Establishing age

[Theatreslut]

My first story was rejected for a possible underage character. It’s set in a college, so I though over 18 is assumed. What do I need to do to establish age? The narrator doesn’t describe herself, so there isn’t an obvious place to put age. Do I need some sort of disclaimer ? Thanks

 

[Imstillfun]

Disclaimer

Disclaimer will work. Just put it in the authors notes at the beginning. Will mention that in one of my stories I did not describe the protagonist and I got a number of comments saying i should have as it’s easier to picture the story.

 

[Theatreslut]

Thank you

 

[ElectricBlue]

A disclaimer is meaningless really, you need to consider how you've written your character. If you've written her "young," as a mid teens teenager, that will come across in your characterisation. Laurel only skims stories (and may also use word search bots, nobody knows) and has probably picked up some turns of phrase that suggest "young."

Scrub through your text with a critical eye, asking yourself, am I writing adult behaviour or a teenager's. Age up, or put in specific context: "On her eighteenth birthday, like everyone else in school, Janey lost her virginity. Brett was soooo experienced, because he'd lost his the night before."

Alternatively, write about real adults. We all went to school, do we really need the zillionth college prom story? But seriously, scrub through your text - you can also do what so many do and put an age disclaimer in up front, but if you've written her with budding breasts, change them to pert tits. Nuance makes all the difference .

 

[HeyAll]

I also use 'college' or 'university' to establish age, and nothing else.

For instance; "It was her break from college and..."

It could be an oversight. Try submitting it again with a Note in the Note section explaining this.

 

[KeithD]

Placing them somewhere above high school has always been enough for my stories to pass. I haven't had to pin down an age as long as it was clear in context and presentation that they were older. They have been presented as being older than high school age. Perhaps the problem with yours is that they don't come across as more mature than high school or you had them in sexual connotation before college(?) Although taking care of age in an introductory note might work, there's no reason why it should. The writer could just put in a false disclaimer that isn't borne out by the context of the story.

 

[NotWise]

My first story was rejected for a possible underage character. It’s set in a college, so I though over 18 is assumed. What do I need to do to establish age? The narrator doesn’t describe herself, so there isn’t an obvious place to put age. Do I need some sort of disclaimer ? Thanks

Putting your characters in college should be sufficient. If your characters have backstories with any kind of sex (including voyeurism or masturbation) before eighteen then even a brief mention can result in your story being sent back.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I also use 'college' or 'university' to establish age, and nothing else.

For instance; "It was her break from college and..."

It could be an oversight. Try submitting it again with a Note in the Note section explaining this.

I’d go with this.

 

[Erlikkhan]

Who says I'm not eighteen?

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c9/07/a7/c907a712aad4018f096ccd09a4739446.jpg

 

[Maeven_quinn]

My first story was rejected for a possible underage character. It’s set in a college, so I though over 18 is assumed. What do I need to do to establish age? The narrator doesn’t describe herself, so there isn’t an obvious place to put age. Do I need some sort of disclaimer ? Thanks

I'm curious how you opened the story, honestly. I wonder if there is something in the first paragraphs that rang the "under eighteen" rule. PM me if you want a quick look over.

 

[Abbafan]

A disclaimer is meaningless really, you need to consider how you've written your character. If you've written her "young," as a mid teens teenager, that will come across in your characterisation. Laurel only skims stories (and may also use word search bots, nobody knows) and has probably picked up some turns of phrase that suggest "young."

Scrub through your text with a critical eye, asking yourself, am I writing adult behaviour or a teenager's. Age up, or put in specific context: "On her eighteenth birthday, like everyone else in school, Janey lost her virginity. Brett was soooo experienced, because he'd lost his the night before."

Alternatively, write about real adults. We all went to school, do we really need the zillionth college prom story? But seriously, scrub through your text - you can also do what so many do and put an age disclaimer in up front, but if you've written her with budding breasts, change them to pert tits. Nuance makes all the difference .

This has not been my experience. If a story starts out with a note telling the reader that everyone involved in hanky panky is over 18, it seems to be enough. I've come across some stories with characters acting in pretty immature ways, or had characters who didn't know something that I think pretty much every 18 year old would. As long as it says the character is 18, it looks like they are willing to accept that the character is just ridiculously naive or something.

A character acting in a really childish way, like a preteen perhaps, might be a problem, I guess. Asking mommy to please get his clothes out for him like she usually does or something like that, for example. I haven't read one like that yet.

 

[LexxRuthless]

The disclaimer won't get around some of your character background stuff getting the story rejected, though. You cannot, for example, say that a character who is in college now used to fantasize about his next-door neighbor when he masturbated. Something like that would have to be amended to, "I always thought she was hot."

