Rant Rant Rant!

[TxRad]

I do it that way for the precise reason you mentioned: The different font makes it easier to see my errors.

I got lazy, though. The best way to do it is to load it into Lit and then hit "Preview." That way, I can really see the errors. That works.

Problem there is every time I catch an error I then have to go back to the "Edit" program screen. Back and forth, back and forth, between "Preview" and "Edit."

Soon, I gave up on doing it that way. I just stayed in the "Edit" screen, where I could easily make the corrections.

I sure don't spot 'em as easily there, so I need to do something different. I either need to get back to using the "Preview" window to spot my corrections or maybe I'll even try C&P-ing the entire thing into one of these message board forum "submit response" windows. When I hit "Preview" here it'll still come up in a better font, but these "Preview" windows here allow you to also simply pull the page down and make your corrections right there on the same page. Sure, you still have to hit "Preview" again to lock in the corrections but at least you don't have to bounce back and forth between two different windows.

You can do the same thing in windows by changing the font to something more blocky like courier. Also try changing the page to print layout in "View'. Also try changing the margins as that changes the way things look. Lit uses 1.25" margins all the way around the page, if that helps you.

You might also try reading the story out loud. that seems to help on finding the errors and also the rough spots.

 

[michchick98]

I do it that way for the precise reason you mentioned: The different font makes it easier to see my errors.

I got lazy, though. The best way to do it is to load it into Lit and then hit "Preview." That way, I can really see the errors. That works.

Problem there is every time I catch an error I then have to go back to the "Edit" program screen. Back and forth, back and forth, between "Preview" and "Edit."

Soon, I gave up on doing it that way. I just stayed in the "Edit" screen, where I could easily make the corrections.

I sure don't spot 'em as easily there, so I need to do something different. I either need to get back to using the "Preview" window to spot my corrections or maybe I'll even try C&P-ing the entire thing into one of these message board forum "submit response" windows. When I hit "Preview" here it'll still come up in a better font, but these "Preview" windows here allow you to also simply pull the page down and make your corrections right there on the same page. Sure, you still have to hit "Preview" again to lock in the corrections but at least you don't have to bounce back and forth between two different windows.

TxRad's advice is good, too. But I still feel the best way to catch your errors is to find yourself an editor. Post on the Editor's Forum that you're looking for an editor with quick turnaround times. I'm sure there's someone out there who can work with you.

A fresh set of eyes is always a good thing. Like I said before, I have an editor and someone who just gives me a "cold" read, and I still miss mistakes.

 

[stevieraygovan]

michchick, I know you're right. A fresh set of eyes would be better.

My impatience outweighs my need to see zero errors.

Besides, now it's almost becoming a bit of a personal challenge. I'm at the point now where I want to see if I can completely nail one, just one time. I came very close, but it was a short story. One time, just once, I want to nail a four or five pager.

Stupid? Yes. Counter productive? Most certainly.

I just wanna.

 

[michchick98]

michchick, I know you're right. A fresh set of eyes would be better.

My impatience outweighs my need to see zero errors.

Besides, now it's almost becoming a bit of a personal challenge. I'm at the point now where I want to see if I can completely nail one, just one time. I came very close, but it was a short story. One time, just once, I want to nail a four or five pager.

Stupid? Yes. Counter productive? Most certainly.

I just wanna.

Hats off to you. I get so crossed eyed reading and re-reading my stories that I insist on at least a second reader with light editing, if not a full-court edit from my editor.

And this is no way directed at you, but I wish every writer on this site was so concerned with errors in their work. Sometimes it makes my head hurt reading people's sloppy work.

 

[sr71plt]

For another set of eyes, you don't really need to go to an editor--not to mention that nearly all of the "editors" here aren't really editors. I have a writing partner, and we check each other's work. You might be able to find another writer here writing the same sort of stories you are who could give you a quick turnaround.

Bottom line, though, is that the suggestions you are getting here are because you indicated what you were doing wasn't working too well.

Must work pretty well, though. I see you got a category award for the most-recent recorded month. Congrats on that.

 

[stevieraygovan]

Must work pretty well, though. I see you got a category award for the most-recent recorded month.

Excuse my ignorance (again) but what does this mean? What's a category award?

