Great question, Kimmi.

My goal has been, and probably will always be, to continuously evolve my writing to tell what I consider the best possible stories. I love taking tired tropes (gardener, billionaire, horny teen, ...) and seeing if I can give them a fresh angle, as well as finding pictures that not only serve as cover art but also give me inspiration to conjure the story behind the image.

I daren't go back and read some of my early stuff here from 2015, but my first story earned an RR so it must have been okay. And I've been steadily adding to them, with over a hundred RRs and EPs so far in 120-odd stories. I must be doing something right!

From here, I want to keep finding ways to tell scorching hot stories that haven't been told. Like you, injecting something a bit different but still grounded in reality. Something that whisks readers into the situations I create so they lose themselves for the duration of the piece.

I adore story comments. If readers enjoy what I do and leave a comment, I'll always endeavour to write back, and usually give away tidbits of the writing process I went through, for the vaguely interested.

A fringe goal I decided earlier this year is to reach the Prolific badge and shoot for Omnium, though I know a couple of categories are going to be a real struggle. This year so far I've ticked off 6 more categories, and I have 4 more already written in 4 different cats, awaiting final edits, so I'm getting there. Doubt I'll get there this year but, as my profile says, I'm determined.

Quote by bluestocking
there are only some covers which has the kebab menu

This is identified as an issue, thanks for raising it.

It's been fixed in preparation for the next build, so whenever that is pushed to the site, the delete should be available to all cover images.

Yep. An update was pushed earlier today. Hopefully that helps navigate the site better.

Hmm don't know about that. I can ask if there's a way to do it.

Quote by OldPete2024

I have some story covers that I want to delete but there does not seem an option. Is there a way to do this?

Can you edit each story and click the little x floating on the cover then save it? That should remove the pic from the story.

Or do you mean remove them from your media library?

That is a nice idea, Kee, but how do we determine if a story meets the criteria of having beginning middle end and character arcs when it is developed piecemeal over a long time? Or if the author never finishes it? We're no better off than we are now and would potentially annoy readers who specifically came here for long-form.

Take an example: I'm working on a trilogy, possibly quadrilogy. When I started, it was going to be a one-off. Then I added a second chapter and liked where it was heading. On the surface, these two parts of the series are just sex. Nothing clever. Nothing special. Nothing characterish. But in the third chapter, the protagonist is beginning to develop an arc which explains her behaviour and (hopefully) brings it to some kind of fitting conclusion (although I would probably leave it—at least in some way—open-ended so readers can take the story forward in their heads, or I could add an 'origins' prequel if there was enough demand, or continue it in future).

So far, I've put each chapter in a different category and linked them as a series, because then people who camp in any of the particular categories can enjoy the individual chapters, which increases my exposure, but if readers want to know more, they can dive either side and read the rest. Or not.

When it's done, if it goes the way I'm thinking, it could well be a "novel" as per your definition. So I could move it and lose my category assignments which signpost what each one is about (and meaning I'd have to write other stories in those categories to work towards Omnium, but that's a side quest). But overall it'll be, what, 15K words? Maybe 20K? Is that a novel? A novella? A long short story? Does it qualify? Who decides? A story of that length could be split into two to comply with our 10K per submission limit. If I've put a 15k piece in Novels, what's to stop others doing the same? Can two parts of that length be a novel? Someone who comes here specifically to read longer works and who sits patiently waiting for authors to write in this category, might then be pissed off that it short-changed them compared to 100-chapter epics like Techgoddess is penning.

Although there are arguments for keeping it, and I'm still on the fence, no matter which way we slice this, the Novels category is an anomaly. It's difficult to justify its value when there are now better tools available (category, series link, plus "novel" tag at minimum) to connect readers with relevant content.

Quote by JustForYou
still appears to be ' pending '

If your story has been returned to you for editing it will be in your Drafts folder. Visit your Stories page and click Drafts in the submenu above the list of stories to see them all.

Then Edit it, click Preview at the bottom when done, check it through and, when you're happy, hit Submit. It will then be sent to the moderation queue.

A naughty stewardess and a horny seatmate? The skies have never been raunchier. Chapter two of the "come with me" series is out: Come With Me Too. See what I did there? Didja? Didja?

Hope you enjoy it. I'm gonna get onto writing the (probably) final chapter...

Quote by JustForYou
thanks again for the tag and genre help

You're welcome.

Quote by kistinspencil
I just tried this on your profile page. None of the story thumbnails open large. If I tap an image in an open story, it enlarges, but as I said, it always has for me.

The story thumbnails don't enlarge. It would be nice one day perhaps if they did. Since each story entry isn't linked en-bloc (only the title is) it's possible to do it this way in future. But equally, it may be better that clicking the image also opens the story one day. I'm not sure (cognitively) what's better. But that's for another day.

