Added a new Ghost tag for your use. If you have a story that has ghosts, please use the story management facilities to add the new tag.
Added a new Ghost tag for your use. If you have a story that has ghosts, please use the story management facilities to add the new tag.
Does that include if the fact that she's a ghost is a plot twist?
Depends if you want to give away the twist. I've left off codes for that reason. For me, the story comes first.
Depends if you want to give away the twist. I've left off codes for that reason. For me, the story comes first.
And authors who do so are smart to note in the blurb that some codes have been omitted and why.
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And authors who do so are smart to note in the blurb that some codes have been omitted and why.
Doing that is the same as listing the code. Maybe worse since it calls attention to it.
Alfred Hitchcock used to have a cameo in his movies. He stopped when he found out people weren't watching the movie; they were looking for him. If you tell the reader there will be a twist, they'll be looking for it. So I'd rather have the code than mention it in the blurb.
Alfred Hitchcock used to have a cameo in his movies. He stopped when he found out people weren't watching the movie; they were looking for him. If you tell the reader there will be a twist, they'll be looking for it. So I'd rather have the code than mention it in the blurb.
Somehow, I can't picture "Ghost in Story" will become a major squick, although it might attract readers (particularly during Halloween). Either way, if you write the next "The Sixth Sense", I doubt anyone will feel cheated by it.
I can't picture "Ghost in Story" will become a major squick, although it might attract readers
I agree with you on this, and the rest of the post. However, you need to remember Lazeez doesn't create a new code or genre in the system just for fun, someone had to have asked for this and put up a good reason for including it before he did it. I've requested several new codes etc, and put reasons for them to him, most have been accepted and included, but he had good reasons for not agreeing to the ones he rejected adding. So he was asked, found no reason to refuse, and now we have a new code. The only issue will be getting it applied to existing stories it relates to.
I agree with you on this, and the rest of the post. However, you need to remember Lazeez doesn't create a new code or genre in the system just for fun, someone had to have asked for this and put up a good reason for including it before he did it.
I suspect it's because of the popularity of ghost stories during Halloween. Being able to separate which scary/funny stories you prefer during holiday readings would be of substantial interest.
The code fits in with the other supernatural tags that have been created for the site. At least that is where I think it fits best.
So I'd rather have the code than mention it in the blurb.
I'm received e-mails about one of my SOL stories saying that if I had included an omitted code, the readers wouldn't have bothered with the story because they didn't like the genre, but they actually read the story and enjoyed it nevertheless.
AJ
heck too many codes can sometimes give away too many things about a story. A little discovery is needed to enjoy a story properly. I hate when someone tells me everything involved in a story personally.
edited to add: I usually read the writer's preview paragraph then check the codes for elements which will cause a known bad reaction. My reactions are my problem not the writers anyway and if I do get one I just close the darn story and read something else.
I hate when someone tells me everything involved in a story personally.
In general, I agree with you. However, I was reading a story and enjoying it right up to the moment when the author threw in some totally unexpected major BDSM elements that came out of the blue - nothing in the code, no story foreshadowing, and extreme BDSM material. I'd already invested a lot of time in reading the first twenty or thirty chapters, then band a total unexpected slap in the face. I stopped reading, I no longer consider reading anything by that author, and when asked I tell people why I don't read his works. After he finished the story he added the BDSM code and bitched about people complaining about it not being there to start with.
I don't know if I would or wouldn't have read it at all if he coded fully at the start, but the way he did it ensures I never read his stuff now because you never know what may be in there and not coded. I heard from another reader it should also have been coded snuff I never got that far.
edit to add: I forgot to say, it's this type of problem that the codes are supposed to help readers avoid.
You are right that is what the codes are there for. My idea was its a shared responsibility. Sure the writer needs to code properly or give warnings as needed. But the reader also has the responsibility to respect those warnings. Some things in your stories for example caused me to have a few major flashbacks, but those were not your fault and no way you could have prevented them. That is why I said I take the blame for my reactions. The example you gave is of one who abused the implied trust factors required between the writer and his readers. Those trust factors cause readers to do one of two things. Preferred reaction, always look for new stories by the writer. Unwanted reaction to place the writer and his work on the ignore completely list.
That writer abused the trust factor of his readers. So he will just have to suffer the consequences of his actions.
I would think it would depend on those little kinks some people go nuts about as to whether or not to require a particular code. Plot twists and such would be better given or explained in that little blurb used to describe the story. That for all intents and purposes is a preview of the story. I am not sure how critical it is with all readers, but it definitely has to affect the first time readers of a story.
What counts as a ghost? Some Do-Over stories have a period of time where the hero is dead, but working out what his new life will be like.
Are Phantoms ghosts? Need to be careful, Zombies might meet some qualifications for being ghosts. Dead but still walking around. Genies come out of lamps relatively non-corporeal. (Misty). If someone does Dickens A Christmas Carol, will the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future count as ghosts? Do ghosts have to be former people? Is a poltergeist a ghost. Do characters need to be visible to be ghosts? Will horror need to go with having a ghost?
Are characters who have gone to heaven automatically ghosts? Saints? Is the Holy Ghost, member of the Trinity, a ghost, for the purposes of a SOL tag? Jesus died, then came back. Is he a ghost?
This is more complicated than many other tags.
I've left off tags when the thing in question is "the twist" rather than a fetish being played upon as a primary element of the story. There's a small chance that somebody looking for that fetish would have enjoyed the story because of that twist being part of it, but pulling them in isn't worth ruining the surprise.
Though if the fetish in question is particularly squicky or objectionable, it should be listed so that people wanting to avoid that content can do so.