A request for help in a strange way

First i will ask for your patiance with this post and the way my words are spelled. I decided to just type it out the way a first draft would look when I'm done writting one. that way you can get an idead whre I'm coming from.

Who am I? Well I'm a fourty one year old construction worker,who has a lot of difeerent hobbies to make the day more bearable. I'm part of a group called the SCA. We do medievil renactments. Fun way to spend a weekend.

I read a lot.

I'm also a Dyslekic,yea i know. There are days when Is not as bad as others.

I love ot wite. I have all these stories in my head that wan t out!

I have a good head for stories. i can spin a tail that will shock the hell out of you or rip your hheart out your chest with sorrow. i love to do it but I'm stguggling under a lot of problims.

I don't like to make excuses for my problims I normaly just try to muddle through and work on making them better.

My last english class was twenty four years ago. I was a C-D student. I've had to teach myself how to type, how tu use a computer, how to edit the mess that leaves my head and fingers into something that can be understood by others.

I go through my first draft with the spell checker on Word. I know it isn't a mirackle worker but it's a good start. I then read my way back through the story. Then i read it out loud to make sure the sentances make some kind of sence. i then put the story w away for a mouth or more (Sorry that word is month) then read it again.

I submit it to the sight and read back through it again using the different font taht the site has.

I come home after three days from along day at work looking forward to that first comment. Inverabliy it's the same one.

YOu need an editor.

I've had one person post taht i obviously don't proof read my work.

i truely feel like I've been slapped when I read taht.

I want to improve as a writer I can"t do that if someone else is doing my work for me. i need to be the one to get my work edit perfict. Ineed to e able to do my wo own damn editing!

I'm asking for help.

I'm not looking for someone to edit my work. I'm not wanting to send you my stories and have your polish them to perfection till they gleam inthe sun. While that would be grat and I would lone (love) to see the replies from a story like that It wouldn't help me as as a writer.

What i dde (Need) is feedback. I need coments more than "your spelling is atrotious".

I'm asking for some one or several someones who have the time to go to my list of storiess. Click on any that strike your fancy and just read it and give me a good bit of feedback on what I'm doing wrong and where I'm having problims.

If after having read your way through this your thinking taht would be a horrible thing to have to do i will point out that my top story has a score of 4.87. And thsats witht he spelling error I din't catch.

I placed ninth inthe summer loving contest recentyl.

I am a good storiuy teller with a good imagination. I work ev (Very ) hard to be better than I am.

I recently posted my first novellla length stroy. It's at a 4.67. All four of my comment have to do with spelling errors. It's 17,000 words. having read this mess I've just typed you can imagin the worl and feffort tah went into that. WHile the score is great the comments are heartbreaking to me.

I won't stop writting. No mater the comments I get no matte the feedback. No mater the almost hate mail level e-mails I've gotten telling me to give up a on writing taht I suck at it. I will not stop posting either.

But a large pasrt of me wants to turn my comments oof. (Off) I don't want to . I've gotten some taht are wonderful.

Thank you for reading what must have been one of the worst spelll messees you have ever had to struggle through. If you can help i would grat ly (greatly) appreciat it.

M.S.Tarot

P.S For any who think I wrote this with the words miss spelled badly on purpose I have only one thing to say. I wish to dear god that was true. This last sentence took me more than a minute to write and I had to check my spelling with a dictionary on five words.

I dont do story reviews so much so Ill leave that to others.

What I will suggest for you is dictation software.

It has revolutionized my writing process and I am fortunate enough to not have the challenges you do. Once you get used to how you need to speak to it, its dynamite.

If you have words trapped in your head but difficulty putting them to page I suggest you consider this a small investment in a writing tool AND your mental health.

Its a shame your message gets muddled by how you type but people are going to judge harshly as they know poor spelling is usually a lazy writer. Plus, even if they want to give you a fair shot, its so rough trying to slog through the brain gets tired and you have to move on.

Dictation software. $30. If youre the writer you say you are with the difficulties you say you have, it'll be worth ten times that.

Also, I wanted to just point out that an editor does not necessarily have to be someone that "polishes" your story to perfection. You can ask an editor to just correct your grammar or punctuation.

Even though your stories may get high ratings, this might help to cut down on the lower votes because of spelling and punctuation. An editor is someone who should be doing what you ask of them. If you look at the volunteer editor program, it specifically indicates that if you ask an editor for only punctuation help then that is what they should be giving you. Just my 2 cents...

MSTarot said:

First i will ask for your patiance with this post and the way my words are spelled. I decided to just type it out the way a first draft would look when I'm done writting one. that way you can get an idead whre I'm coming from.

Who am I? Well I'm a fourty one year old construction worker,who has a lot of difeerent hobbies to make the day more bearable. I'm part of a group called the SCA. We do medievil renactments. Fun way to spend a weekend.

