Ten Things Which Make Me Delete After the Disclaimer
margu...@swbell.net
honestly I did, and I made an interesting discovery along the way. No,
you can't judge a book by its cover, but disclaimers and authors' notes
go a long way toward telling me about the quality of the work.
With that in mind, I made a promise to myself. Self, I told myself,
let's not read any more stories whose introductions do any of the
following:
1. Tell me in advance that the story "sucks."
2. Tell me that the writer knows that his/her grammar and spelling are
bad but that they just *had* to write anyway and couldn't be bothered to
get help.
3. Threaten me if I don't send feedback.
4. Begin with a whine about how the author has written stories before
and they didn't get feedback, either, so we'd better "make it up to
her/him."
5. Spend any time telling me about the author's personal traumas,
diseases, or debilitating conditions.
6. Squeal and/or giggle.
7. Insult either shippers or noromos by implying that there's a "right"
or "wrong" way to feel about this subject.
8. Ask the readers to finish part of the story for the author because
she/he has no idea how it's going to come out.
9. Admit to taking the idea from someone else's story without the
original author's permission.
10. Tell me that it's a repost of something that "wasn't very good, so
now I've made it longer/changed the title so that will make it better,
right?"
If you want people to read your story, just make your disclaimer and
author's notes as brief, informative, and non-judgmental as possible.
Let your work stand on its own merit.
Please?
Meg,
with not enough hours in the day to read
Thomas Stock
margu...@swbell.net wrote:
and my two cents worth added to Meg's top ten--
11. More pages of disclaimer than story.
12. Thanking more people than an Academy Award Winner
13. Thanking people who had no idea you even wrote the story, much less
endorsed it with their name.
14. "The character of Bobby Jo is based on me--" Unless you plan to sue
yourself for this, there's no need to include it in the disclaimer.
We'll
find out all too soon ourselves, if we ever get past the disclaimer
to
the story. Which, as Meg suggests, is increasingly unlikely at this
point.
Linking arms with Meg against the Satan-Made-Me-Disclaim-This virus.
jordan
Zinniad
> If you want people to read your story, just make your disclaimer and
> author's notes as brief, informative, and non-judgmental as possible.
> Let your work stand on its own merit.
I completely agree. Rather than listing in advance the reasons why we should
forgive you for having written a bad story (you're 12, don't speak English
well, are running a high fever, etc.), get someone to read it ahead of time and
*fix* the problems your story may have. And if you have a lot of things you
absolutely need to say, adding an author's note at the end works better than
sticking it before the story.
Also: be sure to proofread your summary, disclaimer, etc. Nothing scares me
away from a story faster than a typo or grammatical error before the story even
starts.
Anna
margu...@swbell.net
Meg
Autumn T wrote:
>
> You forgot:
>
> -"I just wrote this story in 6 minutes in Spanish class on the back of a gum
> wrapper and HAD to share" type information.
>
> Autumn Tysko
> Sister of OBSSE / "I owe you everything Scully and you owe me nothing"
> My episode reviews available at (email me for mailing list info):
> http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/1411/main_rev.html
Autumn T
newpoint
11. Please be kind; this is my first fanfic.
I don't know about anyone else, but that sentence just makes me cringe.
It's almost as if the author is giving an excuse for a not so great story.
newpoint
margu...@swbell.net wrote:
> If you want people to read your story, just make your disclaimer and
> author's notes as brief, informative, and non-judgmental as possible.
> Let your work stand on its own merit.
>
Veronica
newpoint wrote in message <35D8A30B...@switcher.2000.com>...
> You forgot:
> 11. Please be kind; this is my first fanfic.
>
> I don't know about anyone else, but that sentence just makes me
cringe.
>It's almost as if the author is giving an excuse for a not so great
story.
>
> newpoint
Nah that one doesn't bother me.
I always read the first few paragraphs anyway. After all, I'm a new
enough writer to understand that the above often translates to:
I've secretly been writing for the past 6 months and you faceless
people are the first ones I'm sharing with, so please don't crush my
fragile writers ego, nuture it by sending me feedback that says how
impressed you are at my first writing attempt.
Veronica
ImXFScully
aren't native speakers of English -- that's not a confession of poor quality,
just of uncertainty. (And as I have read stories by novices and non-English
speakers that were very good, that uncertainty is sometimes unwarranted.)
