I posted my competition story effort "Punked" yesterday, which I guess is slightly different to others, though I have not yet read any other entries.

I am just a little concerned about running out of time as I wait to know if it has been accepted or needs a little more work. I ask, if a story is rejected, can it be resubmitted after the deadline?

Quote by sprite

can we change the word count to 7k please? I'm going to have real issues with 5k... lol

If you have a spare 2k words going, can I have them, please?

Not had time to even look at this yet, and I meant to be retired!

Thank you for the full explanation WW. It is appreciated.

I do have a small suggestion, Is it possible to put a pre-warning note on the forum when noticeable site changes are going to be made?

There does seem to be a visual (or maybe more) change when you go to submit a story. Now you publish a story and there is a submenu.

I have not seen any explanation on the site that these changes were happening and what they changes mean.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Am I the only person who thought "Punked" was something to do with the music of the late 1970s, wearing black bin bags, safety pins, chains and having crazy hairstyles?

While I would say I am nothing more than a novice writer whose preference is to write long novel-based stories where all the characters evolve. But to help me...

For all my main characters I wrote a one-page biography to give a character depth, including what their character traits and general background. It is something to refer to. Nothing more.

I also use a spreadsheet with story arcs built into it. These are for the chapter, the book and a general one covering the series of books. This is so I know to get the story to point C I have to go via point B. Something like that.

Then I just write. Sometimes I let my characters take control but when that happens I know exactly where I am ending up, even if it takes longer to get there.

That is a really interesting question; though I am not sure I will ever have the ability to write a truly great story.

I write for myself, enjoy the writing, and especially enjoy the second and third rewrites. That gives me the chance to improve and expand the story detail (my secret pleasure).

It was always nice to have someone PM or leave a comment that they liked the story or they asked a question about one of the characters. So I would say interaction. It is certainly not the total of likes you receive, though it is always a pleasure to receive at least a few!

I agree with the winner, I was one of those who read Sprites story twice. Well done!

As a first-timer, I thought the topic and guidelines were excellent, mainly because I was forced to write something completely different. I am not into writing about, death, horror, etc.

Quote by SilentOrgasm

I went to save a story I was working on and I pressed submit by mistake. Is there any way to take it back as I don’t want to waste moderator time reviewing an unfinished story

That is very easy to do, I have done it once though I just quickly deleted the accidentally submitted story.

I suggest it would be a good idea to have a bigger gap (different colours) between the submit and the save buttons. Make it more obvious before you click on either button.

Quote by Etype

I have my stories rejected for my poor grammar and punctuation, I would dearly appreciate some editing help. If anyone would like to read my story first to see if its something you might like to help with please message me and Thank You

I know that feeling well, but I would suggest that it is worth persevering on your own (until you are really stuck) as you will improve and with time get to that point where you sneak over the acceptance standard, and when that happens you get a surge of confidence and a thrust of energy to write your next story.

Here is my experience...

I started from a low standard, trust me, I have been rejected many times by the moderators, as I fall down one grammar hole, climbed out and fall down the next. I found it surprising to learn, (most of the time) the moderators were right! But I have listened and learned and lately (perhaps even more surprisingly), I have managed to get my stories over that acceptance line in one hit.

Here are the things I have learned to do so far, (I have now adapted from another post I made here), but I hope it might help others here who want to make the acceptance standard.

1). Listen to what the moderator says when you are rejected. It is the golden rule. I don't want to sound preachy, but if they send you a link to read, try to read it. I am guilty of not doing that.

2). Write, read, check, correct and check, correct, check, correct and so on. I spend on average 7x longer checking and correcting than I do ever actually writing. Yes, it is frustrating and yes it can take some of the joy out of writing but you will get better at it and that number should slowly reduce. I hope so!

3). Use the free tools available on the web. Among others, there are, Grammarly and ProWriting Aid (free versions), and I use both. Though I need to add 10% of the time they fight each other so it comes down to a judgement call. Of the two, I find ProWriting better for grammar, it likes commas, full stops, ellipsis (my favourite downfall) and punctuation in general. So if that is the area you are getting rejected for, use that software. My general rule is, to put in all the extra punctuation the software demands. While Grammarly, certainly doesn't demand so many commas, full-stops etc but it picks up missing words better. So it is best to use the two.

4). Once finished, read your story aloud. Does it flow right? I struggle with this, having the newfound superpower of not necessarily reading the words that are actually on the page! I have now started using the free Immersive Reader, which either comes with Word or is available in Microsoft Notebook online. It helps me with the words I naturally miss when reading. I also suggest once you are happy with it, put it to one side and read it again, fresh, maybe the next day, and ask the question, is it as good today as it was yesterday?

