Quote by PA_Mike

If the story has to be "republished", does anyone know if it keeps its stats? e.g. likes, views and comments. I'm asking this specifically because I have one particular story that is already "famous". Even though it is an older story (I've been on the site for a long time, before they even had memberships), it has recently become popular again and could possibly reach "legendary" status. I'd hate to lose the stats because I cringe at some of the typos that I'd like to correct. I'd also like to write a sequel to the story as requested several times by readers.

@techgoddess or someone else may correct me...

But I believe when you change the old story it will stay in the same position in the LushStories story archive. It does not go to the top of the new story published list.

So, what I am saying is, that you will need to make your followers and friends aware that there has been a change made to the original story.

Writing erotic stories, or at least trying to! 😊

Quote by wxt55uk

All fiction in my case, though many times I wish they had happened to me rather than in my overactive imagination!

Since writing this I have written one true story... It is called, "Twins"

I think I might be unique here as the first thing I published here was the prologue to a book. Yes, I did complete it and have now written three follow-up novels, plus a few short stories.

“The Alpha Man In Me” - Chapter 00 - Prologue | Lush Stories

I am a bit late to the party but welcome aboard.

Is this excellent idea still on the radar?

It has been nearly a year and I have 27 pages to clear!

Quote by RejectReality

Whelp, if poetry is necessary, I can stop wasting my time keeping track. Pity, because I was only a few story categories off, and had stories started for all of them.

Though I will give poetry a go to achieve my omnium badge (though it might just be a collection of words). 🙄

My personal opinion is that poetry is a completely different discipline from writing stories, and if this had been LushPoetry, I would never have been here. So I do sympathise with those who will not complete this badge because of its conclusion.

Suggestion to LS stakeholders, could there be a form of the omnium badge that doesn't include poetry?

I have just seen this, and congratulations, Kat. It is richly deserved, as you know I have always enjoyed your stories. What is not so well known is you have helped me many times to get a story over the line (read up to Lush standard or maybe, even turning gibberish into English).

Well done, Kat! 😊😘

I believe we have just nudged over the 50 entries with still a few days to go before the competition closes. I think that is a superb number considering BDSM is not the most popular genre (my opinion).

I am now in the process of reading them and commenting.

Quote by LisaD69

I’ve tied to publish three stories. All returned. I got some help from an editor, they completely fixed it, I submitted it, and it was pushed back again.

I wanted to share my experiences. But it’s not worth it.

Hi Lisa, I understand your frustration. I have been there.

Did the moderator give you a reason why your stories were being rejected? They have always told me (and most have helped me). What they say should be the starting point in correcting your story.

I have written above, how I manage to get my stories published. It does take time and a lot of editing but it works for me.

If you are still not sure what is wrong, put your story into one of the auto-readers and listen to it being read to you. It is a good starting point as if you are like me, what you write is not always what you read.

I do hope this also gets sorted out, positively. 😊

However, I have one more suggestion. 🙄 This is, in the badge index, listed by the side of the Omnium Badge, it currently says... Has published a story across all our categories. Would it help if this was changed to, Has published a story/poem in all our genres ( fantasies exempt) or something similar?

Quote by techgoddess

Gav was the amazing guru of technology who fixed bugs and helped Keep the old Lush site up and running.

Thank you, let's hope there are some new Gavs in the tech team and they can give LS-V2 a little upgrade. 😊

Right, just to clarify...

We have established that for the Omnium Badge, you have to write stories in 57 of the 58 genres. The exception is Fantasies, this genre is optional.

The two poetry genres are also included. So a poem in each is needed!

Once you have achieved the Omnium Badge, you should never lose it. Even if/when new genres have been added and I guess by assumption, removed.

WW or one of the admin team are going to see if it is possible to include a story genre counter for both authors/readers to use.

Some LS-V1 features have been lost in getting LS-V2 up and running. These are going to be looked at and hopefully addressed.

