Chapter stories

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

My congratulations to the April 2009 contest winners. Wait, what month is this?

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that many of those stories nominated were...chapter stories. Oh, my.

Then, unbelievable as it may seem...all of the winners, first, second, and third were...yeah, you guessed it...chapter stories.

It seems to me that Laurel doesn't have an issue awarding accolades and money to chapter stories in the monthly contests, yet, chapter stories are banned from the theme contest and from Survivor.

I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.

Rather than change the ruling for theme and the Survivor Contest, I say that we disallow chapter stories receiving any awards for monthly contests when they aren't allowed to receive awards for the other contests.

Either be consistent with your ruling or not. When rules are inconsistent, it makes one wonder if contests are (gasp) rigged.

Wouldn't that make sense? What's good for one is certainly good for the other. The way that it is now is...convoluted.

Let's make the same ruling for all contests. It only seems fair.

 

[sr71plt]

Rather than change the ruling for theme and the Survivor Contest, I say that we disallow chapter stories receiving any awards for monthly contests when they aren't allowed to receive awards for the other contests.

I agree with this. The current practice is ludicrous (but so much is with the contests anyway). A chapter isn't a story; it's a section of a story. Don't think works here should qualify for any "story" award until the story is completed--then the ratings of the parts should be aggregated/averaged for one "story" score.

(I doubt, though, that this is the direction BFW would like to see this go.)

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

I agree with this. The current practice is ludicrous (but so much is with the contests anyway). A chapter isn't a story; it's a section of a story. Don't think works here should qualify for any "story" award until the story is completed--then the ratings of the parts should be aggregated/averaged for one "story" score.

(I doubt, though, that this is the direction BFW would like to see this go.)

Ah, finally, I agree with my feminine flying friend on something.

 

[LaRocha]

My congratulations to the April 2009 contest winners. Wait, what month is this?

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that many of those stories nominated were...chapter stories. Oh, my.

Then, unbelievable as it may seem...all of the winners, first, second, and third were...yeah, you guessed it...chapter stories.

It seems to me that Laurel doesn't have an issue awarding accolades and money to chapter stories in the monthly contests, yet, chapter stories are banned from the theme contest and from Survivor.

I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.

Rather than change the ruling for theme and the Survivor Contest, I say that we disallow chapter stories receiving any awards for monthly contests when they aren't allowed to receive awards for the other contests.

Either be consistent with your ruling or not. When rules are inconsistent, it makes one wonder if contests are (gasp) rigged.

Wouldn't that make sense? What's good for one is certainly good for the other. The way that it is now is...convoluted.

Let's make the same ruling for all contests. It only seems fair.

SR71 gave a good reason why chapter stories shouldn't be in the faux monthly contests. Do you have any other reason why chapter stories shouldn't be included? I think most people who write chapter stories are really just writing sequels because the previous story was popular and people asked for a sequel. So how would you differentiate between a chapter and a sequel story? Story 1 followed by Story 2 would be classified as two chapters on your profile when both may work as stand alone stories.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

This is what I believe

SR71 gave a good reason why chapter stories shouldn't be in the faux monthly contests. Do you have any other reason why chapter stories shouldn't be included? I think most people who write chapter stories are really just writing sequels because the previous story was popular and people asked for a sequel. So how would you differentiate between a chapter and a sequel story? Story 1 followed by Story 2 would be classified as two chapters on your profile when both may work as stand alone stories.

This is what I believe.

If Literotica accepts a submitted story, whatever it is, a chapter story, a sequel, a stand alone story, whatever, that story should be considered for all and every contest award.

There should not be separate rules for different contests on the same site.

Now, if chapter stories are excluded from the Survivor Contest and from the 6 theme contest they have, then chapter stories should be excluded from the monthly contest.

Seriously, in the literary world, not that this porn site is a literary site, but when has one chapter of a larger work received an award for anything.

"His book sucked, but chapter 12 was worthy of winning the Nobel Prize for Literature."