Overall, I'm doing alright withy my editing. I'm my own worst critic, when it comes to my occasional missed screw ups. I won't try to say that they in any way make my stories un-readeable. It's nothing like that.

I'm just a perfectionist, and my errors really jump out at me and bug me. Unfortunately, though, I'm more impatient and obsessive than anything else, so I just don't have the stomach to send my stories off and wait around. I get obsessed with what I write. Once I begin writing I don't stop until that bitch is posted. If that means two days of writing and another half day of editing, covering all my waking hours, then that's what I do.

It's all very self destructive, I know.

Anyway, if I ever did win any awards here I'd say those days are long gone. I'm pretty sure I'll never see another story of mine maintain really high scores over any period of time, not unless I switch over to "safer" topics and "safer" categories.

Otherwise, I have no chance. My stories are now getting automatically blasted with 1 scores, left and right. I'll get seven or eight straight 5 votes and then the next thing I know my score will go from a perfect 5 to a 3.2.

Also, every time one of my stories rises back up to the top of a Top Lists category it's only allowed to stay there for a couple days. As soon as the wrong people see it they hit with a few 1 votes, just to knock it down.

I've pretty much resigned myself to it now. I won't be allowed to maintain any high scores, so I'm just writing now for myself.

 

[driphoney]

Otherwise, I have no chance. My stories are now getting automatically blasted with 1 scores, left and right. I'll get seven or eight straight 5 votes and then the next thing I know my score will go from a perfect 5 to a 3.2.

I'm not laughing at your pain and frustration, but I do have to chuckle. By the time my story got to the third chapter only those who were interested (not many) were reading it, so for 9 votes I had a Woohoo! 5.0! Then the 10th 5 hit. Well, that just can't be; it ain't frickin' Shakespeare and I don't have a fan base. The harsher, non-fans had to see what that was all about.

But it was fun for a day.

I'm impressed with all you great self-editors. I can't even post a short reply here without needing an editor!

 

[sr71plt]

Excuse my ignorance (again) but what does this mean? What's a category award?

Overall, I'm doing alright withy my editing. I'm my own worst critic, when it comes to my occasional missed screw ups. I won't try to say that they in any way make my stories un-readeable. It's nothing like that.

I'm just a perfectionist, and my errors really jump out at me and bug me. Unfortunately, though, I'm more impatient and obsessive than anything else, so I just don't have the stomach to send my stories off and wait around. I get obsessed with what I write. Once I begin writing I don't stop until that bitch is posted. If that means two days of writing and another half day of editing, covering all my waking hours, then that's what I do.

It's all very self destructive, I know.

Anyway, if I ever did win any awards here I'd say those days are long gone. I'm pretty sure I'll never see another story of mine maintain really high scores over any period of time, not unless I switch over to "safer" topics and "safer" categories.

Otherwise, I have no chance. My stories are now getting automatically blasted with 1 scores, left and right. I'll get seven or eight straight 5 votes and then the next thing I know my score will go from a perfect 5 to a 3.2.

Also, every time one of my stories rises back up to the top of a Top Lists category it's only allowed to stay there for a couple days. As soon as the wrong people see it they hit with a few 1 votes, just to knock it down.

I've pretty much resigned myself to it now. I won't be allowed to maintain any high scores, so I'm just writing now for myself.

You are a September 2008 category nominee (there will be a winner from the 12 months) (Check out the Awards and Contests forum):

Loving Wives - Sisters Ch. 02 / stevieraygovan


If you manage to keep a story at the top of a top list "for a couple of days," you are doing better than most anyone else who doesn't work in IBM headquarters at night with all the building's computers at his/her disposal.

(Since you're a perfectionist, I won't mention that "alright" hasn't been received well in the world of publishing since the 19th century. )

 

[_Lynn_]

You are a September 2008 category nominee (there will be a winner from the 12 months) (Check out the Awards and Contests forum):

Loving Wives - Sisters Ch. 02 / stevieraygovan


If you manage to keep a story at the top of a top list "for a couple of days," you are doing better than most anyone else who doesn't work in IBM headquarters at night with all the building's computers at his/her disposal.

(Since you're a perfectionist, I won't mention that "alright" hasn't been received well in the world of publishing since the 19th century. )

Want me to mention it instead?

 

[driphoney]

Want me to mention it instead?

I love 'alright'. Bring it back!

