Story Guidelines

[plix (imported)]

Recently I began my new job as head of the story section, thanks to IE thinking I am worthy enough for such a position

I have developed what I call some minimum guidelines for stories. These guidelines focus on grammar and formatting. The grammar does not have to be perfect, but it must meet these guidelines, or unfortunately I will have to reject the story.

1. All sentences must be capitalized.

2. The word "I" and its variations must be capitalized.

3. All sentences must have appropriate ending punctuation.

3. The story must be broken into paragraphs.

4. Quotes must always be placed around spoken words.

5. The story as a whole must be a minimum of three paragraphs.

These are the basic guidelines. However, grammar and spelling must in general be at a level that is understandable and that requires no extra effort to read.

If your story does not meet these guidelines, I will delete it and contact you with an explanation and an offer to rewrite. So be sure to save your work in case you need to access it again.

If you have not provided me with an e-mail address, that is unfortunate, but there is nothing I can do. Be sure to provide an e-mail with your story!

If you have any questions regarding stories, you can reach me at plix@eunuch.org

[Kangan (imported)]

Bravo!

I just hate a story that has no paragraphing or mangled grammar. This sort of thing can make an otherwise good story totally unreadable. You don't need to be an English major to write good stories, but it sure helps.

[Paolo]

Thread duplicated to both story forums.

P

[Pueros]

"4........Each quote by a different character should be its own paragraph, separate from other characters' quotes and other action in the story."

This is the one rule with which I, as a regular, hopefully literate, contributor, don't agree. I suggest that it could be contrary to good narrative, as sometimes a conversation recorded in literary form, plus some associated action, demand continuity and not to be broken by a switch to a fresh paragraph.

I therefore ask Plix to review this one particular rule or at least be flexible.

Thanks,

PUEROS

[kristoff]

"4........Each quote by a different character should be its own paragraph, separate from other characters' quotes and other action in the story."

This is the one rule with which I, as a regular, hopefully literate, contributor, don't agree. I suggest that it could be contrary to good narrative, as sometimes a conversation recorded in literary form, plus some associated action, demand continuity and not to be broken by a switch to a fresh paragraph.

I therefore ask Plix to review this one particular rule or at least be flexible.

Thanks,

PUEROS

I would disagree. For as long as I have been reading (never mind the years), it has been customary practice, as far as I have been taught, and read, that each segment of conversation needs to be established in its own paragraph, in quotes, with any appropriate attributions outside of the quotes.

For Example:

"Blah Blah Blah Blah," said Blah.

"No, no, blah blah," Anti-Blah asserted.

The action continues in the conversational discourse, towit:

"Blah Blah Blah Blah," said Blah.

"No, no, blah blah," Anti-Blah asserted.

[JesusA (imported)]

I would disagree. For as long as I have been reading (never mind the years), it has been customary practice, as far as I have been taught, and read, that each segment of conversation needs to be established in its own paragraph, in quotes, with any appropriate attributions outside of the quotes.

This is a good general rule, but there are exceptions by some well-known authors when it suits their literary purposes. If I weren't 150 miles from my library, I'd post an example or two here.

Plix just needs to keep an open mind when there's a solid contribution that violates one of the general rules that are here to help most authors. He has enough experience to do a fine job of it.

[Slammr (imported)]

This is a good general rule, but there are exceptions by some well-known authors when it suits their literary purposes. If I weren't 150 miles from my library, I'd post an example or two here.

Plix just needs to keep an open mind when there's a solid contribution that violates one of the general rules that are here to help most authors. He has enough experience to do a fine job of it.

I agree with both Pueros and Jesus. There's a big difference between an author that consistently violates the rules and conventions of grammar and an author that occasionally violates them with a specific literary purpose in mind. I doubt that Plix intends to throw out a story for one violation of this guideline. I have no doubt that he can tell the difference between the two.

[plix (imported)]

Kristoff is correct that generally in a piece of fiction it is not acceptable to place quotes along with other quotes or other action in the story.

However, as a writer myself, I realize that there are times when one might desire to violate traditional standards for a specific literary purpose.