As for the rest of the post, I know what you mean --
Amy
Circe
> I disagree with all of you. Can you all honestly say that you've never put
> something in a disclaimer that didn't need to be there? Just because the
> author puts some extra things at the beginning of the story doesn't mean you
> should brush it away like it's trash. Give people a chance and stop being so
> judgemental. How about you try skipping *to* the story?
I don't mind extra things in the beginning; I like authors' notes. But why should
I bother to read a story that the author has already told me is bad or that
he/she wrote it in 20 minutes and didn't care enough to even spell check it?
--
Circe
The Titanium Magnolia
SPCDD, Sorceress--MM
If those were my last words, I can do better.--Fox Mulder
Loch Ness
>
> With that in mind, I made a promise to myself. Self, I told myself,
> let's not read any more stories whose introductions do any of the
> following:
Yes. However, you left out two of my favorites:
11. Wretchedly misspell more than three words in any given line of text.
Hey, I can overlook the occasional "hte" for "the," and I understand
that a spell-checker will miss the odd "that" that should be a "than,"
but if 99 percent of the spelling's not right, you're not trying.
(You just watch - somewhere in this post I'm going to misspell something
and I'll never live it down. It never fails.)
12. Any instance of misspelling "Mulder." It's not difficult to learn,
and it's not difficult to type. He's one of the main characters, for
cryin' out loud. And you'd be amazed how many times it's wrong. Geez, if
the author can't get *that* right...?
--
InverNessie | If God wants my wife
loch...@mindspring.com | to be submissive, he can
That deep water only | tell her so his-own-self.
*looks* still. | --Anonymous Baptist
margu...@swbell.net
> I disagree with all of you. Can you all honestly say that you've never put
> something in a disclaimer that didn't need to be there?
Of course I have. I've thanked one person too many or tried to make a
joke about the disclaimer itself. On the other hand, I don't make
comments about my tormented past or my sexual preference, beg for
sympathy, and call it the introduction to a story. That's what
therapists are for.
Just because the
> author puts some extra things at the beginning of the story doesn't mean you
> should brush it away like it's trash.
There's extra, and then there's extraneous. I only "brush it away like
it's trash" when the author gives me a reason to do so, such as saying
"I know this story sucks." I take people's opinions seriously. If I open
a story up and the AUTHOR tells me it's terrible, who am I to disagree?
If I open a carton of milk and it smells bad, I don't drink it.
Give people a chance and stop being so
> judgemental.
I'm not the judge. The *writer* says the story is bad; there's your
judgment. I'm just heeding a warning, not reviewing the story.
How about you try skipping *to* the story?
Ah, were there only enough hours in the day, I'd be glad to. But when
someone starts out by telling me that she/he spent 20 minutes writing
the story or that if he/she doesn't get feedback there'll be some sort
of penalty, I just assume it's something I can skip.
>
> I understand where you're coming from, but someone had to stand up for the
> other side.
::blinking in surprise:: We're taking sides?
That's fine. However, when the people who write these introductions
wonder why their works aren't being read, we'll have this thread to look
back on.
All I was trying to convey, and in a humorous and non-threatening
manner, was that we should *all* be careful how we present our stories
to the reading public. Instead of saying "I know that this is my first
fanfic and you'll all hate it, but be nice to me because I had a rough
childhood" why not just post the story and let it stand on its own
merits instead? Then we'd all dip our toes in the water and sample the
joys of fanfic.
That should put us all on the same side.
Meg
margu...@swbell.net
LOL, you got me!
Meg,
embarrassed, but laughing
AZRKruzHol wrote:
>
> Um, not to be a grammar Nazi or anything (oh, all right, yes I am, but I'm a
> nice one), but it should be "Ten Things *That* Make Me Delete ..." If you
> can't put a comma before it, use "that" instead of "which."
>
> Thus concludeth our uninvited grammar lesson for the day.
>
> --Alicia, who doesn't hit "delete" over misuse of that/which; it just sets her
> teeth on edge.
GeoRed
icete...@aol.com (IceTea1013) writes:
>I disagree with all of you. Can you all honestly say that you've never put
>something in a disclaimer that didn't need to be there? Just because the
>author puts some extra things at the beginning of the story doesn't mean you
>should brush it away like it's trash. Give people a chance and stop being so
>judgemental. How about you try skipping *to* the story?