[shuffles off to fix all the alrights still living active lives in a certain laptop...]

 

[_Lynn_]

I love 'alright'. Bring it back!

[shuffles off to fix all the alrights still living active lives in a certain laptop...]

*chuckle*

 

[sr71plt]

I love 'alright'. Bring it back!

[shuffles off to fix all the alrights still living active lives in a certain laptop...]

That would be OK with me. I rank it with "hopefully" and "most importantly," which all made the professor in my editing classes go ballistic. I just wanted to say "Hookay, I'll try not to use them too often, but stop spitting all over me."

 

[stevieraygovan]

'Aight.

 

[Darkniciad]

My editor finally beat "alright" out of me, and got me out of my habit of everyone starting/beginning everything. As soon as he pointed that one out, I could hear Dark Helmet in the back of my head.

"Why are you preparing? You're always preparing! Just go!"

Now I can't type either of those words, or any variant thereof, without hearing a giant helmet visor snapping into place.

He has a major hate-on for "in fact," though. Every once in a while, I overrule him and put one in the story anyway

I differ on "alright" where it comes to dialogue, along with "dammit". They may not be real words, but they're certainly spoken that way. That's another place where I hit the override button on occasion. I rarely question my character's dialogue.

 

[sr71plt]

I differ on "alright" where it comes to dialogue, along with "dammit". They may not be real words, but they're certainly spoken that way. That's another place where I hit the override button on occasion. I rarely question my character's dialogue.

Oh, everything is open for dialogue, as far as I'm concerned, as long as it is consistent with the character.

I'm still reeling from a "discussion" on this forum some months ago with a couple of folks who insisted that dialogue has to be as proper as the narrative. "Bullshit," I say--even the narrative can/should follow the character of the narrator--who could be a backwoods yokel or a ditsy bimbo.

 

[stevieraygovan]

Absolutely, regarding dialogue. I write it as it's spoken, even if it means butchering the language.

Far too often I find myself doing this whenever I read stories of some hotted up eighteen year surfer kid speaking to his mom like he's William F. Buckley, Jr, even while he's staring at her asshole.

Far too many stories also involve each and every character speaking exactly the same. Fathers, daughters, plumbers, judges and little stoner nieces, and they all use the same vocabulary. They share the same rhythms of speech.

Brutal.

 

[michchick98]

I differ on "alright" where it comes to dialogue, along with "dammit". They may not be real words, but they're certainly spoken that way. That's another place where I hit the override button on occasion. I rarely question my character's dialogue.

I don't think I've ever had a problem with "alright" vs. "all right". I do, however, butt heads with my editor on "dammit" because she insists it's "damnit" and I insist it's "dammit." Oddly, I have spell check activated in my browser (Firefox) and it picks up damnit as misspelled. MS Word also picks it up as a misspelled word. When I point that out to her she usually lets it go.

One word I do see on occasion (<=== I never spell that one right the first time) is irregardless. It doesn't come up as a misspelled word, but it is not, in fact, a word. (Threw that phrase in there for you, Dark. )

I use this page a lot (<== another that gets abused and misused) when writing AND editing:

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html (irregardless is there, too.)

 

[sr71plt]

Absolutely, regarding dialogue. I write it as it's spoken, even if it means butchering the language.

I think there's a hedge to this. We don't really write dialogue the way it's spoken. Record some conversation someday and you'll find there are more Ummms in there than any other words and that everything's a sentence fragment and repeated twice. Written dialogue needs to be cleaned up a bit, or the reader will go screaming into the night on the second page--especially because they will be missing all of the body language that helps two speakers physically present engage in an understood conversation.

Also, dialect needs to be watered down--just representative--or the reader won't wait for the second page to dash out into the night.

 

[michchick98]

Absolutely, regarding dialogue. I write it as it's spoken, even if it means butchering the language.

Far too often I find myself doing this whenever I read stories of some hotted up eighteen year surfer kid speaking to his mom like he's William F. Buckley, Jr, even while he's staring at her asshole.

Far too many stories also involve each and every character speaking exactly the same. Fathers, daughters, plumbers, judges and little stoner nieces, and they all use the same vocabulary. They share the same rhythms of speech.

Brutal.

