The lost last page of my story

[FreyaGersemi]

I just published a story (Quite a Wet Fuck) and the final six words are on a new page at the end. And it's just my afterword. AND my afterword seems like it's completed on the second-to-last page (the final page is just my sign off signature) so no one will even think to continue on to the last page where they can rate my story and comment and all the fun author interaction stuff.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I do anything? Add a couple of paragraphs to fill in the last page at least a little? Edit out two lines to get rid of that final page?

 

[Bamagan]

I just published a story (Quite a Wet Fuck) and the final six words are on a new page at the end. And it's just my afterword. AND my afterword seems like it's completed on the second-to-last page (the final page is just my sign off signature) so no one will even think to continue on to the last page where they can rate my story and comment and all the fun author interaction stuff.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I do anything? Add a couple of paragraphs to fill in the last page at least a little? Edit out two lines to get rid of that final page?

I think most people will likely notice that there's an additional page, even if they expect more than six words to be on it. So it probably won't have a dramatic effect on ratings or comments. But it would bother me, too! I don't know if I'd actually bother editing it, and the prime window for voting will likely already be gone by the time the edit goes live (if that's a concern), but it's definitely something that would prey on my OCD-ish tendencies if left unaddressed.

 

[TheLobster]

One Lit page is said to be around 3500 words. Your story has 7.1k so you were riding close to a boundary. If you can, try to steer clear of those multiples by at least a couple hundred words to avoid orphaned/widowed paragraphs like this.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I just published a story (Quite a Wet Fuck) and the final six words are on a new page at the end. And it's just my afterword. AND my afterword seems like it's completed on the second-to-last page (the final page is just my sign off signature) so no one will even think to continue on to the last page where they can rate my story and comment and all the fun author interaction stuff.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I do anything? Add a couple of paragraphs to fill in the last page at least a little? Edit out two lines to get rid of that final page?

Yes. I cut a hundred words from the story, but it made no difference - the page still rolled over and left the last sentence. It's something to do with the database I reckon - once the " page" is there it's there forever. Don't worry about it, write your next story.

 

[StillStunned]

You can always add a few hundred words by writing a long, protracted orgasm: "Yes, yes, YESSS! Yes, oh God, yes, yes yes yes! Right there, oooooooh, yes, yesssss! Oh God oh God oh God YES! Yes, yes, yessss, oh, oh aaaah, yes, YESSS!" And so on.

 

[TheLobster]

You can always add a few hundred words by writing a long, protracted orgasm: "Yes, yes, YESSS! Yes, oh God, yes, yes yes yes! Right there, oooooooh, yes, yesssss! Oh God oh God oh God YES! Yes, yes, yessss, oh, oh aaaah, yes, YESSS!" And so on.

Or less blatantly: just add a few more paragraphs to that sex scene. One can never go wrong doing so!

 

[lovecraft68]

People will see there's one more page when they reach the bottom of the previous one and click it.

I don't see this as being anything to worry about.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

I think most people will likely notice that there's an additional page, even if they expect more than six words to be on it. So it probably won't have a dramatic effect on ratings or comments.

Yes, but the story ends on the second-to-last page, then it's just a very clearly delineated boilerplate afterword. But oh, well, I guess.

 

[Bamagan]

Yes, but the story ends on the second-to-last page, then it's just a very clearly delineated boilerplate afterword. But oh, well, I guess.

My suspicion is that people who make it to that point wanting to vote and/or comment will figure it out. Not many readers bother, but the ones who do probably won't be thwarted so easily.

 

[TheLobster]

Yes, but the story ends on the second-to-last page, then it's just a very clearly delineated boilerplate afterword. But oh, well, I guess.

