In search of a new editor

[kanman58]

I am currently on the hunt for a new editor because my last one has had my story for over a month and will not get back to me. I have tried the VE program before and realize its a joke.

I need editing on what will be the third chapter of my story "Freshman Year." It will be my sixth story overall that all contain the same characters. They contain some brother/sister incest and some lesbian scenes now and then. If you would like check some of my posted stories out before deciding if you would like to edit for me.

Now just to let you know I rely heavily on my editors. There will be lots of misspelled words and improper punctuation. If you edit for me and you see a better way of saying something or anything else that might make it a better read fell free to make that change. I am open to most changes that you might make. If anyone is interested let me know and we can get started.

Thank you
Kanman58

 

[rwsteward]

If you know there will be lots of misspelled words, why not run a spell checker through it?

I'll tak a leap of faith, but I would guess nearly ninety-ninety percent of us use 'Word' to write with.

The spell checker in Word works pretty good.

Hell, even the grammar checker does a fair job at picking out mistakes.

Do your editor a favor, spell check the story before you ask for help.

They'll smile when you do.

 

[LissaSue]

I'm going to have to agree with rwsteward. There is almost nothing more aggravaiting than recieving a story full of obvious and careless mistakes. If a person is going to take the time to write, then they should have some pride in what they put down. I understand that not everyone has the same self-editing skills as the next, but still.

As a beginning writer myself, I am constantally spell checking, grammer checking, and using the crap out of online dictionarys and thesaurus's. It doen't take too much longer to do it, and, trust me, you'll feel loads better when you get your story back with minimal red markings rather than painted with them.

 

[kanman58]

Thats my problem I don't use Word. I ran a recovery CD on my computer because I got it used and Word has never worked. I have to write with the wordpad and it has no options for help. I wish I could run a spell check on it but its not an option. Even just giving it a glance doesn't do me any good because I don't know what is misspelled. I don't write to show off how well I did in english class but to tell a story. That is why I let anyone who might edit for me know ahead of time what they can expect. I thank you for the advice but a spell check is not the option.


Jake

 

[sr71plt]

It would be comforting to know that you learn by the spelling corrections, though, and don't just keep making them. I don't think I'd fault an editor who gave up on an author who made no attempt to learn not to repeatededly make the same mistakes over and over again from editing project to editing project.

 

[_Lynn_]

Thats my problem I don't use Word. I ran a recovery CD on my computer because I got it used and Word has never worked. I have to write with the wordpad and it has no options for help. I wish I could run a spell check on it but its not an option. Even just giving it a glance doesn't do me any good because I don't know what is misspelled. I don't write to show off how well I did in english class but to tell a story. That is why I let anyone who might edit for me know ahead of time what they can expect. I thank you for the advice but a spell check is not the option.


Jake

I don't know much about the program, but others here use OpenOffice instead of Word. It's a free online program. There's also Google Docs which has some options and is free as well.

 

[LettersFromTatyana]

A happy editor is a helpful editor

I just googled online spell checker, and a ton of results came back. I pasted my most recent chapter into this site, and it went through all 9,000 words without a problem.

http://www.jspell.com/public-spell-checker.html

It's not the greatest (it identified contractions as misspelled words, and I had to manually scroll through my text to find the highlighted "misspelled" words), but it's better than nothing.

Alternatively, you can paste your story into your email and use that spell check.

 

[PennLady]

Thats my problem I don't use Word. I ran a recovery CD on my computer because I got it used and Word has never worked. I have to write with the wordpad and it has no options for help. I wish I could run a spell check on it but its not an option. Even just giving it a glance doesn't do me any good because I don't know what is misspelled. I don't write to show off how well I did in english class but to tell a story. That is why I let anyone who might edit for me know ahead of time what they can expect. I thank you for the advice but a spell check is not the option.


Jake

I don't mean to be too forward -- but why do you not know what is misspelled? I can understand just typing and making mistakes, that happens to everyone. However, why can you not see the errors if/when you read it over? I had a friend who was dyslexic, and so she had trouble even with a spell check.

At any rate, letting an editor know what to expect isn't good enough. If you want to tell a story and have people read it, then you can and should learn how to do it from the ground up, including spelling and grammar. I've said before -- if you want someone to take the time to read your story, then you can take the time to make the copy as good as possible, even at the draft level when you send it to an editor.

OpenOffice is a good suggestion, and free, and as others have noted, there are online resources for spell check.