The official Authors' Hangout Halloween 2020 contest Support Thread

I submitted mine today, a kinky fetish story about an invisible ghost that likes to spy on pretty girls in private situations.
 
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Haven't made it to that one yet, but the title put it on my reading list.
 
Well I just posted my first story to Erotic Horror last night but it doesn't look like anyone likes it lol. Probably because it's geared a lot more toward horror than eroticism.

https://www.literotica.com/s/samhain-sacrifice

Well, you just sold me! I dig horror. And in fact I did the same thing with my story. In fact it's so horrific and the sex so grotesque, it's like the anti-erotic erotic horror story. And of course - it's been rated accordingly ; )

EDIT: Hah! I just popped over to read your story... You got an editor's note for content! I thought my author's note on my story that directed readers to check our the tags before reading was enough warning, but I still got an additional editor's note on top of my author's note. I think the message around horror and violence is clear: warn the heck out of it. Fair enough. Not complaining, just trying to find the right balance.
 
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Well, you just sold me! I dig horror. And in fact I did the same thing with my story. In fact it's so horrific and the sex so grotesque, it's like the anti-erotic erotic horror story. And of course - it's been rated accordingly ; )

EDIT: Hah! I just popped over to read your story... You got an editor's note for content! I thought my author's note on my story that directed readers to check our the tags before reading was enough warning, but I still got an additional editor's note on top of my author's note. I think the message around horror and violence is clear: warn the heck out of it. Fair enough. Not complaining, just trying to find the right balance.

just read the note on WoW's tale.My question is " is sexualized cannibalism somehow less noteworthy than nonsexualized cannibalism?"
 
Well, you just sold me! I dig horror. And in fact I did the same thing with my story. In fact it's so horrific and the sex so grotesque, it's like the anti-erotic erotic horror story. And of course - it's been rated accordingly ; )

EDIT: Hah! I just popped over to read your story... You got an editor's note for content! I thought my author's note on my story that directed readers to check our the tags before reading was enough warning, but I still got an additional editor's note on top of my author's note. I think the message around horror and violence is clear: warn the heck out of it. Fair enough. Not complaining, just trying to find the right balance.

Wow, I liked that, but can't say it wasn't more horrifying than sexy. EH is definitely a strange category since it seems so contradictory.
 
Well I just posted my first story to Erotic Horror last night but it doesn't look like anyone likes it lol. Probably because it's geared a lot more toward horror than eroticism.

https://www.literotica.com/s/samhain-sacrifice


My Halloween story - The Pervert Ghost - which went up two days ago tanked too if its any consolation, less than 2000 views and a score of 3.08 at the time of posting. It was actually at the top of the list of new stories in the Fetish section on the day it was posted which is often an advantage but not on this occasion.

I thought that the Fetish fans would like a kinky story about an invisible ghost that spies on pretty girls, but evidently not.

Has anyone else had their Halloween story this year crash and burn or get lots of negative feedback?
 
My Halloween story - The Pervert Ghost - which went up two days ago tanked too if its any consolation, less than 2000 views and a score of 3.08 at the time of posting. It was actually at the top of the list of new stories in the Fetish section on the day it was posted which is often an advantage but not on this occasion.

I thought that the Fetish fans would like a kinky story about an invisible ghost that spies on pretty girls, but evidently not.

Has anyone else had their Halloween story this year crash and burn or get lots of negative feedback?

There is no single group of "Fetish fans". Instead, there are a bunch of small groups of aficionados of particular peccadilloes, lumped together.It is very much hit and miss whether being in that category finds the right audience. I find that a identifying the particular fetish in the description line helps, both as reader and writer. Query why you put this story in Fetish rather than Exhibitionist & Voyeur, which might fit, and perhaps fit better, and certainly has a broader readership?
 
Has anyone else had their Halloween story this year crash and burn or get lots of negative feedback?

Well, not crash and burn as such...I published mine in Humor&Satire, and if I'd checked the category beforehand I'd known there's nobody there, and the ones that are there vote badly. Also, I know I'm not funny, so I can't say I'm surprised. Still, I didn't do very well :D
 
^^^ It's currently at 4.18 and was carrying a Red H for a while.

That ain't sour taters.
 
^^^ It's currently at 4.18 and was carrying a Red H for a while.

That ain't sour taters.

Nah, it was never hot, I think you're mistaking mine for something else. I get an occasional vote for it every now and then, but the score only goes down :D what can I say, apparently fucking patriarchy up the ass isn't fun in everyone's books. I guess I'll stay away from humor in the future.
 
Nah, it was never hot, I think you're mistaking mine for something else. I get an occasional vote for it every now and then, but the score only goes down :D what can I say, apparently fucking patriarchy up the ass isn't fun in everyone's books. I guess I'll stay away from humor in the future.

I write funny stories on the site all the time but they are spread out across all the categories.

Only once have I ever written a story in the Humour/Satire category and this was for a 750 word story contest, and nobody read it and those who did didn't like it. The readership group for Humour and Satire is too small to post successful stories there.
 