I have one last question - Who is Gav? 😎

Quote by KimmiBeGood

wkt55uk:

The thing I like about your goal for the Omnium is it’s just up to you to get that badge. I like to set goals like that where I only need myself to reach it. Whereas if you have goals for #of votes, comp placement, etc, you are relying on others.

You make a good point, Kimmi, and yes, I do agree with you. 😊

Quote by techgoddess

I would double check on poetry. The folks who I know that have the Omnium Badge have written poems. I’m happy to check that out and clarify.

Thank you, Kat.

Quote by 1meanjean

I found it easy to make a chart of the categories and mark them off as I went along. It is a real challenge, especially getting into the right head space for categories that you are not comfortable with. Good luck with reaching your goal!

Thank you, 1meanjean.

Though, as expressed at the start of this thread, I feel this information should be readily available to authors/readers through LS.

But, I did make a spreadsheet covering the genres of my 76 stories. They are in 12 official categories, though 64 are in the novel section. Of these 29 could be recategorised, though I have no plans to do this.

As poetry is not counted, for me there are only 3 categories that stand out as being hard to write in. Humour (I have a loose draft done, but it needs work), Trans (that one is going to take some thought) and Monster Sex (that is going to take some research).

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Omnium is a great goal. I might make it one day too, but I need to branch out more.

You are free to republish your stories in any category. Sometimes new categories are added which are a better fit for old stories. It might not even trigger a resub to the moderators. I'm not sure though. Add a note in the Moderator Notes box just in case so that we know that's the extent of the changes.

If you haven't done already, I would suggest using the Series Link feature to join the chapters too.

I don't think the poetry categories are included in the count. And I think Fantasies is also exempt but I'm not 100% on that.

If new categories are added, your badge will still remain. I think it only impacts anyone who goes for the badge after the category is introduced. As far as I know there aren't any plans to add new categories any time soon.

Thank you, WW

Quote by MC1982

I'm trying for omnium by the end of the year. They have a badge called "Prolific Writer" which tells you you have done two thirds of the genres, I think. Get that, then count the remaining ones would be my suggestion.

I wish you good luck in obtaining the ominium badge. I have always liked the idea/challenge of writing a story in every genre here. In the coming years, this is something I hope to achieve.

However, I have a few questions about the badge, (yes, I did make a forum search first).

There are 58 genres listed including two poetry genres, Erotic Poems, Love Poems.

Are these two genres part of the Ominium badge?

I am not planning to do this but...

I have written and posted 4 novels here. With three? exceptions, every chapter is posted in the novel section. However, many of these chapters could have been posted in their own and very different genres. If I did that, I would be about two-thirds of the way to the omnium badge. Is republishing a story in a new genre allowed?

Finally, are there any plans to add more (or remove) genres to the LushStories list of genres?

I have just submitted my competition story - "The Pull of the Paddle." Hopefully, it will pass through moderation okay as I noted the word count jumped from just under 5,000 words to 5.1k when I hit the publish button. I know this has happened with other authors here and it is down to how the LushStories editor counts in comparison to Word. I guess, the moderator would return my story if it had too many words to enter.

On another note, I like to claim that I must have the most travelled story in this competition. When writing it, I started in Brisbane, then went all the way up the east coast of Australia, across the top to Darwin, then down the middle via Alice Springs to Adelaide, then across to Perth and finished it back home in England.

Now it is time to read the other entries and frighten myself as I realise how good they are.

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

Interesting. I wonder if there's a place for "how close" counters for those badges that are numerical achievements. Can't see a place on the story list or profile that would be helpful, since you don't have badges show up on the profile pages if you haven't achieved them.

Maybe it could be incorporated on the Badges landing page. So as well as the check mark to show which ones you've been awarded and the counter of how many members have it, some of them could say "nnn to reach achievement" or something?

E.g. number of views needed to reach Prolific. How close your highest viewed story is to becoming Legendary. How many categories you have left to write in to achieve Omnium (bonus points for a link that lists the ones you haven't written in yet). And so on.

I'll ask if something along those lines is a possible future enhancement. Might slow the page down too much.

