categorize this story

[joy_of_cooking]

A bisexual woman is visited by a sexy vampire lady during her time of month. She teaches the vampire to masturbate using a vibrator, which the vampire has never experienced before. There's some very light D/s, just the woman ordering the vampire around a little as they do pretty vanilla sex acts (kissing, oral, manual, masturbation). Nothing kinky until the very end when the vampire pulls out the woman's menstrual cup and drinks from it.

Nonhuman? Lesbian Sex? Fetish?

This would probably be easier to categorize if I omitted the hemophagy but that part is the whole reason I wrote it.

 

[John_Vandermeer]

Fetish, maybe. When there are multiple kink elements that may be a good one to default to.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Vampire = non-human, erotic horror, or sci-fi and fantasy, I'd say.

I've got a story with blood sex magic in sci-fi and fantasy, no complaints.

 

[Seadog777]

It's your god damn story. Where do you think it belongs???

Personally, I think it should be in the Non-Human category, but my opinion means absolutely jack shit, because it's not my story.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Probably non-human, maybe with a content note for the menstrual aspect if you feel so inclined.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

Fetish, maybe. When there are multiple kink elements that may be a good one to default to.

Non-human for me. That could be werewolves, aliens and vampires, especially if the Vampire isn’t there for shits and scares.

 

[Altissimus]

I think it matters less where you put it and more that you call out hematophagy in the author's note at the top - this could save both your readers, and ultimately you, a lot of grief.

 

[onehitwanda]

I think it matters less where you put it and more that you call out hematophagy in the author's note at the top - this could save both your readers, and ultimately you, a lot of grief.

eeuw, I missed that bit.

 

[Winter_Fare]

A bisexual woman is visited by a sexy vampire lady during her time of month. She teaches the vampire to masturbate using a vibrator, which the vampire has never experienced before. There's some very light D/s, just the woman ordering the vampire around a little as they do pretty vanilla sex acts (kissing, oral, manual, masturbation). Nothing kinky until the very end when the vampire pulls out the woman's menstrual cup and drinks from it.

Nonhuman? Lesbian Sex? Fetish?

This would probably be easier to categorize if I omitted the hemophagy but that part is the whole reason I wrote it.

Non human with careful tags imo. And maybe a preamble about the blood fetish.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

When I look at the tags in nonhuman vs SF&F,I notice vampire is in much bigger font in SF&F. Should that affect my decision at all?

Let's assume I'm using category primarily to get my story read and read happily, rather than as part of my artistic vision.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When I look at the tags in nonhuman vs SF&F,I notice vampire is in much bigger font in SF&F. Should that affect my decision at all?

Let's assume I'm using category primarily to get my story read and read happily, rather than as part of my artistic vision.

The font size reflects the relative weighting of that tag in that category.

Since there are twice as many stories in Sci-Fi & Fantasy as compared to Non-Human, that would indeed suggest more folk have tagged vampires in the former category, if everything is proportional.

 

[RejectReality]

Absolutely Non-Human, and I would drop a quick note at the beginning about the fetish. The readers in Sci-Fi&Fantasy and Non-Human are better about heeding such warnings as they are intended, rather than using them as neon signs for what to 1-bomb and leave nasty comments on, as is the case in some other categories.

===

My personal rule of thumb is that if it's a human engaging a non-human, it goes in Non-Human. The non-human should in some way be obviously non-human. Most of my Magic of the Wood stories go into Sci-Fi because the MCs are part non-human, but the traits that identify them as such are trivial through most of their lives. Someone who doesn't know of their bloodline couldn't tell them from any other person walking down the street. Whenever one of the full nymphs is the MC, I put it in Non-Human. They have physical traits and abilities that would make them stand out in a crowd.

The next question is whether the story focuses more on the non-human character, or on the setting of the story. If it's set in a fantasy world full of elves, dwarves, etc., or space aliens with green skin and flippers, then the fact that one or both of the main characters isn't human may be irrelevant. The more prominence the Sci-Fi or Fantasy setting has, the more I lean toward that category as opposed to Non-Human.

The next question is anatomy. The more you stray from the humanoid form, the more you lean toward Non-Human. Setting can still overrule this, but the more visually/physically non-human one of the MCs is, the more weight I put on the Non-Human side of the scale.

So far as the third category of the trifecta goes, stories in Erotic Horror should be horror. Just having a vampire as an MC doesn't make it horror. A spooky aura hovering over the story doesn't make it horror. Even an MC who is temporarily terrified at the beginning doesn't make it horror. If there's a HEA/HFN ending, it isn't a horror story.

 

[joy_of_cooking]

Sounds like non-human is the clear winner.

For the content warning, should I specifically say it's her menses that get drunk? I currently have a fairly generic note:

Note: This story involves a vampire and depicts the drinking of a woman's blood. The blood-drinking is described pretty obliquely, limited to a single paragraph, and not sexualized.

But I worry that's still going to leave people unpleasantly surprised. Here's the text in question:


She poured me a cup of tea. "Ready?"

I nodded, spreading my legs for her.

She reached into me and drew out my menstrual cup. It was brimming with my blood. "干杯," she toasted me.

"Cheers." I took a sip of tea. "Now show me your mouth."

She obeyed, even lifting her tongue. All gone. I kissed her.

I do have limits.

 

[tenyari]

Story tags to get it 'unofficially' into all of the categories. Then use the category section for the one of them that you get a 'vibe' will have the most receptive readers.