All Comments on 'Love Your Readers'

by Tx Tall Tales

Sort by:
  • 40 Comments
mel_pomenemel_pomeneover 10 years ago
Excellent advice for writers and would-be writers ...

... and interesting to non-writers too. You have turned out a quality piece here, one that should find a place in every writer's collection.

Of course, it goes against the finest piece of advice ever given; 'When it comes to advice, never ask for, give, or take it', but that is quite impossible in the real world!

A well-written and important piece - thank you for posting it for us. I have given it five stars.

ag2507ag2507over 10 years ago
loved it

While I don't subscribe to EVERY item listed you have pretty much caught the tenor of most of my complaints. My particular bugbears are your: you're and site: sight. Generally I can live with some inappropriate homonyms except when they are repeated ad nausiam in a piece. I get more pissed when the writer claims to have an editor - there is no excuse.

A couple of others to add. The enter key adds an extra line space on the web so check your story for extra paragraph marks = most word processors let you see formatting marks so you can avoid:

"Get off me!" she

shouted.

add space after paragraph to word so you can see the effect

Also, cutting and pasting from notepad does evil things to your linebreaks.

A

William smythWilliam smythover 10 years ago
I'm not a writer

But as a reader I wish more of the writers posting stories on Literotica would read--and heed--the advice given in this essay.

DarkPulseDarkPulseover 10 years ago
Definetly helpful.

I'm another author who held the #1 spot in sci-fi/fantasy for a while, and I found this helpful. Good words of advice are found here, and also new books for me to look into.

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago

At the beginning of your article you stated that there are many stories in Literatica; however, far too many of them feature destruction of marriage. I dislike such stories. There have been a few stories featuring excitement in marriage and those are overwhelmed by those featuring BTB.

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
DAMNNIT!!!

thought you had published pt 10 of "2 moms 2 laps"

huuuuuuuuuuuu

katranmankatranmanover 10 years ago
Nice Advice

Wonderful, highly recommended! I just wish writers would fix loser/looser, that one just frost me...

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
Good Advice

My particular bugbear is 'heals' used when the author means 'heels'. The medical / illness connotations of the former always throw my mood right off.

memorable_eventmemorable_eventover 10 years ago
Excellent advice

Great reminders to all of us who are trying to improve our stories. I appreciate you putting the effort you did into this article.

PuggyWishbonePuggyWishboneover 10 years ago
Good advice!

You covered many of the basics, and I congratulate you for it. I only hope some writers will take your advice to heart.

I would have added some comments about word choice, a pet peeve of mine, with emphasis on inappropriately used homonyms (I can't count the number of Literotica writers who believe the word "taught" means "tight". It's TAUT, people!). And don't get me started talking about repetitive descriptions: To the unnamed writer who describes his erection as a "hot rod" in nearly every paragraph, please invest in a thesaurus!

Of course, some of your best advice (continuity with respect to character names) needs to be retroactively applied to your own work. None of us is a perfect in proofreading, but ... I'm just now reading chapter 4 of your "CvsN" series, and spent a few confused paragraphs wondering, "Who the hell is Nancy?"

Overall, this is a needed primer for those storytellers who don't read often enough to internalize some of the most fundamental rules of grammar and spelling. I hope this one is read often by prospective submitters. Thanks for writing it.

sbrooks103sbrooks103over 10 years ago
Excellent!

A couple of my irritants: "She took off her cloths." instead of "clothes".

"She opened the draw." for "drawer".

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
Good advice

You covered all of the basics. My biggest pet peeve with Literotica is authors who start multi-chapter stories and never finish them. Yes, I understand there are many reasons that can happen. After several disappointments, I now usually wait until all chapters of a story have been posted (or, if it's an older story, check the author's story list for hints). But I still sometimes get "tricked" if the author doesn't include "Ch. 01", etc. in the initial story title.

I think it's best for any author to have someone else edit (or at least do a quick scan/copy-edit of) their writing. Another set of eyes is good for finding simple typos, homonyms, and grammatical errors. Of course a closer read will catch errors in continuity, character's names changing, etc.