Thank you, for considering my suggestion.

Slightly off subject, has it ever been discussed having badges for 10k and 20k views? These days the amount of stories posted and therefore the churn is a lot higher than it used to be. So getting 30k reads takes a long time, I even wonder if new stories here will ever make that number.

And finally, why are all the badges black? Wouldn't it be nice to add a little colour to them?

Quote by CallmeJayne

I imagine so, otherwise it wouldn't know when to award the badge.

Have you tried counting? Your current tally is eleven categories.

Not yet, Jayne, but thank you for counting for me.

However, wouldn't it be nice for us authors to have technology working for us? Especially as I believe this could be quite an easy thing to implicate. I might be only speaking for myself, but I would like to have a live tally of how many times I wrote a story in each genre.

Is there an automatic system within the LushStories website that logs what genres an author has written a story in?

If so, can authors get access to it to help them keep up on what story categories they need to, or have to work on?

What I should be working on is a story for the unleashed competition. I do have a seed of an idea which I am geminating as I travel, but I am not sure it will bear fruit in the two weeks I have at home before the competition closes.

I also have a short story, working title "A Good Life," which has nothing to do with the British 1970's sitcom. This story I hope to publish in 2024. I will also be working on follow-ups to "Swinging into Christmas", and "Breaking the Chain" though nothing written yet.

In the Autumn I am planning to turn my attention to the 5th and final book in the 1987 - Friends, Lovers or Rivals Series. That is already roughly drafted, I just need to raise my game and bring it up to LushStories quality.

That is an excellent question. I think backstories have a place in most stories, but not all. So my answer would be, that it depends on what type of story you looking to write. A novel would require some sort of backstory, which could be upfront, layered through the story or come out later. A short story could be action-biased with minimal backstory.

I always think adding back stories can pull your audience in, and give story characters three dimensions.

Avidly and Krystal are spot on (2.5 to 4K word range) if you are after the most views and therefore a higher chance of the most likes. However, I would suggest writing what appeals to you and building up your audience (followers).

I feel it is not all about the numbers, it is about what gives you the most satisfaction to write.

Thank you Jen. Never thought I make a competition top ten. 🙂 Congratulations to all the winners.

Good to see there are so many entries to this competition (68 so far if I counted correctly). I wasn't going to enter but was drawn in at the last moment. It was the idea of 10,000 words and an enticing idea that in the end hooked me.

It is also (probably) the last competition I will be able to do for a while as I am touring around Australia until April. It is hard to write and drive a campervan (lol), but I do plan to log in and occasionally post my already-written "Clare" book chapters.

Now I have finished the Festive Unexpected story, Swinging Into Christmas I will return to my fourth book, Clare.

"Clare" - Chapter 1:- “A Little About Me” The first two chapters are already up on LushStories. I am pleased to say, that all the future chapters are written subject to a final edit.

However, from January to March I am nothing but a tourist travelling around Australia. A little too old to be called a backpacker, but that is basically what I am doing though in a campervan.

I will have my laptop and will be dropping into Lushstories, but it is unlikely I will be writing anything new, including competitions.

I am currently working on my fourth novel titled Clare. I have 14 chapters completed and am currently finishing the last two. Not sure I am going to start posting them, there still a little polishing to be done. I might skip the Christmas competition but we see.

For my multi-chapter stories (there are character based novels), I have always written short(ish) biography on all the main characters. This includes, what they look like, behave, evolve, catch phrases, and a little background story to support each character. This helps me to keep character constant, except for the deliberate changes that happen as characters evolve.

My story plots are all on a spreadsheet, which covers the over all story, and each chapter and what needs to happen. It there to keep me on tack, so I know exactly where I am heading and the route I should be taking.

Having said all that, I wouldn't say that I keep things on a tight leash. There is always wiggle room to change things, and I do, especially plot details. They always evolve as I write, though I try hard to keep plot changes true to each characters personality.

On short one chapter stories, I write a couple of lines, or use a photo to remember what each charater looks like. The rest is is in my head and I just get on and write it.