Is there away to filter out which stories are complete? Anyway to exclude certain types of stories? Also, why dont the authors here post some kinda description rather than a picture? There are alot of good authors here however I have a hard time on this site sorting through stories without a decent way to search and read discriptions. Am I missing something here?
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Category Browser
You can do all that and more from the Category Browser which can be found from the list of links in the right column under your name. (See picture below.)
The site used to have the ability to refine search results, but one of the servers running bigcloset was acting up and the built in search was too big of a strain on the system. For the time being we have a generic google search, but at least you can use the category browser to find almost anything you need.
I can't comment on why some authors don't include descriptions with their main page entries, but I do know at least some of them (including me) do leave a synopisis with a story posting.
Have a delightfully devious day,
Stories
One way you might do it as a 'social' thing is to tell us what sort of tale you like, as well as what sort you don't go for. People are more than happy to pass on suggestions.
Thx for the quick info
Thx for the quick info definitely a big help. Im able to find some now.
Basically I like stories that usually include a slow transformation of either a magical or chemical induced change. A good example is something like The Sidereus Prophecy. Really enjoy it to if the main character has to deal with the angst of losing his wife in the process. Also cant stand short stories I read ridiculously fast so generally require stories to be at least 300 pages plus. Because of this I tend to avoid incomplete stories as I get pissed if I don't have an ending.
Two observations
One is that it can be extremely difficult for an author to add a description to a story. After all, if you can read the description, why do you then need to read the story? The point is, of course, is that any meaningful description gives away either the plot or one or more plot twists or surprises.
The keywords can give some idea of what kind of story it is but this can still cause plot spoilers. We do our best but it can be very difficult encouraging readers to try our wares without spoiling the fun. The 'teaser' which you see on the Home Page can help but some authors don't seem to understand what it is for, which is a pity.
The other problem you'll face is that a significant proportion of stories here are classified as unfinished. There are many reasons for this. First, maybe the author plain forgot to tick the box, or the story was written before that box existed.
Second, we have had a number of authors die during writing for various reasons. Who is going to tick those boxes for them? I know of only one uncompleted tale which another author is continuing (Duty Calls), and that is because she has the permission of the estate of the author (T.D. Aldonetti).
Third, there are those for whom Real Life gets in the way. Medical matters, a marriage or a divorce or a new job somewhere else in the country (or in another country) can casue the continuation of a story to become difficult in the short term. The authors may resume these eventually.
Fourth, some stories are abandoned by their authors because the original idea ran out of steam. If what was published was only a few chapters, perhaps it had been better not published until an end had been reached. On the other hand, if the author ran out after maybe 30 or 40 chapters, what has been published may still be a good story.
Lastly, there are a few stories which are marked as unfinished because... we haven't yet finished writing them. If you choose not to read such submissions I can guarantee you'll never read Bike, which currently stands at 2407 chapters (at around one per day). My own major tome is currently at chapter 109 and it will be completed, but if you wait until then you'll have a heck of a job of reading in front of you.
This site is not really intended as a library. Try to see it more as a magazine you purchase once a week (or once a day! Things can move fast here) to catch up on all your latest serials. Don't worry about speed-reading, you're not the only one who can do that. I just wish I could type as fast as I read!
Penny
i love a challenge
I will probably wait tell there complete. But thats the fun in it to me.
Stories Suggestions
Here is the series I like, I not sure what style you like, but here are some series I liked:
Gaby books 1-12 by Maddy(Madeline) bell (start the series on Maddybell.com, also available on Kindle)
Nena books 1-5 by Maddy(Madeline) bell (here and Maddybell.com, also available on Kindle)
You have it all wrong books 1-4 by SaraUK (here) [If you want complete books, avoid "My Father's Secret"]
Sarah Cararra books 1-3 by Megan Campbell (here, book 1 available on Kindle)
Changes books 1,2, and assorted Christmas specials by Susan Brown (here)
All of these books are complete, though the last book may leave you with a cliff hanger. I know the Gaby, Nena, and Sarah Cararra series are not finished.
I would add a couple of suggestions...
If you don't mind. :-) I don't like stories heavy on magic or magic like chemistry. But following while not magic are a good solid read with nice storyline and quite long. (I don't like stories that finish before you started to read them :-) )
"Finding Cristina Chase" by Admiral Crunch. One of my favorites and was eventually officially finished. (But I still hope for sequel ;-) )
"No Half Measures" by Jenny Walker (finished)
"Twelve Strings" by Faeriemage
"Football Girl" by Susan Brown. Not sure if it is finished or not.
