Help Needed!

If the size of our In box is anything to go by, it seems more people are writing spanking stories during lockdowns! It's great to have more material, but we run into problems and delays when the material sent in is full of mistakes. Just to be clear, we don't expect everything submitted to be perfect, but we do require a basic standard of literacy - so nothing too complex, mostly the kind of stuff taught in junior and senior schools. Writing should be enjoyable, there are just a few rules to get to grips with.

Quite a few authors struggle with dialogue, using the correct tense and punctuation in narrative and dialogue, and displaying an understanding of point of view. These things get easier with practice of course, but it does identify a need, which leads me to make a plea for half a dozen people who would be prepared to give some of their time for no reward (mass exodus at this point!) by helping authors who need some assistance to shape up their story ready for loading. Some new authors particularly need a bit of hand holding and constructive feedback initially, until they get the hang of what's involved.

We're looking for people with proven writing ability, a knowledge of grammar, and editorial experience and an eye for detail; people who can explain to others via email what's required and why. We're not expecting helpers/mentors to provide an ongoing service to the same person and continually rewrite their work, as the author ultimately should absorb enough information to make the effort to go it alone with increased confidence.

We're grateful for our validators (though we used to have 8 or 9 and are now down to just 3 stalwarts who do their best to keep going) but they are tasked mainly with writing synopses and indexing; their remit is only to edit obvious mistakes in the story files, but so much more could be done prior to the validation process.

If there are any volunteers out there, please identify yourselves and I'll get in touch by popup, and we'll take things from there.

Many thanks,
flopsy

By all means, count me in. It would be a privilege to help, especially new writers.

Fantastic. Thank you so much for your support and giving up free time. I'll be in touch.

I could spare some time at present. Can I be of any help?

You certainly can. Many thanks Patxi, I'll be in touch.

I would be happy to assist.

Geoffrey Stirling.

Sure thing, Flopsy - be happy to help!

Geoffrey and Phil, thank you both so much. That's great.

I'm happy to help now that I'm retired.

Neil

I'd be happy to serve as a validator as well.