Question about "too young" in lit stories

[logophile]

Hello!

I've only posted to the Author's Hangout a couple of times, but everyone here was so helpful, I thought I'd try again.

I submitted a masturbation story late Wednesday night and found out today that it had been rejected because of same age issues. When I was sending it in originally, I thought maybe I should change it a little, but sent it anyway. There is NO sex in the story with minors. A woman remembers getting a masturbation tip in 10th grade from a classmate in the locker room but writes it off at the time because she isn't "into" masturbation at that point in her life. Now she's in her 30's and looking to let off a little steam and decides to try her friend's suggestion. When it came back rejected, I wasn't really surprised because I do specifically mention that they're 10th graders. I rewrote it a little to make them 18 and older, but they're still in high school (seniors).

After all of that, my question is... should I have rewritten it so that they weren't high school students, maybe made them college co-eds? Is it enough to satisfy the (very understandable) rules here at lit that I made them 18? Or is it still in violation to have them be high school students?

OK, if you can follow all of that and have any insight, I would love to hear it! I've already re-submitted but am willing to rewrite again if necessary. Thanks so much!

 

[Mysteryjj]

Did it specify age of characters as the rejection??

If so I can't see how, if no age was mentioned.

Although to be safe under American porn law, never have anyone born under the age of 18 yrs, never mind having sex.

JJ xx

 

[cloudy]

As far as I understand, characters in high school are fine, after all, there's a lot of "young adults" who are still in high school at 18.

As long as you comply with the age restriction, everything should be fine.

 

[Bridget69]

Hmm, it's weird that it's been rejected, especially if it was just a slight reference to an experience a woman reminisces upon. Unless the experience in question was elaborated upon...

 

[Colleen Thomas]

10th grade is going to be younger than 18, unless you specify the character failed a few times. However, it depends a lot on how the tip is given. You are always better off specifying the characters are over 18 somehwere in the narrative. If you don't want to do that, you are better off mentioning no age at all and placeing them in context where age can be inferred as over 18.

In you're example doe sit have to be high school? couldn't it just as easily be at college in her freshman year?

Also, as JJ mentioned, make sure it was rejected due to age. Remember if it was rejected due to age, but you don't feel it was warranted you can always PM laurel and ask them to look at it again, explaining your position.

I wish Wh would respond, he is better at explaining, but the main thing with flashbacks or sex prior to 18 delivered in summary or flashback is that you can't go into purient detail.

hope this helps.

-Colly

 

[logophile]

Thanks Mystery and Cloudy! That's what I was hoping for, that the girls could still be in high school. The story is very very loosely based on something that happened to me in 10th grade (a classmate whispering about masturbation after our shower in gym class) and it was the very beginning of realizing that my sexuality was a lot more fluid (no pun intended) than I had always believed. Anyway, I didn't want to have to take them out of high school, but would have understood if I had needed to.

And to answer Mystery's question, yes it mentioned age as the reason for rejection. I suppose most people know that 10th graders are about 15 years old and so it was based on that assumption.

Thanks again!

 

[logophile]

I wish Wh would respond, he is better at explaining, but the main thing with flashbacks or sex prior to 18 delivered in summary or flashback is that you can't go into purient detail.

hope this helps.

-Colly

Thanks Colly! It does help. I'm wondering if this might be the point where I went too far...

"Suddenly I could picture her pretty face, flushed and shiny from our 45 minutes of gymnasium exertion with freshly applied Bonnie Bell lip gloss, chewing a wad of gum and telling all of us shocked prudes about masturbating with a faucet. Oh, she was lovely, wasn’t she? My mouth was watering thinking about how cute she had been that day, pulling her slightly too-tight sweater on over her head and winking conspiratorially at me."

Or here's the other place that might have done it. The main character is imagining the class mate all grown up and fantasizing about her telling what to do...

“Good, now, take your hairbrush from the edge of the tub. Good. Put it under the water and push it into yourself. I can see that you're hungry for it. You want it? You want me to fuck you? And you wanted it in high school too. I always knew I liked you for a reason."

Anyway, I did rewrite it and make them 18 and 19 (one of the was held back a year, great minds think alike Colly) so hopefully it's all cleared up!

I appreciate everyone's help!

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Just to elaborate a little on what Colly and the others said:

The rule-of-thumb at Lit appears to be that characters who are seniors in high school are considered "of age." Obviously, a lot of high school seniors are under 18, but so far Laurel has been willing to grant this one exception.

If a character is in any other high school grade, their being 18 must be mentioned.

In the situation you mentioned, Lit will often accept the story. The deciding factor appears to be whether the story just mentions a sexual incident or describes what happened.

As the other folks indicated, if in doubt, send Laurel a PM.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[logophile]

Thanks Rumple! I really appreciate the clarification!

