F/M Story Challenge 2016

Well, how many readers would actually analyze such offhand author's remarks and then try to narrow down which Challenge entry could have been written by him/her? Damned few, I'm figuring. I might end up recognizing who wrote a particular story in a specific Challenge based on the writing style (although several times I've turned out to be incorrect in such a guess), but I don't intentionally attempt to figure those things out while reading the entries.

Writing 500-word stories can be quite demanding, for years I did so for the soc.sexuality.spanking newsgroup's summer Short Story Contest and it struck me as highly challenging to produce a halfway decent account, one with some semblance of plot and characterization, within that limitation; I certainly had to depart from my beloved adverbs in writing those contest entries. (That's why so many of my stories in this Library are within the 500-word range.)

I'm looking forward to reading and commenting on these F/M spanking accounts, especially those by authors who aren't normally F/M-oriented in their writing...
--C.K.

A clue to when I generally submit a story - mine are often among the last 3 in the queue, because I generally email "is it too late to submit a story" as I send in my story.

Deadlines always come too soon. The only way I could possibly get one in before the last possible day is if I was mistaken about when the deadline was.

I agree. I enjoyed the challenge of the SSC 500 word story, the pressure to make each of the little rascals pull their weight was there, and another feature of the competition which I appreciated was feedback from the judges (yes dear readers, judges, not voters) whose opinion I valued as I respected their ability to turn a good yarn themselves.

Back to the word count issue, the nature of a 50 word story (or mini-saga) is quite different from a 100 word one (or drabble). I think the more relaxed nature of the 100 word format actually makes the task of choosing which bits to keep in more difficult because the ideas can always whine that 'There's loads of space, surely you can squeeze me in?' whereas in the shorter format the author can, and has to be, strict with them.
Once one gets to 500 words though, the story reaches a length where more extensive character and plot development is required, and this makes it more akin to a longer 'short story', and thus a bit easier in my opinion.

We try to vary the nature of the LSF challenges rather than doing the same thing each time and our 3rd challenge was a 500 word one.


I don't have the precise stats to hand but I'm sure the overall majority of those who comment on the LSF challenges are authors in their own right rather than readers, except here the comments can be made by anyone rather than a tiny elite predetermined few.

I agree with you. It seems like too much hinting to me. I have always thought that, not just from comments made this time. For many reasons, I think we should not be allowed to post in the forum about the Challenge at all.

That's one of my favourite aspects of the challenges- the chance to hear from other authors and readers who might not otherwise see my work (and, likewise, the opportunity to discover new authors when I realise afterwards that one of my favourites was written by someone I hadn't been familiar with).

Well, to be fair about it, anyone could volunteer to be a reader/reviewer in the newsgroup's Short Story Contest, as long as he/she was willing to put in the time and effort to read his/her assigned stories and write a comment on each one.

So it wasn't an "elite predetermined few," I was a reader/reviewer for the last couple years of the S.S.C. (as well as a contributing author), yet I wasn't part of any "elite" there that I was aware of.

However, I do prefer the way that writing Challenges are handled here in the Library, since it seems that just about every entry will manage to receive at least 15-20 comments from the readers, while in the S.S.C. there typically would be 3-4 comments on each story from reader/reviewers, plus whatever ones were offered by the membership in general when it was posted in the newsgroup, perhaps 2-3 more with luck.

Of course, there's simply more emphasis on commenting, and even writers responding to comments, here in the Library than on any other spanking story site I've encountered...

--C.K.

I didn't really mean it that way and could probably have articulated it better. What I was trying to convey was that comments were being made by a very small minority as opposed to participants at large.

Just my personal view of course but I dislike this approach for numerous reasons as the results are likely to be highly subjective (and from memory apparently somewhat arbitrary on occasion), it doesn't involve the majority in any way, the reviewers knew who the entries were by and I'm sure some couldn't help but be influenced by this, and perhaps worst of all I recall on more than one occasion there were categories were only 4 entries were received and those not placed in the top 3 were singled out and highly demotivated by the outcome.

Now let me see, how can I give hints about my possible stories in the F/M Challenge. I think I sent one in at 7:27 pm (Mountain time) on Feb 22 and one at 9:56 am on Feb 27. LMAO.

I actually have no idea and don't care. If you like a story then vote for it and wonder who wrote it later. That is what I will be doing, just like in any other Challenge. I rarely pay heed to what order they are in and have my own way of picking which one I read first and so on. We have to know Februs is not dumb and has always had a plan to make sure no one can cheat the system.

Read, comment and vote my dear people and quit worrying about so called hints or whatever. This is for fun!! Sit back and enjoy the stories even if you are not a regular F/M reader. You may discover a whole lot of stories that might just change your opinion of what a F/M story can do for you.

CS

Thanks for bringing my attention to that one, I'd missed it. I shall enjoy reading the entries