I think I read an article on this site (in the Writers' Resources pages) about dialogue. I actually emailed the person who wrote it, although I don't remember the specific article now. He said what he used to do was take a tape recorder to work with him and record conversations, then he'd "translate" the way they spoke.

Most people will say:

"I'm gonna go get some dinner."

and not:

"I am going to go get some dinner."

It's all in how you'd hear it.

The way I write dialogue is I listen to the characters speaking in my head. If it doesn't sound right in my head, it's not gonna read right once it's "on paper."

 

[sr71plt]

I do, however, butt heads with my editor on "dammit" because she insists it's "damnit" and I insist it's "dammit." Oddly, I have spell check activated in my browser (Firefox) and it picks up damnit as misspelled.

I'm with you on this. "dammit" is recognized as colloquial. I haven't seen "damnit" recognized as anything but having a missing character space between the words.

 

[stevieraygovan]

To a degree, yes, but even there I will sometimes make the effort to include the "uhhhs" and sentence fragments when I'm writing certain conversations.

As for some editor telling me how to spell "dammit," fuck 'im. It's a made up word. I'll spell some things however I wish. It's my story. If I wanna <----- write phrases like "havta" and "gonna" then dammit, that's what I'm gonna do. Sometimes these things are said that way, so that's how they need to be written.

 

[sr71plt]

To a degree, yes,

That's what I meant by "hedge."

 

[driphoney]

I think there's a hedge to this. We don't really write dialogue the way it's spoken. Record some conversation someday and you'll find there are more Ummms in there than any other words and that everything's a sentence fragment and repeated twice. Written dialogue needs to be cleaned up a bit, or the reader will go screaming into the night on the second page--especially because they will be missing all of the body language that helps two speakers physically present engage in an understood conversation.

Also, dialect needs to be watered down--just representative--or the reader won't wait for the second page to dash out into the night.

There is a very nicely done How To hanging out here (I need to start saving them so I can dig them up for referals!) on just this concept. We can't constantly directly write as people speak, it's just representative.

Also, I'm all for alot. Alot, alot, alot. Oh, alright, a lot. Irregardless of what anyone says. So there!

And stevieray mentioned everyone talking the same, and mentioned fathers and daughter in his nice list. Trying to give charactes a unique voice is fun isn't it? But as for families, they do have surprisingly similar characterists in speech patterns. My aunt is a ferriner (joking! she's my favorite person in the world!) and my cousins picked up certain unique speeking, um, oddities. Now they live in different regions and I was surprised to hear them recently still using some of the same patterns and word choices, which I'm sure their spouses and co-workers hammer them on! "Jellybread." Would anyone like a jellybread? I don't think that subtle sibling syntax (say that fast five times!) would be easy or even necessary to write, but I loved thinking about it!

I had a main character dropping the 'f' bomb every five seconds in relaxed company. He is young military. He just fuckin' would, ya know? It's the word du jour. I wondered if anyone would pick on me over it, but they didn't. They found everthing else wrong!

Alright, I got alot to do today, so I gotta fuckin' get off this thing and fix me a fuckin' jellybread!

What? Don't nobody know no English around here? Orthography-schmorthography!

 

[stevieraygovan]

A question about my latest "Summer" chapter...

(Edit: wrong thread.)

 

[KillerMuffin]

THINK before you title your series of stories, you moron! Have you looked through the archive? Did you notice that everything is in alphabetical order? Period? That's it? No deviations? NO ONE will know what the first story in your stupid series is unless the all have the same title and they're numbered! Or if the series in the only stories you have in your submission list. In which case, nothing will be in order, but people can look through the mess and pick out which is first, and which is second. But if you've got more than that series in your list of submissions? Confusion!

So that uberlong list that you have as author's notes in the beginning of each story explaining the order in which your stories go in? Really shows your inability to plan anything. So here's a hint. Have the titles edited instead, so that way, people can figure things out without having to try to bounce back and forth through your submission list, randomly opening stories, trying to figure out which one comes next. Duh.



A little FYI: if you want your stories to show up in the little "in this series" box on the right, they all have to have the same title. Yeah, I know, it's a new-ish feature and it doesn't say that in the submission form (so I'm not thinking anyone who doesn't know that is dumb, just someone that doesn't know that). The series box is automatically generated based on the titles in the author's submission list, which means each title has to be the same as every title in the series, only with chapter/part involved.