I have a story I am thinking about writing but, as I envision the story now, it has no sex in it. Would this be worth putting on SOL at all, or will it get hammered in the score/voting by users?
I would just put it on Finestories, but considering the disparity of readership...
The majority of my stories a No Sex stories and they all score well and have lots of downloads. So it really comes down to how well the story is written and the story itself.
Depending on the characters and your plot, you can set up situations for one or more sequels where sexual situations can be carefully grafted to the stem of the story. Coming of age stories are especially subject to adding sexual situations as the characters get older. And of course, football.
I write stroke stories and get bypassed in the scores regularly by no sex and some sex stories. Seems to depend on the quality of the story and writing. I say give it a try and see what happens.
Heck in that case post it on both sites. Sure you will get some readers in common between the sites. But you should also pick up a few readers who for whatever reason avoid SOL. I know I tend to point out the FS site to families with kids as a great site for both them and their children to enjoy. I know I should recommend particular stories but without a good idea of what they like, its best to just point at the site.
I started out trying to write sex stories, but my characters rebelled, complaining they'd never act out of character. Since then, most of my stories have little actual sex (although I like having adults and children have discussions about sex for humor, which gets me in trouble with mothers and potential mothers).
My stories do quite well on SOL, and on ASSTR, which is supposedly reserved for only sexual stories.
If a story fits both sites, I'll typically schedule them separately, just like I would if I was posting to alternate sites. That way, the story is in front of readers, and you're getting feedback you can use to make the story better. Thus I'll post it first on FS, so when I deliver it to the larger audience on SOL, I'll have worked out many of the kinks in the story.
I started out trying to write sex stories, but my characters rebelled, complaining they'd never act out of character.
I feel the need to comment here. In two stories that I've posted the female characters ended up doing things orally that didn't feel quite right. I know it sounds a little on the delusional side, but I grew fond of these women as I wrote the stories and felt like I betrayed them somehow. Perhaps these were examples of "less is more", sexually speaking.
I feel the need to comment here. In two stories that I've posted the female characters ended up doing things orally that didn't feel quite right. I know it sounds a little on the delusional side, but I grew fond of these women as I wrote the stories and felt like I betrayed them somehow. Perhaps these were examples of "less is more", sexually speaking.
LostLady, I find, in those cases, that the characters are warning me, the author, that the story is venturing into dangerous territory. In short, the characters know how they'd act. If they protest, it's probably because you're making them act out of character, and readers will likely respond.
Whenever I hit that stage, I backtrack, put the story aside for a short time, and then reexamine it to see where the story when off track. I usually come to a better understanding of the character and end up with a better story.
As the story progresses you get the know the characters, and when one (or more) of them does something that's completely unexpected and out of line with what has gone before it really does kill what could have been, or up to that point, was a really good story.
By the way, Grant, if that case, I'd contact the author, as a courtesy, and tell them that they need to 'flesh out' the character change more, since the change 'seems unjustified'. It doesn't take much to add foreshadowing to a character change, but if they write stories a chapter-at-a-time, it can be difficult to change after the fact.
I find, in those cases, that the characters are warning me, the author, that the story is venturing into dangerous territory. In short, the characters know how they'd act.
Good point. Part of my problem is the site I used to post on, you pretty much had to go over the top to keep your stories where they'd be read and not disappear in a single day. Old habits die hard. One of the stories I referred to was the reason I stopped posting over there and came here. I really did feel I did a disservice to the poor girl and the story also. Thanks for the advice.
By the way, Grant, if that case, I'd contact the author, as a courtesy, and tell them that they need to 'flesh out' the character change more, since the change 'seems unjustified'. It doesn't take much to add foreshadowing to a character change, but if they write stories a chapter-at-a-time, it can be difficult to change after the fact.
It really depends on the story & the characters as to whether foreshadowing would help.
In some cases (where the sudden change in the character & the following explanation is done well) the foreshadowing would diminish what the author is doing with the story. In other cases the foreshadowing would be sufficient to help explain the change in the characters behaviour.
Unfortunately in most cases I've seen, the actions of the character are so far out of line with what's been established that foreshadowing wouldn't make any difference.
By the way, Grant, if that case, I'd contact the author, as a courtesy, and tell them that they need to 'flesh out' the character change more, since the change 'seems unjustified'. It doesn't take much to add foreshadowing to a character change, but if they write stories a chapter-at-a-time, it can be difficult to change after the fact.
In some cases it's better to not foreshadow the change, but to have the character justify to others, or himself, why the behaviour is different. I did that in one story ( Stand in Time ) where the main character becomes a lot harder and ready to kill his enemies and take what they have by justifying it in terms of the behaviour of that time and the rules of engaging the enemy to make them pay for what they've done to him and others.
