lovecraft68
Bad Doggie
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2009
- Posts
- 41,952
*chuckles* You and me both!
Well, as long as she's receptive than it is okay to get confused.
Well of course she is receptive, but its a lot more fun when she pretends she isn't
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*chuckles* You and me both!
Well, as long as she's receptive than it is okay to get confused.
Well of course she is receptive, but its a lot more fun when she pretends she isn't
Finally! After two weeks of battling the muse, I grabbed the bitch by her hair, dragged her over to the lap top and made her finish my damn contest entry!
I have a new humor piece out - 3 errors I saw - darn it, but that is the way of life is it not.
I hate that! Over the past week, I've had to re-read older chapters on lit looking for stupid information (how many brothers someone has, the name of a town, etc), and re-read an old article I wrote.
Both were cringe-worthy endeavors, and I found tiny mistakes in each. Luckily, the latter had a tiny bit of entertainment value, too. The article was published in a British journal, so I kept going back and forth between panic and relaxation (crap! I misspelled labor! oh, no I didn't; it's supposed to be labour).
Did about a page of edits yesterday, and can only hope to do so much this evening. Today's one of those "make or break your career" days, and the events will go long, I'm afraid.
But I'm prepared:
Suit and heels? Check.
Qualifications? Check, though on the lower end.
Talking points and prepared answers? Check.
Habit of either waffling or stating my position too forcefully? Check.
Spit stain on my shoulder from when I dropped the kid off at daycare? Check, dang it.
Send me positive, don't-fuck-it-up vibes!
I have a new humor piece out - 3 errors I saw - darn it, but that is the way of life is it not. I may have to give in to the patience needed for an editor.
Lots of positive vibes from me. Best of luck. You'll be great.
!!!!!!! Don't do it. Changing flavor is always in bad taste. If a reader stops reading for a few errors, well, fuck them.
There's a difference between a copy editor and a beta reader. A good copy editor will only note problems in copy; with the use of track changes, you can go through and accept or deny each change. A beta reader has the potential to ruin a story, but only if you let them.
Think of it like salt. A little salt (like copy editing) enhances the flavor of a dish; adding too much salt (not trusting your instincts and blindly following the advice of a beta reader) will ruin it. I like things just right (and a little salty ) so I use both.
While three mistakes would not be enough for me to dislike a story, I have stopped reading otherwise good stories if they have numerous mistakes. Errors (and I make them, which is why I like editors) make me twitch, and not in a sexy way.
Thanks, PL!
There's a difference between a copy editor and a beta reader. A good copy editor will only note problems in copy; with the use of track changes, you can go through and accept or deny each change. A beta reader has the potential to ruin a story, but only if you let them.
Think of it like salt. A little salt (like copy editing) enhances the flavor of a dish; adding too much salt (not trusting your instincts and blindly following the advice of a beta reader) will ruin it. I like things just right (and a little salty ) so I use both.
While three mistakes would not be enough for me to dislike a story, I have stopped reading otherwise good stories if they have numerous mistakes. Errors (and I make them, which is why I like editors) make me twitch, and not in a sexy way.
I am aware
...and you forgot some people don't like salt at all. +
Here's a tip for finding errors, even after proofing it to death. Read your story out loud, as if you are doing an audio book, It will make you concentrate on the words more, instead of glossing over what you think it says. Missing words suddenly appear and you get a better sense of how a reader reads it.
Hope it helps.
I've done that with some of my work and it does help a lot. I tend to write more when the kids are not home and edit more when the kids are home, so reading out loud is limited.
Another quick question for whomever desires to answer.
I've always copied and pasted my work into the submission page with the exception of audio pieces and illustrated pieces. When previewing the work, do many of you find the spaces between paragraphs missing and so you have to sift through the entire story to make sure you separate everything properly? Would uploading the story end this hassle, or would it still appear when the story editors or bots load it?
I do the same, Red. It loads in the space given on submission, but the bot sorts it out when it's posted. I just try to make sure I put spaces in and that helps.
I have spaces when I copy, but they seem to disappear when I past them, then I have to go back and forth and make changes when previewing, but if uploading the story will end that hassle, than I'm all for uploading! lol
I believe the submission page just crams everything in to the smallest area and then it's sorted out during posting. I used to gets denials because I didn't space it properly. Since I have, the submissions are approved, mistakes and all, lmao
Hmm... So next question.
When I do the copy/paste method and I preview the work, it shows me not what the reader is actually going to see? When submitted the work "changes" by some magical techno process.
Pardon my ignorance on this rather easy subject I'm sure.
That's right, Red. What you see on submission, isn't what is in final printing. I had to ask the same question, so many of us ponder the same things.
When previewing the work, do many of you find the spaces between paragraphs missing and so you have to sift through the entire story to make sure you separate everything properly?
I am aware
...and you forgot some people don't like salt at all. +
Thanks for explaining a bit what the difference between the two are. Recently I have seen a lot of posts about "beta readers" and I had no clue what they were talking about.
If a beta editor is someone that grossly changes things because they think it works better one way or another, I've had one of those and didn't care for the experience.
I've submitted more than 500 stories via the cut-and-paste-into-the-submissions-box option and never encountered that problem.
Here's something I've been mulling over as I'm writing. How much detail in a sex scene is too much for mainstream? I'm not doing any cum shots of anything, but I do describe what the characters are doing in clear enough detail. I figure I'll just end up with an Explicit Content warning, but I don't want it ending up as a glorified porn story.
Again, though, the beta reader (and I have a feeling I'm one of the people who has posted about that) doesn't make changes in a way the author can't see. I use comments in the margins to indicate when I think a wording doesn't make sense, when I think a character is doing something out of character, etc. Other times I just give feedback in an email.