Pending Stories

[ElectricBlue]

That’s your lived experience, not mine.

That never happened. I believe you have misremembered.

You be you, but I’ve repeatedly been backed up by other writers who went through similar education in the UK.

We can’t all be having a group hallucination, completely separately.

Australia gets both American and English imprints. Other than "American dialog" and 'English dialogue' the punctuation practice in fiction is identical.

A random search of UK style guides:

How do you punctuate dialogue UK?

Commas are used when dialogue tags are employed, be they before or after dialogue. Before dialogue, they go directly after the dialogue tag. After dialogue, they go inside the closing quotation mark.

Correct Examples:
Odion said, “I never saw him coming.”

“I never saw him coming,” said Odion.

Incorrect Examples:
“I never saw him coming”, said Odion.

I scanned through two search pages worth of UK style guides for English English dialogue, and all showed the same convention. You can do that yourself.

Show me a published example of dialogue punctuated your way, and I'll pull my head in.

As an aside, both the Cambridge and Oxford Style Guides go on about punctuating quoted content, but both are silent on dialogue punctuation, so they're no use at all. I suspect that's where the confusion arises.

 

[SimonDoom]

Australia gets both American and English imprints. Other than "American dialog" and 'English dialogue' the punctuation practice in fiction is identical.

A random search of UK style guides:

How do you punctuate dialogue UK?

Commas are used when dialogue tags are employed, be they before or after dialogue. Before dialogue, they go directly after the dialogue tag. After dialogue, they go inside the closing quotation mark.

Correct Examples:
Odion said, “I never saw him coming.”

“I never saw him coming,” said Odion.

Incorrect Examples:
“I never saw him coming”, said Odion.

I scanned through two search pages worth of UK style guides for English English dialogue, and all showed the same convention. You can do that yourself.

Show me a published example of dialogue punctuated your way, and I'll pull my head in.

As an aside, both the Cambridge and Oxford Style Guides go on about punctuating quoted content, but both are silent on dialogue punctuation, so they're no use at all. I suspect that's where the confusion arises.

I've seen reference guides refer to "UK" or "British" style as placing the comma outside the quotation marks, but when I pull books by British authors off the shelf they do it the American way. Burgess does it the American way in Clockwork Orange and Tolkien does it the American way in The Hobbit. Dickens's Bleak House places commas inside the quotation marks, just as American novels do.

But there's this: https://www.thepunctuationguide.com...material, it goes outside the quotation marks.

 

[STrent]

 

[StillStunned]

View attachment 2340260

Those are both quotes, not dialogue.

 

[ElectricBlue]

View attachment 2340260

Those examples are for quotes, not dialogue. That's my point - people don't seem to know the difference.

Go look at any novel on your bookshelf and tell me what you find.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Those are both quotes, not dialogue.

Exactly. Thank you - and you're the English editor, are you not?

 

[StillStunned]

Exactly. Thank you - and you're the English editor, are you not?

I am, with an MA to wave around too.

 

[STrent]

It’s funny how people jump on others so quickly. I was only putting it up for reference for others. Chill guys. Please.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I am, with an MA to wave around too.

Thought so.

Mind you, I have a chapter here where someone said, "You must be a graduate from the University of Iowa's Writing Workshop, and you've been reading too much Frances Ponge," neither of whom I'd heard about. I do now, have read up on both, and I took it as a (very) back-handed compliment. I was writing about the love of my life, for fucks sake, so of course I waxed lyrical!

 

[ElectricBlue]

It’s funny how people jump on others so quickly. I was only putting it up for reference for others. Chill guys. Please.

I have a problem with people perpetuating misinformation, that's all. You're not the first to say, "English English has different rules for dialogue punctuation" when it doesn't, and you won't be the last.

 

[lustychimera]

View attachment 2340260

American English does the punctuation outside of quotes thing, too. Non-attributed question marks, colons, semi colons, and exclamation points go outside. Just commas and periods are different. In the US, commas and periods always go inside the quotes, which sounds like is where the confusion stems from.

 

[STrent]

I have a problem with people perpetuating misinformation, that's all. You're not the first to say, "English English has different rules for dialogue punctuation" when it doesn't, and you won't be the last.

Let’s try this again.

It’s my lived experience that I’ve been both taught, and have read, punctuation given in that format.

I’ve books on my shelf where that was clearly an in house publishing style.

I’ve not argued with you on this. I’ve simply given the benefit of my experience.

Nobody was giving misinformation.

I note that this section here gives a further explanation as to why this may be happening to some members of British Society:

https://www.unr.edu/writing-speaking-center/writing-speaking-resources/british-american-english#:~:text=Commas and Periods Within Quotation,write it "this way".



It may be that when educated some of us had less than perfect English teachers. It may be habitual. It may even be a mixing up of different rules and styles.

However, to say the style of dialogue where the punctuation goes outside of the commas/quotation marks, has never happened, is wrong.

Which is all I am saying. Our experience happened, we’ve explained it, you need to stop getting your knickers in a twist because our lived experience was different to yours.

And for the record, I mentioned upthread that I’ve changed my writing style to suit. So you’ve got what you want, my work is in line with the rules. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

[StillStunned]

However, to say the style of dialogue where the punctuation goes outside of the commas/quotation marks, has never happened, is wrong.

Again, you're confusing dialogue with quotation. With dialogue, the punctuation is part of the text that's quoted as dialogue, and so it goes inside the quotation marks, With quotation, the punctuation *is not necessarily* part of the text quoted. If it isn't, it doesn't belong inside the quotation marks.

