Halloween Support Thread

[cloudy]

Mine's up. No trolls, so far, but yikes! People are harsh this year!

Hush, Hush, Sweet Carly

 

[hugo_sam]

thanks

I thik it's pretty pedestrian compared to some of the works I've read. Lot of people really went to the mat with theirs and the quality overall is a bit humbling.

I agree completely. But it can likewise be inspiring to add your own take.
It is reather daunting given the august company. I still think yours is one of the best so far.

What Hugo said; me too.

I've finished about twenty, mainly AH regulars. Saved the best for last which means Colly's story. Definite five bait.

I couldn't resist taking another shot at last place and submitted a very short Romance (1100 words) with no sex, little about Halloween, and except for what I do to good taste and English letters, no violence or horror. That should equate to no hope. Although it'll have to do some humping to under perform my last contest entry (4.23).

Rumple Foreskin

Good luck or bad luck whichever it is your aiming for. It seems wierd, but many of the fine folks here are outside of what I usually read and it had definitly been enlightening reading the different stories and genre'.

 

[Guest]

Mine's up. No trolls, so far, but yikes! People are harsh this year!

Hush, Hush, Sweet Carly

sweetie, i have you bookmarked to read today.
im very excited to do so.


oh and you too Rumple, my idol.
seems like i cant read fast enough!

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I agree completely. But it can likewise be inspiring to add your own take.
It is reather daunting given the august company. I still think yours is one of the best so far.
--
Good luck or bad luck whichever it is your aiming for. It seems wierd, but many of the fine folks here are outside of what I usually read and it had definitly been enlightening reading the different stories and genre'.

Cloudy: Yours and about eight others that look like contest entries are on the new list but haven't been added to the Contest List. That would mean about 69 entries, hum, and may be when the trolling starts.

Hugo: I'd be happy to take home some prize money, but it's more fun to claim you're battling for last place. I agree with you about how Lit can expand your horizons both as a reader and a writer. The last place "competition" is a way of encouraging folks to take risks instead of just trying to tailor their stories to do well in the contest.

Rumple Foreskin

Vella: Looks like mine won't be posted until tomorrow. There were a slew of submissions yesterday in addition to those for the contest. But not to worry. Mine's only 1100 words long so whenever it does see the light of day, reading my poor pitiful prose won't take a big chunk out of your day. rf

 

[Guest]

Cloudy: Yours and about eight others that look like contest entries are on the new list but haven't been added to the Contest List. That would mean about 69 entries, hum, and may be when the trolling starts.

Hugo: I'd be happy to take home some prize money, but it's more fun to claim you're battling for last place. I agree with you about how Lit can expand your horizons both as a reader and a writer. The last place "competition" is a way of encouraging folks to take risks instead of just trying to tailor their stories to do well in the contest.

Rumple Foreskin

the last place competition is the one i entered. totally out of my league here but...i had to do it.

 

[Guest]

To whoever mentioned it....

yeah the readers are hitting harder this year then they have in past contests.... I have entered I believe all of them except for the free speech one in the past year and never seen voting or pcs like this come up.....

Today is only the 6th.... that means we have 16 more days of the contest.....

If the past holds usually about four days before the end of the contest they stop accepting new stories for the contest because they are still trying to get through the ones that have already been submitted..... so that really means if your going to submit you only have another 12 days or so to do so

this is going to be an interesting year really..... lots of folks out there.... lots of different stories, plots and so many new faces hanging and banging with the old foggies that have been doing it awhile

as always.... good luck to all

Always, Lizzy

 

[hugo_sam]

the last place competition is the one i entered. totally out of my league here but...i had to do it.

Now if I had just been around long enought to understand how that works. Sounds like it is tailor made for me!

 

[Guest]

I think Og explains it best...... but lets see if I can remember how it goes

Last Place Contest..
the story with the lowest average score..... or lowest rating....

