New Competition Announcement: Le Noir Erotique

Quote by Lynkeus
Above all, I would have wished that one or the other of our authors would have taken a look at the text before hastily submitting their story to the Noir Erotique competition... 😉

As an author, one of your accused "hasty-submitters," I personally challenge you, Lynkeus, to write one and show all of us authors how it's done.

Quote by AvidlyCurious

I think we readers should be grateful to authors who decide to share their work with us gratuitously; it's not our place to make demands. Unless we've commissioned a story, of course.
If I don't like a particular story, author or category, I simply avoid it. I won't go and criticise or say they've made fools of themselves because they didn't meet my expectations. There is no one-size-fits-all in writing, or any other art form, for that matter.

I much rather authors being true to themselves and their characters, telling the story they want to tell than doing fanservice.

Disrespecting people for being creative and generous is not being constructive at all.

Exactly. This is primarily an amateur writing forum. Most of us are not primarily looking to become professional writers, but rather to share our erotic thoughts that may not have another outlet in our daily lives. Like many here, I write primarily for myself, but with the hope that there are others who will find the stories stimulating as well. For me the highest praise is not that I’ve topped some literary pinnacle, but that I’ve conveyed my thoughts in a way that has made someone hard, wet and/or excited.

Quote by Lynkeus

As I said above: I am a READER. An alert, curious, well-read, discussion-joyful ... READER.

But you obviously only want the reader as a nod and claqueur. And otherwise should he shut up?

If I misinterpreted you, I apologize!

If you want to put things as binarily as that - the site can only possibly be for the benefit of the reader or that of the writer, and negative feedback can only either be off-limits or wide-open hostile - then yes. Nod and “claqueur” [seriously?] is fine.

Read the stories you like, skip the ones you don’t. Erotica - what turns one on - is mostly a matter of personal taste. I don’t find the majority of stories on LS to be stimulating, but there are still a great many that are so. Likewise, I don’t expect the majority of readers to enjoy my stories, but there is still a significant number who have told me quite vocally that they do. That’s enough.

That doesn’t mean no constructive criticism, ever. I myself have been known to IM the author of a competition entry when I found an obvious typo, for example. But barring obvious grammatical or formatting errors, if I simply don’t like a story, or the author’s approach, or their writing style, or the genre in which they are writing, I generally keep that shit to myself. I’m obviously not the audience for that particular story. Don’t like what someone wrote? Then go and do a better job yourself.

Quote by deviantsusie

I think it would be a very dull competition if everyone set their story in the United States between the late 1940s and the late 1950s.

Agreed. I’ve tried to read every single entry, despite the word (and body) counts piling up. I would not be doing so under those conditions either. I too have very much been pleasantly surprised by the diversity of the entries. Not really understanding what the point would be in strictly adhering to a formula that everyone agrees is not strictly defined anyhow. Where the stories meet the general Noir conventions of snappy dialogue, an environment of moral ambivalence, and social corruption and decay, deviations from some arbitrary formula are good, not bad.

Quote by Lynkeus
have you ever noticed that in the entry for this competition ALL the quotes are from films? I didn't notice that any of you writers expressed surprise or irritation at this!

Yes, those of us who’ve taken the actual effort to interpret the competition instructions in putting words to word processor ALL noticed this. But so what? Being more literary-driven than literalism-driven, we still got the spirit of the competition, and it’s been all the better for the wide range of creative, often genre-bending interpretations that have been submitted.

Even if it might seem slightly incongruous to use movie quotes in the guidelines for a quasi-literary event, why would anyone have to be “irritated” at that anyway? That is a very tiny imperfection in a world full of enormous ones: I can gladly express any irritations with human imperfection in Noir-ish fiction rather than whingeing about it on a forum.

Quote by Lynkeus

4. Of course the text is about film - and you're not supposed to submit a film for the competition - but have you ever noticed that in the entry for this competition ALL the quotes are from films? I didn't notice that any of you writers expressed surprise or irritation at this! Even though all the films mentioned are based on literary sources? From James M. Cain to Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler to Mickey Spillane? So you could have been given quotes from the books as bait?

a couple of previous competitions used a photograph as the starting point.

Was this wrong too?

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Ask a mod, but I would think you're okay if it wasn't a full story published somewhere. Seems like it was just an idea. As long as no one helped you write on your idea as collaborations aren't allowed in comps.

Thanks for that. It wasn't a full story and it was only written on that forum. It was written in script form, so I would have to change that.

Quote by Lynkeus
I would have wished that one or the other of our authors would have taken a look at the text before hastily submitting their story to the Noir Erotique competition... 😉

I pray you don't stumble upon my attempt at a neo-noir entry then. Not sure my fragile ego could cope with your expert analysis of my failings as an amateur author.