Oh geez, here we go again. Please do not tell people how to decide whether to
read a story or not. Can you honestly say that it has no affect on you and you
read them all? I don't have that much time.
Heidi
::::::::with head in hands, rocking slowly::::::::::
"It just doesn't matter, it just doesn't matter, it just doesn't matter."
<Mulder: He's not just lean.......he's cuisine.>
GeoRed
writes:
>And can we talk about titles please? Do any of you purposely avoid a
>story just at the title? I mean, when I read something like "Wind
>Beneath My Wings" or "Passion's Destiny of Fox's Tears Mingled With
>Dana's Angst Through The Generations of Our Endless Love", I usually
>have to go hide for a while...
I most certainly do. Sorry, but if the title makes me cringe, chances are the
story will do the same. I am sure that people skipped mine for various
reasons.....but so what? I enjoyed writing it and I hear that some enjoyed
reading it. That's all that matters to me.
IceTea1013
>your introduction is immature, or if it says something to indicate that very
>little effort was put into the story, some people will choose to skip it.
My disclaimers are immature, but I'm writing about silly things. Just because
my story is about lice, doesn't mean I didn't put thought into it.
~Beccers
shanna...@pnx.com
i hope u will luv this storee!
---------------------------------------------------
shan...@pnx.com
Archivist
Star Trek Stories for All Ages
http://extra.newsguy.com/~trekfic
IceTea1013
people who have silly things in their disclaimers, but worte wonderful stories.
The Lump series, and anything by Mariacomet.
Do whatever you want.
~Becca
AZRKruzHol
Dawn S Friedman
>On 17 Aug 1998 23:16:40 GMT, icete...@aol.com (IceTea1013) wrote:
>
>>Just because the
>>author puts some extra things at the beginning of the story doesn't mean you
>>should brush it away like it's trash.
Points for spelling "it's" correctly, but: the original poster didn't
say anything about thinking of stories she skips as trash. Lots of things
ought to be brushed away without being trash: for example, the tentative
touch of someone you like well enough but don't want to get physically
involved with. We can't love every person who might be worthy of it,
though heaven knows some of us try. And we can't all read every single
story.
>Not to be a snot, but I'm a busy person and I don't have the time to
>read everything out there in fanficland. If the intro sounds like I'm
>not going to like it, I'm not going to read it.
This strikes me as a reasonable way to choose. I don't want to
draw straws to decide who I'm going to date, either (or who gets
stuck dating me, for that matter -- but the story doesn't know
who's reading it, so it's pretty much a one-way transaction.)
>And can we talk about titles please? Do any of you purposely avoid a
>story just at the title?
Constantly. However, there are so many one-word titles out there
that this isn't as helpful as it might be.
>I mean, when I read something like "Wind Beneath My Wings"
...especially if it's an M/K...
>or "Passion's Destiny of Fox's Tears Mingled With
>Dana's Angst Through The Generations of Our Endless Love", I usually
>have to go hide for a while...
I just say, "Thank you, author, for making our lives easier."
The people who want to read those stories have an easier time
finding them if the title suits, too.
>God, I AM being a snot today!
Brightened up my evening.
>This coming from a woman who (in her early, dark fanfic days) wrote a
>story called "Anticipation: Save The Best For Last". *cringe* The
>best part is that wasn't even the original title. The original, you
>ask? "Building A Mystery". Yeppers, I named it after a Sarah
>McLachlan song... We all live and learn. <vbg>
All right, I'll confess too: I wrote a story called "Passionflower"
under the pseud "Aurora". I'm surprised *anyone* read the damn thing.
--
Dawn Friedman d...@world.std.com
Sarah Kiley
Zinniad wrote:
<snip>
I think the point is simply that every author should be aware that what they
> write in their disclaimer reflects on their story. For example, if the tone of
> your introduction is immature, or if it says something to indicate that very
> little effort was put into the story, some people will choose to skip it.
That's true, but sometimes it seems like the right thing to say. I wrote one story
in half an hour of creative fury, shot it through spell check and posted it. I
didn't mean to imply that I put little effort into the story. I wanted to share
that this was very spur-of-the-moment and very inspired.
However, it had the opposite effect, and I received a letter from someone who told
me they almost hadn't read the story because of my disclaimer.
My disclaimers have gotten me in all sorts of trouble-- I got some very nasty
flames once in response to a disclaimer in which I was poking fun at myself, that
was considered "offensive" to non-shippers-- the worst of said flames coming from
a fellow writer (whom I respected a great deal at the time) who informed me that I
wasn't worthy to call myself an author.
