Benefits from Reading Fiction

[Kortpeel (imported)]

The following is an attempt to encourage all you writers and to show that your work does have some effect on the world.

Some researchers at U Toronto have found that reading fiction is not only entertainment but also increases social skills and heightens a reader’s understanding of other people in real life (Keith Oatley, the science of fiction, New Scientist 25 June 2008)

Oatley says that just as a flight simulator can hone a pilot’s skills, so fiction can hone a reader’s life skills

Oatley calls fiction ‘a simulation that runs on the software of our minds.’ A fiction writer creates a virtual world with virtual people. As such he is able to convey more insight into the mind, thoughts and motivation of the fictional character than a reader can ever have with a real person. Because of a reader’s natural inclination to identify with a fictional character, a reader can have virtual experiences he would never have in real life. He probably wouldn’t survive many of them if he were to attempt them in real life.

For anyone who has ever gone through the labour of giving birth to a story this is an encouraging insight. Obviously it depends on how well the characters and events in a story are written. And as our story archive moderators will confirm, it depends on how clear the channel of communication is: accurate spelling, punctuation and paragraphing go without saying.

Yet a well written story does have an effect on its readers which is why censorship is so popular with powers that be. Censorship is something to be resisted. Even so, currently it behoves any writer to avoid hate speech – or at least to make sure that his characters that use it come to a bad end.

As far as the Archive is concerned, a read of the stories will provide considerable insight into castration and its effects. You can undergo virtual castration and come out of it intact. I suspect that’s why many of you came here in the first place.

Kortpeel

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

I have at least three or four story ideas going in my head right now, and truly I would love to write them and put them in the archive. But honestly, when I read some of the threads here in the forums about "proper formating" and paragraph breaks and punctuation and the like, I get VERY discouraged.

See, I am sorry to say this, but I am really NOT an "I.T. person," and I don't even have a clue what some of you are talking about when you say stuff like "html text" and all that stuff. If I ever to "submit a story" I am afraid I will just have to e-mail it in, and HOPE against hope that someone here checks it, edits it if need be, and somehow gets it onto the story archive.

So I wonder, am I the ONLY one who does not comprehend all this I.T. stuff? Are there other aspiring authors out there who would post a story but cannot because they lack the word processing skills? No, I actually am the only person I know who has this problem.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

I have at least three or four story ideas going in my head right now, and truly I would love to write them and put them in the archive. But honestly, when I read some of the threads here in the forums about "proper formating" and paragraph breaks and punctuation and the like, I get VERY discouraged.

Deacon, you don't have to know anything about IT as such at all. You just have to know how to write in English on a keyboard. Most of the writers here probably write their stories using Microsoft Word. No fancy effects either, just plain ordinary text with an occasional paragraph break. If you can't type write it by hand and get a close acquaintance to type it up for you. A good story could have a profound effect on the relationship!

When you've got the story ready to post click on 'submit stories' and you get a submission page. Fill in the bits about synopsis and tags - the powers that be here deem that to be important.

Minimise the page without closing it and go back to your story. On 'edit' click 'select all' and it will go black with white text. Then click 'cut.' Icon is a pair of scissors. Your story will disappear. Immediately click paste and the story reappears. Doing that means you still have a copy of the story if it should disappear into cyberlimbo. It has been known. Go back to the submit page and in the smallish rectangle place the cursor in the top left hand corner and click 'edit' and then 'paste.'

The smallish rectangle expands to accommodate your story and you find yourself at the end of your story. Check it out to make sure everything is okay and then click 'submit' once and wait until it has uploaded.

A day or so later the title of your effort will appear in the new stories list. If you are very lucky someone will post an appreciative comment about it in the feedback section.

Happy writing

Kortpeel.

[subgamble (imported)]

In the days before television was the craze, books is where it was. If I/you got a good book from the library that was well written it was almost as good as going to the movies. As you read the book and really got into it you could actually visualize the scenes about which you were reading flash by on a screen in front of your eyes. It was very realaxing pass time until the mundane chores of life brought you back to the present. The neat thing was you could go back and the movie screen would return when you began reading where you had stopped. It is still that but less so since tv has become the dominant medium. you glean a lot of information from reading that you dont know you are absorbing until you need to recall it in the future. Reading is enlightening and education mo matter what you read.

