New author HELP

[YodaDad]

I have tried to post three times and each one has been rejected. I am perplexed as I routinely write techical reports and consider myself accomplimplished at the English language. I have requested assistance from an editor but no response. My stories concern my wife and are 95% authentic. Is it my user name?

 

[slyc_willie]

I have tried to post three times and each one has been rejected. I am perplexed as I routinely write techical reports and consider myself accomplimplished at the English language. I have requested assistance from an editor but no response. My stories concern my wife and are 95% authentic. Is it my user name?

Can't really help unless we know why the stories were rejected. You can find out why by clicking on the "rejected" link in your story submissions page.

 

[YodaDad]

Seems like everything

Were there any serious errors in punctuation or formatting (i.e. submitted in all capital letters, capitalization errors, etc.)?
Was the story not broken into appropriately sized paragraphs?
Please do not add the word EDITED to the title, as that denotes someone editing an already approved story. Since we process all edits after the new stories are posted, adding the word EDITED to a title will cause a delay in the posting of your new story. If you are submitting an edit of a rejected story, simply open the rejected form, make the changes in that form, and hit SUBMIT. Do not start a new submission. 1. Some places, more than two people are speaking in the same paragraph. Please break up your dialogue. The convention is one speaker per paragraph, so whenever someone new says something, start a new a paragraph. The essay "How to Make Characters Talk" in our Writer's Resources section has more information on the paragraph formatting of dialogue if you have further questions. 2. Please punctuate ALL your dialogues using commas and periods. The essay "How to Make Characters Talk" in our Writer's Resources section has more information on the paragraph formatting of dialogue if you have further questions. 3. We follow the convention that has commas and ending punctuation inside of the quotation marks, rather than outside of them. If you're wondering what it looks like, check out the essay "How to Make Characters Talk" in our Writer's Resources section (link below) for more information.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

holy shit...

whoa!

do you want to email the piece over, attached as a word document?

i'm on the move today but will take a quick look to see if there's anything glaring.

 

[TxRad]

Just to get you started on the right road for here, I'll give you a couple of quick examples.

Limit paragraphs to 6 to 8 lines. Larger than that make the story hard to read on a back lit screen.

"The big dog jumped over the moon," he said.

In the UK I'm told you would put the comma outside the quotation mark. Lit uses the American version with punctuation inside.

 

[geronimo_appleby]

Just to get you started on the right road for here, I'll give you a couple of quick examples.

Limit paragraphs to 6 to 8 lines. Larger than that make the story hard to read on a back lit screen.

"The big dog jumped over the moon," he said.

In the UK I'm told you would put the comma outside the quotation mark. Lit uses the American version with punctuation inside.

hmmm. i've always used and seen the latter - comma inside the quote mark.

although it seems that the single ' is used for speech in uk. something that was rudely pointed out to me as incorrect in feedback once.

 

[TxRad]

hmmm. i've always used and seen the latter - comma inside the quote mark.

although it seems that the single ' is used for speech in uk. something that was rudely pointed out to me as incorrect in feedback once.

My bad memory. You are correct on the ' Verses the ". But the punctuation still goes inside. The last UK writer that had this problem sent his work to me and he had both problems.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Hullo YodaDad, welcome to the board.

The best way to find an editor is to go on the editorial board and post a thread there asking. However you are sorted now, cuz Geronimo has kindly agreed to check your stuff out for you.

Guys, in the UK, we also use the comma inside the speech marks and " for speech ordinarily - although you may occasionally find someone using '. ' is used for thinking.

I like the French way - of speech marks! They have a kind of double <, which I think is very elegant.

And another thing, when someone is talking and carries on talking in the next paragraph, drop the " at the end of the first paragraph.

"I often have to correct this in people's work.

"It's all just too much sometimes," she said, lazily running a hand over her magnificent boobs.

 

[Handley_Page]

And another thing:

My stories concern my wife and are 95% authentic.

This is an Erotic fantasy site, not a confession site, so you do not need to do that.
The question, I think, is: "If you take out the sex, does it still read like a short story?"

Good Luck