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Printed from https://p15.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2053796-WDC-Adventures---2
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Rated: E · Book · Biographical · #2053796
My Adventures on WDC both funny and serious. I store Items and tid bits I learn here.
My Second Blog since I joined the site.
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September 27, 2017 at 12:34pm
September 27, 2017 at 12:34pm
#920984
Ok to link items you can do it this way:
{b-item:2134981} =
 Cupids Arrow  (E)
A springtime romantic comedy.
#2134981 by The bald writer

or {bitem:2134981} =
 Cupids Arrow  (E)
A springtime romantic comedy.
#2134981 by The bald writer

Some like {item:2134981} = "Cupids Arrow

To make item link for you just do one of the three list above it has to have the brackets with item then a colon and your item number nothing else. do not put in the pound sigh or ID in with the numbers or it will not work.

WDC has a nice feature that if you do the "start bracket" then the command word "item" then place a colon behind it, it will display your last five static sheets you have worked on. Now you can pick one and it will populate and finish the link for you.

> I submitted an old story into your contest. I am just checking to see if it was received.
> (Hopefully I did it correctly this time) {bitiem: #2134981}
> If I did it correct I promise not to ask again. I imagine that you have more then enough
> to do. Thank you, for your contest and your time.
>
September 10, 2017 at 11:17am
September 10, 2017 at 11:17am
#920083
I need your entry as a link to a page. The contest requires it be on a static sheet in your portfolio with a link to it in the contest forum. If you go to your port and look at the left hand corner or side there is a option that reads "Create Item." You use this then fill in the blanks.

When you do your title remember you put your poetry title here and make it a hook.

Next is description. Use the description for your poem. It has to be a hook as well. And it has to have plot information in it about the poem's main plot. This is for those reviewing it so they get an idea of what they are looking for.

Next you rate your title and description. Always keep your title and description "E" rated. Or you limit your readers by doing so.

Now we come to the Body this is where you cut and paste your poetry. As a suggestion you go:
{font:verdana}{center}{size:5}{c:blue}{b}poem title{/b}{/c}{/size}{/center} {size:3.5}

Now a rather interesting thing happens if you do {center} and paste in your poem. They form pictures, and what is interesting is the picture always relates to the poem. Always center your poetry for that reason.

You spent hours writing this poem, editing, correcting mistakes, and so on. Don't just dump it into the body and leave it as one big blob of text. Go through it now and add line spacing where it is needed. Do not ever use justification. Most of us just don't justify it at all. Because most poetry don't justify either. It is a poem make this look like one too. The other reason is presentation. You are putting your writing on display. You don't invite people into a dirty house. So you don't want to invite other writers into an unorganized version of your best writing.

Now you have to set the rating for your poetry.
If you kept it "E" for everyone allow me to explain a trick you really want the title and description set to "E." But if you set the chapter body to "E" this is fine, but you are limiting your readers to the young adults on the site. Which makes up roughly 10% of our site. So to attract the adults set it to 13+ or 18+ the adults are the other 90% of the site.

Now you set up the search engine tabs to the genre that it is. This is where we try to set it to as many of the genre as you can that it matches to attract readers when they do a search for reading material, to it.

The rest are up to you as they are pretty much what you want with reviewing and comments. I personally leave them at default.


Now to link your poetry to my contest from your portfolio. You use these Writing ML Commands:
{bitem:2127246} =
 Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
#2127246 by Not Available.

{b-item:2127246} =
 Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
#2127246 by Not Available.

{item:2127246} = "Invalid Item

Personally, the contest asks for bitems. It makes adding your entry into the contest page easy peasy, but I will accept any way you link it lol. I just cannot accept it posted in the message base.
The Run-on King PDG Member
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
September 5, 2017 at 2:01pm
September 5, 2017 at 2:01pm
#919830
It is ok, I'll delete one. But the contest requires it be on a static sheet in your portfolio with a link to it in the contest forum. If you go to your port and look at the left hand corner or side there is a option the reads "Create Item." You use this then fill in the blanks.

When you do your title remember you put your book title here and make it a hook.

Next is description. Use the description for your book not a chapter synopsis. It has to be a hook as well. And it has to have plot information in it about the book's main plot. This is for those reviewing it so they get an idea of what they are looking for. This why it cannot be a chapter synopsis, it will confuse the reviewer.

Next you rate your title and description. Always keep your title and description "E" rated. Or you limit your readers by doing so.

