5 Star Ratings

[NightScribe]

Don't you know? The only people in the 'Verse that matter are on the forum!

(Yeah, so doomed)

I feel the love, man. *doing the "trippy hippie" dance* Like wow, man, wow. And like, dude...hey, don't bogart that joint!...we're gonna, like, ya know...take over the universe someday. And that's like...far out.

Is there a full moon rising? Because that would explain my bizarre behavior of late. Or maybe I'm just fully embracing my lunacy. Or maybe the somewhat nasty (as in dirty) fic I'm planning is playing havoc with my personality. I love my Snape, but oh, Lucius...hee hee hee. I wish I could remember a great quote by Rod Serling, you know, the Twilight Zone guy. He was talking about writing and said something along the lines of, "you can spend all that time writing something and then realize it's a real turd." That killed me. I've got to find that and quote it properly.

I fully accept my doom. And any literary excrement I may produce.

[Iggy_lovechild]

BTW - Am I the only one who can spot errors while reading other peoples work but not see them at all in my own? I mean, I know the difference between than & then but when I write I seem to loose that knowledge somewhere between my brain and my fingers.

You're not alone. I've had to teach myself to carefully concentrate on what I'm reading when I'm editing or beta-reading my own stories (sometimes I have other people beta for me, but since my current fandom is so small, trying to find one is a pain. That and I'm too impaitent. Once I have a story finished and typed up, I'm like: Okay, I wanna post noooowww).

And I still sometimes end up posting with typos!

(Which I usually fix asap depending on their severity. I must confess if it's something small, I can ignore it for a long time, but if it's this huge glaring problem, I fix it right as I notice it.)

[NightScribe]

As for posting with errors, I've done it myself. Even though I read hard copies, several times over, before posting, something will slip through. I think our brain registers a sentence as correct, some sort of weird subconscious thing where we think we're seeing what we meant to say. My main problem is with that occasionally misspelled word (leaving a letter off) that isn't caught by spell checker. Meaning to type the and leaving off the 't' so it reads he. Or intending to use past tense and forgetting that 'ed' at the end. I don't have grammar check on my wp program (I've looked, believe me).

When I find mistakes, I try to go back and fix them, usually when I post another chapter. If it's a completed work, I'll try to make all corrections at once. Unfortunately, in that situation, some people get a little snippy, thinking you're trying to bump your story up in the listings to get more hits, when you're just trying to fix those little things that bug the crap out of you.

[Guest cu-kid]

Unfortunately, in that situation, some people get a little snippy, thinking you're trying to bump your story up in the listings to get more hits, when you're just trying to fix those little things that bug the crap out of you.

Ugh, don't you hate that? I actually had someone email me and tell me to quit bumping my story after I had posted it one night and had found all kinds of mistakes the next day. I ground my teeth and ignored it since some people will just never understand perfectionists and the obssessive compulsive nature that comes with being one.

I did have one person say that she saw a few errors in one of my postings (after I left an author's note saying that I had stared at the chapter for entirely too long and was sick of looking at it and would appreciate knowing about mistakes). She was really nice about, even volunteered to email me the mistakes -she, though, is completely understanding of the OC nature.

I just don't get how people can read stories with grammatical errors. I think we've all stumbled on those stories that are just filled with them and I always ask myself, "How in the world could they post this?" Of course, I think that some people don't know anything about editing or proof-reading. As for technical grammar issues, I think that comes from people writing the way they speak -which is really hard to pull off effectively, unless you speak like an aristocrat

[StoryJunkie]

I've read one or two that well, "I know what you mean" and I over-look the errors, (and there were a great deal of them) and just enjoy the story. Some poeple have great stories in them. You just have to look beyond the scratchings and see the soul of the work. One in particular that I'm thinking of, JDWheels who does Witch Hunter Robin fan fics, was difficult for me to get through, but his stuff was completely arousing. The junk was raw, but man, it gave me a high. His grammar has gotten better, but he's into a yuri jag that I just can't relate to, so I haven't really looked at his stuff for a while. Ce la vie.

Perhaps, there is a certain charm to a young male writer that I cannot resist.

[bookworm51485]

I just don't get how people can read stories with grammatical errors. I think we've all stumbled on those stories that are just filled with them and I always ask myself, "How in the world could they post this?" Of course, I think that some people don't know anything about editing or proof-reading. As for technical grammar issues, I think that comes from people writing the way they speak -which is really hard to pull off effectively, unless you speak like an aristocrat

I dislike excessive grammar problems, because I can't get into the story. I just sit there the whole time rewriting most of it and it drives me nuts. But if there are a few I can accept it because I myself am not the greatest when it comes to things grammatical.

