thoughts on warnings for a story

[jeninflorida]

I'm curious to hear from others, if they put any type of warning in the header of a story? the story that posted today, has a bi male situation and I'm taking some heat. what is strange is that I put a warning in the header telling the reader if male on male contact (oral) is not your thing then don't read. still, taking some heat.

so do you put any warning in a story?

 

[Tyro999]

If you are talking about your story "Holly's Night Out", here is the warning you included, buried at the bottom of a five paragraph header/introduction.

"Be warned, there is a surprise in this story. If reading a story with a threesome (2 guys and a girl) is a turn off for you, then this story isn't for you."

I suspect the angered commenters would have appreciated a less subtle warning, say something like: "If reading a story with an MMF threesome that includes male/male action is a turn off for you, ..."

 

[sr71plt]

I consider all warnings as just an invitation for the reader to see a problem--and an arrow pointing to what the problem is they are invited to have.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I'm curious to hear from others, if they put any type of warning in the header of a story? the story that posted today, has a bi male situation and I'm taking some heat. what is strange is that I put a warning in the header telling the reader if male on male contact (oral) is not your thing then don't read. still, taking some heat.

so do you put any warning in a story?

Jen, I liked your story (bit short) but are you safe to be let out on your own?

LW is the snake pit of seething, venomous, machismo hatred of women and you go post not only a cuckold tale but one with gay male sex. The funny ones with pointy white hats and torches will be after you!

Seriously, yes, many writers put an 'advisory' as a header - saying things like, 'This is a slow burn, if you want instant gratification look somewhere else', 'If you don't like this [type of fetish] I suggest you look elsewhere', and so on.

Despite the fact that your header was a bit coded, it was red rag to a bull to the afficionados of LW. You kind of fanned the flames of the childish reaction.

If you consider porn vids and erotic fiction, you find that lesbian encounters are a hetero male's wet dream but gay male sex is a scary turn-off. I suspect that from a female angle gay male is more erotic than from a hetero male viewpoint.

In summary, I think you chose the wrong cat - erotic couplings or group sex would have been better choices - and author flags in stories are a good idea but should be explicit.

Motto: There is no way to succeed in LW without destroying the wife.

 

[estragon]

"If you consider porn vids and erotic fiction, you find that lesbian encounters are a hetero male's wet dream but gay male sex is a scary turn-off. I suspect that from a female angle gay male is more erotic than from a hetero male viewpoint."--Elfin Odalisque

Elfin, you are entirely correct. Posting stories to certain categories (and LW is the prime example) is like trying to do a Michael Flatley Riverdance in a minefield. The trolls get off, and then bash the writer for turning them on. Like the old Rohrschach Test joke--"But doctor, you're the one showing me the dirty pictures!" And of course gay male in LW is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

sr is correct also, at least in part. In LW, the warning is only an incitement. Elsewhere, for example in Romance, I've used warnings effectively.

The stockbrokers have it right: You must know your customer.

 

[johnnydrama]

re:so do you put any warning in a story?

I'm curious to hear from others, if they put any type of warning in the header of a story? the story that posted today, has a bi male situation and I'm taking some heat. what is strange is that I put a warning in the header telling the reader if male on male contact (oral) is not your thing then don't read. still, taking some heat.

so do you put any warning in a story?

I always appreciate a Bi male warning cause thats a personal downer for me lol.

I wonder also, some of my stories are very mild and funny, but i do some darker ones...should I be disclaiming ? if didnt think of it till you mentioned.

 

[Darkniciad]

It depends upon category, as others have mentioned.

I know that readers in Sci-Fi/Fantasy heed warnings and simply steer clear of things that are going make their skin crawl. The category has a broad range, and the readers appreciate the heads-up.

In Loving Wives, you may as well be putting out a welcome mat for a whole segment of trolls. It saves them the trouble of reading even one word of your story before leaving a nasty comment about the guy in your tale being a "wimpy fag-boy" or whatever othere personal hate-on they have.

Most categories fall in the middle, leaning more toward taking heed of warning notes, in my experience.

 

[jeninflorida]

I consider all warnings as just an invitation for the reader to see a problem--and an arrow pointing to what the problem is they are invited to have.

Thanks! I didn't think about it that way. some of the emails are kind of funny, and some of the "haters"

what I take away from it, I upset the "hater" so much that he had to blast me and "he" took time to write to me or post feedback. so I motivated them

 

[jeninflorida]

It depends upon category, as others have mentioned.

I know that readers in Sci-Fi/Fantasy heed warnings and simply steer clear of things that are going make their skin crawl. The category has a broad range, and the readers appreciate the heads-up.

