Cover and Book - promising start

[vwl]

Cover and Book by the same author as Rebound is well on its way to a worthy story at Nifty. Recommended, even though it's not finished.

[Chris James]

Looks interesting, but Bi_Janus needs a good editor. It is fine to present a story with dialogue telling much of the plot, but the author needs to break things up a lot more. Paragraphs that include a dozen or more sentences looks like a block of words with no end, especially in the Nifty format, very hard on the eyes.

[vwl]

I attribute my finding of the story to the title. Nifty usually has around 40 submittals each day, so having an interesting title, Cover and Book, struck me as fresh and worth looking at. This does not mean that there aren't good stories with more mundane titles or poor stories with interesting stories, but I think a serious author should spend some time on his or her title (as well as the first few paragraphs) in order to attract the type of readers that they want.

[The Pecman]

Looks interesting, but Bi_Janus needs a good editor. It is fine to present a story with dialogue telling much of the plot, but the author needs to break things up a lot more. Paragraphs that include a dozen or more sentences looks like a block of words with no end, especially in the Nifty format, very hard on the eyes.

Yep. I'm amazed how many new authors don't understand this. Another huge issue: dialog scenes take up lots and lots and lots of pages. You can cover lots of dull mundane moments in a single paragraph with description.

Budding authors need to read great literary and/or best-selling books and see how successful fiction is balanced between dialog, description, and prose. All dialog really gets overwhelming -- and can be potentially dull, to tell you the truth.

[blue]

Oh, you haven't lived until you see a submission that somehow is completely unaware of a paragraph, carriage return, or line end. Yes, I've seen one like that. It wasn't a software issue, either. It was a case of a newbie writer who must've skipped that year of English class, I think. Oddly, spelling was mostly OK and most other concepts, but new paragraphs for any reason were an unknown. We actually got through that and a few concepts on dialogue, before I passed it along to another editor with more time or patience.

The other oddest submission, aside from, ah, content issues, has to be the one where the writer got halfway in, started in on a rewrite, and got himself completely turned around, much less his editor, trying to deal with more than two entered drafts. That got sent back so he could figure out his own story before driving me nuttier.

I've been pretty lucky, content-wise, except for one story that left me twitching. A few have gotten clear vetoes for going over the guidelines. But most were fine.

I've been out of the loop for quite a while; starting to get back to where I want in on the swing of things.

And despite my comments, the majority of stories are as OK as anything I've gotten across my desk at work. Spelling, punctuation, grammar, continuity, style, all of it, can vary just as much from amateurs as from people doing other writing for business or informational or advertising purposes. (I was a desktop publisher and all around jack of all trades, editor and proofreader and ghostwriter, professionally. No fiction publication house experience, but in some ways, writing is writing.)

Besides, in my experience, storytelling talent shows through within the first couple of chapters, past any other writing skills or weaknesses. Give me a story that grabs my interest any day. ...Please, not another annual report or business plan to slog through from a secretary who thinks word count is the only requirement of anything.... Catalogues, brochures, magazines, fine. Coupons and resumés, well, OK, gotta earn my keep.

Dang, went into shop talk mode. Never thought I'd find myself wanting to do that. Eek! Yes, I need a job.

[colinian]

IMO Cover and Book is absolutely a keeper.

Colin

[Richard Norway]

The author said that he would be slow in writing, but I want so much to be involved with the story. It's engrossed me, despite the abrupt scene changes.. Colin is right...it's a keeper.

Richard

[blue]

Er, I haven't read the story yet. Busy writing! (And avoiding doing real world stuff....)

[Merkin]

Chapter 5 is up, and it's moving right along. Of course, the other shoe still has to drop.