We really need a sticky...

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Thought I'd make it easier to go study up on this; Grammar Monster says... that John is correct

John is entirely correct--there are rules about conjunctions and comma splices. On the other hand, how many stories on Literotica would be rejected if they failed to follow these rules?

If a story is fresh, interesting, erotic, and has a plot, I can ignore some of the grammar errors or misspelled words. Of course, we all strive to write the best story we can, and if I happen to make a grammar error, well--tough. I'm not being paid to be a perfect writer. If my stories make someone happy to read them, I've done my job.

Unless I’ve misunderstood it, this site is basically for amateur writers to display their skills and naturally they don’t get paid for their stories. So to castigate them for not being a professional writer and for not employing an editor is wrong. If a story has a few mistakes is it a big deal? Not if you enjoyed the story. If it’s full of mistakes that make it impossible to read then that’s something different. A

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...My point is that authors who come here asking for an editor to fix what the grammar checker in most word processors, and all free online checkers, do is just wasting that editor's time.

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I'll support this. The original post suggested a Sticky for this common element of grammar confusion. Lit has a wonderful collection of Stickies that are great learning tools for many aspects of writing and posting stories here. We've all run across the stories that are rendered almost unreadable due only to the authors lack of knowledge in accepted writing rules/protocols. I've not done a lot of editing help for others, but it is a huge commitment and takes a chunk of time. Thus, it behooves all of us to strive to be as professional as possible, especially if we're going to impose on someone else to give it a final check.

Except that fiction is much too loose to be reliably fixed by mechanical grammar check programs. It really does require knowledge at the writing stage and a human editor (and not just someone who decided to be an editor without training) to be decent literature.

KeithD said:

Except that fiction is much too loose to be reliably fixed by mechanical grammar check programs. It really does require knowledge at the writing stage and a human editor (and not just someone who decided to be an editor without training) to be decent literature.

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I agree with this too. I use my grammar check program, it catches a few things but I end up having to ignore most suggestions. Thus, the importance of using all the resources one can to learn to do it right in the first place.

And yes, there's a big difference between a trained editor and a beta-reader/writing buddy. But trained editors are hard to come by here...best get back to my studies