The official Authors' Hangout Summer Lovin' 2022 Contest Support Thread

[lovecraft68]

I just dropped one in, mother son, nothing I'd consider good enough contend, but it'll serve the purpose of helping me hit a personal goal here.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I'm down to one brief scene, one love scene, and a few bits of cleanup on mine. The rest is already edited and polished so I'm hoping to submit by Thursday but am swamped with work, making it likely to go in over the weekend.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'd take my lumps. It's unfortunate, but I think you gots to dance with the one that brung you. To me, it's sort of an integrity thing, but I can see how others would disagree.

Yep. I'll leave it, but I may move it after the comp has finished. Part of the deal is figuring out where it should go. Mature would have been the best option.

 

[RetroFan]

Mine is ending up bigger than Ben Hur - I just keep writing and writing and writing - it's going to wind up about 12 or 13 pages I think.

 

[Duleigh]

Mine is ending up bigger than Ben Hur - I just keep writing and writing and writing - it's going to wind up about 12 or 13 pages I think.

My second entry in AI Era did that to me, and it's only half done! 12 pages, 40,405 words. I had to "pull the pin" come up with an acceptable conclusion and gather my notes for Episode 3 otherwise I'd still be writing. It's like that when you love your characters.

 

[lovecraft68]

Mine is ending up bigger than Ben Hur - I just keep writing and writing and writing - it's going to wind up about 12 or 13 pages I think.

I posted a 102k story in a contest once. It placed second, guess the 30 people that read the whole thing liked it....heh.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

I need to stop predicting in these support threads. I submitted mine a little while ago, but like RetroFan, it ended up far larger than originally expected. My posted prediction on August 16 was that it would probably be about 15K words or so based on my 8K rough draft. I knew that draft had a quite a few holes, but I found a lot more as it came together, so it ended up at almost 31K words.

On the good prediction side, I noted on August 8 that I hoped to have it done by September 1st. I made it by about 8 hours.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

My story, A Discouraging Word, was published today. I didn't think it would be a serious contender (serious story with more emotion and less sex than some, and since there's an element of luck that some may consider too much). I didn't see the first few votes but it was almost to Red H territory when a 1-bomb knocked it back down. It doesn't have that many votes at the moment so hopefully that will wash out (and be removed when Laurel does the sweep) but it depresses the rating and (I'm convinced based on past experience as well as common sense) results in fewer views since people aren't as willing to invest the time in a lower-rated, long story.

Now why didn't I take my own advice and not look at this until tomorrow? Because I tell myself that every time but never listen! Haha

 

[NotWise]

Now why didn't I take my own advice and not look at this until tomorrow? Because I tell myself that every time but never listen! Haha

Curiosity is a powerful thing. Good luck.

 

[Thefireflies]

My story, A Discouraging Word, was published today. I didn't think it would be a serious contender (serious story with more emotion and less sex than some, and since there's an element of luck that some may consider too much). I didn't see the first few votes but it was almost to Red H territory when a 1-bomb knocked it back down. It doesn't have that many votes at the moment so hopefully that will wash out (and be removed when Laurel does the sweep) but it depresses the rating and (I'm convinced based on past experience as well as common sense) results in fewer views since people aren't as willing to invest the time in a lower-rated, long story.

Now why didn't I take my own advice and not look at this until tomorrow? Because I tell myself that every time but never listen! Haha

My non-competition story was published in the same group as your competition one, and I suspect all stories published in that group took an early hit straight out of the gate (not unusual around here, as we all know). I caught mine when it only had 2 scores only an hour or two after release, way shorter time than it would take to read, and I suspect you received similar treatment.

 

[KeithD]

Some coward sent this "anonymously" to me today through the Lit. system. Hi, LC. No need to bother to try to hide yourself. This fits you like a glove. And, yes, I'll expose you the next time you send me one of these too.

"6 contest entries from someone who thrashes the contests, readers, authors and platform itself on a regular basis. But yet you all but beg people to read your heartless assembly line cookie cutter pap.

"Tell me, which story are you going to keep one bombing to play the sweep and get a cheap 26 vote win? Maybe I'll track this one and answer that for myself then share it with the forum."

You're not a trained writer, LC, so you have no idea how clearly your unique voice comes through. Beyond that, you are a sick little puppy stalker who drums away on your own issues as no one else does. You can't hide your craziness and your sick hatreds. Sad, pathetic little life's failure.

 

[RetroFan]

Finally finished and submitted mine today, it ended up over 48,000 words so a short novel more than a story.