[kristoff]

Deacon, you don't have to know anything about IT as such at all. You just have to know how to write in English on a keyboard. Most of the writers here probably write their stories using Microsoft Word. No fancy effects either, just plain ordinary text with an occasional paragraph break. If you can't type write it by hand and get a close acquaintance to type it up for you. A good story could have a profound effect on the relationship!

When you've got the story ready to post click on 'submit stories' and you get a submission page. Fill in the bits about synopsis and tags - the powers that be here deem that to be important.

Minimise the page without closing it and go back to your story. On 'edit' click 'select all' and it will go black with white text. Then click 'cut.' Icon is a pair of scissors. Your story will disappear. Immediately click paste and the story reappears. Doing that means you still have a copy of the story if it should disappear into cyberlimbo. It has been known. Go back to the submit page and in the smallish rectangle place the cursor in the top left hand corner and click 'edit' and then 'paste.'

The smallish rectangle expands to accommodate your story and you find yourself at the end of your story. Check it out to make sure everything is okay and then click 'submit' once and wait until it has uploaded.

A day or so later the title of your effort will appear in the new stories list. If you are very lucky someone will post an appreciative comment about it in the feedback section.

Happy writing

Kortpeel.

Only thing I utterly disagree with here: Do NOT use CUT before pasting - use COPY (same menu). Do everything else as told. If you use cut, and screw up the paste, the story will still be where it was, and only a copy will be lost. With CUT, all would be lost.

[Paolo]

I have at least three or four story ideas going in my head right now, and truly I would love to write them and put them in the archive. But honestly, when I read some of the threads here in the forums about "proper formatting" and paragraph breaks and punctuation and the like, I get VERY discouraged.

See, I am sorry to say this, but I am really NOT an "I.T. person," and I don't even have a clue what some of you are talking about when you say stuff like "html text" and all that stuff. If I ever to "submit a story" I am afraid I will just have to e-mail it in, and HOPE against hope that someone here checks it, edits it if need be, and somehow gets it onto the story archive.

So I wonder, am I the ONLY one who does not comprehend all this I.T. stuff? Are there other aspiring authors out there who would post a story but cannot because they lack the word processing skills? No, I actually am the only person I know who has this problem.

I fail to understand why this is so difficult, with as many times as this has been posted.

Stories have to have paragraphs. To get a double line break, meaning a double space that sets off a paragraph, all you have to do is hit the ENTER key in your favorite word-smasher program. That or type in a bracketed letter "p" like this [ p ] only with no spaces. Either will give you that effect.

You write the story in Word, Corel, whatever, and when you're done with it, you save it to your own hard drive. Then you go up to the top menu where it says FILE, VIEW, EDIT, and all that other rot. You hit EDIT, then SELECT ALL, then COPY. You go to the submissions page, you right click in the story body box, you hit paste. Or you left click in it and hit CTRL-V or on a Mac, "apple-V". You check the appropriate tags. You hit "SUBMIT".

As far at the phrase "html code", that refers to putting in links, email addresses, and basically the type of code that makes a web page appear as it does. If you want to see what that is, go up to your browser's top bar and hit VIEW-source. That mess is the html code. When I open a story and a bunch of fancy dancing bullshit and links jumps out at me, or a picture is hotlinked in and it frightens me, into the trash the story goes. I had one idiot one year put in code that pulled in a border of Christmas lights and played music. I literally peed my pants. Needless to say, his entire country is now banned.

If you're that intimidated by it, though, write the story and send me an advance warning you're going to email it to me. I'll post it for you. One time. For you and no one else. Send it in MS Word .doc format, and DO NOT send it in Vista's bullshit Office 2007 .docx format:-\. Don't even say the word "Vista" in my presence.

[BossTamsin (imported)]

*Shrug*

Someone's gotta tempt fate, and it might as well be me.

VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA

[kristoff]

*Shrug*

Someone's gotta tempt fate, and it might as well be me.

VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA VISTA

Uh oh IE is gonna get Canada Banned

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

Uh oh IE is gonna get Canada Banned

You know, I always did say we invaded the WRONG country when we attacked Iraq... a lot of people think we should have invaded Iran. But the people in both Iraq and Iran are really.... wierd and besides, they are not nearly so nice as Canada.

Time to go rent "Canadian Bacon" with John Candy, good movie and sort of like a blue print for how to spook the American public into doing stupid things.

[Paolo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzG7bBylRo