What's important to me is the 'feel' of the story and
the 'flow' of it.  Am I keeping everyone reasonably within
character?  Those are the things I try to hammer out.

And considering that this massive chunk of text I'm
looking at may or may not be used in the final draft...
well... I don't like fixing what might eventually be
dumped anyways.  That's why I'm lazy on the spellchecking
till the late drafts.  Besides, I feel like I've wasted
the C&Cers time when I end up dumping stuff that they
thoroughly looked over for spelling.

Besides, so long az I dont stard speling liek a moran,
I thenk the storey is reedable enouf.  ^.-

Mechanics is important.

That's all there is to it. Good mechanics is what makes the story readable.
Good formatting, spelling, grammer, ect. are the solid foundation on which
good stories are built. Without good mechanics, your story will be
obfuscated by your bad grammar and spelling. You don't have that, you are
screwed no matter how good the plotline really is.

This *includes* your draft versions. Your draft versions do you absolutely
no good if other people can't make heads or tail of them.

Having a habit of rewriting is no excuse. I have that habit, too. Even so,
I make very few mechanical errors in my draft versions. Writing stories is
like writing code; it has to be written so that another person can
understand it. And in six weeks, YOU are are that other person.

So please, if not for yourself, _do_ check for mechanics for your
prereaders when sending beta versions. That goes for you Newbies out there.
***CHECK YOUR DRAFTS FOR MECHANICS!!!*** That way, the c&cers can get off
your ass about the mechanics and get on your ass about the plot and such.

(And yes, Jon. "Obfuscate" IS a real word!)



                           ---------------------
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## # ##   ###    #####   ## # ##  Wielder of ANVIL and SPAM! Breaking
### ###    #     ##  ##  ##   ##    the Rules of Fanfiction!
##   ##   ###   ###   ## ##   ## of UT      <wyrm@mail.utexas.edu>
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