It's an Incest Taboo story set in 1989 about two stupid slacker surfer dude twin brothers from San Diego whose grumpy bank manager father is always on at them to get jobs and be more responsible, but the boys would rather spend their summer surfing and having fun, which includes perving on their hot but dim-witted bimbo stepmother (their father's much younger second wife) and her airhead of a daughter, who is the same age as her stepbrothers. When the long-suffering father goes on a week long business trip to New York City - during which anything that can go wrong does go wrong - guess what his sons, second wife and stepdaughter get up to back in California?

I'm not sure how the IT readers will respond to it. They don't seem to like immature humour or stupid characters very much and savaged a comedy series I published in that category a few years ago, plus are always complaining about stories being too long and step-family stories seem to get some offside, but there's always the hope I might score some cheap laughs with this.

 

[oggbashan]

I had started but stalled on two entries for this contest. I started writing a different story but as it is set during a university's summer vacation I might try submitting that instead.

 

[KeithD]

My muse dropped a surprise summer one yesterday (on the U.S. Tennis Open). Maybe I'll excite LC by entering a seventh story in the contest.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Curiosity is a powerful thing. Good luck.

So true, and thanks! My story trended up yesterday as the day progressed as I generally avoided watching too close (work really helped with that, ha ha). The number of views is a little disappointing, but I'm pretty happy with the score now and am hoping that it attracts some new followers as the weekend progresses.

My potential second summer story has been mothballed for a few weeks as I finished the first one, but it's going to stay in storage for now. I have too much real work and too little writing time available to do a good job on it. Instead, it's time to start reading some of the contest entries and using the available writing time for stories for later this fall.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I need to stop predicting in these support threads. I submitted mine a little while ago, but like RetroFan, it ended up far larger than originally expected. My posted prediction on August 16 was that it would probably be about 15K words or so based on my 8K rough draft. I knew that draft had a quite a few holes, but I found a lot more as it came together, so it ended up at almost 31K words.

On the good prediction side, I noted on August 8 that I hoped to have it done by September 1st. I made it by about 8 hours.

I just read your Summer Lovin entry and I really enjoyed it. Your stories are always good and so well written and have so much heart, it's east to see that you put a lot into them.

And I know what you mean about a story getting away from you, I just submitted my latest entry 'Just Roomies' that I started working on last year for last summer's contest. I thought it would be about 25,000 words, but when it was finally done, I couldn't believe it was over 40,000! This is the longest I've ever written, so I'm not expecting too many people to read it, but at least it's finally finished.

Good luck in the contest and I hope you find time to create some more gems.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Thanks, S&F! I finished your Daisy earlier this afternoon and am looking forward to your new one, too!

 

[oggbashan]

I have just submitted the one that was not supposed to be for Summer Lovin.

It is long for my current eyesight at just over 8,000 words.

 

[lovecraft68]

Now why didn't I take my own advice and not look at this until tomorrow? Because I tell myself that every time but never listen! Haha

I'm superstitious and a few years ago I made a rule for myself that I would not look at the score at all until the winners are announced. I see the comments and can check on the story page for how many favorites it has but I never check score until its over.

I've found there's not point because of how up and down it can be with the sweeps. Although being mine generally get a few hundred votes I don't see the jumps and dips the stories that don't receive as many votes see, but we've all seen surprises at the end when it comes to who was in the running v who places, and occasionally the word suspicious can be put with the word surprises which is another reason not to obsess over it.

These contests aren't as fun or fair as they should be because where there's people and competition, there's bullshit and these have had more than their share of that. Just roll with it, and take personal satisfaction if the piece, anything else has so many moving parts its irrelevant.

 

[Duleigh]

I'm superstitious and a few years ago I made a rule for myself that I would not look at the score at all until the winners are announced. I see the comments and can check on the story page for how many favorites it has but I never check score until its over.

I gave up on being superstitious years ago, it's bad luck being superstitious.

I'm motivated by feedback and I try to reach out to reach out to commenters and ask "Why did you give it the score you did? What can I do to get the next one higher?" I've met some great people and I believe their input has improved my writing. When I get a 1-bomb I want to reach out to the uno-bomber and ask the same questions, but none so far have had the guts, the courage of their convictions to use a Lit username.

I can let their childishness roll off my back, but I do worry that if they tank my score, it may push readers away. I know I avoid low scoring stories because poorly written stories are difficult and painful to read. How many readers have I lost because some jerk doesn't like characters with red hair or something equally as stupid and childish?

Maybe we should celebrate the uno-bombers out there and throw a Loving Wives event where we come here and "celebrate" our slavering readers - a "How Low Can You Go" sort of celebration. Extra points awarded for a commenter who can't spell "moron" kind of thing.

 

[lovecraft68]

I gave up on being superstitious years ago, it's bad luck being superstitious.

