Thanks for visiting! I hope you have some great ideas, we can use them!
The purposes of this group are: - To give stories that have been or would be rejected by Equestria Daily a new home - To provide resources to authors who would like to improve their stories for submission - To bridge the gap between authors, pre-readers and those who critique
THIS THREAD FUNCTIONS AS A SUGGESTION THREAD. PLEASE SUBMIT SUGGESTIONS HERE
Por que? We don't autoreject stories with humans in them. We look upon them a little more harshly, but we only autoreject human stories if the human is a brony.
446255 Ah! Ok, I assumed you guys knew my story was humanized. Sorry. My story is actually about Equestria in a humanized environment. This folder would include stories like that, anthro and 'Brony in Equestria' type stories.
446274 Ya, my fault. I should have known what you meant. I'll have to clarify what that folder means when I create it. This is good, we're already starting to understand better the kind of stories that might get submitted. You could really help with that. Is there an influx of some type of story that you have to turn down?
446275 Hmm... we're rejecting more and more stories these days for failing at their respective genres; in example, we see a lot of comedy stories that aren't funny and sad stories that don't inspire feels.
I don't really know what you'd call such a folder, and I hate rejecting things based on that, but that just means more submissions are coming in with clean grammar, which I appreciate.
446283 Either that or they change up their approach... it's a difficult thing to write a rejection for, because just saying "This isn't funny/sad" makes us sound like assholes.
Just a drive-by suggestion. Have a folder of "success stories", in the literal sense. With a proven track record, this group can begin to get known and help more stories.
Yes! I was hoping someone might mention something like that. You're right about it being a good way to gauge our track record. Also, maybe a pre-submit folder? For reviews.
446285 I've thought about your suggestion, and I think we'll just let those go into 'miscellaneous'. I imagine most will go into the 'second chance' folder though, since they're so close.
New threads are being created. Some old ones I made will be deleted. Likewise, I will be using threads as a notification system, so some threads will be deleted two days afterwards.
Hmm... If you're creating new threads, I think one based around an explanation of what 'homophone confusion', 'dialogue errors' and the like means would be useful. I know documents like The Editor's Omnibus and Ezn's Guide already cover most of these, but it'd be nice to have a place where people could go and ask, particularly if the pre-reader response seems vague on a topic.
Alternatively, they could just talk to their pre-reader, but most of the time I'm guessing people don't.
448717 A lot of people are often too intimidated to reply to us, apparently, since few do.
In cases where I think the author will definitely have questions, I drop my usual pre-reader mask and introduce myself as Vimbert and link to my FiMFic page, inviting them to PM me if they wish to discuss it further.
This often seems to work well, although most of the other pre-readers think I'm crazy for doing it.
450800 *Taps chin* That would be pretty good. I hadn't done it because I provided a link to /fic/, but maybe people might feel more comfortable doing it off of Fimfiction. They may not even see the link.
Tell you what, I think we should make the thread. I also think you or another pre-reader should create it. That way you can create the rules etc. and people will see that thread as being run by pre-readers when they first enter.
451150 Honestly, I can't get my head around /fic/. It's just a blur of disorganised stuff to me. I can't be the only one who finds that whole format more than a little intimidating and largely impenetrable. I'm glad the thread got started.
453418 I'm not familiar with /b/ at all, but there are a lot of people doing a lot of good there. The thread is working great, though. I do find it more approachable.
Replying in order to add suggestions to the recommend reading thingy on the front page.
This is an article on correction punctuation of dialogue. It covers nearly all of the common problems and errors a newbie writer may encounter.
Kit's How to Disembowel a Pony covers how to write gore tastefully. This'll probably be the most useful for people who find their stories getting knocked back for accidentally going full cupcakes.
Sithicus Helpicus: essentially, it's about trying to find your "voice" or main method of writing. Well worth a read.
Escher's hints: A good, general purpose guide. Has a particularly decent section on the differences between florid writing and purple prose.
General Dialogue guide: Much like the first, a general guide on how to punctuate dialogue. Also covers how to make conversations fluid and interesting whilst avoiding stilted expressions.
Tense guide: Covers one of the other more common problems that are hard to fix: confusions over tense.
An auto-reviewer: Like a grammar checker, but free. Has a nifty little passive voice function and is also useful in finding if you've repeated certain words too often.
Considering the fact that these all look great and you have it all set up in the proper format. Would you mind if I just copy-pasted it with your explanations?
[url =http://auto-reviewer.appspot.com/]An auto-reviewer[/url ]: Like a grammar checker, but free. Has a nifty little passive voice function and is also useful in finding if you've repeated certain words too often.
Thanks for visiting! I hope you have some great ideas, we can use them!
The purposes of this group are:
- To give stories that have been or would be rejected by Equestria Daily a new home
- To provide resources to authors who would like to improve their stories for submission
- To bridge the gap between authors, pre-readers and those who critique
THIS THREAD FUNCTIONS AS A SUGGESTION THREAD. PLEASE SUBMIT SUGGESTIONS HERE
> 'Humans' for obvious reasons
Por que? We don't autoreject stories with humans in them. We look upon them a little more harshly, but we only autoreject human stories if the human is a brony.
446233
At the beginning of summer, that changed.
446248
Actually, no. No it didn't.
