Keywords

[wishfulthinking]

What words do you use to describe your story or search for a story?

I see things like "fem-dom" etc, but I wonder how much the keywords readers use to search match up with what authors use?

Anyone want to give me some examples? I use things like "historical" and "romance" or whatever, but these don't seem effective.

Cheers, WT

 

[cantdog]

I don't think, as authors, we take enough care that the keywords we put in the "keywords" box make the stories searchable.

That box is very small. There isn't room for much. I assume the keyword searches use that box (A) the title field (B), and the description or subtitle field (C) in the search when you ask the site to search keywords.

I do hope so, because there is almost no room whatsoever in just the keywords box. I find the searches pretty frustrating, usually, and I wish the authors paid attention to keywords when they submit.

 

[Songcatcher]

Oh, I see . . .

BDSM humour!

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I usually ask myself what it is a reader might remember about the story when they would try to look it up. Maybe they remember that the sex happened in the rain, or on the beach, or in an office.

I usually concentrate on keywords having to do with the sex, and usually in my stories there's some gimmick or hook I use to make the sex special. If you try and sum up the overall plot in one word, it's much harder to do.

I realy don't know how successful that is though. I don't know if anyone's ever come across anything of mine by doing a keyword search.

Slightly off-topic, but did you know that there are professional indexers? They go through non-fiction manuscripts and list all the words that will appear in the index. If you can read through your story with the mind-set of an indexer, you should be able to come up with some good keywords.

---dr.M,

 

[Songcatcher]

Oh, by the way, the key word is target. So get!

I'm one step ahead of yous. (Puts his feet up in front of telly, sipping tea.)

 

[Guest]

What words do you use to describe your story or search for a story?

I see things like "fem-dom" etc, but I wonder how much the keywords readers use to search match up with what authors use?

Anyone want to give me some examples? I use things like "historical" and "romance" or whatever, but these don't seem effective.

Cheers, WT

I always assume that people will select a particular story category and then look inside of that for their favorite kink.

I use a selection of words, no punctuation, and keep adding until I run out of space.

Example from one story: Spare the Rod and Spoil the Sarah

Spank Paddle Tears Restraints Anal Forced Toys - etc.

I don't use BDSM because that's the category (and it takes up space).

If someone wants to read a BDSM story with mind control, this ain't it. But if they want to read about the girl getting her butt paddled, read away.

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Keywords

Whipe that grin off your face, and back to p_p lounge!

 

[logophile]

Oh My!
You know what??
I've never used the keywords function.
Never, not one time!
Is everyone else using it?
Have I made some horrible mistake?

AAARRRRGGH!

 

[wishfulthinking]

Re: Re: Keywords

Example from one story...Spank Paddle Tears Restraints Anal Forced Toys

Cool bananas!

But I was thinking about using "bdsm" for a story that is to go in the non-consent category when the bugger is finished.

Poor Logo

That is an interesting point Dr M. I never thought to use keywords to describe things that would hopefully make my story memorable. eg. the location, such as beach. D'Oh.

But I agree, Cant. The reason why readers probably aren't finding the stories they are searching for using the search function probably comes back to us authors.

Thanks for your responses! Any other examples?

 

[logophile]

Re: Re: Re: Keywords

Poor Logo

Does this mean that I have made a terrible mistake??

Just kidding, I think I get plenty of reads anyway...

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

The ASSTR site has done a lot of work (basically through the efforts of Uther Pendragon) to standardize a set of codes and keywords.

Abbreviated Story Codes

The first thing that new authors seem to wish to do is to change or ignore them.

This site is big enough to require some kind of useful story type identifier, too.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

In the keyword field, I try to include items that aren't the story's dominate theme or those the category not make self-evident. This is especially useful with multi-category stories. For instance, I had one, Mix and Match, that included: incest, group sex, interracial love, anal, lesbian sex, and romance. I finally placed it in Erotic Couplings.

Other things which might be mentioned include: location, time of year or holidays, age, occupation and sub-category items such as those SweetSubSarah mentioned using for her BDSM story.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Weird Harold]

I see things like "fem-dom" etc, but I wonder how much the keywords readers use to search match up with what authors use?

I'd really like to see something like ASSTR's story codes presented as standardized choices for the keywords in a "check all that apply" sort of format in both the submission process and the search process.

The big problem with a keyword search is that every author uses a different format for the keywords -- if they use them at all -- so the keyword search is essentially useless here at Lit.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I've never used keywords for anything. I don't know what the box is for so I have always left it blank.

Are they:
Words to use to help readers find a specific kind of story? In that case, how do they differ from the category designation?

Are they to help search for pirated stories? I have a few expressions that appear in most of my stories and I have used them to search for stolen stories.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I've never used keywords for anything. I don't know what the box is for so I have always left it blank.

Are they:
Words to use to help readers find a specific kind of story? In that case, how do they differ from the category designation?

Are they to help search for pirated stories? I have a few expressions that appear in most of my stories and I have used them to search for stolen stories.

Box,

Check out my post and SweetsubSarah's. Keywords can fine-time categories. For instance, what degree of relationship do the characters have in an incest story. They can also help if the story is mulit-category such as: white, heterosexual siblings who are lovers have a group experience with a black couple that includes anal, lesbian, and gay sex.

Keywords can also be used to designate categories Lit doesn't include: military, sports, outdoor, holidays, etc.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[Boxlicker101]

Box,

Check out my post and SweetsubSarah's. Keywords can fine-time categories. For instance, what degree of relationship do the characters have in an incest story. They can also help if the story is mulit-category such as: white, heterosexual siblings who are lovers have a group experience with a black couple that includes anal, lesbian, and gay sex.

Keywords can also be used to designate categories Lit doesn't include: military, sports, outdoor, holidays, etc.

Rumple Foreskin

I think I will start using them. I never write about rape, for instance, but sometimes the characters in a story role-play a rape and there are probably other places where I want to give more info than just the category. The description helps but this will help too.