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Ah, I used to do SCA, although I drifted away a long time ago. Fun times, if you can avoid the politics

MSTarot said:

I want to improve as a writer I can"t do that if someone else is doing my work for me. i need to be the one to get my work edit perfict. Ineed to e able to do my wo own damn editing!

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This is going to be a hard slog, but you sound like somebody who has the persistence for that.

Dead-tree and electronic resources will help: a spell-checker to pick up some spelling mistakes, a dictionary to check which spelling actually means what you intend, a style manual for formatting etc.

But learning solely from books is difficult. One idea that might be worth considering - find a decent editor, polish up your work as well as you can on your own, then send it to them in Word format with "track changes" enabled. When they get it back to you, look at what they've changed. Any time you can't figure out why they made a specific change, ask them. That way you can put out edited stories and improve your own skills at the same time.

(Tough part is finding a decent editor, of course...)

I have a good friend who is dyslexic she has been using Dragon speaking software the last couple of years and although it takes time to get used to speaking rather than typing it has worked well for her.

I'm a writer, not an editor, but I've picked up a few things along the way. I had a look at Gray Iron and noticed a number of recurring errors. Let's start with Words spelled correctly but used incorrectly:

It started with a plate full of food.

It was no different than the plate full I had eaten the night before, or the night before that.

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Plateful (a noun) is the word you are looking for here.

Plate and Full are both correctly spelled words, so the spellchecker won't flag them. BTW you did use mouthful correctly later on in the piece.

The gorgeous lady behind the desk smiles a practiced smile as I sign the member ship papers.

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s/b membership

Here's another slightly different example:

They're three large pieces of fried chicken hang off his plate.

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They're is a contraction of They are. There are is what you are looking for here.

hang s.b hanging


One last one:

She squats down till were eye to eye.

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s/b we're which is a contraction of we are

Bramblethorn said:

Dead-tree and electronic resources will help: a spell-checker to pick up some spelling mistakes, a dictionary to check which spelling actually means what you intend, [...]

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While you're totally correct, the problem there is realising that you are not sure about your spelling, and that there are other spellings possible. Just look at how many people mix up their/they're/there, and that's an obvious example. English has so many homophones.

Back to OP: it is really hard to pick out your own mistakes, and that accounts for all of us. You think something is right, when it isn't. You're so used to how you write your text, that it's not obvious that it's not the correct grammar/punctuation. And more of those things. Plus, two pairs of eyes see more than one pair.

Start with using a spell checker indeed. You may consider switching on spell checking in your browser too, it'll bug you every time you misspell something but will save you on flames afterwards. Spell checkers are great, though far from perfect, having someone to proofread is best.

And finally if you ask an editors to check your grammar/spelling they will probably not bother with the actual content other than marking obvious inconsistencies and ambiguities.

Sentence Fragments

I glance over at my mom with her near equal plate of food. One less piece of chicken, maybe a bit less potatoes.

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The second sentence is a sentence fragment.

What is a sentence fragment?

It's a group of words that don't form a complete sentence.

How can I tell if it's a fragment?

It doesn't make sense by itself.

One less piece of chicken, maybe a bit less potatoes.

This doesn't make sense--it's missing information. One less piece of chicken than what? Less potatoes than?

How do I fix it?

Either make it a complete sentence:

I glance over at my mom with her near equal plate of food. She has one less piece of chicken and maybe a bit less potatoes than dad.

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Or attach it to the first sentence:

I glance over at my mom with her near equal plate of food--one less piece of chicken, maybe a bit less potatoes.

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I used a dash to connect the two phrases. A dash (in this case) is used to add additional information.

Here's another example:

I watch him bite into a chicken leg with a frantic haste. Like he has to get to the next leg before it walks away.

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The second sentence is a fragment.

Comma Splices

"I'm going for a ride, I'll be back latter."

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This is what's known as a comma splice?

What's that?

It's when two independent clauses (complete sentences) are separated by a comma.

"I'm going for a ride."

and

"I'll be back latter."

are both complete sentences.

How do I fix it?

Use a period:

"I'm going for a ride. I'll be back latter."

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Use a semicolon

"I'm going for a ride; I'll be back latter."

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A semicolon is used to separate two closely related independent clauses.

Use a comma and a conjunction:

"I'm going for a ride, but I'll be back latter."

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Direct Address

"I'm fine Mom, just not hungry."

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Direct address is always preceded and followed (if needed) with a comma.

What's direct address?

It's when a character is directly speaking to someone. In this case the narrator is speaking directly to his mother, so you need to put a comma after the word "fine".

s/b

"I'm fine, Mom, just not hungry."

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"Sure Vicky."

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s/b

"Sure, Vicky."

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Welcome and welcome some more.

