BronxWench

Hi, You do need to ask an admin to remove the account itself. You can email: technicalsupport@adult-fanfiction.org with your penname, and the email address used to create the account. If our admins need anything else to verify your ownership of the account, they'll let you know, but that should be sufficient. Because these are public forums, we recommend you use email to make the request, to avoid your email address being picked up by spambots and other vermin.

Hi! You're in the right section, and I'll point you to our FAQ on the topic. This one has a few screenshots to help you navigate the revised code. I think you'll find it pretty easy and intuitive once you use it.

I still need to update my own Recommended Reading and Favorite Authors. I'm very bad at remembering to do that but I've managed to get a couple of things up, from the vast list I have bookmarked. One thing about Originals is that sometimes our authors pull stories because they are either publishing that story, or their publisher has asked that they take down any online published works. In cases like that, I applaud them and wish them much success.

You can search by tag, if there is something in particular that you fancy. Our search feature in the archive will search for a three letter tag provided you put it in quotes. That is one way to sort quickly through older fictions. I often find myself perusing the Stories Written lists of authors I've enjoyed. Checking their Recommended Reading lists is another method I employ. Yet another way within originals is to look within the subcategories. These are further divided into the next level of subcategories, and this at least refines the search somewhat. I will honestly say that I stumble over excellent works in my work within the archive. I will, at some point, see almost every new or updated story cross my screen, and often I find myself making a note to go back and read that particular story at my leisure.

Popularity is rarely an indicator of quality. We do not provide that sort of search option, and in fact will be revising the ratings system as the new code is developed to provide a more equitable option. The ratings are often manipulated by people voting a story up or down based on purely subjective criteria such as liking/disliking a pairing or because they are fond of/not fond of the subject matter. As an example, I do not like vampire fiction as a whole, but I do not rampage through the archive rating down every fiction that involves vampires. We have seen that happen, however. We have seen particular authors targeted as well, often for no apparent reason. To rely solely on ratings is somewhat unreliable. The same can go for reviews. I have seen fictions with a great many negative reviews, many more reviews than the two or three thoughtful and complimentary reviews left on other stories. The number of reviews alone is also unreliable as an indicator of merit.

Why I need an edit key for the shoutbox: Proofreading is good....

Hi. We have a FAQ that shows exactly where to find the Story ID and Author ID. We actually have a lot of good FAQs which are available for all our users without requiring forum registration. Many of them have screenshots to help explain each step. Feel free to look around! Chances are, we have a FAQ for it.

I have only one thing to say.... BANANA!

Those are fine. I've marked the fics as corrected, so no worries!

It might be better for her to wait until she's back so we get accurate information. It might be a browser setting that's creating the issue, but we won't be able to tell without actually seeing the error message. So, once she's home and can use her computer, if it happens again, she can do a screen shot and post that here for us.

How about: draylon has a few you might like as well.

The only thing I know that is limited like that is leaving a rating, not a review. You cannot rate a story more than once. However, there are numerous examples in the archive of people reading most of a multi-chaptered story in the same day, and leaving a review per chapter. We'll need her to give us a screen capture of the error to be able to assist.

What is the specific error message that appears on her screen when she gets locked out? That's what will help solve this.

Oh, gods, how did I forget Zelazny? And Arthur C Clarke, and Dan Simmons. Ray Bradbury because he reads like an ice cream sundae on a hot night...

