One of the bloggers asked recently about readers who tell him (or her) how the stories that author has written should have been written.
It's an interesting phenomenon which I've also experienced where a reader (often one not very good at spelling or placing words in the right order) has very strong and fixed ideas of exactly how a story I've submitted should have been written.
I'm afraid this author has to live with this phenomenon. It's to do with contributing fiction to a niche web site whose main attraction is to provide the raw material for a wank.
The reader is quite right in a sense. What he (invariably a male) wants is a story that will squirt viscous pale fluids all over the place (perhaps interspersed with interminable dialogue and tedious scene-setting).
If the story doesn't quite achieve the desired result, then the author has clearly failed in his or her duty, and the reader is quite right (surely) to inform that author how better to hone his or her style for that particular reader's masturbatory requirements.
After all, you wouldn't want this picky reader to wank to a wordytom, RoustWriter or Barneyr story rather than one of your own stories.
It was good to see a posting from cmsix recently.
For those unaware of who he is, he is one of the old school of Stories OnLine (as I am also) who started contributing to the site in 2002 and has been phenomenally popular. Whatever you think of his fiction, he's a writer who has most definitely got a close link with ordinary people's lives and has engaged well with the online sex fiction community. He's suffered a bit from ill health in recent years, so his recent blog is a real cause for celebration.
There is quite a sizeable chunk of the "Old School" still contributing to Stories OnLine. Naturally, those of that group consider themselves to be the golden generation and every thing since to be pretty much derivative, but as the golden generation was fairly derivative to begin with that's a fairly fatuous argument.
It's good to see the continued contributions of a generation now at least eight years older than when they started. So congratulations are due not only to cmsix and his Texocentric tales, but also to rache, Lubrican, Danielle Kitten and the many others who continue to fly the flag despite the onset of age and the elusiveness of material rewards.
And good to see Stories OnLine benefit from their continued activity...
The response to my last post suggested that by pointing out that the majority of posts are nothing more than notices of the latest chapter update, my intention was to attack my fellow writers.
This is not true. I have respect for anyone who goes to the effort of writing a story and suffers the anxiety of posting it to a heartless and unsympathetic world. It is no sin to then want to promote the story.
However, I wonder whether blogs are quite the best way to achieve this aim.
In the world beyond the narrow compass of Stories OnLine, blogs are used for many other things that just to point out that yet another chapter has been posted in a long-running story. For anyone seeking something other than this rather prosaic information, the blogs on Stories OnLine must be quite a disappointing read.
Perhaps there's a need to have another space for self-promotion other than blogs.
Those coming to the Stories OnLine blogs for the lively and wide-ranging discussions that are standard for this feature will very soon just abandon the exercise altogether.
On ASSTR, there is a spotlight facility which is specifically there for self-promotion (http://www.asstr.org/spotlight.html).
I suggest that Stories OnLine have a similar facility.
This will obviously cull the blog page of 90% of all contributions, but it does mean that those few blogs that satisfy the idle browser's most likely expectations won't be swamped by self-promotion, whilst the legitimate pursuit of new readers by writers can be hived off to an area where readers will know precisely what to expect.
By far the most popular blog recently has been chapter updates.
This is where authors inform anyone who's interested that they have just submitted, or thinking of submitting, or a bit late in submitting, the next chapter of a never-ending epic that many, if not most, readers were never before aware of.
I'm very much one for fairness.
Every day, at least thirty new chapters (or occasionally complete stories) are submitted to Stories On Line.
Surely each such author should submit a blog to inform those who would otherwise be ignorant that he or she has unleashed on the world the latest chapter of a tale of, for instance, Brooke's inebriation, the sexual activities in Kobekistan or all about the El of a Way Universe.
That way, instead of a mere half dozen or so such blogs, we could have more than thirty every day, and for the most prolific writers the hope or even promise that each day will bring yet another "Thirty-First Chapter nearly ready" or "Chapter Ten released" or "Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three with the editor" type of post.
And would't that be so much better than a series of blogs cluttered with other far more boring stuff!
Talking about eagle-eyed readers (as in fact the last contributor to this blog actually was), those of you who are so endowed will have noticed a new section that Lazeez has introduced to the home page of Stories OnLine labelled "Author Recommended". (It's under "Older Stories" in the left hand panel just above "External Links").
Up to now, the author recommendations have not been collated in such an accessible form, but readers now have the opportunity to see what the authors like.
Whatever you might think is obviously your opinion, but I'd say that the list of top recommendations doesn't differ greatly from the most widely read and most popular stuff on the site. So, kudos to Al Steiner, Nick Scipio and Frank Downey for hitting the heights which I'm sure the majority of readers would agree they deserve.
But now there's an opportunity for authors to make a difference (although you can't nominate yourself).
All those authors whose top recommendations have not been recognised all these years can now add your weight to the list.
Perhaps fans of GreenTea's "Jimmy Smart" would like to cast a vote. Surely all that Walmart action and Feral Cats excitement in an "Inception"-like dreamworld should get more recognition.
Maybe sonyaesperanto fans want to promote her tales of body modification and mind control.
There must be some enthusiasts of the subtle tales of large women as related by PRISHA: 50-FT GIRL who want to make an impression on a mostly indifferent readership.
Those whose kicks come from a tale in which Tony shares his bunk on the train with a stowaway boy and gets a surprise in the night will surely want to give MonkeyBoy the honours he deserves.
Now is the time for all these unrecognised and disregarded authors to at last make an impression in the cruel and heartless world of Stories OnLine.
So, let's all make those Author Recommendations that will swing it for these authors and such others as niteowluk99, celeb fan, AnyPerson and Just Plain Bob who are surely every bit as deserving as Ken Randall, BarBar and Joe Brolly.
Every recommendation counts!