I think that they used to have some cool funky formula to figure out what the score was.... and then they would post them onto this thread.....

the last place contest is usually hilarious because everyone that is involved in it tries to get people to go and vote 5s on others that are involved int he LPC

 

[impressive]

To whoever mentioned it....

yeah the readers are hitting harder this year then they have in past contests.... I have entered I believe all of them except for the free speech one in the past year and never seen voting or pcs like this come up.....

Plus, there seem to be a LOT more entries.

PCs on mine have been kind -- but it's "just" stroke and doesn't lay claim to anything more ambitious (like a plot). Most folks have commented that it's a nice break from the creepier stuff. *shrug*

Voting, on the other hand, has been tepid -- enough for an H, but not enough to be a contender. S'okay. Not eligible to win, anyway.


I read Colly's & cloudy's this morning. Rumps is on my bookmark list for later. If I owe anyone a reciprocal RVC, please remind me!

 

[Guest]

I think that I read and voted on all of the stories that came out in the first two days.... It is possible that I did the third days but I am not sure......

so

if anyone would like me to read theirs that didnt come out on the first or second day I will be more then happy to.... I am going to try and caught up on the reading after work today because this is my friday

 

[dreampilot79]

Just a dumb question... can you have your stories removed from the site? This has stopped being fun. I really want to have my story removed from not only the contest but from the site as well.

Am I being overly sensitive? I have had my fair shair of what I considered unmerrited personal attacks before, but those were really attacks on my characters. I've taken even the most obnoxious comments about my writing as constructive criticism and not had a single ruffled feather before.

This time it's getting personal with me. and I'm taking it personally.. and maybe it's hitting home.

I know for certain that I need take a break from writing for a while.

It used to be that if I saw e mail that started with feedback in my regular e mail I couldn't wait to open it.... and answer it. Now, I just want to delete it before I open it.

How do I go about having my story removed?

 

[Guest]

 

[ABSTRUSE]

Just a dumb question... can you have your stories removed from the site? This has stopped being fun. I really want to have my story removed from not only the contest but from the site as well.

Am I being overly sensitive? I have had my fair shair of what I considered unmerrited personal attacks before, but those were really attacks on my characters. I've taken even the most obnoxious comments about my writing as constructive criticism and not had a single ruffled feather before.

This time it's getting personal with me. and I'm taking it personally.. and maybe it's hitting home.

I know for certain that I need take a break from writing for a while.

It used to be that if I saw e mail that started with feedback in my regular e mail I couldn't wait to open it.... and answer it. Now, I just want to delete it before I open it.

How do I go about having my story removed?

If you feel good about your story, let it stay...if not, they win.

 

[English Lady]

Dp -think hard before making your decsion, you can have'em deleted, I've done it myself

Don't take it down if you're in any doubt at all about it BUT if it's getting you down, you do what you have to do to make you feel OK

 

[Extreme Bohunk]

Hey Dreampilot,
Is there a possibility that the hate mail (I assume it's anon.) is being sent by one person? I think there's a way you can shut off your email in your profile.

 

[Guest]

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Dream,

I'm curious about your story, actually... what were you going for with it?

I was confused by that... but I certainly don't believe you should be the brunt of the hate mail you're receiving However, I can see where it's coming from. Anyone who has been victimized would take offense of course... but they would take offense to any nonconsensual reference... but what I think it really is... is the ... I guess the kindest word is "insensitive" way your character treats the rape? Like Shang said earlier, maybe because he did treat it in an incidental kind of way?

I'm just curious what you felt the character's motivation was in that? I can see someone becoming very obsessive, to the point of not caring about *anything* else in the world, including someone else who's been raped (seems bizarre, but it's true, it just becomes "someone else's problem, I've got my own" kind of a thing... obsession can do that...) But if that's what you were going for, my suggestion would have been (Monday morning quarterbacking here ) to really make him completely over the top with it (like WAY over the top, hit people on the head with it, make him obsessive/compulsive even delusional...?)

