Story sent back with conflicting notes, very confused.

[Miarayxxx]

Hello!
I'm unable to understand the SENT BACK feedback/note. Can someone please help?

06 April - I submitted the draft and it was published, in queue for 08 April.
07 April - I made an edit to the title of the draft.
08 April - Draft gets sent back, asking me to just hit SUBMIT under series. I tried a few times and the submission would not go through. Frustrated I deleted the draft and started fresh.
09 April - Draft gets sent back, with a different note now - Please fix the formatting of your dialogue.

Question 1 - I genuinely do not understand how the previous 6 stories (and this one in the first attempt) got published, which has the same formatting for the dialogs.

Question 2 - Answered. Fixing the formatting!
For a 14k word draft, a sent back note simply stating to fix the dialog or fix the formatting is not really helpful. Which dialog, formatting where?
So even if I have the draft re-edited/re-formatted, I'm not sure it will get published because there isn't a specific reason, that I understand, is being used for rejections.

Question 3 - The bottom line in the sent back note says - If you have any questions on these, please let us know. Let us know where? That's not very clear. I used the comment box (Note to Admin (optional, not published)) in the Submission Form to ask Q1 & Q2 but I don't know if that was the right place to ask.

I completely understand the gargantuan task it must be for Admins and Moderators to go through each story and ensure they meet the guidelines. But when feedback isn't specific or changes with each submission, then it's not really helpful and prevents meaningful correction.

Any help sorting this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[RejectReality]

Do a Find in your document for quotation marks, and scrutinize the punctuation. For whatever reason, Laurel has always had an eagle eye for incorrect punctuation around dialogue. Make sure all your punctuation is inside the quotes, and you're using a comma instead of a full stop when a dialog tag follows the quotation, and that pronouns aren't capitalized in said tags. "I didn't do it," he said.

It can be just one or two instances that trigger a rejection, so check them all. Must be a pet peeve or something.

Be thankful the rejection is as specific as it is now. LOL It used to be a generic grammar/spelling rejection that covered that whole universe of potential problems. Most of them were still punctuation around dialogue, even then.

 

[Miarayxxx]

Do a Find in your document for quotation marks, and scrutinize the punctuation. For whatever reason, Laurel has always had an eagle eye for incorrect punctuation around dialogue. Make sure all your punctuation is inside the quotes, and you're using a comma instead of a full stop when a dialog tag follows the quotation, and that pronouns aren't capitalized in said tags. "I didn't do it," he said.

It can be just one or two instances that trigger a rejection, so check them all. Must be a pet peeve or something.

Be thankful the rejection is as specific as it is now. LOL It used to be a generice grammar/spelling rejection that covered that whole universe of potential problems. Most of them were still punctuation around dialogue, even then.

Thank you!
I will follow your advice. Though the pieces I write has a mix of dialog formatting, that uses both full stop and commas. But, shall go back and fix it.
I'm frustrated because it wasn't flagged for previous stories (or even this one in the first publish)... how did those escape it!

 

[ThatNewGuy]

Could you provide an excerpt of the dialogue from the story in question? It's difficult to provide guidance without seeing the actual work.

A quick look at one of your most recent stories, "Rashi Takes the Bus Home," points to one potential problem. Consider this line of dialogue:

"Call me asshole one more time and see what happens." Jivan said quietly.

There should be a comma, not a period, after the word "happens" for proper attribution. This punctuation error crops up throughout the first page. If the dialogue in your current submission is formatted similarly, that could explain why it was sent back.

 

[SimonDoom]

Thank you!
I will follow your advice. Though the pieces I write has a mix of dialog formatting, that uses both full stop and commas. But, shall go back and fix it.
I'm frustrated because it wasn't flagged for previous stories (or even this one in the first publish)... how did those escape it!

This site is EXTREMELY inconsistent in the way it vets dialogue punctuation and formatting. I'm a stickler on dialogue formatting, so I notice deviances from the norm all the time. They are very common.

You can't do anything about the inconsistency, so just do what you can to make your dialogue conform to standard conventions. There are "how to" articles at this site that explain how it's done.

 

[RejectReality]

Thank you!
I will follow your advice. Though the pieces I write has a mix of dialog formatting, that uses both full stop and commas. But, shall go back and fix it.
I'm frustrated because it wasn't flagged for previous stories (or even this one in the first publish)... how did those escape it!

There's one person vetting every story that appears on the new story list, and every one that gets sent back as yours did. Needless to say, with that sheer volume, she's quickly skimming — likely with some assistance from a highlighting script that puts squigglies under grammar issues and highlights potentially problematic words. You just got lucky with the first several going through.

As someone said above after looking at your published work, it's using a full stop in conjunction with a dialogue tag when it should be a comma. Correct all those, lock that rule in the ol' noggin', and submit it again.

