Pending Stories

[MillieDynamite]

Phraseolgy is the culpret here. Just saying!

 

[MillieDynamite]

Hopefully not.

I resubmitted last night in a new submission and the pending time just got rest. 14th rejection here I come

 

[MillieDynamite]

I don't know what a pending time reset is.

Well, I'm not going to hold my breath. Usually a pending time reset means a rejection is incoming, at least by my experience.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Wow, I never even looked at that. I find a watched pot never boils, so for peace of mind, I check on time a day on a pending story, usually late in the day. All I'm checking for is NEW and a date.

Twenty minutes ago, my pending time for this story was listed as 21 hours ago. Now it says 15 minutes ago. I haven't touched it since I submitted it 21 hours ago.

That's a pending time rest.

 

[STrent]

Still sitting in pending ... Wish they'd just reject me and get it over and done with

How long is it now?

One of the ones I am waiting on is now coming up for a week, but others have been submitted and approved in that time.

 

[STrent]

I submitted on the fourth, but the pending time got reset to the fifth. So it's been 3 days since I submitted, but 2 according to the system

Just a waiting game at this point but so frustrating. Sorry Penguin.

 

[KeithD]

Mine has been pending now since the 24th. Should I reach out to someone and if so…who?

Directly to the submissions editor, Laurel, using the "coversation" system--the envelope logo at the top right of this screen.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Mine has been pending now since the 24th. Should I reach out to someone and if so…who?

A polite PM to Laurel should break it loose.

 

[CindyTV]

At least a week wait for all my stories, very frustrating. I have one now that 's been there over a week with no communication.

I can post immediately on Medium, and I have the capability of editing the stories without delays. @CindyTV on Medium

Why does each story have to be 'approved?'

 

[TheLobster]

I just had my story published after it being stuck as pending since 3/23, so there is hope that the post-holiday backlog might be clearing up.

 

[ElectricBlue]

At least a week wait for all my stories, very frustrating. I have one now that 's been there over a week with no communication.

I can post immediately on Medium, and I have the capability of editing the stories without delays. @CindyTV on Medium

Why does each story have to be 'approved?'

Because writers persist in breaching the site's content and service policies.

As you have just done, promoting yourself on another site.

So what if you can post immediately elsewhere? This is Lit, not a competitor site.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just Laurel or is there more to her username?

Just Laurel

 

[Mx_MxM]

Is the wait time still running more than a week for people?

 

[AnnaV]

Yet another rejection, this time for the below:



Here’s the guidelines:



Here’s a sample from said guidelines:



Here’s a sample of my work:



I literally conform exactly to the standard being quoted.

I’ve sent it back with a note quoting the standard.

I’ve now messaged @Laurel for the 7th time in six weeks (with no reply) with the below:



I have seen far worse examples of stories with dialogue issues get published, daily. This is getting to feel like I am simply being blocked from publishing.

I've had exactly the same problem, ie a story repeatedly rejected due to using the comma after the inverted commas. This is how I was taught to write. I've checked with a family member with an English degree from Cambridge who confirmed it is correct grammar.

I could make the simple changes to conform to fit in to the proposed approach, but it does annoy me that I'm being instructed to modify perfectly good English grammar when, as others have pointed out, there are recents posts with significantly worse grammar, spelling, narratives, etc

 

[STrent]

I've had exactly the same problem, ie a story repeatedly rejected due to using the comma after the inverted commas. This is how I was taught to write. I've checked with a family member with an English degree from Cambridge who confirmed it is correct grammar.

I could make the simple changes to conform to fit in to the proposed approach, but it does annoy me that I'm being instructed to modify perfectly good English grammar when, as others have pointed out, there are recents posts with significantly worse grammar, spelling, narratives, etc

So I ended up making the changes to conform explicitly with the guidelines, and changed to what I perceive to be the “wrong” way of doing it, but after publishing 19 stories so far, I am happy that I have been able to publish.

So my advice would be to try and be flexible on this, even if it means basically reprogramming your brain a bit, as I have had to do!

 

[STrent]

On a related note. I now have a story which is simply “pending” - no date on the work.

Am I on a dreaded path to a story rejection again, after 19 straight publications in a row since the whole AI issue?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've had exactly the same problem, ie a story repeatedly rejected due to using the comma after the inverted commas. This is how I was taught to write. I've checked with a family member with an English degree from Cambridge who confirmed it is correct grammar.