Now we come to the Body this is where you cut and paste your chapter. As a suggestion you go:
{font:verdana}{center}{size:5}{c:blue}{b}Chapter 1 (now give it a hook based on your personal synopsis of the chapter.){/b}{/c}{/size}{/center} {size:3.5}

Now rather than use five spaces where it gets convoluted use this instead {indent} in front of every paragraph.

You spent hours writing this chapter, editing, correcting mistakes, and so on. Don't just dump it into the body and leave it as one big blob of text. Go through it now and add line spacing where it is needed. Indent your paragraphs do not ever use right justification use left if you must. Or just use {justify} you can place it up behind the font. Most of us just don't justify it at all. Because most books don't justify either. It is a book or novel make this look like one too. The other reason is presentation. You are putting your writing on display. You don't invite people into a dirty house. So you don't want to invite other writers into an unorganized version of your best writing.

Now you have to set the rating for your chapter.
If you kept it "E" for everyone allow me to explain a trick you really want the title and description set to "E." But if you set the chapter body to "E" this is fine, but you are limiting your readers to the young adults on the site. Which makes up roughly 10% of our site. So to attract the adults set it to 13+ or 18+ the adults are the other 90% of the site.

Now you set up the search engine tabs to the genre that it is. This is where we try to set it to as many of the genre as you can that it matches to attract readers when they do a search for reading material, to it.

The rest are up to you as they are pretty much what you want with reviewing and comments. I personally leave them at default.


Now to link your chapter to my contest from your portfolio. You use these Writing ML Commands:
{bitem:2127246} =
 Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
#2127246 by Not Available.

{b-item:2127246} =
 Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
#2127246 by Not Available.

{item:2127246} = "Invalid Item
September 4, 2017 at 12:47am
September 4, 2017 at 12:47am
#919764
New Addition to the Contests at Party Central

Exercise Your Mind Creative Writing Contest



Welcome to trying something new and different. After looking around and talking with many different authors. I decided to try something different. I doubt if it is new after all writings contests are not new most genre isn't either. However there is one part of each contest that is.

We want to see your old contest entries that you have polished, then forgot about, have been collecting dust, or ignored all these years.

We are also modifying the flash fiction. No real set number of words, and you get one week to do it in.

Now here is the Kicker! We are not going to saddle you with just one genre. Here is the list of contests and genre we are looking for entries.We will allow the old stories if they contain aspects of the genre you enter it in. You can only enter one story per genre and different stories for the other genre.

Special prizes will be warded in a drawing for all entries from September 1-7.



These are the contest listings for the challenge:
1. Science Fiction "Invalid Item
2. Romance "Invalid Item
3. Steam Punk or any other Punk stories "Invalid Item
4. Heroes and Villains "Invalid Item
5. Mystery "Invalid Item
6. Horror / Scary "Invalid Item
7. Comedy "Invalid Item
8. Fantasy "Invalid Item
9. Action / Adventure "Invalid Item
10. Cosplay "Invalid Item
11. Snap-chats "Invalid Item
12. Pure Imagination "Invalid Item
13. Poetry Old: "Invalid Item
14. Poetry New: "Invalid Item
15. Chapter Writing Challenge "Invalid Item
16. Reviewing Challenge "Invalid Item
*StarR* Each contest will be different. Please read the guidelines for each contest you wish to enter!
August 28, 2017 at 12:49pm
August 28, 2017 at 12:49pm
#918756
Also this year I want to join in the fun myself. Doesn't mean I want any badges or ribbons those would be for others as I will be seriously working on a full rewrite of my book one of my nine book series. It is time I took out all the bad and use all the good and do a complete new version starting in a different spot as in telling part of the story from the enemy point of view the switch to the aliens being attacked then last switch to the human rescue. This is my new plot line I will be prepping for.
August 12, 2017 at 12:59pm
August 12, 2017 at 12:59pm
#917380
It is sad they had to revert to cheating in the first place. I understand the drive to win at all costs, still they could have handled it better. Now to revert to open war far on those they cheated against. This is a game it is only a game. Why are some of my favorite people going to war over a silly infraction they got caught doing what they all should know better. Come on guys man up and then come back next year for revenge.

