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Editors ... sigh...

shaddoth1 ๐Ÿšซ

Sigh.
My previous bulk Editor vanished. my current finsihed editor takes a week per chapter. it seems that he has a real life, daft bugger.

I went looking through the Editor availability secion of SoL and found lots of 'stuff'.

There was even someone that posted an add for his services back in 2009, 11 years ago and he was over 70 then...

Completely discriminating against the 80+ age group, more than a few were born during WWII..

While liking Al Stiner is fine and dandy, does that mean you have a good understanding of english??

And while having an Armed forces DI on your resume is fine for some, most of my needs come in the advanced English punctuation categories. Such as where the hell the comma is supposed to go.
that along with complex compound sentences which confuse me all too often need oversight.

half of the page was taken up by 4 or less hours a week availability.
I'm sitting on 4 stories totaling over 300k words...
3 hours a week isnt going to cut it.
I think.

I think that the voulnteer Editor section needs a date of posting when they advertise their services. somehow, I felt that quite a few were dated.

Shad

karactr ๐Ÿšซ

I don't claim to be an editor...an editor should be able to make suggestions to improve your writing or story while I can't improve the ones I've started past readable. Proof reading I can do, and I would be happy to offer my services, but working 70 to 80 hours a week severely limits my time, so I don't offer.

Maybe one day if I can ever retire.

awnlee jawking ๐Ÿšซ

@shaddoth1

Such as where the hell the comma is supposed to go.

If you ever solve that one, write an app to automate it - you'd make a fortune. Or not, since few people care any more :(

AJ

Replies:   shaddoth1
shaddoth1 ๐Ÿšซ

@awnlee jawking

If you ever solve that one, write an app to automate it - you'd make a fortune. Or not, since few people care any more :(

I'd end up getting chased by all the out of work 60 year old english teachers with rulers in hand.

shad

StarFleet Carl ๐Ÿšซ

@shaddoth1

he has a real life, daft bugger

Funny thing is, I first started out as a volunteer editor, when my real life job gave me lots of free computer time.

I did that for a little while, and ended up getting the writers bug. Now, my real life job doesn't give me a lot of free computer time, and I'm quite certain I'm still on the list of available editors, but I've got zero free time, between my own writing and (gasp!) earning a living.

My current book that I'm still writing is at 19 chapters, about 230k words. What I've found for the comma thing is to run it through a new copy of MS Word, see what it suggests, and then either agree or disagree with it. Took me about an hour the other day to do 15 chapters.

Eddie Davidson ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

I haven't ever had an editor.

I've had a few people show interest but no one volunteer.

I do ask that we communicate through the internal email system to protect my privacy - but I don't think that is the deal breaker. I think that I probably just make too many mistakes or my story content is too racy for most editors.

I've had to rely on a good friend to give my stuff a look but while he does that he cannot work on his own projects.

I am just thankful for that extra set of eyes because without that my writing would be absolute unreadable drek. I can catch other people's mistakes quite easily but I seldom see my own even after multiple passes. Even with the use of automated spell check - its been the hardest part of writing.

Mike-Kaye ๐Ÿšซ

I have also had no luck finding a volunteer editor. I've been using Grammarly instead.

Grammarly has a free option that fits my budget. The paid option does more, but I'm more than happy with what it does for free. Grammarly interfaces nicely with MS Word. (I got a bit confused until I started exiting Grammarly before exiting Word.)

Grammarly (at least in the free version) has no way to distinguish between 'May' being a month and a family name. When Z and Fran manage the May's house as a vacation rental. Grammarly gets confused.

I remember a few singular and plural issues where Grammarly did not understand which word(s) or phrase set the number. Grammarly did not fix my spelling out loud of computer opcodes like X-O-R.

From Generous Offers (2) Mike's ladies are deciding how to wear a 'panty' which was little more than loincloths front and back. They had the option of connecting the front and back parts with a loose chain. I wrote:

Beth and Chrissy tried it both ways opting for no connection. 'Inadvertent' exposure when they moved was desired.

Grammarly wanted: โ€ฆno connection. 'Inadvertent' exposure, when they moved, as desired.

I ignored both the comma and word change suggestions.

Beth and Chrissy wore the panties with equally sexy tops in the cruise line's pre-boarding lounge. They were among several others competing for the sexiest outfit.

Judging was by audience noise level.

Grammarly wanted the audience. Suggestion ignored.

Replies:   shaddoth1
shaddoth1 ๐Ÿšซ

@Mike-Kaye

when i played around with G. I didnt notice enough benefical suggestions that the latest Word didnt already cover to make it worth my time.

One or two accepted alterations in a 8k chapter didnt cut it for me.

my problem is not enough commas and sundries.

Shad

Replies:   Eddie Davidson
Eddie Davidson ๐Ÿšซ

@shaddoth1

Grammarly for me finds about 180 mistakes or suggestions per chapter

It's awesome.

That being said obviously it's not going to be smart enough to figure out if you mean Aunt May, May you do something or may the month.

It would be great if you could define a custom dictionary where you say that If you're using a name like honey or sugar for one of your characters, it sees It as a person noun.

I would also love it if it let me organize my chapters through the interface into specific stories. That way I could create one workspace for each of my stories.

What I've been thinking about doing is finding a second type of product like grammarly that does things differently and running it through both. I think that's probably going to be the best solution. The only real way to edit though is going to be the old-fashioned way of reading it several times and trying to fix those mistakes that automation could never catch.

I look at it like a filter
You put things through a filter and it can't get everything. It does get out a lot of the junk though.

For that reason I had no problem paying for it because it saves me a lot of time, and I look at this writing as a hobby and an outlet for my creativity.

What it also can't do though is "If May's arms are tied behind your back how did she crawl behind the guy?" Or something like that when you're describing situations and you miss some continuity

And that's where a real editor's measure is invaluable

MrWolf_UK ๐Ÿšซ

@shaddoth1

I'm down as a volunteer editor, but some authors need more editing than others. Also, there's a big difference between an editor who is willing to help you rewrite your whole story and a proof reader who can pick up on spelling, grammar and punctiation mistakes.

Some of the work I've done in the past, you sometimes miss something because chapters are drip fed by the author, and it's only when you go back and re-read the whole thing do you notice a complete plot hole that you can drive a bus through.

I will second what karactr mentioned. When I first offered my services, I used to be able to dedicate about 10 hours a week to editing, but these days I'm lucky if I get time to myself to read, let alone edit. If I spot obvious errors and the author has contact information, I'll send it along, but I don't have the time to work with the number of editors I used to.

Finally in reply to Eddie Davison, why don't you create a free account that you use for SOL only? That way you don't need to use your private address. If you're trying to send 300k of text for editing, an attachment to an email is a hell of a lot easier than using the SOL mail system (no offense Laz).

G Younger ๐Ÿšซ

The key is keeping them happy. I recently doubled all my editors' pay. When they recover from that act of generosity, I plan to give them nifty new titles.

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