Advice for a new guy?

[RSThomas42]

Hello everyone, I hope I'm posting this in the right place. I'm new to Literotica, and my current WIP is a horror novel with a lot of psychosexual elements in it. My first chapter was published, but the next two were rejected due to snuff/vore. It wasn't my intention to eroticize those elements, and it was nothing that you wouldn't see in an R-rated horror movie. What was weird was one of the chapters rejected for snuff had no sex or violence in it at all.

I had originally made the new guy mistake of categorizing this erotic horror when non-erotic fits much better. When I uploaded it, I hadn't even realized there was a non-erotic category. I edited some of the horror violence out of the chapter and resubmitted it as non-erotic, where it has now been sitting in pending for over two weeks. (They approved the one with no sex or violence that had originally been rejected, but not the next). I've also submitted two more chapters on top of that one, but they're all still pending.

Maybe Literotica isn't the ideal place for a horror story, but my last two novels were written a chapter at a time on a forum, so it's a format that really works for me, and I'd love to get the feedback. I'm just wondering if there's anything I should do, maybe edit the chapter some more and try resubmitting it again, or just be patient, or what?

Thanks! It's great to be here and I'd really like to post my story up! Have a great day!

 

[Djmac1031]

Be patient. Submissions can take time. You can also try contacting @Laurel with a kind note explaining the problem and how to resolve.

Good luck and welcome.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, you have to expect any rejection that is resubmitted to take weeks, not days, to be approved. It goes to the back of the line, where there are other resubbed stories waiting in front of it. It would be helpful to let them know the order in the series as well in the notes filed.

 

[RSThomas42]

Oh okay, I didn't know that. I was just confused because I resubmitted two chapters and one was accepted right away while the other is still sitting there. Thank you for the advice!

 

[KeithD]

If a story is rejected for something you believe isn't really there, this may just be a function of how shallowly the stories have to be scanned for submission because there's such a volume of them. If you are sure what is claimed to be there, isn't there, a refile with a polite request that Laurel point out the specific problem will often get the story passed driectly into the story file.

 

[MillieDynamite]

When I broke my dyslexia glasses, I had a story where a character that is 21 is asked her age at a bar, and she responds 12. I couldn't find the mistake to save my soul and just kept resubmitting. Until Laurel told me, I had a transposition on her age at one point. Of course, when the glasses came in, 12 jumped off the page at me. I felt like such a dunce.

 

[RSThomas42]

Thank you for the advice! While the story has horror violence and mentions of cannibalism, it absolutely wasn't my intention for them to be eroticized, they were pure horror scenes. Also, the MC apparently "dies" at the end, but he's coming right back in the next chapter a different man, so I noted that on my resubmission.

 

[MillieDynamite]

We all die in the end.

 

[RSThomas42]

I should add that the story does have erotic elements, but those are still for horror effect. More a juxtaposition than anything that anyone would find a turn on. It's a vampire story with the "At what point does lust and bloodlust become one and the same?" theme. Been done a thousand times, but I'm trying to put my own spin on it.

 

[Bamagan]

We all die in the end.

Nah, some of us die close to the beginning, especially in ghost stories.

 

[MillieDynamite]

There is somewhat an exception on the vampire issues if they become undead after death.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Well, sir, it was their end at death, and then the ghost thing started.

Nah, some of us die close to the beginning, especially in ghost stories.

 

[Bamagan]

Well, sir, it was their end at death, and then the ghost thing started.

For the well-organized mind, death is more of a semi-colon.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In my story The Leopard's Spots I danced around the whole snuff and voy thing, and the story got published anyway. It's erotic horror.

 

[RSThomas42]

I was originally going to make this erotic horror, but as I go along it's just not coming out that erotic. It's more like a horror novel with extremely weird sex scenes in it. I'm sure it's the juxtaposition of sex and violence that got the chapter refused, but it was still primarily a horror scene featuring a lady vampire with a monstrous anatomy.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Thank you for the advice! While the story has horror violence and mentions of cannibalism, it absolutely wasn't my intention for them to be eroticized, they were pure horror scenes. Also, the MC apparently "dies" at the end, but he's coming right back in the next chapter a different man, so I noted that on my resubmission.

