Eye of the Fiend: A Writer's Guide

[Fiendish]

This is something I decided to write up after seeing some of the horrible writing in this section. However, because I'm a lazy SOB, I didn't get around to it until now.

While the writing has, for the most part, gotten better, some of it is still painful to read, and so I go by my decision to write this up.

This is NOT an all-encompassing guide; I do not claim to be the best writer in the world, nor do I claim an English major in any way. This guide is just to correct many of the simple mistakes I see in most of the stories here.

As said earlier, the writings recently are MUCH improved, but this guide still needs to be written. I spent as much time on naming this thread as I did writing it- enjoy.

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Eye of the Fiend: A Writer's Guide

Alright, so you've decided you want to write a story. GOOD FOR YOU! Writing a story is a good way to relieve stress, get ideas out of your head, or shut that leprechaun up. Whatever the reason, you want to write a story, and you have a good storyline in your head. Now, how to post it so others will read it?

Part 1: Paragraphs. I know, these are annoying to do, but they are necessary evils if you want a story that's easily readable. Unlike word processors, this forum doesn't do indentations. So you double space at the end of one paragraph. Hit enter or return(whichever your computer uses) twice. Then start your next paragraph.

Part 2: Spellcheck. Spellcheck should be an easy thing to do, after all, you aren't using the QR option to post the first part of your story- if you are, copy what you have, go to "create new thread", and paste, and continue. Now, the giant box should do a good amount of spellchecking for you as you type. This is the best way to do it, but there are others.
Apparently, it only really works with Firefox and Safari, so put it in Word or other similar word processor.

Part 3: Grammar Check. This one is just a matter of opening up Word, pasting your story(properly paragraphed for Internet purposes) in, and looking for the green lines. Those should eliminate most of your grammatical mistakes, and might even show a few more spelling mistakes as well.

Part 4: Dialog. This is the most common mistake I still see, and that's the dialog. The important thing to remember is whenever someone starts speaking, that's a new Paragraph. When someone else responds, that's also a new Paragraph.

EXAMPLE:

... they had so much fun.

"That was fun," Susie said.

"Yeah, sure was," Mark said.

Of course, for the Internet, I like to block the dialog together, like so:

... they had so much fun.

"That was fun," Susie said.
"Yeah, sure was," Mark said.

Then they rode off...


This is also acceptable for an Internet writing.

Part 5: Creativity. Try to write about things you haven't seen much of-or at all- already posted. Makes for a more gripping read, since it's not the same story rehashed with different characters. Try to come up with some unique scenarios. Not to say you shouldn't use ideas already here- some are solid, which is why they're so many places, but try to use less of those and more unique ideas, locations, people, and situations.

That's all for this edition of Eye of the Fiend. Tune in next time to find out what else I'll rant about...


Side Note: 100th post