Forum: Author Hangout

Well the story title is "If I told her to take her clothes off, she just would", and she holds the record for both the fastest and longest female orgasms, so I don't think we can say it's out of character! Haha.

I've had a reply from my reader and he admits to a double standard so it's case closed I think, for him. He wishes the teacher were faithful too, to be fair, so it's not really his kind of story, but still the promiscuous girl was worse for him than the promiscuous man and I think that's quite a common reaction.

It just struck me, with this being a sex story site, with those trends for sex-mad girls as you say, and her having that buildup :)

Anyway every comment is useful, and it guides me for how I have to work at what happens next.

I'd hazard a guess that more people than not would 'feel' there's a difference, but not for any good reason. My protagonist among them, of course...

My reader was especially emphatic about it, which was what struck me, though he was very reasonable in how he discussed it.

Certain story types just seem to have lower scores over others.

The Black Knight once said cheating stories would get a lower score. Something about so many people having been cheated on so it hits home.

Or the fact that it's a frequently used plot device; pretty much done to death IMHO.

That's true for all plots.

That's true for all plots.

Only the annoying plots, and it's why turning established plots on their heads is such a popular writing technique.

Yep, but cheating/revenge seems to be the most used (abused?) one.

As someone who loves revenge/get even stories, both as a reader and writer, it can never be overused. I saw "V for Vendetta" the other day. Great revenge story. And "The Count of Monte Cristo" is wonderful. I think I'll go watch "Death Wish" tonight. :)

Revenge/Get Even is one of my favorite genres. It's one of the themes of my novel and I even have a quote from Shakespeare in the beginning: "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?"

I've never written a 'Revenge' story, but I'll toss in an occasional fight seen, and my characters always take matters into their own hands. What's more, those are always the most popular chapters of the entire story. Picked on, diminutive good guy kicks ass! Great plot device.

Most of the authors are from the US

Based on the spelling in the stories, I thought the majority of authors on sites like SOL and ASSTR were British or at least spelled Br English.

Most of the authors are from the US, and they write about what they know.

This is true, but I'm an Aussie and only watched a few American Football games on TV or Youtube. However, I have used American Football as the sport played in a couple of games set in the USA for a number of reasons:

1. It's so prevalent in the USA and a core part of their school / education system.

2. The way they train and play and promote it leads itself to certain types of plot / sub-plot twists and usage.

3. The way the US school and students regard the AF players leads to easy drama events and saves an author trouble due to the many clichés and stereotypes involved that are very real.

Thus the hundreds of hours of research on the game for the stories where I use AF. I have others in progress with other sports, one is centred on high school basketball because I used to play, coach, and referee basketball.

I'd bet (a fairly small amount because I am cheap and poor) for every other sport in a coming of age story Football has been used more often.

Why is that? Is it the practicing and relationships with team members that adds necessary bulk to the story? I don't remember any stories about chess teams.

I just finished the first draft of a story about A football player. Football plays a minor part in the story (no games are shown), but the story revolves around the college football selection process, and the comradery of macho types.

By the way, the good guy wins in the end, but that happens in all of my stories. Stories where the hero loses are depressing (and we were talking about Revenge stories).

Switch, Grant, I'm an American born writer who places all his stories in the U.S. (mostly because I'm not familiar enough with the everyday life in other countries). However, I've long used British spellings for certain words, mainly because I picked up much of my vocabulary from reading classical books written by European authors.

However, I've long used British spellings for certain words,

I spell "theatre" the British way simply because I grew up in NYC and that's how it was spelled on Broadway.

That's true, I've re-titled a cheating wife story several times trying to escape that kind of thing. This time though it's this one chapter that's had some down-voting.

Not the end of the world as you say and it helps now I understand why. Maybe the scores will pick up with my nice soppy ending :D

Oh it's all consensual and benign. Though she's a very innocent, hapless, dependent character and the man is the first-person protagonist and has had all the power so far.

and the man is the first-person protagonist and has had all the power so far.

Aha. So if the reader relates to the teacher, he will feel the girl cheated on him. As I said in an earlier post, that's a turn-off for many on SOL.

Yeah I guess so. Two issues overlaid maybe. The fact that he's been enjoying two sisters in between the girl's visits gets passed over. Or allowed, perhaps. The guy is a lucky dog, the girl doing the same thing is a slut. That's quite a pervasive view of course. Men owning women, to one extent or another.

Oh great. Well please do tell me, at the end, how close I come to pulling it off. A+ to F :)

I find myself in the position of needing to offer an apology. I thought I knew where this story was going. You know what they say about assuming. The more that the story evolves, the less likely my preconcieved outcome seems to be. I was taught to never jump the gun, so to speak, yet do it all too frequently. I allowed my experiences with my own "Faye" to cloud my judgement. I eagerly await each chapter of this story.

That's what good stories are supposed to do. Under the guise of a simple story, they should challenge our assumptions and make us stop and consider our lives, seeing everyday events in new ways. Often, a simplistic plot is merely a lure to get us to lower our expectations, while the story digs its way into our brains.

I love the story. But, I have been in the teacher's shoes too many times.

That happens frequently. Each reader brings their own past into the story, and interprets the characters' actions through their own experiences. Thus they'll often read elements into the story based on details not included in the story.

Still, it makes sense to identify the issues, to determine whether it's likely to upset other readers (which this seemed to do, since it resulted in a score drop across the board).