Quote by sprite

well... maybe his ghost can? lol

That's a wooooooooooo-dunnit.

Yeah, I would leave it lower case if I was just describing the profession, but capitalise it where it's a substitute for their name/title.

Quote by JourneyYoung
unless they expedite review of contest submissions

We do

Quote by LuceDevlin

LOL

I've fixed it. Forum software banned the word itself 🙄

Just to clarify, I don't want this comp getting too narrow, or want people to pore over the technicalities.

If people want to be creative with their writing, that's fine. Plot twists are fine. The only elements I'm looking for are:

1. There's a crime

2. The story eventually reveals who did the crime

3. It's fucking hot.

Generally in a whodunnit, the perpetrator isn't revealed until the end, so if you want to write about a crime that it seems like one person has done, and it turns out to be another, that's fine in my book.

If you want to reveal the perpetrator halfway through instead of at the end, that's also fine, but the initial actual perpetrator should be unknown.

Quote by Seeker4

Is a "Columbo" style story where the audience knows what happened and the focus is on the detective trying to build a case and trip up the villain a "whodunnit" or a "howtheydunnit"?

(Just one more thing, ma'am😁)

No, there needs to be a revelation during the story.

Quote by deviantsusie
Just to double clarify... it has to start with the crime and then the story is about revealing who did the crime.. is that correct??

Affirmative. I mean, it doesn't have to be the first paragraph, if you want to set up some plot lines first.

Quote by deviantsusie
It cant be about the planning and then execution of the crime?

Nope. That will be our next comp - Howtheydunnit

Quote by sprite

bitch.

Aww 🥰

Tart.

Quote by sprite

how am i suddenly the big bad?

You're right. I'm sorry. That wouldn't be a surprise twist at all 🤭

Quote by TroublesomeBard

Point of clarification, the mystery of whodunnit is critical, so something like the bank robbers celebrating after a successful robbery is a no-go?

There could be a twist though, something like that is fine. All the robbers celebrating, then the big bad wanders in at the end, and it's Sprite.

Quote by sprite

adds peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic to stew. sets to simmer

Quote by Piquet

Oh no, my friend, I'm aiming for 9999.

I've alerted all the mods to reject yours if this target isn't met 🤭

Apologies, this still hasn't been fixed, and likely won't be until next week at the earliest. Please hold off on creating any groups until this thread is updated.

Thanks

I think we're hosting a Halloween party this year. What should my costume be. Slutty, or fancy?

You will all get negative points and spankings if your grammar and punctuation aren't perfect. PERFECT!

glares

Picture the scene.

City cops secure the murder scene as cameras flash and fingerprint dust drifts in the summer heat...

A car screeches to a halt in front of a bank as two people rush out, faces masked, guns waving...

Gasps echo around the gallery, the gathered art lovers in disbelief as the unveiling reveals the centrepiece painting has been stolen.

Who doesn’t love a good crime thriller? The mystery and intrigue. The suspects. The alibis. The thrill of danger often goes hand in hand with sex, as adrenaline spikes.

We want to read stories which start with some sort of crime, or the immediate aftermath of a crime and go on to reveal over the course of the story, just who did it. Who done it. Fine, whodunnit (and that will be the one and only time Lush will encourage the use of bad grammar).

To give you room for plot, plus a whole lot of sexy action, the word limit on this one is 10,000, however stories can be in any category, other than micro or poetry.

Crimes of passion are of course allowed, however usual Lush rules apply. No snuff stories, no death during sex, no non-consent, and violence shouldn’t be too extreme.

We'll keep this one running until mid November to give folks time to get stuck in.

Closing date: 17th Nov 2024

Announcement date: 30th November 2024

1st place $150

2nd place $100

3rd place $50

All prizes will be paid via PayPal, or an equivalent amount of lush coins can be given

Full details here

Quote by KimmiBeGood

elitist twat … this triggered a story idea, WW. “Twat” is so underused. Thank you.

