Moderators take no pleasure in sending stories back, but their mandate is for posted stories to be literate. I did the job for more than two years and got push back from writers whose stories were filled with spelling mistakes because they had relied on some spell checking software. They allow mistakes that are words. Learn the difference between there, their, and they're. That is just an example of the kind of error I mean. The other recurring mistake was the use of apostrophes. They signify either a contraction or possession, not a plural (unless added to a plural to make it possessive). There are many grammar rules that have not been learned or have been forgotten by writers, and it is necessary to persevere. Textspeak has undermined literate English and is not acceptable outside that context.
Make use of the writer's resources on the site and those recommended by other writers. Your stories will get better with the amount of work you invest and you will be less likely to receive a rejection note. It will be easier as time goes on, I promise.
Same thing has been happening to me.
I saw Nora Ephron's son interviewed about the documentary he had made about his mother. Carl Bernstein of Watergate fame is his father and her next husband was writer Nick Pileggi. She was the daughter of two screen writers and wrote for newspapers, magazines, and the screen in her career as well as several books. She wrote Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle and Julia and Julia. All of this is preamble to the advice Nora's mother gave her: Everything is copy.
I think that we are scavengers and magpies as mentioned already. All of our life's experiences, interactions with people, thoughts, memories, emotions and observations form a vast trove to draw on when we write whether conscious or not. I have written a story based on a real experience. I have written others that come from imagination but are based on material from that trove. We remember how something sounded or felt or the emotion of a particular moment and that is transferred from our consciousness to the page.
I guess we are all going to hell, but judging by those who have added their voices here we will have a good time. I am with you, ABG. I brought a nice Barolo.
Carole King and Gerry Goffin
Such a prolific writer. It is amazing.
There are a lot of usages in the UK e.g. lift, loo, lorry that are different in American English (elevator, bathroom, truck).
Out of Africa
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Strangers on a Train
Sense and Sensibility
Being sensitive. I hide it better now.
Impersonating a French playboy (identity theft)
Arrested for indecent exposure on the day she did not wear panties.
I have used google docs to share a document with someone else.
Stacey in "Stacey's Choice" is the heroine of the first story I wrote on my own. I had previously written only poetry and collaborated on stories. The story takes place in my city. She shares my love of both the Mediterranean countries and art, and a weakness for arty men. To be honest, I think there is a piece of me in every almost every female character I have written, but perhaps because Stacey was my first, she remains dear to me.
Wordsmith with a wicked sense of humour.
Congratulations to the top ten and the winners. I am honoured to have made the list.
Ignorance, dishonesty, unkindness, intolerance, rude and selfish behaviour.
I imagine that on a college/university campus the complaint was that this student had appropriated a voice not his own. However, I think that writing is a creative process and that we cannot and should not be limited by whatever demographics we belong to. However it is necessary to research thoroughly to inhabit character of someone who is not at all like you so that your representation of that character is believable and authentic to the reader. On the whole, I think we tend to write from a perspective that feels most comfortable to us whatever gender, sexual orientation, or other factor we are. To write from a male point of view as a female is a leap, for example, if it is to seem plausible to men who read it. I think that talented writers can carry this off, but as I said that it cannot be done without doing a lot of homework first. Writing is, after all, about creativity but has to be rooted in some semblance of reality and not to great a suspension of disbelief.
Cherub
(which clearly is not an accurate representation of Mr. Symes)
Grinning like the fool that I am. (in a cherubic sort of way)
