Jim's Lest I Wither!!!

[icarus]

Update! Update! Update!

Lest I Wither has been updated with two new chapters.

I am going to vanish for the next hour or so.

Oh. And The Making of Samwise has several new chapters as well. (I have been remiss in not mentioning it.)

Comments

[gmth.livejournal.com]

Wahhh! It's only one chapter, and the second a small author's note. *pout* I hope she doesn't get busted by the new ff.net rule about that.

Oh well. Thanks for the heads up. :-)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I didn't find that out until afterwards.

There's a new rule about author notes?

My experience with ff.net is that if no one complains, the place is too huge to find you out.

There are few things to avoid:

1 - Stories that are not plot-driven, or where the sex comes before the plot. If you're writing slash, you'll want at least a page or two of plausible plot before you get to any boy/boy action. By then the slash-haters will have stopped reading.

2 - Misleading summaries. You don't want to draw in people who will be Shocked and Upset.

3 - Too clear indications of slash in the summary. Those draw anti-slash trolls. You put the indication that it's slash in the A/N inside, after the person is clicked on it via the summary.

4 - Bizarre squicky pairings. It's a fact that many R and even PG-13 stories with, say, Dumbledore/Snape pairings have been pulled down because some readers couldn't handle it.

I've tested this. A friend put up a Dumbledore/Snape story that was R-rated but doesn't have more than a kiss in it. At the same time I deliberately put up a steamy Harry/Ron anal-sex scene. Hers has been pulled down several times. Mine's never been touched.

5 - If someone accuses your story of violating the TOU, even if they're wrong -- pull it down of your accord. Wait a while. Then you can put it back up. Otherwise you'll probably have all of your stories examined with a fine-toothed comb. I did this with 'Rising Sun' which is a very high R (skimmed the rating very close on FA and had to work with Heidi and CLS to make sure it fit the standards).

Note that 'Rising Sun' violates rule number one: the sex comes first, then the plot develops. The accusation was actually a positive review, someone gloating that I was among the authors who were putting up NC-17 stories and calling them R-rated. They noted it in their livejournal for others. I pulled the story immediately.

Remember. On ff.net, obscurity is your friend.

Icarus

[gmth.livejournal.com]

There's a new rule about author notes?

Not a new one, they're just enforcing an old one:

December 13th, 2003 -- The chapter system is not to be used as placeholder for non-story content such as author notes. You can add short author notes to the beginning or at the end of stories but never as individual chapters.

The above clarification of existing guidelines is effective immediately for all entries. We recommend all writers to review their entries to and make the appropriate changes when necessary. There will be a 10 day grace period before the site actively enforces the rule.

Ah well. I'm going to hold off commenting on the rest of your post for a while. It should be an interesting coversation to watch, though.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Someone once sent me a scare message that all the slash content was going to be taken off ff.net. I did a count of the number of stories there and said, "nope. Ain't gonna happen."

There are just too many stories to check, one at a time. They could take down the NC-17 because all they had to do was delete a category in their system and enforce complaints. But anything they have to hunt for? Through hundreds of thousands of stories? Not a chance.

Icarus