Forum: Editors/Reviewers Hangout

Damsels in Distress stories

https://storiesonline.net/universe/65/damsels-in-distress

and a Google search won't help you much because the last time I tried one I ended up with a lot of crap about a band I'd never heard of, some weird TV show I'd never heard or, and a film I'd never heard of. Gave up after the first 400 hits.

There came a time, in the seventies, when a lovely lady, at a swinging orgy, asked "did you like watching me with [other lovely lady]?" Most enthusiastically, I agreed. "Then why shouldn't work the other way? I'd find it incredibily hot to have you and my husband do it to me, but also do each other so I can watch."

Second that.
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Does SOL need a code for that, although I'm not sure what to call it concisely: "MM contact, with MF participation", which is in the style of a medical diagnostic code.

MM is such a radioactive tag in the SOL world it's hard to know. I've played with some incidental encounters, sometimes just two guys, more often the guys and one or more women, and I don't think readers were too put off. (Yeah, give the reader a heads up, etc., etc., no question about that.) I think it's hot in the right context (as is every other act, of course). The "don't take the reader by surprise" rule applies always.

Redbud's (sadly short-lived) Fun House universe involved permanent residence if you drank Comus's semen. I don't remember that any of the few stories got that far (my contribution didn't).

This is all beside the point, really. I think one should go for it, and damn the reader torpedoes, but be prepared when and if you see them approaching. If you've given fair warning, it's on the reader to heed. EDIT to add: And SOL is an old hand at the whole "trigger warning" thing.

Masters and Johnson chose to avoid sensationalism by being very clinical in their writing.

I discovered my parents' copy of Ideal Marriage, T.H. van de Velde's masterpiece, when I was old enough to be interested. Clinical doesn't begin to describe it; I couldn't even follow half of what he said, and his poetic interludes struck me as funny.

Later, when I was a high school exchange student in South America, what should I discover on the bookshelves of the study where I did homework, but Matrimonio Ideal. The thing truly was a worldwide bestseller.

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So how does this kind of sexuality get tagged at SOL?

(cum)?

@Bondi

I think one should go for it, and damn the reader torpedoes, but be prepared when and if you see them approaching.

I concur, but in that case, I'd post it under a gay pseudonym just so it wouldn't impact your other scores. That way, gay (or other) readers could enjoy it, but it wouldn't drag your own scores down.

If it's a straight hebe (14-18) story with some gay scenes, sure, if it's a gay story, no thanks.

Both are straightforward gay stories, but they're not stroke stories. As I said, mine has three sexual episodes in 10 chapters. I'm not sure about my friends.

In my case, my story is about conflicts in the gay community, so I wouldn't object to an editor editing up to the sex scenes and then skipping over them if it bothered them. But realistically, they're mostly "Insert tab A into slot A" scenes. Out of the three scenes, only one includes penetration (i.e. anal). It's a gay romance story.

@Ernest

they could try asking an author who's posted a couple of gay stories if they'd edit for them. It's because I posted a couple of DiD stories a couple of newbie authors asked me to edit their DiD stories.

Actually, my friend turned up Aerosick, who'd say he 'has no biases' in the "Search for Editor's" area, though he hasn't contacted him yet. I suspect he's intimidated by the perceived anti-gay bias here. He left the site after being constantly 1-bombed and receiving a host of hate mail for his posted stories.

He left the site after being constantly 1-bombed and receiving a host of hate mail for his posted stories.

OK, I know this is reported often, but I still don't get it. Not the 1-bomb, that's too easy and the hell with it, but *sending hate mail*? What the hell? "You wrote a crappy story," is one thing, not very helpful, but fairly clear. I hate you [insert epithet du jour here] and I hope you rot in hell is really going out of your way.

Hard to imagine what return they get on the effort, but then zealots maybe don't need reasons. When you're a whack job you're a whack job, from your first cigarette to your ... oh, wait a minute, that's a different song.

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Thanks, Dicrostonyx. That makes two volunteers. I'm not sure how to contact you, though. I'm available via the "Authors" tab, click on the "Email" link. I'll send you the story description.

I'd put the story on hold for awhile, while I concentrated on other things, so I'll resume work on it to get it to you. I'll also pass the word to my friend, Rob.

Knowledge of the details of gay sex aren't necessary. I'm looking for obvious errors, and I hope I present the conflicts clearly enough they can be easily understood (closeted gay man vs. flamboyant drama queen, each challenging each other and their assumptions about what it means to be gay).

You won't find many reviewers for any kind of unpopular/low score story. Our instructions from Management require we limit our unfavorable comments to emails to authors. The point of using ("wasting") bandwidth on reviews is to help people find stories they will like.

That's understood, Richard, and I'm not suggesting that everyone start reading stories they hate. But I've long maintained, that the scoring system tends to reinforce the status quo, by penalizing minorities, people with different perspectives, or any 'social justice' or other stories.

The fact that it's so difficult finding volunteers for this type of thing emphasizes the issues. It's not like gays are so far out of the norm anymore, and they're a HUGE book buying market, but they're essentially frozen out of websites like this by people's attitudes and public disapproval.

I can count on one hand the number of stories by black authors I've read, and even those didn't venture into describing the issues that blacks face. Those voices simply never get voiced here. I hate to say it, but SOL is a pretty lily white environment, and people voting for what they like only exasperates the problem.

I'd love to see Lazeez open the market, say by creating an alternate associated website for other markets, but given how unreceptive SOL is, and it's poor reputation with other groups, I don't hold out much hope for that occurring. Which is too bad, because the other alternate story sides are in very poor site, and offer few resources or much support.

As much as voting helps authors, and guides readers to better stories, I sometimes consider the broader range of voices we lose by allowing such blatant discrimination.

Is someone writing Obama's real autobiography?

I doubt it, because he's classified it as Ultra Top Secret

If he's still looking, I will try.

He's not working on it at the moment due to his poor health, but he's never posted the story. I'll pass your name along for when he's feeling better.

When we were having trouble finding someone, we volunteered to edit each other, which worked well until I pointed out issues with the story premise (a change in story focus between chapters) which caused problems, so I'm still thinking I may have disillusioned him, especially if he's not prepared to rethink how to tell the story (or how to rework the passages), but he's never admitted as much, and his health hasn't been terrific lately.

Could you pass my name on now with the explanation
* I am not experienced enough to know I can finish an edit I attempt (slow & my skills may not be what the writer needs)

Your inability to post is due to a bug in the recent move. Hopefully Lazeez will fix it soon. The posts are being made, but they aren't reflected is the display.

Otherwise, I passed your name along (to the author). I CC:ed you in the email I sent, so you should have received that by now.

I posted about a dozen messages to your previous post, but I still don't see them.