So I don't really take much stock in disclaimers or author's notes. I usually just
scroll down to find the summary and then decide if I want to read it or not. Just
because the author doesn't write a correct (in all meanings of the word)
disclaimer, is self-conscious about what they're doing, or ego-starved doesn't
mean the story isn't a good one. You don't have to like the artist to like his or
her work-- that's what the writer's notes/thank-yous/disclaimers are-- a chance
for the writer, who spends time giving you a tour of others heads, to give you a
peek into his or her own. Nobody said you had to look.
Sarah
FirePhile
very good the first time...? And if so should that just not be mentioned in
the disclaimer at all? or the authors notes?
Rachel Ehrentreu - Fire...@aol.com
http://studentweb.tulane.edu/~jstoy/rachel.html
"Sure, fine, whatever." - "This is a lighthouse. Your Call."
Member of EMXC, SPCDD, XFF, atxc, FT, XF...etc.
d...@teleport.com
>Quick question...is it okay to repost a story if it's been edited and it wasn't
>very good the first time...? And if so should that just not be mentioned in
>the disclaimer at all? or the authors notes?
I would change the _subject_ to "Revised: Story Name" or "Re-edited: Story
Name". That way the readers who loved it will definitely reread, and the
ones who skipped it after deciding it was unreadable (or not to their
tastes) might just give it a second chance.
I don't think the disclaimer needs changing. You might add one line saying
why it was revised (15 people told me Scully was acting out of character,
so I redid this) or re-edited (I got a wonderful editor who taught me the
grammar I never understood in school).
Debbie Goldstein
d...@teleport.com
Kipler
Me, I just skip any and all introductions. Never read 'em - not a word. It's
the first paragraph of the story that tells me whether to brush the story away
like the touch of an unwanted lover. (Great metaphor, BTW.)
http://members.aol.com/kipler/grammar.html
--Kipler
Julia A M Simon
I just *had* to add my thoughts on this subject... (Uh-oh, if this were a
lead-in to a story, I probably would have lost 50% of my potential readers
with this sentence. ;)
Some things that make me skip a story (and, in severe cases, avoid the
author for a few months), apart from those that have already been
mentioned:
- the title is in a foreign language; which in and of itself isn't so bad,
only if the word order, spelling, and/or inflection (or lack thereof)
make it absolutely clear that the author doesn't speak this language at
all and didn't even bother to consult someone who does (yes, I'm a snooty
linguistics major and a European, so sue me);
- the "Spoilers" section insults us foreign readers by declaring, for
example, that the story contains spoilers for episode XYZ "but that one
aired last month, so if you haven't seen it yet you must be living on the
dark side of the moon" or something like that. I'm not into black magic,
but I found a special curse for people who write things like that. <waves
hands dramatically and mutters some unintelligible syllables; offending
authors all over the world are struck by lightning> No, seriously, when I
read this kind of thing I'm always tempted to ask the author to kindly
send me the episodes between the last one aired in my country and the
last one *they* saw, in a video format compatible with European VCRs,
please... or, alternatively, buy me a satellite dish.
CU,
Julia 8-)
--
Julia Simon Hypp"a"aj"at"ar Sprachen-Freak vom Dienst
email: si...@cc.helsinki.fi, sil...@coli.uni-sb.de
snailmail: Akanapolku 2 L 401, 01370 Vantaa, Finland
homepage: http://www.lingsoft.fi/~simon
Where linguists gather, madness abounds ( - the story of my life)
Loch Ness
>
> My disclaimers have gotten me in all sorts of trouble-- I got some very nasty
> flames once in response to a disclaimer in which I was poking fun at myself, that
> was considered "offensive" to non-shippers-- the worst of said flames coming from
> a fellow writer (whom I respected a great deal at the time) who informed me that I
> wasn't worthy to call myself an author.
Well, there's no question in my mind that people sometimes overreact to
what they read. But I think this speaks to the point that introductory
material probably ought to be restricted, as much as possible, to stuff
that's actually relevant to the story. I mean, if any of the intro
material is worth doing at all (about which I have some skepticism),
it's function should be to lure readers in - or at the very least to see
that they don't get driven away. And this whole subject has been
controversial enough with both writers and readers that I have always
set up a "Part 0" for the intro so that nobody actually has to read it,
even for a one-part story.
