I have been working on the Little Boy-Girl Saga for over a year. I use Microsoft Word when I write and I do use the spell check. Plus it will tell me if I need to add or remove words. IF YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND MY STYLE THEN MY STORIES ARE NOT FOR YOU. That's how I feel when someone doesn't read the saga from the start. I truly work hard on my stories. It hurts me when people don't get my style I give people good reviews if I like a story and if I don't I keep it to myself. I just might pull my whole story and say on one really likes it but when I get over 500 reads and get one bad review I take it as a win.
Then you factor in 38 chapters with 500 to 1500 reads and only get two bad reviews or two people saying they are not going to try to read it. I still take the reads as a win. Little Girl-Boy 7 will not be written or posted. Sorry but my heart isn't in it now. Little Boy-Girl 1 Part 31 will be posted. PLEASE BE KIND THAT'S ALL I ASK OF YOU.
Understanding an Authors Style
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Comments
Spell check
Just be aware that it is frequently very, very wrong. Your title has an error, for example, and should read 'author's'.
Better to use a beta-reader.
Spell checking a story
Sometimes it works. Sometimes it works enough. Unfortunately, just because the spell-checker says that all the words you used actually exist, that doesn't mean that they are the right ones. You have an example in your blog post:
" I just might pull my whole story and say on one really likes it..."
You can read your own words from now until kingdom come and there will still be typos and word substitutions that you will miss. Buy any book in a bookshop and it will be littered with errors, despite everything the publishers and printers can do.
That might not be your problem, though. "Style" isn't necessarily about spelling, but about how you craft your sentences and paragraphs. Every author does it their own way and most styles are palatable to the reader. Go away far enough from the norm and most readers will bail out at that point.
What you need is one or more close friends who you can pass your treasure to for beta-reading before you post. Sometimes you will be rewarded with fulsome praise but on other occasions you must take their criticisms seriously.
To have independent, unbiased input into your writing is one of the biggest advances I have made since coming here and it has improved my writing immensely.
Penny
Penny Is Right
Penny is an excellent author and has added a great deal to this site by mentoring.
I'll just add that I could take almost any published book and rip the heart out of it. Several times over the years I've taken excerpts from John Grisham novels and showed how "poorly" they're written. Of course, John Grisham has sold millions of books, so he probably doesn't think my suggested edits are necessary.
The number of comments I get (and the numbers of kudos) usually have NOTHING to do with the quality of my writing. Some of my best writing has gone practically unnoticed while some of the poorest has been lauded.
Remember one of the prime rules: "It's not about you." The people commenting are doing so for THEIR purposes, not so much for yours.
Keep writing . . . if you enjoy it. Don't write, if you don't enjoy it. Take the comments for what they're worth.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
replay
I'm open to help to improve my story even from the start. Any help from you or any other authors will work for me.