Eka's Portal Writer's Group - General Discussion

[4ofSwords]

Mhm... The question I had was more of... There are underaged characters in a story being vored as well as people having sex, but the underaged characters really have no part in the sex. Kind of like two people can have sex, and before or after they eat kids. =P That was more of my question, since I personally think it would be okay, buuuuut, I was just wanting to see other viewpoints.

Yeah... that gets pretty tricky. I don't think the law is terribly clear about that - I mean, there's plenty of movies that have both sex and kids in it - but I'll defer to whatever the best understanding of the site rules are. Deathworks might be best able to comment on that.

A separate group might be good...since it really is such a divide (and only because of the fad crisis, as you said o.o), but the real problem with the underage section is that it never shows up on the front page, so people tend not to go there too much, and a thread like that would be partially hidden...

Yup, I see your point. But at least it would be prominent in the forum where like-minded people congregate!

I actually got that from the other thread where I believe you got your inspiration.

If you're talking about the vorexchange drawing group, yup! Sadly, that's not doing so well participation-wise (artists, you should get your but over there!). But drawing and writing seem different to me, in that I don't mind drawing a kink I don't like, while it's very difficult for me to successfully write a kink I don't like. I've gotten the impression a lot of other people feel the same way, but if y'all find people you want to trade with and it gets you to write and submit, that's awesome!

[Tobedumped]

But drawing and writing seem different to me, in that I don't mind drawing a kink I don't like, while it's very difficult for me to successfully write a kink I don't like. I've gotten the impression a lot of other people feel the same way, but if y'all find people you want to trade with and it gets you to write and submit, that's awesome!

I don't know if we'd be interested in trying this as a group-wide thing, but in writer's groups I've been involved with in the past (not for vore, but for other things), it's fairly common to have an optional theme or challenge for the week. If there were an interest, we might be able to do something like that, where each month there is a theme or a challenge that you can choose to take part in. Examples: Include a character who is using a fake identity, one of your characters must be a jilted lover, only one of your characters can talk, the story must begin and end with the same sentence, all stories must include a certain sentence, your story must include a moral, etc.

I think that would be fun to do as a completely optional thing. Each month announce what next month's optional challenge will be and give writers the opportunity to craft something around it. Also, a lot of groups I'm in use it as a way of rewarding regular participation. If you're a regular, you get to choose the theme for one of the months.

Just food for thought.

[Elle]

I don't know if we'd be interested in trying this as a group-wide thing, but in writer's groups I've been involved with in the past (not for vore, but for other things), it's fairly common to have an optional theme or challenge for the week. If there were an interest, we might be able to do something like that, where each month there is a theme or a challenge that you can choose to take part in. Examples: Include a character who is using a fake identity, one of your characters must be a jilted lover, only one of your characters can talk, the story must begin and end with the same sentence, all stories must include a certain sentence, your story must include a moral, etc.

I think that would be fun to do as a completely optional thing. Each month announce what next month's optional challenge will be and give writers the opportunity to craft something around it. Also, a lot of groups I'm in use it as a way of rewarding regular participation. If you're a regular, you get to choose the theme for one of the months.

Just food for thought.

I like that idea. =3 For some reason, I don't see it being completely mandatory, but more of something that challenges everyone to do something along certain lines. Themes seem like they would work much better than something like including a sentence in your writing as well, simply for inspirational purposes. Still, I guess that depends on the sentence. "Daily life of a predator" or "Vore in a public setting" might work well...though my mind seems to want to check out at the moment. o.o More ideas later.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Thank you for your vote of confidence, but actually, I think I am already going beyond my expertise there. This is very complicated and the site rules actually do not give a clear definition on that. So, I am afraid you are best of sending a PM to Eka and ask her for her thoughts on how that issue should be handled.

The problem is actually, how far must the sexual conduct and the underage characters be apart? Or is it always a problem if both sexual content and underage characters are within the story, even if the sexual conduct is on page one among adult characters and the underage characters only show up on page eleven?

Thinking it over again, I think the probable outcome is that same story means a connection, so no underage characters in a story containing sexual conduct at any time outside the underage forum. But that is just a guess as the formulation in the rules can be interpreted either way.

As for themes/motifs, I don't think that is a good idea if you make it mandatory in any way. In the end, this would require the willingness of authors to do these things, and if they don't like plant vore, for instance, you are forcing them to write something they don't like. There are those, of course, who like such challenges, but I think you would really scare away more people than you attract.

