Creating a thematic universe.

Aerolineas

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How does one create a setting for their storytelling here?

My first submissions were rejected. Apparently for identifying specific people and places within the story to provide context, although that was never specifically said ...

Commentators have suggested that the site doesn't wan't to deal with persons who might take offence at being included in an erotic story -- although I have seen tons of stories here that identify real people and things in real life.

The ‘universe’ runs roughly chronologically from 1913 to the present day and is told in multiple stand alone stories that would be published in alphabetical order and reference the earlier stories. But since few today can conceptualize 1973, let alone 1913, I wanted to provide some context.

Realizing that there is but one arbiter I was wondering if something like this example might “fly.” Or if anyone had a better idea or example. (It is a 339 word disclaimer and introduction to the first few stories.)

In 1912, brothers Alan and Malcom built a flying boat of their own design, and taught themselves to fly it. To raise money to start a manufacturing company they flew it to Los Angeles, California where they earned money flying people to Catalina Island out in the bight. They also flew camera men from Hollywood motion picture studios around filming the city and its surroundings for ‘stock footage’ to use in motion pictures.

They hired Jack and set up shop in a rented garage, where they built a bigger twin-engine seaplane for the Catalina Island trade devoting the original to studio use. They built a third aircraft, a land plane, and tried to fly it to Ohio to be evaluated by the Army in 1916. It suffered failures from the heat crossing the Arizona desert. On two separate occasions they were forced to land when an engine quit. After the second time they returned to Los Angeles and built more seaplanes.

They designed a well regarded three-place airplane and successfully demonstrated it right before the war. They also manufactured seaplanes (under a licence agreement) that Glenn had designed for the Navy. After the war they faced a tough business environment. The government was selling brand new crated aircraft as surplus for the 1919 equivalent of $US 3,020 (2020). The brothers' airplane cost six times as much.

In 1920 the three dissolved the company. Jack went to work for Don. Alan went into real estate before returning to building aircraft. Malcom started a company that made hydraulic systems, notably brakes. But this story isn’t about US aviation pioneers Alan and Malcom Loughead and Jack Northrop.

The foregoing is fact, this story is a work of fiction. It’s about some completely different people, all eighteen years of age or older, who were second to start an airline to Santa Catalina. The airplane they built for evaluation in Dayton Ohio was wrecked in the desert. Nobody asked them to build anything. Nobody remembers their names. But then nobody ever remembers who came in second place.
 
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I think, unless you are publishing to Celebrities & Fan Fiction, any reference to real people should be as an aside.

I never really like long disclaimers or scene setters. Jump into the story, keep the sex away from the real-life people, and weave in the world as you go along.
 
If the real people you're talking about aren't having sex, their mentions are irrelevant. That's not what the rejection was for. Real people, places, and things get mentioned in stories every day.

Try looking up the text of the rejection notice in this thread, and that should point you in the right direction of the actual reason.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=175666
 
If the real people you're talking about aren't having sex, their mentions are irrelevant. That's not what the rejection was for. Real people, places, and things get mentioned in stories every day.

Try looking up the text of the rejection notice in this thread, and that should point you in the right direction of the actual reason.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=175666

Aerolineas provided the rejection notice in an earlier thread. I'll quote them here:

The note was polite. It starts with boilerplate recognizing my effort and regretting how the policy affects my story, and that it is a business decision, not a judgment based on the quality of the work but: "we don’t accept stories that specifically identify people, places, or businesses by name or that could be reasonably construed to identify specific people, places, or businesses." (my bold)

I don't think that text shows up in the thread you linked -- at least, I didn't see it.
 
I don't understand the reason given for rejecting your previous stories, so it's hard for me to suggest anything other than what you've written.

I've written introductory material on very few stories. You can take these as examples that didn't get rejected:

This story is set around Valentine's Day of 2009 in New Mexico, where some people still hold to superstitions and beliefs rooted in a mystical world.

Las animas -- the spirits of the dead and the natural spirits of the land -- are invisibly present everywhere. Witches called brujos can curse people with an evil eye and once cursed only a shaman or a curandero -- a healing witch -- can cure them.

This doesn't name people, and the place is only named at the state level. Street names and business names were generally obscured, but the story describes the location in enough detail that readers were able to identify it.

This from a Sci-Fi story, which may not be relevant to your case:

Urta was a verdant planet, but its most common proteins were toxic to humans. Colonists were genetically altered so they and their descendants could thrive on Urta's native bounty. The scientists and engineers were supposed to be temporary residents on Urta. They were unaltered and survived there only because of the antidote they took every day.