To do it otherwise might be part of your lived experience, but that doesn't mean it's correct. I've seen plenty of people use rules that are wrong, I was taught things at school that were wrong (let's face it, sometimes teachers are mistaken too, or they simply make things up).

Even in my own line of work, I can tell whether someone has followed a particular course because they all insist on a particular rule that has no basis, except that it's become ingrained in the coursework.

 

[STrent]

Again, you're confusing dialogue with quotation. With dialogue, the punctuation is part of the text that's quoted as dialogue, and so it goes inside the quotation marks, With quotation, the punctuation *is not necessarily* part of the text quoted. If it isn't, it doesn't belong inside the quotation marks.

To do it otherwise might be part of your lived experience, but that doesn't mean it's correct. I've seen plenty of people use rules that are wrong, I was taught things at school that were wrong (let's face it, sometimes teachers are mistaken too, or they simply make things up).

Even in my own line of work, I can tell whether someone has followed a particular course because they all insist on a particular rule that has no basis, except that it's become ingrained in the coursework.

Read the goddamn post again.

It may even be a mixing up of different rules and styles.

Too quick to try and jump on the “you’re wrong, here’s why” rather than read what I actually wrote.

I’m out

 

[STrent]

So the story I thought was getting published today has now changed to pending, no new tag, with a publication date of 04/18/2024.

This is a rejection, right? Feels like a rejection being set up.

 

[lustychimera]

View attachment 2340260

I think a lot of the issue is, the examples this punctuation guide used are very confusing. Those are some very convoluted sentences, but there's not actually a word of dialogue in that first page you showed, which is why the punctuation outside of the quotes rule applies for those examples.

In this image, however, there is legit dialogue:



That first sentence does a very good job explaining it.

The UWSC says, 'this is how British people, as they say, "do it".'

"The UWSC says" part was structured as dialogue, and the "do it" part was structured as a quote attributed to whoever "they" are. And in that example, the end is punctuated as quotation period quotation.

So for dialogue, British and American punctuation is essentially the same minus the single vs double quotation marks.

For attributed quotes, the only difference is periods and commas sometimes going outside of the quote—but not for dialogue, as in the action beats.

 

[STrent]

This is rejected, I presume? Last Friday it changed to pending with no date.

Now the original date is back, and it is still pending (no new tag).

So by my reckoning I will get a rejection note on Wednesday.

This feels bizarre, 19 in a row with no issues and this story just sits there again. I have a bet with myself it will be for AI as the original story was one of those hit for AI way back when I started, and this story is based on that chapter.

 

[Vintage_DM]

My story was sent back with this generic message:

Dear Writer,
Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site . However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.​

• Are you using Grammarly, ProWritingAid, Quillbot or a similar software? Many modern writing packages incorporate AI. If you are using a grammar check program sparingly (as a spellcheck, to fix punctuation, review grammar, and/or occasionally as a thesaurus), that should be fine. If you are allowing a grammar check program to “rewrite” your words, that may cross the line into AI generated text/stories. Please see this FAQ for more information: https://literotica.com/faq/publishing/publishing-ai

Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.
Please consult our Writer's Resources section and make sure you read our submission guidelines.
If you have any questions on these, please let us know.
Thanks for your time, and look forward to reading you again!
Laurel & Manu
Literotica.Com​

So, annoying.

It says so in the book. You must love the Bot. The bot is good. Please do remember these mantras and they will help lead you along the path.

 

[alohadave]

View attachment 2341293

This is rejected, I presume? Last Friday it changed to pending with no date.

Now the original date is back, and it is still pending (no new tag).

So by my reckoning I will get a rejection note on Wednesday.

This feels bizarre, 19 in a row with no issues and this story just sits there again. I have a bet with myself it will be for AI as the original story was one of those hit for AI way back when I started, and this story is based on that chapter.

It's not rejected. If it was, it'd be in the Sent Back tab, and there'd be a reason there.

Sometimes the pending date changes. It should be the date you submitted, but sometimes changes to a newer date.

 

[TheLobster]

Since this thread is mostly about negative experiences with the submission system, let me share a positive one for a change.

My most recent story went up in less than 48h after submitting it, even though:

• it's pretty long (18k words)
• I'm still new so it's unlikely I'm being fast-tracked in any way
• the On The Job event is still going on

It was really a nice surprise to see it up this morning.

 

[lustfulcreations]

I haven't had many issues with the submission process, but my last chapter I submitted on April 9th, the date changed to April 13th as "Pending", and is just stuck there for nearly 2 weeks.

 

[STrent]

I haven't had many issues with the submission process, but my last chapter I submitted on April 9th, the date changed to April 13th as "Pending", and is just stuck there for nearly 2 weeks.

Same as me, I suspect we are stuck in the wheel of rejection once again!

 

[STrent]

So I upload the next chapter, and within one day we have “New” and a date for publication, but the previous one - nope, nothing doing, still pending.

I am pretty certain it has been rejected for something, but until it happens I can do nothing.

It’s frustrating because I would like the other one published first.

 

[lustfulcreations]

Suddenly had my latest get a status update. It'll release tomorrow. I sent a message to the "contact us" user through the site yesterday explaining the issue and how it has sat in purgatory for two weeks. Not sure if that is just a coincidence, but thankfully not rejected!

 

[STrent]

Suddenly had my latest get a status update. It'll release tomorrow. I sent a message to the "contact us" user through the site yesterday explaining the issue and how it has sat in purgatory for two weeks. Not sure if that is just a coincidence, but thankfully not rejected!

I might try that myself if it doesn’t update by the weekend.