446248
Annoying hyphen aside, they do accept HiE. I believe you may be confusing it with:
Those are stories where any of the mane characters are portrayed as humans or the weird, human-pony morph that is anthro.
446255
Ah! Ok, I assumed you guys knew my story was humanized. Sorry.
My story is actually about Equestria in a humanized environment.
This folder would include stories like that, anthro and 'Brony in Equestria' type stories.
446270
Oh. Well Human =/= Humanized, so I didn't realize that's what you were going for.
Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
446274
Ya, my fault. I should have known what you meant. I'll have to clarify what that folder means when I create it.
This is good, we're already starting to understand better the kind of stories that might get submitted.
You could really help with that. Is there an influx of some type of story that you have to turn down?
446275
Hmm... we're rejecting more and more stories these days for failing at their respective genres; in example, we see a lot of comedy stories that aren't funny and sad stories that don't inspire feels.
I don't really know what you'd call such a folder, and I hate rejecting things based on that, but that just means more submissions are coming in with clean grammar, which I appreciate.
446280
That's tough, because the story isn't bad, or otherwise unacceptable, they just need to rethink which genre it is?
446283
Either that or they change up their approach... it's a difficult thing to write a rejection for, because just saying "This isn't funny/sad" makes us sound like assholes.
446285
Ha ha, internet etiquette is tough.
I'm still trying to understand. So does it end up on the edge of a genre? Is it sorta just...not funny. Not anything else, but not funny either?
Just a drive-by suggestion. Have a folder of "success stories", in the literal sense. With a proven track record, this group can begin to get known and help more stories.
446290
Yes! I was hoping someone might mention something like that. You're right about it being a good way to gauge our track record.
Also, maybe a pre-submit folder? For reviews.
>I am planning several new features to push this group towards a more solidified direction
446410
...actually no. But please don't explain it.
446285
I've thought about your suggestion, and I think we'll just let those go into 'miscellaneous'. I imagine most will go into the 'second chance' folder though, since they're so close.
446533
New threads are being created. Some old ones I made will be deleted.
Likewise, I will be using threads as a notification system, so some threads will be deleted two days afterwards.
448601
Hmm... If you're creating new threads, I think one based around an explanation of what 'homophone confusion', 'dialogue errors' and the like means would be useful. I know documents like The Editor's Omnibus and Ezn's Guide already cover most of these, but it'd be nice to have a place where people could go and ask, particularly if the pre-reader response seems vague on a topic.
Alternatively, they could just talk to their pre-reader, but most of the time I'm guessing people don't.
448717
A lot of people are often too intimidated to reply to us, apparently, since few do.
In cases where I think the author will definitely have questions, I drop my usual pre-reader mask and introduce myself as Vimbert and link to my FiMFic page, inviting them to PM me if they wish to discuss it further.
This often seems to work well, although most of the other pre-readers think I'm crazy for doing it.
448717
Would this work?
Also, I'm adding Ezn's guide to the main page resource list.
Edit: Oops! Replied to wrong post, sorry.448732
If no one ever thanks you for that, allow me to do it on their behalf.
The pre-readers maintain an "Ask a Pre-reader Anything" thread over on ponychan where we answer questions about the queue, grammar, etc.
Sunset, do you feel that a miniature version of that (run by me and maybe any other pre-readers who wanted to pop in) could fit in the group's forums?
450800
*Taps chin* That would be pretty good. I hadn't done it because I provided a link to /fic/, but maybe people might feel more comfortable doing it off of Fimfiction. They may not even see the link.
Tell you what, I think we should make the thread. I also think you or another pre-reader should create it. That way you can create the rules etc. and people will see that thread as being run by pre-readers when they first enter.
451150
Sure, will do it when it's not three in the morning here. If I don't do it tomorrow, PM me and bother me about it.
451150 Honestly, I can't get my head around /fic/. It's just a blur of disorganised stuff to me. I can't be the only one who finds that whole format more than a little intimidating and largely impenetrable. I'm glad the thread got started.
453418
I'm not familiar with /b/ at all, but there are a lot of people doing a lot of good there.
The thread is working great, though. I do find it more approachable.
446229
Replying in order to add suggestions to the recommend reading thingy on the front page.
This is an article on correction punctuation of dialogue. It covers nearly all of the common problems and errors a newbie writer may encounter.
Kit's How to Disembowel a Pony covers how to write gore tastefully. This'll probably be the most useful for people who find their stories getting knocked back for accidentally going full cupcakes.
Sithicus Helpicus: essentially, it's about trying to find your "voice" or main method of writing. Well worth a read.
Escher's hints: A good, general purpose guide. Has a particularly decent section on the differences between florid writing and purple prose.
General Dialogue guide: Much like the first, a general guide on how to punctuate dialogue. Also covers how to make conversations fluid and interesting whilst avoiding stilted expressions.
Tense guide: Covers one of the other more common problems that are hard to fix: confusions over tense.
An auto-reviewer: Like a grammar checker, but free. Has a nifty little passive voice function and is also useful in finding if you've repeated certain words too often.
517937
Considering the fact that these all look great and you have it all set up in the proper format. Would you mind if I just copy-pasted it with your explanations?
537324
Feel free. Just remove the spacing inside the BBCode, and you should be set:
537335
Wow, thanks! You saved me some clicking on top of everything! I'll put it up right now.