Chain Stories

[Billspen]

Chain Stories... I'm new here and have an idea for a chain story, but I'm not sure how to round up collaborators. Guidance would be appreciated.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I''ve been here since 2014, and have never seen a chain story get traction. I think it's an old site idea that's died.

 

[Billspen]

I''ve been here since 2014, and have never seen a chain story get traction. I think it's an old site idea that's died.

Thanks. I kind of liked some that I've read, but the process seems cumbersome.

 

[oggbashan]

The process is.

The AH has had some success in the distant past with The Literotica Olympics, and The Worst Chain Story ever.

You have to set a theme, round up enough possible participants (and some will drop out) and keep cajoling those who should contribute.

They were popular when the Survivor contest was running, because particpating in a chain story counted towards Survivor.

 

[RejectReality]

If you have a good enough premise and post it to the forum, it's possible it could take off and attract attention. That's how every chain I've been part of was launched. It's been a while since one successfully got off the ground, but that doesn't mean it can't happen again.

 

[SimonDoom]

No thread on chain stories is complete without this: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/writing-wrongs/

 

[SimonDoom]

This thread, coupled with reading an essay this morning that was recently published by BlackRandi, inspired me to write my own mock chain story. I submitted it half an hour ago, my first story to be published in the Humor and Satire category. It's a spoof of a classroom chain story assignment co-written by a pro-cuckoldry woman and an anti-cuckoldry man. It took me about seven and a half hours from conception to submission, which I think is my record.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This thread, coupled with reading an essay this morning that was recently published by BlackRandi, inspired me to write my own mock chain story. I submitted it half an hour ago, my first story to be published in the Humor and Satire category. It's a spoof of a classroom chain story assignment co-written by a pro-cuckoldry woman and an anti-cuckoldry man. It took me about seven and a half hours from conception to submission, which I think is my record.

I'm impressed. Simon goes pantser, and gets something finished! Link when it's loaded, so we can all have a look.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm impressed. Simon goes pantser, and gets something finished! Link when it's loaded, so we can all have a look.

You would have been proud. No outline at all. Just sat down and wrote.

Of course, it's only 700-something words.

 

[ElectricBlue]

You would have been proud. No outline at all. Just sat down and wrote.

Of course, it's only 700-something words.

Wait, what? 750 words in seven and a half hours? That's (EB counts on his fingers and does some quick maths) a word and a half a minute.

I don't think Laurel accepts runes carved in stone, but I guess we'll see.

Suzie knocked on Simon's door. "Dear brother of mine, you did mean 750 words, to be sure?"

"Fuck," said Simon, as he pressed the Edit button to recover his story, before Laurel knocked it back with a polite note, "Stories must be a minimum of 750 words, unless you're a poet."

"e.e.doom?" muttered simon, optimistically.

 

[SimonDoom]

Wait, what? 750 words in seven and a half hours? That's (EB counts on his fingers and does some quick maths) a word and a half a minute.

I don't think Laurel accepts runes carved in stone, but I guess we'll see.

Suzie knocked on Simon's door. "Dear brother of mine, you did mean 750 words, to be sure?"

"Fuck," said Simon, as he pressed the Edit button to recover his story, before Laurel knocked it back with a polite note, "Stories must be a minimum of 750 words, unless you're a poet."

"e.e.doom?" muttered simon, optimistically.

I didn't work on it solidly that entire time.

But damn, you're right. It might not be enough words. Jeez.

Update: I owe you one. I made a few edits to get it over the minimum and resubmitted it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I didn't work on it solidly that entire time.

But damn, you're right. It might not be enough words. Jeez.

And two minutes later, I'm still laughing! This is why God put you on the planet, Simon, to keep us (me) amused .

Carry on; another two hours should get you over the line!

 

[SimonDoom]

And two minutes later, I'm still laughing! This is why God put you on the planet, Simon, to keep us (me) amused .

Carry on; another two hours should get you over the line!

It took about 10 minutes, thank you very much.

It was just approved. To be published January 1, my first story for 2023.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It took about 10 minutes, thank you very much.

It was just approved. To be published January 1, my first story for 2023.

Good man!

365 days for the next one. You can do it.

One cold day in the future, Simon looked at his desk calendar. 30th December 2023.

"Fuck!, better start on the next one."

Downstairs in the kitchen, Suzie looked at her mom. "I really don't know what he does up there, in his room all day."

Simon's mom blew over the coffee to cool it. "I do," she replied, and took the cup up to Simon's room.

 

[SimonDoom]

Good man!

365 days for the next one. You can do it.

One cold day in the future, Simon looked at his desk calendar. 30th December 2023.

"Fuck!, better start on the next one."

Downstairs in the kitchen, Suzie looked at her mom. "I really don't know what he does up there, in his room all day."

Simon's mom blew over the coffee to cool it. "I do," she replied, and took the cup up to Simon's room.