 

[ElectricBlue]

A character acting in a really childish way, like a preteen perhaps, might be a problem, I guess. Asking mommy to please get his clothes out for him like she usually does or something like that, for example. I haven't read one like that yet.

Probably because it wouldn't get through the first time, or was subsequently reported and taken down. We've had examples cited of exactly what you describe - they didn't last long.

We regularly get folk through here quizzing the eighteen year rule, and there's enough anecdotal evidence that it's one thing Laurel polices fairly tightly. If folk write "too young," they will either get rejected or someone will report a story and Laurel will bounce it back to the author.

I think most of us can spot someone writing young teens, especially if they do it regularly.

 

[Abbafan]

Probably because it wouldn't get through the first time, or was subsequently reported and taken down. We've had examples cited of exactly what you describe - they didn't last long.

We regularly get folk through here quizzing the eighteen year rule, and there's enough anecdotal evidence that it's one thing Laurel polices fairly tightly. If folk write "too young," they will either get rejected or someone will report a story and Laurel will bounce it back to the author.

I think most of us can spot someone writing young teens, especially if they do it regularly.

Agreed. You can get away with a character being pretty naive about things sexual, based on what I've seen, but you want to make it very clear that they are over 18.

If you have a character out right acting like a kid, you are going to get your story bounced, and rightfully so.

 

[sansastark22]

Establishing Age - Question

How would you write about fantasies that a guy/girl had during their teenage years? I want to describe the development of my character's panty fetish and want to show it having started at an early age. Also, masturbation starts way before 18 (in almost all cases), so how would one go about writing about that?

 

[Bramblethorn]

How would you write about fantasies that a guy/girl had during their teenage years? I want to describe the development of my character's panty fetish and want to show it having started at an early age. Also, masturbation starts way before 18 (in almost all cases), so how would one go about writing about that?

On a different site.

 

[Handley_Page]

My first story was rejected for a possible underage character. It’s set in a college, so I though over 18 is assumed. What do I need to do to establish age? The narrator doesn’t describe herself, so there isn’t an obvious place to put age. Do I need some sort of disclaimer ? Thanks

There are those readers who may not understand the age, given only 'College' or other scholarly institutions. Making it clearer for we, the ignorant, would be better.

 

[NotWise]

How would you write about fantasies that a guy/girl had during their teenage years? I want to describe the development of my character's panty fetish and want to show it having started at an early age. Also, masturbation starts way before 18 (in almost all cases), so how would one go about writing about that?

Like others have said, you can't.

What you can do (if you must) is include a nonerotic, nondescriptive reference such as, "It's been building on me for a long time," and just leave it at that. I've made similar references before, mostly in dialogue.

 

[Javahead]

There are those readers who may not understand the age, given only 'College' or other scholarly institutions. Making it clearer for we, the ignorant, would be better.

Unless the story depends on the character being just over the line, making it explicit shouldn’t hurt the story. If the story depends on skating the line - say, a first time story - you’ve got rather more work.

And “in college” is a clue, but not a guarantee. In real life, a lot of people start college before they’re 18 - I did, and so did one of my daughters. So doing something in-story to make it plain your character isn’t breaking the rule may be a good idea. Extra points for subtle, but an explicit “it happened the month after my eighteenth birthday” or “I couldn’t believe that I was eighteen and still hadn’t XXX” works well.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm surprised the story was rejected. I never use disclaimers. I just make sure the characters are in college or beyond, and I've never had a problem. My guess is if you send Laurel a note she'll change her ruling and you'll be OK.

 

[PennameWombat]

My first story was rejected for a possible underage character. It’s set in a college, so I though over 18 is assumed. What do I need to do to establish age? The narrator doesn’t describe herself, so there isn’t an obvious place to put age. Do I need some sort of disclaimer ? Thanks

Does she have friends she talks to? A couple of lines of dialogue where one mentions her own 18th birthday party and your character chimes in with "mine was a bit of a downer, my grandmother was very ill so we didn't feel like doing much..."

Or whatever fits the 'flow'... She had a rager planned with friends but her parents' trip out of town (to allow her to have it) got cancelled at the last minute and so it was cake 'n ice cream and pin the tail on the donkey...

After all, these are recent events to your characters and a not unnatural thing about which to compare experiences.

 

[Voboy]

I don't like age disclaimers, and I also don't do the "laundry list" approach: "that summer I'd just turned eighteen, with a 38-26-36 body that stood 5 foot three in my bikini. The guys really liked me!"

Most of the time, in stories with younger characters, I just mention some sort of incident (often sexual) that happened at their eighteenth birthday party a few weeks/months ago. I do it in an offhand way, en passant, so that it's less obvious that the only reason it's in there is so that it gets and stays published.