I think my biggest pet peeve though is when people spell the character names wrong. I read one story where every single character's name was mispelled, and not just one letter missing but major mispellings. I just can't understand how someone would even think to post a story online that they hadn't bothered to check over.

I haven't written anything recently, but when I did before I was obsessive about making sure I got the details right. I don't get how people could overlook something so major.

[Guest achtungnight]

For the record, I have never rated one of my own fics- although I have responded to reviews. Three of my stories have five stars, and all have received good feedback. To me that says quality.

[Guest Melody Fate]

When I find mistakes, I try to go back and fix them, usually when I post another chapter. If it's a completed work, I'll try to make all corrections at once. Unfortunately, in that situation, some people get a little snippy, thinking you're trying to bump your story up in the listings to get more hits, when you're just trying to fix those little things that bug the crap out of you. 

I admit that it irritates me when I see a story that doesn't have a new chapter and hasn't had one for several months suddenly on the front page. That's right up there with seeing one with a "new chapter" that is actually a big whine from the writer saying how she doesn't have time to write a new chapter.

On the other hand, I try to overlook the, "Hmm.. no new chapter in six months, suddenly it's in the front!" thinking that maybe they're getting ready to post another chapter and went to check over their story and look for mistakes.

As for the writer finding mistakes? I fully expect that at the beginning. I always look over my stuff, but the moment I post it, find stuff. So, for the first 48 hours, I don't give a crap what people say or think, if I find a mistake, I'll correct it. Beyond 48 hours and I'll try to ignore it. Usually if I find a mistake after 48 hours, it's so minor I can ignore it.

So, I've never cared about seeing stories vie for the top position when they've all been posted within the last two days.

What does irritate the snot out of me, is when someone suddenly decides that they are going to "edit" all their stories, just so that their work is on the first 1-? pages of the new list. I think that's just downright rude and looks like you want AFF to have an "All about you!" day. If you really are working on a whole bunch of stories at a time and need to update all of them with a new chapter at the same time, that's fine, but I've seen a couple times where the stories are tiny one shots, and suddenly bam bam bam, all "updated" And yet, nothing seems to have changed.

Besides, if someone really does suddenly have 50 new stories to post, they'd be better off posting them in small batches over several days, rather than tossing them all down at once. It keeps your name towards the top longer.

[NightScribe]

What does irritate the snot out of me, is when someone suddenly decides that they are going to "edit" all their stories,

I found a story in the books section kind of like that. They posted it, then started to edit it, then started to re-post it again when AFF was just starting to get back up to speed. So they had 2 versions, one in read-only, and then the "updated" one in active. And I really couldn't see much of a difference. Of course, then AFF moved the read-only stuff, so there's two versions (maybe 3?) of the story. That's a bit annoying to me.

[Guest Melody Fate]

I found a story in the books section kind of like that. They posted it, then started to edit it, then started to re-post it again when AFF was just starting to get back up to speed. So they had 2 versions, one in read-only, and then the "updated" one in active. And I really couldn't see much of a difference. Of course, then AFF moved the read-only stuff, so there's two versions (maybe 3?) of the story. That's a bit annoying to me.

Well, that was a confusing time for everyone. I had people write me and suggest I start posting new chapters as a separate story. I declined, because I didn't want to cause confusion. I had my EL-Jay if people really had to keep reading and I figured the folks at AFF had enough problems to worry about, I'd only post when they were 100% up and running.

But, a lot of folks had two version of stories going on, one that they could add to. I can't really fault people for that, athough when it was a one shot story, yeah, that seemed pointless to have two version.

But, now that AFF is working just fine, I don't get why sometimes someone will "edit" everything they ever wrote all at once. It seems like just a foolish way of trying to hog a whole section of the new pages for you.

I also get irritated that there are people out there who write the same story over and over again, but just change the names pretty much. You see a fair bit of that in the erotica section.

[Bargle5]

As for the writer finding mistakes?  I fully expect that at the beginning. I always look over my stuff, but the moment I post it, find stuff.  So, for the first 48 hours, I don't give a crap what people say or think, if I find a mistake, I'll correct it.  Beyond 48 hours and I'll try to ignore it.  Usually if I find a mistake after 48 hours, it's so minor I can ignore it.

On my fics, I try and leave them alone for a few days at least, then read them over again. I'll often spot typos or formatting errors then. When I correct them, I add a note to the the summary saying I just fixed some typos and there's nothing actually new in the story. Seems to work for me.

