redlines

[sr71plt]

They make you feel dirty....seriously.

Nope. They remind me that creeps gather here for some of the reads they can't get most other places. As far as writing it, it's fiction, and thus to be tried out--with certain limits.

 

[lovecraft68]

Nope. They remind me that creeps gather here for some of the reads they can't get most other places. As far as writing it, it's fiction, and thus to be tried out--with certain limits.

Sometimes I think its a little reminder that the topic of incest is squicky(even though I have the kink to a certain extent) because these people are yammering about doing it in real life, not a fictional story and at well under eighteen which to me makes it rape/abuse

The worst I got was one that said "Reminds me of how I started with my daughter, she struggled a lot at first, but after a few times she got used to it."

Ugh.

 

[Handley_Page]

Maintained COBOL on an AS/400 at one time.

A computer without COBOL is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard.

I used to feel the same way about an older ICL 1904 box; but with FORTRAN.

 

[PennLady]

I used to feel the same way about an older ICL 1904 box; but with FORTRAN.

I remember FORTRAN... took that in college and then changed my major.

 

[CyranoJ]

The worst I got was one that said "Reminds me of how I started with my daughter, she struggled a lot at first, but after a few times she got used to it."

Yikes.

Okay, so this raises a question for me for those more experienced on Lit. What are your strategies for dealing with comments like this? Just deleting them? I'd be tempted to include a note saying something like "thanks for the enthusiasm, but please do not reference real-life [non-con/incest/whatever] in the comments," but maybe that would be inviting an unproductive shitstorm and/or drawing trolls? I got a couple of comments on the second story I posted that I was tempted to respond to in something like this way, but I resisted in favour of saying something anodyne along the lines of "play safe out there, kids." Not sure how I feel about that.

 

[slyc_willie]

My experience with incest stories leads me to believe that there are a lot of trash-talking readers out there who want to, in some way, shock the rest of us with their so-called real life accounts posted in the comments section. While I have no illusions that real incest is rarely "a beautiful thing," the comments I have seen in which the commenter brags about raping his underaged sister/daughter/niece, to me, reek of a high amount of low-grade bullshit, designed mainly to get a rise out of the author, or other commenters.

Of course, I do accept the possibility that there are some truly twisted individuals out there who have lived the sorts of lives we, as writers, can only fictionalize.

Regarding creepy comments . . . .

On my TnT series, I received one very disturbing feedback message, to wit:

* * * *

This message contains feedback for:
This feedback was sent by: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Comments:

Hi babe. U R twisted sick and totally out f the box. I love that about U and wud luv 2 get 2 no U better. I think we wud srsly get along and mak fantasies cum realty. U no what that means right. msg me when U can babe. lets rock this fuckn world!!!!!

*DO NOT hit the REPLY button to respond to this email*

* * * *

Granted, my gut instinct is to dismiss the email as nothing more than trollish or drunken (or both?) behavior. Still, there's that lingering part of my psyche that screams "what if?" Not "what if" in terms of actually contacting the person, but of building a story from it.

(Aside: if Natural Born Killers started off with messages on an Internet site, Juliet Lewis would have sent that kind of message to Woody. )

Hell, I wouldn't respond to an email like that anyway. I can't stand people who use text speak and otherwise don't know how to spell . . . .

 

[slyc_willie]

Yikes.

Okay, so this raises a question for me for those more experienced on Lit. What are your strategies for dealing with comments like this? Just deleting them? I'd be tempted to include a note saying something like "thanks for the enthusiasm, but please do not reference real-life [non-con/incest/whatever] in the comments," but maybe that would be inviting an unproductive shitstorm and/or drawing trolls? I got a couple of comments on the second story I posted that I was tempted to respond to in something like this way, but I resisted in favour of saying something anodyne along the lines of "play safe out there, kids." Not sure how I feel about that.

Any time I have noticed an author responding to criticism in the comments section, it has almost invariably resulted in a "shitstorm."

My advice: delete comments if you feel they do not supply anything constructive in the way of criticism and are otherwise only there to browbeat you. I'll leave a negative comment on any of my stories, so long as it doesn't attack me personally, and I don't respond to comments. I leave that to future readers and my fans. It may take days, weeks, or even months, but I've found that my fans pretty much always have my back.

 

[CyranoJ]

the comments I have seen in which the commenter brags about raping his underaged sister/daughter/niece, to me, reek of a high amount of low-grade bullshit, designed mainly to get a rise out of the author, or other commenters.

Or are just double-blind wank fantasy for the author of the comments themselves.

This is what I mostly choose to believe... but some people are just matter-of-fact enough about it to make you wonder. Which either makes them incredibly skilled trolls or just possibly the real deal. I basically just don't like being invited to wonder (I'm guessing I'm not alone among readers in this) and I'm curious about how authors respond to this.

(Aside: if Natural Born Killers started off with messages on an Internet site, Juliet Lewis would have sent that kind of message to Woody. )

No diggity-doubt.

Any time I have noticed an author responding to criticism in the comments section, it has almost invariably resulted in a "shitstorm."

Not surprised by that, I guess. I would just kind of be tempted to enforce a certain set of "rules" in comments that are not about policing criticism so much as about policing gross creepiness. But it could all end up in the same place, potentially.