I haven't found the Humor category to be received too well here and humor and erotica is a hard mix. Readers don't seem to get what satire is at all, so that part of the category hasn't done well here when I've used it.
 
There is no single group of "Fetish fans". Instead, there are a bunch of small groups of aficionados of particular peccadilloes, lumped together.It is very much hit and miss whether being in that category finds the right audience. I find that a identifying the particular fetish in the description line helps, both as reader and writer. Query why you put this story in Fetish rather than Exhibitionist & Voyeur, which might fit, and perhaps fit better, and certainly has a broader readership?

In the past I've written stories in the Fetish category that involve voyeurism and they were moderately to very successful, and in any case the ghost in my Halloween story has a particular liking for spying on girls in the bathroom so I thought this would be better suited to fetish.

I've never had much to do with Exhibitionist/Voyeur, but thought stories there were mainly about people who got turned on by being watched having sex and the people who watched them. For example, a story set in England where a girl and her boyfriend like to go dogging, and get turned on by other people watching them having sex in their car.
 
Humor & Satire

I wouldn't categorically give up on H&S just because of numbers. It is not a blockbuster for sure, but there is plenty to offer. Two of my HS stories are midpack in my list (by view, much higher by score) and I think the greater difficulty is just the issue of how hard it is to do good humor.

Surprise, a good twist (or reversal of expectations) and timing are all crucial. I would argue erotica is hard to do also, although more people seem to think they can just automatically do it well.

But you cannot tell me there is not humor to be found in sexual situations, it is just capturing it well that's the challenge.

If you've got a good amusing story, by all means put it there.

Satire, however, is indeed another matter.
 
I haven't found the Humor category to be received too well here and humor and erotica is a hard mix. Readers don't seem to get what satire is at all, so that part of the category hasn't done well here when I've used it.

I have an idea for a Halloween story that I think could be very funny, but I decided to go with a more traditional gothic romance. I may save the humor for next year and see how it does.
 
I have an idea for a Halloween story that I think could be very funny, but I decided to go with a more traditional gothic romance. I may save the humor for next year and see how it does.

I wrote a funny story earlier this year which was a 'Clayton's Halloween Story' - i.e. a Halloween story which is not really a Halloween story.

The story -'Grumpy Humphrey's Easy Wife' was set at Halloween 1960 where some awful high school seniors prank their most despised teacher 'Grumpy Humphrey' by dumping horse manure in his driveway, throwing rotten eggs at the house, putting toilet paper in the trees and displaying a series of drawings that suggest Humphrey is a homosexual who uses candy to lure children to his car.

Other Halloween pranks played on the teacher include erasing his class notes on the blackboard and replacing them with fake notes that promote communism (a very big deal in 1960) that the principal and school superintendent see; and tying a hydrogen-filled balloon to the teacher's car which explodes when he bursts it with his cigarette, thinking it is filled with helium.

With no horror/sci-fi/supernatural themes it isn't really a Halloween story, but is set at Halloween so kind of is.
 
just read the note on WoW's tale.My question is " is sexualized cannibalism somehow less noteworthy than nonsexualized cannibalism?"

I was poking around some of the seemimgly abandoned corners of the forum and I found this from a mod. Might actually be Laurel, hard to tell from how the content was presented in the post. As you can see erotic cannibalism gets a direct shoutout. This quote also explains the editor's note I've gotten/seen before explaining that a story contains scenes or elements common to horror movies:

"Basically, we allow ravishment, painplay, most BDSM situations – as well as situations one finds in horror movies. What we don't publish is stuff like castration and amputation written for sexual arousal (though we do allow a character to be castrated or have a limb amputated if the plot calls for it) and stuff like erotic cannibalism and "snuff" (graphic depictions of murder meant for sexual titillation)."
 
I wrote a funny story earlier this year which was a 'Clayton's Halloween Story' - i.e. a Halloween story which is not really a Halloween story.

The story -'Grumpy Humphrey's Easy Wife' was set at Halloween 1960 where some awful high school seniors prank their most despised teacher 'Grumpy Humphrey' by dumping horse manure in his driveway, throwing rotten eggs at the house, putting toilet paper in the trees and displaying a series of drawings that suggest Humphrey is a homosexual who uses candy to lure children to his car.

Other Halloween pranks played on the teacher include erasing his class notes on the blackboard and replacing them with fake notes that promote communism (a very big deal in 1960) that the principal and school superintendent see; and tying a hydrogen-filled balloon to the teacher's car which explodes when he bursts it with his cigarette, thinking it is filled with helium.

With no horror/sci-fi/supernatural themes it isn't really a Halloween story, but is set at Halloween so kind of is.

I'm not going to give away too much about my idea, but it involves one of these costumes...

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0413/9233/products/2-PERSON-PANTO-HORSE-3306.jpeg?v=1523635265

You can probably imagine some of the possibilities.
 
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