CaveCat12401
Experienced
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2014
- Posts
- 82
So I recently edited Chapter 2 of what I consider a cringe-worthy 2-3 star story from a new writer. Other than quotation marks, he did not use any punctuation in his dialogue blocks... no periods, commas, semi-colons... nuthin'! No exaggeration, I had to place close to 200 punctuation marks in this 3-4 page story. I also suggested numerous stylistic changes and some (many) dialogue improvements. No problem... I had the time and patience to hopefully help an inexperienced writer complete and post an acceptable story.
So he sends a revised Chapter 2 that addressed just a few of the changes I suggested. That's not a problem. He evidently has a style and approach that he doesn't want to change. But unfortunately, he revised the original Chapter 2 document, not the edited document that I returned to him. His revised chapter is still missing +/- 200 missing punctuation marks! I reviewed his new revised chapter, complimented the few changes he did make, but pointed out that I wasn't inclined to correct-- for a second time -- his numerous punctuation and grammatical errors.
I'm waiting for a response, but now I'm starting to feel guilty. Did I fail to go the extra mile for this guy? Should I have just gone ahead and spent the couple of hours needed to do another complete edit?
Interested to know how other editors would have handled this situation...
So he sends a revised Chapter 2 that addressed just a few of the changes I suggested. That's not a problem. He evidently has a style and approach that he doesn't want to change. But unfortunately, he revised the original Chapter 2 document, not the edited document that I returned to him. His revised chapter is still missing +/- 200 missing punctuation marks! I reviewed his new revised chapter, complimented the few changes he did make, but pointed out that I wasn't inclined to correct-- for a second time -- his numerous punctuation and grammatical errors.
I'm waiting for a response, but now I'm starting to feel guilty. Did I fail to go the extra mile for this guy? Should I have just gone ahead and spent the couple of hours needed to do another complete edit?
Interested to know how other editors would have handled this situation...