That being said, I can be flexible on the guidelines provided you have a specific literary reason for the violation. Generally in these cases the violation will be a one or two time deal, and the rest of the story will still follow the rules. But there may also be a rare case where the entire story needs to violate one or more rules.

If I have any doubt as to whether you have a specific literary reason for the violation, I will contact you and ask you about it. If the entire story violates a major rule (e.g. no sentences are capitalized), you can certainly expect a message from me, and I would expect a compelling reason for a violation of that sort.

But if you just want to not break the flow of the story with new paragraphs for a few quotes, then it is probably not going to be a big deal, provided you have a purpose for it.

Regular authors will be given more leeway with violations than unknown authors. If you are not a well-known author on the site, you should contact me prior to a submission with violations and explain your reasons for them.

[ChemistryKid (imported)]

That being said, I can be flexible on the guidelines provided you have a specific literary reason for the violation. Generally in these cases the violation will be a one or two time deal, and the rest of the story will still follow the rules. But there may also be a rare case where the entire story needs to violate one or more rules.

I think that there is some sort of rather serious mistake being made here.

These rules are supposed to be about grammar and formatting and almost all of them are. In fact, even rule 4 is entirely fitting except for one little part:

Each quote by a different character should be its own paragraph, separate from other characters' quotes and other action in the story.

The first rule says that sentences must be capitalized. That's a totally obvious and trivial grammar rule and anyone breaking it is not even trying. All of the rules seem to have the same purpose: to filter out the crazy junk/spam stories that aren't worth glancing at.

So in the middle of all these painfully obvious rules do we suddenly get literary and start talking about writing style? It's not even all of rule 4 that is the problem

. Quotes must always be placed around spoken words,

is right up there with capitalizing "I".

Take two examples:

she grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently screaming in my face tears were running down her cheeks

That's an example of a broken keyboard without shift or punctuation keys. No one who cares that little about what he's writing is going to make anything good. This is what most of these rules are there to prevent.

Example two:

She grabbed my shoulders and shook me violently as she screamed, "Oh shit, Jack, what have you done?!"

It this just as bad as the first example? Should we throw out every story that has a paragraph like this? I hope you can see how this one little part of rule 4 is totally different from all the rest.

The other rules have no exceptions, they can never occur intentionally in a good story: they are trivial grammar rules, as obvious as: Do not spell "penis" with a "Q".

That one part of rule 4, on the other hand, is a literary style rule and it sticks out like a sore thumb. It is completely out-of-place.

If we want a rule about the content of a paragraph, then we should be deliberate about it, so it doesn't look like a thoughtless mistake. At least give it a separate number. I suggest separating it further into "style suggestions" so that it can be given the respect it deserves. We are no longer talking to the barely literate here and we should make that clear.

Similar style suggestions might be:

Do not use mixed metaphors, as in: He stepped up to the plate and took the bull by the horns.

Each sentence must be less than 50 words.

Do not use a word with more than 5 letters more than once in a sentence.

Do not use a character's name more than once in a paragraph.

At least one character must be given some personality: the cannot all be completely flat.

While we are at it: Don't use metaphors at all. There was no bull and he wasn't grabbing anything; he was just rising to the challenge.

Please, please, tell me that the new story editor can see how the rules I've given are different from the new rules just posted. They are a completely different category

and I hope that he can see which category to put, "Each quote by a different character should be its own paragraph, separate from other

characters' quotes and other action in the story."

Enforcing rules 1, 2, 3, and 5 is nothing more than the most simple proof-read of each submission. If you find even one violation of those rules, please do not approve the story: bring the mistake to the attention of the author or correct it yourself. The author will be grateful.

But if you start enforcing the other kind of rule, then you are no longer looking for typos and guarding against mindless spam. You have made yourself into a literary critic who has to carefully judge when to make exceptions to complex rules. You are now in the area of looking for the artistic value of the stories that you are approving.

I am guessing that is not what you want. I think what we have here is just an innocent mistake, a single sentence plopped into a minor rule without realizing its significance.

[kristoff]

I think we have beaten this to death. Just right gooder. And Plix will tell you if he not gonna let it go. Or maybe if it done gonna get flushed in the crapper. K?