I think the change for clicking to view the larger individual story images to see a larger version has been around a while, but the ability to enlarge profile wall images is relatively recent (a few months, if memory serves). I was just mentioning them in case some folk hadn't tried it yet, as it seemed relevant-ish to this topic and was a recent image-related change that wasn't mentioned when it was released.

Quote by Georgia_27_8
When stories are reverified, do they get listed as "new" stories, or keep their original date of approval?

They keep their original publication date.

The OP issue should now be fixed. Refresh to see the covers. Thank you for the report.

Quote by kistinspencil
I see the images on my stories page, but tapping them doesn't do anything -- or did you mean on some other page?

You can't tap the thumbnails (yet?) on story list pages but if you are either:

A) viewing an individual story; or

B) viewing images on someone's profile wall

Then tapping an image will pop up just that image to see it bigger (if it's been scaled).

The standard size is currently 768x1200.

Not sure why the (older) ones aren't showing. Could be aspect, as you suggest Susie, or it could be because they're in a different location, as they were pre the move here. I've flagged it to the developers to consider.

Adding the covers to story list pages is a lovely upgrade. I also like that you can tap them (when on the stories page and viewing profile wall images) to view full size. Nice.

If it's a group sex party, put it in Group Sex. That sounds like the main thrust, as it were.

Then for the tags, start typing: oral and click the best fit from the list. Same for 'anal'. It also sounds like you'd use:

masturbation

voyeur

And maybe also 'reluctance' if the woman who eventually enjoys it is hesitant at first. You have up to 10 you can add per story (you don't have to use them all), so think about other aspects and see if there are tags for them in the dropdown list as you type. Choose the closest match.

Please only add a new one if you're absolutely certain it's spelled correctly and is not covered already!

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Now that the competition’s over, I’m gonna start on the sequel to “Dare to Fuck with the Devil?”

Wooo! Looking forward to it.

I'm penning a mile-high sequel to Come With Me. Which is proving hot.

Anyone who likes to read longer works, please give the Novels: a redundant category thread a read and add your vote/thoughts.

High level: we're considering dropping it in favour of authors threading multi-chapter stories together using the Series Link feature (which didn't exist when Novels was added years ago) and putting each chapter in a category that more befits its genre.

The aim is to help readers find content that they're interested in more easily than having it stuffed in a 'miscellaneous' category and having to hunt for it.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Anyone who likes to write longer works, please give the Novels: a redundant category thread a read and add your vote/thoughts.

High level: we're considering dropping it in favour of authors threading multi-chapter stories together using the Series Link feature (which didn't exist when Novels was added years ago) and putting each chapter in a category that more befits its genre.

The aim is to help readers find content that they're interested in more easily than having it stuffed in a 'miscellaneous' category and having to hunt for it.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Yes, that's changed category and tag. And intriguingly, it appears to have changed the URL too. Didn't expect that but it's a nice surprise.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

I was under the impression that authors could change category and add tags without moderator reapproval.

I have it on good authority that the only things that trigger remoderation are changes to:

• body

• title

• cover image

• one liner

So tags and category should be editable by authors of their own work at any time.

Note that if you do change category, the URL won't reflect the new name, but if we do go ahead with this proposal, we'll snapshot the situation as it is before we start migrating content and then redirect the category assignments by hand.

Quote by wxt55uk
moderators will need to be involved in migrating novel genre stores, to whatever the new chapter genre is, even if we authors are somehow given the power to change story genres by ourselves (we don't have that power at the moment, btw). This is because we will need to add a novel tag to each chapter, and you need a moderator to do that.

Oh. I was under the impression that authors could change category and add tags without moderator reapproval. I'll find out.

Such a diverse set of stories. I wouldn't have known where to begin shortlisting so I'm glad it wasn't my job. To have even made it in, let alone 4th, is astonishing given the field. Honoured.

Congratulations to the well-deserved top 3. Superb writing all round, and as others have said, great to see a load of new faces too. Anyone who had the courage to dream up a story and share it here is a winner in my eye.

Massive thanks as always to the judges, shortlister, site owners keeping the lights on, and of course anyone who takes time to read and comment on the stories our authors conjure. You're all top banana.

Quote by wxt55uk
I have tried the "no sex" tag before, but I am not convinced the readers took any notice of it.

Yeah. Tags are tucked away at the bottom of the story, which is both a blessing (no spoilers) and a curse (no idea if it contains stuff you're interested in if you land directly on the page without going via a landing (story list) page first).

Quote by wxt55uk
will I be given the power to alter 65 story genres without going through moderation again?

As far as I'm aware, changing the story category doesn't trigger a trip to the moderation queue. But adding covers and changing content does. No sane way round that, sorry.