Then I got kicked from my team without any warning or real reason other than she was afraid I was going to sabotage her team. Gesh, I was in the middle of a 3,000 word story entry to a tag team challenge. Well, okay, 2,859 word story entry that I was trying to beat the tag team deadline on when she kicked me. I finished the story as proof. See "Invalid Item

After this I have vowed to never ever play GoT again, period. Nor will I cheer any team or in anyway promote or recommend anyone to ever join it or donate to it for any reason.
August 6, 2017 at 2:26pm
August 6, 2017 at 2:26pm
#916910
In the month of June I created and prepared to host a series of writing and fun activities for PDG. I created several different genre writing contests. One contest being "Invalid Item Now, I cannot take credit for Hannah's Hannah ♫♥♫ graphic works and run-on correction as well as a few rewording here and there. She did a great job on my idea and made it her own creation.

Since we were getting a few entries in the weekly flash fiction section. My muse came up with this idea: What if I wrote a steampunk story One flash fiction weekly entry at a time? Then finished it in the new monthly story? While I had the fourth member of the family introduced in her own story as my old entry. Like this:
Old entry:"Invalid Item
Week one: "Invalid Item
Week two: "Invalid Item
Week Three "Invalid Item
Week Four: Daddy (work in progress)
New entry: Grand Pa and all the Family (work in progress)

I didn't know that a lot of people read Steampunk, but by the reviews and comments in the reviews I felt an explanation is due to the reviewers. Please understand I was creating these entries to make it a contest. I didn't expect to win after all I cannot give myself merit badges or awards. I was inspiring these people to write and enter. As it all ended up if anyone entered any competition except me, they all won first place period. I gave them all the merit badge and the awardicon on their stories. I still had a lot of gps in the bank left over. Some people just cannot be bothered to enter even an old already written, edited, and award winning piece into one of the genre contests.

I thought it was such a cool idea doing a five part story. I never envisioned the story as it is written ending up being a reviewing nightmare.

August 6, 2017 at 1:42pm
August 6, 2017 at 1:42pm
#916909
Note:
(A reply I wrote to the reviewer because they showed me I did too good of a job portraying the death aspect of a divorce.)

I truly understand your loss, because I lost both of my parents in a short time. But I write fiction and I do not want to mislead you this was about my divorce not a death. She got up from bed one night in the middle of winter and left us all. I just embellished the way she left us is all. Divorce or death, it all feels the same to a person and the children. At the time it felt like a death to me and the kids.

But now I have 11 children, 18 grand kids and two great grand kids. We both have remarried and doing great. We became friends once more, but not the same relationship which thank goodness is what we both needed. I was just venting in the poem nothing more. I just never realized
until now what I had written and I am very sorry to have mislead you on this.

The poem in reference is "Invalid Item.



If you be foe, you be frozen and very crispy
The Run-on King PDG Member
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **

August 4, 2017 at 12:36pm
August 4, 2017 at 12:36pm
#916750
Allow me to help you out, Steam Punk is about the Queen Victorian era. The clothing and mannerism has to reflect that time period. It is a form of science fiction because most stories are not our real history, but that of an alternate universe. Since the Queen Victorian era was when steam engines were invented and our industrial revolution was taking place. It leaves a wide open field for creative what if writing to take place. It has a really rich environment for romance writing. If you think about it the classics for romance were all written in or about that era. All your really doing is not writing about our earth's history, but about a different earth's history and its inhabitants. I hope this helps you understand Steam Punk better.
July 5, 2017 at 12:50pm
July 5, 2017 at 12:50pm
#914786
         I used to be a die hard fan of unthreaded until I was running a large set of contest forums trying to sort through it gets to be ridiculous. Once I switched to threaded view I could breeze right through it. It is very helpful when you are doing role play or cos play in a forum. I like it in contest forums it shows me the entries without having to spend all day hunting for them. There are times the unthreaded view comes in handy. But I find I keep my view set to threaded now more than the default setting.


         Also for future reference our school prefers the threaded view for class work when your working and chatting on a subject those threads go deep. And threaded view makes it so easy to get to the end and add your two cents worth than trying to weed your way through a hundred posts.

         I know we are all different and unthreaded view works well for Dragon. It works well with how her young mind works. But if your mind has trouble with this way then unthreaded is not for you. If you are having trouble sorting through the message bases then I highly recommend you use threaded view. It is nice to know the difference with each type of view and learn what suits you best.
June 27, 2017 at 1:51pm
June 27, 2017 at 1:51pm
#914229
Did you know that a writer is someone who holds a conversation between two fictional characters?