It just seems like your only crime was not going far ENOUGH with this story, taking the callousness of this character and making it grossly overdone to make a point?

But I'm not even sure that's what your intention was? You don't have to answer... I'm just a curious kitty...!

 

[dreampilot79]

Dream,

I'm curious about your story, actually... what were you going for with it?

I was confused by that... but I certainly don't believe you should be the brunt of the hate mail you're receiving However, I can see where it's coming from. Anyone who has been victimized would take offense of course... but they would take offense to any nonconsensual reference... but what I think it really is... is the ... I guess the kindest word is "insensitive" way your character treats the rape? Like Shang said earlier, maybe because he did treat it in an incidental kind of way?

I'm just curious what you felt the character's motivation was in that? I can see someone becoming very obsessive, to the point of not caring about *anything* else in the world, including someone else who's been raped (seems bizarre, but it's true, it just becomes "someone else's problem, I've got my own" kind of a thing... obsession can do that...) But if that's what you were going for, my suggestion would have been (Monday morning quarterbacking here ) to really make him completely over the top with it (like WAY over the top, hit people on the head with it, make him obsessive/compulsive even delusional...?)

It just seems like your only crime was not going far ENOUGH with this story, taking the callousness of this character and making it grossly overdone to make a point?

But I'm not even sure that's what your intention was? You don't have to answer... I'm just a curious kitty...!

1. Ther was NO point to the rape and in fact, I never said there WAS one, only implied it. The only reason for it's existance was to enforce the mistaken identity and hasten his realization that his date wasn't who he thought.

2. In retrospect, it would have worked for the story just as well if the SOB had dropped his blind date off in a bad neighborhood.

3. This person was a STRANGER to the main character. He simply shared a mutual friend. Ones reaction to an abusive situation... weather actual rape or just abuse is VERY different if you KNOW them.

My crime was to NOT make a big deal out of it.

Thanks for the tip about shutting off mail.... I can deal with the bad comments on the story... it's the e mail that is getting to me! Guess I'll just shut that off and go somewhere else for a while and see how I feel.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

Thanks for the response, Dream... I think you're right, as a plot developer, something less charged might have worked better. Maybe I will have to go back and read it again, I know the rape was only implied when she ran out of the house... but the reaction of his friends (the comments, "we were trying to keep her from calling the police, of you ending up in jail etc.) furthered that implication, at least in my mind...

But now that I know what your (and the character's) motivation was, it makes more sense. If I'd been editing (again, Monday morning quarterbacking) I would have suggested you change that particular aspect to something else... rather than risk, well... the kind of flaming that you're getting Sorry it turned out this way...

 

[rgraham666]

Bummer, dp.

Sigh. Can't understand what motivates people to do this sort of thing.

Do what you think is right dp. You have my support.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

hi Dreampilot. this is just my two penn'orth:
stick in there, fellah.
i had a bout of anon emails, drove me 'kin insane for a time and i contemplated deleting the story.
due to some great support from people on Lit, i left it up.
mine was to do with a wife's letter to her soldier husband that detailed the sex she'd been receiving from his brother while the soldier was 'overseas'.
boy, did i upset some people!
i figured i was qualified to describe such a scene 'cos i've been to some of the world's shitty trouble spots in my former life, ergo, i can understand the 'phsychology', but i misjudged it and got the backlash.
fuck 'em fellah. fix bayonets and drive on. keep the story up.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

1. Ther was NO point to the rape and in fact, I never said there WAS one, only implied it. The only reason for it's existance was to enforce the mistaken identity and hasten his realization that his date wasn't who he thought.

2. In retrospect, it would have worked for the story just as well if the SOB had dropped his blind date off in a bad neighborhood.

3. This person was a STRANGER to the main character. He simply shared a mutual friend. Ones reaction to an abusive situation... weather actual rape or just abuse is VERY different if you KNOW them.

My crime was to NOT make a big deal out of it.

