Censorship or just a better version of spellcheck?

[mikey2much]

I just had a story rejected, below is the reason given;


Dear Writer,

Thank you for your submission to Literotica. We appreciate the time and effort you've taken to write a story and submit it to our site. However, we've found that we cannot post your submission in its current form. The checklist below may help you in re-examining your manuscript.


Sorry - one more thing! Please spellcheck and resubmit.
Please feel free to re-submit the story after a Volunteer Editor has examined it, or after you've made revisions. You can find a list of Volunteer Editors here.


This story had been spell checked several times as I wrote it. It might not be
great or classic writing but it was up to the standards that prevail here on this site. The story concerns a young man who's age has been plainly stated as being over eighteen. I am afraid to mention that another story with the same cast has already been posted and was alluded to in this story. So age is not an issue.

I would like to know the real reason. I know it is not spelling. I don’t think it was content, I have read several stories that were much more hard core than this one of mine.
So the way it stands, I have a story that can’t be posted as it is and the reason given is spelling. My spell check can’t find any misspelled words. Maybe the editor that rejected the story will spell check it with his version of the software.

 

[cloudy]

If it was content, then the message you received would have said so, so...nope, not content.

Do you use any dialect in the dialogue? Sometimes that will cause your story to be flagged.

Why not have someone else look it over for you?

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I think it just depends on whether Mike and Carol Brady have been to a revival or swingers bar just before they review the story.

 

[sr71plt]

There's no real telling from here what the reason for rejection is. The "checklist below" isn't below. Either the editor/automatic checking bot left it out of the rejection message or it has been left out of the posting here.

I will say (after having been asked to look it over) that it isn't enough that the previous chapter made the age of the protagonist clear. Neither the submissions editor nor the automatic bot are going to go back to previous chapters. And a submission referring to the protagonist as "boy" throughout could very likely have an "age" problem here. (Again can't tell if this is the problem, though, as no substantive reason for rejecting was given.) The only reason hinted at (use spellcheck) doesn't apply where I can see, because there was no problem with spelling that I saw.

 

[Weird Harold]

This story had been spell checked several times as I wrote it. It might not be great or classic writing but it was up to the standards that prevail here on this site.

Two thoughts:

1) have you rechecked the document with all of the existing "ignore" flags cleared: In MSWord, in spellcheck options, check the recheck document box.

2) What format did you submit the story in?

Lit has problems with RTF files that still contain tracked changes or a lot of edits -- all of the wrong spellings are still in the file and Lit's story-checker doesn't recognise them as corrections.

A third thought -- have you checked for misused words; There, They're, Their; Hear, Here, Hair; etc. Lit's script based story check shouldn't reject a story for that reason, but a human checker would whenit got to that point.

Once you're confident that the spellings are as you intended them, and that you're uploading a clean copy of the file, resubmit with a note in the comments field that you have rechecked the spelling and all spellings are as you intended them to be.

Note, European spelling -- colour vs color, et al -- can cause american-biased spellchecks to choke.

 

[sr71plt]

*sigh* A fourth thought. Ask why they rejected it, since they apparently didn't say (and to my knowledge they customarily do).

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

To be safe, add a disclaimer that all the fictional characters signed written, notarized pretend consent forms, and their ages were verified at the fictional department of motor vehicles.

 

[mikey2much]

thanks for the input

Thanks guys and Cloudy,

Ther are a lot of good tips here. In answer to your questions.

I pasted into the text box. I tried to read it very carefully for those troublesome words that might be wrong and still pass the spellcheck.
I didn't have a proof reader but I read it back out loud more than once. I don't think that was the problem.

I think that I am going to re-submit and see what happens. Any thoughts on that?
mike

 

[mikey2much]

Where is the complaint dept?

*sigh* A fourth thought. Ask why they rejected it, since they apparently didn't say (and to my knowledge they customarily do).

In a way that is what I am doing here. Where should I send the question? I don't know where you go or who to talk to when I get there.
mike

 

[sr71plt]

In a way that is what I am doing here. Where should I send the question? I don't know where you go or who to talk to when I get there.
mike

You have to PM Laurel directly to connect with a submissions editor. You also could refile the story with your question in the Notes box. A story with a note gets kicked to the human passing stories through.

 

[mikey2much]

Thanks

I will give that a try.
thanks,
mike

 

[Boxlicker101]

Thanks guys and Cloudy,

Ther are a lot of good tips here. In answer to your questions.

I pasted into the text box. I tried to read it very carefully for those troublesome words that might be wrong and still pass the spellcheck.
I didn't have a proof reader but I read it back out loud more than once. I don't think that was the problem.

I think that I am going to re-submit and see what happens. Any thoughts on that?
mike

I will volunteer to proofread it for you, but you will have to email it to me.

ETA: Sometimes a typo will give you a valid word and your spellchecker will not catch it.