*BulletO* A Science Fiction writer is someone who holds the same conversation in a spaceship on another world.

*BulletO* A Poet is someone who cannot hold said conversation.

*BulletO* A Romance writer is someone who wishes they could have the romance they just wrote about.

*BulletO* A Mystery writer is someone who kills one of the characters in the conversation.

*BulletO* A Supernatural Writer is someone who holds a conversation between two ghosts and a ghoul.

*BulletO* A Dark writer is someone who summons demons and evil creatures to their mind because they are bored and want to hold a conversation.

*BulletO* A Zombie Apocalypse writer tried to hold a conversation between two zombies, but cannot understand the grunts and groans and is constantly fighting them off from eating their brain.

*BulletO* A Mythologist is a writer who makes imaginary creatures live long enough to give them story ideas.

*BulletO* A Steam Punk writer is someone who wants to regress back to the British Victorian era and play with steam locomotives and live in the America’s wild, wild, west.
June 19, 2017 at 6:35pm
June 19, 2017 at 6:35pm
#913671
Lets start with number one:
1: What are you most excited for in your writing processes?
I guess I cannot wait for the muse to kick in and the writing begins. You see a lot of people diagram their writing before they tell the story. I get an idea and I just make it up as I go along. I write the diagram or outline after I write the chapter. I do create a data base I store character names character descriptions, and important dates for events I need to remember for story consistency. I usually create these or update one after each chapter I write. I also put plot information twists or secondary plots in these documents as I think of them. I also save my work often and in more than one place.

2: What are your writing essentials?
I'm not exactly sure what you mean with this question. To me my essentials is a computer running office 2007. I own my own copy of Scrivener and a couple of other writing programs. I subscribe to Grammarly and I have links to other free services. For my desk I keep a copy of Strunk and Wagner with a Websters pocket dictionary and a pocket thesaurus.

3: What is one pet peeve that keeps you from writing?
I don't have pet peeves for not writing. I a have a few I hate seeing new site members do when they want their work reviewed. I stop writing when the muse quits which means either my characters are out of character or I am off my plot or I'm too far out in left field. These are all correctable so it is always a learning process.

One could always make excuses as means to procrastinate about writing my few are:
1. I don't feel like writing today. (I'm lazy and don't want to type much more fun to play games instead.)
2. I have been invited to play in a raid.
3. I have too many reviews to do.
4. I want to do research as in watch movies.
5. I want to do some more research as in read a book.
6. I need to fix my computer. Either play games or search for free programs to download.
7. Spend a lot of time messing with WDC reading blogs writing in my blog, designing activities, and reviewing. I basically forget the original project was to check e-mail then go write.
May 29, 2017 at 1:31am
May 29, 2017 at 1:31am
#911936
Wow! I just noticed after rereading it few times it seems when I see a list I am so used to seeing the tags and using them the light came on. we can make rotations for all of these. Notice it has item in twice and also user. That is because item and user display different than the regular versions. I am going to do something different by show what the different "x" versions of item are. and the same for user. Should be quite a challenge.

Lets start with item I am only going to use 5 items for each example. I will use the same five for each of the different items. First, item is any static sheet, message forum, contest, poem, story, folder, books, message posts, blog entries,and any page of any writing. It has a seven digit number assigned to it. You can always find the number under its big bold title.
item:
Example: {item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132} Science Fiction Rotation {/b}
"Invalid Item Science Fiction Rotation
Notice item only gives you a link to the item you can click on to see it. Very modified version.

b-item
The normal way we see our items displayed or as WritingML says is the "big" format showing all information.
Example: {b-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}{/b}
 Invalid Item 
This item number is not valid.
#1969108 by Not Available.

Notice it shows everything The next few versions will only show parts of the items.

c-item
This the clean version it has a lot less detail than the big version does.
Example: {c-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}{/b}
 Invalid Item  []

by A Guest Visitor

Now you know a different way to display your items in messages.

g-item
This shows the genres of the item includes the title, ID number, content rating, author and icon.
Example: {c-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}{/b}
 Invalid Item  []
Genres:
by A Guest Visitor

It still shows a lot of information but instead of description it shows the genre categories instead.

i-item
This shows the icon or image, title, author,rating, and a brief description on one line.
Example: {i-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}

This allows you to make smaller lists, but still show a lot of information about the item.