FirePhile
>Name". That way the readers who loved it will definitely reread, and the
>ones who skipped it after deciding it was unreadable (or not to their
>tastes) might just give it a second chance.
Okay, thanks!! I'll do that...it makes sense :)
AZRKruzHol
>Whoops!
>
>LOL, you got me!
I did mean it in fun; hope it came across that way. Heaven
knows there are myriad more heinous crimes, many of which
I no doubt commit on a regular basis.
--Alicia
margu...@swbell.net
error in the subject line? I felt so stupid; I was rabbiting away about
annoyances without checking my own work. For SHAME!
My face is red, believe me, but it is certainly no more than I deserve.
Meg,
collapsing under the weight of her own pretentiousness
R. Scott Carr
> Um, not to be a grammar Nazi or anything (oh, all right, yes I am, but I'm a
> nice one), but it should be "Ten Things *That* Make Me Delete ..." If you
> can't put a comma before it, use "that" instead of "which."
I think you're being overly pendantic, though this issue is widely debated.
Certainly, which is used in non-restrictive clauses, but that and which can be
used interchangeably in restrictive clauses. Even Strunk and White's _Elements of
Style_, which takes a fairly hard-line position on this issue, acknowledges that
which and that are often used interchangeably, offering up this quote from the
Bible:
"Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass."
In _Word Power Made Easy_, in the chapter on "how to avoid being a purist,"
Norman Lewis notes that "correctness, in short, is determined by current educated
usage." I would argue that the language has already reached the point where this
distinction has become obsolete.
> --Alicia, who doesn't hit "delete" over misuse of that/which; it just sets her
> teeth on edge.
"Lighten up, Francis." :-)
--
Scott Carr
http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/7503
ENPM318
Great list. I agreed with every item.
A lot of people have the same problem: not enough hours in the day. So, while
each of the items you listed may be irritating, I use them as warning signals.
Depending on the number of offenses, I may or may not skip to the first
paragraph of the story itself. Sometimes the summary decides it for me.
I rely a lot on the summary to tell me if I would be interested in the story.
I also have a pet peeve about "humor" in disclaimers and summaries. Humor is
VERY subjective, and can be misinterpreted. If you know your audience
precisely, you can't go wrong. But with ATXC's "buckshot" approach, you'll
likely offend *someone*. I'm separating humor in the story from humor in the
disclaimer/summary here.
I figure if someone can't get a boilerplate disclaimer right, chances are that
the story will have some problems. And extraneous story
notes/thanks/acknowledgements should go at the END of the story, so the reader
can ignore it. If the story entertained, chances are the reader will read the
addendum.
What I really like are the professional disclaimers, the accurate and complete
summaries, and notes at the end. Call me a purist (shrug).
L.E.
Teddi Litman
dak...@stkate.edu (Dasha K) wrote:
>
>And can we talk about titles please? Do any of you purposely avoid a
>story just at the title? I mean, when I read something like "Wind
>Beneath My Wings" or "Passion's Destiny of Fox's Tears Mingled With
>Dana's Angst Through The Generations of Our Endless Love", I usually
>have to go hide for a while...
>
>
I know where you are coming from Dasha really I do; and "Wind Beneath My Wings"
is a great example for the point you are trying to make. I think a story with the
title "Passion's Destiny of Fox's Tears Mingled With Dana's Angst Through
Generations of Our Endless Love" would get tons of hits. That's a great title!!!:)
I, for one, can't wait to read that story. Too bad it doesn't really exist. :(
<G>
Teddi
JenRose
thats and whiches all the time, to the point where I do *not* correct
it, as the usage is so prevalent.
R. Scott Carr wrote in message <35DA0AA8...@mediasoft.net>...
R. Scott Carr
> I agree. Most of the people who write for the magazine I work for swap
> thats and whiches all the time, to the point where I do *not* correct
> it, as the usage is so prevalent.
I did some more checking into this issue, and found a pretty good article on
problems of English usage in the Websters II New Riverside University
Dictionary. In the article, the authors argue that use of that and which in
restrictive clauses is almost entirely the option of the writer. The
exception occurs when the antecedent is "that," in which case the use of
"which" is obligatory. For example, "He only said that which we all know to
be true."
And, just to get this off my chest, I meant "pedantic," not "overly
pendantic," in my last post.