 

[fifty5]

Age issues on Lit

I understand and have no problem with Laurel's position about age.

However, there are stories where previous happenings before age 18 (esp. if placed in other parts of the world, where the age of consent is lower - eg UK, 16) are 'of the essence'.

In that case, remember that there are other free places to publish, where the age rules ain't that strict, but the copyright protection is.

Lit is, IMO, 'the best' place, but it isn't the only one. It just might be better to stick with the essentials of your story (they don't necessarily make you a pedophile) than to cut its balls off to fit Lit's - perfectly understandable - criteria.

Eff

 

[cantdog]

I got rejected because underage people had witnessed (and intervened to stop, by the way) a date rape. It doesn't have yo be underage sex.

 

[logophile]

That's really interesting cantdog. And it illustrates that the rules are at least being applied across the board. So did you change your witnesses ages?

 

[pop_54]

I got rejected because underage people had witnessed (and intervened to stop, by the way) a date rape. It doesn't have yo be underage sex.

I have to agree with Eff on the stance of Lit, it's Laurel's site she can fix the rules that she's comfy with, and those rules are not designed to stifle creativity, they're designed to cover her arse, by insisting on "No under 18's, not no way" she doesn't have to make too many near the knuckle judgements... There are so many uptight PC wankers who'd love to shut Lit and all other erotic sites down tomorrow... Can't give them that chance, think of the poor unfortunate choirboys they'd be getting stuck up the back of if they had nothing occupy their minds on the internet.

Having said that however, Lit rules do fuck with certain stories, like yours cantdog, I can understand your insistance on including the 'underage' witnesses, any other way it wouldn't be your story as you intended it to be... It's a minefield, life doesn't begin at 18, and no way can anyone write a true to life fiction story along those lines.

It appears that some people have had stories rejected simply because they dared to mention that someone had children under 18, completely non sexual remarks in the story line regarding the little kids playing in the garden or some such while mummy cooked the dinner... Now that is down right daft.

There is no real clear cut law regarding underage characters in fiction writing, people in authority make it up as they go along, by authority I mean the Fed's... As far as I know, the written word is still sacred, and as long as it isn't gratuitous sexual activity designed to incite perverts to commit rape, but rather part of a story line, you can have any age person you like involved in acts of a sexual nature... Not that I particularly want to write about underage sex personally, but shit happens.

pops

 

[logophile]

I have to agree with Eff on the stance of Lit, it's Laurel's site she can fix the rules that she's comfy with, and those rules are not designed to stifle creativity, they're designed to cover her arse, by insisting on "No under 18's, not no way" she doesn't have to make too many near the knuckle judgements... There are so many uptight PC wankers who'd love to shut Lit and all other erotic sites down tomorrow... Can't give them that chance, think of the poor unfortunate choirboys they'd be getting stuck up the back of if they had nothing occupy their minds on the internet.

Pops,

Thanks for your reply. I also understand and have no issue with the rules. Like I said, when I first submitted the story I had a fleeting thought about the age thing, but I had already hit "submit" so it was too late. It is kinda too bad because the story is more realistic if the girls are in 10th grade, but I'm OK with it. Hehe, not everything has to be autobiographical all the time!

 

[pop_54]

Pops,

Hehe, not everything has to be autobiographical all the time!

Yea but aint it bloody fun when it is

 

[fifty5]

Pops,

Thanks for your reply. I also understand and have no issue with the rules. Like I said, when I first submitted the story I had a fleeting thought about the age thing, but I had already hit "submit" so it was too late. It is kinda too bad because the story is more realistic if the girls are in 10th grade, but I'm OK with it. Hehe, not everything has to be autobiographical all the time!

Pop,

Thanks for your endorsement.

Logo,

This is Laurel's site - she does damn well.

The story is yours (one of the things I like about Lit is that it acknowledges precisely that). Do what works for you.

Eff

 

[Weird Harold]

"Suddenly I could picture her pretty face, flushed and shiny from our 45 minutes of gymnasium exertion with freshly applied Bonnie Bell lip gloss, chewing a wad of gum and telling all of us shocked prudes about masturbating with a faucet. Oh, she was lovely, wasn’t she? My mouth was watering thinking about how cute she had been that day, pulling her slightly too-tight sweater on over her head and winking conspiratorially at me."

I think if you had left off the part I left in bold, you would have been OK.

It depends on what the main character was doing in the present tense while she was thinking this, but it probably came across as her fantisizing about the underage character AS an underage character.

The full passage you quoted would probably pass if it was part of a discussion about learning about masturbation over coffeee and donuts that didn't involve a connection with arousal or action concurrent with the memory. It probably got you rejected because it was a flashback during a masturbation scene.

