HELP!!!!!

[Lin]

Suzie Q,

If I could have a Euro for every spelling mistake I see on Writers Circle I would make a fortune. I choose not to comment as its rather destructive for some people.  I rarely make spelling errors, only unseen typos and I found your comments rather harsh!!   

Lin

[Mary Ann]

Well, Barbara Taylor Bradford did write a very good book with Woman Of Substance, I can't fault the story or her writing ability, I can't speak for Danielle Steele but I do know she gets a lot of her books made into films for television--so I guess a lot of people do like her work. 

But with Barbara Taylor Bradford, I don't think the reason for her descriptions can possibly be 'page filling', somehow.  There are over 800 pages, and that's quite a lot, so I think 'page-filling' can hardly be her reason.  Perhaps she just loves putting descriptive sentences together or something.  Personally I am not in favour of long descriptions, even though it gives us the opportunity to show our skills in sentence construction etc.  She also uses a lot of adverbs and most of her sentences seem to be passive, which people usually seem to frown on, so I get a few mixed messages on all this. Do we listen to the how-to books on writing which say 'don't do it' or do we look at the work of much-published authors and follow their lead, or maybe we do both?  Oh, well.

I will have a look at Danielle Steele by the way... I have a book of hers someplace I haven't read yet... and see how she does it; you have roused my interest in her hahaha...

Mary Ann

[Mary Ann]

Suzie Q,

If I could have a Euro for every spelling mistake I see on Writers Circle I would make a fortune. I choose not to comment as its rather destructive for some people.  I rarely make spelling errors, only unseen typos and I found your comments rather harsh!!   

Lin

Yes, I agree with you here, Lin.  We all make spelling mistakes or typo's and unless we are to spend as much time editing or messages on a board as we do our creative-writing, we have to forgive ourselves and others for the odd typo now and then.

Mary Ann

[SusieQ]

First of all I was referring to the original post...forget what it was now but even that was written badly, and these people claim to be authors? then Lin the moderator commented and misspelled a word, and if you think that was harsh Lin...boy oh boy are you in the wrong business, way to thin skinned to be submitting anything for criticism..... and yes all these authors fill pages some do it and keep it interesting others, many do not, and because I read so many, I find it curious how one gets hold of a topic, they all just follow and jump on the same wagon......shows how creative or imaginative they really are....not! one author I really enjoy is Karen Robards... that Gal can write!!!!!if you ever get hold of "Heartbreaker" read it you won't be disappointed! and don't kid yourself for a minute they all have help...... only a few do the writing all by themselves, well I don't, as far as facts etc, who cares it's Fiction....

[SuzieHarris]

SusieQ

Can I remind you yet AGAIN to not be personal in your comments. This is the second time I have warned you about being offensive today. Third time and you are out!

Suzie

Moderator.

[Telcontar]

Hi Suzie,

Oh dear, and I was just going to ask SusieQ who this 'Daniele Steele' is that she mentioned in one of her previous posts. (And that is a copy-and-paste)

Dave.

PS and if that counts as me getting 'personal', I apologise...

[Lin]

I personally apologise to all our members for any negativities which occurred in this topic.   We do not take kindly to personal comments about our members.   

We have no need to be thick skinned here or destructive, mywriterscircle.com is there to provide help and encourage new writers for the future.  If you have any complaints you must direct them off the site to the Moderators so that we can deal with them tactfully and in a positive way.

I thank you all for your understanding.

Lin

[Bob B.]

     This is a good question, and the only answer I could offer would be to re-read your stuff with an objective eye.  The question I always ask myself is: does it "read" like a REAL book or REAL article?  In other words, setting ego and the sweat you've put into it aside, does the writing seem like something you might read in a published piece of writing.  If not, what about it seems different or out of place?  I remember being awfully frustrated early on because what I was writing did not "feel" like other published material I was reading.  I'm not talking about style matters so much (although that certainly enters into it) but the over all balance and flavor of the piece.  Does the dialogue seem real or stilted? do the descriptions add to your understanding of the scene or get in the way of understanding, etc.  Work through the piece if you're in doubt (much easier now with computers).  Try changing words, rearranging sentences, changing lengths of sentences, etc. until you're satisfied that it is something you would read if it had been written by someone else.

[Lin]

Hello Bob,

Yes I totally agree with you that if a job is worth doing its worth doing well, but on Writers Circle, most of us are writing how we speak, its a relaxed way to post a topic(referring to previous posts!) and it really doesnt matter too much if we mis-spell something or produce a typo error.  I am sure we would all use our spell checker etc and check our style if we were submitting our work to a publisher.

It is of paramount importance that everything is 'ship shape and Bristol fashion' for that purpose and I think most of us would take what you say on board as being absolute.   Thank you for your post I am sure this is a good common sense attitude.

Lin