Struggling Writer Needs Help.

My experience at the library has been exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. I am in need of a pre- posting editor to help make sure my last story part of Negotiated Sitter's Terms come to a pleasing and logical conclusion. It is very apparent as a consensus is is a babysitter who can not go unscathed. Please if there is a writer out there who has the good seal of approval of Flopsy I would appreciate a message.

I seriously doubt I have flopsy's "good seal of approval", but I have helped other writers here with their stories and I could take a look at what you have. You can email me. Email is on my author page.

My stories don't always get "the good seal of approval of Flopsy," so I'm just giving you an idea:

IMHO you should be open to suggestions from your readers RE the plotline and characterizations in your writing, BUT you don't have to follow any "consensus" from your readership if something else seems or feels better to you as an author.

I've read the serial you're referring to and IIRC I'm likely a part of that "consensus" via my comments, but I'll hardly be upset if you end up doing something else with the story line.

Sometimes people get away with less-than-perfect conduct/attitudes--it happens in RL and you could have it happen in your serial as well... --C.K.

Here is the seal of approval awarded to Rollin and CK. Thanks for the cheques, boys. Oooops - I promised not to tell ....
What new writers most often need help with is sentence structure grammar and punctuation - especially within dialogue.
Good luck

Here's one piece of advice for beginning authors - read a book. Not something from the net or a self published one - just an average book. As you do, look at how that book handles sentence structures and punctuation. I'm not saying that the average book won't have a few editing errors, but it's been written by someone who gets paid to write, proofread, edited, etc so that can give you a good general idea.

Another piece of advice? Start a new paragraph whenever someone starts talking. There are a few times you can skip that but other than having anonymous voices in a crowd you always start a new paragraph when someone starts speaking.

Goodgulf

Ahhhh well, thank you so much for your highly-valued approval, 'sealed with a bark,' I suppose.

As for the check (cheque), I'd forgotten that I closed out that account back in June.

Don't worry though, I'll be sending you another (valid) one--as soon as I complete all my unfinished serials... --C.K.

I'll second GG's advice, and that's something any writer should heed. If you want to write then read, Read a lot across genres, fiction and non fiction. It will improve you as a writer and probably also broaden your life in general.

The other thing of course for authors who may be rusty is for them to re-read their work once it has been validated and any problems amended. We do our best to assist and support people but it does need to be a two way thing and people could learn a lot by simply comparing the before and after in a lot of cases.

When I started on the library, some *cough* years ago now, I was very rusty but I made a point of brushing up my skills, there are pages on-line that allow you to test your knowledge and improve, which is great I find

But don't forget to re-read your work before you even submit it! I find it very effective to "age" my completed story for a few days after completion, then re-read. This allows my memory to fade just enough so that I can read my work almost as if it were written by someone else. It's amazing how many errors I find that way.

Vaughn

I don't actually do the validating of submissions myself but I do pre-format and tidy them up prior to loading them all and it's clear in some cases that a lot of the things that need to be fixed are simply due to lack of attention to detail rather than issues with grammar and punctuation, although there are plenty of those too. In some cases it looks as if whatever has been written has never even once been read back so I would strongly support what Guy has said and encourage the re-reading of whatever has been written, to see what it sounds like but also with an eye on the detail. Basic things like making sure there's a space following a comma, and a full stop (period) at the end of a sentence. Also as Goodgulf has pointed out make sure you start a new paragraph when someone starts talking as that improves readability enormously.

On the punctuation front, the thing that seems to cause the most confusion is punctuation within speech marks and the error I see by far the most is:

"You need a good spanking." He said.

which should be:

"You need a good spanking," he said.

We've been meaning to write an author's guide for about a year now that hopefully might be of some help to those just getting started but every time we start it something else comes along to distract us. Hopefully, we'll get it done before the end of the year.

Lastly, I'd urge new writers not to be put off by having to deal with grammar and punctuation, there are people who will offer to help and it's certainly worth persevering in order to end up with a quality end product.