This is another great example of the benefit of completing a story before submitting it.

The content of scenes within a single chapter or part can be lost or misinterpreted when viewed against the limited context visible. There are a lot of stories on this site where individual chapters or parts would have been rejected if Laurel was denied the opportunity to view them in their entirety and properly gauge the context in which the content was used for a complete body of work.

 

[RSThomas42]

I can totally understand that. It was a pretty graphic scene.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I can totally understand that. It was a pretty graphic scene.

I have a few of those. One got reported and the story was taken down until I appealed to Laurel and she reviewed the content against the body of work as a whole and reinstated it. Give her a chance to review the whole thing.

 

[RSThomas42]

Thanks so much for answering! I'll be patient.

 

[RSThomas42]

Hey everyone. Thanks for your replies. I've got five chapters of my novel submitted, but chapter 03 keeps coming back to me with the copy/pasted explanation of snuff/vore/rape. I'm sorry, I'm REALLY not trying to raise a fuss, but I just read a story on here about someone ass r*ping an old woman to death with maggots spilling out of her crotch and her coming back as a zombie. But my horror chapter about a vampire lady with fangs in her hoo-hah and someone getting killed Friday the 13th style with a cleaver is too graphic. It's NOT vore, and it's NOT snuff! As for rape, the guy having sex with the vampire lady has had better days, but he's getting transformed, not dying.

I give you my word that I'm not some POS edgelord trying to push the system. It's not extreme horror, it's just horror and nothing you wouldn't see in an R-rated scary movie, and in my short time here I've seen SOOOOOOOO much worse. I'm wondering if there's an appeal process, or maybe I should just excise all the blood and gore and put a note in there explaining what happens so at least I can get the rest of my novel accepted and people can read a censored version.

 

[Bamagan]

Hey everyone. Thanks for your replies. I've got five chapters of my novel submitted, but chapter 03 keeps coming back to me with the copy/pasted explanation of snuff/vore/rape. I'm sorry, I'm REALLY not trying to raise a fuss, but I just read a story on here about someone r*ping an old woman to death with maggots spilling out of her crotch and her coming back as a zombie. But my horror chapter about a vampire lady with fangs in her hoo-hah and someone getting killed Friday the 13th style with a cleaver is too graphic. It's NOT vore, and it's NOT snuff! As for rape, the guy having sex with the vampire lady has had better days, but he's getting transformed, not dying.

I give you my word that I'm not some POS edgelord trying to push the system. It's not extreme horror, it's just horror and nothing you wouldn't see in an R-rated scary movie, and in my short time here I've seen SOOOOOOOO much worse. I'm wondering if there's an appeal process, or maybe I should just excise all the blood and gore and put a note in there explaining what happens so at least I can get the rest of my novel accepted and people can read a censored version.

The appeal process is to direct message laurel and make your case to her as to why whatever you wrote isn't what she thinks or should be allowed.

 

[RSThomas42]

Thank you.

 

[RSThomas42]

Update: Laurel is super nice. Apparently the problem is that the character appears to die at the end of the chapter. But it's a vampire story, he's coming back in the very next chapter. I'm not entirely sure what to do except add "Author's Note: This Character Is NOT Dead".

 

[Bamagan]

Update: Laurel is super nice. Apparently the problem is that the character appears to die at the end of the chapter. But it's a vampire story, he's coming back in the very next chapter. I'm not entirely sure what to do except add "Author's Note: This Character Is NOT Dead".

That should probably work, just say it's a bit of a cliffhanger for suspense or whatever, but he lives or unlives or whatever his status is going forward.

 

[RSThomas42]

Thank you, I guess I'll try again. I've already submitted the next two chapters, the character very clearly isn't dead, and I even pointed that out to them in notes to the moderator. And they've had three weeks to go over all of them. Do I need to append the chapter itself to assure the reader the MC isn't dead when they can just click to the next chapter and learn he's not?