I'm averaging a story every 1.3 months for the last six years. It's not that shabby. Plus there's the whole full-time job thing.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm averaging a story every 1.3 months for the last six years. It's not that shabby. Plus there's the whole full-time job thing.

I love the 1.3 months precision, that's priceless! TP is right, your data analytics get scary!

But what's the job thing got to do with it, given the amount of procrastination time you spend here?

Carry on .

 

[SimonDoom]

But what's the job thing got to do with it, given the amount of procrastination time you spend here?

One man's procrastination is another's . . .

Hmmm.

Let me think about that.

I'll spend some time thinking about and formulating the correct response and get back to you.

 

[SimonDoom]

I love the 1.3 months precision, that's priceless! TP is right, your data analytics get scary!

But what's the job thing got to do with it, given the amount of procrastination time you spend here?

Carry on .

It's up: https://www.literotica.com/s/cuckolds-and-incels-a-chain-story.

Just a caution: the story is not intended in any way to be a serious commentary on the subject matter. It's a spontaneous spoof that plays it for laughs.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's up: https://www.literotica.com/s/cuckolds-and-incels-a-chain-story.

Just a caution: the story is not intended in any way to be a serious commentary on the subject matter. It's a spontaneous spoof that plays it for laughs.

Your fans will take it as gospel truth, and reward you appropriately, I'm sure.

"It has moments of tension, moments of angst, but is a little lacking in depth. Nevertheless, Simon and Anna are to be commended for working well on this assignment together, although next time they might want to consider a topic on which they can agree. Readers do like a happy ending. B+"

 

[Rigid22]

I didn't work on it solidly that entire time.

But damn, you're right. It might not be enough words. Jeez.

Update: I owe you one. I made a few edits to get it over the minimum and resubmitted it.

The directions for a tag edit say put "Tag edit only" or something like that in the story body. That is all I put. The tag edit has been pending for many days. I'm wondering if I should have dropped the story text in there beneath the "Tag edit only" label. Could :not enough words" be my problem here too?

 

[RejectReality]

The directions for a tag edit say put "Tag edit only" or something like that in the story body. That is all I put. The tag edit has been pending for many days. I'm wondering if I should have dropped the story text in there beneath the "Tag edit only" label. Could :not enough words" be my problem here too?

Edits have the lowest priority. At times when Laurel has limited time or the queue is overflowing, edits go on the back burner. There's no "normal" timeframe for edits to get processed. I think the last one I did took about a week.

Adding the entire story text again would just make it confusing. Having only the notation for a tag edit in there makes it far more likely that you'll get processed when Laurel does have time to deal with the edit queue. For future reference, I would also put that notation in the moderator notes section, if you didn't. Every way you can say "Quick and simple revision!" is a good thing.

 

[Rigid22]

Edits have the lowest priority. At times when Laurel has limited time or the queue is overflowing, edits go on the back burner. There's no "normal" timeframe for edits to get processed. I think the last one I did took about a week.

Adding the entire story text again would just make it confusing. Having only the notation for a tag edit in there makes it far more likely that you'll get processed when Laurel does have time to deal with the edit queue. For future reference, I would also put that notation in the moderator notes section, if you didn't. Every way you can say "Quick and simple revision!" is a good thing.

It's been a week today though. Its says pending. Ya think I did it wrong?

 

[RejectReality]

It's been a week today though. Its says pending. Ya think I did it wrong?

If it was a normal submission, I'd recommend resubmitting it to reset its position in the queue at a week. But with an edit... I'd wait at least two weeks before getting concerned.

It is just a tag edit, after all. The bulk of the readership has already found the work at this point in its journey. That tag may be the key to stronger residual readership, but the big picture is that a couple of weeks isn't going to reduce that much.

If it gets up to Friday or so next week, there are two options. The one I typically recommend is to reset its position in the queue. For some reason, some submissions don't seem to show up in Laurel's queue. It's statistically rare, but with so many submissions, even a rare thing happens fairly consistently.

What you do is go to the submission in your pending tab, open it, scroll to the bottom, go to the preview, and then save as if you'd made a change. It may be worth your while to read back through the piece during the preview. You may catch a typo or something that you can correct before clicking the save button again. What this does is put it back in the queue. It's at the back of the line, of course, but the odds of lightning striking twice are much lower, and it should move through the queue and be processed normally the second time around.

The other option is to PM Laurel. ( Her profile can be easily located as the thread starter on almost every thread in the Awards and Contests section of the forum ) She can then search directly for your author name and find the submission that isn't appearing in her normal work queue. It has the potential to get your edit processed quickly, but I think it's generally unnecessary. In the case of a new story, you're only losing 2-3 days by resetting it in the queue. In the case of an edit ( with the exception of chapter stories where a new release generates additional reads of previous chapters ) it's already gone through its primary period of activity. Whatever changes you're making aren't going to be seen by a ton of people anyway.