Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Lois & Clark Fanfic Lost Child 1/?

Post Expired: 7/31/04
To view it go to zoomway .

hi kitty. u should continue the story.

Kitty, could I ask you post stories in the Fanfic forum from this point on - it gets confusing for members if things are posted out of their proper place. And as this appears to be part one of a longer story it could get messy if you post all of its parts here in the wrong folder. (Actually, we'd probably have to move subsequent posts into Fanfic). Or, alternatively, if you post part one here and the remainder in Fanfic (or they are moved to the proper forum by a mod or admin), readers will be very confused I think as to where to find part one.

What I would have suggested to you here, is that you post the fanfic in Fanfic and then set up a separate poll for the story here in Polls - as other authors have done in the past when wanting similar story questions answered.

Or you could post the fanfic in Fanfic, set up a fdk thread in Fanfic and list your questions there.

Also, there's nothing to stop an author requesting fdk be posted at the bottom of the story post. However, there are good reasons why traditionally story and fdk are in separate threads. So if authors and readers could try to keep to those traditions, it would be appreciated and helpful. Thanks!

Obviously, because this was set up here in the polls forum that doesn't apply to this thread now. But just for general practice, it helps a lot of members if story and fdk are in separate threads.

Kitty, most fdk threads are only a few posts separated from where the story has been posted, so they shouldn't be that hard to track down.

However, one thing you could do is put a link in your story thread to the fdk thread, linking the two together. If you don't know how, one of the admins can do it for you. That way all you need do is click on the link in the story post to be taken directly to the comments thread.

LabRat

Kitty, I'm afraid that I had to give up on reading your story. Unfortunately, the grammatical errors (missing words, switching from past to present tense and back again, punctuation mistakes and so on) make it extremely difficult to follow. And, while some of the story is well paragraphed, in other parts the paragraphs are not spaced out.

I know you've had these comments about your grammar, spelling and presentation before. If you could try to learn from the advice you've been given, on the boards and from your Archive editors, this would make your stories much easier to read and you might even gain new readers as a result. Good luck!


Wendy

Ah, it seems another mod or admin has managed to do what I couldn't earlier (I had a temporary techie problem which meant I couldn't move threads from forum to forum)

Since this has been moved into the correct forum now, I've set up a feedback thread here . Just click on this link, Kitty, and it'll take you straight to your feedback.

LabRat

Okay labrat, but how do you make a post into a poll in a fanfic site? And please explain it to me in simply terms that even a seven years old can understand.

Oooh, labrat, you making my head spin again with your words. I don't understand a word your saying.

If a post is name diffrently and seperately, I can't find it to read. e.g. "FDK: Lost child/?" vs. "Lost Child 1/?: FDK".

That's why I don't post in the fanfic. I'm not seeking a beta reader. I'm only looking for comments. Besides that Wendy, This is a story made by two people not one.

Aught! That's it. I'm mad. It wont let me view the poll. I'm deleting the story. Any comments go to zoomway.

Who is the other author?

Whoa. you don't have to get mad.

I have tonnes of comments, but I do not want to say anything b/c I am confused over what you want and what the purpose of the poll was.

Cheers
Me

Oops. Me again, sorry all.

If you have trouble finding the FDK, why don't you just create the post yourself? I have trouble too sometimes!

I find this way easier: FDK - Roo's story 1/?

If someone puts: Roo's story 1/? FDK
it doesn't jump out at me very quickly.

Just have the FDK match the story. All this stuff goes in the fanfic section because it has to do with the actual story. But I'm sure you know that. I'm just babbeling.

Kitty, dont get mad... people are here to help...

you should see the wonders SuperRoo and StopQuitDon´t are doing to my work.. of course, i´m not an expert and perhaps u r willing to prove ur own writing skills but there´s nothing to be mad at.

we´re supposed to have fun with the things we write and if FDK is welcome, we should prepare ourselves to positive and negative comments. But it is for u to improve ur skills and not get urself depressed.

I´ve read ur work before and u know i´m a fan of urs. don´t stop writing here, please.

MDL.

Hi,

Great start.

Yeah, maddoglane. I wont stop writing. even though I'm horrible at writing in 'time' because I don't have a sense of time. I live by the moment. I can't even remember things that had happen to me four hours ago. I'm addicted to writing.

I guess I shouldfn't have check this website, today. It's just that everything in my life today has gone wrong. I couldn't take anymore bad stuff anymore. I guess I'm more frustrated then actually mad.

Stepping in as forum moderator to clarify a few things.

First, Kitty, I'm the admin who moved your post from the poll section to the fanfic section. The reason for that is simple: we want readers to be able to find fanfic sections easily, which is why they're all in the same place. Most authors also use a blue arrow as an icon for their post to make a difference between story sections and comments folders - which makes things even easier for our members.

Kitty, I understand that sometimes life throws curves at us that make us frustrated or angry, but that is no reason to let that frustration taint your posts to a message boards where members are being friendly and helpful. So far I haven't seen anybody be anything other than welcoming about you posting your story.

People are going to post comments, yes. That's the way things go on *any* message boards. It doesn't mean they're your BRs; it just means that they read your section and are giving you their honest opinion about it.