Then came The Collapse. Communications with Earth ceased and the great ships came no more. The engineers and scientists knew that they would live only as long as their supply of antidote lasted, so they committed their remaining time to one purpose. They gave the colonists the knowledge and tools to sustain their culture. Then they were gone.
 
Aerolineas provided the rejection notice in an earlier thread. I'll quote them here:



I don't think that text shows up in the thread you linked -- at least, I didn't see it.

That's a new one for me. I've done it numerous times.

Though come to think of it, they are usually vague in some way. I mention the serum run in "The Blinding White" but no specific mushers. I have town names in "Outlaw's Redemption" but the scenes don't identify things such as the specific tavern he stumbles out of, where the brief scene takes place. I name Set Maat as the location for "Gift of Eternity" but never use the name of the Pharaoh at the time of the ( admittedly loose historical fantasy ) story.

Using historical references to fit with the context of what the OP seems to be setting up.

Still seems rather strange that a story set in a historical period would be rejected for mentioning people, places, and events that define that era. ( So long as you don't have them fucking )

If the story was rejected for the type of historical context that was transformed into this introduction being sprinkled throughout the story, that just seems excessive to me, and most certainly new.

One author whose name I will not mention was notorious for having long lists of celebrity names in almost every story, and those certainly went through without a hitch time and time again.
 
One of my stories was rejected because it was all about a specific named product. I rewrote in generic terms. It was up for about three months before it was deleted -presumably because someone reported it. Although my revised version didn't use the product name, there is only one manufacturer and one product it could be - so it's gone.
 
I see a steady string of complaint threads like this in our future, as well as a potential new troll tool to needle authors by getting their stories retroactively rejected because somebody grabbed a Coke from the fridge instead of a cola. *sigh*

As things stand, this is even more murky than the non-con rules, and will affect a lot more people because it applies to every single category.
 
Writers use real places as much as they create fictional ones. Real people can sue for defamation and slander. Corporations are similar, especially when protecting a brand is concerned, Because submissions are curated, the site has a certain amount of liability unless you are clearly dealing with parody. Public figures have such a hard time suing, most just ignore being the star of a gang bang rather that make a fuss and give it more eyeballs than it would have ever gotten otherwise.

Corporations don't have to worry about being public figures, in fact IP law penalizes an entity that doesn't protect its brands. Most big IP firms have people employed to scour the net for mentions of client intellectual property. Cease and Desist letters are cheap.

Laurel 's site, her rules. Since the potential legal fees flow from her, she has the right to decide her comfort level.
 
That's a new one for me. I've done it numerous times.

Though come to think of it, they are usually vague in some way. I mention the serum run in "The Blinding White" but no specific mushers. I have town names in "Outlaw's Redemption" but the scenes don't identify things such as the specific tavern he stumbles out of, where the brief scene takes place. I name Set Maat as the location for "Gift of Eternity" but never use the name of the Pharaoh at the time of the ( admittedly loose historical fantasy ) story.

Using historical references to fit with the context of what the OP seems to be setting up.

Still seems rather strange that a story set in a historical period would be rejected for mentioning people, places, and events that define that era. ( So long as you don't have them fucking )

If the story was rejected for the type of historical context that was transformed into this introduction being sprinkled throughout the story, that just seems excessive to me, and most certainly new.

One author whose name I will not mention was notorious for having long lists of celebrity names in almost every story, and those certainly went through without a hitch time and time again.

I was puzzled too, if these places and people were mentioned only to set the story. Writing most of my stories set in the past, I mention famous people and things at the time to place the story in the era, and for stories set both past and present I mention geography, landmarks and tourist attractions in the area. For example, earlier this month I published a story set in Blackpool England in 1955, and make mention of actual locations in Blackpool (Blackpool Tower, Pleasure Beach and the piers/promenades) and famous people at the time (Sir Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, President Eisenhower, Diana Dors, Jayne Mansfield, James Dean, Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Cambridge Five Spies).

I don't write fan fiction or celebrity stories and I know there are some specific rules for these works (no non-consent or incest), and I don't write about things that are copyrighted. One of my stories is called 'Cute Celebrity Chloe Comes to Stay' which is set in 1994 and the titular character is an actress from an Australian soap opera. However, I created a fictional soap opera for her to star in, I wouldn't use an actual Australian soap opera past or present.

This rejection seems a bit odd from the information given, but then again I don't know all the facts in this case.
 
