Titles that omit "Part 1"

[Euphony]

I'm not rushing to judgement on this.

1. I sometimes turn a series into explicit chapters, but sometimes I don't. The new series feature is actually useful for collecting stories like that.

Tis. All about using all the tools provided.

1. I do think that if all the other chapters are explicitly numbered, then the first should be also.

Looking at it logically, I can't possibly justify my titling neurosis over being reader friendly. But there are times when I dig my heels in b/c I've shattered vertebra bending over backwards to make a tale downy soft for readership. Storm in a teacup resistance on my part? Probably.

1. When I write chapters, I do like each chapter to feel complete in itself, even if it does obviously sit within a larger story.

I'm becoming less dogmatic to this. Reader ease and helpful breakpoints occupy a significant place in mind but the always break is becoming narratively limited and formulaic at times for me.

Rest stops should be provided along the highway but covering every or even most "gotta take a break"s possibilities by flooding the road with stops makes for its own problems.

1. The character limit in the title does certainly present a challenge.

As a reader, it would (and does) annoy me to find what looks like a nice standalone story only to have it end prematurely before anything has really happened. I wouldn't down-vote it or anything, but...

Looking at it logically, I can't possibly justify my titling neurosis over being reader friendly. But there are times when I dig my heels in b/c I've shattered vertebra bending over backwards to make a tale downy soft for readership. Storm in a teacup resistance? Probably.

So far I've defaulted to giving in (or retitling out of naming I am seemingly precious about) but it feels we are moving towards a defiance in my future.

Compromising with an early header disclaimer might be a workable middle ground but always defaulting to reader over myself (in most things) feels like it's heading problematic in its own way.

Sometimes I fear we don't trust in our readership enough to pull through modest bumps in the road (titling, tags, anything affecting their experience.) Feels the voting/score chasing is a contributing factor here and I'm working towards writing away from that master to see where my creative expression really lies.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I have one story that says part one on it, but I've never written part two. Sigh, that's as egregious as the other way around.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I have one story that says part one on it, but I've never written part two. Sigh, that's as egregious as the other way around.

I wouldn't view that scenario the same way.

"Part 1" in a title, to me, holds no promise of continuation by itself. I would view it as a stand-alone tale that may or may not have a sequel. A "series" beginning possibly.

If the title contained "Chapter 1", that would be a different issue because it establishes a certain expectation that there is more forthcoming at some time.

The issue broached by the OP dealt with titles that have neither "part" or "chapter" to guide readers and then abruptly end without any conclusion to the story. This leaves readers confused and frustrated about the future of any investment that they have made in that author's work.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I wouldn't view that scenario the same way.

"Part 1" in a title, to me, holds no promise of continuation by itself. I would view it as a stand-alone tale that may or may not have a sequel. A "series" beginning possibly.

If the title contained "Chapter 1", that would be a different issue because it establishes a certain expectation that there is more forthcoming at some time.

The issue broached by the OP dealt with titles that have neither "part" or "chapter" to guide readers and then abruptly end without any conclusion to the story. This leaves readers confused and frustrated about the future of any investment that they have made in that author's work.

Part One was included in the title with the expectation that the person who asked me to write it, and provided a rough outline for Part One, would give me the second part's outline in a timely manner. He hasn't.

 

[Djmac1031]

My first two stories were The Doctor Is In Me, and Discovering Amy.

I was an absolutely green, new writer.

I had no idea at the time about continuing either.

At the end of Discovering Amy, I did indeed put: "To be continued?"

I had no idea if I was gonna continue or not. It depended on the response.

The response was great, and of course readers clamored for "More!"

So I gave it to them.

Now, I get what you're talking about: you're talking about intentionally not labeling a Part 1 just to draw readers who wouldn't click a series otherwise.

With some experience under my belt, I certainly try not to do thar anymore.

There's been a few I published where at the end I've states I MIGHT write more, I might not.

The Deal With Lara was one. I consider it a complete story, but with potential for sequels.

And I stated that clearly at the end.

I think if someone is planning on post a 12 part, or even 3 part series, the fair thing to do is let readers know that up front.

That said: not everyone thinks of that. Or plans out a series. And sometimes sequels just happen.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

I have one story that says part one on it, but I've never written part two. Sigh, that's as egregious as the other way around.

Being devious, I would write a story and tack Pt. 02 onto the title ... and start the story like it was picking up from a previous part one that doesn't exist ...

If you ever watched Buckaroo Banzai Through the Fourth Dimension, it kept referring to events in a previous movie that never existed.

 

[Euphony]

Part One was included in the title with the expectation that the person who asked me to write it, and provided a rough outline for Part One, would give me the second part's outline in a timely manner. He hasn't.

1981 - 2023.

You've got plenty o' time for it to still work out, apparently.

 

[Djmac1031]

I have one story that says part one on it, but I've never written part two. Sigh, that's as egregious as the other way around.

Yeah, I'm guilty of that, too. I got a couple with floating ends never finished.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Yeah, I'm guilty of that, too. I got a couple with floating ends never finished.

