On Thu, 21 Aug 1997, Aaron Eaton wrote:
<snip>

Well, I hate to do this...
I have no idea what your story is about. I can't comment on how well
thought out your idea is, or how well you've developed your
characters. Heck, I can't even make it past the first couple of lines,
and I really wish I could. I hate to have to pass stories by. Any
story. I like reading them all. But as it stands right now, your lack
of punctuation and flow is throwing me off. I'll admit right now that
I'm amazingly picky. I find errors where most people don't. That isn't
to say that I don't make mistakes or something, but if there's an
error, I'm likely to find it. 
Here are some tips. They're really quick and brief, and really most
people should try to adhere to them. Even me, and I know I sometimes
forget. :)

1) Check your punctuation all the way through. Some forms of
punctuation are rather esoteric by nature...I've yet to properly
figure out when a semicolon is the best idea, but there isn't any
excuse for not using periods.

2) Check the flow of your sentences. Do they run on for ever and ever?
Do you have hundreds of little ones per paragraph? Unless you're going
for some effect, try to stay away from monster sentences or itty-bitty
ones that chop the paragraph up.

3) Check your spelling. Everyone has a spell-checker these days. If
you don't know the name of a character that you're writing about, look
it up. If you're writing original characters, know their names.

4) Learn about the virtues of contractions. Learn when to use them,
and when not to. Know the difference between "their", "they're" and
"there". They all have very different meanings, trust me. So don't use
them interchangably. "He is" is almost always (to the point that I
can't think of a counter-example) grammatically correct...but does it
sound as good? We're writing stories here, not papers. "He's" can
often make the flow of a sentence much more smooth.

5) Check your tense. Too many times have I seen people switch between
the present and the past tense. Figure out which one you want to use,
and stick to it!

I don't claim to be an english major, but I've read an awful lot of
books and papers over the years, and I've taken enough english courses
to beat this stuff into me. For now, this is the most constructive
criticism I can offer...and that's what this list is all about, right?

On a similar note, I think it would be really cool if someone that
*was* an english major (or even someone that wasn't - just someone
that would be interested) could compile a short FAQ, or most common
errors sort of thing. I dunno, maybe I could do it.... :)

Happy writing, folks. I know I don't pop up too often, but I'm here
reading your stuff (if that means anything to you ;)

Jan

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