As Promised, the Fiction Alley Rant

[zessa]

Ok... so I send my really funny kinda simple Harry Potter story to Fiction Alley. I'll post the link when FA eventually accepts it. So it gets sent back three times, for get this, periods at the end of my dialog. Ok, I could see not posting it if the grammar was way out to mars, and the most basic dialog rules weren't followed, but for this? Here's an example of the errors that are supposedly unpostable..

"Rule two:" Ron continued, "please clean up after your pet, no one wants to step on an owl pellet in the middle of the night."
Correct:

Not correct: "Rule two:" Ron continued, "Please clean up after your pet, no one wants to step on an owl pellet in the middle of the night."

(can you spot the error? Yeah one capitalization screw up)

Correct: "No pouring bad potions out of the windows." Ron had an evil glint in his eye. "I know it's tempting, but last time that happened Snape gained an extra eyeball." Ron grinned. "I won't tell you where it was though."

Not correct: "No pouring bad potions out of the windows," Ron had an evil glint in his eye, "I know it's tempting, but last time that happened Snape gained an extra eyeball," Ron grinned. "I won't tell you where it was though."

(Error? can you spot it? Yep, the period after eyeball should have been a comma.)

Now, what does this have to do with readability? I'm not going to question that it's incorrect grammar and I completely agree with their assessment. But my story unpostable? I don't think so. Unpostable means unreadable, while, yes some of the little piddly crap was wrong, it was by no means unreadable. Everyone whom I've sent it to found the story hysterical and couldn't wait for it to be posted to FA. To bad it's probably going to take 5 more tries to get it posted.... ARG!

End rant. >:(

Comments

[onthestairs.livejournal.com]

Potterficdom is an evil universe full of pretentious twits. Don't let 'em get the best of you. They live for their stupid little technicalities. You've got the right idea -- start your own archive, and show 'em who's boss, yo. You can totally kick their asses. (Well, not on a *huge* level -- but would you want to, seriously? Running that beast is a full time job!) But you can make your point, and those of us who enjoy the fic but not the pretense will thank you. :-)