I'm Fuming!

[bk_forever]

Okay, how long have I been posting stuff over on Teaspoon? 31 short fics, 293 drabbles, never had anything rejected.

Until yesterday.



Yesterday I decided it was about time I started putting the rest of the Nosy-Verse stories on the site - I'd only got around to putting the first couple and the more recent ones there, four of the earlier ones still hadn't been posted and I'd gained a new reader who was asking if there were more. Seemed like the right time so I posted 'How To Live With A Neurotic Alien'.

I know the rules there, they expect an acceptable standard of writing - spelling, grammar, punctuation, all up to a reasonable standard. Well, hope I don't sound boastful, but I always considered I was above average in that respect. Sure, I'm not always entirely spot-on when it comes to punctuation, not certain of the rules regarding colons and semi-colons, and I overuse commas at times, but hey, that's not too bad, right? And at least I know how to use apostrophes. Certainly, I think I meet the 'acceptable standard' criteria - they do say they don't expect perfection. After all, these are fanfics, not great works of literature.

But my fic got rejected by a mod who apparently isn't going to accept anything that isn't 100% correct, punctuation-wise. I got called on half a dozen minor errors. Okay, yes, I had a missing quotation mark, and two others that got accidentally left in during re-writes. At least I USE quotation marks, and it should be perfectly clear that I know where they belong, considering I use them correctly throughout the entire 4026 word story apart from those three instances. And yes, I wasn't completely clear on the rules of commas versus full stops when a speech by someone is broken into sections to include their actions. Big deal. How many people can quote chapter and verse on that rule anyway? How many people even know there IS a rule for that? It's nit-picking, tiny things that 99.9% or readers would either not notice, or not even realise were wrong. I spent an hour re-editing to fit this person's perfectionist standards before re-submitting it, and if it gets rejected again, I will NOT be happy.  >=(

I feel sorry for everyone who tries to post there and is perhaps less familiar with the rules of punctuation and grammar, or isn't too good at spelling. If they get the same moderator I did, it could well put them off writing for life!

To this person, 'acceptable standards' apparently means every fic must meet their stringent personal standards and be perfect in all respects. I think they need to check their dictionary.



Rant over, feel free to ignore this post, I wrote it to make myself feel better, but it doesn't seem to have worked.

Comments

[lexxiescott]

I'll keep my fingers crossed that they accept it this time. Maybe you'll get lucky and draw a different mod to approve it.

It's entirely possible, but I would hope that they're smart enough to realize that fan fiction involves capturing the character's voice, and that can mean slang and weird contractions of words at times. My toughest English teacher ever - used to edit for a newspaper in New York - was smart enough to leave dialogue alone unless there was a massive problem with it.

Sounds like a mod problem rather than a page problem. Unfortunately that seems to be happening more and more. I'm waiting for one of my archives to delete my WIPs because they've been idle for so long. Granted, they never have before, so I don't think they enforce that rule, but it could happen.

[bk_forever]

My fic got approved and posted, yay! Sadly, the next one I want to post there is twice as long and I plan to edit it first in the hopes of avoiding rejection again, lol! So much for posting one a day until I had the last stragglers up on the site.

Maybe it was a slow day on the site and the mod wanted something to do,

I hope your WiPs don't get deleted o_O You'd think they'd understand that fanfiction writing is something that gets fitted in when the writers have the time and inspiration. If something doesn't get updated for a long time, it could simply be that the writer is too busy with real life to spare the time.

[lexxiescott]

Yay, that's awesome. :) You shouldn't have to go through and extra edit your pieces before you post them. That's just not fair to you as a writer. I still think that mod needs a good kick in the trousers. Sheesh.

The archive says inactive for three months or more will be taken down with the option to reupload once they're finished. I've never seen them pull anything in all the time I've been posting there. It's a CSI specific archive and I think they've realized interest has died down since two of the shows went off the air.

[bk_forever]

They need to be more lenient then, with interest waning. Sad though, if they take anything down because it's not being updated then they're depriving readers of reading what there is. It doesn't make sense to me. Having the fics there potentially getting reviews can encourage writers to get back to writing again.

Yeah, well, re-reading my older stuff isn't a bad idea, it might spark a few new ideas, who knows?