t-item
This shows the icon or image, title, author,rating, and a time stamp where the description was..
Example: {t-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
 Invalid Item  []
Last Modified: 12-31-69 @ 7:00pm
by A Guest Visitor

To sum up the c, b, i, g, and t they all use the picture and three lines of information, but in different ways showing different information.

l-item
This is called the line item it displays the title and author of the item in one line of information with no picture.
Example: {l-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item"   by A Guest Visitor
See how different it looks this is one of the reasons I like this website it allows us to be different.

lr-item
This option shows the title, the author, and the rating of the item in one line.
Example: {lr-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item"   [] by A Guest Visitor
The main idea is we can make lists of items and display what we want in our lists.

lt-item
This options shows us the time stamp of when it was saved to the site or written.in addition to title, author.
Example: {lt-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item - Last Modified: 12-31-69 @ 7:00pm
This can be handy for checking for deadlines or updates on an item.

ld-item
This one will show the title, content rating and brief description.
Example: {ld-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item :
Again a different way to use our item listings.or build lists of similar information.

r-item
This one only includes the title and content rating.
Example: {r-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item
It does make for smaller tighter listings of items with a certain content ratings.

dl-item
This one will show the author title rating and dates with the description below it as a second line.
Example: {dl-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item [] by A Guest Visitor
   
Just a different way to show different information in a listing or message.

id-item
This one will show a single line with the items id number and title.
Example: {id-item:2041501,1973201,1970067,1969108,2052132}
"Invalid Item :
Another way to make lists people can use to get item ids from for their own lists.

image
If you have images you want to show off or your sig collection then this one is for you.
Example: {image:2120280,2118601,2118073,2113205,2113204}
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
I used a few from my graphics folder they can be fun.

poll
I don't have very many polls. I didn't find a use for them until recently. We use them in place of judging.by doing a poll and letting the contestants vote. It does do away with the contest host's favoritism.
Example: {poll:1965730,2123210}
The Story List to Vote on is:
1). {item:}
2). {item:}
3). {item:}
4). {item:}
5). {item:}
6). {item:}
7). {item:}
8). {item:}
9). {item:}
You can read each short story then using the choices below vote on the best story. We will pick the first, second, and third place winners from this poll. Please vote.
      {item:} story 1

Sorry I only have two done right now one is a simple poll I made to learn how and the other is an example of a voting poll.

entry
I used the first five chapters of my first book to demo with. But you can use blog entries as well.
Example: {entry:800207,808018,800213,800832,801225}
"Invalid Entry
I love the diversity we have of displaying our writing.

post
Here four posts I have done in this forum.
Example: {post:3094865,3089974,3089789,3089504}
"Invalid Post"  

user
This one we all know.
Example: {user:gungunwarrior,joycag,lifelessons,ljennings,sybarrios}
~Lifelessons~
As you can see it shows everything.

s-user
This also is one we use a lot. it just shorts the info it shows we also know it as suser same for bitem. You don't need the dash but some times it does help keep it less confusing when you are trouble shooting.
Example: {s-user:gungunwarrior,joycag,lifelessons,ljennings,sybarrios}
The Run-on King PDG Member

r-user
Displays handle, community recognition and portfolio only.
Example: {r-user:gungunwarrior,joycag,lifelessons,ljennings,sybarrios}
Joy

h-user
This shows the least amount of user information and is undocumented.
Example: {h-user:gungunwarrior,joycag,lifelessons,ljennings,sybarrios}
sybarrios

color
I am pretty sure everyone knows this one.
Example: {color:blue,brown,green,borange,navy}Color Rotation{/c}
Color Rotation

** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
The Run-on King PDG Member
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
May 28, 2017 at 1:57pm
May 28, 2017 at 1:57pm
#911894
Yes there is:
WritingML tags which use ID numbers, usernames, or colors are able to rotate up to ten (10) different things. These tags include: item and all x-item tags, image, poll, entry, post, user, s-user and color. The referenced objects should be separated by commas and must not exceed ten total. If you exceed ten, the random function will not work and the first object will be the only one ever displayed. Random rotations are very useful in signatures and billboards. Please reload this section to see how the examples below change during each reload. Replace "######" with items' ID numbers and replace "COLOR" with varying color choices.