If this is actually happening, it does seem to be a recent development. I often use places and events to anchor the setting of a story. IMO, it lends just enough believability to the fictional story. To make up from thin air; towns, well known public venues, public events, and such seems to be inviting reader disapproval. —> 'What a stupid story, everyone knows blah, blah, blah, isn't like that. Do your research!'

I hope this isn't the situation.
 
How does one create a setting for their storytelling here?

My first submissions were rejected. Apparently for identifying specific people and places within the story to provide context, although that was never specifically said ...

Commentators have suggested that the site doesn't wan't to deal with persons who might take offence at being included in an erotic story -- although I have seen tons of stories here that identify real people and things in real life.

The ‘universe’ runs roughly chronologically from 1913 to the present day and is told in multiple stand alone stories that would be published in alphabetical order and reference the earlier stories. But since few today can conceptualize 1973, let alone 1913, I wanted to provide some context.

Realizing that there is but one arbiter I was wondering if something like this example might “fly.” Or if anyone had a better idea or example. (It is a 339 word disclaimer and introduction to the first few stories.)<snip>

I don’t get how your intro that includes a founder of what’s now Northrup-Grumman helps. Why do we need that? You can have fictional Gerry and Fergal attend a flying exhibition (“it was October, 1910” or whenever) and decide that building a flying boat would be sweet because they love fishing and they could go to lakes and the ocean and since they paid to take rides do the same, charge to fly people to remote lakes for fishing. Fergal has a cousin in LA who’s getting involved in the ‘moving picture business.’ Travail like overheating engines, difficulties flying cross-country, just happen to them.

But you can depict that a couple of dudes could just decide to build and fly planes was the kind of thing happening at the time. Yeah, we all know the Winners, you’re writing about the Second Placers like you said.

That they learn others are doing flying boats doesn’t mean those others need be named. But I also don’t see how it addresses what seems to be the complaint. But I also don’t fully understand what is the complaint.

I’ve referred to historical figures and existing places. Most deeply in one story:
"At least it meant my brother was far away," Asha's smile had broadened at that, "and yeah, them and two sets of little step-siblings. What, a, well, interesting. Anyway, at least that meant your reporter girlfriend couldn't talk to me either. Back to this building. It's not in LA. This is the Chartered Accountants Hall, the world headquarters of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales," Asha's voice had deepened, become breathy. Her left hand had drifted off of the table.

The Chartered Accountants Hall exists. It’s in London. Who knows, maybe they’ve found my story and like the effect it has on Asha when she thinks of it :cool: although no sex happens in the Hall and her visit to it isn’t actually depicted.

That story name dropped Luca Pacioli, William Shakespeare, James Peele, Stonehenge, Bath, Trowbridge, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Telegraph pub, Salter’s Mill, Cambridge, Woolsthorpe and Isaac Newton. And mushy peas. But always in dialogue or in places visited or as food eaten as the story progressed.

The reader learned that modern accounting methods are largely derived from work published by Luca Pacioli five centuries ago but the info simply rolls out over the course of the story. Asha loves accounting :D and the whole discussion of double-entry bookkeeping gets us into an, uh, fun discussion of one of her, uh, hobbies :devil:

Now, no sex was had by any of these famous names. Of course, that would be necrophilia. And, while I do plenty of erotic horror :eek:

I only refer to modern personalities tangentially, one story set in 1980 mentioned the US presidential election of that year. I’ve set a few stories in Las Vegas, but where my characters are IN a casino, it’s a fictional one (the ‘Arista.’) As above, I use existing cities, states and countries regularly. Sex happens but I either invent hotels or simply don’t name the places where sex happens.

My Mel’s Universe stories are similar in building a thematic universe, but it starts around 1980. My characters are university students (at what’s only ever called ‘the Uni’). I cover the early days of the Internet and newsgroups (still called Arpanet at the beginning) but again, that just rolls out in the story. TCP/IP gets mentioned, but I don’t provide a tutorial up front about the inventors and never actually name them, Vint Cerf, Bob Kahn, others, aren’t important to the story. Only that there was a way to share information unknown to the vast masses and its effects in the stories.
 
I wrote a well-received romance about actual scientific superstars circa 1890. They're not around to sue me for defamation. I'm slowly cooking a group sex story that involves real Hollywood folks circa 1930, similarly extinct. I'll see if that passes. I think you're most likely to find trouble with more recent celebs. Those, I rename, and not something similar like an actor-director named Don Howard or a band called the Strolling Rocks. Be subtle.
 
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