There is one more, it is the same one as I opened with, listen to what the moderators say... They are (in general) very helpful and have often pointed me in the right direction.

I use Word 2010 which doesn't have Immersive Reader, so I used the online version and I have to say, "I like it" on first use. Yes, a little robotic and slow but definitely helpful.

The moderators who read this will confirm that my early efforts here were rejected (except, strangely for my first two posts). They were rejected for many reasons as I have fallen into many English traps only to climb out and fall into the next one.

I have to say (generally) I have found the moderators very helpful and they have pointed me in the right direction where I need to improve to get to the acceptable level in getting a story approved.

The 3 things I personally found most helpful...

1). Write, read, check, correct and check, correct, check, correct and so on. I spend on average 7x longer checking and correcting than I do ever actually writing. Yes, it is frustrating and yes it can take some of the joy out of writing but you will get better at it.

2). Grammarly and ProWriting Aid (free versions), I use both, though I need to add 10% of the time they fight each other so it comes down to a judgement call. Of the two, I find ProWriting better for grammar, it likes commas, full stops and punctuation. So if that is the area you are getting rejected for, use that software. I now put in all the extra ones it demands. Grammarly certainly doesn't demand so many commas, full-stops etc but it picks up missing words better.

3). Once finished, read your story aloud. Does it flow right? I struggle with this, but then I am not the best when I speak in real life! I suggest once you are happy with it, put it to one side and read it again, fresh, the next day, and ask, is it as good today as it was yesterday?

There is one more, it is the same one as I opened with, listen to what the moderators say... They are helpful.

PS. If you having problems with paraphrasing, then you are on your own on that one, as I am sure it didn't exist when I went to school!

Having the ability to embed photos into stories, I would suggest, makes it harder for people who are primarily here to write and try and tell a story using words, to get feedback. I also suggest it would put some pressure on some authors to include photos, though I have no doubt it would encourage more site traffic as people migrate to stories with photos.

If it happens, I suggest it has its own category.

I cannot answer my question as I am not a woman but I can elaborate... If the ratio trend goes on, which I would suggest is quite likely...

Would it bother the very many excellent female authors (who are primarily on this site to post their stories), if they were getting most of their likes or feedback because they were female or/and had a sexy photo? ...and not for their work?

If I was female, it would bother me, (though I could be wrong! 🙄).

I also suggest the relative lack of feedback men get especially new writers (with no followers) could put them off when they compare to new woman writers (with sexy photos).

I am just expressing a personal observation. One thing I would suggest is limiting the use of the like button. Maybe a time limit between each click (maybe this is already in play). That would help stop the multiple clickers.

Quote by Georgia_27_8

Going back to the OP;

I didn't really notice a difference to be honest.
However, I saw this post at the beginning of the week and decided to take a look over the course of a few days.

It appears to me, that the in general terms; female authors do get more traffic on their stories than male authors.
I've had a look through a random selection of stories in different categories and looked into who the author both follows and is followed by.

A large portion of that consists of;
- Females are following; approximately equal male to female authors.
- Females are followed by; approximately 65% males.

- Males are following; more females than other males, approximately 60 : 40.
- Males are followed by; there is a lower total number than females and is about 50% male : female.

Seems to me that Lush operates more like a Social Media platform when it comes to member following than I already thought!

However, I do find that the small percentage of elite male authors monopolise that end of the site, and are unmatched on story traffic by the majority of the elite female contributors, site-wide.

The above is not in-depth or complete stats, but a little observation made by myself on a random group of authors.

Thank you, Georgia, your observation comes as no surprise to me, and it feels especially true in the last few months.

I also guess that those ratios will keep widening if a greater percentage of males are joining the site.

It would be interesting to know the change in the male-to-female joining since this site moved more to a "Social Media Platform" (September 2021 if I remember correctly).

I ask the question, Could the male-female site ratio give Lushstories an issue that is building for the future?

Quote by HoldMyQuill

Any changes, including cover images, will remove the post from viewing until a moderator can review the changes and release the story again. I highly recommend using the ‘Notes to moderator’ section to detail your changes in order to expedite the review process. All comments and likes should remain.

For a simple change like a cover image you can try reaching out to a moderator to review but be patient as they volunteer their time and my not be available or already have a backlog of reviews.

Thank you, HoldMyQuill. I will reach out to a moderator and see what happens.

Can you add a cover image (without changing the story text) to an already-posted story without it affecting the comments and likes?

When I went to do this I got the message that the whole post had to moderation for approval.

My interest in writing comes from trying to write full, character-driven novels. Stories and characters tend to all live in my head. With the help of an over-imaginative mind, I develop them there. Then write short bios on the main characters and use an Excel spreadsheet to develop the idea (a story arc, if you like). Then it's the first draft, knowing the story and so on. I normally write book ends (rough draught) when I am about 25% into writing the book.

