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Use the |add comment| tab in the left hand menu, then choose |Story| from the menu provided. The story format has no synopsis or notes fields and new comments are by default turned off.
You can duplicate the effect of a synopsis by using !--break-- surrounded by angle brackets after your synopsis.
Comments can be set to three values, -Display comments-, -No new comments- and -Don't display comments-. You can request a change in comment status on any of your own stories by PM'ing Erin. You can also ask for specific comments on your own stories to be deleted via PM.
- Erin
Thank You Mom!
I think this will be the best way for me to continue posting stories. As most everyone knows, I usually screw up big time replying to comments left for my stories.
Huggles Erin
Angel
Be yourself, so easy to say, so hard to live.
You can find my stories at by going to. http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/taxonomy/term/39
"Be Your-Self, So Easy to Say, So Hard to Live!"
Screw up . . .
. . . big time?
Angel,
I know I've only been here at BC for a short time but as an observer comming in recently, it has been my observation that you
1. Always speak from the heart.
2. You only screw up (as you put it) when you are forced by others to defend yourself, your position or your stories.
I think some of us are forgetting what Erin has just below the main BC banner on the first page, "A Friendly Place to read, write and discuss Transgendered Fiction"
I think as we post comments we need to think to ourselves first, is what I'm about to say going to help someone else grow as an individual or am I feeding my own ego? If our goal is to help others then everyone will come out as winners and then BC will indeed be a Friendly Place.
Penny
a good idea?
Deleting Comments
Comments can be mean-spirited and entirely personal. I would never ask for "no comments," but would retain the right to have comments deleted.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Comments
Even if an author denies comments, a reader can still send a private message about what s/he liked or disliked. So it wouldn't completely shield the author from negative comments, but what it would guard against would be any mob mentality where commenters try to outdo eachother to say how horrid a piece is, and encourage others to jump on the bitchy bandwagon.
Do you really think ...
... that the people here are so casually cruel as to viciously attack someone's work ... on a whim? Or as some kind of demented game?
I haven't seen any indication of that kind of behavior at all -- although I suppose, given how emotionally involved I get, some of my comments could be viewed as inciting folks to strongly express their views.
I like comments about my work, both positive and negative. How the heck am I going to learn what works and what doesn't if people don't give me their honest opinions, warts and all? And if my writing affects someone so strongly that they actually take the time to comment, I must have done SOMETHING right. *smile*
I'm looking forward to posting my next chapter in No Obligation and Stark's next story, with comments bravely and happily enabled.
Randalynn
PICARD: What we leave behind is as important as how we’ve lived.
After all, Number One, we’re only mortal.
RIKER: (smiling) Speak for yourself, sir. I plan to live forever.
-- Star Trek: Generations
A comment on comments that became a brazen plug
I don't get this for several reasons:
What seems to hurt Angel most is when people suggest her stories are too dark or the child is abused. But there are stories in the achieves here and else where that are worse (some on other sites that are much, much worse), I don't think Angel revels in those situations (but some writers and readers must) rather she laments those situations. They are manifestations of fears and night mares, not dreams. If you don't like that kind of story avoid them, but allow others to deal with their horrors in their own way. There are many people that would easily, and happily, condemn everything here and all of us.
I feel that Angel has more than earned her stripes as a writer, and should be able to deal with the remarks that are made about her stories at this point. That she can't befuddles me.
But I also feel that she has earned the right in her life (And all I know of her is what I infer from her stories and her comments.) to be as sensitive as she appears to be. Let her cry in her own way and as privately or openly as she wants.
I could never turn off comments, I confess I crave them. Maybe if I ever have 50 or a 100 stories posted that will change, but now every time I put a final period on my attempts, I want to climb to the roof and yell "Look at me." In real life, on the other side of this screen, I am not flamboyant at all and try hard to avoid attention (you will just have to take my word for it) but I want all and everyone to read my stories and to let me know that they have. Berate me, flail me, whatever. I hope you like what you read, but I'd like you to read what I write much more. Maybe I just write to feed my ego; I've considered the possibility, but it doesn't feel that way when I am writing; only when the chapter is done (again - you have only my word for it.).
I'm sure that I'd get into a blue funk, or worse, if the negative outweighed the positive by enough, but I'd be happy to learn the ratio it would take, right up to the point I reach it. I don't if my hits are that low for a new writer and the comments I get are great (so I must be doing something right - and you're not getting rid of me yet) and I don't know if i should expect more, but it stings when someone (on a different sight) gets eight times the number of comment in a day that I get in month for something I wouldn't even call a good story sketch because they use more of a the formula.
