Is Lush now only accepting submissions in American English?

A question for fellow British & international contributors. Are you having difficulty submitting stories to the site that do not conform to the rules of American English? I have spent the afternoon trying to submit a story only to have it rejected several times. I write on a Mac using Pages and run the script through Grammarly set to British English twice. It passes.

When I first started writing for the site. I used to use dialogue in my stories but stopped because moderators insisted that I use he said/she said at the end of every line of dialogue. This inflexibility made the stories boring, repetitive and almost unreadable.

Quote by JamesMerton1960
I used to use dialogue in my stories but stopped because moderators insisted that I use he said/she said at the end of every line of dialogue.

I don't know what mods you are dealing with but I have never had this and never did this when I was moderating. I mix up my attributions all the time and sometimes don't use one and have never had an issue with it.

Actual dialogue from an approved story. Note the lack of "he said/she said" in it. So I don't know why someone told you that.

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“So, how do you feel about our celebrations?” he asked her.

“It’s … um ... wow. Totally something I never knew I would be into. So who are you? Are you the leader or something?”

He chuckled, which caused his erection to quiver. A bead of semen fell to the ground.

“I am Ethra. And I am more of a spokesman than a true leader. Kether Wood itself is our leader.”

“The Wood is a person?” Alissa asked, a bit puzzled by the idea.

“Aren’t all woods alive? They have trees, birds, insects, and all manner of life. Kether Wood is perhaps more alive than others. It lives through all its inhabitants. Even us.”

“So, this is really not the woods I originally stopped and camped in?”

“Any wood can become Kether Wood. I think you drew it here, to be honest. It seems to know who is in need of our revels.”

“I did not even know I needed this, but I feel so much better than I did on arriving. So, I guess I did.”

“Is there more you desire? Something you have not yet experienced?”

Alissa eyed Ethra’s cock and licked her lips.

“You,” she said, quite shocked by her own forthrightness.

Thank you for your observation, all I can say is that the insistence on attribution every time ruined the flow and made the story unreadable, so I stopped including it in submissions.

Are you sure this is the reason for having your stories returned by a mod? I have never seen this 'rule' applied to any of my pieces, long or short. The vast majority of the 195 would have failed it.

An example from Kimberly Has A Ball, which is a typical bit of dialog with one "she says"

After quite a nice mid-day school girl roleplay with sweet Margie, I was back at my desk in plenty of time, listening to some John Lee Hooker. A few minutes shy of the half, she taps once and opens the door. She is young, as I expected, very well dressed, and expensively coiffed with all the matching bits. Really quite tasty.

"Come in. Have a seat."

"Thank you, Ms...?"

"Just Anne. And you are Ms Kimberly, yes?

"Yes. Nice to meet you, Anne, and thank you for your time. I assume you will want to see this," she says, handing me her driver's licence.

I give it a good look. Kimberly Lynn Peters, age 21, upmarket address, blah, blah, blah. I look her in the eye, then give it a right hand flick. Astoundingly, it hits the wall square and drops into the trash can with a perfect kerplunck.

"What the hell?"

"Spent some bills on that, didn't you? Anjelo Tapa. Oh, so good, but oh, so vain. He always sneaks in a tiny little @ as a signature. Have to know what to look for or you'll never see it. Now let's see the real one or we're done here."

"I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd talk to me otherwise." She digs in her purse and passes me another. Kimberly Lynn Peters, age 17, but all else the same.

"Okay, that's a good girl. Nothing says we can't talk. Might draw the line past that, but we aren't there yet. And just so you know, this is all being taped. Nothing personal, but a working girl can't be too careful."

"I understand and respect that. So here's the deal..."

Quote by JamesMerton1960
When I first started writing for the site. I used to use dialogue in my stories but stopped because moderators insisted that I use he said/she said at the end of every line of dialogue. This inflexibility made the stories boring, repetitive and almost unreadable.

What the heck are you talking about? None of the moderators would ever insist on forced attribution, as long as it was clear who was talking. If they have, please PM me the discussion so I can get my spanking paddle out! I can't remember the last time I used attribution for dialogue. I'm talking years, probably. Sizzling dialogue is king.

The moderators have consistently asked you to review and apply standard English punctuation rules to avoid run-on sentences and comma splices, which aid clarity. These rules for sentence structure have nothing to do with which side of the pond you sit. And Grammarly et al are hopeless at detecting them. In fact, grammar checkers across the board are a guide at best.

Please read our Writing Tips, specifically the one about run-on sentences and comb your story for them. You'll have much more success at having it published that way.

All I can say is that years ago, I just ran into this brick wall of inflexibility. Rather than ruin the submitted piece with clunky attribution, I edited the dialogue out and stopped using it.

As for the comma’s I have read every article I have been sent, and I can’t spot where my submission fails.

I am really struggling to see how in the last few days my writing has deteriorated so badly.

