Topic: My comments, writing, spelling, grammar, etc... (the unhijacking thread)  (Read 3485 times)

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Offline CaptJosh

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Rather than continue to hijack someone's story thread, I'm moving this conversation to a thread of its own.

First of all, as far as my spelling and grammar go, typographical errors are the bane of us all. Such errors are compounded by a desire for speed. However, I am just as hard on my own errors as anyone else's. I've been known to correct my spelling on posts that are month old, just because I couldn't stand to leave such posts the way they were. I'm an equal opportunity grammarian.

As for whether or not I'm going to let all of you be the judges of quality on a story that is 4 or 5 years stale now, I don't think so. I do appreciate for the offer. Unfortunately, at the moment I feel that story has died due to neglect. Perhaps I might pick it up again at a later date, but right now, I'd rather just bury it and start fresh.

With all that said, if you feel like ripping on me some more, go for it. I couldn't care less right now, as I have a headache I need to go deal with.
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

Offline Commander La'ra

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Josh, there are very few better places than this (in my experience at least) to post something you'd like to improve.  With very few exceptions, most of the people here WANT to help other writers improve.  We're not gonna rip up an old story you have the courage to post, and we'll also do our best to provide criticism in a manner that isn't mean-spirited or unhelpful.

I've developed a whole hell of a lot, writing wise, since I posted by first La'ra story in 2001.  If you wanna see just how much, hop over to Andy's site and read one of my earlier stories.  I credit a large portion of my improvement to these forums and the people I've met on them.

The effort...both of posting a story publically and of accepting the positive and negative feedback you recieve...is worth it on a level I can't really convey.

This is, honestly, part of the reason I reacted badly to your correction of other people's posts.  The atmosphere in this forum has always been very friendly and very helpful...while a gentle 'heads up' in regards to a bad mistake in a story is appreciated, pointing out small errors in a normal post seemed unneccesarily nitpicky to me.  Hence the somewhat negative reaction.

Anyway, whether you choose to post your older story or start a new one, I strongly encourage you to post some of your writing.  Once you start doing that, I'm confident you'll see where I, and others, have been coming from.
"Dialogue from a play, Hamlet to Horatio: 'There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.' Dialogue from a play written long before men took to the sky. There are more things in heaven and earth, and in the sky, than perhaps can be dreamt of. And somewhere in between heaven, the sky, the earth, lies the Twilight Zone."
                                                                 ---------Rod Serling, The Last Flight

Offline KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.

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La'ra pretty much hit it on the head, Josh. Not sure what else I can say that he didn't, but I'll try and come up with something.

I've been a member of this community for about five years now, give or take the occasional hiatus. I've been writing stories here for nearly all of that time. (Now that I think about it, I think only Kadh and Blyre are the only active/semi-active writers who have been here longer.) In that time, I've never regretted posting a story here for others to read. Some of my old stuff, from when I first started, was really bad, too-- it's a good thing I no longer have it on my hard drive anyway, because I wouldn't touch it now with a ten foot pole. And believe you me, I got ripped pretty badly a couple times, back when I was in a cooperative writing universe with some other authors, for some errors in storytelling judgment.

Since then, however, the atmosphere here has been nothing but supportive. Everyone here remembers what it was like being a novice writer, posting their first story for others to see, and no one here will be anything but supportive. (Wait until you get some experience, and people actually start expecting certain things from you-- that's when you start getting ripped. ;) ) As for grammatics- you won't find anyone here who disagrees with you. It's a lot harder to enjoy a story when it's riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Heck, almost every new chapter of anything of mine, I run by S'Tasik to make sure there are no such errors in the text. He does find one occasionally, although it's mostly formatting errors. When you use bold/italics as much as I do, you're bound to make a few of those here or there, and board code errors can make a story even harder to enjoy than typos. ;D

What I'm saying is that all of us would like to see you stay. We'd love to see a new face around here, especially one with new work to share. I promise, you'll get nothing but constructive criticisms from me and just about everyone else on this board. Heck, if your stuff's good enough, you might even get the coveted Grim Reaper "GIMME MORE" post! :lol:

Sorry if I rambled, there was a lot I was trying to say in a short post. ;)
"One minute to space doors."

"Are you just going to walk through them?"

"Calm yourself, Doctor."

Offline CaptJosh

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Oh I'm sticking around. I just figured I'd unhijack that story thread we were talking about. I've already got an idea for an S.C.E. story that I may post the initial chapter of within the next few days. Maybe even tomorrow afternoon after church. Right now I need to go get some sleep, though. Don't think you're chasing me away, though. I'm not that easy to get rid of. If I was, I would have left the community the moment they suggested I wing with Hexx for the Attack of the Kitties II: The Wrath of Jinn server that's about to go live. :D
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

Offline KOTH-KieranXC, Ret.

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Oh I'm sticking around. I just figured I'd unhijack that story thread we were talking about. I've already got an idea for an S.C.E. story that I may post the initial chapter of within the next few days. Maybe even tomorrow afternoon after church. Right now I need to go get some sleep, though.

Right on.

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Don't think you're chasing me away, though. I'm not that easy to get rid of. If I was, I would have left the community the moment they suggested I wing with Hexx for the Attack of the Kitties II: The Wrath of Jinn server that's about to go live. :D

;D Hexx, huh? You'll be needing T-bombs. Lots and lots of T-bombs. :lol:
"One minute to space doors."

"Are you just going to walk through them?"

"Calm yourself, Doctor."

Offline CaptJosh

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Quote
Quote
Don't think you're chasing me away, though. I'm not that easy to get rid of. If I was, I would have left the community the moment they suggested I wing with Hexx for the Attack of the Kitties II: The Wrath of Jinn server that's about to go live. :D

;D Hexx, huh? You'll be needing T-bombs. Lots and lots of T-bombs. :lol:

Oh I know...Believe me I know, Muahahahahahahahaha...ahem...'scuse me. Don't know where that evil anime character laugh came from.
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

Offline CaptJosh

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Apologies for the double post. I just wanted to let all y'all know you can expect a new topic from me some time tonight. I'm working on the first installment of a new story.
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.

Offline Grim Reaper

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coveted Grim Reaper "GIMME MORE" post!

LMAO Kieran, just know you've earned those you got (and heck of lot more too)
Snickers@DND: If there is one straight answer in that bent little head of yours, you'd better start spillin' it pretty damn quick, or I'm gonna take a large, blunt object, roughly the size of Kallae AND his hat and shove it lengthwise up a crevice of your being so seldomly cleaned that even the denizens of the nine hells would not touch it with a 10-feet rusty pole

Offline CaptJosh

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BTW, if by some chance any of you missed it, I have posted the first chapter of a new story.

http://www.dynaverse.net/forum/index.php/topic,163358381.0.html

Let me know what you think.
CaptJosh

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.