Baffled, befudled and bemused

[GingerV]

This is gonna be 1/3 whine, 1/3 request for an editor, and 1/3 request for information so I can edit it myself. Just so you're all warned . Oh yes, vital statistics...it's a Group Sex story, pretty vanilla. You can check out my style in the story that got accepted straight away if you like, it's called Fantasies and its link is in my signature line. On with the gripes :

I have my faults. I know it. My writing is a long chalk from perfect. But I've just reread my re-rejected story from start to finish AGAIN, and I can't see what has the editors so upset.

So I'm throwing myself on the mercy of the local editorial caste. It's a long beast of a story, 16 pages in word, and I'd never ever ask anyone to edit the whole thing. I was just wondering if someone would throw their eye over however much of it they found entertaining and let me know what brand of sin I'm comitting.

I'm screwing up spelling, grammer and paragraph length, according to the powers that be.

Paragraph length, well, I admit I tend to run them long. I've broken them up once into what I thought were bitesized pieces. I'll take 'em apart sentence by sentence if that's what it takes. But I think I can handle this one on my own. Then again, I've thought that before. Are they hanging me by a rule of thumb I don't understand?

Grammer, I don't know. I'm not just flattering myself here, I used to tutor English comp in college, and I can't find the problem. I've literally read it forwards and backwards. There are little things. There are ALWAYS little things. But I didn't think I was leaving any big sins in. I'll 'fess up to sentence fragments, but they're stylistic in this case. Are they disallowed on this site, narrative style or no narrative style?

Spelling, Before I hook anyone into this, I should warn you that I am dyslexic. I know it. I'm accordingly careful. And despite the spellchecker giving me the all clear, I'm getting rejection for spelling notes. I must still have some homonyms hiding in there, although my human proofreader missed them too. OR, is it possible I've just been living in England too long? Do the editors here reject English spelling variants?

Thanks in advance for any handholding offered. And another thanks for anyone willing to give me a kick up the backside and tell me to quit whining. At this point, I feel like I need 'em both. It's just, the story that I can't get accepted really IS the better of the two I initially submitted, or so I thought. I'd love to have it out there, and hear some specific criticism of it. This vague stuff is making me crazy.

G

 

[Delicious Blonde]

1/3 pat on the back, 1/3 kick in the butt, and 1/3 helpful answer

Hi Ginger!

I read 'Fantasies' and thought it was a great time. There certainly weren't any of the problems you mentioned in that story, so I doubt it can be that big a problem in your rejected one.

I think the editors here have 'canned' responses for stories they have to reject. The response you got sounds like there were formatting problems during the upload or something, and that was as close as they could get to it.

I had one rejected once where they tried to tell me about the accepted notion of having only one character speak per paragraph.... Only trouble was; there was no dialog in the story. Go figure.

There were some paragraphs in 'Fantasies' I would have broken into smaller ones, but that's probably just a difference in style, certainly nothing that would merit rejection. I have learned though, that the on-line medium practically begs for short, easy on the eye paragraphs. Likewise with spelling and grammar. I only saw one glitch. So I seriously doubt that's a problem with your group story either. I don't think you need an editor.

My advice is send it back to them 'as is'. It was probably rejected by mistake or because of formatting. What's the new one called anyway? I'd like to check it out when it posts. Keep up the good work! DB

http://www.literotica.com/stories/memberpage.php?uid=216565&page=submissions

 

[GingerV]

Thanks DB, the ego boost came at the right time. I'm really tickled with the way you described Fantasies, "a great time" may well be one of the most flattering descriptions it's gotten.

The new one, should it EVER make it into print, is called White Ribbon. I'm going to give it yet another going over next time I get an hour to myself and see if I can spot the glitch. I pasted the text in, can there still be uploading problems there? And if it's a mistake on their part, it's an aggrivatingly consistent one. It's the second time they've shot it down.

Thinking about it today, there are a couple of things I want to pay particular attention to. I've caught a bad case of ellipse the last ten years. I blame the internet, but it's mostly just punctuational laziness. I thought I'd weeded them all out this time, but I may have missed some important ones. The paragraphs could probably stand another pruning. And I know I have a horrible tendency to tense shift (start past, get up for a drink, sit back down and write in the present, answer the phone, head back to past tense). It's consistent, for a while, but a big no no over an entire story. I always do a last "tense" edit, but I'll check again.

And, as always, I'll try to make sure my "there"s are in their proper place, they're slippery little beggers. Homonyms were invented to try my soul .

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I'll post a victory signal around here if the blasted thing ever makes it to public consumption.

G

 

[BlackShanglan]

I've caught a bad case of ellipse the last ten years. I blame the internet, but it's mostly just punctuational laziness.

Just please, please don't go down that terrible road in which the number of dots in the ellipses begin to vary depending on the length of the pause or the significance of the pausing moment, and can stretch upwards of eight or ten. Once you hit that point, you might as well begin using multiple exclamation points.

Shanglan

 

[GingerV]

*Ginger blushes sunburn red, whips her rough draft behind her, and backs away from Shanglan VERY slowly, using her very best "who, little old innocent me?" look*

I'll own up to 4. Occassionally. But it could just be a virtual stutter, hard to tell .

