Rejected for dialogue formatting 😳

[luv2custrip]

I’ve written 47 stories. Being rejected because I allegedly didn’t format dialogue correctly is a new one for me. Yes, I always start a new paragraph whenever a new character is speaking. Yes, I always break up long paragraphs of dialogue for readability.
Now my hopefully proper revised story is stuck in Pending.
Has this happened to you?

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I want to express a big congratulations for not being rejected for alleged AI-generated content! This is a huge step for our small community

 

[KeithD]

Post three paragraphs of dialogue from you work. Maybe we can tell you why it's being rejected. (It isn't clear, for instance that Lit. always accepts British style that puts terminal punctuation outside the quote marks as opposed to American stylet that puts it inside the quote marks--with a few exceptions.)

 

[TheRedChamber]

Yes, it happened with the first story I posted because I was lazy with following good style/hadn't fully internalized the rules for dialogue. I spent fifteen minutes with some writing guides and it's never happened again.

 

[luv2custrip]

Post three paragraphs of dialogue from you work. Maybe we can tell you why it's being rejected. (It isn't clear, for instance that Lit. always accepts British style that puts terminal punctuation outside the quote marks as opposed to American stylet that puts it inside the quote marks--with a few exceptions.)

“I had… an incredible experience, being naked at the party. It was beyond…”

She looked up at me; really looking at me for the first time.

“Go in there wanting to check out twenty-eight naked girls— and that’s all you’ll get out of the whole experience. But go in realizing that these are brave, vulnerable women who are briefly casting aside all of their clothing— and maybe more than a bit of their dignity— just to be appreciated in a very special way by one, hopefully very special guy…”

 

[luv2custrip]

Yes, it happened with the first story I posted because I was lazy with following good style/hadn't fully internalized the rules for dialogue. I spent fifteen minutes with some writing guides and it's never happened again.

This would be story #47. I’m writing better and better each time. Why are they only bringing this up now?

 

[KeithD]

“I had… an incredible experience, being naked at the party. It was beyond…”

She looked up at me; really looking at me for the first time.

“Go in there wanting to check out twenty-eight naked girls— and that’s all you’ll get out of the whole experience. But go in realizing that these are brave, vulnerable women who are briefly casting aside all of their clothing— and maybe more than a bit of their dignity— just to be appreciated in a very special way by one, hopefully very special guy…”

Presumably the admissions system didn't like the ellipses, although they are correct here.

 

[djrip]

Presumably the admissions system didn't like the ellipses, although they are correct here.

Maybe the spaces after the —?

 

[luv2custrip]

Maybe the spaces after the —?

Really getting nutty. My readers just want stories about ladies without clothes. I don’t think they’re obsessive over formatting.

 

[MrPixel]

Maybe the spaces after the —?

That might be. Em dashes that probably should be commas. I found that run-on sentence to be an awkward read with the dashes.

As far as the ellipses, the first one makes sense, it is a thought interrupted. Second one, probably not, as the thought is fully expressed and should be ended with a period in anticipation of the response in the subsequent paragraph.

It has to be said I read somewhere that Laurel does not care for ellipses. I use them frequently in dialog with pauses and interruptions, so evidently they pass muster in that context.

 

[KeithD]

Maybe the spaces after the —?

It could be that, yes. There shouldn't be spaces before or after an em dash. And the ellipses also aren't publishing ellipses, which would have spaces between the dots--but I doubt Laurel or her automated systems make that distinction.

 

[KeithD]

Really getting nutty. My readers just want stories about ladies without clothes. I don’t think they’re obsessive over formatting.

Ah, but the site intent is there in the site title LITERotica. It encourages the literary, which includes formatting. Literotica is essentially a rolling anthology. There should be a common presentation across an anthology.

 

[luv2custrip]

Ah, but the site intent is there in the site title LITERotica. It encourages the literary, which includes formatting. Literotica is essentially a rolling anthology. There should be a common presentation across an anthology.

Oh Keith: I wrote 46 stories without a single problem in formatting. I have gone over this story in question with a fine tooth comb. I am not suddenly doing anything different. If the editors have a specific problem, tell me exactly what it is instead of sending out generic rejections.

 

[luv2custrip]

That might be. Em dashes that probably should be commas. I found that run-on sentence to be an awkward read with the dashes.

As far as the ellipses, the first one makes sense, it is a thought interrupted. Second one, probably not, as the thought is fully expressed and should be ended with a period in anticipation of the response in the subsequent paragraph.

It has to be said I read somewhere that Laurel does not care for ellipses. I use them frequently in dialog with pauses and interruptions, so evidently they pass muster in that context.

Their generic rejection concerned each new character speaking required a new paragraph— yes, I do that. Also, that paragraphs may be too long. I went through Preview & Publish to scan paragraph length. I broke up longish paragraphs by editing the dialogue slightly.
Good lord: my readers like to read about naked ladies; I doubt any of them are noticing dashes and ellipses.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Yes, I'd say the dashes. They're typically used when you're interrupted, either by other's (speaking) or by yourself (surprise, train of thought, etc), but there shouldn't be a space before or after. I agree with Mr.Pixel that you'd be better served with commas in this case. Do a quick cleanup (a global edit might work) and try submitting again. Let us know how it turns out.

Their generic rejection concerned each new character speaking required a new paragraph— yes, I do that.

Not sure why that would be cause for rejection since that's correct format.

