From: mdhangton@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday, September 22, 2014 7:39:04 PM UTC-4, Kevin C wrote:   
   > On Sunday, September 21, 2014 7:21:59 AM UTC-4, William Vetter wrote:   
   >    
   > > All of what you describe here are English Composition issues.  None of   
   them are Not For Us story issues that are matters of opinion whether they are   
   bad writing.   
   >    
   > We have to take care of these issues to even get to this last point. To   
   which there's no real way to tell except read some issues first, see if your   
   story fits with what they're buying, and give it a try. IIRC, in a book on   
   writing, Ben Bova said that    
   he ever made a sale to a publisher who printed stories that he didn't like, so   
   perhaps that's a good test.   
   >    
   Let us say a ms. is submitted for critique or beta reading or whatever you   
   want to call it.  One response is   
      
   "In one part of the manuscript you have spelled 'moonrock' as one word, and in   
   another part you have spelled 'moon rock' as two words.  You should pick one   
   way and be consistent."   
      
   Another is   
      
   "You are a bigot.  No cosmonaut will ever drink a shot of engine coolant   
   before he flies."   
      
   The first is an indisputable aspect of English Composition.  You can learn it,   
   put the issue behind you and then say "I have made my writing better."  As for   
   the second, maybe the next person who reads it will tell you that it makes the   
   story authentic    
   and is characterization.  It is a matter of opinion.  The next guy who reads   
   it might reject you for taking that out.   
      
   >    
   > > I don't understand how correcting typos and grammar can cut word count in   
   half.   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > That was going through the three manuscripts and taking care of typos and   
   grammar. The other revisions trimmed it down further.   
      
   I still don't get it.  I mean, I always spell abscissa and harass and occur   
   with the wrong number of c s and r's, but that's not ever going to change word   
   count by more than 5%.  Are you writing 200 word sentences with lots of   
   semicolons and then cutting    
   away whole clauses?   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)