62 comments/ 71522 views/ 5 favorites A Note from a Reader By: Bhob OK, I'm not a professional writer. I'm not an editor or anyone else with a recognized expertise. I'm a reader. I fell in love with the written word when I was eight years old and I've been in love with it ever since. I've read thousands of books, from just about every type you could name. Fiction and non-fiction, horror, science fiction, science fantasy and science fact, romance, history, religion, mystery, newspapers, magazines, the ingredients on the back of a soda can, the user's manual that came with my computer; if it's written I'll probably read it. But some things really turn me off and, if they're enough of a disruption to the flow, I'll stop reading your story and move on to something else. My biggest pet peeve is that some people do not use words correctly. I'm not referring to slang here, I'm well aware of slang and use it myself. There are a lot of words in the English language that sound the same when spoken, but destroy a written sentence. Words like "there, their, and they're" are a prime example. Each is a valid word in its own right and, when heard or spoken, most people will recognize the context. In print though, they cause the reader (me) to sometimes have to stop and try to figure out just what is being said. I don't like to have to decipher what I'm reading; I want to enjoy the time I'm giving to your work. There are a lot more of these things than you would guess. A few are: your and you're; since, sense, and cents; it's and its; two, to, and too; grown and groan; throne and thrown. Some writers get so sloppy with this that I make a mental note to bypass everything else they submit. It's a shame, too, because some of these people have good imaginations and set up some very interesting situations. I just can't get past this one problem and I move on. Most other people who are offering helpful advice will tell you to let someone else read it before you submit your work. This is sound advice. If that person gets confused while trying to read it then probably most other people will, too. Keep in mind that the person you choose should be someone who will give unbiased criticism, not comments based on personal preferences. I submitted a story that went over very well here, but my friend didn't like it. She said she didn't enjoy it all. After talking it through, I found that she doesn't like incest stories and that colored her assessment of everything about the story I had given her to read for me. You might find it helpful to just let it sit for a day or two, then read it again yourself before you turn it over to someone else. You'll likely find that your first draft has missing words, misspellings due to misplaced keystrokes, extra words where you've typed the same thing twice, and any number of other problems that you didn't notice the first time through. Believe me when I say that we'll notice them when we try to read your story. Use the spell checker, but don't stop there because it can only tell you that the words you've typed are spelled correctly. It can't tell you that those words are really the ones you want to use. If I say, "My dog ran threw the neighborhood," my spell checker won't have a problem with it, but I should have said, "My dog ran through the neighborhood." My word processor also has a grammar checker, but some of the suggestions I get from it would change the meaning of what I've written, or alter the mood that I'm trying to set. Use your tools, but don't be a slave to them. When in doubt, use a dictionary; I do. Find out if the words you use really mean what you think they mean. I've found that I sometimes completely miss the meaning of a word based on what it sounds like to me. Case in point: I once bought a video that had, on the box, the statement, "not intended to appeal to the prurient." I thought, prurient, pru, prudish, and decided that this must be something very erotic. It turns out that prurient is 'tending to incite lust' and that the statement was trying to warn me that the video doesn't do that. My own misconception cost me twenty bucks, yours might cost you an audience. Sometimes I even use the thesaurus. I like the word 'gorgeous' and tend to use it a lot. If I'm reading over a story and see that I've used the same word to excess, I'll look it up to see if there are other ways to say the same thing. With gorgeous I find 'superb, sumptuous, and impressive', and I'm directed to also see 'beautiful and grand'. There are lots of terms that say exactly what I want to say without being stuck in a rut. I don't have to say that Tanya is gorgeous and that she has gorgeous hair and a gorgeous face and gorgeous breasts and gorgeous legs and on and on and on with the gorgeous. Spend a few bucks on a good one and it will have words that fit the type of writing that you find on Literotica. It will list alternatives for fuck, cunt, ass, and cock, and others that you'll want to use. Same thing applies to the dictionary. These are real words that real people use and they have real meanings. A good dictionary will list them, tell you what they mean, and give other forms where appropriate; plural, possessive, and so on. If you're writing for your own pleasure, that's fine. I guess you know exactly what you mean when you write it. But if you're going to write for other people's pleasure as well, take the extra time to insure that they, too, know exactly what you mean when they read it. Let their judgment of your work be based on content and situation, instead of how difficult it is to figure out what's being said. I'll get off my soap box now and go look for a couple of good stories. I hope yours is one of them. A Note from a Reader Ch. 02 I won't be long, I promise. I just want to address a couple of things, thank you all for your support, and clarify some things