 

[Britva415]

There are "how to" articles at this site that explain how it's done.

Were the words "this site" supposed to be linked to something?

 

[SimonDoom]

Were the words "this site" supposed to be linked to something?

No. They're easy enough to find with a simple search.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

Were the words "this site" supposed to be linked to something?

I wondered the same thing. I'm guessing Simon was referring to some of the pieces in Literotica's "How To" section, like this one: How to Make Your Characters Talk

 

[Miarayxxx]

Could you provide an excerpt of the dialogue from the story in question? It's difficult to provide guidance without seeing the actual work.

A quick look at one of your most recent stories, "Rashi Takes the Bus Home," points to one potential problem. Consider this line of dialogue:

"Call me asshole one more time and see what happens." Jivan said quietly.

There should be a comma, not a period, after the word "happens" for proper attribution. This punctuation error crops up throughout the first page. If the dialogue in your current submission is formatted similarly, that could explain why it was sent back.

Yup, I got that.
I'm fixing the dialog formatting.

Though my point still remains that if that's the case, other stories should not be getting published.

 

[Miarayxxx]

There's one person vetting every story that appears on the new story list, and every one that gets sent back as yours did. Needless to say, with that sheer volume, she's quickly skimming — likely with some assistance from a highlighting script that puts squigglies under grammar issues and highlights potentially problematic words. You just got lucky with the first several going through.

As someone said above after looking at your published work, it's using a full stop in conjunction with a dialogue tag when it should be a comma. Correct all those, lock that rule in the ol' noggin', and submit it again.

One person vetting each story sounds insane. Admire and equally feel bad for her!

 

[AwkwardMD]

@Omenainen has a theory that an author's first few submissions are graded forgivingly on grammar, spellingz and such, as a way of encouraging new authors to participate and not get stonewalled before they ever get anything up

 

[Miarayxxx]

@Omenainen has a theory that an author's first few submissions are grades forgivingly on grammar, spellingz and such, as a way of encouraging new authors to participate and not get stonewalled before they ever get anything up

Interesting.
I mean I get it. This is a free site and the fact that stories are even getting published is a big deal.

 

[Actingup]

Fix what you can find (the period example given above is important), and then resubmit with a note that explains what you've fixed.

 

[Miarayxxx]

Thanks, everyone! Fixed and submitted. The story is in published queue .

 

[sjreardon]

This site is EXTREMELY inconsistent in the way it vets dialogue punctuation and formatting. I'm a stickler on dialogue formatting, so I notice deviances from the norm all the time. They are very common.

You can't do anything about the inconsistency, so just do what you can to make your dialogue conform to standard conventions. There are "how to" articles at this site that explain how it's done.

Hi,
I'm struggling with the same issue as OP right now, story sent back with request to fix the formatting of the dialogue. Like them, I'm unable to understand WHAT I should fix, since I haven't done anything different than in my previous eleven stories which were accepted. Do you know whether there are a team of moderators, and whether it's possible that simply re-submitting my story as-is would get it across the line if I happened to get a different pair of eyes second time?

 

[ElectricBlue]

Hi,
I'm struggling with the same issue as OP right now, story sent back with request to fix the formatting of the dialogue. Like them, I'm unable to understand WHAT I should fix, since I haven't done anything different than in my previous eleven stories which were accepted. Do you know whether there are a team of moderators, and whether it's possible that simply re-submitting my story as-is would get it across the line if I happened to get a different pair of eyes second time?

No team of moderators, just Laurel and I suspect, a bunch of word bots.

My suspicion, looking at the first story in your list, is that your repeated use of ellipsis is possibly tripping a punctuation scanner. You use ellipsis a lot (far too much, I think), but the way you format them... confuses what could be the end of a sentence... but might not be.

I'd start there - it might be something as simple as that. The dialogue punctuation seemed okay, the few sentences I scanned.

 

[SimonDoom]

Hi,
I'm struggling with the same issue as OP right now, story sent back with request to fix the formatting of the dialogue. Like them, I'm unable to understand WHAT I should fix, since I haven't done anything different than in my previous eleven stories which were accepted. Do you know whether there are a team of moderators, and whether it's possible that simply re-submitting my story as-is would get it across the line if I happened to get a different pair of eyes second time?

As EB said, it's just Laurel. But they use some electric tools as filters so your style might be tripping something. I scanned your Something in the Water story. I would agree with EB that you overdo ellipses, so you might be tripping something there. In the middle of the first page, you lead up to a bit of dialogue and end the paragraph with a semicolon and start the dialogue in the next paragraph. You can't do that, and if you're doing that in the new story it might trip something.