Thanks for the tip about shutting off mail.... I can deal with the bad comments on the story... it's the e mail that is getting to me! Guess I'll just shut that off and go somewhere else for a while and see how I feel.

DP,

It's hate mail. You yourself said it's hate mail. But how can someone who dosen't know you, hate you? They can't. Itis hate mail, in the truest sense, it's people who have to hate and they will find any excuse, including going after an author because they didn't like his or her work. I get annon homophobic "die lesbian bitch die" mail all the time. Have since I first started posting. These people want you to take it personally. They want to hurt you.

In the end though, it's unfocused spew. It can't really be personal, because they don't know you well enough to really hate you. I could show you some of the mails I got from Tee Time or Long Distance Runner and you would swear the world was full of the most evil of people.

IMHO, the majority of this hate mail comes from kids. People old enough to know how to work a computer and still immautre enough to think hurting someone or tearing down someone is "cool".

You have to do what is right for you of course, but if you really think about, the words are hollow. If they weren't aimed at you, they would be aimed at someone else and ya know what? There won't be a significant change in syntax. Most of those I get could well be form hate letters. They are calculated to inflict pain, but that's about it.

They only have power to hurt if you pretend the person on the other end is earnest. And you are pretending there, because it's just as likely it's a 17 or 18 year old kid, trying to impress his cronies with how vile he can be. Of course, safely annon.

*HUGS*

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

DP,

Sometimes I get the feeling there is a "piling on" effect with anon "hate mail." There's the experiences of Colly and Geronimo, and best I recall, a few months ago, even Tatelou became a target.

If you believe in the story as is, then turn off all feedback and leave it alone. If you think it could be improved, pull it, do some editing, then resubmit. But I echo what the others said. Whatever you do, we'll be behind you. I'm just sorry you have to deal with this crap.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[oggbashan]

Long and short

I've just hit the submit button for the long one.

Only 10,000 words and three Lit pages.

Now perhaps I can write the short one.

I'm sorry that some are getting offensive e-mail. It happens. Although we try to ignore it, some of the barbs get through.

I'll post the Last Place Contest (TM) rules this weekend and then anonymous trolls can actually help you to win that revered place in the AH's roll of dishonour...

As a past 'winner' of top and bottom I'm ineligible for either contest this time.

Og

 

[dreampilot79]

DP,

It's hate mail. You yourself said it's hate mail. But how can someone who dosen't know you, hate you? They can't. Itis hate mail, in the truest sense, it's people who have to hate and they will find any excuse, including going after an author because they didn't like his or her work. I get annon homophobic "die lesbian bitch die" mail all the time. Have since I first started posting. These people want you to take it personally. They want to hurt you.

In the end though, it's unfocused spew. It can't really be personal, because they don't know you well enough to really hate you. I could show you some of the mails I got from Tee Time or Long Distance Runner and you would swear the world was full of the most evil of people.

IMHO, the majority of this hate mail comes from kids. People old enough to know how to work a computer and still immautre enough to think hurting someone or tearing down someone is "cool".

You have to do what is right for you of course, but if you really think about, the words are hollow. If they weren't aimed at you, they would be aimed at someone else and ya know what? There won't be a significant change in syntax. Most of those I get could well be form hate letters. They are calculated to inflict pain, but that's about it.

They only have power to hurt if you pretend the person on the other end is earnest. And you are pretending there, because it's just as likely it's a 17 or 18 year old kid, trying to impress his cronies with how vile he can be. Of course, safely annon.

*HUGS*

Collie... what makes it personal and makes it hurt... is the truth in it!

I've had personal slams before that didn't bother me.. because they were about the characters in the story.. the characters are NOT me. I could shake those off because it's what the character did, NOT what I would do or feel.

This time, it's about me and I do get it! I created an incident AWAY from the story line, and then promptly put it in the background. I did not explain myself or the incident.

I was guilty of trivializing a traumatic event. I AM THE ONE who trivialized it. I am guilty. It is my guilt that hurts much more than the comments themselves.