It happens to me too, usually once a day in the evening UK time when the site gets busy or some background process kicks in and locks the site up for a short period.

It's most annoying, cos once you're on the login page you can't easily escape without editing the browser URL to get rid of /login and trying to load the site again.

Usually clears after a few minutes, and you are still logged in, but it's irritating. Haven't identified a root cause yet.

I do a lot of research if it's something I don't know much about. And "research" often involves seeking good stories in the category I'm intending to write in.

For my cuckold story I had to go quite a bit beyond my usual research. In addition to knowing almost nothing about cuckolding, my knowledge of stuff around 0AD is very limited too.

Search engines rule here, because I can take a cross section of information and pull out the best bits myself. I don't trust AI to extract the details I need, as it tends to only precis popular opinion. Plus they often interpolate/invent stuff or give me false information and present it as fact, which would make me look stupid.

So glad this has been awarded. As well as the way readers are thrown into the mess, the voicing and frenetic pacing, like everything's constantly on the cusp of unravelling, is wonderfully realised.

This type of story is harder than it appears to write (I've tried and failed to do likewise) so this aspect alone makes it stand out.

Congratulations of the highest order.

Quote by HusbandwatchesX
Does anyone wait till their newest story get published before writing the next one or do you just keep going?

Depends. I wrote Pink back to back, and started writing the next chapter while the current was in review. I spaced the submissions apart though, by about a week or so, which gave readers plenty of time to keep up.

But sometimes I'll write the entire series before publishing the first chapter. If I'm not entirely sure where the series is heading when I start, I'll do this because, quite often, I'll go back to chapter one and make changes I think of while writing part three,to set up some story arc. Saves me retconning myself.

In other news, the finale of Chloe is written, but Jen is making more edits when she has time. Hopefully it'll be out next week.

To tide you over, I've finally finished my Cuckold piece after starting it last year and getting annoyed with it. It's a Dan Brown-style art romp and I thought I might enter it in the Wherefore Art Thou competition, but I didn't finish it in time so I submitted a different piece instead.

"Cunnus Immaculata" has hit the shelves, and if it doesn't earn me a target on my head from the Vatican, nothing will 😱

Size is generally immaterial; boobs are exquisite. What counts is if the owner is all natural and she's comfortable in her skin. Confidence is sexy (and that's a key feature in most of my stories here).

Quote by Selkie
Is there any way to withdraw my current story and resubmit it as a much longer story

Yes. Just go and edit your story (even add a space character or change the tagline) then save the changes. It will be pulled from the site back into your Drafts folder to work on, then you can resubmit it for review.

Short answer: no. For a host of reasons, not limited to the fact that the volunteer moderators barely have time to process stories under 10K words, let alone monster submissions of half a million words. You'd be waiting forever for it to be published here. Plus, most readers prefer their erotica in shorter formats.

I've also had a randomly awesome idea for a non-erotic (gasp!) short story that I would like to publish one day if it gains traction (and I actually finish it). Excited about that.

Nearly done working on the first draft of the final chapter of mine and Jen's Chloe series, so if you're following along with the filthy oral in chapter 4, you won't have too long to wait for the series to wrap.

I'm also juggling stories for the remaining few categories in my Omnium badge quest. Slow progress but I'll get there when I'm happy with the quality of them.

Kimmi's always gotta be starting something

Quote by alleycat
Will the story list on the competition site get updated again

Not sure I follow. The Comp Story List is updated every time a comp story is submitted.

What competition site do you mean?

Quote by gffphann

I currently have a draft of a comp story (unfinished). I'm struggling with it. Is it okay to start another one while I have the other saved in a draft?

Absolutely. As long as you only submit one of them to the comp, it's fine.

Quote by Alfresco

I’ve had a story removed about 3 months after it was published. It had a CNC theme...

A better response would have been from the original mod who approved the story, explaining their mistake or change of mind, or change of regulations.

This unfortunately happens from time to time, usually (but not always) if we receive complaints about a story.

Although we may have originally discussed it, or the approving moderator thought it skirted on the okay-side of the acceptable line at the time, sometimes nuances to the story are flagged later and we investigate more thoroughly, discussing the highlighted issues.

In this case, the original moderator was not the final decision maker and the admin mailbox account was used to convey the information about how to rework the story to alleviate the concerns.

I'm also reading through as many as I can find time for, now that my entry is loitering in among the contenders. Some fab stories in the field already, and still a good few weeks till the closing date. So if you havent joined the fun yet, get typing.

Quote by paddlingincognito
We don’t have any visibility into the number of stories that are not approved for various reasons... trying to keep Lush AI-free is likely more time consuming than most of us realize.

All of this.

Is this a recent change? Have you been able to Like stories in the past?

Quote by LuceDevlin
is AI use in audio files allowed at all?

If it's for sound effects, background ambience and/or being "read" by a synthetic voice, it's fine. As long as it:

A) doesn't change what's written;

B) isn't a recognisable celebrity voice

then it's all good. Stories that are read by robot do tend to come across rather boring though.

