![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Apr. 23rd, 2008 09:49 pmSo, it's suddenly gone hot, and I'm cranky. I want winter back. Now.
I'm also cranky because there seems to be a recent trend to be particularly sloppy when it comes to submitting fic. If you suddenly submit a chapter with missing full stops at the end of a sentence when you've never made that mistake before, I consider it sloppy, okay? If you submit a drabble with ten errors, errors you've rarely made or not at all before, then I do take personal offense. Why? Because it tells me that 1. you don't give a rat's arse about the quality of your own work, seeing that you didn't have it beta'd let alone read through it before submitting it. In that case, go to FFN or AFF, they don't give a rat's arse about errors either. 2. You don't care in the least what an admin does. An admin goes through an average of 5k to 12k words of fiction in any given day. Sometimes less, occasionally even more. The majority of admins are also betas, which also takes time. Some admins are authors, too, although many simply don't have the time or energy to write at the end of the day. They do all that for the love of fandom, for the love of spreading proper English, that's their pay. So, if you upload sloppy work, you tell me blatantly that you don't give a shit how I spend my time. Or maybe you tell me that it's my duty to sort out your shit because obviously, I have nothing else to do. Believe me, that does not go down well with an admin.
Please show some respect to your beta and the admins of moderated archives by CLEANING UP your work BEFORE you submit it. Yes, we all make mistakes, that's why several pairs of eyes are better than one set. If you know you're prone to making certain mistakes, use the FIND function on your word processing program before you submit your story. If you know you make a lot of mistakes, find a second beta. A beta will only find that many errors, and yes, they will miss too many if a chapter has a crap load of errors. There is nothing wrong with making lots of mistakes. But there is a lot wrong to take for granted that an admin corrects all of them. If you have a tendency to miss corrections, do it once, then let it rest for a day or two. Then go through it AGAIN and check whether you've made all your corrections. If you ignore your beta's requests for corrections, you are putting her reputation at risk, and that is unfair.
Last but not least, there are many authors lately who don't receive many reviews at all while a few stories get them all. If you're a writer yourself, you know how it feels to receive a review. Why not humour a writer by leaving a review? A few stories have stood out for me in the past few weeks, and they're all very much under-reviewed. You might have an excuse for not reading a chaptered WIP with 10k chapters, but you surely can take a few minutes to read a one-shot and leave something positive for the author, no? So, I have some reccs to click on and review:
Stealing Glances by Kittylefish. One-shot, Snily. It's worth the read for the quality of writing alone. Also, the ending literally suggests why SSHG simply has to happen.
Only the Beginning by Falconfalmorgan. WIP to Ch 11 Ginny/Voldemort
Being the Godfather by Marisol, translated by Muggline. SSHG WIP Ch 1 with second in the Q. Muggline is working hard on translating it; the original so far has 22 chapters, and I got totally into it because it's refreshingly original.
Better Not Knowing by Sweetflag. WIP to Ch 7, with Ch 8 in the Q. SS/OFC
I'm also cranky because there seems to be a recent trend to be particularly sloppy when it comes to submitting fic. If you suddenly submit a chapter with missing full stops at the end of a sentence when you've never made that mistake before, I consider it sloppy, okay? If you submit a drabble with ten errors, errors you've rarely made or not at all before, then I do take personal offense. Why? Because it tells me that 1. you don't give a rat's arse about the quality of your own work, seeing that you didn't have it beta'd let alone read through it before submitting it. In that case, go to FFN or AFF, they don't give a rat's arse about errors either. 2. You don't care in the least what an admin does. An admin goes through an average of 5k to 12k words of fiction in any given day. Sometimes less, occasionally even more. The majority of admins are also betas, which also takes time. Some admins are authors, too, although many simply don't have the time or energy to write at the end of the day. They do all that for the love of fandom, for the love of spreading proper English, that's their pay. So, if you upload sloppy work, you tell me blatantly that you don't give a shit how I spend my time. Or maybe you tell me that it's my duty to sort out your shit because obviously, I have nothing else to do. Believe me, that does not go down well with an admin.
Please show some respect to your beta and the admins of moderated archives by CLEANING UP your work BEFORE you submit it. Yes, we all make mistakes, that's why several pairs of eyes are better than one set. If you know you're prone to making certain mistakes, use the FIND function on your word processing program before you submit your story. If you know you make a lot of mistakes, find a second beta. A beta will only find that many errors, and yes, they will miss too many if a chapter has a crap load of errors. There is nothing wrong with making lots of mistakes. But there is a lot wrong to take for granted that an admin corrects all of them. If you have a tendency to miss corrections, do it once, then let it rest for a day or two. Then go through it AGAIN and check whether you've made all your corrections. If you ignore your beta's requests for corrections, you are putting her reputation at risk, and that is unfair.
Last but not least, there are many authors lately who don't receive many reviews at all while a few stories get them all. If you're a writer yourself, you know how it feels to receive a review. Why not humour a writer by leaving a review? A few stories have stood out for me in the past few weeks, and they're all very much under-reviewed. You might have an excuse for not reading a chaptered WIP with 10k chapters, but you surely can take a few minutes to read a one-shot and leave something positive for the author, no? So, I have some reccs to click on and review:
Stealing Glances by Kittylefish. One-shot, Snily. It's worth the read for the quality of writing alone. Also, the ending literally suggests why SSHG simply has to happen.
Only the Beginning by Falconfalmorgan. WIP to Ch 11 Ginny/Voldemort
Being the Godfather by Marisol, translated by Muggline. SSHG WIP Ch 1 with second in the Q. Muggline is working hard on translating it; the original so far has 22 chapters, and I got totally into it because it's refreshingly original.
Better Not Knowing by Sweetflag. WIP to Ch 7, with Ch 8 in the Q. SS/OFC