Tag Syntax:
{b-item:######,#######,######} or {c:COLOR,COLOR,COLOR} ... {/b} or {/c} <<< Note these two endings. They are important you use the {/c} after your color rotation You use the {/b} after your {b-item:} rotation. The {s-user or suser:} rotation doesn't need an ending since suser is stand alone
Example with raw WritingML:
{b-item:100931,206127,126963,710633} Items Rotation {/b}
{user:storymaster,storymistress,support,legerdemain,joycag} User Rotation
{c:red,blue,green,pink,violet,grey}Color Rotation {/c}

Now the example of this same code:
BOOK
Site News & Announcements  (ASR)
Announcements pertaining to Writing.Com!
#206127 by Writing.Com Support
Item Rotation
Joy User Rotation
Color Rotation

Remember to hit F5 to refresh the screen to see the data rotate

Note: I pulled this straight from the writing ML help under rotations I did doctored it up a bit as it really doesn't show where the {/b} goes or tell you about refreshing using F5
May 27, 2017 at 4:40pm
May 27, 2017 at 4:40pm
#911843
I learned another interesting fact about character names. When your trying to use an unusual name don't make it difficult to pronounce. Make it so the reader can identify with it. For example I named my first alien race The Kareashja. I pronounce it as "Kar-reesh-n'-jaw" I found most people don't read it that way. I was told this name was not easy for the reader to use, so I came up with Jaria. You want your names to be catchy so if your doing a series the names carry well and the readers associate well with them. The idea is if you are going to spend hours on a name it had better be memorable to the reader.
May 22, 2017 at 1:13pm
May 22, 2017 at 1:13pm
#911569
Its my birthday. Today I turn into a 65 year old geek. With nothing to do and no one cares.
May 22, 2017 at 10:57am
May 22, 2017 at 10:57am
#911562
I wanted to clarify something included in Donna's Discussion Post. She found the following information about the use of em dashes:

The last bit of knowledge I gleaned from my Googling is that there are 2 and 3 versions of the em dash. Information and examples follow.

2 em dash
The 2 em dash can be used to indicate missing letters in a word, either because material is missing or illegible, or to conceal a name. For example,
Mr. H—— and Mr. S—— entered into a legal agreement.

3 em dashes
These are used in bibliographies when the author's name is repeated.
———. Adventures in Fancy. New York: Labadie & Sons. 2010
.

These uses are not deviations from the rules in our lessons. These em dashes are not used in the ways that our rules cover. I suppose you could say that the first example is an exception to the rule, but the last example is used in a bibliographical note. We do not cover bibliographical punctuation in this course. I mentioned that in Lesson One Introduction. Thanks for the information, though, Donna. Smile
May 19, 2017 at 11:15am
May 19, 2017 at 11:15am
#911397
I chose for my discussion topic this article:.
"Writers beware: Em dashes are overused and misunderstood."
By | Posted: October 30, 2012
You can produce an em dash [—] by holding the ALT key down and typing 0151 on your number pad.

As you can see it doesn't show me the author of the article. I am going to quote from the unknown author about the history of the Em Dash which I feel is important to know.

"The short history of the em dash.

As far as punctuation is concerned, dashes are modern; they’re an invention of the 18th century.

While its distant cousin, the hyphen, is more than a 1,000 years old, dashes are the youngsters of the punctuation world. They were introduced in the 18th century and eventually became known as em dashes because of their length. In typesetting, an em dash is the actual length of an uppercase "M," hence the name.

Em dash is twice as long as its sibling the en dash, which is the length of a lowercase "n." Use the en dash to separate numbers in a series. The em and en dashes are not interchangeable."


I learned that the use of the Em Dash is to replace commas, colons, and semi-colons. Its correct placement is either—right next to the phrase—or— one space away from the phrase —. It seems all the experts are split on its placement with half of them using the first way and the rest using the other. A point was made if you use it to be consistent on your placement in formal writing.

Second quote:

”What should the em dash look like?
The examples all show em dashes edged against the words they separate. Two prominent grammar guide books, “The Chicago Manual of Style” and “The Oxford Guide to Style,” advocate this style.
Meanwhile, “The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage” and “Associated Press” both insert spaces between the em dash and the words it separates. PR Daily goes with the Chicago style; either way is fine, just make sure you're consistent. “


I ran across this little devil in a novel review I was doing for a newbie to the site. He was using it in place of the quote marks in speech. I assured him to stick with the quote marks. Because most readers hardly ever see the Em Dash as it is. Also it isn't used for quote marks. Even Mark Twain was quoted as telling people to not use it. He thought it made anyone's writing sloppy.