The Saga of Tuck by Ellen Hayes - very good, very long, very unfinished as well as Tuck Seasons... But worth every minute you spend reading it. Could be found at: www.barkingduck.net/ehayes (don't forget to click "break frame" button at the bottom of the page and then use Writings link.) I'm rereading it about twice per year :-) now in the middle of the second time...
Most of the books by Arecee are quite good ant quite long. Some only available on kindle.
great community
Yall are quick to it and thank yall Im gonna be tied up for a while checking out these stories.
Smile
Now you see what I meant by 'social thing'. My own stories are set as firmly as I can manage in the real world, so will probably not match your tastes.
youd be amazed
I just looked yours up and plan on buying one for my kindle. Im never good at explaining myself but I really love all stories. One reason I dont do realist ones in this genre is its not realistic for me so I choose to endulge in the make believe. But Im glad to find you on amazon and will be checking you out. So many stories on there anymore are 15 pages so am very excited to find you.
My stuff
There is a suggested and logical reading order, starting at Something to Declare and followed by Uniforms. Viewpoints is a standalone.
Suggestions
Some other stories that I like that haven't been mentioned include:
The Center by Lilith Langtree (finished)
Most other stories my Lilith (incomplete)
Maiden by Decree by Maggy Finson (I think)
Most JulieO stories espesially the protector series parts of which are both on here and on storysite and coeds is another great series from her (here and on stardust)
And Zapped by Bob Arnold (incomplete but fairly long) that is here and on stardust
Those are some suggestions off the top of my head
Another suggestion or two!
You can also peek at other users account pages and see what they put in favorites. Look at the "View" tab, and since only the first few are displayed there click the "Fiction" & "Book page" subheadings to see more.
I don't know about anyone else but I tend to only mark as "Favorite" finished stories. I do however bookmark both finished and unfinished stuff(just to try to keep track of things). I would consider my favorites list as also "a good suggested reading list", what I put in there is stories I would recommend to others.¹
Also, try browsing some of the past contests. Contest entries tend to be complete works, at least mostly.
*spreading the pixie dust*
~Hypatia >i< ..:::
.
¹PS. I have not bothered putting stories in my favorites that are only posted temporarily.
Recently: "Phenom" , "Kelly Girl" & "Assassin". Catch those while they are still up.
Almost by definition...
...most stories published on BC (other than usually short ‘one-offs’) are serials, since there’s a limit to how much one author can juggle in the text entry box.
Serial publication has a very long history in English. That’s the way almost all of Dickens' "novels" were first published, for example, and it was a very good deal for the magazine publishers, because one had to subscribe, or wind up missing crucial chapters. It also saved on the weekly or monthly outlay for relatively impoverished readers, since magazines are unbound, usually printed on newsprint or foolscap rather than fine linen paper, and could easily be passed around amongst a group of avid readers.
It also has advantages for authors, since the individual chapters (or parts) attract comments (hint, hint!) which the authors may use as a positive feedback loop to continuously revise the story as it’s being worked out in the author's mind. They can also be paid (if only in kudos) for works in progress. This was the case in the heyday of serial publication, but it’s still being done today.
Marcel Proust, for example published his monumental work, À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier translated as Remembrance of Things Past) over the space of fourteen years, from 1913 to 1927. It’s difficult to sit an a garret (or a cellar) and write for more than a decade without at least a tiny bit of feedback, maybe even a bit of dosh.
Even Arthur Conan Doyle (who had pretensions to literary greatness) was susceptible to reader feedback, since he ‘killed’ Sherlock Holmes, but then had to resurrect him when his readers began writing outraged letters to his publisher, and even in letters to the editor in local newspapers. It's a lucky thing he didn’t wind up hung in effigy, or in actuality.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Then again...
Art is never finished.
A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations.
– Paul Valéry (30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945)
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished—a word that for them has no sense—but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.
– Paul Valéry (30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945)
Often paraphrased and misattributed to everyone from Picasso to Leonardo da Vinci to... whatever great artist one intends to flatter posthumously, often as ‘Art is never finished, only abandoned.’
I strongly suspect that the author of the quote was a writer, so lean toward Paul Valéry, and his version of the quote has the great advantage that one can actually find it in his writings, where it’s curiously absent from the verifiable work of almost every other so-called ‘source,’ except as third- or fourth-hand anecdotes that may or may not have been either jokes or simple error. The habit of attributing one’s own words to "higher powers" to lend a bit of credibility to one’s own homespun philosophy is a problem of long standing, and indeed many things are attributed to various famous, semi-famous, divine, or semi-devine figures which can’t possibly be literally true, since many of them claim to be the only truth or version of the story and are in direct contradiction to other similar claims.
In language, everyone's a critic.
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style