However, making a suggestion for the month that can be used or ignored by the authors may be a very good tool to help those authors who are looking for an inspiration.

Deathworks

[4ofSwords]

I don't know if we'd be interested in trying this as a group-wide thing, but in writer's groups I've been involved with in the past (not for vore, but for other things), it's fairly common to have an optional theme or challenge for the week.

That sounds like a great idea! What I'll probably do is follow up the opening post to each month's topic with another post that says something like:

Need a little inspiration to help you get started? How about participating in this month's challenge?

The challenge this month is: blah-dee blah-dee blah!

Remember, the challenge is completely optional - you are free and encouraged to post a story that has nothing to do with this month's challenge.

I'm very open to better text. I would say though that the examples TBD and Jfish made are good ones, and the challenge theme should avoid significant vore 'categories', like hard vore, or digestion, or macro/micro, etc.

TBD, the idea is yours (with a meaningful nod to Jfish, who should be next) - do you want to PM me with a challenge sometime in the next couple of weeks?

[Tobedumped]

TBD, the idea is yours (with a meaningful nod to Jfish, who should be next) - do you want to PM me with a challenge sometime in the next couple of weeks?

I'll try to have something for you by the 7th, that way as soon as we close up this round of submissions we can open up the next round. I've got it narrowed down to two possible ideas, both of which would be very fitting. Right now, I'm trying to decide if I should cheat or not and go with one that fits a story I've already got in mind.

[Elle]

I've let my mind go over this underage deal a bit more...

Just so you know, I have written stories that contain both underage and sexuality, and almost my entire gallery consists of that. Much of the content in the underage section are the same way as well, at least to an extent. There isn't any rule that says you can't have that type of content on the forums, but there is a rule to keep said content to the underage forums, simply for the comfort of those on the board.

However, this case seems to be much like my gallery. If I want to submit something that has underaged material and sexuality for this, I'd have to do it outside of that special section. It's easy enough to put an [UNDERAGE] tag on it so that people don't stumble onto it by accident, but the whole problem becomes whether people are going to read it or not in what we have going.

I know that one story will probably squick a lot of people anyway, so I'll probably not put it here. It all depends on what else I see posted, however, and I think I'm going to play this one by ear.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Looking over the thread for the writing group, I have a suggestion to make, probably for the May round (well, could be used for the April one as well, I guess):

I suggest putting parts of the header information of all contributions into the first post of the thread. Thus, anyone passing the thread can easily see if there is something inside the thread that interests them. And if more people read the stories, and maybe even comment on them, I think it would be even better.

But the current setup kind of discourages random people to investigate, I think. After all, you currently have one contribution, then one or more reviews followed by a discussion about detail aspects of that review (along "could you explain what you mean by ..." lines), and in between, another contribution is posted. While this is okay for people who check this thread every day, someone who comes across the thread now for the first time, may be reluctant to bother looking through all the mixed posts of reviews and contributions in hope of finding maybe one story that sounds interesting to them.

So, if at least author name, story title, and summary/vore relevant information is provided in a single place at the beginning of the thread, I think more non-participants may be encouraged to seek out the stories.

Deathworks

EDIT: P. S.: JFishSoM: Of course, you realize that I now bear a grudge against you for outmaneuvering me with this foul, swift move :) :) :) :) :)

Just kidding.

[4ofSwords]

Hi!

Looking over the thread for the writing group, I have a suggestion to make, probably for the May round (well, could be used for the April one as well, I guess):

I suggest putting parts of the header information of all contributions into the first post of the thread. Thus, anyone passing the thread can easily see if there is something inside the thread that interests them. And if more people read the stories, and maybe even comment on them, I think it would be even better.

That's a good idea! When I close the round tomorrow morning, maybe I'll edit the first post to include links to each of the posted stories. I think that's the best time to do it, or the maintenance of doing them all individually will be taxing.

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Well, concerning future rounds, I think "realtime" adding (that is, adding each contribution as soon as it is added to the thread) would probably be the best solution:

1. It seems unlikely that you get 12 submissions in a single day, so, during each go you only have to add one or two entries - reducing the workload for each time and the danger of missing things or mixing things up.

2. Some people may be encouraged to actually contribute stories to the then current round, inspired by what has been contributed already, or encouraged by the presence of people with a similar taste (look at JFishSoM's worries and thoughts posted earlier in this thread). So, the first post could then also double as an active advertisment for the currently open round.