I could make the simple changes to conform to fit in to the proposed approach, but it does annoy me that I'm being instructed to modify perfectly good English grammar when, as others have pointed out, there are recents posts with significantly worse grammar, spelling, narratives, etc

You're confusing inverted commas surrounding a quotation versus inverted commas surrounding dialogue, and the placement of the related punctuation. They're not handled the same.

Go check your grammar guides, and study dialogue in fiction published in England. You'll find the dialogue punctuation is always inside the quotation marks. A quotation, regardless whether it's in fiction or non-fiction, is not dialogue.

 

[ElectricBlue]

On a related note. I now have a story which is simply “pending” - no date on the work.

Am I on a dreaded path to a story rejection again, after 19 straight publications in a row since the whole AI issue?

You're on the path of impatience and paranoia, and not remembering that this site has multiple server cycles, which are never in synch. If in doubt, wait 24 hours.

 

[STrent]

You're on the path of impatience and paranoia, and not remembering that this site has multiple server cycles, which are never in synch. If in doubt, wait 24 hours.

I had completely forgot about that. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[STrent]

You're confusing inverted commas surrounding a quotation versus inverted commas surrounding dialogue, and the placement of the related punctuation. They're not handled the same.

Go check your grammar guides, and study dialogue in fiction published in England. You'll find the dialogue punctuation is always inside the quotation marks. A quotation, regardless whether it's in fiction or non-fiction, is not dialogue.

We’ve done this dance before. Whilst it is now likely the one accepted standard, a large number of us in the UK grew up with the alternate version, where the quotation marks for dialogue are on the inside of the punctuation.

It’s a real culture change for those who grew up with this standard.

 

[AnnaV]

You're confusing inverted commas surrounding a quotation versus inverted commas surrounding dialogue, and the placement of the related punctuation. They're not handled the same.

Go check your grammar guides, and study dialogue in fiction published in England. You'll find the dialogue punctuation is always inside the quotation marks. A quotation, regardless whether it's in fiction or non-fiction, is not dialogue.

Thanks for your thoughts. Just to clarify, I was using the vernacular being used in the thread. The terms quotation marks and inverted commas is interchangeable in English as taught in England and the same rules are applied around quotes and dialogue. It may be different where you were taught English and I wouldn't make a comment on that.

As I mentioned in my original post, my use is how we were taught in England and has been confirmed by a family member who is a Cambridge graduate in English literature as correct usage.

It seems to be an interesting topic and something that the AI on this site has recently got a bee in it's bonnet about which is annoying.

But I genuinely appreciate your thoughts on this topic - English langauge can be quite annoying even for us native speakers can't it?

 

[AnnaV]

We’ve done this dance before. Whilst it is now likely the one accepted standard, a large number of us in the UK grew up with the alternate version, where the quotation marks for dialogue are on the inside of the punctuation.

It’s a real culture change for those who grew up with this standard.

It's like the international change to some spelling. Apparently we should now spell sulphur sulfur! That's going to take a lot of getting used to . . .

 

[STrent]

It's like the international change to some spelling. Apparently we should now spell sulphur sulfur! That's going to take a lot of getting used to . . .

I am definitely not going to be doing that. Sulfur? Ridiculous.

 

[ElectricBlue]

We’ve done this dance before. Whilst it is now likely the one accepted standard, a large number of us in the UK grew up with the alternate version, where the quotation marks for dialogue are on the inside of the punctuation.

It’s a real culture change for those who grew up with this standard.

I've been reading fiction released by English publishers for five decades, and I cannot recall ever seeing dialogue punctuated with quotation marks inside the punctuation. Quotes, certainly, but quotes are not dialogue.

I think you cited something from the nineteenth century when I asked for an example of your case, but that ignores the entire twentieth century. It's a shake my head, frankly, or people not knowing the difference between quotes and dialogue.

 

[STrent]

I've been reading fiction released by English publishers for five decades, and I cannot recall ever seeing dialogue punctuated with quotation marks inside the punctuation. Quotes, certainly, but quotes are not dialogue.

That’s your lived experience, not mine.

I think you cited something from the nineteenth century when I asked for an example of your case, but that ignores the entire twentieth century.

That never happened. I believe you have misremembered.

It's a shake my head, frankly, or people not knowing the difference between quotes and dialogue.

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.