Quote by Lynkeus

Above all, I would have wished that one or the other of our authors would have taken a look at the text before hastily submitting their story to the Noir Erotique competition... 😉

Just a small sample:

"Film noir is not a genre (...) It is not defined, as are the western and gangster genres, by conventions of setting and conflict, but rather by the more subtle qualities of tone and mood."

"There is a love of romantic narration. (...) the narration creates a mood of temps perdu: an irretrievable past, a predetermined fate and an all-enveloping hopelessness. (...) one can only take pleasure in reliving a doomed past."

This is in some ways the most interesting competition we have had in while, as means one has to form a view on what Erotic Noir is, which I found more challenging than say Summer Seduction or winter pictures or Timetravel or Horrorween.

For me I was guided by Jen's competition announcement: "We’re looking for sublimely erotic stories that fit into this genre, but don’t be afraid to mix it up and away from the ‘traditional’ hero/damsel in distress tropes, so long as the underlying elements remain." I enjoyed the quotes and wasn't off put by them being from movies as they, as written, were well written.

And also by my internet research summarised as follows:

The outsider: the noir protagonist is an outcast. Traditionally male, but a noir such as Mullholland Drive puts women firmly in the centre. A sense of alienation pervades their story. No Heroes: they may be central to the story, but the noir protagonist is no hero. However, we do empathise with our anti-hero and we want her to win, even though it won’t get her anywhere. Give your protagonist a glimmer of hope that they will succeed, this is what keeps them going and keeps the reader hoping along with them, only to have it torn away at the end.

Fatalism and Nihilism: hope has forsaken the world of noir. The world-weary noir protagonist is on a fatal path, due to a doom of their own making.

The Femme or Homme Fatale: the fatale brings sex and lust into the equation. The attractive stranger appears to be vulnerable or there to help the protagonist, but it turns out he’s just there to seduce and wrong-foot our anti-hero.

Creatures of the Night: noir fiction gets its name from a style of cinema created by European directors fleeing from WWII. They brought German expressionism to Hollywood – namely, extreme camera angles and high-contrast lighting, which cast angular shadows – to great cinematic effect. Hence, film noir is associated with the night, but Chinatown and Brick are both noir that bathe their characters in California sunshine.

First-person: we’re all familiar with the hardboiled narration of the noir detective – ‘If looks could kill, I’d have been laid out in the city morgue, right then. She was the kind of woman….’ That’s pretty terrible, but you get the idea. The first-person puts the reader right in the protagonist’s head, which adds to the claustrophobia you need to create for noir. It also allows you to play with the unreliable narrator technique.

The Mystery: as I’ve already said, you don’t need to have a private eye or a world-weary police officer investigating a murder, but these staples still work as an easy way to insert a mystery. Fargo subverts film noir by using a rural setting and making the detective a pregnant woman.

City Streets: some may argue that noir has to be in an urban setting, but the Cohen brothers (masters of neo-noir) prefer wide-angle shots of a rural setting for their characters, adding its own sense of alienation and desperation. And although noir is pure Americana, Scandi-noir authors, such as Stieg Larsson’s ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ proves that you can take the genre to any setting and it will work.

Broken Noses: violence is an essential part of the noir tradition. It’s the symbolic darkness of the world made real. That’s just the way it is because life is shitty and noir is telling us how it really is.

No happy ending: did I mention the part about leaving hope at the door? Noir is the boulevard of broken dreams, so whatever happens, make sure the protagonist is no further ahead by the end. No sunsets, no kisses and definitely no wedding – this is noir, not Jane Austen.

Pared Back Prose: when it comes to noir fiction, keep your prose simple, direct and hard. Just get to the point and make it snappy.

The thrill of noir is the rush of moral forfeit and the abandonment to titillation. The social importance of noir is its grounding in the big themes of race, class, gender, and systemic corruption. The overarching and lasting appeal of noir is that it makes doom fun.

That and my contrarian nature meant I was quite comfortable setting mine in Australia and my anti-heroine being a butch lesbian ... also there is nothing like a play on words and butch/femme was something I couldn't resist: I'm particularly pleased by getting butch-fatale into my story.

This sentence was key for me: The social importance of noir is its grounding in the big themes of race, class, gender, and systemic corruption. And as a woman, and in a country where the deputy Queensland Police Commissioner resigned earlier in the year for using the term Vagina Whisperer, where issues of climate change and immigration are part of life, you can see what went through my mind.

How Noir is it and how good is it: well I'll leave that to the judges.

But I will say this, every story I've read (and I've read all but the last two submitted) I've enjoyed and so was consequently generous in my comments. They're different, but fascinating to see how others have approached this. Erotic noir isn't paint by numbers, its good to see how others approach a theme. Most importantly the 1950's had a whole different view about sexual explicitness in films and novels. Sexually on a site like this, you have to write way more explicitly than the update to The Postman Always Rings Twice (which in itself is 40 years old.)

