pittwitch

I actually tear at my hair when geniuses confuse waste with waist.  I can’t even roll my eyes hard enough anymore!

BW:  He grabbed at her bare waste only to find a thick-waisted bear?

First of all, the staff did not delete the story in question. We do not delete stories without explanation or without having given warnings as to the problem, and ample time to correct those problems. In this case, the story was warned for an invalid disclaimer on 4/13/18. We would not even hide the story until 4/20/18, and if it was hidden, we give at least 30 more days for the author to correct the issue before we would delete it for noncompliance. We state that clearly in our review board warnings and in our emails.
Second, I have been in receipt of far too many emails regarding this account. I have at least two people claiming to be the account owner, and offering the most nebulous proof of ownership. Furthermore, if we do have to assume ownership of an account, we do not leave profile modifications such as what appears on your profile.  Were I the site administrator, yes, I would delete the account  because it is in clear violation of our Terms of Service as has been pointed out by Pittwitch. Account deletion is sadly not my purview, however, although I am recommending it in this case.
I have no idea who modified your profile, or what the issue is between you and whoever is making the profile changes, but I strongly suggest you either invest in better security for your computer, or find better friends, because this is not the place to work out your personal issues regarding either of those goals.

I direct you to our “uptight” TOS:  http://www.adult-fanfiction.org/tos.php
Most importantly this section:
 
You understand that the account you create is solely for your use alone and that you are not to allow other users access to your account. It is your responsibility to ensure the confidentiality of your log in credentials. If you allow other users access to your account, AFF cannot be held responsible for any loss of information. The only exception is joint accounts for co-authors and AFF must be notified if this is the case, otherwise the account is subject to deletion.
If there is unauthorized access to your account, it is your responsibility to notify AFF immediately.
By accessing AFF and/or creating an account I agree that I am at least 18 years of age and legally allowed to view adult related material.
 
I can find no staff action deleting the story in question.  

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

It’s nice when a plot bunny strikes after so long.  I know exactly what that’s like.  I had one strike after a very long pause, but it seems to have died half way through.

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

I have been stuck in writer’s block hell for so long I can’t even remember when it started.  I know I bought a new laptop last year and never bothered to download any word processor to it.  Why?  I wasn’t going to use it.  Then out of nowhere, at work, not a likely location, a rabid plot bunny attacked.  It won’t let go.  I’m so strangely excited.  I thought that part of my brain had died.  Cheers to the writers and their rabbits.  

Here fact is far, far stranger than fiction.  Always has been. 
 

Here fact is far, far stranger than fiction.  Always has been. 
 

I find the whole series fascinating.  You write these three with grace and style.  I thank you.

I find the whole series fascinating.  You write these three with grace and style.  I thank you.

As a reader, I do see where some other readers would appreciate the option to download to read offline.  However that does not take into consideration how much easier it is to steal from the writers.  I’d point out that it is already all too easy to copy/paste someone else’s hard earned words.  I am willing to sacrifice being able to read offline to afford some protection.
As a staff member, we take a very dim view of thievery.  I direct anyone wishing for proof to browse through the Hall of Shame.
As a writer, I’m not against making stories accessible to readers, but I do want my work as protected as possible.  Having had work stolen from me, I can vouch that it is an extraordinarily unpleasant violation of trust.

As a reader, I do see where some other readers would appreciate the option to download to read offline.  However that does not take into consideration how much easier it is to steal from the writers.  I’d point out that it is already all too easy to copy/paste someone else’s hard earned words.  I am willing to sacrifice being able to read offline to afford some protection.
As a staff member, we take a very dim view of thievery.  I direct anyone wishing for proof to browse through the Hall of Shame.
As a writer, I’m not against making stories accessible to readers, but I do want my work as protected as possible.  Having had work stolen from me, I can vouch that it is an extraordinarily unpleasant violation of trust.

We’re not in denial about other archives existing. I started on the Pit myself but when I found AFF, I decided I’d found home. DG was awesome, the mods made me feel welcome, and before I knew it, I was volunteering.
AO3’s Terms of Service is deliberately obscure, because they moderate via committee. That translates into nothing much ever getting done, and they are fond of making decisions which directly contradict their own ToS. Point that out, and you might get warned for something. Anything. They’ll invent it on the spot. And then there’s the “choose your preferred format” download button, resulting in a good many works there winding up on Kindle for sale, and not by the original author. (And yes, they do sell fanfiction. They just don’t mention it’s fanfiction, and if it’s AU enough, no one notices. 50 Shades, anyone?)
Tumblr is not a fiction archive as much as it is a haven for malcontents and cyberbullies, and Wattpad gets hacked with dreary regularity. The Pit enforces their ToS with sporadic urgency and periodic purges, mostly when an advertiser gets a complaint about their ad appearing on a smutty site. Fiction Press is just the Pit for original work, and many of the fandom-based sites are gone because it’s not cheap to host an archive. Our small advertising revenue pays for our hosting costs, and every single member of staff is an unpaid volunteer. We do this for love of the words.
But we never ask our members to post here exclusively. We love that people share the words. We just ask that they don’t use stories in our archive as free advertising for other sites.