I have many stories I planned to continue that I didn't. Fortunately, most weren't cliff hanger endings.

 

[AlinaX]

... Reader ease and helpful breakpoints occupy a significant place in mind ... but always defaulting to reader over myself ... I fear we don't trust in our readership enough to pull through ...

It's funny you talking about the readers when I'm generally too egocentric to care what the readers want. I mean, it's nice when they agree with me, but...

 

[Euphony]

It's funny you talking about the readers when I'm generally too egocentric to care what the readers want. I mean, it's nice when they agree with me, but...

Depends on the day I suppose.

Sometimes I feel like expanding horizons. Other days my creativity demands a whorish devotion.

Writing can serve so many needs, authors and reader, which is one of so many reasons why, even at its lowest, I can't help but love it.

 

[alohadave]

If you ever watched Buckaroo Banzai Through the Fourth Dimension, it kept referring to events in a previous movie that never existed.

Too bad they never made the sequel.

 

[Rob_Royale]

For me, the story leading up to the characters having sex is the interesting part. The adventure. Building the characters and setting, the timeline. I work the sex into that.

In a sequel, nearly all that development is done, it's just the characters having sex in a new setting. Up until this minute, I haven't done a sequel. However, if I was to come up with a plot that allowed me to continue the story as well as the sex, I'd likely do it. But, the first story wouldn't be marked Chapter 1. Which would lead the OP to think I'm up to something nefarious? A ploy? Dude, you are thinking WAY too much into this.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Too bad they never made the sequel.

Prequel?

 

[alohadave]

Prequel?

'Buckaroo Bonzai against the World Crime League' was teased at the end of the movie.

 

[MillieDynamite]

COOL, why don't you make it into a story?

'Buckaroo Bonzai against the World Crime League' was teased at the end of the movie.

 

[alohadave]

COOL, why don't you make it into a story?

That's an interesting idea. I don't think I'm up to something like that, but I'll put it in my idea pile.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I honestly struggle to see this as intentional deception.

I believe it's more about people growing more comfortable with Lit's weird definition of serials, since it still doesn't have any proper chapter system. Or a warning system for incomplete "serials" by inactive authors that will never be completed. People just got used to unfinished work on here, so the aspiration to keep your titles and descriptions user-friendly is waning.

Agreed. Outside Literotica, it's very common that a multi-part series will have chapter names that are distinct from the title of the work as a whole. I name my story "Lord of the Rings" and then I name my individual chapters something like "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers", and "The Return of the King", say.

Literotica doesn't do this, because it didn't originally support serial stories at all, and the functionality we have now was retrofitted; instead of treating "story title" and "chapter title" as distinct fields, it just auto-generates a name for the series as a whole based on whatever was given for Chapter One.

For a new-to-Literotica author who's familiar with systems that do treat "series title" and "chapter title" as completely distinct, the way Literotica does it is not especially intuitive. It'd be easy enough for that author to enter "Lord of the Rings" and post the first part before noticing that it never asked them for the title of that specific part. From there, it'd be easy to end up with "Lord of the Rings"—"Lord of the Rings Ch. 2"—"Lord of the Rings Ch.3".

If this outcome is annoying, the solution isn't to punish authors who might just be confused by an interface that's not designed for serial stories, but to fix the interface.

 

[MillieDynamite]

On another site, which shall remain nameless, you can add chapters to your story and do an entire novel. It's all tied together in one file and when you click on the main story, it comes up with all the chapters (to that date) listed in order.

 

[ElectricBlue]

On another site, which shall remain nameless, you can add chapters to your story and do an entire novel. It's all tied together in one file and when you click on the main story, it comes up with all the chapters (to that date) listed in order.

Lit does that too, by interlinking the chapters - separate files, obviously, but it's simple to progress through the chapters.

The "issue" in this thread appears to be what you do with the very first chapter, and some bizarre notion that writers are maliciously "tricking" readers into reading something. Whereas 99% of the time it's more likely writers trying to figure it all out.

 

[Voboy]

It doesn't need to be a coordinated conspiracy for multiple authors to adopt the same tactic. Someone sees someone else do it, thinks "that's clever, I'll do that," and there you go. Or they simply notice, independently, that all other things being equal they get more readers on standalone stories than on ones marked "Chapter 1," and think "What if I didn't put Chapter 1 in the title?"



There are enough threads with authors obsessing over their readership stats that I don't think it's at all far-fetched to think many authors will do something like this to pump them up. They (like some people in this thread) may not consider it deceptive, or they may justify it to themselves by thinking that if other people do it, they need to do it too to stand a "fair" chance.



If most authors aren't active on the forums, most readers certainly are not—and given the attitude shown by some posters towards members who haven't published anything, I don't blame them. But I've seen complaints about it in the comments on several occasions. (Of course, given that most comments are anonymous, it's hard to say whether it's a widespread annoyance or just the same one or two people complaining each time.)

Hmm. I'm not sure why you quoted a bunch of my post, but had zero response to the meat of it.

I suggested what I think is happening here: writers surprise themselves with a sequel, then forget to (or don't realize they can) go back and alter the title of the first entry. What are your thoughts on that? Does that seem like a reasonable idea? I'm honestly curious.

