fledgling author tales

[foolishlittleone]

I've written a few stories and am writing a few more. I've gone through the trauma of submittting a story then finding out about editing errors. In fact, only recently have I discovered you can submit an edited revision to correct those.

Don't beat up on me. I'm just delighted to have found out I can resubmit a story to correct those mistakes. In fact, it wasn't long ago (and years after I submited my first story here) that I discovered this forum. Who knew?! Yeah, perhaps I'm just a dunderhead but I suspect other authors have had this same kind of experience. We all come to this from our own very personal perspectives.

So, this thread is about tales of screwups and, hopefully, how they were fixed or, at minimum, how you handled them. I'll start.

I submitted what I thought was my best story ever (maybe the third one I wrote) and as I eagerly awaited feedback I discovered I'd uploaded the wrong version. I'd written the story using initials for all the characters names, then after spellchecking and all the other editing, did a global search/replace to substitute the full character names for the initials. I'd carefully saved versions of the story as I did the editing, but when it came to submitting it, I uploaded the wrong one. Most but not all the initials were replace with the correct names. The first comments on the story, while complimenting me on the content, mentioned that error. How embarrassing.

I just ran away and hid. Now I've found that I can resubmit a new version with the corrections. You experienced folks are going, "Oh, yeah, what a simpleton." But for me it was traumatic.

So, as I'm working to fix my old mistake, I'm wondering if anyone else has a similar tale to tell.

 

[English Lady]

Hello and welcome

I did take a while to discover the forums but it pretty much coincided with me writing my first story and submitting it...I'd been reading the stories for at least a year before that, though.

But, so far, i've not had any nightmare story uploading stories. there's time yet, though

 

[Guest]

Too many errors for me to count, really.

Glad to hear you're having some success!

 

[TxRad]

Welcome to the madhouse.

I did the same thing on a story only I loaded the wrong story. It was a similar story and in the same category but completely unedited.

If I get out of bed in the morning, I've already made at least one mistake.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

I submitted one of my first stories without actually writing the ending down, or checking the file to see if I had written the ending that wasn't actually there. I ended up editing it a year later, but I was so embarrassed. I should have just deleted it and resubmitted it.

 

[TE999]

The first story I submitted was so poorly punctuated it was rejected out of hand.

Not bothering to determine the edit option was available, I 'fixed' it and submitted it again, changing the title.

It was rejected again. I bungled the submittal somehow. Grrrr...

The third submittal (changing the title again!) worked and it went on to earn an 'H'.

Moral: When all else fails, read the instructions.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Staring at the newbie, licking my lips.

 

[glynndah]

Staring at the newbie, licking my lips.

His join date was years ago. Maybe he's just shy or he's heard about the barbeques.

 

[foolishlittleone]

Yes, I joined years ago, but never sampled the forums and didn't submit any more stories until recently. Frankly, the forums are still a bit intimidating, rather like going into a neighborhood bar where everyone seems to know each other and there is a host of local lingo to pick up and wondering how to introduce oneself and.... Hell, it's all the usual social ineptness stuff.

Still, I'm plunging in.

 

[NoJo]

Yes, I joined years ago, but never sampled the forums and didn't submit any more stories until recently. Frankly, the forums are still a bit intimidating, rather like going into a neighborhood bar where everyone seems to know each other and there is a host of local lingo to pick up and wondering how to introduce oneself and.... Hell, it's all the usual social ineptness stuff.

Still, I'm plunging in.

Good for you, foolish little one. All it takes is a little "dutch courage".

 

[Stella_Omega]

Yes, I must have resubmitted nearly everything, at least once--- before I took all of it off of lit, that is. I'm a constant re-writer! And it's gratifying when someone actually notices-- that doesn't happen often, though...

One of my early stories got an email response pretty quickly-- pointing out some tense-switches and other confusing issues. I sent back explaining that I had meant it to be like that, and I knew what I was doing.

Two years later, I re-read that story, and was appalled and embarrassed, and I wish I could find that old email, so I could apologise to that guy and tell him he was absolutely right! I did say that in a note at the beginning of my edited version, though.

 

[jomar]

Hi and Welcome!

I've had a couple snafus. Nothing major. I do cringe when I see typos that got by me.

 

[foolishlittleone]

Speaking of typos.... Is there any place in particular here on the forum or elsewhere to discuss the user interface for submitting stories? I'd like to offer some suggestions for making it easier to resubmit an edited version.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Speaking of typos.... Is there any place in particular here on the forum or elsewhere to discuss the user interface for submitting stories? I'd like to offer some suggestions for making it easier to resubmit an edited version.

You would think,huh?
There is no real user-led agora with the owners-- although they do read the forums Pretty regularly. Laurel and manu do post once in a while.

The best way (you probably know this) is to submit, adding :EDIT to the title. Add a mnote saying saying that you've corrected typos or whatever. It waits in the queue, but sometimes goes through much quicker than a new submission.

I would imagine that allowing the users to edit an already-approved story might lead to abuse, like sneaking in underage sex (a perennial wish among newbies here).

 

[foolishlittleone]

Thanks, Stella_Omega, it was in going through the "submit with '- EDITED' on the title" process that led me to thinking about easier ways to do this. Now that I realize I'm not the only one re-submitting, it'd be nice to at least get my ideas heard -- all in the spirit of making the experience easier/better for the content providers (us writers) who provide the product that attracts readers to Literotica.

I wouldn't want to make it easier for spammers and other abusers. One of things that makes Lit. great is the review process they go through on submittals. Just wishing for a few simple things, one of which would be a button/link on the "view submissions" page that would say submit update and not require me to do anything other than paste/upload the new text. As it is, I have to re-enter the title, the brief description, and all the tags. The title I know, the brief description I can find if the story is still in the "new" queue, but I've no idea of how to find the tags so have to re-create them from scratch.

It's just a bit clunky and I'm sure (at least, I hope) the site owners are interested in incrementally improving things over time. Seems they have so far.