Ideas/Suggestions for Stories

[*Lady Lucia*]

DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO WRITE MY STORY. PLEASE.

Personally, it's not my favorite thing. When I write, I always have a sense of where it's going. Sometimes, it's a general collection of ideas that eventually fall into place, and sometimes it's a literal outline that I've written for the story before even starting it. Point is, your ideas do nothing for me, and I have no interest in receiving such comments.

Don't get me wrong, I'll take criticism all day long, as long as it's constructive. I'm all for improvement and any critique/feedback that lends itself to such improvement. That's different. Just please don't tell me what to do with a story if I don't ask! It's MY story. If you have your own kinks/turn-ons/interests/etc., write your own. Or find a story that hits those sweet spots for you. But in my opinion, it's not cool to offer public, unsolicited advice in the middle of something that someone's working on.

Anyone else have thoughts on the matter? My stories aren't the best example, as it only happens every now and then, but "Julie's Babysitting Disaster" is one that's littered with suggestions after every single part. I don't mind it when a writer actually says "what would people like to see?" in regards to their ongoing stories. However, when it's just spamming requests for certain things, it feels a bit rude to the author to me.

Please, discuss away!

However, to avoid drama and/or a long chain of comments in between story parts, I'm creating this discussion thread. And I will link to it every time this happens during one of my stories. So, if you've already forgotten the opening message, here it is again: DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO WRITE MY STORY. PLEASE.

Much love,
Lady Lucia

[Executionus]

I'll remember to not do that with you, although I think the majority of writers here generally prefer getting suggestions and/or speculation. I'm happy with all comments as long as I don't get drama (which has happened 3 times.)

[Nikolai]

I agree entirely, when an author asks for community feedback is one thing but unsolicited suggestions/requests.

"Maybe she should be diapered and Tommy should clean her dirty holes"

or something along these lines just comes off kinda creepy and unnecessary.

Like we are all clearly weirdos here and I'm not insulting anyone's kinks but requests/suggestions/demands to a clearly ongoing and planned out story is a bit out of taste. (Especially the likes of yours or dare I say myself that are more erotic literature than short disorienting stories) just comes off rude and unnecessary.

I love everything you do and until you ask for suggestions ill be waiting for whatever your mind comes up with. Wholeheartedly agree with how you feel about it.

As always CONSTRUCTIVE criticism should be accepted and its how an author can learn what is a hit and might be a miss.


I try to avoid even positive comments on your posts because a artificial pat on the back isn't always necessary and thats why I enjoy the thanks system we have in place.

Can't wait to see how the stories you are working on play out and what future ones hold.

Big fan, slow to work author here.

[dublinjohn]

I don't know if its possible, but perhaps all story threads could be locked so that only the author (and mods) could post in them and a second subforum could be created for comments.


Sometimes I see a story I'm following has a new post and I open it excited and then disappointed, when I find, its a comment or a reply to a comment, I know I am nit picking here.


Get dare has a sub-forum for completed stories, no comments, some of the stories here are big enough that they could use that (I mean create on here, not jump across), likewise, perhaps it could be spilt between long stories and short stories, or, sub forums by Author for completed stories.


It may not be possible, I don't know enough about forum management and tools.


just to add, Authors, please keep up the good work

[dublinjohn]

DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO WRITE MY STORY. PLEASE.

......., here it is again: DO NOT TELL ME HOW TO WRITE MY STORY. PLEASE.

Much love,
Lady Lucia

OK, I won't say to simply write one word after the other till you form a sentence







(sorry, its funny to me, no offense intended)

[Debbifan]

Broadly speaking, I sympathize with Lady Lucia. But it's a difficult one in some respects. A perennial complaint from authors is about the lack of feedback / comment. But then it gets tempting to grade the quality of the comments received. For instance, 'wow, awesome story' doesn't do a lot for me and isn't interesting for anyone else to read. Great you liked it but a simple use of the thanks button would be just as good for my ego.

To address the specific topic of ideas and suggestions; sometimes an author dries up and ideas can be stimulating. But in my case I find this quite rare and would ask if it was something I wanted. Particularly irritating are those who persistently clamour for their own kink to be catered for and as mentioned, one current story has suffered considerably from this.

Then there's the question of bumping a thread to encourage the author to continue a story that has lain dormant for a while. Hands up, I did that yesterday myself with Pool Party and then realized that a private message would have been better. There can be any number of reasons why a story is not being continued. Similarly, if I spot a typo or a continuity error, a private message is by far the best way to mention that.

[dublinjohn]

....
Then there's the question of bumping a thread to encourage the author to continue a story that has lain dormant for a while. Hands up, I did that yesterday myself with Pool Party and then realized that a private message would have been better. ...

(s)he deleted or deactivated their Deviant Art page, I think we are out of luck there

[*Lady Lucia*]

Totally agree with Debbifan about encouraging a writer to keep writing. I may be guilty of bumping a story back to the top every now and then if it's been many months since the last post (did it to Manipulating Mona recently, admittedly), but more often than not I find myself shooting a private message to him/her instead. As most of us writers know, juggling multiple ongoing stories AND actually doing real life stuff that doesn't revolve around this site is a thing. As much as we want to make our readers happy, we can't give you guys new parts to everything all the time.

Funny enough, I actually don't mind the positive messages. Maybe I'm a little vain, but if I get seven comments in a row saying things like "wow, this is the best story ever," I'm all for it. I'll take positivity and words of encouragement any day over trolling, negativity, plot suggestions, etc. Back to a very relatable comment from a discussion a while ago, and I totally can't remember who said it - "writing here is pretty high effort, low reward." Personally, any kind of appreciation for what I do is always welcome!

As for constructive criticism, that's actually another one where private messages might be better, in my opinion! Rather than bothering everyone reading with a "Hey, you low key use too many exclamation points and it's distracting," or "For the love of god, please use punctuation," etc., it'd probably be better to start a private chat with that person and give them some constructive pointers if they're interested in receiving such things.

[jimmythehand]

As someone that's far more of a reader than a writer (definitely not known as a writer and never posted any stories on this site) I make a point of never never offering my own story ideas unless they're requested by the author or they've made it clear over time that it's something they welcome. I want to see where the writer is going to take me, not have them repeat my own ideas back to me or have the story warped by other people's demands - it rarely comes out well. Also, if the writer is not going to take the suggestions then there's no point, so in general you'll either make the story worse or have no impact at all.

Those stories where suggestions are requested/welcomed do work, but that's because the author is intending to have more of a colaborative approach from the start and/or is skilled at blending the other voices into the story.

I would add that there's another possible outcome to posting unsolicited suggestions: that the author was always intending to do what you have suggested but now you've posted it they feel they can't, either because you've made it a lame duck idea by spoiling the surprise or plot twist, or because they want to avoid the appearance of using other people's ideas in their story.

With all that said, I am glad to see how enthusiastic people are about the stories here, especially after we nearly lost the board not so long ago.

[Executionus]

Get dare has a sub-forum for completed stories, no comments, some of the stories here are big enough that they could use that (I mean create on here, not jump across), likewise, perhaps it could be spilt between long stories and short stories, or, sub forums by Author for completed stories.

That's pretty much what the Beach Club link in my signature does, but also could be a good use for the archive section of this forum. For instance, I plan on posting the entirety of Thirst Games in a new archive thread once it's complete, all parts back to back without comments. I've made it a point to display the most recent part number in the subject so that people know when there's actually an update from me.