A few of my peeves with regard to homonyms:

lose/loose

navel/naval

waist/waste

clothes/cloths

breathe/breath

their/they're/there

... and don't even get me started on apostrophe misuse in plurals and verbs :-\

Finally, if you do use formatting, make sure to check your story after it's been posted for review. I f'ing hate it when someone omits the closing /i or /b tag, which results in all of the subsequent text being incorrectly formatted. I've seen this happen in several otherwise decent stories I was following and the author never bothered to submit a correction to fix it. To save eyestrain I copy-pasted the text into Notepad page-by-page, but in "revenge" I stopped voting.

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
Spot on

Boy did you hit the nail, or should I say nails, smack on the head on so many fronts. One of my pet peeves you did not mention is "who" versus "that". "Who" refers to people, "that" to animals and things. The misuse of "that" can often change the meaning of a sentence or add confusion. "The girl at the end of the bar that had a nervous look ..." How can a bar have a nervous look?

Thanks. Just hope authors give your suggestions and comments thought.

Alaska84Alaska84over 10 years ago

Very good, now we need some writers to read and use the information presented!

Tx Tall TalesTx Tall Talesover 10 years agoAuthor
Thanks for the feedback

I appreciated all the comments. Strangely, I've received even more emails than comments! I must confess, I know most of these problems after having been called out on them by my many readers.

Like many writers, I've been more concerned with getting the story written and submitted, my editing taking a back seat to the writing.

In the last couple of years, I've spent considerably more effort editing, and still, errors get through. It's too difficult for a writer to edit their own work. Using an editor is the smart thing, but including an editor in the process typically adds a week or more to each chapter. And that is if you can find a good one. Very difficult for new writers, even with Literotica's excellent editor program.

In one of my comments to a previous story, I mentioned it typically took about 10 hours to create one literotica page of a well crafted, complex story. Less than half of that is writing. The rest is outlining, creating character history, documenting each chapter, editing for content, editing for story and plot, finding basic grammar errors, spell checking, improving vocabulary, dodging 'echoing', searching out those pesky homonyms, and the aggravating excess apostrophes. One reader laughed that it would take that long. Obviously not a writer.

It's not easy to write well. I know the basic rules I lay out seem simple, but reviewing 100+ your/you're, 70 it's/its, 50 there/their, and 100's of the other similar words mistakes takes time and concentration.

The point about previewing your work, before final submission, to catch broken italics, bolds and centering is very valid. My story, The Luckiest Man in the World, had extended italicized portions, and three different pages caught the italics on the page break. A working solution is when you have longer italicized sections, put the italics marks around every paragraph individually. Literotica does not break up paragraphs. Of course the same holds true for bold.

Again, thanks for the comments.

peteypabspeteypabsover 10 years ago
Muchas Gracias!

I wanted to take the time to send my thanks; for your taking the time to share your hard learned lessons. I truly enjoy your style, knowledgeable as opposed to intelligent, much friendlier and less condescending. From someone kicking the tires on his first story to submit...Thanks..

LarryArcherLarryArcherover 10 years ago
Great suggestions

As one of my first favorite authors on Literotica, I always read your stories to see how you develop your characters and the plots. With only 6 stories published, I have many years to go to come close to you but am really enjoying writing.

Larry

write_or_wrongwrite_or_wrongover 10 years ago
Thank You (plus some editing suggestions)

1. Thank you for all the great submissions you have shared with us.

2. Thank you for this one in particular; I will be using it as I write my first story.

3. You mentioned that readers will critique authors on any errors. What follows is only a testament to that warning, and is not meant to belittle you or reduce the value of your suggestions:

Page 1: “Help them” (should have a sentence-ending period)

Page 3: “worst of the Grammar errors.” (grammar should not be capitalized)

Page 3: “Don't let its recommendations ruin your writing.” (IMHO, start with “But”)

Page 3: “orgasm for man” (insert “a” before “man,” i.e., “a man,” otherwise “mankind” ???)

Page 3: “34 hips” (34 should be 34”)

Page 4: “three Loving Wives tale” (tale should be plural)

Page 7: “Now we've completed the Introduction and Postcript.” (Postscript misspelled)

Page 7: “thousands off stories.” (“off” should be “of”)

Page 12: ”It can also used to indicate” (also BE used …)

Tx Tall TalesTx Tall Talesover 10 years agoAuthor
Errrors

@Write_or_wrong

Very good. I knew I had left 4 errors in the writing. I've actually had this discussion with another commenter via email. Three were intentional.

