Why are my stories getting rejected Laurel & Manu???

[Tactus_Feminae]

I am just confused as to why my stories are getting rejected. I find no reason what so ever why plus Laurel and Manu don't even give proper reasons. I find no spelling mistakes in my work but i have found spelling mistakes in other peoples work which i won't mention here but there work gets published. What is going on there then! Can somebody please tell me where i am going wrong as i am becoming very frustrated. Thank you.

 

[Darkniciad]

The most common reason for grammar/spelling rejections is dialogue punctuation. For whatever reason, those get caught all the time, while some other errors slip through the cracks and are posted.

"I guess so." Jon said.

"I guess so.", Jon said.

"I guess so", Jon said.

Those are all wrong.

"I guess so," Jon said.

That's the correct form, and it's a common mistake often missed because you're looking for spelling errors.

That's just a guess based upon reported rejections, though. Posting the text of the rejection notice here would give us some idea of what red flags you should be looking for. Without the rejection notice, it's all guesswork.

The odds of Laurel seeing your question here are slim. You'll have to go the PM route if you want to ask her directly. Otherwise, you can probably get the help you need here with more information.

 

[Choices101]

Next to the rejected is a clickable link. Click on it and it will tell you why it was rejected. Just fix that reason and you should be good to go. My first ever story was rejected because didn't add the coding myself and asked them to, i fixed it and it was good to go.

Hope this helps.

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

The most common reason for grammar/spelling rejections is dialogue punctuation. For whatever reason, those get caught all the time, while some other errors slip through the cracks and are posted.

"I guess so." Jon said.

"I guess so.", Jon said.

"I guess so", Jon said.

Those are all wrong.

"I guess so," Jon said.

That's the correct form, and it's a common mistake often missed because you're looking for spelling errors.

That's just a guess based upon reported rejections, though. Posting the text of the rejection notice here would give us some idea of what red flags you should be looking for. Without the rejection notice, it's all guesswork.

The odds of Laurel seeing your question here are slim. You'll have to go the PM route if you want to ask her directly. Otherwise, you can probably get the help you need here with more information.

Thanks Darkniciad. They seem to think we are all William Shakespear. I find nothing wrong my work. It's presented very well. Thanks.

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

Next to the rejected is a clickable link. Click on it and it will tell you why it was rejected. Just fix that reason and you should be good to go. My first ever story was rejected because didn't add the coding myself and asked them to, i fixed it and it was good to go.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Choices101. I tried to fix it once before and yet again another rejection. I have now gone to an author to have a look at my work. I will get back to you and let you know how i got on. Thanks.

 

[lovecraft68]

Thanks Choices101. I tried to fix it once before and yet again another rejection. I have now gone to an author to have a look at my work. I will get back to you and let you know how i got on. Thanks.

They are tight on the punctuation with dialogue. Odd because I have seen some godawful grammar get by in other parts of a story. But they are tough on this. My first submission was rejected twice for it.

There is a very good essay called How to make your characters talk that helped me out considerably.

http://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-make-characters-talk

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

They are tight on the punctuation with dialogue. Odd because I have seen some godawful grammar get by in other parts of a story. But they are tough on this. My first submission was rejected twice for it.

There is a very good essay called How to make your characters talk that helped me out considerably.

http://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-make-characters-talk

Thanks lovecraft68. I have attempted for a third time now to correct my story. Like you say some people make mistakes which i have also seen a few times. It feels like i am being singled out. My story is easy to read and very understandable to the viewer. They seem to forget that we are amateur writers and not bloody Agatha Christie. Thanks.

 

[cocput]

a related set of links

I found these very useful as well.

http://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-punctuate-like-a-pro

Strunk, style guide: http://www.bartleby.com/141/

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

I found these very useful as well.

http://www.literotica.com/s/how-to-punctuate-like-a-pro

Strunk, style guide: http://www.bartleby.com/141/

Thanks cocput.

 

[katye43]

Me too

I am just confused as to why my stories are getting rejected. I find no reason what so ever why plus Laurel and Manu don't even give proper reasons. I find no spelling mistakes in my work but i have found spelling mistakes in other peoples work which i won't mention here but there work gets published. What is going on there then! Can somebody please tell me where i am going wrong as i am becoming very frustrated. Thank you.