First of all, M.S.Tarot, let me welcome you to the EF. We are, mostly, a bunch of great people that can/will help you immensely. Some of us are a bit more caustic in their approach, some are "sugary-sweet", and some are just plain nasty. Not that many though, those ones are very quickly put in their place because we don't like bullies.

Your want to become better at writing is apparent from the first sentence you wrote and should be commended. Not many people would put themselves "out there" the way you just did.

I'm sure some of our more knowledgeable people will come around and offer you their help.

So good luck and let us know about the "great feedback" you're receiving now.

LadyC.

LadyCibelle said:

Welcome and welcome some more.

First of all, M.S.Tarot, let me welcome you to the EF. We are, mostly, a bunch of great people that can/will help you immensely. Some of us are a bit more caustic in their approach, some are "sugary-sweet", and some are just plain nasty. Not that many though, those ones are very quickly put in their place because we don't like bullies.

Your want to become better at writing is apparent from the first sentence you wrote and should be commended. Not many people would put themselves "out there" the way you just did.

I'm sure some of our more knowledgeable people will come around and offer you their help.

So good luck and let us know about the "great feedback" you're receiving now.

LadyC.

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I can help. Let's leave it at that.

ttrfanatic said:

Also, I wanted to just point out that an editor does not necessarily have to be someone that "polishes" your story to perfection. You can ask an editor to just correct your grammar or punctuation.

Even though your stories may get high ratings, this might help to cut down on the lower votes because of spelling and punctuation. An editor is someone who should be doing what you ask of them. If you look at the volunteer editor program, it specifically indicates that if you ask an editor for only punctuation help then that is what they should be giving you. Just my 2 cents...

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Count me out as an editor as you define one.

In my arena an editor is a mentor. You know, spellling, and puncuation, word usage are just the beginning. This is why I occasionally get on here and attack SR71. Becaue he's a giant in the publishing world and he tells us that we are not worthy.

Dream_Operator said:

Sentence Fragments



The second sentence is a sentence fragment.

What is a sentence fragment?

It's a group of words that don't form a complete sentence.

How can I tell if it's a fragment

It doesn't make sense by itself..

Click to expand...

Thank you.


A lot of the time when I go back through to check my spelling it tells me I've typed a sentence fragment. I know what one is from my reading up on grammar, but when I read it back aloud it has the sound I'm wanting. Some of it I'm sure is my southern accent and the way I'm use to hearing words used.

Do I need to follow sentence structure rigidly? A lot I've read says to find your 'voice' and stick with it when you write. Well as comical as it can be I'm afraid my 'voice' is southern.

Would it be a mater of if I was writing a story set in maybe California or New York that I should follow sentence structure more closely to pull off a more proper, ie not southern twangy "voice"?

I understand the whole you're the writer, it's your story thing. I want to do better, but is better always doing what's grammatically proper?

It maybe a mater of I need to be able to do it the right way before I start to change it to what I think sounds right. I read that some where as well.

Thank you for all the help you can give. God knows I need it.

Again thanks.

M.S.Tarot

Here's another slightly different example:

Quote:
They're three large pieces of fried chicken hang off his plate.
They're is a contraction of They are. There are is what you are looking for here.

hang s.b hanging


Yea...that ones the southern thing. "They're three large pieces of fried chicken hang off his plate."

Is the way i would hear it said around here. Going to go beat my head against a wall for awhile.

Thanks.

M.S.Tarot

I use a spell checker, most writing software and browsers have the option of turning one on. You could try that for a start.

MSTarot said:

A lot of the time when I go back through to check my spelling it tells me I've typed a sentence fragment. I know what one is from my reading up on grammar, but when I read it back aloud it has the sound I'm wanting. Some of it I'm sure is my southern accent and the way I'm use to hearing words used. ...

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That is precisely the problem. Written language is different from spoken language.

If you are describing, for example, a scene then you need to write grammatically as that is simple descriptive prose. Inside quotation marks almost anything goes, as people do not, in general, speak in strictly grammatical form.

Examples:
The mountains towered above the group, making the village seem gloomy as soon as the sun disappeared behind them.
"In the pee em and the sun gone down we're all, like, buggered for happiness. Y'know?"

The distinction here is that you are hearing the story read aloud and expecting the narrator to be a human speaker in normal conversation. Unless the story is written in the dreaded first person present tense (which small children use until they learn better) that simply won't work.

i_would said:

While you're totally correct, the problem there is realising that you are not sure about your spelling, and that there are other spellings possible. Just look at how many people mix up their/they're/there, and that's an obvious example. English has so many homophones.

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Right you are. I was mostly thinking about the situation where the spell-checker gives more than one option, and you don't know which one is correct.

Picking when you've used the wrong homophone - I don't know any way to do that other than long experience with assistance from an editor to catch the ones you miss.

(I used to work for a guy who would write work correspondence by running everything through the spell-checker and accepting the first word it suggested, no matter what. Results were HILARIOUS but not very professional-looking.)