This site is becoming tiresome

[beta_sissy]

Very frustrating!

For the third time, my new story has been rejected? The first rejection was a formatting issue. Then the second was a few mistakes with punctuation marks outside of quotation marks. I sorted that issue, and "Now," I have received a notice saying something about paragraphs not being right????????

When I wrote the story, the paragraphs were correct, but now they are not?

My god! All I want to do is write stories and post them.

Here is a screenshot of the issues they now say is the problem.

 

[slutindianwife]

If u dnt like it, leave!!

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's frustrating, but the editor won't catch every issue first time.

You need to scrub through your text rigorously and make sure every paragraph has two returns at the end of it, which forces an extra line.

Hang in there, don't give up so easily; but remember, it's your text with the fault in it so it's down to you to fix the error. The other ten thousand authors did it, so I'm sure you can too.

Hint - loose the question marks. That will trigger a bot to reject text for incorrect punctuation...

 

[KeithD]

You know, about 95 percent of the time someone claims they were doing it right, it turns out they didn't know what was "right" here--if they knew what was right it wouldn't have ended up "wrong" at submission in the first place. The problem identified wasn't serious and you were given instructions on how to fix it if you wanted to. Hope you fix it and get the story on offer here.

 

[beta_sissy]

I am just lost because I have another story published, and this issue was never flagged up. I have written this 2nd story the same, wrote it using Open-office, checked it with Grammarly for mistakes and then submitted it.

After today's rejection, I looked back at the text I submitted, and it is full of unknown symbols not in the original text between the words, plus all these hard-return symbols.

Could this simply be an issue with me converting the original file to one suitable for Literotica?

I have submitted the story again but this time converted to 97-2003 DOC

 

[ElectricBlue]

I looked back at the text I submitted, and it is full of unknown symbols not in the original text between the words, plus all these hard-return symbols.

Could this simply be an issue with me converting the original file to one suitable for Literotica?

I have submitted the story again but this time converted to 97-2003 DOC

That's the most likely reason, yes. For a long time I drafted and submitted .rtf files, because they got rid of formatting unless I'd put it in deliberately.

If your latest version is clean you should be okay. Let's hope it is, eh?

 

[SimonDoom]

Could this simply be an issue with me converting the original file to one suitable for Literotica?

It's likely that something like this is the problem.

Can you convert your document to Rich Text format (.rtf)? I often do that and I have never, ever had formatting problems with submissions. I usually draft in a current version of MS Word, then either submit it as a Word doc (.doc) or Rich Text format.

How do you upload your story? There are two ways. One is by pasting the text into the text box and then reviewing, and the other is by attaching a complete file. You might try both so you can review the document before you submit it and see if you can spot the formatting issues.

Not trying to be judgmental or unhelpful, but KeithD is correct -- usually, when people are upset that the Site has rejected their story, it's because they are not doing something correctly, but they don't realize it. It's not the Site being capricious. So go over ever step of your story development carefully and you'll probably find the problem.

 

[beta_sissy]

Thanks for all the words of advice; much appreciated.

I have now submitted my story in the Rich Text Format. Hopefully, this attempt gets passed.

I am confused why different file formats can mess up what we originally wrote. What is the purpose of writing down something, only to have a file format fill your document with gibberish?

 

[ElectricBlue]

I am confused why different file formats can mess up what we originally wrote. What is the purpose of writing down something, only to have a file format fill your document with gibberish?

As Word got more and more clever with what it could do, the ability to spectacularly cock things up if (when) a file gets corrupted increased at the same rate. .rtf is pretty reliable, though, for stripping out unwanted formatting.

 

[KeithD]

I've been just cutting and pasting into the story box directly from Word here for some fifteen years--over 1,300 stories--and they've all gone through without a formatting glitch.

 

[MetaBob]

I compose and edit in plain-text, plus HTML markdown for bold and italic. Plain-text (.txt) is the most portable format imaginable. The only thing that has ever been changed is when I used to indent paragraphs and not put an extra line between paragraphs, and my submissions always got changed before being posted. I don't do that anymore -- I want my posted stories to look as near to exactly like what I submitted as possible, and this site obliges.