The argument for disallowing chapter stories in two of its three contests falls flat when they aren't consistent across the board.

Not to mention to have results posted 10 months after the monthly contest takes place, well forgive me for not being excited for the winners or interested even.

These contests are an insult for those of us who write stories hoping to win a little bit or money and/or to receive some recognition. Then, when you throw in the favoritism and the games playing that goes on around here with the multiple identities and one person voting as much as a dozen times and more for their own story, anyone who submits a story to this place needs to have the mindset that they are just writing the story for themselves period.

 

[sr71plt]

The logic of a story award is that it's based on a completed story. Chapters of a novel/novella are only segments of a story--and presented as such--not a full story. Conversely, stories that related to each other, even if using the same characters, setting, or even story element circumstances, are separate stories, even if related, if purposely written as individually separate stories that can be assembled to form an overarching additional story. It's all in the intent of the literary construction.

Thus, the new survivor rules are whacked out in literary terms and get 'cha comin' and goin'--and, since the other contests aren't in synch on what constitutes a complete literary piece, the whole system is out of whack.

That would be OK if the money involved didn't foster greed, self-denial, and bad behavior and clog up the story file and submission's process with a lot of otherwise unnecessary dreck. Sort of paying for the privilege of being counterproductive

 

[LaRocha]

The logic of a story award is that it's based on a completed story. Chapters of a novel/novella are only segments of a story--and presented as such--not a full story. Conversely, stories that related to each other, even if using the same characters, setting, or even story element circumstances, are separate stories, even if related, if purposely written as individually separate stories that can be assembled to form an overarching additional story. It's all in the intent of the literary construction.

Thus, the new survivor rules are whacked out in literary terms and get 'cha comin' and goin'--and, since the other contests aren't in synch on what constitutes a complete literary piece, the whole system is out of whack.

That would be OK if the money involved didn't foster greed, self-denial, and bad behavior and clog up the story file and submission's process with a lot of otherwise unnecessary dreck. Sort of paying for the privilege of being counterproductive

X-Factor is a good example of someone who writes chapters and sequels with the same characters, and here both are categorized as chapters. You want your readers to know this new story is a sequel, so you give it the same or a similar name. Sometimes the computer makes mistakes and joins stories and poems together that were never meant as sequels.

I understand why Survivor wants to block chapters and sequels, because it's easier writing 100 Days of Sodom than a new story for each category. I guess it would be fairest only awarding the stories that have never had characters appear on Literotica before.

 

[CharleyH]

My congratulations to the April 2009 contest winners. Wait, what month is this?

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that many of those stories nominated were...chapter stories. Oh, my.

Then, unbelievable as it may seem...all of the winners, first, second, and third were...yeah, you guessed it...chapter stories.

It seems to me that Laurel doesn't have an issue awarding accolades and money to chapter stories in the monthly contests, yet, chapter stories are banned from the theme contest and from Survivor.

I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.

Rather than change the ruling for theme and the Survivor Contest, I say that we disallow chapter stories receiving any awards for monthly contests when they aren't allowed to receive awards for the other contests.

Either be consistent with your ruling or not. When rules are inconsistent, it makes one wonder if contests are (gasp) rigged.

Wouldn't that make sense? What's good for one is certainly good for the other. The way that it is now is...convoluted.

Let's make the same ruling for all contests. It only seems fair.

Why on earth are you so concerned about the Survivor contest? It is run by the most trustworthy person on Lit: Crimson Maiden. I barely even get along with her, but I trust her to be fair on any issue. Pull up your pants Boston Fiction Writer, the Survivor contest is NOT constructed to make you fail as a writer. It is constructed to entice you to be a more productive writer, and a better one.

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

Why on earth are you so concerned about the Survivor contest? It is run by the most trustworthy person on Lit: Crimson Maiden. I barely even get along with her, but I trust her to be fair on any issue. Pull up your pants Boston Fiction Writer, the Survivor contest is NOT constructed to make you fail as a writer. It is constructed to entice you to be a more productive writer, and a better one.

