Eye of the Fiend: A Writer's Guide

Fiendish · 01-16-2008, 01:50 PM

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

Sum · 01-16-2008, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fiendish

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.

Not sure what you mean here. As far as I'm aware (from just checking) the advanced reply does not have spell checking features. If you're seeing one it's probably a feature of your web browser. Firefox does red underlines as does safari (on osx as least not sure about the widows beta, can't remember off hand about Konqueror. Opera doesn't do underlines but set up properly highlight the text and right click and it's there on the menu that comes up. Other browsers I'm not sure of as I've not used recent versions of them. But I know IE6 doesn't have spell checking.

Alternately stick it into your word processing program, if you don't have MS Word and don't want to pay for it, or get it on the sly here's a free one http://www.openoffice.org/ pretty good, and has pretty much all the features of Word.

Alternately if you want to remain online and not download anything and have a google account there is http://docs.google.com or another alternative is http://www.zoho.com/ again pretty nice.

These are all free, legal alternatives to Microshafts products.

Fiendish · 01-16-2008, 02:30 PM

I thought it was a feature of the site...

Ah, well.

Sum · 01-25-2008, 03:32 PM

Extra, if you have opera and want in-line spell checking, check out this handy userjs file (userjs is operas built in equivalent of greasemonkey)
http://opera.gt500.org/ospell/

01-16-2008, 01:50 PM	#1
Fiendish getDare Sweetheart Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The 9th Level of Hell Posts: 339 Blog Entries: 12	Eye of the Fiend: A Writer's Guide 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. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 __________________ I have no signature! Last edited by Fiendish; 01-16-2008 at 02:49 PM.

01-16-2008, 02:30 PM	#3
Fiendish getDare Sweetheart Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: The 9th Level of Hell Posts: 339 Blog Entries: 12	I thought it was a feature of the site... Ah, well. __________________ I have no signature!

01-25-2008, 03:32 PM	#4
Sum getDare Devil Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,049 Blog Entries: 9	Extra, if you have opera and want in-line spell checking, check out this handy userjs file (userjs is operas built in equivalent of greasemonkey) http://opera.gt500.org/ospell/ __________________ Through the darkness of futures past The magician longs to see One chants out between two worlds Fire walk with me I'm off to kinktalk. Bye all.