Deathworks

[Elle]

Sounds like a good idea, Deathworks. ^-^ It would add a lot more visibility to what's going on. However, doing that for every single story is eventually going to make the first post HUMONGOUS. o.o You might want to eventually start putting some of them into spoilers with the month they were submitted above them, just so that the new stuff is always up there where it can be seen. ^-^

And yeah, I still worry a bit here. =P I'm hoping that there'll be more work that I enjoy soon. X3 I've read four of the stories so far, and only one was slightly interesting to me, though...well, I'm weird, so please don't think it's anything wrong with anybody else. X3

[Deathworks]

Hi!

I thought that each round would get its own thread anyway. After all, once the April round closes for story contributions, the May round will open (hopefully) for story contributions while the April round will see the mandatory reviews coming in -> So, we would have May stories, May voluntary reviews, and April mandatory reviews all mixed up.

If it is one thread, I guess using spoiler tags is probably the easiest way to resolve the issue.

I have started the beginning of the story I hope to contribute for May. Unfortunately, I have not come far yet, so I can't really say how long the story will be (I hope to get the first draft finished as soon as possible, so I can get a first general word count).

Deathworks

[Jacquelope]

I say that if this idea survives and thrives, we should make a subforum for an Eka's Portal Writer's group so they can do threads there for each given month.

[4ofSwords]

I say that if this idea survives and thrives, we should make a subforum for an Eka's Portal Writer's group so they can do threads there for each given month.

That's the longish-term plan, depending on how this goes. In the shorter term, though, we have permission for a new thread every month, which I think should work up until we have about 20 active participants or so...

[Jacquelope]

I say that if this idea survives and thrives, we should make a subforum for an Eka's Portal Writer's group so they can do threads there for each given month.

That's the longish-term plan, depending on how this goes. In the shorter term, though, we have permission for a new thread every month, which I think should work up until we have about 20 active participants or so...

You know, this is gonna get your stories a LOT of attention. You smart devil you!

[4ofSwords]

You know, this is gonna get your stories a LOT of attention. You smart devil you!

Well, ideally it will get -everyone-'s stories a lot of attention. But hopefully mine a little, too. <grin>

I've been thinking for the past few years about how to get casual passersby into writing galleries. Drawing galleries are easy, because thumbnails do an excellent job of capsulizing just what the drawing is about (usually) and something about the quality of the work (mostly). I gave up on the idea of thumbnailing stories, and figured the only way to do it was to just get people to read each other more so the authors that write well will be noticed, and those who are learning will get a forum to improve before they lose hope. I guess we'll see if this works!

[4ofSwords]

So y'all really want me to open the May round right away? I was originally planning on waiting a couple of weeks so the thread didn't disappear into the abyss of the past, but if y'all are that excited I'll open it today!

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Personally, I think having the thread open as soon as the old one closes is the best approach. This way, the writer's group is constantly open for submissions.

One advantage would be that potential authors are not frustrated. Especially if you have a period of several weeks (!?!) where no submissions are allowed, people may get impatient and turn elsewhere.

The second advantage is that you have two officially active threads for most of the time: the last thread awaiting the mandatory reviews and the current thread awaiting the new submissions. Thus, the writer's group as such has increased exposure and even if either of the two threads sees a reduction in activity for a few days, odds are that at least the other thread will be somewhat visible.

However, I have to admit that I am not close yet to finishing my story. No real progress made today, and as things are, not much hope of anything getting done this evening. And I did a word count for the fraction I currently have - 580 words and the vore situation is not even at the horizon ... Once the first draft is finished, I expect I need to work on reducing the length of the story if the current word count is an indication for what is to come (T_T).

Deathworks

[4ofSwords]

Personally, I think having the thread open as soon as the old one closes is the best approach. This way, the writer's group is constantly open for submissions.

Your wish, sir, is my command!

[Jacquelope]

Oh!!!11!!
One other thing.

"Rating and Classification Preferred" - I have a long list of things I would not want to read, but you know what I realized? If you put up a long list, isn't there a better chance no one's writing in a given month will fit you? So I picked two of the three most dreadful things I would rather gouge my eyes out than read - Yaoi (that's the name for guy/guy vore, right?) and scat. The other is underage stuff. Actually if you had given me underage reading to critique, I'd have balked big time. Others that I ALMOST would gouge my eyes out to avoid are cock vore, anal vore, and anything involving animals.

So how limiting is TOO limiting for "Rating and Classification Preferred"?

I'd say two or three genres should be the max. Any ideas?