 

[lovecraft68]

There's a thread in the AH about formatting issues, maybe the OP is dealing with that?

I still do it the 'old way' of pasting everything into the story box and doing the HTML for any bold or italics. I write in word, but before I upload to Lit I add an additional space between paragraphs because of not lit shows it as a wall of text.

As for grammar/punctuation its like anything else, some get through some don't, depends on...well, no one really knows, site is consistently inconsistent.

 

[beta_sissy]

I will try to do that. I tried it the other day, but the screen would not scroll down to allow me to press the send button.

After last weeks moan, I have just seen my re-submitted story has been returned again for the same reason. I am genuinely lost

 

[ElectricBlue]

I will try to do that. I tried it the other day, but the screen would not scroll down to allow me to press the send button.

After last weeks moan, I have just seen my re-submitted story has been returned again for the same reason. I am genuinely lost

Try saving your document as .txt

That will strip all formatting from the raw text. Then copy and paste into the Lit submit box and Preview. You might need to go through and put your paragraph breaks in manually - that seems to be where your formatting is going wrong.

It's tedious, but unless you figure out what you're doing wrong, it's a solution that works. Saving as .rtf also works, but .txt removes all hidden formatting.

 

[beta_sissy]

Thank you for the advice, also thanks to all the others who have offered tips. I will give these options a go and get back to you all.

 

[beta_sissy]

So, I got "another" rejection for the 1st chapter of my new story. I think that is the fifth time now. Each rejection is a different issue that I fix. The most recent rejection said to start a new paragraph for each individuals talking. It seems stupid, especially since I have just read a story on this website where multiple people speak in the same paragraph.

I genuinely think the moderator does not like my story and keep making up things to reject it.

Can't have multiple people talking in the same paragraph????????? What is that about????????????

 

[ElectricBlue]

So, I got "another" rejection for the 1st chapter of my new story. I think that is the fifth time now. Each rejection is a different issue that I fix. The most recent rejection said to start a new paragraph for each individuals talking. It seems stupid, especially since I have just read a story on this website where multiple people speak in the same paragraph.

I genuinely think the moderator does not like my story and keep making up things to reject it.

Can't have multiple people talking in the same paragraph????????? What is that about????????????

Don't fight the grammar rules. Separating dialogue into paragraphs is good grammar, mixing speakers in a single paragraph is not good grammar.

It's irrelevant what other writers have got away with. It's your text you want to get published, not theirs. It sounds to me like you need to find an editor, since your rejections are all grammatical. If you don't get basic grammar and formatting right, you will get savaged by readers, so you should get it right.

Your story is being rejected for bad grammar, not because someone "doesn't like it."

 

[KeithD]

There are times when something spoken by more than one character can be in the same paragraph--for instance, when they speak together or while in the same action. This doesn't occur very often, though. And for electronic read, more paragraph breaks than for print books is the norm, for reading ease.

 

[lovecraft68]

What is the content of your story and how long is it?

 

[stickygirl]

So, I got "another" rejection for the 1st chapter of my new story. I think that is the fifth time now. Each rejection is a different issue that I fix. The most recent rejection said to start a new paragraph for each individuals talking. It seems stupid, especially since I have just read a story on this website where multiple people speak in the same paragraph.

I genuinely think the moderator does not like my story and keep making up things to reject it.

Can't have multiple people talking in the same paragraph????????? What is that about????????????

I'm sure that it is a reasonable editorial decision, but I share your frustration with the illogical sequence of rejections. It would save hard-pressed editors time if they gave a list of reasons at the outset, but they don't and it begs the question 'why not?'. Often it can feel like you're dealing with a Karen who is delighting in finding another reason, then another, rather than saying from the outset "Here's the things you need to fix - paragraph breaks, speech quotes, grammar, underage reference. It may be best to ask another writer for advice to save time and frustration."

 

[Todger65]

Simple answer, get a third party to look it over. Eventually when you go over it so many times, you become word blind and can’t see what is often glaringly obvious.