[lexxiescott]

I think in a way they are. I had one fic there that I didn't update for over two years, but they never touched. I don't know if it's because my account was still active or what, but I really appreciated that one. I've got so many pieces I need to finish up.

Who knows is right. Good luck :)

[bk_forever]

Haven't started editing the old Nosy-Verse fic yet - I have a chapter of a friend's fic to beta so I'll do that first. Mine aren't going asnywhere.

It's always sad when people lose interest and a fandom sort of slides into apathy with no one writing g=fic anymore. Abandoned fandoms are like unloved teddy bears, I just want to hug them. Which probably makes me weird.

I'cve been revisiting some of my favourite country singers on youtube, so many great songs =)

[lexxiescott]

True enough, and I'm sure your friend appreciates you having a fast turn-around on their story. I've never worked with a beta, so I don't know how it all works, but I do know it's sweet of you to do. Okay, I did work with a German friend to help get her English to flow a little better on a story, but she's sort of vanished now.

Not at all. I'm doing my best to keep the Miami fandom alive and going with a ton of stories. I love writing Horatio, and am fairly good at it, but I don't have a ton of readers. It's not going to stop me though. I maintain the world needs Horatio Caine.

Sounds like fun. :) I've been finding Ghost Adventures vlogs and funny moments from the show for my writing breaks. Those guys are too silly at times. Cookie time will be the death of me.

[bk_forever]

There's so much clamouring for my time right now, but I'm having trouble focusing at the moment. I know what I should be doing, I just don't want to do any of it, it all seems too much like hard work. Maybe when I'm feeling less crappy I'll start getting stuff done again. The betaing can't wait though, I need to get that done. I'm halfway through on the first pass, I'd like to finish that tonight then go through it again tomorrow, but all I want to do is read. I'll see what I can manage.

[lexxiescott]

Oh, I know how that goes. You just want to throw everything to the side and hide away for the day. Maybe. I really hope you start feeling better soon. Being ill, or just crappy, sucks so bad.

Maybe you can get a day of reading in in a day or so. I've got editing to do on my proof. That's one more novel ready to go live on amazon for sale. Then I can start editing and revising the ghost story I've been writing. :)

[bk_forever]

I'm halfway through the betaing for the second time, hopefully finish it today. I only wrote one drabble yesterday, but it was a triple drabble so that's not so bad. I think it's safe to just write one a day sometimes now I'm well ahead with those. I really just want to read and not write at all, just for once.

Good luck with your editing!

[lexxiescott]

That's awesome. I'm sure your friend will be happy to have it back so quickly. Triple drabble is awesome, too. :) I say if you want to read, read. You've got other things, yeah, but a day or two of relaxing with some reading shouldn't hurt anything.

Thanks. I just finished it. Now onto the other novel for a chapter or two.

[bk_forever]

Maybe tomorrow when this betaing is done, got TV to watch tonight. I deserve a break, i'm tired and my head aches and I don't wanna think!

[lexxiescott]

A break sounds like a good idea. :) Hopefully it worked out for you and you didn't have interruptions during your TV time.

[bk_forever]

TV time was quiet, but today the doorbell keeps ringing. Very annoying. Still haven't had a chance to read anything and the afternoon is half gone, it'll soon be time to clean out the fire again. So much for my day off =(

[lexxiescott]

Doorbells are so annoying. Whenever someone pushes ours, both dogs start barking like the house is being invaded, and the cats run off in fear. It makes getting to the door really hard. >.<

I'm keeping my fingers crossed you'll get a reading day here soon.

[bk_forever]

I can only hope! Haven't really had much chance today, so I bought some more CDs instead o_O

The doorbell gets so annoying. We have two - one outside the porch, one inside. The inside one I can only hear upstairs if I haven't got the TV or music on. The outside one I can only hear if I'm upstairs because the downstairs remote chime has stopped working and I have no idea why. I put new batteries in it, but it still doesn't chime.

[lexxiescott]

Music is important though. I'm on my way out to get some new research books for my novels. I'm really surprised Mum is being so easy going about my buying books all of a sudden. I think she knows I'm writing full-time to make myself focus on not having a job.