The general rule of thumb is that character can have a past and they can remember or discuss the past, but the flashback can't be explicit or graphic nor can it be connected to a present arousal or sexual situation.

In your particular case, that means your main character can remember (and/or discuss) when and how she learned about masturbation but she can't use the memory as part of her masturbation fantasy.

 

[cantdog]

Weird has hit the nail on the head, The sexual discussion, the sexuality, of underage characters, seen in his example, is enough to cross the line.

(Some people here will remember that story of mine. I simply took it elsewhere. Long story, not germane.)

I have no beef about it. You write, you submit. If the editors reject, it's damn rare they give a reason. Here they ordinarily will at least characterize their reason in a broad category. Better than most markets do.

 

[logophile]

The full passage you quoted would probably pass if it was part of a discussion about learning about masturbation over coffeee and donuts that didn't involve a connection with arousal or action concurrent with the memory. It probably got you rejected because it was a flashback during a masturbation scene.

Right, that's exactly what I was thinking. I really appreciate everyone's help in understanding exactly how the underage rules work. As a mother and a woman who works with families for a living, I in no way want to conjur up sexual visions of children for use as masturbatory material. Thanks so much!

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Logo,

I meant to say this earlier but went into one of my mental vapor locks and forgot.

Welcome to the AH.

You started two interesting threads, which is double my overall tally and, judging from the excerpts you posted in this thread, your writing has a lot of promise.

If you have any more stories already posted or, ir not, when the revised version of this one sees the light of day, place a link to your story list on your sig line so I can check it out.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[logophile]

Thanks for the welcome Rumple! I've been floating around these boards for a little while and have posted some in the How To forum, but you guys over here have really impressed me. If it's all right you, I think I might stick around for a while.

At your suggestion, I altered my sig line, but I'm so computer illiterate that I couldn't figure out to make the actual link say something cool like: Click for my stories. Anyway, it will work for now. My new story isn't up yet, but I have four others. Three are lesbian stories and then one is a fairly vanilla hetrosexual story that I wrote for the Halloween contest. I read and left feedback on several of the Halloween stories and felt bad that I didn't do more of them. I'm just entirely too impressionable and can't read horror or even thrillers very often. Even the weakest story/movie will give me nightmares.

So, thanks again and I look forward to getting to know you all a little better!

 

[sweetnpetite]

I think it may have been the part were she was 'aging' people in her mind. Ageing is not allowed. (this discussion was had about the kids from Harry Potter and the Olsen twins.)

good luck with your resubmit.

ps- hasn't anybody seen stories on this site that break the rule? I've seen it a few times- once on a story with an =E=!

I don't think that was fair about cants story. but that's just personal oppinion, I realize that they can do what they want on their site and all that.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

Thanks for the welcome Rumple! I've been floating around these boards for a little while and have posted some in the How To forum, but you guys over here have really impressed me. If it's all right you, I think I might stick around for a while.

At your suggestion, I altered my sig line, but I'm so computer illiterate that I couldn't figure out to make the actual link say something cool like: Click for my stories. Anyway, it will work for now. My new story isn't up yet, but I have four others. Three are lesbian stories and then one is a fairly vanilla hetrosexual story that I wrote for the Halloween contest. I read and left feedback on several of the Halloween stories and felt bad that I didn't do more of them. I'm just entirely too impressionable and can't read horror or even thrillers very often. Even the weakest story/movie will give me nightmares.

So, thanks again and I look forward to getting to know you all a little better!

Logo,

Glad you'll be hanging around. My presents alone should prove the admission standards around here are low to non-existent. If you write a fair bit of Lesbian stories, be sure to check out the work of Colly, Colleen Thomas. Come to think of it, even if you don't, check out her work. She real good and very helpful.

The sig line code would look something like this:

[URL =http://english.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=171280]Seasonal Seduction[/URL]
(note: I added a space between URL and = to keep the frazzling code from working.)

Just replace my info with yours and, with luck, it should work.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[logophile]

Logo,

The sig line code would look something like this:


Just replace my info with yours and, with luck, it should work.

Thanks for the tip! I think I have it! And now I'm off to read some of Colly's work.

 

[logophile]

I think it may have been the part were she was 'aging' people in her mind. Ageing is not allowed. (this discussion was had about the kids from Harry Potter and the Olsen twins.)

OK, I'm probably over-thinking this now, but if I made them both at least 18, and aged the classmate am I OK? Is no aging allowed? Or only if you're aging a minor?

Are you guys sick of me yet? Oh, and by the way,
1) Why is the sky blue?
2) Why do zebras have stripes?
3) Is a rainbow ever any other colors?
4) How do satelites work?
5) Why's that dog giving that other dog a piggy back ride?

I think that's all for now! Hehe...