I'm motivated by feedback and I try to reach out to reach out to commenters and ask "Why did you give it the score you did? What can I do to get the next one higher?" I've met some great people and I believe their input has improved my writing. When I get a 1-bomb I want to reach out to the uno-bomber and ask the same questions, but none so far have had the guts, the courage of their convictions to use a Lit username.

I can let their childishness roll off my back, but I do worry that if they tank my score, it may push readers away. I know I avoid low scoring stories because poorly written stories are difficult and painful to read. How many readers have I lost because some jerk doesn't like characters with red hair or something equally as stupid and childish?

Maybe we should celebrate the uno-bombers out there and throw a Loving Wives event where we come here and "celebrate" our slavering readers - a "How Low Can You Go" sort of celebration. Extra points awarded for a commenter who can't spell "moron" kind of thing.

Have you gotten that many responses? I feel most readers with lit user names create an e-mail to set up the account, but then that's it. They're not authors who are checking for feedback. In a decent comment they will generally tell you what they likes/didn't. If they don't and its just 'didn't like it' I admit I don't care enough to know why and seeing it can be something so stupid as they didn't like where the 'money shot' went, its not worth thinking about.

Private feedback is where I usually get something of substance and if they have an e-mail to reply to I'll respond and see if I can get more out of them. I see the people who send private feedback as being the best readers on a site where most of them can't take the two seconds it takes to click a star and vote.

As for the score tanking affecting readership, it may, hard to say for sure, but there's nothing the site can do to fix that unless they decided to take away voting, and I think that would be worse because now there is no indicator for a reader to use. I read by title or tag, sounds good I'll take a look, I ignore scores and H's...but then again being on this side of things I know how little they end up meaning,

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

Maybe we should celebrate the uno-bombers out there and throw a Loving Wives event where we come here and "celebrate" our slavering readers - a "How Low Can You Go" sort of celebration. Extra points awarded for a commenter who can't spell "moron" kind of thing.

A loving wives event sounds incredible. I would definitely partake.

 

[Duleigh]

Have you gotten that many responses? I feel most readers with lit user names create an e-mail to set up the account, but then that's it. They're not authors who are checking for feedback. In a decent comment they will generally tell you what they likes/didn't. If they don't and its just 'didn't like it' I admit I don't care enough to know why and seeing it can be something so stupid as they didn't like where the 'money shot' went, its not worth thinking about.

Private feedback is where I usually get something of substance and if they have an e-mail to reply to I'll respond and see if I can get more out of them. I see the people who send private feedback as being the best readers on a site where most of them can't take the two seconds it takes to click a star and vote.

As for the score tanking affecting readership, it may, hard to say for sure, but there's nothing the site can do to fix that unless they decided to take away voting, and I think that would be worse because now there is no indicator for a reader to use. I read by title or tag, sounds good I'll take a look, I ignore scores and H's...but then again being on this side of things I know how little they end up meaning,

I have gotten some incredible responses, but I won't lie, they're few and far between. One of my reoccurring characters is blind and I've received some great accolades from blind readers of Lit giving me advice on how to deal with a blind character. I've received a few emails on a reoccurring character that has PTSD and a couple of responses from folks who appreciate my descriptions of Western New York. Some of my best responses were like yours, private.

Lately votes have been few and far between. My summer lovin' entry has gotten an incredible number of views, but barely 60 votes and it, a love story, got hit by the uno-bomber.

 

[Duleigh]

A loving wives event sounds incredible. I would definitely partake.

I was seriously thinking of a different event. Anyone that's been here a while probably has a story that has sat for X number of years that folks have asked for more. This event would be to write a sequel or another chapter to a story that was posted more than X number of years ago.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have gotten some incredible responses, but I won't lie, they're few and far between. One of my reoccurring characters is blind and I've received some great accolades from blind readers of Lit giving me advice on how to deal with a blind character. I've received a few emails on a reoccurring character that has PTSD and a couple of responses from folks who appreciate my descriptions of Western New York. Some of my best responses were like yours, private.

Lately votes have been few and far between. My summer lovin' entry has gotten an incredible number of views, but barely 60 votes and it, a love story, got hit by the uno-bomber.

I took a peek, a couple of possibilities. One, E/V does not in general get a lot of votes.
Also even though its not a chaptered series you have other Stormwatch titles. If this is a recurring character maybe people think they can't follow? I say this because in your opening note you talk about the lead in the tone of more has happened before so maybe people don't want to invest?

Another, and I'm going by a little personal experience, is PTSD is a great thing to tackle and make people aware of, and it can be catharsis for some who struggle with it. By the same token, some people may see it, be dealing with it-or have-and think they don't need reminders? I know I won't read things on a certain topic because it took me a long time to get a grip on it myself and not sure how I'll react.

All or none of those could be true.