Third quote:
How to use the em dash correctly.
“You use an em dash to set off nonessential clauses in a sentence,” explained Julie DeSilva, former editorial director of ProofReadNow.com. That is the brief, textbook definition and leaves considerable room for interpretation, which perhaps explains why em dash use is so widespread.
Authors of “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation” advise using the em dash for additional emphasis, an abrupt change of thought or an interruption.



I agree with the consensus it is another tool just like the use of fragments in dialog. To be used wisely and not placed in our writing as an attempt to be "cool."

This was the link I used for my discussion:
https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/Writers_beware_Em_dashes_are_overused_and_...



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May 18, 2017 at 4:38pm
May 18, 2017 at 4:38pm
#911348

Dear {user:}
I am reviewing your {item:}

These are my observations about your work, and you should take what you find useful and disregard the rest.

{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} General Impressions {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Favorite Parts {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Plot {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Characters {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Setting {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Conflict {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Climax {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Dialog {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Presentation {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}
{e:BulletB}{c:violet}{b} Grammar/Spelling/Punctuation {/b}{/c} {e:CheckB}

{c:blue} Thanks for sharing this short story! I only review short stories that I enjoy reading and I truly did enjoy your story. Please keep on writing more short stories just like this!{/c}

{center}{c:borange}{b}You have received a review from a Newbie member of The.Newbie Academy Group{/b}{/c}{/center}

{center}{suser:}{/center} (Put your user name here.)

Okay since everyone likes to show off links even me lol. I'll show my short story review form and explain it. Lets start in general at the beginning of every shot story or poem is a title. What we are looking for is the title a hook? Did it grab you to look at this story or poem? Was it interesting, but didn't grab you or was it boring and you have seen it a dozen times? Next is the description. In a short story the description must match the plot so you have an idea of what you’re looking for. Also in a short story you do not go looking for a theme because the plot is the theme. The funny thing about poetry is these last two sentences also work for poetry as well. If they put anything else in the description then they are missing out on the chance of using the description as a second hook.

To sum up with a poem or short story the description is both a hook and a description of the plot. If they put anything else in there like chapter 1 or contest entry they are missing a chance to hook the reader more. The next point in general is we look at the first sentence or paragraph is this a hook? There is some questioning going on over the first sentence or first paragraph I just look for both and report what I find. The main point is does these three components grab you and draw you into the poem or the story as any good writing will?

Part of good reviewing is read the whole thing and finding the one good thing they are doing and start your general comments with the positive then you can show them all the bad and they will not ever get mad at you. Now if you find parts that you like don't cut and paste just tell them why you liked them in favorite parts section. This way it forces other readers to go read it. Instead of allowing a lazy reader to use your review as a synopsis of the poem or story. It is sad to say that there really are some lazy people out there.

Now for the plot. A plot has three components, the first one is a build up to a major conflict. The second component is the major conflict. the third component is the cool down after the conflict. You must have all three components to actually have a plot. This is what I am looking for in a short story. A poem may or may not follow this rule. If it is telling a story then yes it has to follow the rules.

Next is reviewing the story’s characters. Does the author develop the characters? Do they live for you? Or are they just cardboard cut outs living in a 3d world. I am honest and tell the author what I see. To do anything else is a real disservice to them. Because the characters will make or break any story or novel.

Setting, I look for a couple of things here, one thing is, is this believable and do the characters fit in this setting. Also, does the author transition us from one setting to another or do they time warp us or use magic to get around because the author forgot to take us from point a to point b in our travels.

Conflict is the actual plot conflict the story is building up to. I never cut and paste this I always describe it in a few words then tell them what I thought about it.

Now the climax is as summation of the build up and the conflict as a whole. Did it work for you? Did it hold your attention until it was done? Did it hook you until the end?

Dialog is did they use it? If they did was it just chatter or did it advance the story by telling useful information to you the reader about the plot or add to the build up?

Now I use presentation because I want the people who I review to be professional with their writing. Beside who will read a 2000 word short story all run together with no line spaces between paragraphs or dialog. Presentation has two parts the first part is how well does the author take pride in their work? If they do it is indented and has the correct line spacing between the paragraphs and between dialog. The second part is how well did the author present his subject matter to the reader? Did they use good word choices?