Doorbells need to die slow and painful deaths. We had a cool one when I was a kid. Four pipes that chimed in a little song. My dad finally took it down because he got sick of my brother and me playing with it all the time. We loved the thing though. I didn't even *hear* the doorbell yesterday because I had my door shut and music on. Luckily the dog barked. It was my new CD from Japan. All ballads but one song. Oh well, the kid has a great voice.

[bk_forever]

It's true, music is necessary and it's helped improve my mood lately =)

Hearing the doorbell is annoying, but NOT hearing it is so much worse. Glad the dogs alerted you!

[lexxiescott]

maybe I should put on some music today. I'm in a down and grouchy mood for some reason. Just want to stay in bed and read.

[bk_forever]

I've gone from one extreme to the other - I've had music on almost constantly today - k.d. lang, Garth Brooks, Clint Black, Suzy Bogguss, my two new Dwight Yoakum CDs... I still feel like crap physically, but the music has been great =)

Plus I got a lie in this morning!

Now I need to get to bed.

I've spent this evening getting started with cataloguing my CDs so I don't buy duplicates. Barely scratched the surface yet, maybe done 40 or so, probably less than a quarter of what I've got and then there are mum's to do.

Hope you feel better soon, but relaxing and reading is no bad thing. We all need a day off sometimes.

[lexxiescott]

Whatever works. Maybe our lives need soundtracks and that's why we get so down. Our music is missing.

Lie ins are good. Sleep is always good. :)

I'm doing a bit better today, but still off. Just planning to take it easy over the next few days, maybe read up on some hauntings in London to start outlining my next novel. There are worse ways to spend a day.

Hope you start feeling better here soon too.

[bk_forever]

I think I'm a bit better, listening to GB again =)

Got someone coming to give a quote on some work on the house. Not that we want it doing right, bloody door to door people, but on the other hand we could do with the drainpipes and guttering replacing and it's only a quote, so... I'm good at saying no, hopefully they'll get the message quickly enough.

I'll have to get some bids in on CDs before the guy gets here though. There's this person selling off his collection because he's converted everything to MP3 on his computer (I hope he's made back-ups) and he's got tons of great CDs listed. I'm probably spending too much, lol! John Michael Montgomery is next, then Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, an Oak Ridge Boys greatest hits package (Love Richard Sturban's bass voice), couple of Trisha Yearwoods in there too...

Enjoy your research! I'll try to write drabbles today I think. I've done 6 so far for the Caffeine prompt. Might even post 2 one day if I can get another written!

[lexxiescott]

Yay for feeling a bit better. :) Hope the trend has continued for you.

Hope that went well. Gutters are annoying, but necessary. We, remarkably enough, don't have them on our house down here. Mum and I don't understand it and no one was able to explain it to us.

Sounds like a lot of great CDs. I'm with you though, backups are so important in the digital age. I don't have one for my CDs, which I probably should, but I've got the most important ones still in physical form, so I'm not too worried about it.

Would you believe I found a story of a ghost chicken?? It's going to get a mention in the story. *grins* I love odd little things like that, and given I'm writing about research, I can throw things like that in.

Wow, that's awesome. Then again, caffeine is so important to Torchwood that there's a lot that can be done with it. :)

[bk_forever]

Well, we can't afford the work anyway, the quote was over £3000 o_O

Still not great, but a bit better. GB is helping =)

I have 7 caffeine drabbles altogether, so I might post two tomorrow. Wrote another one yesterday, plus my first Dee/Ryo FAKE drabble. Those two are starting to demand my attention, but Torchwood is still my primary fandom.

Ghost Chicken? Seriously? That is so weird! Imagine being haunted by a chicken! LMAO!

[lexxiescott]

Wow, that's expensive.

Glad you're feeling better. GB is good for that, yep. :) He almost always makes me smile.

I think it's kinda cool that you've got another fandom asking for you to write in it. My primary fandom is CSI: Miami, I've got the most stories in that one out of any I write in, but I just love playing in other fandoms too.

Uh huh, ghost chicken. It's at Pond Square Highgate. Apparently an experiment in early refrigeration didn't end up the way they wanted it to and the chicken is still around. It'll be fun to mention in passing at any rate. *grins*