In Loving Wives, you may as well be putting out a welcome mat for a whole segment of trolls. It saves them the trouble of reading even one word of your story before leaving a nasty comment about the guy in your tale being a "wimpy fag-boy" or whatever othere personal hate-on they have.

Most categories fall in the middle, leaning more toward taking heed of warning notes, in my experience.

that is so true, I love knowing that I upset someone that much though. what I don't llike is that they can knock a story score down

 

[jeninflorida]

Jen, I liked your story (bit short) but are you safe to be let out on your own?

LW is the snake pit of seething, venomous, machismo hatred of women and you go post not only a cuckold tale but one with gay male sex. The funny ones with pointy white hats and torches will be after you!

Seriously, yes, many writers put an 'advisory' as a header - saying things like, 'This is a slow burn, if you want instant gratification look somewhere else', 'If you don't like this [type of fetish] I suggest you look elsewhere', and so on.

Despite the fact that your header was a bit coded, it was red rag to a bull to the afficionados of LW. You kind of fanned the flames of the childish reaction.

If you consider porn vids and erotic fiction, you find that lesbian encounters are a hetero male's wet dream but gay male sex is a scary turn-off. I suspect that from a female angle gay male is more erotic than from a hetero male viewpoint.

In summary, I think you chose the wrong cat - erotic couplings or group sex would have been better choices - and author flags in stories are a good idea but should be explicit.

Motto: There is no way to succeed in LW without destroying the wife.

I see your point. LW draws more readers though. when I submit chapter 5, this one will be in the Gay category but the others really don't fall in that category. to me, gay is full male on male sex, where one guy does the other. that is how I see things.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm curious to hear from others, if they put any type of warning in the header of a story? the story that posted today, has a bi male situation and I'm taking some heat. what is strange is that I put a warning in the header telling the reader if male on male contact (oral) is not your thing then don't read. still, taking some heat.

so do you put any warning in a story?

Personally when I put a warning it is at the top and in bold yours was kind of buried and I don;t think people read that much.

I always appreciate warnings about male/male contact as well as Non consent. Those as well as incest if they are not in that category can get you some really bad results.

I am on the fence with what SR said. On one hand yeah it could give a troll a specific thing to hammer you with but then again in general I feel warnings are appreciated.

 

[scouries]

WARNINGS:

http://www.filthylies.net/images/sidenews/warning.gif

Are they for the readers or the authors?

Do authors use them to protect themselves from low scores and negative comments?

Or they do they use them as a public service to the vast LITEROTICA reading public?

My guess most of us do it for the first reason!

At first glance warnings don’t appear to be in the authors self interest. It’s tough enough to get someone to click open your story. There’s a hell of a lot of competition out there. So why chase someone away before they’ve even started to read your story?

You have a choice: don’t warn readers of something that you know will upset a significant number of (and almost surely receive lower scores and more negative comments) OR warn the reader and lose readers you’ve worked so hard to get. I think the choice depends to a great extent on your own opinion of your writing and your personality in general. Some authors will say, “Christ, I’m good! Once they start reading they won’t want to put it down. It may turn out to be not exactly what they were expecting but they’ll like it anyway”.

Others won’t want to risk losing the regular readers they already have.

Another point to remember is that the “categories” themselves are WARNINGS. And one only has to look at the viewership figures for the various categories to see how effective these warnings are.

I’ve always believed that LITEROTICA should allow its authors to submit a story without putting it in a specific category (in other words introduce a NO CATEGORY category). I wouldn’t use it for all my stories but I’ve had more than a few in which specifying the category gave away information I’d have preferred to surprise the reader with.

Of course the “title” of the story and the “story description” themselves can be warnings.

Well known and/or popular authors on the site often face another problem. Their popularity has almost surely been earned over a limited number of categories (often just one or two) and/or a specific style (i.e. romantic or hard core). So, what to do when they want to write something significantly different than their norm?

Some authors create other nom de plumes so that there is no cross contamination of reputation.

Others are prepared to challenge their regular readers from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with either strategy. For myself I’ve chosen the second line of action – I believe (and hope) that I can carry the reader through something that he wasn’t expecting (or at least not completely alienate him).

Over the years I’ve both put warnings in my story intro and not included them. My present opinion is that I shouldn’t use them except in very unusual situations. ​

[size=+2]james r scouries esq.[/size]
Multiple A.I.R. AWARD winner, MILLION SELLER,
Author of the MOST COMMENTED on
and the MOST VOTED on story on LITEROTICA