Do me a favor and ask Crimson a question because I'm sure she already knows the answer to this.

Ask her who the 2010 Survivor winner is. If she doesn't know, the other lesbian butch dyke, Lauren, will know.

I'm just curious.

 

[michchick98]

I agree with this. The current practice is ludicrous (but so much is with the contests anyway). A chapter isn't a story; it's a section of a story. Don't think works here should qualify for any "story" award until the story is completed--then the ratings of the parts should be aggregated/averaged for one "story" score.

(I doubt, though, that this is the direction BFW would like to see this go.)

I agree with this too. I think chaptered stories should be counted as ONE story, not individual stories. A chapter of one of my stories won one of the monthly contests awhile back and I was surprised because it was in the middle of the story.

Would a middle chapter or a single chapter of a multi-chaptered story entice a reader to want to read the entire story?

I know one of the main reasons I submit chapters instead of whole stories is because I've seen feedback where people complain about the story being too long and "it could be broken up into chapters."

Personally, I don't like reading a story more than 3 or 4 Lit pages long, even if it's from an author I read regularly. I prefer reading stories in chapters, even if the author leaves a cliffhanger. Gives me something to look forward to.

Of course, that's just my preference.

I do agree that the monthly contests rules (in so far as chaptered stories is concerned) should be changed to coincide with the special contests and Survivor contest. Perhaps an overall average score of the entire story if it's posted would be better.

ETA: Oh yeah, I do post "The conclusion" for the description if it's the last chapter of the story.

 

[sr71plt]

I know one of the main reasons I submit chapters instead of whole stories is because I've seen feedback where people complain about the story being too long and "it could be broken up into chapters."

Personally, I don't like reading a story more than 3 or 4 Lit pages long, even if it's from an author I read regularly. I prefer reading stories in chapters, even if the author leaves a cliffhanger. Gives me something to look forward to.

I post the longer stories in chapters too for these reasons (and I don't post chapter one until the whole story has been written).

I have one of those going at Lit. now.

I've seen a problem in the posting of chapters, though, in that few series clearly mark when they are finished. (And I've had correspondents say both they don't want to read a series until it's finished--as they've been disappointed here that some never are and that they wondered if mine were finished yet.) In the current series I'm going to mark the final chapter title with a "Concl," with the hope that this clearly signals the series is done)

 

[scouries]

he's fixed the war...

he's fixed the economy...

he's fixed health care...

Do you think he could save the LITEROTICA contest system? Or is that too difficult a job even for him?

O! OH! ...

[size=+2]LITEROTICA'S SAVIOUR????[/size]

jrs

 

[michchick98]

I post the longer stories in chapters too for these reasons (and I don't post chapter one until the whole story has been written).

I have one of those going at Lit. now.

I've seen a problem in the posting of chapters, though, in that few series clearly mark when they are finished. (And I've had correspondents say both they don't want to read a series until it's finished--as they've been disappointed here that some never are and that they wondered if mine were finished yet.) In the current series I'm going to mark the final chapter title with a "Concl," with the hope that this clearly signals the series is done)

I do the same thing. I wait until the story is done or nearly done before I start posting it. Mostly because as a reader, I don't like waiting a long time between chapters.

Of course, I see the other end of the spectrum, too. The readers want something from their favorite author(s) and the author wants to keep their readers happy, so they post chapters as they complete them, whether the story is done or not.

 

[sr71plt]

Of course, I see the other end of the spectrum, too. The readers want something from their favorite author(s) and the author wants to keep their readers happy, so they post chapters as they complete them, whether the story is done or not.

I see the benefit of always having something recent up at Lit. I go the route of writing ahead, though. I've got my submissions here banked in reserve into 2012. (I do tend to forget what they were by the time I post them, but it can be nice to read them again after a long sit out.)