Should I change his forum rank when he's not looking? 🤭

I have absolutely no goals. Before I wrote my first story, I think I was fed up at work, and decided that I'd be a writer. Then I wrote my first story and realised it was decidedly mediocre, but I had fun doing it. I mostly write when I have a certain story wanting to get out. The story I end up with rarely matches my expectations for what I hoped it would be, so I'll stick to the day job, lol.

I've stickied this guidance which was created not long after we brought the micro category in.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
And 100 words, like poetry, I feel needs relaxed structure. One-word sentences. Fragments. Very powerful in a micro. Some choose to write 100 words in a single paragraph, while others write short sentences. I see everything in-between published here, so should anyone be rejected for structure?

One word or short sentences are fine for micros. You need to be inventive with just 100 words. I'd only reject a micro for structure if it was bad grammar, or has turned into unintelligible word salad because someone tried to condense it so much by removing words that it no longer makes sense.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
And I sometimes want to tell a story as a micro and a full-length story. Is that allowed or not? The micro is not part of a series and it’s a condensed version of the longer story, not an introduction.

Again, fine. We just don't want a part 1, part 2 etc situation, where someone tells a much longer story by breaking it up and publishing it in 100 word pieces.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
Commas brings up another point of discussion. I understand Lush has set rules on age, content, consent, etc. I wonder if relaxing some edits like comma placement (except like obvious set rules in dialogue), paragraphing choices, other style choices would save time for everyone. Grammarly likes commas a set way, but as creative writers, we all know moving commas around creates a very different impression to the reader. I think using commas as pauses shouldn’t be messed with during story approval. Same as hyphens and ellipses. I’m using Jaymal as an example of an author who gives readers a powerful story with hyphens as just one of his writing devices. WannabeWordsmith is my example of using one-word sentences and fragments in an impactful way. Both these authors are award-winning and their stories would not be the same if all Grammarly edits were followed.

Quite simply, mods shouldn't be moving, removing, or adding commas unless they're glaringly wrong, and this is emphasised in the guides we have for story mods. We can't even agree on them among ourselves, which is fine. We're from all over the world, and all speak differently. Changing commas changes an author's voice, and we shouldn't be doing that.

I use hyphens a lot. Ellipses are fine too, but as a tool they should be used sparingly, otherwise they just lose their punch. Anyone who has speech trailing off throughout their story should take a moment to assess if anyone in the real world actually speaks that way. Spoiler alert, they probably don't, lol.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
I see published authors writing outside Grammarly rules all the time as far as some formatting, fragment, and comma choices. Thoughts?

I hate grammarly. It's a useful tool for learning, but personally I don't think it should be necessary to use it to mod stories, although some other mods like using it. So long as it's just correcting mistakes and not changing the voice of a story though, I'm fine with it.

Quote by KimmiBeGood
Last item is mod editing on competition entries. Is editing allowed by the mod? I’ve received a few welcome edits by a mod on some and been rejected for a typo on another, citing the mod couldn’t edit a comp entry. What is the standard on this?

Yes, small edits are fine. This should be for obvious typos, or maybe to correct the odd dialogue punctuation errors. Anything more than that will go back to the author to correct, and no edits should be made to content.

Quote by Zenmackie
I urge all audio creators and fans of audio stories to contact the site and request that this be made a priority.

While we appreciate people's interest in this being an option again, we've already raised this again with the team, so there's no need to email. Most of the mods are authors and we want this returned too. As Kimmi says, there are some technical limitations with it, but if we get something workable, we'll promote it.

Thanks x

.

Quote by EAM6690

So you admit you're dishonest, can't / won't refute my logic. Just you being a troll saying in essence " don't try to improve this site, go away". You support censorship here, which means you support ALL censorship.

A Christian fundamentalist state prosecutor could file to have this site taken down for "obscene content transported over state lines". That has happened before.

Elon? That you, bud? Everything okay?

