I believe that you are correct. In my experience, once sex-content work is allowed the volume of work in that genre will overwhelm all others. There are other sites designed for that and I have published on some of them. It is not about censorship or prudishness. It is about providing an opportunity for other styles that also need a home.

Some sites have a program by which people volunteer to perform the editing at no charge. The editors do it as a hobby, like we write stories as a hobby. They like to be part of the creative process but don't believe they have the creativity (or whatever) to create their own work. But, by doing the editing they can be part of it.

I have an editor who prefers to remain anonymous. He does the grammar, spelling and punctuation and I also request his input on areas in which I am unsure, such as a story I wrote not long ago in third person-present tense. He also lets me know when something is unclear or doesn't come across well, such as the connotation of a word or phrase. sometimes I take his advice, other times I keep my original text, many times I scrap it and address it a different way.

If this site grows it could develop a similar program. At this time it appears that nearly all the members are also authors. That is why I don't edit very often. It would be difficult to delve into other author's concepts and then try to develop my own without the two meshing. I would never plagiarize another author's work, but it is impossible when an idea sticks in your head to identify exactly where it came from.

I have done some editing for beginning authors and it was good at times and at others the "editees" took corrections personally. Authors should realize that the talent to create and develop literary ideas does not always go hand-in-hand with the ability to express them within the confines of grammatical rules. Yet, if one desires to create a good piece of work, that linking up is necessary.

Dirty Martini mentioned on a Facebook page of another stories site (Short fiction.uk) and I decided to check it out.

One solution is to use a volunteer editor. Some other sites have a program by which volunteers will edit and propose corrections to a story prior to publication. Of course, an editor can be wrong, too. Some are good and some only "fair". At the least they can detect errors that are difficult to pick up when editing one's own work. When I first started writing I did all my own editing, thinking that I couldn't share the creative process with another person. Later, I changed my mind and I am glad that I did.

Some editors limit themselves to the mechanics of spelling, syntax, punctuation and grammar. Other will add the service of questioning things like clarity, connotation, consistency and other similar factors. I have a good back-and-forth relationship with my editor in this way. Sometimes I heed his advice and other times not. More often he will suggest an alternative to my version and in the end both versions get scrapped in favor of something better. The nature and limits of the editor's work has to be agreed at the outset of the relationship, and might grow over time.

It is not impossible to edit one's own work, but it is difficult. Your brain tells you what you want it to and a lot of things can get skipped.

All I said was that cliches can be misunderstood easily in a number of ways, and I did mention the exception for dialogue.

Cliches are really shortcut metaphors to imply a meaning. If a cliche doesn't add to the value of a piece, then find a better way to express your thought.

****************

Anyway, here's a new one. Using the word "now" when describing a progression of action taking place in the past tense.

Eg, "He was exhausted and panting now."

The word "now" means 'at this moment in the present time.' Using it as described above is incorrect. It is, however, a commonly committed error. I just heard it in a narrative on TV last night.

What would have been wrong with "He was exhausted and began to pant."?

Authors should avoid using cliches and hackneyed phrases. Although we might use them in everyday conversation, a literary work is a work of art and should be original. In addition, a cliche is usually a metaphor that is intended to imply a certain meaning to a situation ("Love is a two-way street"). It is never certain, however, that every reader will absorb the meaning of the metaphor in its intended way.

For example, love may be a relationship in which two people give and take to/from each other in a reciprocal way. A person might take that phrase to mean that Love is a situation in which a person gets trampled on from two directions.

This is especially true with internet publishing which reaches people in a number of countries and cultures.

There can be exceptions, such as when writing dialogue and trying to give characters certain attributes. Other cases might be those when the writer is attempting humor or satire. Those are specialized cases.

We are all guilty from time to time. Editing is the best way to weed out cliches prior to publishing.

I heartily agree on the paragraph breaks.

On one hand, many authors run on and lose readers' attention. On the other, many don't begin a new paragraph when switching speakers in dialogue.

I use a practice to attempt to limit the number of sentences in any one paragraph to six. I might break the rule once per story, but there must be a compelling reason to do so.

I hate to mention just one; there are so many. On a general level, the most aggravating thing is an author whose work makes it obvious that he/she has not even bothered to attempt to edit.

Some authors feel that adherence to basic grammatical ground rules detracts from their freedom of artistic spirit. They forget how confusing and disorienting it is for readers to cope with multiple, gross errors and how these errors can sometimes obscure the author's intended meaning. Literature is a two-way street (excuse the cliche) between author and reader. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our side of the work we forget the other side.

On the technical side, one area to look at is the proper punctuation of dialogue. Sometimes I read a story and it appears to me that the author was so unsure of the grammar rules in this area that he/she avoided using dialogue in the story, and that is a big loss.

By using Third Person (TP) I believe the pov character(s) can be nuanced more than by using First (FP). The readers will accept various attitudes, moods, beliefs, etc. of the character and accept the character evolving over the course of the story. Even in possibly the greatest FP novel, Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Huck, as the narrator, remains constant in these aspects while he tells the story relating the acts and words of the other characters. It is apparent that Huck's view of all that happens in the novel is actually the author's (Twain's) view.

If the story is in FP, then the author is saying, "This is me telling you how I view what is going on." If the author portrays oneself as having a dark side, being immature, or other bad trait, then the reader recoils and asks "if you're like this, why am I paying attention to you?" If an author wants to use a main character and/or pov character who has some flaws it goes much easier in TP.

In a story with multiple chapters FP is especially a handicap because each chapter or scene has to be seen through the eyes of the first person narrator. That means that no action can be portrayed first-hand without the presence of that narrator on the scene. In thase cases a FP narrator must rely on a second-hand recounting of off-camera events and that can be very limiting.

TP has some difficulties. It is harder to impart true, believable human feelings and emotions to a third person. I feel that is why some writers opt for FP. It also requires some discipline to avoid 'Headhopping Syndrome'.

My views on this are limited strictly to prose. If poetry, and other forms of the writing arts were in the discussion, then I believe my views might be more ambivalent on the subject.

Of course, if writing was easy, then everyone would be doing it and then where would we be?

AW

I guess I fall into the "beginning writer" category here, as almost all my stories are written in first person


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Just to clarify, I said that many beginning writers use First Person, but did not wish to imply that all users of First Person are beginners. Mark Twain, for example, used First Person extensively.

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