You still missed two of them - shows how insidious these are. I'll give you one, since it's so bad.

Where I discuss the issues of homonyms, its/it's, your/you're, in the same sentence I used you're incorrectly: 'whatever you're own personal foibles'

Grammar and off (not of) were two of the other ones, left in as teasers. Caught in the final edit, but left in on purpose.

Most of the others were never caught and purely unintentional. "Help them" without a period in the description is an error, but I almost always do that in the descriptions, where every space counts. Not good writing, but it's a conscious decision.

The missing 'a' before man, 34 hips, Loving Wives tale, Postcript, and missing 'be' were all mistakes.

Eliminating the 'But' before Don't is part of the terse style I've adopted for my writing. I do that a lot, and that is intentional.

And there's STILL one more, near the top, that's pretty obvious, and likely a few more that aren't.

I stand by my suggestion, which I very rarely heed - Get an editor.

Thanks for the pointing these out.

ChastitySmithChastitySmithover 10 years ago
Thanks

I found a post by you in the forums, and tracked down this very educational work. Thanks, it will help me.

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
Nice

bill....TY

FD45FD45over 10 years ago
Thank you for this

Frankly, I want to tattoo some of these rules on the inside of some poster's eyelids so they might get the hint.

One place which I disagree, and is probably wrong stylistically is the quotes around multiple paragraphs. Your way drives me crazy. I feel I should be able to discern who the speaker from context or descriptions.

It is a quirk of mine...and one which I don't plan on making any effort to fix, I am sorry to say.

Thanks again. Any critiques you might make in my writing, I will pay attention to. (I stray from the -erotica side. Not sure if I am strong enough for the Lit- side...though I try)

AnonymousAnonymousover 10 years ago
An Excellent Treatise

I hope it improves the writing skills of many of these authors and speeds up our reading time, Triple T. Thank you for a wee bit more painless education.

Do

trace_ekiestrace_ekiesover 10 years ago
Thanks

The suggestions you have offered should improve my writing considerably, (if I can only remember to apply them). Thanks for sharing.

JohnnyGaltJohnnyGaltover 10 years ago
Thank You, Thank You, ThankYou

This (or a link to this) belongs on the Author's How To page. If the site doesn't have one, it needs one.

It never ceases to amaze me how much time an author spends crafting a plot or developing characters, and then commits the most blatant grammar, spelling and punctuation errors. You would think they would CARE about such things.

And I can't resist pointing out these glaring errors, so I often get called a "Grammar Nazi" I'll take the hit. For those of us who who know the difference, they can completely destroy the flow of a story.

That being said, you left out a pet peeve of mine - the (mis)use of " 's " (apostrophe ess) That one drives me up the wall more than most!

pornjim1pornjim1about 10 years ago
Excellent suggestions - A+

Finally, some good advice from someone who can write well and keep the reader very interested. Extra bonus for referencing Strunk and White's "Elements of Style", which was the early 1960s reference book for writers attempting to write lucid prose. On Literotica one sees both good and bad writing. Learn to appreciate the good as it's a rare commodity. The author raises several excellent points, too bad we can't eliminate the stupidly bad and mediocrely written stories. Kudos to Tx Tall Tales.

KarenEKarenEover 9 years ago
Excellent!

A couple of my pet peeves that I didn't see mentioned are lose/loose and cloths/clothes.

If I see one more person "remove their cloths" or worry about "loosing their wife" I'm gonna scream!

Another is mis-placed and/or over-used commas.

I love StangStar06's stories, but he often, drives me, crazy, with his commas (I trust the sarcasm in my usage was obvious.)

Although I haven't read it (you probably have!) the example of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" is excellent.

parawaparawaabout 9 years ago
Just found this;- 5 stars

My feeling is that a reasonable number of writers do use spell check, but simply don't know the right word to pick- eg taut/taught/tort/torte will all pass Word's approval, but who knows which one to use? Grammar check also, points out problems but not their correction. I am confident enough to ignore grammar check at times.