I went on a pub crawl in London to visit the pubs featured in the Richard Jury mysteries by Martha Grimes. I'm strange that way, and I like a good pint of cider. But what makes me plop down money for a book is a story that draws me in because the world and/or characters promise to be interesting. Occasionally, this backfires, but I've also found books that were so unforgettable that they haunt me years later. I don't go for warm and fuzzy, for the most part, but I do like science, and I like my science fiction to be believable. There are authors I would hug and put on a shelf to talk to forever, if I could. Stephen King is one of them, actually. He can suck me into his world so fast that it's amazing. Mary Doria Russell's "Children of God" and "The Sparrow" will never stop haunting me. CJ Cherryh's Downbelow Station books are a favorite to return to for me. Of course, I mentioned George RR Martin, who is wonderful. Tolkien. Poe. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Samuel R Delany - "Dhalgren" is another book that will be with me forever. I also love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books because I adore her humor. Lawrence Sander's "The Tomorrow File." I read Forgotten Realms books because I love the universe, even if some of the writers are a little less polished. I loved the Dune epic. The only thing my likes have in common is that I like them, I think...

Nope. But even the best writer in the world needs someone objective to pick up the things they miss. As an author, I know what I want to happen. I know what's going on in the heads of all my characters. But am I slipping something in that throws off the story's chronology? Did I have a dread point of view wobble, and let the reader look into the wrong head for a moment? The very hardest part for me was POV wobbles. To my dismay, if I'm writing from A's point of view, I can't refer to A as the blond. Why? Because it's A's point of view and he's not seeing himself. He doesn't think of himself as the blond. He doesn't notice his own eye color, or build, or height. So if I want to describe A, I need to wait to do it through someone else's point of view, which means a break. And you can't change point of view every two paragraphs, because you make the reader carsick that way. You yank them out of the world you're trying to build for them. It's not easy to see this in your own writing at all, and now I find I'm actually looking for it. And that will make me a better writer in the long run, because my goal is to make my editor work hard to find my mistakes. (Hint: adverbs. I still like them too much.)

I can say, having just been through my first experience with being edited for publication, that you need to put your ego on the side and focus on what your editor is trying to do. Their goal is a story that is readable and marketable. They want you to sell books. That means the publisher makes money, and they get paid. They're not being mean, but they're not going to soft-soap things, either. Now, being very honest, I knew that from friends who'd been published. It still felt awful when it happened to me, and I was ready to chuck it all in at least twice. But I didn't. I stuck with it, listened to what my editor told me, rewrote the bits that needed it, and in the end, my story is enormously better for it.And I apologized to my editor for whining, too.

At this time, we don't have an update notification feature, and I honestly can't say if it will be part of the new code as it's rolled out. You might want to check the story and the author profile, to see if the author maintains a mailing list or other method of notifying readers directly. A great many of our authors do try and notify readers via email, Twitter, FB or other media.

Honestly, fan fiction is a good way to get a feel for your voice as a writer. You have a cast of canon characters to play with, you have a world ready for you, and you even have, if not a plot line, certainly a good jumping off point for a story. Have you seen these little packets in the stores? They have premeasured spices, a recipe, and an ingredient list. If you've never made chicken tikka masala, or apple and sage pork chops, these might be a good way to learn how to make the dish. After a few times, you'll find yourself improvising with the spices or proportions. Before you know it, you've made the recipe your own, and it's led you to create another recipe. One that doesn't rely on premeasured spices and a recipe card. I still write a bit of fan fiction, but it led me to writing original work. It also taught me to sustain novel length writing. Don't knock fan fiction, because it's what gave me the courage to write.