I would like to know that too. I've submitted 4 stories, it has taken a week to get the first feedback (ie: rejection) now it's been another week. I've read a multitude of other stories that appear to be written by the author and never looked at again. All kinds of errors in them and yet they passed. What's the deal? I thought this was a place to get feedback from other authors, not just the owners of the site. I just don't understand. Someone answer me please...Linda

 

[_Lynn_]

I would like to know that too. I've submitted 4 stories, it has taken a week to get the first feedback (ie: rejection) now it's been another week. I've read a multitude of other stories that appear to be written by the author and never looked at again. All kinds of errors in them and yet they passed. What's the deal? I thought this was a place to get feedback from other authors, not just the owners of the site. I just don't understand. Someone answer me please...Linda

What was the reason for the rejection? Without that, we don't have enough information to help you.

 

[PennLady]

I would like to know that too. I've submitted 4 stories, it has taken a week to get the first feedback (ie: rejection) now it's been another week. I've read a multitude of other stories that appear to be written by the author and never looked at again. All kinds of errors in them and yet they passed. What's the deal? I thought this was a place to get feedback from other authors, not just the owners of the site. I just don't understand. Someone answer me please...Linda

If you click on the "rejected" link on your submissions page, that should give you a reason to get started. Yes, absolutely, there are stories posted here that have grammatical, punctuation and other errors. However, as MistressLynn said, if you don't tell us what the reason for rejection was, we can't help you fix it.

 

[cocput]

I can vouch for grammatical mistakes. I messed up with my tenses in my first story. It still got through the system; but I would have been happier if I had got rejected at that time.
The negative feedback you get from story with bad language is harder to digest than getting a rejected story.

You better get a friend or an editor to go through your work. I am pretty much sure that you must be making a very silly mistake somewhere, which we would have normally overlooked.

When in doubt use MS word. Accept all the suggestions it makes. Your story wont most probably get rejected, if it clears the basic MS word grammar checking.

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

I would like to know that too. I've submitted 4 stories, it has taken a week to get the first feedback (ie: rejection) now it's been another week. I've read a multitude of other stories that appear to be written by the author and never looked at again. All kinds of errors in them and yet they passed. What's the deal? I thought this was a place to get feedback from other authors, not just the owners of the site. I just don't understand. Someone answer me please...Linda

Hi Linda. I have finally had one of my stories accepted. I know, it's very upsetting when they get rejected. I did send my story to a Volunteer Editor which you will find details on your story submission page and he corrected my errors. I hope this helps. Oh by the way Linda you will get more responses if you turn on your private message's. I don't know when you are going to read this, if at all. Please contact me if you need any help with finding a VE or anything else.

Thanks.

 

[Tactus_Feminae]

A big thank you.

I would like to thank all the people who helped me get my story accepted. Without you I would have left this site. You know who you are.

 

[palisa]

When in doubt use MS word. Accept all the suggestions it makes. Your story wont most probably get rejected, if it clears the basic MS word grammar checking.

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with this advice. The Word grammar checker comes up with a very high percentage of false positives for many writers. If you use it, don't just blindly accept everything; you may be introducing more errors than you correct.

The short blurb in the editing box about why the checker flagged something can be helpful in deciding whether or not there really is a grammar problem. The basic issue is that the program can't always tell what's a subject, what's the main verb in a sentence and what verbs are in subordinate clauses...among other things.

This does not mean you should not use the grammar checker. It does mean that whether you are a beginning or middling writer you should try to figure out in each case whether you're closer than Word is to being right. Even experienced writers, who will see the highest number of false positives, will still have a "doh!" moment occasionally when Word finds a writer's brain spasm.

 

[cocput]

Sorry, but I strongly disagree with this advice.

It's not the "proper" advice. I agree with your view too. In one of my own manuscripts, Word didn't complain when I had typed on instead of in.
But most of the first-time authors are not aware of lots of issues, one among them being grammar. The OP was more frustrated with getting multiple rejections. The OP had not specified whether she had submitted a story in any other place. Many of the first-timers are more interested in seeing their story posted, than conformity to a particular standard. I was only suggesting that the MS Word grammar/spelling checking will solve most of the problems that a bot may pick-up. It was just a quick-fix.

 

[RedMonkeyButt]

Without having to see the rejection notice, I can say you should probably buddy up with some of the volunteer editors. They volunteer their time and effort to give you that second opinion on a story and help you with any problem areas in it. Having that second opinion can be the difference between rejection and acceptance. Turn your PMs on in the options on your User CP and then post a request for an editor. Or, if you're not comfortable doing that, ask one of your good friends who knows what you write to give it a second look.