rogueKlyntar
Succubus' Slave
- Joined
- Mar 17, 2019
- Posts
- 7
I see lots of stories with seemingly no editing. I have no idea if they have been edited, unless the author thanks the editor for their services (editing services, that is ;] ) in an introduction. Some of my favorite stories clearly had minimal or no editing prior to publication.
For those who would like to be able to edit on their own, whether to save themselves the embarrassment of atrocious grammar or just because, here are some general tips:
PERIODS are of course the most important of all. You can more or less read a text and understand it without commas (mostly), quotation marks or miscellaneous punctuation like parentheses and hyphens, but a missing period makes it exponentially more difficult. To be fair, you can get away with leaving out a period at the end of a paragraph, but of course it is not the proper way to right.
COMMAS are arguably the second-most important. Usually you can understand text without commas, but it gets to be weird for the reader and almost reads like a run-on sentence. COMMAS ARE NOT SUBSTITUTES FOR SEMICOLONS OR PERIODS! One of my favorite authors on Literotica constantly uses commas like semicolons, usually where a period would be better than either. This also creates a run-on sentence. In general, a comma should be used where you would have a pause, however short (though after words like a sentence-starting "Actually", this is debatable), if you were to speak the sentence out loud. When an actual hesitation is to be expressed, an ellipsis ("...") is needed.
QUOTATION MARKS are also important. When a character speaks, quotation marks are needed, and there are a few rules besides the obvious:
HYPHENS are often omitted when they should most be used. Phrases like "freshly-painted" require hyphens if the phrase is being used adjectivally as a single unit. Other hyphenated phrases are often longer than two words. For example: "The drunk-as-a-skunk alcoholic staggered down the street." This reads better than "The alcoholic, who was as drunk as a skunk, staggered down the street," whether with or without commas.
APOSTROPHES are often misused. In short, they only indicate possession when the word is not a pronoun or verb. Its/It's is the usual example given, but your/you're and their/they're are also examples. With pronouns and the verbs could, should, and would (yes, those are verbs), an apostrophe always (or at least I can't think of any exceptions) indicates a contraction of the pronoun with a verb, usually a form of to be or to have, or else would.
SPELLING is obviously important, and not just when there is an actual possibility of misunderstanding the text. Although the following is more or less easily understood, it just isn't right: Speling iz obveeuslee importent, and nott zhust wen ther iz en aktual posibilitee uv missunderstandeeng thu tekst. None of these words exists as spelled (except and, of course), but it is a distraction when one is trying to read a text. Equally important are words that can cause misunderstanding if misspelled. As I have said in a recent publication on the website, as an extreme example, "The stallion fucked the mayor" describes what is called bestiality, which is illegal! Either the word mayor must be corrected to mare, or it must be established beforehand (or, I suppose, almost immediately afterward) that the mayor is not human, or at least not at that moment in the text. Again, while usually using the wrong word is not enough to make understanding impossible, it is a distraction. Particular words commonly misused are lie and lay. I explain the difference in my published work here.
I hope this helps people to edit their own stories, assuming they are not too lazy to do it themselves. And contrary to what about half the comments say on my publication just mentioned, it does matter.
For those who would like to be able to edit on their own, whether to save themselves the embarrassment of atrocious grammar or just because, here are some general tips:
PERIODS are of course the most important of all. You can more or less read a text and understand it without commas (mostly), quotation marks or miscellaneous punctuation like parentheses and hyphens, but a missing period makes it exponentially more difficult. To be fair, you can get away with leaving out a period at the end of a paragraph, but of course it is not the proper way to right.
COMMAS are arguably the second-most important. Usually you can understand text without commas, but it gets to be weird for the reader and almost reads like a run-on sentence. COMMAS ARE NOT SUBSTITUTES FOR SEMICOLONS OR PERIODS! One of my favorite authors on Literotica constantly uses commas like semicolons, usually where a period would be better than either. This also creates a run-on sentence. In general, a comma should be used where you would have a pause, however short (though after words like a sentence-starting "Actually", this is debatable), if you were to speak the sentence out loud. When an actual hesitation is to be expressed, an ellipsis ("...") is needed.
QUOTATION MARKS are also important. When a character speaks, quotation marks are needed, and there are a few rules besides the obvious:
- If there is an "X said" or something equivalent after the content being spoken by the character (or read from a text in the story, etc.), the closing quotation mark needs to be after a comma, not a period. When an exclamation or question mark is needed, the "X said" can go either before the opening quotation mark or after the closing one:
- - "Don't go in there," he said. NOT "Don't go in there." he said.
- - He shouted "Don't go in there!" OR "Don't go in there!" he shouted.
- When spoken/read content extends into a new paragraph, there is technically no need for a closing quotation mark unless it is the last paragraph of spoken/read text. This lets the reader know that the speaker or quoted document has not changed.
- Technically, an exchange between characters should have each set of quotation marks in a new paragraph, but even I find that too much sometimes.
HYPHENS are often omitted when they should most be used. Phrases like "freshly-painted" require hyphens if the phrase is being used adjectivally as a single unit. Other hyphenated phrases are often longer than two words. For example: "The drunk-as-a-skunk alcoholic staggered down the street." This reads better than "The alcoholic, who was as drunk as a skunk, staggered down the street," whether with or without commas.
- Though not a hyphen, the long line that most word processors convert two consecutive hyphens into is also ignored when it is needed. If a character is speaking and stops mid-word or mid-sentence, you cannot just leave it like that with a quotation mark to show it: "Stop, what are you doi!" is not correct. The proper way to write it is "Stop, what are you doi--!". The first way reads "Stop, what are you" followed by the word "doi", which does not exist, at least not in English, nor in French, Spanish, nor German (as far as I know) or even Latin. Probably not in Italian. Maybe in Greek.
APOSTROPHES are often misused. In short, they only indicate possession when the word is not a pronoun or verb. Its/It's is the usual example given, but your/you're and their/they're are also examples. With pronouns and the verbs could, should, and would (yes, those are verbs), an apostrophe always (or at least I can't think of any exceptions) indicates a contraction of the pronoun with a verb, usually a form of to be or to have, or else would.
SPELLING is obviously important, and not just when there is an actual possibility of misunderstanding the text. Although the following is more or less easily understood, it just isn't right: Speling iz obveeuslee importent, and nott zhust wen ther iz en aktual posibilitee uv missunderstandeeng thu tekst. None of these words exists as spelled (except and, of course), but it is a distraction when one is trying to read a text. Equally important are words that can cause misunderstanding if misspelled. As I have said in a recent publication on the website, as an extreme example, "The stallion fucked the mayor" describes what is called bestiality, which is illegal! Either the word mayor must be corrected to mare, or it must be established beforehand (or, I suppose, almost immediately afterward) that the mayor is not human, or at least not at that moment in the text. Again, while usually using the wrong word is not enough to make understanding impossible, it is a distraction. Particular words commonly misused are lie and lay. I explain the difference in my published work here.
I hope this helps people to edit their own stories, assuming they are not too lazy to do it themselves. And contrary to what about half the comments say on my publication just mentioned, it does matter.
