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Story code dilemma

Switch Blayde 🚫

I just went to SOL's home page to click on the link that will take me to the story I'm currently reading. I wasn't looking at the new stories, but I sometimes check out how people write descriptions and my eyes went to the most recent new story (at the time). The description is:

"Rey was abandoned at a young age by her mother, then her father. She hid at their family home that was right behind a gas station until she had no choice but to run it to earn money to pay back the bank. As she grew older, she realized the men coming by wanted more than just gas. She began sleeping them customers for money to one day pay off her home and business as her own. Tonight, someone comes in that she's strangely drawn to, but she doesn't know why."

I sometimes read descriptions simply to see how well or poorly they're written. I learn from both. The last line of the description has something to pique the reader's interest — "that she's strangely drawn to, but she doesn't know why." That's really good. However, the story codes include "Incest, Father, Daughter".

I love surprises and twists in short stories. That's one of the things that makes them great. Think O. Henry. But the story codes destroy that surprise (I'm assuming since I hadn't read the story).

Should the author have included the story codes "Father, Daughter"?

Replies:   Big Ed Magusson
Big Ed Magusson 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I really appreciate this dilemma and look forward to what other folks say. I've often been tempted to include the "caution" tag but that has problems itself.

In this case, I would not have included the Father/Daughter tags. I would have vacillated for a long time about "caution" vs. "incest" and probably come down on the "incest" side.

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