Quote by WannabeWordsmith

I pray you don't stumble upon my attempt at a neo-noir entry then. Not sure my fragile ego could cope with your expert analysis of my failings as an amateur author.

I am sure you will be fine, I loved your story (as always.) The dissection of the feelings when you kill someone was, for me, just excellent.

I do hope to see more entries and yes I have you in mind, Susie, Jake and Rachel ❤️

sadly, i think my entry is officially dead.

Quote by sprite

sadly, i think my entry is officially dead.

NNOOOooo! You must write it, complete it, and let us see your genius.

Quote by sprite

sadly, i think my entry is officially dead.

So, zombie-noir?? Yay 🧟‍♀️

Quote by AvidlyCurious

So, zombie-noir?? Yay 🧟‍♀️

Zombie-Noir sounds fucking incredible!!! 😀

Quote by AvidlyCurious

So, zombie-noir?? Yay 🧟‍♀️

lol sure, why not

Another fabulous entry just dropped in! And I think Jaymal is dropping his soon! Y'all have killed it in this one, me thinks! All are Noir, imo. All different. All interesting reads for me. I still have some to go. I have written all lengths and found writing a 10K story to be the most difficult. I couldn't do it and have great admiration for each of you who did!

Best of luck to you all!

Quote by KimmiBeGood

Another fabulous entry just dropped in! And I think Jaymal is dropping his soon! Y'all have killed it in this one, me thinks! All are Noir, imo. All different. All interesting reads for me. I still have some to go. I have written all lengths and found writing a 10K story to be the most difficult. I couldn't do it and have great admiration for each of you who did!

Best of luck to you all!

Jaymal's just showed up too, just under the wire. One day to go!

The entries for this competition are all top-notch. The judges will have a very difficult time getting their top three. Well done, everyone.

Quote by krystalg

The entries for this competition are all top-notch. The judges will have a very difficult time getting their top three. Well done, everyone.

actually, we're just putting names into a hat for this one and pulling three. take about 3 or 4 minutes at most. after that, we'll get drunk as hell for about a week before putting up the results.

Quote by joe71

Jaymal's just showed up too, just under the wire. One day to go!

Wow, there ended up being a total SIX last-minute entries for me to catch up on. Stunning. It's going to be hard to get work done this week.

Quote by sprite

actually, we're just putting names into a hat for this one and pulling three. take about 3 or 4 minutes at most. after that, we'll get drunk as hell for about a week before putting up the results.

Always best to stick with the tried and true on these big challenges

Quote by joe71

Wow, there ended up being a total SIX last-minute entries for me to catch up on. Stunning. It's going to be hard to get work done this week.

Oooh, yummy. I like it hard!

So what's the easy way to get to the comp entries now that the big banner is gone?

Quote by Ensorceled

So what's the easy way to get to the comp entries now that the big banner is gone?

Jeff, on Home page, scroll down to big boxes going across screen and select "Competitions." You may have to scroll right to see Competition box. Then, you'll see Noir comp link inside.

Quote by Ensorceled

So what's the easy way to get to the comp entries now that the big banner is gone?

Or go here https://www.lushstories.com/competitions/le-noir-erotique

Quote by krystalg

Oooh, yummy. I like it hard!

OK, I wasn't thinking of it that way, but yes, if I can get through one new story a day I will be hard all week.

Quote by joe71

OK, I wasn't thinking of it that way, but yes, if I can get through one new story a day I will be hard all week.

Like mom always says, "a hard man is good to find."

Seriously though, the quality of the Noir entires is top-notch

Quote by sprite

actually, we're just putting names into a hat for this one and pulling three. take about 3 or 4 minutes at most. after that, we'll get drunk as hell for about a week before putting up the results.

Well that'll suit WannabeWordsmith .... so much easier getting pulled when you've got the biggest ... um ... name.

Quote by krystalg
Seriously though, the quality of the Noir entires is top-notch

So enjoyed the takes on Noir in this ... though I still have to read the handful of recent stories.

Quote by Ensorceled

So what's the easy way to get to the comp entries now that the big banner is gone?

First star to the left then straight on till morning.

Quote by Ensorceled

So what's the easy way to get to the comp entries now that the big banner is gone?

I typically click on my entry (or any entry - I have a few in my reading list I still need to read and maybe one or two in my favorites) and then click that entry link in the top right of the story. Then bookmark the page for good measure.

Congrats to all the Comp winners and runner ups!

Congratulations to the winners!

But it would be good for transparency to know who the jurors are, and above all: What their CRITERIA are!

I think that's what respect for the authors demands, some of whom put their heart and soul into writing!

I, for one, take my hat off to all those who have dared to enter this mined NOIR terrain (despite all the individual criticisms)!

Lynkeus, here's one link with some info about comps.

https://www.lushstories.com/forum/welcome-to-lushstoriescom-site-guidelines-help/lush-stories-competition-judging-process