The scale

[Officelover]

I have created the idea for a scale of measuring how good a story is. It's grounded in five parts. They are as follows:

1. Spelling and Grammar
2. Description
3. Originality
4. Alibidonous
5. Length

Yes, I've just coined the term "Alibidonous".

Allow me to explain:

1. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR: (30 pts.)

If you run a story through Microsoft Word, odds are you'll get some sort of red or green line underneath the words. True, there are some certain things like sentence fragments that are understanble. That's poetic licence.

But for every incomprehensible error marking, we should deduct half a point from the "final score". So a post with six spelling and grammar errors will have three points taken away. Seem fair?

2. DESCRIPTION (30 pts.)

Consider the two possible ways of describing a walk at nighttime.

"It was night. The girl went out of her house, and walked down the street."

"On that one beautiful moonlit night, the stars shone brightly. Jessica slipped out of her house, and stared into the sky. It was cold, and she wished she'd brought a jacket. The stars were pinholes of light in her dark mood right now.

Jessica wore a blue T-Shirt, and a white skirt. She remembered the last time she slipped out at night like this- it always had a calming effect on her.

She sauntered down the road, wondering what would await her..."

Things to add:

• Adjectives and adverbs. These really help paint a picture of the moment. Instead of having "I saw a house." you could say "I thankfully saw a brightly-lit, beautiful house."
• Metaphors and similies- All part of the "writers toolbox". (Metaphors are like "The sunset was painted by God." A similie includes 'like' or 'as' and is like "The sunset looked like it was painted by God." or "It was if the sunset was painted by God.")
• Use a wide vocabulary. getDare is 13 up. I should hope we all know at least three synonyms for "see", "happy", "go", "good", "like".

(see- http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/see/)
(happy- http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/happy/)
(go- http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/go/)
(good- http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/good/)
(like- http://www.synonym.com/synonyms/like/)

• Stay away from monotony. Try reading this: "Jeremy was happy that day. He went to check his e-mail. He got dressed. He went down stairs. He ate breakfast. He said "Good morning mom." His mome said "Good morning." -pretty terrible right? Well, try using a mixture or nouns and pronouns, and split up the way you add quotations.
• Give Background information. And that's not just saying, in the beginning, "Jessica had blonde hair. She was tall, and hot. She had 38DD boobs." Background information should be included in almost every chapter, mixed in with the dialogue and story.
• BE DESCRIPTIVE!

So, there should be about 30 points for the description. That's six points for every topic. If a post uses many adverbs and adjectives, no metaphors and similies, a fairly wide vocabulary, is not very monotonous, and gives background information, it should get 18 points, rather than the full thirty.

3. ORIGINALITY (30 pts.)

How many stories involve taking pictures and blackmail? I know mine does. But within the story itself, mine is very different from, say- Insanity's (whose? never mind.) "Sarah's First Time as a Slave".

So my suggestion for this is totally how new the plot or the dares or the ordeals are. Half should go to real plot (15 points for what major things happen- boy takes picture of girl. Blackmails her. Uses her as sex slave. Lets her go. She is changed, for the better.) and half should go to the things done (ex. ageplay, petplay, whipping, torture, etc...)

4. ALIBIDONOUS (20 pts.)

I've created this term to mean "not neccesarily having to do with the libido." This basically means, not just about sex. If your story is a story solely focused around the ultamite rape or consentual sex of a blackmailed woman, it is taking away from the other peices of the story (e.g. how she reacts, his/her inner psychology, other horrible things he makes her do, etc...)

It doesn't neccesarily have to do all with sex. Sex can be involved, but I don't think it should be the basis of the story.

5. LENGTH (20 pts.)

Short posts are frustrating. It's common knowledge. It may be annoying, but post longer please. Thank you. But too long is also annoying.

(Reallllllllllllllllllllllllly long- 15 pts.
Very Long- 20
Long- 15
Medium- 10
Short- 0/5)

TIPS

• Run your posts through Microsoft Word or any wrod proccessor really before you post them here. It makes things look better, and will remove spelling and grammar errors.
• Need synonyms? Antonyms? Try the thesaurus. Don't have one? Try this: http://thesaurus.reference.com/
• "Wait- what's the difference between a metaphor and a similie?" http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com...metaphors.aspx Never fear, grammar girl is here!
• Don't use the name Sarah. Please. It's been used over 40 times. I've counted.
• Use humor, but sparingly.
• You might want to save the story on Word, and move it here. It's happened to me, like, thirty times that I've typed a whole section only for it to be deleted and gone for good.
• You might want to say the dialogue out loud, to see if it sounds natural.

**********Form**********

1. Spelling and Grammar- how many errors? #/2=____
2. Description

____ / 30

a. Adjectives and Adverbs:

A lot- 6/6
A little- 3/6
Never- 0/6

b. Metaphors and Similies:

A lot- 6/6
A little- 3/6
Never- 0/6

c. Vocabulary:

Wide- 6/6
Moderately Wide- 3/6
None- 0/6

d. Advoids monotony?

