Rejected for dialogue formatting 😳

[AlinaX]

I think the bots are just overworked and looking to unionise.

 

[Britva415]

Just curious here. I see this all the time. How do you folks know this stuff?

You mean, besides seeing it all the time? Kidding-notkidding

I haven’t been around that long but it’s not hard for me to imagine that Laurel and/or Manu have come out and said this at some point, based on how things appear to go.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Oh Keith: I wrote 46 stories without a single problem in formatting. I have gone over this story in question with a fine tooth comb. I am not suddenly doing anything different. If the editors have a specific problem, tell me exactly what it is instead of sending out generic rejections.

It's risky to live in the past. Citing "This is the way I've always done it" can be a fool's errand here.

There are thousands of stories on this site that would likely be rejected today. Some of this is due to a tightening of the policies, some is due to different review processes likely being used (technologies?), and some is due to possible changes in Laurel's perspective or mood.

There are some excellent guides in the "How-To" category on things such as punctuation for stories here. Many have the coveted E, indicating that Laurel finds favor with them. I would suggest that you take a few minutes to check these out.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

It seems picky to me. I'm surprised. Keith is probably closest to hitting the nail on the head. There's probably an automatic filter that caught what seem like picky things.

You have some unnecessary spaces after an ellipsis and after the em dashes. Seems picky, but that's probably it.

With the sheer amount of submissions, and what she'll let slide, and with whatever program she uses, that eliminates spaces, or certain ones. I kinda find it hard to believe a space after an emdash... but never know, honesty.

 

[KeithD]

With the sheer amount of submissions, and what she'll let slide, and with whatever program she uses, that eliminates spaces, or certain ones. I kinda find it hard to believe a space after an emdash... but never know, honesty.

I agree, which is why I didn't mention it to begin with. I doubt there are many writers posting to Lit. who know that the em dash, when used, is closed at both sides.

 

[ronde]

Just curious here. I see this all the time. How do you folks know this stuff?

I started writing on this site in 2001 and that's how it was then. Laurel was the "editor" and Manu took care of the technical stuff. See this to find out how it all started - https://literotica.com/resources/about-literotica. It's a link on the home page. I haven't seen any notification that it's changed.

The other thing is that while I would guess Literotica makes a profit or it wouldn't have lasted this long, it's not a pay site except for Literotica VOD. It's not likely Literotica can hire a staff of "editors". As some have reported, at times queue times seem to stretch longer than the usual 1-3 days. If there was a staff reviewing stories, that wouldn't happen.

 

[AG31]

See this to find out how it all started - https://literotica.com/resources/about-literotica. It's a link on the home page. I haven't seen any notification that it's changed.

Oh, hey!!! This is invaluable! I don't think I ever scrolled to the bottom of the home page and saw the index. I'm going to start working my way through it.

 

[Madd_Maxxine]

When I first started writing it happened a lot. I had to read up on proper use of quotes and quote punctuation.

Can someone direct me to the proper use of quotes and quote punctuation.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Can someone direct me to the proper use of quotes and quote punctuation.

Somewhere in the FAQs there are links to established style guides. If you're American, the go-to seems to be the Chicago Style Manual.

If you're writing English English, I'd use Oxford or Cambridge (they're going to be similar).

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I agree, which is why I didn't mention it to begin with. I doubt there are many writers posting to Lit. who know that the em dash, when used, is closed at both sides.

Probably because that's considered very old-fashioned style nowadays, certainly in British English. I'd see it on a par with "I drove down to B___, near the city of W___." as seen in 1920s novels.

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/hyphenanddash/dash is a good UK guide.

Actually I'd recommend the whole punctuation guide, for being readable and vivid as well as clear about different styles of usage. There's explanation of quotes and commas, too:

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/

 

[KeithD]

Probably because that's considered very old-fashioned style nowadays, certainly in British English. I'd see it on a par with "I drove down to B___, near the city of W___." as seen in 1920s novels.

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/hyphenanddash/dash is a good UK guide.

Actually I'd recommend the whole punctuation guide, for being readable and vivid as well as clear about different styles of usage. There's explanation of quotes and commas, too:

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/informatics/punctuation/

Yes, I was referring to U.S. style (this is a U.S. site, itself using U.S. style). And what I cited hasn't changed in U.S. style.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Yes, I was referring to U.S. style (this is a U.S. site, itself using U.S. style). And what I cited hasn't changed in U.S. style.

My understanding is that US style is also changing and varies by style guide. Certainly on putting full stops (aka periods) in abbreviations:

Some major American guides to style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.), now deprecate U.S. and prefer US.

Lit happily accepts British punctuation styles - the only times I've known it not to, it's been a file format problem rather than a text formatting problem.

 

[MrPixel]

Some major American guides to style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.), now deprecate U.S. and prefer US.

My Chicago is decades old, so I obviously should think about a new one if I'm going to hang on to this writer shtick. Anyway, the change makes perfect sense since we live in an acronym world now.

 

[EmilyMiller]

You see US a lot. I use it. Who has time for periods when on a phone? Maybe also yet another generational thing.

We seem to be fixated on the text the OP (O.P. ) provided. Did the rejection note explicitly reference those sentences, or were they just examples? If the latter, the problem could well be elsewhere.

I’m not exactly renowned for my perfect punctuation, but that’s one thing I haven’t been pinged for. Grammar and spelling, back when I was even more dumb and wrote in Notes on my phone.

I’m not seeing any delay in works getting published F.W.I.W. (wow, that was laborious to write!)

Emily

 

[KeithD]

My understanding is that US style is also changing and varies by style guide. Certainly on putting full stops (aka periods) in abbreviations:

The topic is em dashes, not periods in abbreviations.

And, as a matter of fact, we periodically get complaints of British style resulting in rejection at Literotica. I agree that Laurel probably does accept British style. I think she doesn't always recognize that it's British style being used--nor should she be totally up on this. This is a U.S.-based site using U.S. style itself.

 

[KeithD]

Some major American guides to style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.), now deprecate U.S. and prefer US.

True, and you could have cited the rule: CMS 16, 10.4, paragraph 3.

"Use no periods with abbreviations that appear in full capitals, whether two letters or more and even if lowercase letters appear within the abbreviation: VP, CEO, MA, MD, PhD, UK, US, NY, IL."

That said, the topic is em dashes.

 

[jsmiam]

I would suggest focusing heavily on the first few paragraphs. And maybe the last few.

There is no guarantee the one snippet you provided was the one that the gatekeeper-keymaster noticed during what was most likely a very quick scan.

That makes it a puzzle, what exactly did they see and act on. Beginning or end is the most likely place.

You could also attempt a note while resubmitting, saying you do use quotes and paragraphs in the proper way (momentarily ignoring discussions on what’s WITHIN those quotes.)

I say that because (a) see above, a scan of no more than a few seconds is probably all you got, and (b) some people occasionally try to use dashes for dialog, definitely not accepted here. So our keymaster in those pivotal few seconds may have seen a whole bunch of dashes, assumed you were a dasher, and looked no further.

Separately, any recent software changes? Copy pasting differently to before? New procedures before submitting? if so, try the old way too.