The Mechanics of Writing

[level_head]

On a science fiction writers' forum, one writer recommended the website www.Grammarly.com

Comments

[haikujaguar]

I don't see the problem here. Everyone keeps talking about the coming wave of slush that we're going to drown in, but all it takes for me is one or two paragraphs, maybe a page at most, and I know whether I want to invest in a story. All the major online retailers allow sampling.

I do the same thing as in a bookstore. Glance at the cover. Glance at the back, read the synopsis. Read a few pages... make a decision. The number of choices I have doesn't make an appreciable difference.

[level_head]

You'll have several thousand a month to choose from. I suspect that a lot of good ones will be buried in this volume.

And you're checking for writing style, perhaps -- which isn't quite the same as a well-constructed story.

We'll see how this goes, but I think the lack of a gatekeeper mechanism will prove a problem in the marketplace.

===|==============/ Level Head

[haikujaguar]

Several thousand a month that appeal to me? I doubt it. Keyword searchwords narrow down things considerably.

Even back when I was trying to break into trad publishing, editors and publishers told you frankly that what sells books is word of mouth. That won't change now. It just means that the gatekeepers shift from editors, agents and publishers to other readers and reviewers.

To be frank, I have been frequently disappointed by books that have made it through the existing gatekeeping systems. They aren't necessarily well-constructed, original or interesting... they're just marketable by current definitions. If your tastes don't align with what's considered marketable, then you're out of luck.

I much prefer 'too much choice, with niches served' to 'very few choices picked by a handful of people who may or may not share my taste.'

[eric_hinkle]

To be frank, I have been frequently disappointed by books that have made it through the existing gatekeeping systems. They aren't necessarily well-constructed, original or interesting... they're just marketable by current definitions. If your tastes don't align with what's considered marketable, then you're out of luck.

Like Twilight, to name just one currently famous example?

I still wonder how a hypothetically just universe could allow that drek to get made into a movie while we don't have even one Alysha Forrest film yet. Then again, given what Hollywood does to novels, that may be for the best.

[reality_hammer]

A few red flags:

You have to pay to use it and give them a credit card for a "free" trial. (Hah!)

It flagged one of my chapters as plagiarized. (Hah!)

It set off NoScript warnings, McAfee warnings and wanted to download a program to run on my computer.

So...no. :P I'll stick with MS Word when I want random grammar advice.

[rowyn]

I agree -- most readers (including publishers and agents) can tell whether or not the mechanics of your prose are unacceptable within a page or two. I dunno that automating that step would save *that* much time. It depends on the volume of submissions and how effortless it was to run them through the automated checker.