Young Writers Society

OMG! READ MY STORY:

The freak cluthed a towle arond here nakked boddy and shivvered in the bathrom. The hedmistres had proised to be back son, but the freak herd a lod cras in the othr room, folowed by a lou strng of curssing by the hedmistres. She gused teh hedmistres wudn’t com back as soon she hopped. She ganced at the door, tremmbling slightly, and then, grippping the towel closer, the freak creppt to the mirrorr.

Oh, wasn't that fun! Don't you want to read more?

That is my story, my pride and joy, named FREAK. I love to write it and have spent hours perfecting it. Yet... did it seem like I cared about my story?

Of course not! The spelling sucked.

The ideas behind a story are always the most important part of the story. It's sort of like you. You, no matter what you look like, no matter who you seem to be, are still important because you are you.

But imagine you're going to an interview to get a job that you really really want. Something that gives you a $100 per hour. Would you dress up in rags and see your potential employer for your first interview? You may be the best person for the job, but that doesn't matter. First impressions count. You would be tossed away before you can say, "Cheesecake."

In the same way, spelling (and grammar, but that's for another tutorial) is a way to dress up your story. Bad spelling creates an instant bad impression. If I see a work that is littered with spelling errors, my first thought is not, "Oh, this is okay, so I'm going to compliment the author about the complicated themes, then have an indepth discussion about his story." No.

The first thing that pops into my mind is, sadly enough, is, "This writer doesn't care about his story, so therefore I'm not going to waste my time with his ideas and instead focus solely on his errors." Mind you, if I've seen that the author has edited his work and corrected all the spelling errors after I look at it, then I'll be more than happy to go over with the story with him. But this never seems to happen.

It's a shame really, if you think about it. I can understand bad spelling if you are writing the work by hand, but when you write on a computer, you can always hit F7 and get a spelling check!

Bad spelling ends up being a bad thing for the both of us. We, being writers, are more interested in getting our story out than little things like editing spelling errors. On the other side, the side of us editors, we are interested in reading good stories and comment on them, but are frequently unable to read, just because of the spelling errors.

I don't care if you're a bad speller, but at least check your work! After all, if you won't even look over your work for simple spelling errors when you have all these tools available to you, then why should I bother reading your story?

hehe, true, but spell checkers aren't fail-proof. Which is why editors and friends that edit are wonderful!

Like.. I have a problem with certian words, like hoping and hopping. So, I pester Crysi or whoever else is online so I don't do anything too stupid, 'cause spell-checker won't pick it up; both are spelled right, but not necessarily the right word.

But enough ranting from me! Spell check is your friends, people, and, when in doubt, ask someone to proof read your work!

At the same time, you have to remember that there are different spellings for the same word depending on what country you live in. People have accused me of typoes/spelling errors without pointing them out, and I look over the story repeatedly and can't find any.

That's a good point for everyone, Rei. If you're going to say that someone has made a spelling mistake, you need to say where because sometimes it's just the British spelling.

But, people also need to stick with either American or British spelling, not both. I always make the mistake in my writing by writing 'defense' as 'defence' or 'gray' as 'grey.' But then, I spell colors and specialization the American way.

Arg! Too confusing! I can never figure out when Canadian English spells in the British or the American way.

Hehehe, and I remember smaur told me I spelled "pajamas" wrong, and I fairly had a heartattack! She said it was "pyjamas."

...both of us were right.

I learned how to spell the British way. Although I'm in the process of correcting myself, I still get counted off in papers for writing things like colour, honour, and theatre. It is beyond annoying!

But yes, spell-check=good thing. Please please PLEASE do not ignore it.

Nothing scares an editor worse than seeing a story naked.

Except maybe if the story starts with the words "It was a dark and stormy night..."