One off short stories

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Somehow I am not getting some elements of posting stories here. That should be of no surprise to those who know me because at times I can be the consummate ditz. :) Both of my two previous stories were intended to be one off short stories, but somehow I missed the place to make that selection.

Will someone please explain this to me?

Thanks

Gwen

Comments

The way I do it

is by first publishing the story and only then it's possible for me to click on the various alternatives at the bottom (change from serial to standalone, from ongoing to complete etc).

Normally

erin's picture

Normally, me or one of my helpers marks standalone stories as standalone. Neither of your recent two qualified because in your headers for the stories, you described them as being fan fiction. Fan fiction supposes acquaintance with the original and therefore cannot be standalone.

Hugs,
Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Erin explained it earlier to

Daphne Xu's picture

Erin explained it earlier to me, last summer. As an example, my latest Bikini Beach story might seem like a standalone. But one needs some familiarity with BB to appreciate the twist ending. Otherwise, the reaction ranges from "Huh???" to "What the **** happened?"

As I understand it, the whole purpose of the standalone category is that standalone stories get swamped by the others, and rapidly leave the front page. Since the story is standalone, there is very little way to reach the story once it goes off. The others -- parts of a series, fanfics, stories in a universe, even sequels to standalones (that last is the most debatable) have a potential trail even when they go off the front page. The teaser to my latest BB story, for example, will be displayed whenever someone searches for BB stories.

-- Daphne Xu

-- Try saying freefloating three times rapidly.