{sigh} I hadn't really meant to turn this into a brazen plug, I think I wind up doing that a lot - or maybe this is a plea - but I'm not erasing it because, well because I'm in a blue funk right now, and because "Hay, look at me".
Hugs (and apologies)
Jan
(Maybe this stopped being a comment in about the middle, but I'm not putting this whiny thing on the front page.)
Liberty is more than the freedom to be just like you.
Not Too Brazen
I think you make some very good points, Jan. Some are more sensitive than others, and negative comments on a story felt deeply when written may be harder for an author to take. I've made some ill-cosidered comments that probably shouldn't have been posted; but none the less they were true expressions of my feelings at the time.
If you go out on a limb with a story, or expose yourself emotionally, the lack of feedback or good feedback is going to bother you. And negative feedback will hurt. I don't have any magic solution. I've been lucky that my stories so far have been well-received. Health issues have forced a hiatus in writing, and I may flop miserably when I start back up. It will hurt if I do, much of my stories come from within me. That's a bridge I'll cross when I have to. In the meantime, I still want, nay, need the reader comments so I can measure my efforts.
In the meantime, I hope all the other good writers/authors on here, including Angel, continue to produce work that gives me respite from my problems. Thank you one and all.
Karen J.
>^..^<
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Not A Good Idea
Having just read an excellent story, I was all set to makes some glowing comments (and point out one continuity error), only to find it was posted in this fashion. I've come to the decision that I don't like not being able to post comments.
(Add: I just found the same story on another website that does allow comments, so there is no consistancy here. Is there some reason to allow comments on another site and not on BC?)
IMHO. emailing positive comments to the writer negates part of the reason I make them in the first place; which is to steer other readers to stories I enjoyed. I like to read all the recent comments each time I visit BC; this has helped me find older stories I wouldn't have otherwise found. When a story that is posted in such a way as to not allow comments rolls off the front page of the website, how are people going to run across it except by accident?
My two cents,
Karen J.
>^..^<
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
The Same Thing ...
... happened to me. I had just finished "Business, Not Quite As Usual" and wanted to praise the story and thank the author, only to discover that comments had been turned off. I felt very frustrated. I could write to her (and probably will) but praising an author's work publicly just "feels" better to me -- and, as Karen J. points out, writing to the author privately does nothing to increase readership of her story. If I like something, I want others to know of it so they can get some enjoyment from it as well. And if someone displays story-telling excellence, I want others to see what a solid, well-written story looks like. *grins*
Karen, it's the writer's choice on BC whether to enable comments or not. As a writer, I'll always post stories with commenting enabled -- i really want the feedback and I do want others to find my stories through the links in the Recent Comments area.
Randalynn
Peer Review?
I should know better than to leave town. Erin dredges up ancient efforts (Erin has my permission to dredge as she sees fit) and now I feel so guilty for not writing lately...an example of manipulative self serving commenting? Yes.
First, I have the upmost regard for everyone who has commented on this theme as a "writer" and as a "commentor". Ok, Angel pisses me off from time to time, but...she is Angel and totally lovable. What are we going to do with that generation. Oh, not to mention Angela (is a vowel the source of all this infighting, LOL!), Randalynn, Karen J, Jan s, Kristina LS, Jennifer Brock...phew! We do wear our hearts upon our sleeves. (No, I didn't come up with that one.)
My point here...I do publish. Not fictional pieces as one finds here but a description of work for which the guidlines are clear and intractable. You must also be approved by your "peers" before the editor will "admit" your paper to press. My livelyhood depended upon that "admission" for 15 long years, so the freedom of exchange here I take with a light heart and a lot of "perspective".
Girls..speak your hearts take your lumps and try to expand what you write beyond "TG" angst if you have those aspirations. The way to move forward in my opinion is to take any pain and like sugar weave it into cotton candy with the heat of your own emotions and a blast of air from BC. I believe that Harry Truman said,"if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen" naturally Jezzie will correct me on that should I be misstaken or anyone else old enough to admit? :)
Girl's be brave..you are all big girls now..write and share. Feed the community and if nothing else think of it as nondeductible taxes?
My best wishes,
Gwen
Gwen Lavyril
Gwen Lavyril