 

[KeithD]

Oh Keith: I wrote 46 stories without a single problem in formatting. I have gone over this story in question with a fine tooth comb. I am not suddenly doing anything different. If the editors have a specific problem, tell me exactly what it is instead of sending out generic rejections.

Excuse me. I posted that I saw nothing wrong in the single example you post--at my request. I took the time and effort to try to help you. I'll leave you to it.

 

[luv2custrip]

Yes, I'd say the dashes. They're typically used when you're interrupted, either by other's (speaking) or by yourself (surprise, train of thought, etc), but there shouldn't be a space before or after. I agree with Mr.Pixel that you'd be better served with commas in this case. Do a quick cleanup (a global edit might work) and try submitting again. Let us know how it turns out.


Not sure why that would be cause for rejection since that's correct format.

Stuck in Pending since 1/8. I revised the formatting of paragraphs wherever possible. No one mentioned punctuation. Looking back at prior stories, I’ve always written this way.

 

[luv2custrip]

Excuse me. I posted that I saw nothing wrong in the single example you post--at my request. I took the time and effort to try to help you. I'll leave you to it.

Keith, I appreciate it. We’re here to support each other. I do try to write in a literary manner, I guess that’s what getting to me. I apologize for any miscommunication.

 

[Imstillfun]

I’ve written 47 stories. Being rejected because I allegedly didn’t format dialogue correctly is a new one for me. Yes, I always start a new paragraph whenever a new character is speaking. Yes, I always break up long paragraphs of dialogue for readability.
Now my hopefully proper revised story is stuck in Pending.
Has this happened to you?

When I first started writing it happened a lot. I had to read up on proper use of quotes and quote punctuation.

 

[ronde]

Oh Keith: I wrote 46 stories without a single problem in formatting. I have gone over this story in question with a fine tooth comb. I am not suddenly doing anything different. If the editors have a specific problem, tell me exactly what it is instead of sending out generic rejections.

Not to insult you, but you need to understand that there aren't any "editors". There's Laurel by herself approving or rejecting each story. I've been in this role on a much, much smaller site, and it was still a daunting task.

On 1/11/2024, Literotica published over 150 stories. I have no idea of how many she had to review, but if she rejected only 5% of what she reviewed, she looked at 158 stories. That means she has only a couple minutes to look at a story, and then accept and mark is as "published" or reject it and send some sort of notification. She also managed to read and respond to at least some of the PM's she gets every day, as well as take care of whatever her other responsibilities in life are.

That's why the generic rejections. They're there so she doesn't have to write a personal rejection notice explaining the exact reason for the rejection. My guess is it's just a check box and the software automatically sends the rejection. I didn't have that option and it took longer to write the rejection notice than to find what caused the rejection in the first place.

That said, the only person who can explain the rejection is Laurel. Try starting a conversation with her.

 

[AG31]

Not to insult you, but you need to understand that there aren't any "editors". There's Laurel by herself approving or rejecting each story.

Just curious here. I see this all the time. How do you folks know this stuff?

 

[SimonDoom]

It seems picky to me. I'm surprised. Keith is probably closest to hitting the nail on the head. There's probably an automatic filter that caught what seem like picky things.

You have some unnecessary spaces after an ellipsis and after the em dashes. Seems picky, but that's probably it.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It seems picky to me. I'm surprised. Keith is probably closest to hitting the nail on the head. There's probably an automatic filter that caught what seem like picky things.

You have some unnecessary spaces after an ellipsis and after the em dashes. Seems picky, but that's probably it.

The site is struggling with the volume of submissions at the moment. My last story needed a prompt to Laurel to get it released. Nine days rather than my more usual two or three.

My guess for the grammar rejection is a "text robot bounce". I think we all know that some writers are very sloppy with their editing - which passes sloppy copy into the system, and a little robot waves its digital finger and says, "Do your job properly, and I'll do mine."

Authors need to get over this notion that "Readers don't care, they just want to read my smut," as the guy keeps repeating above. That's not the point - the site has commonly available spell-checker/grammar tools to simplify their input task and screen out junk copy.

Authors would be far better off spending their time EDITING GOOD COPY than coming here and moaning. Submit good copy, and the grammar rejections go away. This is not hard to do.

 

[SimonDoom]

The site is struggling with the volume of submissions at the moment. My last story needed a prompt to Laurel to get it released. Nine days rather than my more usual two or three.

My guess for the grammar rejection is a "text robot bounce". I think we all know that some writers are very sloppy with their editing - which passes sloppy copy into the system, and a little robot waves its digital finger and says, "Do your job properly, and I'll do mine."

Authors need to get over this notion that "Readers don't care, they just want to read my smut," as the guy keeps repeating above. That's not the point - the site has commonly available spell-checker/grammar tools to simplify their input task and screen out junk copy.

Authors would be far better off spending their time EDITING GOOD COPY than coming here and moaning. Submit good copy, and the grammar rejections go away. This is not hard to do.

I agree totally, but in this particular case, I can't fault the OP for being a bit perplexed. This is pretty picky stuff by the standards of some of the stuff that gets through. Lit's proofing standards are tougher than they used to be. They used to let stuff get by with basic spelling and punctuation errors that wouldn't fly now.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I agree totally, but in this particular case, I can't fault the OP for being a bit perplexed. This is pretty picky stuff by the standards of some of the stuff that gets through. Lit's proofing standards are tougher than they used to be. They used to let stuff get by with basic spelling and punctuation errors that wouldn't fly now.

Surely it's because the bots are better and do the first pass more deeply?