Completely- 6/6
Sometimes- 3/6
Never- 0/6

e. Background information:

A lot- 6/6
A little- 3/6
None- 0/6

3. Originality

___ / 30

PLOT: ___ / 15
EVENTS: ___ / 15

4. Alibidonous

_ _ / 20

5. Length

___/ 20

Reallllllllllllllllllllllllly long- 15 pts.
Very Long- 20
Long- 15
Medium- 10
Short- 0/5

BONUS POINTS-

___ / 10

Why? __________________________________________________ _______

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Standard grades apply, so from:

100-97 is A+
96-93 is A
92-90 is A-
90-87 is B+
86-83 is B
82-80 is B-
80-77 is C+
76-73 is C
72-70 is C-
70-67 is D+
66-63 is D
62-60 is D-
Anything below 60 is an F

Please comment on this! This took me forever!

Love,

Officelover

[Coyote]

This should either be stickied or put in the Best of Getdare forums

[Person]

Yes this is good, I think it should be stickied.

[plaything]

i think this is kinda worthless.....people can judge the story on their own and different things matter to different people so the scale cant help all getdare users

[plaything]

but thats just my opinion....this scale might matter to different people and they may have a totally different take on it then i do

[Komodo Jones]

It's a good idea Officelover...but I think you're just being a little too critical about this subject. There are some points that I agree with I can say that much, like there should be background, avoid monotony, stay away from the name of Sarah! I think that you should remember that the majority of authors here write to entertain people and themselves not to recieve a grade. There are some good tips that people should read but I don't think you necessarily need a scale to grade whether it's a good story or not. People can discern that from their own opinions and tastes.

[Officelover]

Might I add that every grade should be bumped up by 10 points, just to be fair. I'd like to thank everyone for their comments, and I might come out with an edited version of this soon.

Thanks everyone!

[quidproquo]

Officelover, I really like this, and I think a lot of writers would do well to read this, even some I've seen who are published. However, I feel like it is somewhat incomplete.

It seems to me you are focusing on microelements of the story such as word choice, grammar, and plot, which is fine, but I think there are many stories that do well in these areas but are still somewhat mediocre. I would encourage sections that evaluate macroelements like suspense, character development, theme, irony, dramatic tension, and voice.

I do not think these are elements that are too high minded for T or D stories, in fact, I think elements like these make the crucial difference between something that is merely a power or sexual fantasy and something that is a truly enjoyable story.

For example, lot of stories have great potential for character development and tension. Perhaps the person blackmailing feels ethical qualms about his behavior, or he is acting out his need for control because he actually feel impotent, or whatever works for your character, but these tensions are rarely really explored, let alone developed or resolved in a way the provides an interesting and changing character.

Perfection is simple, real people are complex. If I write the perfect master or the perfect slave, he/she is not believable. The more I rush through a story to get to plot elements, the more it is boring. I think complex, conflicted, and multi-faceted characters lead to interesting stories, even if they are less 'ideal' or extreme.

Just some thoughts...

[Dylan xX]

I printed this up and I use it for my school english assignments too now!!

Excellent job OfficeLover!

This could really help some people

[coolio5]

Thanks OfficeLover, this is great.

And if you wouldnt mind, would you please grade my story (That crazy school trip...) with it? Thanks so much

[chubbsman7]

This should definitely be stickied.

I congratulate you on writing this. I can tell you definitely put a lot of time, and effort into putting this post up.

I don't have much time to write anymore, but I plan on concluding my story in the next several posts. It's not a long story, but it's not a short story.

I can stand almost ANY story, as long as the grammar in it isn't horrible, and unstandable.

Adjectives make everything work. Adjectives adjectives adjectives!

This post is by far the best post in the Authors Cafe, thank-you VERY much!

[CollaredBlondie]

This is a really good idea! I can't guarantee that many will use it though...

But still go you for posting it =)

[jackfromnyc]

Originally Posted by Conrad

I printed this up and I use it for my school english assignments too now!!

Excellent job OfficeLover!

This could really help some people

and they say there is not educational benefit to dare and slave sites!!!!!!

[andrew_b]

any chance you could read one of my stories and see what you think, i think grammer wise it's fine but not so descriptive

[Star Shadows]

Horribly unconscientiously presented grammar is my biggest pet peeve on here people think that they don’t need paragraphs, capital letters or apostrophes (People what have the little ‘’s done to offend thee so much???) or correct punctuation and it gets right on my wick as well as people using words that aren’t words or text speak when out of context. If I can’t understand it I won’t read it.

I agree with you 100% on this system OfficeLover and can see how long you must have spent writing this up for us.
Thanks and congratulations to you and someone PLEASE PLEASE sticky this so that people can learn what makes a story people want to read.

P.S and on the note of Alibidonous I personally couldn’t agree more however my friend keeps complaining that my story doesn’t have enough sex. Guess you can’t please everyone