Editting and Writing Standards

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Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Editting and Writing Standards

The following is the 'official' word in regards to use of cant in submissions to the Lady's Sharper Eye:

Quote:
The way I view it, use of dialect in writing (cant or not cant, it's simply use of dialect) is a tricky question. It seems to turn people off as much as it turns them on. Though I honestly don't believe understanding dialect in writing is beyond *anyones* ability, and the last thing I want to do is simply 'dumb things down' or patronize readers. That's a bigger turn off to me than strong accents could ever be. Gamers have brains, and I assume they didn't leave them in their other set of pants like a misplaced wallet when they pick up something to read.

I will say this, while extremely strong dialect can be hard to follow, erasing all dialect from a piece can rob it of flavor and emotion, which is rather the *point* of this sort of writing. Dialect is best expressed by the turn of phrase, as opposed to just trying to mimic dropped endings and other elements of accent, so use of cant is actually one of the *better* ways to express dialect. Look at the use of dialect in Tom Sawyer or other writings by Mark Twain and I think you'll see what I mean.

I'm probably going to go with whatever use of the dialect I get in my inbox. I can't and won't completely rewrite everything that I get, it's not fair to myself or the writers. In regards to cant and other accents, I actually would like to see some non Sigilian accents. We know what someone from Sigil sounds like, but someone from the Tir, or Elysium, or the Abyss should *not* sound the same. Each of these places really ought to have their own dialect and it would be worth it to explore other accents for them.

-C

That said - it will make editting a lot easier if you've made an effort to do two things for me before you submit your work.

1) Run your work through a spell checker, so I don't have to figure out if you meant to spell the word that way for the effect or not.

2) Run your work through a grammar checker, again for the same reason.

While this is a volunteer work, there's only so much I can edit before I'm pretty much rewriting whatever you've turned in.

So the chances of me feeling up to slogging through a work riddled with lack of capitalization and run on sentences is pretty slim.

Clueless's picture
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Webmonkey
Joined: 2008-06-30
Editting and Writing Standards

A second note! As I've been looking over articles and getting a feel for a good length.

Most articles I've got my hands on so far are about a page in length in word. They fit well on the page too - so this, or shorter seems to be a good length.

That's right. Articles are short!

If you want to go longer, feel free, but you really don't have to go on and on to put together something worthy for the Eye! Smiling

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