[Alassante]

[Alassante]

[Sulriel]

ok - eep.

I was confusing categories with types.

I'm not sure if anything I said makes sense? I'll have to rethink it and post again later.

so:

each story will have a category, and then a type and maybe a sub-type.

[Viv]

[Sulriel]

[Alassante]

Good point Sulriel. I think of Erotica as the whole story revolving strictly around the sex. With Romance its a story that may or may not have sex/graphic sex in it (with proper warnings and ratings of course). But there are a lot of people who consider anything with sex in it as Erotica.

[Sulriel]

[Viv]

Some of my erotica characters aren't very romantic.

I'm cool either way. I'm comfortable slapping on a long list of warnings and ratings and other digital chastity belts.

[dolarabee]

We could certainly add the definitions of both in the 'how to post' guide...

Should take care of any confusion.

do.

[Sulriel]

here are some sample wordings:

this is from the Wild Rose Press re: "Romance"

* There must be one hero and one heroine at the end of the story who find happy ever after.

questions to test if you have written a romance:

* Is the majority of the story is focused on the relationship between the hero and heroine? (answer should be "yes")

* How as close to the first page as possible do they meet? (should be in the first or second page)

* Do their interactions take up the majority of ink space in the book? (answer should be "yes")


* When they’re not together are they thinking about each other? (answer should be "yes")

* Do they both have to sacrifice/learn something at the end of the story? (answer should be "yes")

* Whatever the external conflict, can it only be solved by working together? (answer should be "yes")

* If the story is spicy-hot/depicts love scenes, are they the only ones whose lovemaking the reader is privy to? (answer should be "yes")

* At the end of the story, is there is a Happy Ever After? (answer should be "yes")


If there are secondary characters, is that all they are—secondary. They don’t dominate the text. Their stories (if they have any) are alluded to, rather than focused on? (answer should be "yes")

* If there is a subplot, it serves to further the interactions between the Hero & Heroine? (answer should be "yes")

* The main Points Of Views are the Hero & Heroine. If we step away from it, is it because a character has information the reader needs to know that can’t be conveyed via the Hero or Heroine? (answer should be "yes")


*********** back to me: this is copied directly from the WRP website so whatever parts of it you want to use need to either be credited or paraphrase. If you like these suggested guidelines, I'd be happy to try to combine/condense/simplify them for our use here.

[Sulriel]

copy/pasted from Ellora's Cave re: erotica

[dolarabee]

Thanks for that. I've gone with the ten genres from FicWad. I've given each a short description and I will add a page to the guidelines for more in-depth info on each to avoid confusion. If we find that another genre would help later on, we can always add it.

Someone mentioned locking the Original Fic section up like the virtual village. The problem with that is that no one would see or read the stories unless they ask to become a member of that section. It seems rather limiting, no? Wouldn't you rather want your work seen by most?

As Alassante mentioned, readers will still have to be registered members to read NC-17-rated material (even if we don't lock it up as the VV) and the same warning will pop up.

There was something else... oh, yes. The little drop-down menu for story type that currently exists when one posts a new story will still apply. I'm afraid that's across the site, touching every section/archive. Unfortunately, there will be some repetition for some genres/types (drama, mystery, humour, etc.). It's unavoidable now as we can't alter that list since it's already been into play since day one and over three thousand stories have been (potentially) catalogued in the database using it. I'm sure it will look a bit weird and untidy but we'll have to live with it.

More later.

do.

[Sulriel]

Yes, I agree it needs to be as accessible as possible in order to gain readership.

the categories look good. question about the history description, it says something like: "a notable" period. I think that's ok, but IIRC, most commercial publishers consider 'historicals' to be "prior to WWI" or something like that.

[dolarabee]

[Sulriel]