I thought your dialogue style was good enough that it should pass Literotica's filter, which isn't that stringent, but it must be tripping something so I'd recommend going through it and making it conform a bit more to convventional style.

 

[Actingup]

Hello!
I'm unable to understand the SENT BACK feedback/note. Can someone please help?

06 April - I submitted the draft and it was published, in queue for 08 April.
07 April - I made an edit to the title of the draft.
08 April - Draft gets sent back, asking me to just hit SUBMIT under series. I tried a few times and the submission would not go through. Frustrated I deleted the draft and started fresh.
09 April - Draft gets sent back, with a different note now - Please fix the formatting of your dialogue.

Question 1 - I genuinely do not understand how the previous 6 stories (and this one in the first attempt) got published, which has the same formatting for the dialogs.

Question 2 - Answered. Fixing the formatting!
For a 14k word draft, a sent back note simply stating to fix the dialog is not really helpful. Which dialog?
Also, my stories are proofed and go through an independent editor, just to avoid these issues. So even if I have the draft re-edited, I'm not sure it will get published because there isn't a specific reason, that I understand, is being used for rejections. Anyway, I shared the feedback with the editor and this is what they asked me as well.

Question 3 - The bottom line in the sent back note says - If you have any questions on these, please let us know. Let us know where? That's not very clear. I used the comment box (Note to Admin (optional, not published)) in the Submission Form to ask Q1 & Q2 but I don't know if that was the right place to ask.

I completely understand the gargantuan task it must be for Admins and Moderators to go through each story and ensure they meet the guidelines. But when feedback isn't specific or changes with each submission, then it's not really helpful and prevents meaningful correction.

Any help sorting this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

When you resubmit (if you haven't already), I suggest you include a note laying out what has been changed. I've had the same rejection several times for apparently minor issues, but it's always gone through ok after revisions.

 

[Miarayxxx]

Hi,
I'm struggling with the same issue as OP right now, story sent back with request to fix the formatting of the dialogue. Like them, I'm unable to understand WHAT I should fix, since I haven't done anything different than in my previous eleven stories which were accepted. Do you know whether there are a team of moderators, and whether it's possible that simply re-submitting my story as-is would get it across the line if I happened to get a different pair of eyes second time?

I sincerely do not think there is any one (or multiple) reason or remedy for the 'sent backs'. They are all pretty random.
I have seen all sorts of stories getting published, with all sorts of punctuations, dialog formats, ellipsis galore, language conversions, non-existent formatting, etc. etc. There is no consistency.

If there is just 1 individual trying to moderate/review the submissions, even with the aid of bots or AI, then that's already a lost argument. For a free site, with 1 moderator, we are expecting too much. I LOVE Literotica - it's free, there are no popups, it's relatively clean - but, I have stopped trying to figure out what these feedbacks even mean, because they are all random, have no way of telling what works one time and does not work another time. Even trying to get in touch with said moderator to understand the cryptic feedback, there is no direct way (totally understandable as they would be receiving hundred of such messages to connect perhaps).

I DO get it, that it's a lot to take on for 1 person, but if there is no consistent review method (again, all sorts of stories get published - I have even seen snuff, which I thought was against the rules) then there is no way to understand how to correct our submissions.

 

[Miarayxxx]

When you resubmit (if you haven't already), I suggest you include a note laying out what has been changed. I've had the same rejection several times for apparently minor issues, but it's always gone through ok after revisions.

Yup. Done that.
It does not work. Because I have no way of knowing who is actually reading the notes (human or bot), or if they are being read. I still leave the note to help out anyone reviewing, so they are not combing through the re-submission trying to figure out the edits made. But it's all guess-work at our end.

Re-edit, re-submit, and repeat till it get's published.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I have seen all sorts of stories getting published, with all sorts of punctuations, dialog formats, ellipsis galore, language conversions, non-existent formatting, etc. etc. There is no consistency.

That's irrelevant. It's pointless saying, "Well, look at all those other stories with crap formatting, poor punctuation, whatever." What you have to do is forget all those stories, and focus on the rejection notice your story has received.

There's a generic set of maybe a dozen standard rejection notices, nearly all phrased as a set of questions. You won't get anything specific to your story, so you have to step back from your emotional ownership of your content, and take a cold, hard, dispassionate look at what's there. Try to answer those questions in the context of your writing. It can be the simplest thing - like the ellipsis mentioned above.

It's a bitch, but I think we've all been through it, figured out all out, and changed whatever it is we're doing wrong, and getting it right. Once you do get it figured out, you probably will punctuate properly, follow basic rules of grammar, stop writing thirteenth birthday. Because things like that are the most typical triggers for a rejection. And Grammarly. Don't rely on Grammarly to get the basic stuff right.