My main issues are not story ideas but my writing skills and understanding of the written English language!

Those are and will remain, a work in progress.

Quote by RowanThorn

Observe it happens a lot. Think it’s directly related to having open communication with the author. Views are similar, likes are higher. I’ve seen a rather large story get posted and it have 7 likes within minutes, no way people read it in that short time.

I have been wanting to experiment with changing my icon to a pic of a lady. Think that gets more love too.

I want to state that there are many superb female writers here before I mention my observation which is very similar to Rowan's.

Recently I read a first-time female story poster of a beautiful-looking lady. Then she had little online site presence here. I was the first to read the story (0 views at the time) which was well-written. I liked it. However, there were already 11 likes there when I refreshed the page. The story had only been up a few minutes. There was no way 11 people had read it faster than me. Most of those likes had just been made on the photo or profile.

I ask, should that be a concern to authors looking for feedback?

My personal opinion on this is that this version of Lushstories is very visual to encourage more men onto it (and money) and it skewers the story voting system, but does that matter? I am not sure.

The only thing I can add to that question is, I wonder how many men hide behind a female name, icon and photo just to get more attention? I remember in the real world JKRowling feeling the need to use a male pseudonym (Robert Galbraith) to have her Strike detective stories accepted. I wonder if the opposite is true here.

The above is just my thought on the subject. On a personal note, I know my writing is not good enough to get many likes whatever sex I choose to be! 🤣 I am here just for the joy of trying to write!

This forum post headline caught my eye. I wondered if my fellow author's thoughts on this subject had changed since 2021.

Thank you WannabeWordsmith, it worked 😊

This may be a daft question, but I just want to clarify.

Still, in my draft folder, I have a number of old, approved stories which are up on the site.

Is it okay to delete them?

Without losing the posted story.

What happens in an erotic story that makes you walk away?

Now that is an interesting question, though I think it is quite a broad question and my immediate answer was it depends on what the story's author is trying to write.

For me, a red light is if I see the category microfiction, monster sex, sci-fi, mind control etc. etc.

I like things to feel believable, three-dimensional characters in the real world. Therefore I prefer longer multi-chapter stories, rather than shorter ones, though I do read both.

As for specific turn-offs... violence. Male/male sex (it is just not my thing). I also don't like stories without a start, middle and end... or too much sex in them without a story to go with it.

Quote by joe71

I would not say that any photo without (c) is fair game. Photos may have been cropped to remove (c), but could still have digital watermarks embedded indicating their ownership.

I've never had a cover photo for any of my stories, being pretty cautious about committing copyright violations, but I have long been envious of other authors who do it. I recently got a tip from a fellow Lusher that imagefap.com is a great source of sexy pics that are free to use. I haven't dug in very deep, but it looks like this is what I will be using in the future. Plenty of non-hardcore pics on there that are potentially suitable for Lush cover images.

Thank you joe71, I am with you on being cautious about cover photos as copyright laws are tough.

Thank you, krystalg

Quote by krystalg

The dimensions for a cover picture are optimally 512X800 pixels (but, they show roughly half-size on the computer screen). The authors or their friends make their own. I use an old version of photoshop, but one can use any graphics editor.

Please keep in mind that story pictures cannot show any genitalia, nothing hardcore, and need to be allowable for use (no copyrighted material).

Thank you, krystalg.

I can certainly work with photoshop on the actual photo to make it look like a book cover, but it finding suitable photos that are not copyrighted.

How does anyone know if a photo is copyrighted or not?

Is any photo without a copyright symbol fair game?

I have searched Lush stories but I cannot see an answer to my question.

Where do writers go to get their book cover/story photos?

Is there a website I can use or is it a case of hunting around the internet?

Any help/hint would be appreciated, thank you.

Having never written a book before, and having no idea how to. After plotting story arks and timelines on a spreadsheet, I wrote a full biography for each of my main and secondary characters. I then update periodically and currently have 29 to manage.

I never thought of using photos. It might have been easier but bios do help for reference purposes, especially when you have several books in a series.

Thank you CallmeJayne, it is appreciated.

As for being a real writer, I am well short of that.

Update: I have now started to post my first book "The Alpha Man in Me" on Lush Stories, chapter by chapter. The prologue and first four chapters are now up. However, it takes surprisingly quite a lot of time to reformat what was written as a book to a chapter-by-chapter story and it does lose something. Though I do still plan to carry to posting here, and on the plus side, it has made me address my gramma.

So I ask again, other than Amazon is there a place where you can post whole eBooks? and keep the copyright? and it can be read for free?

I keep seeing the ebook tab on Lush Stories hoping it will become active. Will that ever happen?

Thank you to those who responded the first time around to this post.