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This might explain a lot.

edited August 2012 in - Writing Tales
I just came across a thread on another writing forum, where most of the members are self-published authors. It might explain a lot about why so many 'indie' books are terrible. The person posting was saying that she'd just come across a book about grammar and what a lot of rubbish it was! I read on, expecting her to be shot down, but no, some people agreed with her, saying that they were writers not grammar experts and that was why they used editors! Aaaaagh! Surely the key to being a good writer is knowing all the rules so well that you don't even need to think about them?

So if you come across a book with mixed tenses and passive phrasing, it's not the fault of the writer - it's because their editor wasn't any good!

Comments

  • Sounds like a brick layer saying he only understands bricks and doesn't bother with cement. Someone else can put that in later.
  • [quote=Nena]So if you come across a book with mixed tenses and passive phrasing, it's not the fault of the writer - it's because their editor wasn't any good![/quote]
    Ha ha, ya just gotta love that! Seriously, that is truly awful.
  • Do they use txt spk when wrtng on forum? Actually, I find that real quite hard to do - read text speak!

    I used to belong to a food forum, one which supposedly helped you lose weight, it did the reverse to me and I gained approx 7lbs because I was talking and thinking too much about food. Anyway - many of the forum posts were in full-on txt spk and often with little or no punctuation, together with a solid mass of words - paragraphs being in short supply don't ya know - it makes for jolly hard reading.
  • Unbelievable, though sadly I do believe it.
  • I lv fd.

    However, I digress. I'm planning a new novel, guys! Yeah, its really original, a new concept in online publishing.
    This is how it works.
    There are three hundred blank pages, wiv diffrent bakground kulurs & txtr. I post it up online. Anyone who wants to be a self-published aufuh adds content.
    Yoo Kan post txt spk, inkurekt speling or wo'eva. Yoo kan av cleeshays, purple prose, anyfing u lik. Yoo can rite wot u lik, the only rool is tht yoo teik the last line of the post B4 and start with that.


    Soas u kno wot to luk fur, its called

    Six Duzen Shades Of Wite*

    Holy crap! It's gonna be gr8!
    So giddup thur folks & srt pstng!!!!!!

    *(sorry can't do the maff).
  • gr8 nooz pbw (LOL) gud luk
  • [quote=paperbackwriter]Holy crap! It's gonna be gr8![/quote]

    Kool I kant wate 4 it :D I hop therz ferry handkuffs and stuff...all the bestest bookz hav those

    LOL...
  • edited August 2012
    H8 txt-spk!!!! Y cn't ppl ryt gd Eglsh 2day???

    Yet another 'dork' has had an A-level English exam essay rejected in Silly Suffolk, because it was written entirely in 'txt-ese' - what is it with these thick-heads? Do they thunk they're bing clvr or summat??? ::)
  • Wow. Writing and grammar are not seperate; they are part of the same package!

    [quote=B L Zebub]Yet another 'dork' has had an A-level English exam essay rejected in Silly Suffolk, because it was written entirely in 'txt-ese' [/quote]

    tht mde me laff- I mean really??
  • Wuz gonna self publish a book innit but can't be bovvered. You ghost write it for me like an when I've made millions I'll pay yer. OK?
  • edited August 2012
    [quote= Phots Moll]Wuz gonna self publish a book innit but can't be bovvered. You ghost write it for me like an when I've made millions I'll pay yer. OK?[/quote]
    No win - No fee ;)
  • pbwpbw
    edited August 2012
    :)

    We kan haz sewf-pubwishin' LOL!
  • [quote=Nena]So if you come across a book with mixed tenses and passive phrasing, it's not the fault of the writer - it's because their editor wasn't any good![/quote]

    Twilight, anyone?
  • SuzieW - you're hired!
  • [quote=Nena]So if you come across a book with mixed tenses and passive phrasing, it's not the fault of the writer - it's because their editor wasn't any good[/quote]

    What editor?!!! ;)
  • puedo escrbr en espnl pf?
  • [quote=Lizy]puedo escrbr en espnl pf?[/quote]
    oi dz crvsa pf
  • Is this thread making no sense or has my brain fused?
  • No sense at all...:)
  • Phew! I was getting a bit worried there! :)
  • edited August 2012
    It's gone global, that's all, Nena. As I barely text in English (and never in txt spk) I certainly won't be lapsing into the French version.
    Actually, I may be one of the few people on the planet who only uses a mobile phone once every 3 months, and then just to keep the contract alive. The only people who call are wrong numbers; and the garage texts, after we've had a service, asking if we would recommend them to other users. I realised the other day I can't remember how to answer the darn thing. Must RTM.
    Jolly quiet life I lead...
  • ...or keep the CONTACTS alive! (the electronic and address book ones). Boom! boom!
  • Oooh, phone humour!
  • I don't use mine either, and have no idea HOW to use most of it. There is prrof now anyway about it causing brain tumours.

    Did you know the Gvt advice at the beginning was no child under 16 should use one? They had leaflets in John Lewis but they weren't there for long.

    The whatever they ares from a mobile phone go right through a child's skull and brain, instead of being contained in the area round the ear as in an adult's. They can go right through even if you are carrying a child and using a mobile phone. It changes the electrical impulses in their brains and no-one knows what this will do to them. The sort of phone you cary round your home is little better.
  • Mine only gets used once every few months.
  • [quote=Liz]about it causing brain tumours. [/quote]

    Mobile humour causes tumour.
  • [quote=Nena]So if you come across a book with mixed tenses and passive phrasing, it's not the fault of the writer - it's because their editor wasn't any good![/quote]

    From using the LookInside feature on Amazon it seems that many self-published authors don't even bother using editors, or at least not good ones.
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