Quote by Domme_Zoe

This morning, when I went to one of My friend's wall, I immediately was able to view all wall posts. Now I am wondering, if Lush returned to making this the default viewing for members?

Yeah, I asked for it to be changed back for now.

Another fun competition at Lush HQ, showing once again the diversity on offer from our authors.

Before i get to the winners, I want to say a huge thanks to the person who shortlisted this one for me (I'm on vacation and was being ultimately lazy, lol), and also to all the judges who offered their two cents and insights into the stories that moved them the most.

Without further ado though, let me say huge congratulations to TheShyThespian, who tops the leaderboard for this one with his brilliantly moving tale of space exploits. It's tough to pack that much emotion into erotica in such a tight word count, so well done, Jason

In second place, another massive well done goes to CarltonStJames, who just delighted the judges with his particular brand of dirty talk.

And third place this time around goes to the brilliant Visioneer, whose story really stood out for its clever dialogue, which left the reader to fill in the blanks.

Three wonderful stories, so congrats to those authors, and to the rest of our talented bunch who made the top ten.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this one. As always, you didn't make our jobs easy, which honestly, we're not complaining about.

I'm already looking forward to the next competition. Now I just need to figure out what the heck it's going to be about. I'll post about this shortly :)

To the winners/runners up, I'm literally about to board a flight back to the UK, so I'll be out of reach for the next wee while. I will be in contact with everyone tomorrow to sort out prizes and awards. If any story mods read this and want to award EPs/RRs in my absence, have at it, otherwise I'll pick it up tomorrow.

Thanks everyone,

Jen x

Full list of Winners

1. Think Of Me… by TheShyThespian

2. Good For Nothing by CarltonStJames

3. The Gin Rickey Singularity by visioneer

4. A City Full Of Stories by WannabeWordsmith

5. X-Therapy by Jaymal

6. Confessions by Throb_Johnson

7. Le Métro by AmuseBouche

8. Whispers In The Dark by DadBod1133

9. Good Call by Babygirl4u

10. Pyramus And Thisbe by Piquet

Just realised I'm flying Monday night, so results might be delayed until Tuesday, unless I have everyone's in before I leave. Sorreeeeeee 😇

.

Quote by techgoddess

Readers won’t commit to more than 10K at a time. I should know…my attention span is short.

Micro word limits aren’t ignored. The word counter you see is different from the word counter mods see.

I just don’t see the need to eliminate a category that has more pages of stories than many of the other genres. If writers choose to put their stories there and don’t feel like they are getting enough attention, they can change their genre. But, personally, I’ve been happy with my feedback on Mac and Grace stories. If something isn’t broken, why are we trying to fix it? Eliminate it as a requirement for Omnium if it’s such a big deal. But many writers write multi-part stories with only a few parts to satisfy checking off that box. I don’t see this as an issue.

Bear in mind you're currently the site's most prolific/popular author, so you could probably write something in hieroglyphics on the back of the bin sheds and people would come looking for it.

Ooh, maybe you're the Banksy of Lush, lol.

Anyway, I'm thinking more from the casual reader side. I'd like to give people a fighting chance of finding stories they like. I'm not wedded to removing it. We can leave the poll up a while and see what folk think. Most seem to favour ditching it, but not exactly a big sample size at the moment!

Quote by deviantsusie

Exactly. If too many categories is an issue, put facesitting back into oral sex, put strapons back into toys, put uniforns and medical back into occupations.

If its about making the Omnium easier, remove it as a requirement and give them an Omnium Lite badge.

It's not about either of them. It's about readers coming to the site and understanding what kind of stories they might find in a particular category. Yeah, you could argue that about flash or micro, but they're so short it's mostly irrelevant. Not sure anyone is just looking for 'long'. Well, not for stories 🤪

Big big thanks to Just_A_Guy_You_Know who not only helps out on the story side, but also keeps the forums ticking along. In between all that, he still finds time to pen plenty of hot erotica to keep us entertained.

Thanks so much for all your help, J. $100 in lush coins are winging their way to you ❤️