 

[slyc_willie]

Not surprised by that, I guess. I would just kind of be tempted to enforce a certain set of "rules" in comments that are not about policing criticism so much as about policing gross creepiness. But it could all end up in the same place, potentially.

No more than you want to be told what to write, do readers want to be told what to comment.

 

[CyranoJ]

Right.

Except there are limits on what we can write.

(OTOH this does potentially give a new window onto the guy who put up the "goodbye cruel world" post complaining, among other things, about comments being deleted "without explanation.")

 

[sr71plt]

Granted, my gut instinct is to dismiss the email as nothing more than trollish or drunken (or both?) behavior. Still, there's that lingering part of my psyche that screams "what if?" Not "what if" in terms of actually contacting the person, but of building a story from it.

Or a couple of stories, taking different turns.

 

[sr71plt]

Yikes.

Okay, so this raises a question for me for those more experienced on Lit. What are your strategies for dealing with comments like this? Just deleting them? I'd be tempted to include a note saying something like "thanks for the enthusiasm, but please do not reference real-life [non-con/incest/whatever] in the comments," but maybe that would be inviting an unproductive shitstorm and/or drawing trolls? I got a couple of comments on the second story I posted that I was tempted to respond to in something like this way, but I resisted in favour of saying something anodyne along the lines of "play safe out there, kids." Not sure how I feel about that.

I haven't deleted comments like that--or responded to them. Lately, some comments have been erased without my intervention.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Okay, so this raises a question for me for those more experienced on Lit. What are your strategies for dealing with comments like this?

I had a comment once accusing a story I co-wrote of being non-consensual. Interestingly I had actually edited out a non-con passage which my co-writer had put in. It was a weird comment in lots of ways and I was tempted to just delete it. I left it a few days. Some fans who had never posted put up supportive comments saying how much they like my work and to ignore this weirdness. I put a comment responding gently to the weird post and got a good dialogue with both the weird post-er and the fans.

I was always intrigued that the post-er had picked up somehow the non-consent. I had thoroughly edited it to make the story an enthusiastic group sex one, yet something seems to have lingered on. I tell my students that writing out a lot of material then editing it down hard, their academic writing will feel richer and there will still be a sense of the thinking they edited out in it. But I was very surprised to find this story still seemed to have a whiff of non-con to it.

 

[slyc_willie]

Right.

Except there are limits on what we can write.

I find limits to be challenges. Not that I want to sneak in a story involving underaged characters or an encounter between Buffy and her pet dog, but I do find the slippery slope of violent content an interesting mountain to climb.

(OTOH this does potentially give a new window onto the guy who put up the "goodbye cruel world" post complaining, among other things, about comments being deleted "without explanation.")

If anyone is going to respond like that to a comment being deleted, the most I can be bothered to respond is, "oh, well . . . ."

Or a couple of stories, taking different turns.

I can't deny the temptation is there.

 

[CyranoJ]

Naoko *: Well, I'm not disturbed by comments intimating that my work contains non-con, because guilty as charged, very fucking obviously it does and that's the category it will appear under; that's arguably my primary kink as erotic fiction goes. I am disturbed by comments that indicate an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality, though, or that indicate real-life endorsement of what is obviously pretty dark subject matter, in ways like the comment lovecraft68 referenced above.

* The newb says hello. Nice to meet you.

 

[sr71plt]

For the record, on the rejection angle I've referred to on this thread (rejected for including the business name of a fake online dating service--no links or URLs), the story posted today with no changes made.

 

[slyc_willie]

For the record, on the rejection angle I've referred to on this thread (rejected for including the business name of a fake online dating service--no links or URLs), the story posted today with no changes made.

Just needed some clarification?

 

[sr71plt]

Just needed some clarification?

No. just needed challenged on the justification for the rejection. It had made me grumpy. There was no evidence to be had that the reason for rejection was there. After 753 posted stories, I think I know the submission rules pretty well and can be trusted to know them and not to try to get around them.

 

[slyc_willie]

No. just needed challenged on the justification for the rejection. It had made me grumpy. There was no evidence to be had that the reason for rejection was there. After 753 posted stories, I think I know the submission rules pretty well and can be trusted to know them and not to try to get around them.

I can see that. I figure I have a pretty good track record at Lit as well, and if I received such a message, I would probably be a little "grumpy," too.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Naoko *: Well, I'm not disturbed by comments intimating that my work contains non-con, because guilty as charged, very fucking obviously it does and that's the category it will appear under; that's arguably my primary kink as erotic fiction goes. I am disturbed by comments that indicate an inability to distinguish fantasy from reality, though, or that indicate real-life endorsement of what is obviously pretty dark subject matter, in ways like the comment lovecraft68 referenced above.

* The newb says hello. Nice to meet you.

Hullo sweetpea, nice to meet you too.


I can see how that would be troubling, but like slyc is saying, we have no way of knowing if the poster is just fantasising themselves there. I find it sometimes works to leave a public comment for a few days, other people often get in and react to it. That can generate a good conversation, whereas if the author jumps in to comment immediately, that can shut things down.

 

[CyranoJ]

That can generate a good conversation, whereas if the author jumps in to comment immediately, that can shut things down.

I'll give it a shot. Thanks!