I might be basing my comp story around music. But I reserve the right to change my mind multiple times before the deadline.

stares at the blank page and blinking cursor that mocks me

🤬

Wait.... Maybe that could be the opening line...

Oh dear, Miss Rhodes, you have been a very very naughty girl.

Right. Back to the continuing saga of Chloe with a possible detour for the Wherefore Art Thou competition, if inspiration happens to strike between now and the closing date. Nothing yet...

Quote by Just_A_Guy_You_Know
Not sure why LS doesn't allow [script formatted stories]

Primarily for formatting reasons, like the various needs for left/right aligned text and stage directions. Not everyone (including mods) knows the layout and format conventions, which makes that format harder to moderate. Plus, writing a script is hard graft. I know. I've done it before (not here) and telling a story solely in dialogue is hard to do well.

It's just easier on everyone to disallow them.

Quote by Piquet
Get creative,' now why didn't I think of that? Lol

My comment wasn't directed at you. You're always creative. You just happened to make the point that I latched onto and demonstrated: in general, when faced with a restriction, there are ways around it.

I know you'd read Takemi, and thank you again for doing so.

For anyone patiently awaiting the next instalment of Discovering Chloe, apologies. It's in final editing so isn't quite ready. The good news is, if you haven't caught up, there's still time to do so before part 3 lands.

In the meantime, I've pushed the Reluctance story previously mentioned to the moderation queue instead. It's the latest collaboration between myself and the incredibly talented KimmiBeGood, making this, what, our 11th... 12th collab? Something like that.

Here's the cover (created by Kimmi) to whet your appetite...

Yeah, good point, Mit. Forgot that. Thanks for the addition.

Hi and welcome.

Some say a striking cover pic helps steer them to click on a story. Others say it has no influence and it's the title and teaser that helps more.

My view: doing all three can't hurt, so a well chosen/created image has appeal (our guidelines are they have to be PG-13, btw, so no gratuitius imagery, penetration or genitalia please).

As for the creation, current sizing is 768x1200 pixels. You can use your own graphics program or an online service like Canva for that. Or we have a built in cover designer. Once you click to the Create Your Story page, tap the image and you get a choice to upload one, choose a pic from an album you have already uploaded, or create one in the designer.

Hope that helps.

Quote by Piquet
I've never seen a story written in play format

No, as Kistin says, it's not a format we support here, but you can get creative, like my recent attempt at "Manga comic prose" in Takemi.

As for suggestions, most storylines have been written. But even the most tried and tested storyline can be given a fresh lick of paint and feel new.

Congratulations to everyone who took part in this challenge, and super congrats to the winners.

Various writing projects and life stuff meant I had to sit it out, but I read them all as they came in. A talented bunch you all are.

Thanks Kimmi and unspecified donor for making this possible.

Read other people's stuff. Works for me.

Quote by MC1982
Wife-lovers, cheating and cuckold could all be united under 'Infidelity'.

Well, yes and no. They are similar, but Wife Lovers and Cuckold are usually with the knowledge of both parties. Cheating, not necessarily. So people who are after one particular flavour might not find what they want if they are all together.

We also have to consider search volume. The word "infidelity" is all well and good, but who Googles for "infidelity stories" compared to "cheating stories" or "cuckold stories". I can almost guarantee the search volumes for the latter two are greater. We can't (and shouldn't) foist our internal naming convention on the outside world because it will hurt SERPS and traffic.

Some argue categorisation is pointless. And I tend to agree. Tagging—with the first tag being the dominant theme—would be more flexible but we currently limit tags to 10 (historically for aesthetics and performance; less so now) and the order of tags is system-defined, not user-defined. If those situations were to change, categories could become less of a thing. Barring the Omnium badge, which is a nice stretch goal for authors who want a challenge. Lack of category does, however, assume that everyone who submits a story knows that the first tag (or the earlier listed tags) are the ones that carry the most weight.

What would have been better, with the benefit of hindsight, is perhaps a category tree. So we could do what you suggest and house Cuckold, Wife Lovers and Cheating under an "Infidelity" parent. That gives us one more search term, separation for people searching for specifics, and a nice hierarchy to show the relationship between the terms. Similarly for other genres.

As for the Novel category itself, my main beef is it isn't a genre and people don't often look for "erotic novels in any genre". Search results will certainly consider keywords inside a story when returning matches but thematic content (e.g. supernatural) is harder to detect by search alone without specific markers.

Sure, AI searches allege to make semantic links from content, but it's computationally expensive (environmental impact too) and I've seen little evidence they're accurate yet. Having a category that the author states "this is what this chapter contains"—a bit like the ratings warning on Netflix shows that lists the themes—is a more weighted indicator that search tools can sink their teeth into and help people discover content they're interested in.

Quote by Blindfoldedntied
Is there a way for users to volunteer to become moderators?

No, sorry. We curate potential people based on various factors including writing skill, availability, and thickness of skin. Trust me, for a volunteer role, it can be brutal.