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A thread about the need for a spell check before submitting stories reminded me of a learning experience.
I once read a story that was posted here and approached the author in a PM asking if she would like a private critique, to which she agreed. (What else could she say?)
I subsequently sent her five or six paragraphs of marvelous suggestions for "improving" her story.
She replied, "Or, I could sit on the beach with a glass of wine and enjoy life."
She was right and I had been wrong to assume writing the perfect story was her goal. (Not that my tutorial was the right prescription for success on the road to story nirvana. My suggested approach to writing came free of charge and was worth every penny that she paid.)
People write for different reasons. People also read for different reasons.
If a person's spelling bothers you, you have an obvious choice. My stories normally have few spelling errors because after I post them I go back months and years later and edit, again and again. Yet, for all their wonderfully correct spelling many of my stories wouldn't interest you, because that's life. I wrote them for my reasons, and put them out there for those who would be interested. What will be will be.
There are many stories here with good grammar, excellent spelling, and passable structure that aren't worth reading and many that are truly wonderful. The same could be said of most libraries.
If you don't want people to stop reading your stories you might try a spell checker, but that won't stop your characters from wearing high "heals."
I once said a story here was "offal". What was awful was my sour attitude towards life. I should have sat on my deck, had a glass of tea, and enjoyed life.
Jill
Comments
I Have On Occasion
PM'd an author and told them that their grammar/spelling was wrong. Sometimes I received no answer at all....sometimes I got the equivalent of "make love elsewhere" and sometimes I got a thankyou. I never tried to change the essence of their story, merely to make it...as I thought...more readable. Some of those stories were written by some of the most popular authors on this site.
I have learned not to try to instil correct English in any story. If the author is happy to post something with poor grammar, incorrect spelling, lousy sentence structure or whatever, let them do it.
My choice is whether I read them or not. Some I can live with and some I cannot.
JoanneBarbarella
You're one of the most supportive people on this site. I always enjoy your comments.
The Great One, Wayne Gretzky said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." Writers need to write. They can't let another person's criteria for and acceptable story be a roadblock for them enjoying writing.
Like you, I try never to steer an author. That personal restraint goes against my ultra Type-A personality. Nonetheless, I'm sure my "helpful hints" are sometimes seen as stern directives.
There are truly wonderful people on this site, like you, who try their hardest to be nurturing. That's what makes this place work.
I guess the reason I blogged on this topic is to encourage everyone with an itch to write to give it a try.
Grammer, punctuation, run-on sentences, poor paragraph structure???? Don't give it a thought. Take a look at the sample pages from this critic-acclaimed book.
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Exit-Brooklyn-Evergreen-Book/dp/0...
Also, consider how weird the Hunger Games books are when everyone knows books written in second person will not sell.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Showboat....
Porpoises swim and hummingbirds fly (backwards)
I'm got nuthin' to lose if I try
Can't help writin' that tale of mine....
Not everything's bad that makes me cry
the support that I get needs no wonderin' why
Can't help writin' that tale of mine...
I guess it can depend
on the cheerin' on of friends
and folks who know
how to turn a phrase or two
and show me how to do it
No one but me can write my own tale
as long as I keep up I can't really fail
can't help writin' that story of ......miiiiiiiiine.......
Love, Andrea Lena
Porgy. . ..
Summertime, and your writings been tease-y
Verbs are tense, and the grammar ain’t high
But your story’s rich, and your characters loaded
So lap up your comments, Don't you cry
Back at ya, Babe.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Bravo
I agree with you.
I have to say that spelling and grammar do contribute to the quality of the story, but I have found that a good story does not need to be spelled perfectly and it can stumble over how it is worded. And... perfect grammar and spelling does not mean that the story will appeal to every reader.
Yes, grammar and spelling bug me too, but telling someone that they need to fix it without offering helpful criticism will just send them back to the beach with that glass of wine.
I guess that the thing we should keep in mind is that the author created that story a reason of their own. I don't expect to earn a dime from any of my stories and I assume that is true of most of us. I write because the folks in my stories won't leave me alone until I have trapped them on paper. :).
As for me, I want to read your stories and I don't care if they are publication quality. I'm not saying that anyone should agree with us, but they should respect the people who are offering to share their stories with the world.
I'm paranoid
I am always paranoid about spelling and grammar in my stories (although my grammar does tend towards the casual than strict). I always use a spell and grammar checker and mostly pay attention to what it says (it's not always right). Even so, an occasional misspelling, or wrong usage of a word gets through so I always appreciate a comment telling me so (except when someone doesn't understand the difference between US and UK English).
When reading other people's work, I find any error leaps out from the text and stops the flow of the story. One or two are OK, but make a habit of it and I'm pressing the back button, even if they are Will Shakespeare.
But recognising my own paranoia, I don't generally point out other's mistakes (and I realise that's inconsistent in that I like others to point out mine). But I do myself quite prefer a nice glass of wine to spending my whole life pointing out spelling mistakes.
Perhaps we need some keywords on the type of comments we appreciate, or do not want. For example, SPELL means point out my spelling mistakes and PRAISE ONLY means don't tell me my work is rubbish. I'd use both of those!
Caveat
If you don't want to bother with learning proper sentence and paragraph structure or proper spelling, then you can't complain if people keep saying your stories are hard to read.
There is an author who joined the site recently who has become rather prolific in their somewhat short time with us. Their stories are interesting in plot and characters, but when they started here their spelling and sentence/paragraph structure were almost completely unreadable. Many readers -- including myself -- forced their way through this to check out what kind of stories the author would write, and many readers -- again, including myself -- had the same comment for the author: your stories are very interesting and good, but it's hard to read them because of the technical errors.
This upset the author enough that she chose to respond in the comments of one particular chapter about how these issues everyone brought up weren't mistakes but "part of her style of writing," and that people should lay off because she's just a new author and hey, we're not paying for the work so we can't complain, right?
The attitude you mention above is a good one for an author to have, that they would rather enjoy life than sweat the small things like minor spelling errors. But, not only did she accept your recommendation with class, but she didn't fault you for making it. If you don't want to fix your work because you feel you have better things to do, then that's fine, but handling reader feedback due to that is part of the deal. The new author I've mentioned here had not received angry or even particularly negative feedback beyond the mention of her technical issues, with many readers going out of their way to point out how creative her plots were and how fascinating her characters were, yet she still decided to be antagonistic concerning the idea that there was room for improvement.
The author in question has since gotten an editor for her work, though I haven't read anything of hers in some time; we had somewhat of an altercation in PMs over the above issues, and she has continued to be vocal and antagonistic toward readers about how she feels put upon for people suggesting she needed the editor, and that simply isn't the attitude of an author whose stories I want to invest time in reading.
Melanie E.