I ask because that's precisely what I did with my SF series. I can't imagine I'm all that unique. If I hadn't realized I could resubmit and change it, be sure that I would never have tried. And I never would have thought twice about it. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, you'd have been banging your head against the wall about it, assuming I was some sort of manipulative weasel.

 

[Pureotica]

My first story was a part one, because I rushed it for a contest and kind of arbitrarily split it up. I never finished it because I wasn't really happy with some parts. I like the MC so I plan to do a full rewrite and release it with a new title, probably as a longish one part story. I've been working on it on and off for a long time, I tend to hop between projects when I get stuck on something. I'll probably leave the original up out of respect for the people who liked it and left comments. Maybe I'll leave a comment to redirect people to the new one.

The approach might annoy some people, but it isn't intentional. I'm just learning my way around the site and figuring out my approach to writing erotica. I doubt most people do things to annoy people or game the system. Unless you have evidence of malfeasance, I'd suggest cutting people some slack. A lot of us come here with no idea what we're doing. We're figuring it out as we go.

 

[TheArsonist]

Whereas 99% of the time it's more likely writers trying to figure it all out.

If it's inexperienced LitErotica authors, perhaps. But I've seen it done by authors that have already published 50+ stories and are on their third series, at least.

Hmm. I'm not sure why you quoted a bunch of my post, but had zero response to the meat of it.

I suggested what I think is happening here: writers surprise themselves with a sequel, then forget to (or don't realize they can) go back and alter the title of the first entry. What are your thoughts on that? Does that seem like a reasonable idea? I'm honestly curious.

I kinda feel this was already addressed by the second sentence of the original post, and has later been covered pretty comprehensively. In the cases that are being discussed here, this is obviously not the case: it is clear on reading the first entry that it was never intended as a standalone.

Since a lot of you are getting hung up on this question of "deliberate deception," try this perspective, which I think is just as good a way to look at it:

But if you felt, after finishing the story/first chapter, that it lacked a satisfactory conclusion, and the lack of a conclusion diminished your enjoyment of it, then that's a perfectly good ground for voting accordingly. I think "it left me hanging and I didn't like it" is a sound basis for downvoting a story.

So if a story is presented as a standalone (i.e. gives no indication in title, tagline or intro of being the first installment of a series), and then reaches the "end" and is completely unsatisfactory as a story (just like trying to read Chapter 1 of most books as a standalone short story would be), don't you think that's annoying to readers? And is that not, almost objectively, a failing as a story—even if later "remedied" by adding additional chapters?

In that case, it doesn't so much matter whether it was done deliberately or as an innocent screw-up: it's a problem that gives a negative reading experience. Though whether the right response is to leave a comment pointing out the problem, give a low rating, or something else might depend on what we think of the reason for it, just like e.g. the response to a story with atrocious spelling and grammar.

 

[Voboy]

In the cases that are being discussed here, this is obviously not the case: it is clear on reading the first entry that it was never intended as a standalone.

I can't understand how you'd possibly be able to confidently make that statement unless you were the writer involved, but you do you.

You have no idea why any writer here does anything. If you're jumping straight to "nefarious intent," I think that says more about you than about the many, many people who post stories. Whom you've never met. And don't know. And can't talk to.

You're talking to some of them now, and most are telling you you're probably wrong. If you were just going to ignore opinions that don't conform to yours, then why post the thread?

So if a story is presented as a standalone (i.e. gives no indication in title, tagline or intro of being the first installment of a series), and then reaches the "end" and is completely unsatisfactory as a story (just like trying to read Chapter 1 of most books as a standalone short story would be), don't you think that's annoying to readers?

No, I don't. But if you see that as a valid reason to downvote, then you're right: that's fair enough.

Enjoy your reading.

 

[Voboy]

If it's inexperienced LitErotica authors, perhaps. But I've seen it done by authors that have already published 50+ stories and are on their third series, at least.

Oops. I forgot to reply to this part, so here goes.

Being an experienced story poster has no relationship to actually knowing the ins and outs of the site. Really, truly, the site provides nothing but some rules and a FAQ to people who submit stories, and those are not able to cover every situation... especially niche ones, like title changes. Then there's the near-universal human tendency to NOT read instructions on the Internet before posting shit.

The upshot is that unless writers come here, to the AH, or know that they can PM Laurel to clarify things? They're never going to know what the site allows them to do, no matter how many stories they post. And, as far as they're concerned, that's fine with them: they've written the story. It's done. They're on to the next story. The idea of backtracking and adding a numeral to a title just to satisfy TheArsonist is unlikely to occur to them, especially if they're unaware they can do so.

Again, Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is usually closest to being correct. I try never to ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence, because I've met more incompetent people than malicious people by a factor of at least a thousand (and I'm counting myself there). We don't know what we don't know. A Lit writer who thinks they know how to post series (and do it just fine, for many readers) is unlikely to look for ways to solve a problem that you think is so monumental, but which they don't even realize exists.

Does any of that make sense?