Adding Encyclopedic Extras to a series

[CanadianPanther]

Hello there! I am quite new to writing solo on a site like this and I am having trouble trying to identify what I should do for the world building portions of the series I am writing.

The series as a whole is filled with Reluctance/ Non-Consent. It is a major plot point for the world as a whole, to the point that they use it to denote the year as a fixed shift in the world.

That said, I also like to build the world with not just sex. Countries, descriptions of towns, political climate, legends, history. They are the same world, there is just no sex in these sections where I expand the world she lives in and give more context to areas.

Should I put it in the Reluctance/Non-con category or should I put it in the Non-Erotic category even though it's tied to other erotic stories?

 

[TheWritingGroup]

Unless that background is actually part of a story, it should be in some section that doesn't exist, say "Appendices." Since there isn't one, maybe Reviews & Essays. (It isn't written fiction or audio or a story game.)

 

[NotWise]

That said, I also like to build the world with not just sex. Countries, descriptions of towns, political climate, legends, history. They are the same world, there is just no sex in these sections where I expand the world she lives in and give more context to areas.

Should I put it in the Reluctance/Non-con category or should I put it in the Non-Erotic category even though it's tied to other erotic stories?

You might consider putting it into SciFi and Fantasy. Readers there seem to expect world-building, and they're open to a wide range of kinks.

 

[WaxPhilosophic]

Do you have a personal blog or web site? I have made ebooks of some of my Lit series and included a glossary as an appendix. Would that work, or are you strictly limiting this to publishing on Lit?

 

[PennyThompson]

This is a good question, and something I've been considering as I simmer a potential new story and setting...

I have bits of lore, worldbuilding, and monologues that I've bashed out to help understand the world I'm writing, but if I put them all into the story it would make it twice as long without adding any action. This turned into a major roadblock for a while!

But now I'm thinking about taking some of that content out of the main story, and perhaps parallel-publishing it alongside a couple of short non-narrative, non-erotic pieces that could either go in Letters & Transcripts or in Essays & Reviews?

Then package the whole thing into a Series, and somehow making it clear that there's one main piece for people that just want to enjoy the story and sex scenes, and a couple of "bonus materials" for anyone that wants to indulge my ranting and raving

 

[PennyThompson]

This would be a little risky, but...

Lit generates URLs of both stories and series in predictable ways. For example:

https://www.literotica.com/series/se/dandelion-greene
https://www.literotica.com/s/dandelion-greene-and-the-witch-of-watson-county

As long as a story or series name doesn't already exist in Lit's database, you can probably make an assumption on how it will render as a URL before it gets published?

So in theory you could include an author's note at the top or bottom of a story that cross-links with your appendixes, and submit them for publishing all at once, and (eventually) they would work fine, even if one of them published later than the other?

 

[THBGato]

Since there isn't one, maybe Reviews & Essays.

I agree.

I got a request to write a character wiki for my stories, and I might well do so. It would go under reviews & essays.

 

[Bamagan]

I sent the site a request:

Would you consider adding a 'supplemental' category for authors to post things like appendices, character profiles, and perhaps art or illustrations that are related to their stories but don't really belong as part of the narrative? Currently people are talking about posting such things to Reviews/Essays or Letters/Transcripts. Granted those don't seem to get a lot of traffic, but they also don't seem like the right place for such materials. Thank you.

If enough people send similar requests through the normal feedback channel (on Lit's author profile) they might actually consider it.

...for debut in 2033, perhaps.

 

[PennyThompson]

I suppose Non-Erotic would also be a potential category for this kind of stuff... But my impession is that it's more for complete stories that just don't have lots of sex, and not fragmentary stuff like this?

 

[StillStunned]

Hello there! I am quite new to writing solo on a site like this and I am having trouble trying to identify what I should do for the world building portions of the series I am writing.

The series as a whole is filled with Reluctance/ Non-Consent. It is a major plot point for the world as a whole, to the point that they use it to denote the year as a fixed shift in the world.

That said, I also like to build the world with not just sex. Countries, descriptions of towns, political climate, legends, history. They are the same world, there is just no sex in these sections where I expand the world she lives in and give more context to areas.

Should I put it in the Reluctance/Non-con category or should I put it in the Non-Erotic category even though it's tied to other erotic stories?

Honestly? Leave it in a file on your computer.

