I came up -well, okay, I was inspired by a dear friend, with a great idea to stretch my writing abilities. I am going to write a story, 5 stories, each one dealing with a person who is without a sense. Each one will be from the perspective of a blind, deaf, mute, smell-less, and touch-less person. (Alright, I might twist it on those last two -maybe for touch, I'll do a person who cannot feel pain, etc.) I'm really excited to start this and I really think it will improve my writing! Feel free to join me on my 'quest.' And if many are so inclined, I may just post the finished products here. -What do you think?
This is interesting. From my own experience writing about a blind (or nearly blind) person is a nice challenge, that really expands your writing capabilities if done well. As for the touchless, people with leprosy lose their sense of touch. So they don't feel pain and have trouble judging pressure, and other things. You might want to look that up in your research.
Dom -Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I looked up the sense touch and found something called CIPA as well. People with CIPA cannot judge between hot/cold temperatures, cannot sweat, and also cannot feel pain. But leprosy actually seems more intriguing to me; I might do leprosy instead.. Anthraxx -I hope you do find the time to do this. I'm hoping to make my writing more detailled and tangible from this project/long excercise, and although I have no proof -yet- I really think it will help anyone's writing. -P.S. I also looked up the technical term for someone who cannot smell, which is anosmia which is also linked with a person who cannot taste, called aguesia (sp?).
To me, this sounds like it will be very difficult. Let us know how you think you did once you're finished.
I think this is a good idea, I will try this because I am looking to raise my ability in writing in a fun way. I would also like to see your stories posted here also so I can see what direction you went with them...
Yeah, I can't wait! I don't normally have much time on the computer, but I'm getting a laptop for Christmas, so much work is ahead, and I cannot wait!
I once wrote a short (very short) story about a girl who was blind and could only see ghosts. It was rather difficult, and it would probably be harder without the ghosts.
Everyone makes mistake; that is true, but when people post lengthy stories, containing one or two grammatical errors in nearly every sentence, it is wrong. We are happy to review, but we can not do all the work for you. The author holds the responsibility for his/her writing. If you are not sure about something, look it up. There are a lot of good sites on the net that can help. If you are really serious about writing, then step up and take responsibilty.
I agree with you mercy, but what makes me more mad is when author posts a note saying "Please don't pay attention to the grammar" or similar. If you're not taking the time to check your story for mistakes and make it readable for us, why should we waste our own time checking it for you?
<laugh> And that doesn't count the time to check every flagged word to make sure it is truly wrong. Then you still have to proofread carefully to find where you typed pride instead of prude, or hat instead of hate, or bolo when you meant bold. The occasional typo isn't the problem. They will sneak in, however careful you are. It's when the misspellings, and the usage errors, and the misplaced punctuation, are so pervasive as to make it difficult to read what the writer intended. How then can the reviewer judge more subtle aspects such as the flow and the pace of the story? If the SPAG is broken, or badly bent, there is little point in forging past it. So as a writer, it is most assuredly in your best interest to fix all those things to the best of your ability, using whatever tools you have at your disposal, before submitting the piece for review. (By the way, I'm moving this thread to General Writing, under Writing Issues. The Suggestions forum is for ideas about the structure of the site and featured offered.)
I hate it when my friend says "Ooo lookie at my writing it's so great!" And all the dialogue's all smushed together in paragraph, there's so many spelling issues that I can't even read half of it, and the grammar makes it look like a baby said it and she wrote it down. So yes, I think that if people want their stuff reviewed, they should remember reviewing is not editing it is how good the piece is.
I don't speak English as a first language, but I still check my grammar and I don't mean to brag or anything, but even my first drafts are better written than some of the things I've seen here by people with English as a first language. But I see you point, and I accept it.
It's even deeper than that- if you have a whole lot of SPAG, it means three things. First, you clearly didn't read it. Second, despite the fact that you clearly didn't read it, you expect others to. And Third, you have forgotten the fundamental idea of being a writer- that what you have to say is so important, so brilliant or so interesting that other people should pay money just to see it. It takes a lot of ego to be a writer- getting SPAG errors means that you are not putting in the effort that that ego deserves.
I get a chuckle over the ones who say, "I know I'm bad at that grammar stuff, but when I get a publisher they'll have an editor to take care of it for me."
Unfortuanatly not, Ferret. It is the people who are lazy and cannot be bothered to check their work but expect us to out a ot of time into giving them a review. You also find that the ones who don't bother with things such as spelling and grammer, are the ones who ignore any peice of critism, accepting only the good. They sort of run hand in hand I'm afraid,