Unless you're feeling up to it, there's no need to take action right now. This is still only a proposal and when we get more eyes on it (I'll cross-post this to Ask the Readers and Ask the Authors at some point) we'll be able to make a more informed decision if it's worth the hassle to inconvenience authors who have already posted novels vs the long-term benefits of better content signposting.

If the decision is taken to gradually close the category and migrate content, we're more than willing to offer anyone assistance.

The bottom line with this proposal, btw, is that we're trying to align readers' (and search engine's) expectations about what they might find in a story. Since the category is tied to the URL it carries fairly high search weight with content spidering algorithms too.

We would like authors to have their work discovered more, and when you're starting out, if you want to write long, multi-chapter series, people aren't often going to find what they're looking for tucked away in the miscellaneous Novels area.

Yes, partly, this is because the site search is appalling. It always has been. I'd dearly love for browsable and filterable content by multiple tags to hone in on specific stories containing one or more elements a reader wants. Some people argue tags should be abolished and the natural search improved. If that happens, the only signal left to notify readers of content is the category.

I love tags if they're administered and curated well. They offer far more nuanced discoverability. Take the concept of an "indecent proposal" as an example. Unless someone in the story mentions that term specifically, no search engine on earth would be able to deduce that a story is about that topic, based on the prose itself. So the story would remain hidden to search engines for that term, and also hidden to readers who might want to read about such a story, unless they stumbled across it and started reading.

This is especially true if it's a multi-chapter piece (regardless of which category it's in). Tags bridge that gap, allowing authors the expressive freedom to indicate what concepts are in their story, which might otherwise be undiscoverable through searching the words or category alone.

I don't want to derail this thread with talk about tags, btw. It just serves as adjunct to the 'connect readers with stories they're interested in' discussion, which is what this proposal is fundamentally about.

Quote by wxt55uk
if I moved all my novel-genre stories into different but appropriate genres I would have only six genres left to get my Omnium badge. Surly that devaluing that badge as atm I only have stores in twenty-one genres.

I don't see how. You've already written thousands of words so how is the badge devalued? Since they're technically spread across multiple categories and you've written about the topics anyway, surely you should be rewarded for such endeavours rather than penalised because we ask that long works are put in "miscellaneous"?

Quote by wxt55uk
Has any decision been made on this?

No.

Quote by wxt55uk
These chapters do not readily fit into any of the genres, as they are more about character and story building... Not a lot of sex (if any) happens.

We have a "no sex" tag for such occasions. And if you felt it didn't fit in Love Stories, you could always put it in the genre that most closely fits the series overall. It's not ideal, but if your chapter is exposition and setup for later activity in a particular genre, I don't think it's doing readers a disservice to signpost that via the category name, and just tag it with "no sex" to alert them.

Quote by carlsnap12
if I used similar names and attributes which would make the subjects of my story crystal clear without mentioning names directly, would that still be against the rules?

As long as it's woolly enough that nobody sues the site, you're good. So it's better to steer clear of names that sound too similar.

I've played with arrogance a few times. Although it's a fairly big story, the lead in The Five-Year Silence is fairly arrogant as he and the reporter verbally spar.

My Ryan character is pretty confident around women too. Though the stories are nearly a decade old and showing their age in terms of style, there are some signs of his assuredness in 151 Reasons. Similarly, the guy in my Tabby: Cheating Colleague series is quite sure of himself.

And one you've read, told from a female with attitude, is Where Angel Dared To Tread.

As JAGYK implies, the key to it is confidence. Both in the character's actions and speech, but also in the narrative. Look at how the sentences and observations are constructed. They're often short, sharp, and to the point, which gives the character a shrewd, all-seeing vibe that translates into sharpness and a seen-it-all-before attitude. This is used a lot in Fate Into Doubt Won't Go.

Hope that helps but Jaymal does it way better than me so go there first.

Edit: AvidlyCurious beat me to it haha.

Quote by wxt55uk
I have to say there are some cracking entries.

Nice one for reading them all. And I agree there are some fab stories. Whatever the outcome, anyone who took the nerve-wracking step of submitting an entry should be proud of doing so.

I think I've read almost all bar a handful of stories that snuck in a day or two before the closing date. I'll try and get round to those when I can.

I love stories about erotic tension and seduction, with or without sex. I've written a fair few where the sex is all in the person's head which kind of counts as "no sex". Sort of.

I've also written a few, as others who posted above have, where the tension is sustained with barely any contact between the leads. A few examples:

A City Full Of Stories

The Five-Year Silence

Contrast

Thirteen Steps From Heaven Or Hell

Quote by WannabeWordsmith
I'm hashing out a variant of this over a few chapters. It'll probably be ready in 2059...

New update: I've written two chapters and have planned it as a trilogy. So it might even be out this year. Maybe even this month if chapter 3 goes as well as the rest have. 😱

I'm going to write all three up front, because I want to be sure of continuity in case I dream up something in the third instalment that I need to reference earlier. I'm like that.