Just read your note history, and since 2022 to the date, there's no return note pointing out dialogue formatting as an issue. In fact, last year one of the mods mentioned that your tag lines were okay and clearly stated they were optional.

We even suggest authors that using tag lines all the time only clutter the narrative.

The only thing I can imagine may have happened is that they asked for the tag lines to be at the end of the dialogue. Sometimes people overuse the: He said, 'I'm tired.'

She responded, 'Go to sleep, then.'

As far as comma splices/run-ons go, if in the same sentence you join two clauses or ideas which are unrelated with a comma, it's not correct, because there's no correlation. You need a stronger pause. Use a semicolon or just split the clauses. Look for your subject and verb agreement, that will help.

Thank you, I appreciate your suggestion. I have just had the story rejected again, this time because apparently you cannot series link the flash-erotica category.

Quote by JamesMerton1960

Thank you, I appreciate your suggestion. I have just had the story rejected again, this time because apparently you cannot series link the flash-erotica category.

That is correct if the story is in chapters. The art of Flash is to tell a complete story in less than 1000 words. If you are merely telling a portion of a story in a series of small chapters, then it is not flash fiction.

Moving the story to a category that fits its genre will be fine to link as a series. Although stories that are very short chapters may not have a decent enough level of detail to immerse readers, so in that case combining chapters is sometimes more appropriate to give readers a good flavor of the erotica.

The only time that series linking is permitted in flash fiction is if the stories occupy the same world/topic, or characters, but are not direct follow ons.

I had hoped that it would be possible to series link these stories because they will all be built around a central character. I had no intention of making them chapters because they would all be in different categories. The only reason for choosing the flash erotica category was to circumvent a rule that said all submissions had to be over 1000 words. I didn't want to pad this out. I don't think I am going to pursue this idea anymore.

Quote by JamesMerton1960
I had hoped that it would be possible to series link these stories because they will all be built around a central character

Nothing wrong with that in Flash. As long as it's not chapter 1, 2, 3, etc then you're good to go.

Quote by JamesMerton1960
The only reason for choosing the flash erotica category was to circumvent a rule that said all submissions had to be over 1000 words

I'm not aware of such a rule. It's not advisable, unless you're a skilled author who can build an entire and complete narrative in under 1k words. But it's not a rule.

If the only reason you chose Flash was because of short story length then might I suggest you either expand the scope to give readers more to sink their teeth into (maybe a few related escapades in one submission?) or stick with the Flash category and make it as engaging as possible within the word limit.

Quote by CallmeJayne

Whoops! You were doing so well. Then you just had to open another can of worms, didn't you?😊

Yep. Just giving people options for storytelling scope. We've had a few successful authors use Flash for "concepts" or thematic work. They explore an idea and use several different worlds or characters to explore some topic, with each piece being a standalone sub-1k powerhouse. Nothing wrong with that.

The only thing we don't want is 38 chapters of "How I Accidentally Fucked My Mom" told in 1k chunks.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
The only thing we don't want is 38 chapters of "How I Accidentally Fucked My Mom" told in 1k chunks.

Sighs and starts deleting files.😳

But that would have to go in IF, not Flash, in any case. A mod should know that.😁

This was the message I received yesterday, the inconsistency in your rules is unhelpful.

"Be aware, though, that we have an informal 1k minimum word count on chapters of series. This is to avoid submissions of snippets. That's why I advised you to flesh your tale out a little more."

Quote by JamesMerton1960
This was the message I received yesterday, the inconsistency in your rules is unhelpful.

I am not sure the rules are actually inconsistent so much as the application of them. Which is to be expected when you have a group of VOLUNTEERS (emphasis deliberate) doing the work in their spare time as opposed to a dedicated, professional editorial staff.

I do recommend this be taken to PMs. It's really not the sort of thing that needs to be hashed out in public.

Hello there! I’m a little confused now. I have a series called “Dirty Little Secrets” in which each story is unrelated to the others in character and story except for they all have a secret within them. I currently have all different lengths linked from a micro to a flash to longer ones in seduction and money categories. Is that okay? May I continue along this path?

Also, one of my best stories came about when a mod (WannabeWordsmith) rejected my story and encouraged me to develop it more, and I took his notes and reworked the story. No one likes to be rejected, but it has always improved my story if I follow return comments and rework the story.

Quote by PurdyPeaches
each story is unrelated to the others in character and story except for they all have a secret within them.

Nothing wrong with that. They're all related by theme. And they're not the same story arc told in chapters. The series link can be used in two main ways:

1. To link chapters of a story together.

2. To link stories that are thematically related.

Quote by PurdyPeaches
Hello there! I’m a little confused now. I have a series called “Dirty Little Secrets” in which each story is unrelated to the others in character and story except for they all have a secret within them. I currently have all different lengths linked from a micro to a flash to longer ones in seduction and money categories. Is that okay? May I continue along this path?

Based on this thread, I think you're good but see what WW says. It's a thematic series rather than a story series which is what he said would be okay.