"Good writing" is the most nebulous phrase in existence. Personally, I think Hemingway was a troll and Fitzgerald was a parvenu. Having summarily dismissed two literary icons so cavalierly, I define good writing as two things. One, it is technically correct. Two, I enjoy reading it. Technically correct means getting the basics straight, and from your post above, I don't think that's an issue. Grammar and spelling are two things people neglect dreadfully, and schools no longer teach them adequately. Punctuation is a lost art. But especially when publishing online, they make a story readable. Without them, I personally won't even bother to try and puzzle my way through. Enjoyment is the other thing that makes good writing, and that's so individual and impossible to define. I will read almost anything, although I have a preference for science fiction, fantasy, and historical settings. "Twilight" has largely ruined vampires for me, and we won't discuss the other fanfic-turned-original nonsense. I like characters who act, and talk, and engage me in their lives and plights. I like a bit of humor from time to time, especially at the worst possible moment. I like to have my imagination on full when I read. Yes, I do want to know what your character looks like in general terms, but let me imagine some things. Don't describe them down to the last mole. And guess what? Other people will have very different ideas of what makes for enjoyable reading. That's the beauty of it all. No book will appeal to everyone, and no story is going to make everyone love it. As long as you are telling the story you want to tell, and as long as you do have a few people out there will to tell you that they like it because, you're doing good. If the hit counter goes up consistently, you're doing great. It means you may have shy readers, but they come back. You've hooked them. There's no magic formula. There are basic rules, and while here online you can get away with flouting them, publishers and your editor will insist that you comply. Don't shift point of view from paragraph to paragraph. It makes readers dizzy. If you have two people of the same gender interacting, only one "he" or "she" per paragraph. Don't make the reader guess which one you mean. Read dialogue out loud. If it sounds silly when you say it, it'll sound silly when a reader reads it. But aside from that, and the conventions of grammar and punctuation, it's your story to tell, and your voice that should tell it. Try writing without going back every few sentences to edit yourself. Like we do for National Novel Writers Month (and NaNo is a great deal of fun), get the rough draft down. Get a beginning and an end, know a bit about your characters and world, and then go for it. You can make it pretty afterward, with the help of a beta or not, as you choose. I love the three crises and an end gambit. It makes for fun writing middles, as I figure out what three awful things I can do to my poor characters. Most of all, enjoy it. It comes across in your writing when you love being a writer. Readers can feel the passion you put into your work. Hells, I've forgiven George RR Martin for making me wait so long for Book 5 of his saga, because he loves his work and I love his passion. And his story.

Hi! It's not a button that you're missing. What it does require is that you go in and edit the story details. Tags are part of the Summary Field, and are added initially after you choose them from the dropdown menu when you first publish. Adding tags is slightly different once the story is published. To edit the tags, just access your Control Panel in your archive profile, going to the appropriate subdomain in the list on the left, and selecting 'Edit' from the options. Then choose the story in question from the dropdown menu on the left, and 'Edit Details' from the dropdown menu on the right. From there, you would choose the Summary Field and add the tags there. You need to type them in by hand, since there is no dropdown for those once you've posted the story. If they won't fit because the field only permits 240 characters, you can add the tags at the top of your first chapter, and mark it "Warnings" or "Additional Tags."

When you're publishing for money, you enter into a contract with your publisher that often gives them exclusive rights to the work in question for a period of time. It's not uncommon to see authors taking down things that might infringe on a contract.

For Almost Home: Thank you! This is exactly the sort of review an author lives for, because it gives me an idea of what I did right, and where I can improve. We can ALWAYS improve, in my opinion. I'm going to admit that this is a personal favorite of mine, if only because it was a thousand word flashfic, and I needed to be very precise to convey as much as I wanted to in that short space. I came close! It's also a peek at a world that is part of a novel in the works. One day, I'll get it out the door, but most of the science fiction type flashfics I've posted here do relate back to that work. They're outtakes, character sketches, and sometimes just for fun.. But thank you again!

Bring it on! Seriously, having just been through the process, I'm amazed at how much stronger my story is on the far side of the edit. I've been guilty of some completely amateur errors, and I've learned so much. I find myself thinking more as I write the new story that sat down in my lap and made eyes at me, and with any luck, it will be an easier edit. Or maybe not...I could find other things that need work. ::grins::

::grins:: I have a few pieces up here in serious need of revision, which I will get to soon, I hope! Some of those have reviews with some seriously good concrit, and I intend to use that to clean up the stories in question. Do I love it when people like what I write, and tell me? Of course I do. But I love it when people take the time to give me a detailed and well thought out review. I love to know what worked and what didn't. I'm no kid, but that doesn't mean I don't learn every single day, and that I can't try to improve every time I sit down at the keyboard.