where I may have left a wrong impression. First, the Thanks. I've received a lot of e-mails and public comments on the original article. More of it, in fact, than I have for anything else I've written. Nearly all of it has been kind, and most of it has been to agree with me. Even those who took issue with something I said did it in a considerate way. Thank you all. It was a pleasant surprise. Secondly, I may have opened the door for something I didn't intend. I understand that English is not everyone's first language. When I see a story with a title like, "My Mother Lost Her Sari," or "Mama-san Steps Out," or if the author is someone whose name I can't easily pronounce, I suspect that the author may not be used to English sentence structure, punctuation, slang, regional idioms and so on. I try to take that into account, and if I choose to read it, I realize that I have to allow for these things. I'm the one who's taking the risk when I do so. I have read some of those stories and there are some that I really liked. Different cultures have different ways of looking at things. No, I take issue when the author is Bill or Mary Somebody, the story is set in Hometown, USA, and I still find the kinds of things I spoke of in my first note. I also know that we're not all English Lit. professors. I'm not, and I don't expect that many of you are either, though there may be some. My talent, if I have any, has always been in science and mathematics, not grammar. I do have a computer though, and it has a word processor with a spell checker and a grammar checker. If you're on the internet, and can submit things to a site like Literotica, you probably do, too. I hope I didn't give the impression that I think I'm superior to anyone, because that's not the case. I am as fallible as anyone out there and I know it. A couple of people pointed out mistakes in my own writing and I'm now a better, and somewhat humbler, writer for it. Third, I've been reminded that there are some other things that irritate the senses of readers; things that I didn't mention. Take an overview of the stories here and you would have to assume that almost every woman in America has, at the very least, a size 38D chest and that the only men in America with less than an eight inch cock are those pitiful husbands whose wives are being fucked by anybody else in town. Of course, most men have ten or more inches and are as big around as a beer can. You know, that's alright sometimes, (even I get off on it now and then), but when it's in fifteen stories in a row it gets to be a bit much. I start to feel inadequate. I've had real, live women tell me that I'm big, but I'm not all that; certainly nothing to compare to the guys in these stories. I've put a few stories out there myself and I tend to model my characters after real people. The situations and action may be fantasy, but the people are just the way I describe them, as least as far as I know. I think that if you use believable characters, then the reader is more likely to stretch his/her imagination enough to entertain the possibility of extraordinary events. Maybe I'm wrong. I've noticed that none of my stories have reached the "Top Lists", except for my single non-fiction entry. I've had people tell me that my stories are too long. Maybe they are, but that leads to another of my pet peeves. If I say that I walked into my sister's bedroom one day and she threw herself at me, then I think the natural question is, 'Why?'. What made her just throw out a lifetime's worth of moral upbringing? What made her decide that mine is the only cock that she's ever really wanted? I try to provide a background that will answer such questions. Maybe my introductions are too long, but there are certainly a lot of stories where it's too short, or non-existent. I'm not talking about Chapter 2 and beyond; it's to be hoped that Chapter 1 has this information. I mean that I've seen stories where it was just that quick and easy. 'I wanted to fuck my mom, so I did, and this is what she said while I did it.' If I can't believe it, I usually don't enjoy it; I'm too busy picking it apart. I don't mean here, pure fantasy like you find in the 'Celebrity' section. I know that, almost without exception, the stories here are fantasy. But much of what you'll find on this site, within the fantasy context, is presented as real events that happened to real people, in the same way that 'Robinson Crusoe' or 'Star Wars' was presented to me. I know that these things didn't really happen, but I'm willing to suspend my disbelief. Give me the means to do so and I'll be happy. A few more of those words that make readers cringe: Site and sight – one is a place and the other has to do with vision Waist and waste – I'd love to place my hand on her waist, but she can leave her waste somewhere else Taunt and taut – I can tell she's excited because her muscles are taut, but if she taunts me I'll probably get mad and leave Its and it's – (for mummys dirty angel) there's a very cute 'How To' about this very thing that should put you forever on the right track, written by Whispersecret. And a gentle nod to one of my critics – Ensure and insure – you are technically right. Ensure is 'to make sure' and Insure is 'to take out or issue insurance on'. My 1979 edition of Webster's also lists under Insure: 'same as ensure', but I still give you credit. The last thing I want to bring to your attention is that there are some words that don't really even sound the same, but they're used by mistake anyway. If you were to read your work out loud you'd recognize them immediately. People do not 'set on a chair', they sit. They don't 'shutter with anticipation', they shudder. If they really do scream because they're having multiple organisms they go to a doctor. Please take your work seriously, so that I, and other readers, can, too.