First of all my English is bad so I apologize if you don't get what I'm really trying to say/ask here. NO OFFENSE TO ANYONE.
LUSH is a great site, and I don't need to say a single word to explain that.
I had many stories on my page and because of some changed that LUSH made many of my stories got removed. Now I'm trying to change their contents and edit the plot a little to get them published under different categories.
A few days ago I edited the plot and characters of the story and submitted it. After 2-4 days the moderators returned it to me saying it needed some editing. I did the editing and submitted it again and moderators returned it, again.
I submitted the story around 5-6 times and it always got returned because of grammatical issues.
The story was already got published (before the LUSH made the changes in it's stories category) and got 30,000 reads and many scores. Now when I have only edited the characters and plot a little to get it published under a different category then how come it turned out so bad that moderators are returning it to me again, and again.
Do the moderators have raised the bar and now only want the best or did the moderator was lazy and didn't read my story before verifying it when it got published a couple of months ago? Is Lush now looking for only professional writers?
I joined LUSH more than 2 years ago and when I didn't get my stories published because of grammatical issues, I quit LUSH. I came back last year in November and tried again, this time again I got rejected but I was prepared for it and continued improving and got my stories published. I love lush and may be because my story which was already published got rejected 6-7 times I'm overreacting here, so please forgive me. I just wanted to let out my feelings.
Be a man to treat me like a princess and fuck me like a whore.
From a writer's perspective, I'll say that the less-than-a-week turnaround you mentioned for hearing back on your stories is actually quite fast. Most all of the sites out there (a fair number of which I've been a part of) have a return/publication time of anywhere between a week and a half to a couple of months. So, less than five days is pretty darn good, in my opinion. Before I became a moderator, I was thrilled when it took three days to post a story, versus the two months I dealt with on other sites.
As far as your previous stories go, in the past year we've been working very hard on improving the overall quality of the site. Many stories that would have been verified two years ago are now returned and asked for further edits. We feel that this will make not only our writers better, but also lift the site in general to a higher standard.
"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon." -E.L. Doctorow
IT IS NOT A LUSH MODERATORS JOB TO CORRECT REPEATED GRAMMAR ERRORS!
(Lush Mods WILL, given their work-load, (that's DOZENS of stories every day) correct minor mistakes in edit where possible...)
The stories posted on home page represent about 12% of initial submissions, AND, with every single story submitted read, vetted and advised upon, Lush Story Mods STILL manage to turn around and publish stories faster than any other site upon the Web.
xx Steph
Why did you stop accepting banned subject stories?
I will admit to having a few stories rejected for different reasons. Some were fixable, some were not. Those that were not (due to content that violates policy) I just pulled. I have never felt it was done to hurt me. The stories that were fixable, I fixed. I wasn't upset at the rejection, just mad at myself for making such silly mistakes. I think you're being thinned skinned.
And Katje is right... less than a week turnaround isn't bad. Literotica can take up to a month to approve a story. Other sites are worse.
And the Mods are volunteers. We don't get paid. We do our best, but we ALL have a life outside of Lush. Maybe you could consider that the next time you complain about how long your story takes to post.
Dang it! Double post! Bottom line is this, work to improve your writing and stop your whining!
People should stop knit picking. I have written some real stinky crap in the past. The turnaround from editing to posting cannot be better. I have discovered that "most" editors will help, if one will listen. There are people out there who think reading and editing is easy. HOW WRONG THEY ARE. It took me months to figure out punctuations. Less complaining will make the editors word easier.xZVBGbS7BfSZJgYE
You know what, I know how hard it is to go beyond your story telling ability and to produce work that is relatively clean and free of errors. When I started here five years ago, my work was sloppy and full of errors. I am a natural English speaker, but I barely got out of high school and I'm dyslexic to boot.
I wrote stories that were descriptive and in depth and just full of typos, punctuation errors, misspellings and grammatical issues. Back then, these errors were passed and I found myself at the mercy of the voters. I'd get a handful of fives and then a three or a two would appear. I really couldn't understand it. I, too, had the attitude that accuracy didn't matter. I think my actual words were, I'm not trying to write the 'Great American Novel.'
Well, then something different happened. I had a long chat with a wonderful moderator. Alitoteaseu, I believe was her name. She and ChefKathleen went out of their way to tell me not only what I was doing wrong, but why I should want to improve. Hey told me I could write well, that I had talent, but that I would need to work hard if I was going to realize it.
They told me to read some of the better writers. At that time and still today, that meant read Lisa's work. My god, I thought, that's what I want to write! Well, let me tell you, it took a very long time for me to learn and still today, I'm constantly finding errors in my work. The difference is that I am finding them. I'm putting in the work necessary to get it right. Now, I can't believe I would ever have shared the crap I did. Over the years, I've edited my older work and improve tremendously. I cannot believe by doing so that I accomplished something beyond what anyone else can.
Now, I take pride in my work and do my best to help others. I was invited to be a mod myself two years ago and believe me, that was incredible vindication to the work I put in. I owe it all to people like Ali, Lisa, Principessa and Kathleen and all the other moderators who have given me such great advice.
All of this is why I find it so difficult to read these threads. Looking back, I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to improve. Let me share the best advice I ever received. It was Ali, I believe who told me, if you don't have enough respect for your work to write it well, your readers won't have the respect for it to vote well. You should want to write the best you can because your readers deserve your best effort.
I joined Lush a little over a year ago and before I found this place, being a "writer' was about as far away as being an astronaut or submarine captain! I have always had trouble with grammar, and almost failed my "creative writing" class. So writing stories was not real high on my hobby list.
English(ish) is my natural language, although I will be the first to admit I am sometimes pretty lousy at it. And I still have troubles with punctuation and dialogue - as many of the Mods here will attest. But I have had some wonderful help here, and I feel that I have improved a lot. This has been a learning experience for me, and while I may not always agree with some of the grammatical rules and/or advice, I accept it gratefully and try to learn from it.
Reading others' stories and seeing how they did things has also helped out immensely - we have some truly amazing writers here on Lush. Not only do they show me how I should word and phrase things, but the creativity and storylines I see here are fantastic too. I am always humbled that I am in the company of such creative minds - much less that I can run with them!
As for the turn around time for getting a story published there is a real easy fix for that - buy a gold badge! Not only will your stories get moved to the front of the que, but you'll be helping to support our favorite online hangout to boot!
If you want help with your english feel free to send me a pm.
I can't edit but I can answer questions.
“Ill-fitting grammar are like ill-fitting shoes. You can get used to it for a bit, but then one day your toes fall off and you can't walk to the bathroom.”
― Jasper Fforde, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
Adjusting the perspective slightly...
“Let me just acknowledge that the function of grammar is to make language as efficient and clear and transparent as possible. But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.”
― John Green