The last part you have down pat. So now that you see what I look for in short stories I really don't do much poetry reviewing. So I would be the wrong one to ask on most poetry. However, Whata or the rest of the ladies are great ones to ask. Now, about my form, I use this for all my short story reviewing. If you like parts of it then by all means cut and paste it in your word document or any other word processor. This makes it easy to save it. Now you can modify it, make changes use colors or bullets or whatever you like to make one you wish to use. Or just keep it and use it as is I’ll leave that up to you.

I hope you found this helpful in your quest for doing better reviewing of short stories.
May 6, 2017 at 12:42pm
May 6, 2017 at 12:42pm
#910565
Hi there, Before I officially review this I want to ask a favor of you. Because I want to give it a fair and accurate review. I am asking that you go back to the static sheet and edit it. I think you owe your writing a fair chance and right now with the current presentation it is a one star. I don't want to give this a one, I really don't, because I know how hard you worked on this. Please allow me to show you some ways to fix the presentation. First when you go into your portfolio and click on this static sheet. Once the site shows you your sheet click on the upper right corner on the the little gray round gear looking thing. It will drop down the edit option. Once you are in edit mode. Let's fix your chapter title in the text body.

Chapter 4: In Which Parade Day is Celebrated A Little Too Hard
The next day- Parade Day- started very early: 8 am. Parade Day is the big St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. . From the way the commuters described it they made it sound like the apocalypse. I feel like the university actually made it worse with the constant emails telling us not guests in the dorms, no underage drinking and no social hosting.
Alex and I both woke up to Snapchats of our friends drinking at 8 am (most of them were having breakfast parties, then heading off to the Parade once they were drunk).


This is what it looks like now: Lets add some things to it. First a font this will look good in either comic or verdana. Next, we center it We want to show it off so the reader's eye will be drawn to it. We do this by making it big by doing {size:5} and adding a color to it. Personally I like blue, but you can change it by typing in a different color. Then we bold it the {b} command. The Writing ML commands for your chapter body will look like this:

{font:comic}{center}{size:5}{c:blue}{b}Chapter 4: In Which Parade Day is Celebrated A Little Too Hard{/b}{/c}{/size}{/center} it looks like this:

Chapter 4: In Which Parade Day is Celebrated A Little Too Hard


Notice I did not put a {/font}. That is because I want the font to do all the text it helps to make it read better. Also, add in after the {/center} a {size:3.5}. Also, to make it all stand out better you could add a {b} for bold you can even add color to it and we do not dock if you color it up. Only please do not use light colors. If I cannot read it because of the colors are to bright or light for my 65 year old eyes to read. I cannot review it. Please stay with dark colors like black (default), navy, grape, or green even.

Now for the last part of my favor please go through and add line spaces to it like I have done in this example. Remember everyone eyes us the line breaks as a resting spot. By leaving this item as one mass of text most people will bypass it for reviews because it causes eyestrain which can lead to a migraine headache. Please edit it like this example:

Chapter 4: In Which Parade Day is Celebrated A Little Too Hard


         The next day- Parade Day- started very early: 8 am. Parade Day is the big St. Patrick’s Day Celebration. From the way the commuters described it they made it sound like the apocalypse. I feel like the university actually made it worse with the constant emails telling us not guests in the dorms, no underage drinking and no social hosting.

         Alex and I both woke up to Snapchats of our friends drinking at 8 am (most of them were having breakfast parties, then heading off to the Parade once they were drunk).



I feel like the university actually made it worse with the constant emails telling us not guests in the dorms, no underage drinking and no social hosting.

See the part in red in English it should read "telling us not to have guests in the dorms." I understand that when translating a different language to English you get this. This is how we can tell when English is a second language. A lot of sentences don't read right. They are always missing things like "to, have, the, and" just to mention a few.

I know that at WDC we do not mark down if you don't indent. The reason why is because if you try to indent using the space bar in a text body it never looks good. However there is a Writing ML command that you can use to give your writing that profession look. It is {indent}. I normally type this in once then cut and paste it in front of all my paragraphs.

If you do this in the word processor you use first before you copy it over it always shows you where your paragraphs start. Making it easy to find out where to put the line spaces. The other trick I learned quite by accident is if you double space between the paragraphs in your document before you transfer it over here first. Then when you transfer it over that way with the double spaces it will have the correct line spacing in the WDC text body.

This is how I learned how to keep WDC from mangling my work during transfer.

If you have any questions or need any help with the Writing ML commands please feel free to ask me. I am always willing to help out new friends.

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