@CaitlinTureaud
I went to a Bob Dylan Concert last night. Awesome. Natty would have loved it :D Anyway, I will take this experience as a kick in the butt to make finally sit down and start working seriously on Book Six of the Temporal Exploring 101 saga.
@designsforthetimes Dylan performed some of his old songs but also new ones. Plenty of inspiration!
Hi, I had not noticed the upset happening here, but today I found that you are gone from the platform where I first found Temporal Exploring. You probably won't want to discuss this here, but let me tell you that I will miss you there.
Ah, that is very sad. I am mostly lurking there, so I had not noticed that multiple users were affected.
Unfortunately today most places on the Internet depend on companies that must make money from it and with all of the legal liabilities that come with running a site it is hard to imagine an alternative. Back in the Usenet days...
@anon3761 Thank you! The operators of the platform you refer to terminated my account and my blog yesterday. Apparently that was a small part of 'purge' that involved accounts of a few of my friends as well. Currently there is a tendency for social networks to act overly cautious and restrictively. This is regrettable but apparently it can't be helped. I do not know if I want to create a new blog on that particular platform, I fear it would be pointless.
I am waiting to see what if anything will happen after April 15, 2024. After all, in my stories scenes that involve two girls making out are non-explicit to the point where it is left to the reader's imagination if or what actually happens.
@bellucci73 I am glad that you like my approach. Since I am writing YA stories here on Wattpad, it is the appropriate one I think.
@CaitlinTureaud The gossamer quality of your intimate scenes is one of the things I like about your work. Many writers, myself included, will opt for the more graphic approach. Really, how many adjectives does one need to describe a butthole? Even a cute one?
Wattpad changes the age of consent from 16+ to 18 years and announced that stories in violation of the new rule will be removed (!) after April 15, 2024. That's game over for my TE 101 saga and me.
https://www.wattpad.com/1436342697-news-updates-upgrading-our-moderation-capabilities
I enjoyed a lot being on this platform, interacting with and becoming friends with readers and other writers. It has been suggested that I move my stories to Inkitt or other platforms, perhaps I will do that.
@CaitlinTureaud oh gosh, I had missed this announcement. This is such a shame and suppression of stories that should, in my opinion, never be impacted by these sorts of restrictions. I hope there is a solution and that this kind of change on Wattpad is targeted at the extremes, not the writing you produce. I don’t know what else to say right now.
@CaitlinTureaud A few things I've been sketching will not work with the new guidelines. If you find a platform that works for you, let me know.
@WillFlyForFood That is another possibility. I was planning to finish the series and go over all the books to take care of a couple of minor inconsistencies and adjustments before I publish, though. But I am now considering to publish the first five books of the saga and then write the rest of it, as you suggest.
Join us for 2024! Submissions are now open!
Logging in and finding that the number of reads on my stories stays exactly the same over months is a frustrating and depressing experience. I submitted Branch Cut for the Wattys, hoping that it might get on the shortlist and perhaps gain more reads that way. Today the shortlist was published and once again, no dice. It is true that I am writing stories mainly for myself, and Wattpad is a great place where to keep them. Still it makes me sad to watch my stories not being read, to the point where it takes away my motivation to continue to write. Idk, perhaps I will go offline for some time and come back if/when I have written a new book.
@WillFlyForFood I kind of get how they may be afraid of people starting to fight the freaking Culture Wars in the Wattpad forum which would be a disaster indeed. In my experience people who engage in the Culture War (on either side of it) tend to get extremely rude and to adopt a my-side-right-or-wrong attitude that is exactly not conductive to logical thinking ;) But then, I have not noticed people starting to act like that in the forum before it was terminated. As to the paid stories, I am not a fan of that feature. It used to be a big part of the charm of Wattpad that you could read all the stories for free here. Anyhow, I need to try and figure out how I can get readers for TE 101. Also, I hope you will continue to post your stories here so I can read them. There are few really good hard science fiction stories to be found here other than yours.
@CaitlinTureaud There are still lots of stories getting lots of reads...but most are watty-porn
@CaitlinTureaud On top of that, the Ranking Algorithm was changed such that any new story by a new or established author is now almost "invisible" and not "presented" by the site to readers. It used to be that stories were slotted into the genre hotlist. There were spots for mega-hits, new stories, stories with lots of comments and most of all, stories with CURRENT interest. The Science Fiction Hotlist was essentially static from 2019-just a few months ago. One of mine was ranked about #84-#104 for that whole time event though it got barely any reads! The VAST majority of "presented" stories are Paid, Creator or Webtoon based. That is why readers are constantly spammed by adverts for things like that "Korean Boy-Band by day, Vampire by Night" series. a few seconds ago • Reply
Hey guys, I have just submitted Temporal Exploring 101 - Branch Cut to the Wattys 2023! Wish me luck! :-)
@designsforthetimes Thank you! Mostly, I am hoping that submitting Branch Cut to the Wattys may draw some additional attention of potential readers to the TE 101 series.
Hooray! I posted Chapter V.34, New Year's Eve, which completes Book Five of the Temporal Exploring 101 saga. Which means I have to start working on Book Six of the series now. Wish me luck!
Cathy and her friends are celebrating "Christmas at Kerrington Manor", in Chapter V.33 of Temporal Exploring 101 - Branch Cut.
'Into the holidays' is the title of Chapter V.32 of Temporal Exploring 101 - Branch Cut, and it is also where Cathy and her friends are headed. Enjoy!