Handley_Page
Draco interdum Vincit
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One thing, though, Pilot.
Reading a thread like this can do much to teach a would-be writer.
Reading a thread like this can do much to teach a would-be writer.
Pet Writing Peeves
- Thread starter SimonDoom
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SimonDoom
Kink Lord
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Pilot, you are making a lot of assumptions, or, at least, your answer suggests you are. Just speaking for myself, I don't look for "committee" approval of things I write, and I don't assume much about the writing ability of the people on these boards. But at the same time, here we are, on what's called the "Author's Hangout", and what's the point of hanging out here if not to solicit opinions and criticisms from other writers? That would seem to me to be the main point of hanging out here. The authors here may not be, for the most part, professional, or very polished, but I've read enough stories by authors who post here (and I would include you among them) to be confident that I can learn something by asking them questions.
You can learn about writing from other people even if they are less skilled than you are at doing it. I believe that, anyway.
BlackBeardedBasteerd
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Just had a story rejected. Reason: "Did I spell everything correctly?" Well, I ran the story through an online editor to find any mistakes, then I proofread after making changes. It was a fantasy story, with orcs. I guess the orc names were taken as spelling mistakes. There's a few hours wasted lol
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
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And much more on what not to do--and what not to avoid doing just because some other neophyte wants to pretend they've found the Holy Grail on what applies to everything/everyone.
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sr71plt
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Time then to use an actual dictionary. Like the "proof reading" example above, a computer spellchecker isn't going to tell you that "proofreading" is one word. You have to use the dictionary as well to know that.
BlackBeardedBasteerd
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I'm confident enough with my spelling. The "spell checker" was to help find mistakes, such as misplaced letters and such. But thanks for your concern.
SimonDoom
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And much more on what not to do--and what not to avoid doing just because some other neophyte wants to pretend they've found the Holy Grail on what applies to everything/everyone.
Absolutely, and learning what NOT to do is part of the craft.
When I was a kid, I had a book called The Dinosaur Joke Book. One of the jokes went "How do you carve a statute of a dinosaur? Answer: Get a block of stone and chip away everything that doesn't look like a dinosaur." It's a bad joke but there's some wisdom in it.
ChloeTzang
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Gotta jump on the defense of the first-person, present-tense. It's a tool, just like every other option in a writer's arsenal. It can be used properly, it can be used poorly, but when the story calls for it, there's no other type that will do.
First-person present offers an immediacy and intimacy not offered by a past-tense rendering. I originally started writing "Crash Into Me" in first-person past tense, but felt the story was most effective with a mixture of past and present. In this case, the flashbacks are all in past tense but the rest of the story unfolds in the present. This allows readers to easily separate what happened before the onset of the story with what's currently going on and, in my opinion, get inside the narrator's head to better connect with her.
I might be wrong about that, and I've got one comment on the story decrying my use of first-person present as being "as dumb as it gets". It's also got a rating high enough to make the top list for its category, so it can't be the deal-breaker some people on here make it out to be.
Used correctly there's not a thing wrong with it, and I think you miss out on the opportunity to enjoy some good stories by always writing it off as terrible.
Thanks. I'm writing a couple of stories right now in first person present tense. Haven't come across that many so it was good to see yours. Its new to me so its a lot of work to try and get it right consistently but lots of fun.
SimonDoom
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50 Shades of Grey is in the first person present tense. It's not the greatest prose of all time, to say the least, but it is the most successful work of erotic literature of all time, so it obviously can work in this general genre. I think Chloe's right that present tense conveys an immediacy and intimacy that fits with erotica. It can work as long as you are consistent with it.
Handley_Page
Draco interdum Vincit
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Most successful?
I think that's only because it's time had come;
The media were at great pains to tell everyone about it. Had they shut up, I doubt it would have made the top 10 !
TxRad
Dirty Old Man
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No, that's Marty Robbins playing on the Victrola in the background.
ChloeTzang
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Oh yes, that'd skipped right by me. Read it a long while ago and never clicked. Just went back and opened it up and oh, yes. Well, I'm going to keep going and see how it all comes out. I really do like the immediacy it gives you with the protagonist. I love that ability to get the reader right inside the protagonist's head and the present tense just gives it that added boost I think. Never realized I was following in the footsteps of 50 Shades of Grey. LOL.
SimonDoom
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I was referring only to its sales, not its merits. It was one of the great publishing phenomena of all time, so I think it is fair to say it probably was the best selling truly "erotic" novel of all time.
Having read it, I agree with you. It came along at the right time and got the right amount of publicity to turn it into a phenomenon.
SimonDoom
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Very true. You can't do that in first person past tense unless the story is being narrated by a ghost.
CinderellaD
Virgin
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I agree Retrofan. I changed my first story to present tense to make it more immediate, but it didn't work at all, so I changed all the verbs back again. The past is the natural story-telling tense.
ElectricBlue
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Only for those who can't write in the present....
I changed a story from the past tense because it wasn't immediate and intimate enough. Its score of 4.94 suggests a whole bunch of people agreed with my decision and might shake their heads at your statement...
...and it was written in the first person, which apparently is another no-no, according to some.
Two sins in the same story. I'm gonna burn.
Hypoxia
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They're less sins than challenges that most don't have the chops to succeed. All sorts of readable tales are in varied tenses and POVs. It's just that 1st and 3rd past are easier to pull off than 1st and 2nd present and future, especially in longer forms. The latter are fine for songs (and maybe vignettes) but much tougher for grand epics.
RejectReality
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It's not the fantasy creatures and such. I have characters named things like Darkniciad, Thakkorias, Meckataur, Blorcasir, B'lasco, etc. that have gone through without a hitch.
Some of the rejections seem to have changed in recent days, but this used to be a general grammar rejection that also included use of punctuation in quotations, and is the major grammar rejection.
That's probably where you need to look. Punctuation goes inside the quote marks. It's easy to miss one or two. For whatever reason, Laurel catches that error more often than any other grammar error.
Some of the rejections seem to have changed in recent days, but this used to be a general grammar rejection that also included use of punctuation in quotations, and is the major grammar rejection.
That's probably where you need to look. Punctuation goes inside the quote marks. It's easy to miss one or two. For whatever reason, Laurel catches that error more often than any other grammar error.
ElectricBlue
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How petty. I write this, two hours later a one bomb. Gee, I wonder who that was.
oggbashan
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It doesn't have to be anyone who posted in this thread. Just mentioning a high rated story can attract 1 bombs even if it isn't your story.
I think, but can't know, that it works like this - Reader sees a high rated story mentioned, goes to read it, and it doesn't appeal, or the reader thinks that the high rating is unjustified - so drops a 1 bomb.
Many stories reach 10 votes with a perfect 5.00. When the rating is more widely visible the next few votes are likely to be much lower.
Any story on the New List with a Red H is a target. A green E? That's even more of a target.
ChloeTzang
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Oh, Lord.
I feel your pain from here. LOL
ElectricBlue
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You think? Ogg, get real. The story has been sitting with a very high score for about 9-10 months, indeed slowly creeping up, with 60+ fives and a few fours, yet within two hours of my post, a one bomb? I'm guessing somebody new who doesn't know about the scrubs, just saying - they probably didn't even read it.
oggbashan
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You are probably right that it is a consequence of mentioning your story in this thread but whether that vote is by someone who has posted IN this thread?
That I don't know. The number of people signed in to the AH is always greater than the number of people posting, and anon can visit the AH without signing in.
As of a few minutes ago: about 400 signed in to Lit and 700 not-signed in. 12 signed in to the Authors' Hangout. How many anon? That we can't know.
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