Either before hand or afterwards, a sudden change needs to be explained; but a gradual change should be easy to show happening if that's what's best for the story.
In some cases it's better to not foreshadow the change, but to have the character justify to others, or himself, why the behaviour is different.
Either before hand or afterwards, a sudden change needs to be explained; but a gradual change should be easy to show happening if that's what's best for the story.
I'm not sure I agree. The idea of foreshadowing isn't to give the story away, but to set it up so that, when you deliver a surprise in the story, the readers say "Oh, yeah. Now that it happened, I can see why he did it." It isn't to foretell the events in the story, but to provide hints so they (the readers) can figure out what happened afterwards. They're clues, not a cheat sheet. It helps augment and justify the character's defense of his actions once he radically changes his behavior.
Richard, at 200,000 words, my characters are fat enough as it is!
They're clues, not a cheat sheet. It helps augment and justify the character's defense of his actions once he radically changes his behavior.
In general I'd agree with you, but there can be situations where foreshadowing would not only be wrong, but would damage the story. In the story I mentioned the character suddenly found themselves in a society that had a very different set of rules and behaviours and they had to adjust to them in order to survive. There's no way to foreshadow that without doing a major information dump before they get there, so I took the line of having the person justify their actions, positions, and changed behaviour due to aligning with the expectations of the society they're in. A sudden shift in paradigm is never an easy thing to handle, and is often best in retrospect as a justification instead of a foreshadow situation. Some case a foreshadowing will work, but not all the time.
In general I'd agree with you, but there can be situations where foreshadowing would not only be wrong, but would damage the story. In the story I mentioned the character suddenly found themselves in a society that had a very different set of rules and behaviours and they had to adjust to them in order to survive.
A good point, but if you're not writing on the fly, you can anticipate where the story end, possibly having the MC narrate the story from the future. That way they could drop hints about his actions without specifying what he did, so once his turnaround has been documented, the audience would go, "Oh, yeah. Now I get it!" (I did that in "Catalyst".)
I started out trying to write sex stories, but my characters rebelled, complaining they'd never act out of character.
I think that would be one my biggest issues with many stories I've started & not finished, and a few that i have managed to read through to the end.
As the story progresses you get the know the characters, and when one (or more) of them does something that's completely unexpected and out of line with what has gone before it really does kill what could have been, or up to that point, was a really good story.
Very occasionally the author comes up with a good explanation/plot twist as to why they acted the way they did. But usually the attempted explanation is just so weak and unbelievable, or often there is no explanation (weak or otherwise) for why the character behaved completely contrary to their personality.
I suppose its far too late to complain, but that didn't stop me about decimate or stealing "gay" to mean homosexual. Sex does not mean fucking. Maybe on SOL where you have to chose much sex or some sex, or no sex, but that is just shorthand. Sex is male or female or possibly neuter. A story with no sex would have no male or female names or "him, her" references so the reader could not tell which sex the characters were. Just saying. I bet this one gets yelled down.
Sex does not mean fucking. Maybe on SOL where you have to chose much sex or some sex, or no sex, but that is just shorthand. Sex is male or female or possibly neuter. A story with no sex would have no male or female names or "him, her" references so the reader could not tell which sex the characters were. Just saying. I bet this one gets yelled down.
Well, yeah. I won't yell, but I will suggest your approach is pretty silly.
In the ordinary course of events, i.e., talking with your spouse, your buddy, the guy (or gal) on the next seat at the bar, if you say, "Look at those two, they're having sex," what do you think that means? That they are gendered? Good luck with that.
I suppose its far too late to complain,
Forgot to add: in this group, it's never too late for anything. Just saying.
I read most of the stories on here...and sex is not a requirement for me to read it...a good story Plot line is..
I'd go ahead and post it, if I were a writer. If some (?) readers have a problem with it, maybe they should look to see the "sex content". Laziness abounds.:).
I personally only read stories with minimal to no sex, and occasionally those with "some sex".
Happy writing.
If some (?) readers have a problem with it, maybe they should look to see the "sex content". Laziness abounds.:).
I'm not so sure readers follow sex categories ("Some Sex", "Much Sex"), but they do read the story categories ("MM", "mFFFFFFFF"), which clues them in. If you don't see any sex keywords, then you can hardly be surprised when there's no sex in the story.
I'm not so sure readers follow sex categories ("Some Sex", "Much Sex")
I do. I was the one who asked Lazeez to create the check boxes for them.
I do as well. I occasionally read no or minimal sex stories if they seem interesting, but that isn't what I am usually looking for here.
