Minimum word count; German story categories

Kann_sein

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Joined
Apr 23, 2014
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Hello everybody,

it‘s my pleasure to be here, though I have no idea whether I‘m in the right place. My questions concern one of the rules here, as well as the appearance specifically in the German section. Tried the e-mail function, doesn‘t work; so I‘m posting it here.

For years I‘ve been reading the occasional Literotica story, and some of them I thoroughly enjoyed. I‘ve been writing my own stories too, but never thought about publishing them.

Recently I wanted, for the first time, to do just that: post one of my own stories on Literotica. Surprisingly, I met with an obstacle, and finally found out that my story is way too short.

My questions are as follows:

1.) Why a 750 word minimum?

The quality of a written text does not necessarily correlate with its length, I think everyone will agree on that. An erotic encounter tends, by its nature, to be a more or less short-lived matter. If written well, it might be depicted more to the point and even more entertaining, on half a page than in long-winded prosa. I‘m not saying anything against broad prosa, not at all. But why this constraint?

(In my case, the story I could not post is written in the form of a dialogue; it wouldn‘t make sense to stretch the dialogues; if there is anything interesting in my story it is the fact that it is concise and original and that it leaves most of the details to the reader‘s imagination.)

My second question only concerns the German part of the Literotica page.

2.) German story categories: any chance of changing the titles into proper language?

My guess is that the current titles were obtained by using something like Google Translator. Anyhow, the fact is that the translations are embarrassingly bad. Some just sound clumsy, some don‘t make any sense at all. I imagine that none of you guys running Literotica is even aware of this. But it‘s a bit confusing to have for instance the category of „NonConsent/Reluctance“ under the header of „Nicht festgelegt“ - which actually means „Not defined“ or „Undetermined“.

If you would be willing to consider some changes, I‘d be happy to make my suggestions, although I‘m sure there are lots of german-speaking Literotica-contributors who are just as qualified to do so.

- I‘ve already posted these questions in the German section of Literotica and was told that, though my points might be justified, nobody there was authorized to make any changes. I should approach the Americans. At the same time I was advised that those in charge would probably not respond, having no time for such trivialities.

Anyway, I‘m giving it a try. Thanks for your time, and I‘m wishing each and every one of you a delightful weekend.

K-S
 
I earnestly doubt any exceptions are going to be made on the minimum word count rule. Laurel (the site owner) arbitrarily drew the line many years ago, probably when the site was founded or shortly thereafter, and it's been in effect since. 750 words really isn't that much, but if your story as it is does not meet the requirement, you're going to have to add more to it.

As far as the German section (or any foreign language section of the site), Laurel is pretty open to suggestions. If you send her a PM (NOT an email) with what you've posted here, she may be willing to listen to any changes that would help the readership of the non-English sections.

Keep in mind that there are only two people in charge of this entire site: Laurel and Manu. They have a lot keeping them busy.
 
I think that writing a story in another language gains points in the Survivor Contest.

That might account for some of the weird titles (and stories) in German and other languages - because the writer has little real knowledge of the language.

As for the minimum word count of 750 words. That is one of the few requirements for the site, BUT if you do not want to be that long you can submit your 'story' as poetry which has no minimum length. That's what I did with my first 50-word stories, before I started submitting them as sets of 15 (50 words x 15 = 750 words, and then there is my copyright notice and the title of each story).
 
I think that writing a story in another language gains points in the Survivor Contest.

Nope.

Non-English stories and poems: Submissions in all languages are eligible for the contest and must be posted in the corresponding categories as applicable. There will not be a specific non-English category in the scoreboards. All submissions must be original work of the entrant, and subsequent translations in any language are not eligible for points.
 
Thank you for your response, slyc_willie, and the suggestion to write a PM. Yes, I might do that.

Concerning the word minimum:

I‘m not asking for an exception. My question was Why. Meaning, what *are* the reasons for a word minimum - I‘m sure there are some and I‘m not condemning them as I don‘t know them.

Of course, I did give my opinion on the matter of quality having nothing to do with quantity. That was my main point, and let me add:

I hardly came across a story on Literotica which I thought was too short. But I came across quite a few stories which I thought were way too long. Does that justify an upper word limit? Of course not.

Well, I guess I made my point :) and once again, thanks for your response.

Have a nice weekend, everybody!

K-S

P.S. Thank you for your post, oggbashan, read it this instant. Don‘t know anything about the survivor contest, maybe I should check it out. Title sounds good to me :) Frankly, for me writing a story in German is a lot less weird than writing a story in French. It sure sounds cool that writing in my mother tongue will help me to some extra points in that contest!!
P.P.S: I‘m DEFINITELY going to check out your 50-word stories!

Cheers!
 
@ RejectReality: I am crushed! Already saw myself as the winner of the Survivor Contest due to my excellent German... ;)
 
If I remember correctly, Laurel once indicated word count is a technical mandate. Amazon has a minimum word count for reader reviews.

This said, I post multiple stories together when theyre each less than 750 words.
 
- If the rule has technical reasons, I certainly have no problems accepting it. But it sounds weird that it should not apply to the Poetry section.
 
- If the rule has technical reasons, I certainly have no problems accepting it. But it sounds weird that it should not apply to the Poetry section.
I think the minimum word count is related to the chosen page-length of ~25KB including HTML overhead and ads.

If your story is less than 750 words, there is more overhead and ad language in a page than there is story; Laurel didn't want readers to feel cheated.
 
Perhaps an exception could be made for German, though. This is the language that gave us "Donaudampfshiffsfartgesellshaftskapitan" which can be translated as "Captain of the Danube steamship transport company." (I might not have the German spelling right. It's been a long time.) So it takes seven English words to take the place of one German word.
 
@ Athalia:

Absolutely! Imagine our constraint: 750 words minimum of Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän-like words, compared to all those 4-letter words (not to mention the ones with only 3 letters) which English language users can choose from. - It‘s just not fair!!!

K-S
 
Mark it off in lines by poetry and submit it as a poem, and unless Laurel speaks German, she'll have no idea it's a too-short short story rather than poetry. (It probably will fool modern poets too, who will just see it as free verse, even if they speak German.)
 
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