 

[BlackShanglan]

Ah, you had me at "whips." Any sentences with "whips," "rough," and "behind" in it can't be all bad

 

[cantdog]

Ginger, if you still want an editor, sixteen Word pages isn't so bad.

PM me or: cantdog @ gwi . net

cantdog

 

[pet4u54]

Hi..Few of you know me, as I have not been on here for quite some time, for that very reason. I do not blame the volunteer editors for they have been great. However I have in the past submitted two stories, both of which had been edited by volunteers on here, and never even got a response. Now I don't need to tell you how discouraging that is to a new writer. So feel honored that you at least got a response. I have many of my own readers, who enjoy my writing a great deal, and it is for them that I now write. After that I will not submit any more. But most of the editors here do a great job and deserve to be commended for their time and efforts.

pet4u54

 

[Delicious Blonde]

baffled, befuddled, bemused

Hi pet... I think you may have the wrong idea. Ginger's having a little trouble with the submission editors, not the volunteers. Her finished product is really quite good. She's just having a little trouble getting her second submission posted at all.

 

[pet4u54]

I understand that, but just wanted to ad my feelings on submissions. When you can't even get them to respond to one you have submitted, that is pretty bad. My point was that at least Ginger GOT a response..good or bad..telling her what they THOUGHT was wrong with her story. I have no doubt it was quite good. But I got NOTHING..My problem is with the people who actually accept and add the stories to the archives for viewers to read. She at least did get feedback, which is more than I got. My stories are on several websites and considered to be quite good by others, and I get many request as to when there will be a new chapter or whatever, so I know they are not bad. Anyway this is just my 2 cents worth. I will post my stories on sites where the staff are a bit more considerate of their members. Thank You

pet4u54

 

[minsue]

I understand that, but just wanted to ad my feelings on submissions. When you can't even get them to respond to one you have submitted, that is pretty bad. My point was that at least Ginger GOT a response..good or bad..telling her what they THOUGHT was wrong with her story. I have no doubt it was quite good. But I got NOTHING..My problem is with the people who actually accept and add the stories to the archives for viewers to read. She at least did get feedback, which is more than I got. My stories are on several websites and considered to be quite good by others, and I get many request as to when there will be a new chapter or whatever, so I know they are not bad. Anyway this is just my 2 cents worth. I will post my stories on sites where the staff are a bit more considerate of their members. Thank You

pet4u54

Now I'm baffled, befuddled, and bemused.

The reason Ginger received 'feedback' from the site on what was wrong with her story is that her story was rejected for those reasons. Taking the daily volume into consideration, as well as the fact that they are giving you a place to post your stories for free, set up multiple venues for feedback from readers, support the forums, and hold contests, it seems a bit much to consider them inconsiderate for not giving personalized feedback on every story that is submitted.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Re: total lack of response ...

Didn't I see on another forum that there did appear to be some mechanical glitch in the submissions process, at least at some point? Of course they are very busy (staggering numbers of stories go up every day) and sometimes it has taken as much as two weeks for a story of mine to go up, but they have been quite good (from my perspective) about communicating if there is something that will prevent it going up. Pets, have you tried re-submitting the story? If you have no answer at all, honestly, I would strongly suspect software issues and not disinterest.

Shanglan

 

[pet4u54]

No I did not try resubmitting it, nor will I. The two stories were submitted with a fair distance of time between the two. So while possible, I doubt it was a glitch. But thanks for the suggestion

 

[cantdog]

If you see VIEWS of your submitted story, all is well, even if it takes two weeks. If, though, there are zero VIEWS, your SUBMIT button didn't "take." In that case, with zero views, hit the blue pending link and get in there and hit the SUBMIT again.

That was the cure-all for the glitch in the submissions process.

 

[hotchkiss]

I had problems with a couple of my stories, for differing reasons.

One was considered to violent as I had not made it clear if the character had died, it was a Vampire tale. I re-edited the ending to make it clear the girl lived happy ever after.

Another I had split a longer tale into chapters and posted them seperately, in my eagerness i left the full stop out at the end and the story got bounced.

The time taken seems to vary greatly, one of my submissions took ages but my last effort went up the next day to my amazement.

the important thing is not to give up.

Cheers HK

http://www.literotica.com/stories/showstory.php?id=159466

 

[zephrbabe]

About the length: 16 pages isn't that long. It's actually a rather good length. When posted, it would end up being a two- web page story (I've actually seen one that was 36 web pages... the longest ever, considering I thought 6 was long before).

Point is, don't worry. Besides, this whole thread has reinforced the idea of a support group.

I say thanks to everyone for being helpful and pleasant. A supportive discussion is not always to be found.

-Kathryn

 

[snooper]

If you see VIEWS of your submitted story, all is well, even if it takes two weeks. If, though, there are zero VIEWS, your SUBMIT button didn't "take." In that case, with zero views, hit the blue pending link and get in there and hit the SUBMIT again.

That was the cure-all for the glitch in the submissions process.

With the proviso that my story Village Life was accepted in 2 days with no views!

 

[boxofrocks]

Just please, please don't go down that terrible road in which the number of dots in the ellipses begin to vary depending on the length of the pause or the significance of the pausing moment, and can stretch upwards of eight or ten. Once you hit that point, you might as well begin using multiple exclamation points.

Shanglan

Huh???

What's wrong with....... Ohhhhhhhh.... you mean exaggerateddddddddd.......... sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!