Not only aren't readers that interested in anything that isn't actual story, they'll feel more engaged with your world if they can fill in the blanks for themselves. Let them figure stuff out, or even just infer it, from what you've written in the actual stories.

 

[Britva415]

I agree with either "don't publish that," or, I also think it would be FINE to publish it in the same category the whole rest of the series is in.

How would an oral storyteller tell such an epic story? Would she say "next Tuesday I'll be reciting the Appendix, but for now just keep up?" Or would she tell the story in a way you could follow just by following along?

I get that writing isn't oral storytelling, and that things are possible in this medium that aren't possible around a campfire, but I think telling the story involves filling in the blanks instead of hoping / expecting / projecting that a reader will do that for theirself when the writer takes this shortcut.

That is how I see it: A shortcut. In my opinion, an appendix like this is ideally used by the author while writing, so that they can write the necessary details at the time when they're necessary.

You know. Storytelling. It's not oral, but it is what we do.

 

[BeechLeaf]

If it's world building, it's for you. It's your paint box, your map, your sketches of rooms where you've jotted in where the couch and desk and cupboard are. You keep them accurate to make sure your stories work. You know how long it takes to walk from the house to the post office, you know what's visible outside the window. In the story, you use this knowledge. Sometimes you say what's outside the window. But this level of detail, mostly it's for your own use only. If the story works, it works the way you wrote it: some of this information is in it. But not all. Don't put all your information in it, trust the written part of the story to tell enough.

 

[StillStunned]

From the Sword & Sorcery Appreciation Thread:

"So here's StillStunned's paradox of fantasy worldbuilding: the less worldbuilding you do, the more real your world will feel."

 

[Britva415]

trust the written part of the story to tell enough

But also write it that way. Then trust that it's enough.

 

[TheLobster]

From the Sword & Sorcery Appreciation Thread:

"So here's StillStunned's paradox of fantasy worldbuilding: the less worldbuilding you do, the more real your world will feel."

*gestures vaguely towards Middle-earth as a counterexample*

 

[Bazzle]

I've read stories where its clear an editor has said "needs explaining" and so the next two pages read like a wiki entry.

So, it needs to be smoother?

 

[anthrodisiac]

I've seen some people post extended lore in an entry. One of them was something like 20 Lit pages, basically a glossary of terms and history and all this stuff and I can't imagine hardly anyone would read it, but if they want to do it, more power to them.

Given your case is R/NC, I'd probably be more inclined to stick it in R/NC or Essays. Just understand that either way, hardly anyone will read it unless they really like your work, because only the most die-hard fans dig into the stuff in the detail you probably have in your notes — which isn't a dig at you; I have hundreds of pages of notes, and I get the urge to want to show off how I developed the lifecycle of some random species that shows up briefly, because it's work, you're proud of it, and there's nothing wrong with that. Just want to help you set expectations if you do go through with it.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I equate this to those authors who begin their stories with a cast of characters listing, providing their names and a brief description of their role in the story.

When I see this, I immediately back out. If the story begins with such amateur shortcuts, I don't want to see what else is impacted within the plot.

I typically include a lot of detail in my stories and have never felt a need to create a separate "appendix" to explain any of these.

While I don't write SciFi or Fantasy, I have read a lot of both, and can't recall ever needing an appendix, or similar to be able to enjoy and follow along with the tale.

 

[StillStunned]

*gestures vaguely towards Middle-earth as a counterexample*

Even as an above-average Tolkien lover, I'd say that all the detail he provides doesn't make Middle-Earth feel particularly real. I get more sense of a real world from a single Conan or Lankhmar story - generally even from the opening paragraphs.

 

[crookedletter]

Honestly? Leave it in a file on your computer.

Not only aren't readers that interested in anything that isn't actual story, they'll feel more engaged with your world if they can fill in the blanks for themselves. Let them figure stuff out, or even just infer it, from what you've written in the actual stories.

I agree with this. There are exceptions, of course. But it takes exceptionally compelling writing to make world building exposition interesting. Most of the time it feels bloated and unnecessary, and weighs down the pacing of the story.

I'd say do the work, build everything out, construct your languages and your political systems and histories, let that inform the here-and-now scene writing. Having all that established will help you stay consistent with your details, and will make your writing of the immediate scenes feel more full and real. But... then cut all background stuff out and leave it out.