Exactly. It’s why we use standardized warns, not because we’re lazy, but because it is impartial. Everyone is warned in the same manner. The standard warns work, and our members know we’re not playing favorites.
On those rare occasions when a situation is outside our usual warns, we work together to come up with a proper approach.
Are we perfect? Nope, but we’re pretty damned good, and I’m proud to be a part of the AFF staff.

Please don’t feed the trolls!
Report and ignore.  You’re far and away a better person and better writer.

Please don’t feed the trolls!
Report and ignore.  You’re far and away a better person and better writer.

The Art of Foreshadowing
 
What is it?
Quite simply, foreshadowing is to hint at something, in a casual way, where it will be brought up again later on in the story in a more significant and relevant way. The ‘art’ is in exactly how you lay that little hint, without telegraphing “THIS IS IMPORTANT! REMEMBER IT!”.
 
Why it’s important
Story telling is easy. No, really, it is! The art is in how you tell the story, that’s what makes it scary, exciting, sexy, etc. Foreshadowing is a very important tool to use in many, if not most, stories. I’m sure most of us have watched movies where all of a sudden, the hero just happens to find the one thing he or she needs to save the day. “Oh that was convenient!” we shout at the screen. It’s far too convenient, and therefore, annoying, for the hero of your story to miraculously find exactly the right thing he or she needs right when they need it the most. This is the reaction you’ll get for unrealistic and unbelievable story telling. What you need to do is to leave a little hint earlier in the story, something that, at the time, didn’t seem all that relevant or important to the story, but allows the reader to later say, “Oh, so that’s why the author did that!”
Foreshadowing is more important in some stories than others. Detective mysteries rely very heavily on foreshadowing. Everyone reading the story is hoping to guess who the killer is before the detective, and a well written story should provide enough hints to allow the reader to do this, if only they work out what’s important and what’s a red herring. There’s nothing worse than coming to the conclusion and realising that the detective was apparently privy to information that we, the reader, were not. This is bitterly frustrating and poor story telling. When the detective goes through the steps that allowed him or her to catch the killer, everything there should be something that the reader could also have picked up on. Nothing should be a clue that we hadn’t been exposed to in some way.
As suggested above, you can also use foreshadowing to misdirect the reader, by laying a hint that you know the reader will think is important but is actually a red herring. You would then follow it up a little later with another hint – the true one, this time – but because the reader has thought the earlier hint was the real one, they might be tempted to overlook the true one. I think you’d need to be a little careful with how you do this, because it can backfire if done poorly. If done right, though, then it can be a clever way to get the reader to watch your left hand while your right pulls the card out of your sleeve.  On the other hand, some stories, like detective stories, rely very heavily on leaving plenty of clues and red herrings, creating a pretty tangled web that needs to be weaved with great care.  This is why a good detective story can be so difficult to write.  Huge respect to Agatha Christie!
 
How and when to foreshadow
More often than not, foreshadowing should be of the fairly subtle kind. If it’s shouted from the rooftops then it can cause the reader to keep a close eye out for it, so when it happens, it’s of no surprise at all to the reader, and, frankly, spoils the story. A better way is to drop the hint in such a way as to cause the reader to either all but forget about it, or to make the reader think that your hint was just a bit of flavouring, and nothing more important than that.
You can go overboard with foreshadowing though. If everything in your story is important, then the reader soon learns to understand that everything you mention is going to have something relevant to do with the climax of your story, which only helps to lessen the impact. By adding things to your story that aren’t important, it ensures the reader is never sure what’s important and what’s not. On the other hand, when you later proofread your story, you might actually see how you could turn one of these story flavour enhancers into an actual foreshadow. But as I said, these ‘story flavour enhancers’ should rarely be promoted as “THIS IS IMPORTANT” moments. Describing how the ashtray on the coffee table is overflowing with ash and cigarette butts might just be a way to simply show that the occupant is a smoker and a bit messy or lazy, or it might have important relevance later on. Who knows? Certainly not the reader, and that’s what’s most important.
Remember, foreshadowing should very rarely be obvious. It should be a fairly subtle hint that the reader may or may not pick up on. Too overt a hint comes across as too obvious and too forced. It needs to flow naturally with the story, appearing as something that is nothing more than a flavour enhancer.

Glad you followed the above advice!  It’s always best to NOT feed the trolls.  It’s what they want.

I vowed to find time to do something creative everyday. Creating a feast for family today. Health, happiness and wealth is my wish for us all.