[StoryJunkie]

when I was a newb, I edited a story like that (had a lot of chaps) since I had a complaint that I had "just plunged into it" without any explanation, so I put up a "prologue" which bumped all my other chapters back. It was weird. I'm not going to do that again.

If I want to fix anything in my stories, I do it when updating a new chapter.

[Guest Pink Lace]

Er I didn't know editing bumped stories up... lol. Don't people use the search function anyway? I mean, I really only read final fantasy stuff and there are tons of fics so just going through it page by page is impossible unless you spend hours wading through all the yaoi combinations.

That's another argument for putting pairings in the summaries. In a large fandom, no one will find your fic unless you have some search-friendly keywords (like character names) in the summary.

[Guest cu-kid]

Don't people use the search function anyway? I mean, I really only read final fantasy stuff and there are tons of fics so just going through it page by page is impossible unless you spend hours wading through all the yaoi combinations.

I think I've used the search function only a handful of times, mostly because most of the time I'm not looking for anything in particular to read. I just browse around until I find something that catches my eye -most of it is fluff or kind of mindless- but sometimes I stumble on something really good, which is always a nice suprise. In some of the sections they organize everything by character pairings (i.e. Inuyasha, Harry Potter, etc.), but most people still post in the General section so wading becomes necessary.

I do really regret not having my recommended reading list anymore because it was an easy way for me to remember what stories I really enjoyed by certain authors. Now, I only have a few stories that I read because I can't remember anyone's penname I read somewhere on here that they were going to bring back the recommended lists, but that it's a low priority on the totem pole.

I've read one or two that well, "I know what you mean" and I over-look the errors, (and there were a great deal of them) and just enjoy the story. Some poeple have great stories in them. You just have to look beyond the scratchings and see the soul of the work.

I realized that in my last post I came off as sounding a little...pretentious...about posting stories with grammatical mistakes and such, and I didn't really mean it like that. It's just that, like bookworm51485, it's hard for me to see past the errors and just enjoy the story -especially when I know there are so many resources available to people who struggle with those things.

[StoryJunkie]

I understand totally. If I'm PMSing, I'm perfectly capable of going off on a rampage about the nit-pickiest things! I couldn't really define what I mean about "the soul" of the work either. I just meant that it really caught at me, inspite of itself. Not too many like that, mind you, but it did happen.

Sometimes, when I see a lot of grammatical errors, I will say stuff like: "I'm not your teacher, go fix this before you post it again."

re: search function: I use it when I'm looking for an author or (on occasion) story title. Otherwise, I just go to "Main Categories" That's enough to slice down the search for me.

I've used the search option more lately, since the "favorites" still isn't working. The stories I'm reading I have on my explorer fav's

[dazzledfirestar]

I've been using the search function alot more lately too. I used to just use it for looking up my forum buddies stories (by the way, you all rock!!) But now, like StoryJunkie said, its my replacement for my Favorites function.

[Guest Enchanted Faery]

I've been there! I get so excited when I see a 5 star, cuz I expect a lot from it...but then...when I read it I can't even finish it! Totally annoying! i think they rate themselves at 5 stars, its a conspiracy I tell u!

[Guest ShinigamiShimai]

I usually don't pay much attention to the rating a story gets, even my own. On one site 50% of my stories were rated 5 stars and the others 4.5. This could have been one person who just liked my stories for all I knew. It only meant something when I found out that the admin of the site featured one of the stories, that was something special to me.

As for the editing stories to bump them. I never knew that editing bumped a story. When I noticed that editing minor errors bumped the story I would wait until I had a huge editing run, I get these days were I run through an entire story over and over trying to make the story the best that I can, when I've edited the entire thing again then I repost it. This usually one happens once a year because the stories are so long and I tend to get alot of complaints that I'm not working on the next chapters fast enough.

Also, I tend to work in large chunks of story. Working on 10 chapters or so before posting anything to make sure I have everything correct. I had a time where I kept messing up a story so much that I found myself going back again and again to fix little details and it was driving me nuts. So I decided not to post anything until I am sure of the story flow and then spend about a month editing. Now I'm not great at grammer or spelling but have been getting better. It is amazing how much better one can get after writing 3 full novels. I just post at the end of my stories that if people find errors to send them to me because I knew I surely missed something after staring at the pages for weeks on end.

Anyways, Jaa ne

Kat

[Guest echtrae]

It wasn't until just recently that it was pointed out to me that editing the story ended up bumping it. Admittedly, the thought hadn't occurred to me, but I suppose it does make the most sense. Lesson learned on my part.