Sonny_Summers

Having been on the receiving end of a negativity troll, I'm rather glad it's gone at the moment. If done well, and everybody's honest with like/dislike, the its good feedback. Otherwise, those trolls are a good way to discourage newer authors who've just started publishing and are a bit unsure of themselves.

I would really like a rating system inplemented. Dragon prints only keep track of clicks on a story but doesnt really give enough feed back. As anwriter, id like to know how well the reader liked my story, and since bery few actually leave reviews, a rating system would be a better feedback. I realize that sometimes it can be used as a "punishment" if a reader is super negative towards a writer but thats what reporting and things are for. And as a reader, it'd be nice to know whether a story is worth reading by seeing the rating system.

I agree. However I do try not to use the same kind of descriptions over and over. I have a horror of repeating myself except where I want to for emphasis. I’ve also had to start finding more subtile ways of describing things than using adverbs. Sadly this can make things a bit more wordy. I tend to be a bit limited in how to describe emotions and so-on too because, being unable to see, I’ve very little understanding of things like facial expressions and body language. It can be very hard to find alternatives to… “she said angrily,” “He said excitedly,” “she announced sternly.” I wonder too if sighted people might find my writing sometimes odd, since I tend to write in a way that makes my screen reader read it back most effectively, and that looks right on the braille display. I imagine sometimes that might not quite tally with ease of reading for a sighted person. For instance if I use italics, neither display nore screen reader gives any indication that they’re there. It would be great if I could use something like, “That is *really* bad!” However I’m told by everything I’ve read this isn’t really permissible. Even to me it doesn’t look right in fiction writing so I don’t… except when talking online.

I can’t see why you wouldn’t. It removes ambiguity In writing you want to make sure you’re only ambigious where you want to be.

I think Original – Misc works for this.

Thanks C.R, I was thinking of looking for someone like that actually, I will have to have a careful think about what I ask for though as I’m very possessive of my work haha.
 
@D.P: Could well be it will work then, TBH really in word it's probably a matter of learning keystrokes. I've just never taken the time, especially as I've been unsure of correct usage, and of course worrying about this kind of thing tends to cramp my creativity. Generally I take the attitude if the spell checker can be made happy I consider it done. That's probably a bit lax though I know. Given the nature of the story, I have of course always been very careful in the past who I show it to. I don't know any sighted person personally who I would feel comfortable giving it to. I may well ask officially on here when I've got my thoughts properly together. And on that note... bed! Thanks so much everyone you've made me feel really welcome.

Oh wow! I’m so going to enjoy all the debates I can start here LOL. Seriously though again thanks all for your thoughts. I personally wouldn’t use the exclamation marks unless the person was shouting or particularly angry. It is a hard one to call though. One feels there should be some kind of pause indicator, but with it being every single word it really looks and sounds very odd if you do it that way. On the other hand, without them it’s sort of… not very effective. It’s an unusual situation anyway as in this particular instance it’s quite a long speech. 23 words! ATM I’ve changed it to no abnormal punctuation as per Bronx and Melrick’s advice.

Thanks C.R, I was thinking of looking for someone like that actually, I will have to have a careful think about what I ask for though as I’m very possessive of my work haha.
 
@D.P: Could well be it will work then, TBH really in word it's probably a matter of learning keystrokes. I've just never taken the time, especially as I've been unsure of correct usage, and of course worrying about this kind of thing tends to cramp my creativity. Generally I take the attitude if the spell checker can be made happy I consider it done. That's probably a bit lax though I know. Given the nature of the story, I have of course always been very careful in the past who I show it to. I don't know any sighted person personally who I would feel comfortable giving it to. I may well ask officially on here when I've got my thoughts properly together. And on that note... bed! Thanks so much everyone you've made me feel really welcome.

As is being aptly demonstrated here, one problem with grammar talk is conflicting advice/rules. I’ve researched tonnes of grammar questions and no two sources seem to agree on anything but the most basic rules. Currently I’m using the elipses as a pause indicater where someone’s either trailing off or else nervous or unsure. As in: “But I… I can’t sit there.” It’ll be staying that way whatever anyone says because changing it now would be a humungous chore. I have an exceedingly shy unsure main character haha. In any case I’ve never seen that done any other way. Same with two spaces after a fullstop. I was taught to type that way and when writing something official I can’t break the habit. Again it seems changing that would be an utter nightmare, even though some now seem to be saying don’t do it. Another question that comes to mind is how you show that a character is emphasising a word or phrase. Usually I just use a tag, though sometimes that is clumsy. Some people use all caps, “I NEVER cook!” But I’m not sure if that’s amateurish, but I can’t be doing with italics and bolds and stuff I never worked out how to do it using the keyboard. I was supposedly taught word processing at school, but it was over the transfer from DOS, and with all the trouble getting the new Windows to work, and the early screen reader, our teacher spent far more time troubleshooting than teaching. As a result I’m still picking it up as I go along. Appologies also for the lack of paragraphs, as I can’t see what my writing looks like I do tend to forget, especially as some boxes don’t allow them. Too often I’ve pressed enter only to find myself posting before I’d finished. I’m more careful when I write, I like to think I’m improving slowly.

Oh wow! I’m so going to enjoy all the debates I can start here LOL. Seriously though again thanks all for your thoughts. I personally wouldn’t use the exclamation marks unless the person was shouting or particularly angry. It is a hard one to call though. One feels there should be some kind of pause indicator, but with it being every single word it really looks and sounds very odd if you do it that way. On the other hand, without them it’s sort of… not very effective. It’s an unusual situation anyway as in this particular instance it’s quite a long speech. 23 words! ATM I’ve changed it to no abnormal punctuation as per Bronx and Melrick’s advice.

First, if this is in the wrong place I sincerely appologize. I’m knew here and also totally blind, forums aren’t my strong point.
 
If you were writing a piece of dialogue where the speaker pauses between each word, how would you indicate that with punctuation? Would you use a comma “,” or elypsis “...” between each word? Or is it better to just say beforehand that the speaker is doing this and just write the dialogue as noral?
Does it depend on the situation? The exact situation I have in mind is a spanking scene where someone punctuates each word with a slap.

Thank you Bronx and Melrick for your comments. @Bronx, oh yeah I’ve seen that too, with slap after every word, try having a speech synthersiser read it to you.  I’ll take your advice I think, it’ll save my spell checker a headache anyway.