there are some references to physical things that she likes or notices (mostly his hair). I didn't have any particular reason for writing him as a black guy, other than the fact that from the minute I started envisioning the story, he was.

Should I put it in Interracial? Or go with my first instinct, which was EC?
 
Should I put it in Interracial? Or go with my first instinct, which was EC?

I don't have experience with Interracial, but it sounds like the story isn't really about a race difference, it simply has a race difference in it. Also, the 30-day top list shows that only 15% (7/45) of the stories posted there in the last month have a score over 4.5.

EC isn't necessarily a very author-friendly category either, but stories in EC sometimes do well in contests.
 
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I have nothing...

I don’t think I could rejig my current story to fit. Hmmm. Maybe an unexpected ending. Actually, that may work.

Ok, as a general concept the story will finish with everyone happy. Aunt, Uncle, and niece all satisfied. Up until that point it follows my previous I/T stories. If I put an epilogue where something happens with the niece totally unexpected, would that be foolish enough?
 
Have submitted my story. Just under 20k. It didn't really fit any category well, so I went with Gay Male as someone here suggested.

Never posted there before so guess I'll find out what that readership thinks of a story with a female main character...
 
... and Laurel has put it in Fetish, which might have less readers but maybe appreciate it better? I have no idea, so will wait and see.
https://www.literotica.com/s/gas-station-guy

It would be nice if you could see tags at the top of a story before reading. I know you can on a desktop but how many people read on a desktop nowadays?
 
Ok. I quit futzing with it and just submitted...

BTW -- due to the slow burn, and minimal amount of sex, I submitted it in Romance. One of the tags is interracial. We'll see where Laurel posts it.
 
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Maybe a couple of thousand more words for me. Actually got a nice little twist that fits the main story.
 
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