Where do I post short stories?

Started by Captain Maltese, June 23, 2018, 03:59:34 AM

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Captain Maltese

Occasionally I write short to very short fiction stories. Elliquiy is spoiling me for choices as to where to post them, but I am not sure where is best. When I cowrite stories this is not a problem; there is a decisive key on where they can be posted. The number of stories in these posting groups are massive but that is okay because I am really only writing for my cowriter's eyes and if anyone else ever reads my stuff there it's nice but incidental.

With my short stories it is different. For one thing they are rarely if ever erotic which mean I am freer to chose where to post. More importantly, here I AM looking for readers - I might even dream of feedback.

Fictional example: a short story about Willie the ostrich. Where do I post it?
- non-adult storytelling; months can go between anything is posted there at all
- storytelling forum; seems to be used primarily for long solo stories with many posts
- the storytellers cafe; highly structured and administered, and all your stories go in the same thread. Makes it easy to follow a specific writer but hard to browse for a theme.

That's four places if I saw all the alternatives. Right now I don't know what is best for my short tales. Maybe what I am looking for would be a forum where each thread was one single post and one single story, and any replies were comments. Or maybe one single thread where every post had to be a short story; this would make the updates really easy to catch but make feedback difficult. Edit: it would also make it impossible to see how many had read the story, making the whole idea pointless.

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Sain

Perhaps here The Storyteller's Cafe?

It's not so highly structured as it seems at first. Or well, it might be. But, it's not as confusing as it seems at first. That's the place where you can get feedback for your writing and give feedback easily. Take a moment to browse through it and poke any of the board admins for tips. The way you start is just make a new thread and ask them to put the copy pasta with stats in there. Then you can get to posting stories!
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RedPhoenix

I think the Storytelling Forum would be the default place to put it. However I've also posted a few in my Finder/Seeker thread when they were inspired by artwork.
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Oniya

You can definitely post single-post stories in the Storytelling Forum.  I've done it before, and I've seen others do it as well.  Non-Adult Storytelling is slow, but that can also translate into being 'front page' material for longer. 

If you add a thing to the title saying 'Feedback welcome', people will be more likely to see it there (as opposed to putting it in the body of the post.)
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Rhedyn

#4
Quote from: Captain Maltese on June 23, 2018, 03:59:34 AM

Fictional example: a short story about Willie the ostrich. Where do I post it?
- non-adult storytelling; months can go between anything is posted there at all
- storytelling forum; seems to be used primarily for long solo stories with many posts
- the storytellers cafe; highly structured and administered, and all your stories go in the same thread. Makes it easy to follow a specific writer but hard to browse for a theme.



The Storytelling Forum is a good choice and where I would put them if I were not interested in joining the cafe. When I post in the Storytelling Forum, as Oniya suggested, I put that comments/feedback are welcome. I'm not certain how much feedback you will get from others there but it will probably be more visible.

Non-Adult Storytelling is also a good option for non-adult material and can be viewed by unapproved members as well, so that much depends on whether you want only approved members to have access to it or not.

In The Storyteller's Cafe you do post all your stories in one thread (each writer has their own) but we do have a thread for requesting reviews and a system in place for gaining awards, points and levels for content added. If you are interested or want more information on it feel free to send me a PM  :)

Captain Maltese

#5
Oh my. If I wasn't in doubt before, I am now. After everyone's generous inputs I have been checking out each of the mentioned forums carefully, and perhaps my biggest surprise was that none of the mentioned forums have much activity when it comes down to it. Not when you consider that this forum comprises more than 40.000 members, most of whom I expect are writers.

Also I evidently can't count. There's three main alternatives available, not four.

Observations:

Non-adult storytelling:
Plus: can be read by members AND guests. Hardly any rules.
Minus: there's hardly a single post per month on average. No erotic stuff mean much fewer readers, evidently.
My conclusion: I'd get more readers for a story if I wrote it on the wall of a public toilet.

Storytelling forum:
Plus: Great for a single, multipost story. Allows feedback. Allows erotic stuff.
Minus: Less than 20 posts per month, mostly in established stories, indicate relatively little traffic. Many stories 3-4 months old have less than a few dozen click, again indicating few readers. The feedback tends to be more applause than reviewing.
Conclusion: Very attractive place for post-and-forget, small stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.

Storytellers cafe:
Plus: feedback available! And an activity score system of a level I haven't encountered since my last day at school. Also you can and have all your various short stories in one single thread, which is useful as an online repository.
Minus: I only counted about 10 reviews total for the last three months. During these three months there were posts in at most a dozen threads per month, admined topics not included. And all your stories have to be in one single thread, which means that the writer can't try to draw readers to a story by its name or type, but really only by his own name. That's like going to a bookstore and not be able to see the categories or book covers, just the author names. You probably won't spend much time on the names you don't already know.
Puzzled: I could not find an immediate erotic coding system. I assume there is erotic material on the cafe but unlike the storytelling forum I can't seek out stuff like on the storytelling forum.

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Okay I get it, the non-adult storytelling forum is a dud. Clearly neither members nor guests spend time there. But after that it gets trickier to choose. The Storytelling Forum is great for posting stuff easily and fast; no muss no fuss there it's posted! But the Storytellers Cafe can offer you a better chance at evolving as a writer, with real feedback - real feedback means both positive and negative comments - and an actual push from the mentors and E to not just keep on writing regularly but to look for ways to improve. You might even be able to help other writers in a constructive way, and that is no small thing.

So I will have to decide. If I am content to measure my writing by views alone I should go with the forum. If I want to go back to school and have my essays read and graded and forgotten (or rather lost in the great heap of papers), the cafe is where I need to head. Both of these options ARE attractive.

Posting status:  25th December: Up To Date 5 of 9 : last month 2, this month 5, total 38 posts for 2023.

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