If I were someone whose name resembles purple_velvet_handcover, I'd say it's another reason why you shouldn't do afterwords

 

[MrPixel]

A thought... I wouldn't do afterwords, especially if it's boilerplate. When it's a good story, it makes a connection with the reader, and their emotional state at a proper ending is very important if you're expecting a rating - be it pathos, joy, release, or warm fuzzies. An afterword breaks the mood.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

A thought... I wouldn't do afterwords, especially if it's boilerplate. When it's a good story, it makes a connection with the reader, and their emotional state at a proper ending is very important if you're expecting a rating - be it pathos, joy, release, or warm fuzzies. An afterword breaks the mood.

Mine is just an author's note type thing. "Thanks for reading, check out my other works..." Short and simple. But I get your point!

 

[Voboy]

Same exact thing's happened to me, more than once. It's not something you can really predict that accurately; it's really just bad luck.

Nobody has complained to me about it in the stories where it's happened. I wouldn't worry, though it is annoying.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

I just published a story (Quite a Wet Fuck) and the final six words are on a new page at the end. And it's just my afterword. AND my afterword seems like it's completed on the second-to-last page (the final page is just my sign off signature) so no one will even think to continue on to the last page where they can rate my story and comment and all the fun author interaction stuff.

Has this happened to anyone else? Should I do anything? Add a couple of paragraphs to fill in the last page at least a little? Edit out two lines to get rid of that final page?

Don't worry about it. This one has five words on the last page:

 

[TheLobster]

Unless you write really long paragraphs, you should be safe by giving the likely page breaks a wide berth of something like 500 words. For example:

• Avoid 3k-4k word stories, as the second page might end up very short
• Same for 6.5k-7.5k
• And 10k-11k
• And 13.5k-14.5k
• and so on

I wouldn’t worry about it personally but if you, say, have a scene you’re not sure you should add or remove, it could be a helpful factor in deciding its fate.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I just tucked it into my reading list. Looking forward to it. I think people who like to rate and leave comments will figure out the issue.

 

[THBGato]

One of OneHitWanda's stories (Sunlight) is like this. Hasn't done her scores any harm at all!

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

One of OneHitWanda's stories (Sunlight) is like this. Hasn't done her scores any harm at all!

@onehitwanda is the gold standard. At least in my book.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Unless you write really long paragraphs, you should be safe by giving the likely page breaks a wide berth of something like 500 words. For example:

• Avoid 3k-4k word stories, as the second page might end up very short
• Same for 6.5k-7.5k
• And 10k-11k
• And 13.5k-14.5k
• and so on

I wouldn’t worry about it personally but if you, say, have a scene you’re not sure you should add or remove, it could be a helpful factor in deciding its fate.

...except the magic number is closer to 3700 than 3500 words/page, IIRC.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

...except the magic number is closer to 3700 than 3500 words/page, IIRC.

This is way too much analysis. Just write the story as it needs to be written and let it take care of itself. I’ve never worried about word count unless it was for the 750 word challenge.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

so no one will even think to continue on to the last page where they can rate my story and comment and all the fun author interaction stuff.

The vast vast vast majority of people don't interact anyway. If someone makes it all the way to the end and feels moved to vote or comment, they will see the extra page number at the end and click it to do so.

 

[FreyaGersemi]

One of OneHitWanda's stories (Sunlight) is like this. Hasn't done her scores any harm at all!

Of course, I am not in the same league as @onehitwanda !!!

 

[AchtungNight]

I gave it five stars and the extra page was no big deal. It happens to all of us when you can’t predict Lit’s compression algorithm.

 

[ElectricBlue]

...except the magic number is closer to 3700 than 3500 words/page, IIRC.

Yep, this. I use 3750 plus/minus 50 as my rule of thumb, based on word counts from my own stories years ago, when I suffered the split problem for the first time. My guess is that the page bin is 25,000 characters long.

I always forget that when submitting stories though, coz I still get caught occasionally.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It's called "widows and orphans" in printed text when you get a single line of a paragraph at the top or bottom of a page. Of course, everything is reviewed before being sent to the printer, and thus it is possible to fix such problems first. Lit does not have the time or inclination to worry about such things.

https://www.herronprinting.com/reso...idow: A widow occurs when,of a page by itself.