Most writers will never get to your pages-a shame!

reader_3634reader_3634over 8 years ago
Very good advice

Personally, I can live with a few minor spelling or grammatical errors and some homonyms (e.g. wonton) just raise a small smile. Maybe I am just used to these or fairly patient. The ones that do get to me are those that make the story difficult to read.

My number one hate is what you describe under consistency. You are trying to follow a story when a character switches name for a paragraph or two. Sometimes it is a name out of the blue and sometimes it is the name of another character that is supposed to be otherwise occupied. This is more common than I would have anticipated and makes following a story really difficult.

My next hate goes way beyond bad grammar to the point where there are incomplete sentences or sentences that don't make sense. You end up rereading over and over trying to work out what the author meant. That is just not worth the effort.

The final thing that leaves me unsatisfied is where an author describes a sexual encounter with little context or story around it. Being able to describe erotic events well is a great asset but, without a story as well, it all becomes a little all the same and boring.

Finally - I have to agree with you about correct tagging. I recently read a story that looked OK until the last two paragraphs when it became a snuff story. That was it - no warning. I think that was the first time I gave a 1 *

YoureWetYoureWetabout 8 years ago
Two hour fuckfests

"Pacing and control can allow a man to last 15 to 20 minutes. Two hours fuck-fests are kind of ridiculous."

That depends on the age of the man. A middle-aged man with a belly full of alcohol, maybe a head full of weed, already tired after a week at work, and he's stayed up until 2am tonight ... sometimes that guy just can't cum. Depending on the partner this can mean a two-hour fuck-fest, or a request to stop after 20-30 minutes because it's getting too sore for the woman. 2.4 minutes average is not really a useful indicator - the younger men skew the average too much (for some of those guys, 30 seconds might be optimistic!)

As a man with this, er, "problem", I can guarantee that there's nothing inherently ridiculous about a two-hour fuck-fest involving a man over the age of 40, provided the woman can cope for that long. (Maybe I should write a humourous story with this theme - often the sex stops, and the woman takes over manually, and then her wrist gets tired ... :p)

AnonymousAnonymousalmost 8 years ago
One more error?

I'm not sure if you spelled the most basic component of a story "Content" on purpose or not, but I would've written "content". That being said, English is not my mother tongue, so what do I know...

rick_ohrick_ohalmost 7 years ago
One more suggestion

One famous author (I don't recall his name) has a rule that no two characters' names begin with the same letter (example: Mary and Marie) or have the same number of letters. I think it's a good practice, as some stories are very hard to follow when two or more characters' names are similar (Shelly, Sherry, for example).

Thanks.

AnonymousAnonymousabout 6 years ago
Great advice

The way you hit important points shows why you are a very good writer.

I totally agree that spelling and grammar errors make a story difficult to follow.

SleeperyJimSleeperyJimabout 5 years ago
Worth reading

Well worth the read. Succinct, intelligent and common sense for every writer to bear in mind. Not every piece of advice will suit every writer, but it doesn't matter. Read it!

AnonymousAnonymousover 4 years ago
A modest suggestion

I love your stories; imaginative and believable. It’s on my wish list, however, that you might take more care with the language. In this piece, you used writer’s as a plural. It is a possessive singular, not a plural. It matters to some of your readers. Please proofread or hire a competent language wonk to edit. Thx

robertlrobertlover 3 years ago

Thank you for this! It's about the clearest and most informative suggestion list I've seen.

Priscilla_JunePriscilla_Junealmost 2 years ago

As a first time author here this was really helpful :) thank you!!!

AnonymousAnonymousover 1 year ago

Great, quick reminders of all those errors that can bog down the flow of an otherwise good storyline!

AnonymousAnonymousover 1 year ago
Thanks for tipping off other writers,

I have been aggravated about characters having one name in the first part of the story, then 3 paragraphed later they change their name!

tense is an aggravating when it is mixed up.

Mr_BradyMr_Bradyover 1 year ago

I am working and wanting to become a more effective writer. And please know your tips are greatly appreciated ❤️☀️

Anonymous
Our Comments Policy is available in the Lit FAQ
Post as:
Anonymous
userTx Tall Tales@Tx Tall Tales
20299 Followers
The only thing constant is change. A new State, a new City, a new Job, and new Stories (coming soon).

READ MORE OF THIS SERIES