When a member explains that she wanted to read your story but something in the formatting (like the absence of paragraphs) prevented her to do so, that's one piece of helpful advice. It just means you can go back to your post and edit it to make big chunks into paragraphs to make it better.

Same with grammar. Sure, we don't expect perfect grammar!! Far from it! Lots of our members use English as a second language (myself included), so we would never request that all posts be perfect - but hey, even for native speakers that would be impossible. In fact, I'm going to take advantage of this to remind all foreign speakers that they have to *jump in*!

But Kitty, the type of post where it starts to truly matter is story parts. Then you've got many people wanting to read what you wrote, and it's very, very tedious if the author hasn't taken the time to re-read what they wrote to weed out a number of frequent grammatical errors or stuff like capital letters where they shouldn't be or punctuation or such. Again, we don't request a perfectly clean copy!! Just a minimum of effort on the author's part so that the story can be understood by your readers - because after all, the reason why we post our stories to the message boards is to get instant feedback.

Kaethel
Fanfic Forum Moderator

I'm not sure why you want me to explain this, Kitty, as you've posted polls in the poll forum already. Actually, you probably know how to do it better than I do, as I don't do them as often! But if you mail the admins, someone will be able to explain it to you.

I thought my posts were fairly clear, but if you want to email me with specifics of what you didn't understand, feel free and I'll explain them. We don't have a huge amount of rules in this forum, Kitty, but what little there are are there for good reasons. Posting fanfic in the poll section confuses readers as to where to find the parts of your story. It helps you as much as anyone when admins move misplaced posts because people know where to find them. You won't find many forums out there whose admins won't move misplaced posts into the correct forum. That's partly what they're there to do after all.

Which is why I tried to help you with this problem by taking time to insert a link to the comments thread from your story post, making it easier for you to find. But Roo also makes a good point. There's absolutely nothing to stop you setting up the fdk folder when you post your story. That way you control what the header is.

As for comments, as others have noted in the past, if you post a story in a public forum, you have to expect them. I don't think our readers are particularly harsh - in fact some have accused them of being too uncritical in their comments in the past. Guess they can't win.

If you only want praise, not helpful advice or constructive criticism, please note that clearly on your story when you post. Our members are a polite and considerate bunch. If you make the request, they'll honour it.

But - once again - although they aren't generally too picky, the one thing which will lose an author readers when they post a story is not setting it out in paragraphs. It makes a story very hard to read and many just don't have the time or energy to trawl through a story that's all one huge block of text. I know that I gave up on your story for the same reason. I've tried reading such stories in the past and just gotten a headache trying to work out what was happening, so now I don't even try.

Now, it's entirely up to you whether you take the advice to format your story in paragraphs. I know that this comment has been made before when you've posted previous work. But do be aware that if you choose not to you may not get the number of comments you hope for. If you don't mind that and are prepared to accept a low number of comments, then please feel free to post a story any way you like.

LabRat

Maybe you shouldn't see my rough draft then. It's ten times worst.

Nope.

...I think my ADD is taking affect labby... ...just kidding.

Kitty Smiled !!!




MDL

Me too.

Huh?

What do you want then??? *Roo is scratching her head*

English is the only language I know. I've tried to learn Vietnamese, Japanese, French and Cantonese, but MAN I can't keep it together. I think I'll just keep to my English and try to make it better. Grammer and all that stuff is very hard for me! My grades in school reflected it. I was either an A or a C. In university I got a C and B. Ugh, horrible. I find typing helps me. I hate writing by hand b/c my brain cannot keep up and my hand hurts after five minutes.

(I'm going to try French again in the future. I took it in school until grade 11 and I still can't even watch the Habs on the French channel play hockey. ....well I do watch it, but I wish I could understand.)

Please keep it up Kitty. If we all keep trying we can only get better. Well I hope that's true, for my sake anyways. I wish I could write a story; when I try I just stare at a blank screen.

- OH QUIET ROO!!!! - Sory my husband's assortment of garden gnomes are telling me to be quiet........that's another story.

Beats me as to what Labby is saying. She makes me feel like I'm listening to Dr. Klein when he's ranting about the components of the cellular activity of the atoms.

Maybe her *scienctist* parents are getting to her. or maybe the absent minded scientist gene is creeping up at her. Sorry, Labby, I just have to tease you a bit.

As a "mad scientist" myself, I felt compelled to write this. Sorry, but "the components of the cellular activity of the atoms?" Working in a similar field to Dr. Klein, I can safely say that we don't usually talk like that .

Kitty, what are you confused about with what LabRat was trying to tell you? She explained how to set up a comments folder for your story so you would be able to find it. She also put a link to it in her post so you would be absolutely able to find it. I thought that was pretty nice of her. She also explained a few simple things about message board protocol.

From the comments, I am not sure what you want the readers to do with this story. You always say you are a "hobby writer" so your writing doesn't have to be good. I write for a hobby, too. Yes, English is my native language, and, although I was a stright A student in high school, English was always a strugle for me. I know I don't have the best grammar, and I know that my spelling is horrible, but, there is a spell check and a grammar check on most word processing programs, and it itn't hard at all to run them on your stories. I think readers on this message board are generally very nice about grammar errors beyond the obvious ones that are easy to fix. My philosophy tends to be that if I spend a long time writing my stories, why not spend equal time editing to make them readable?

Regardless, the reason I opened this folder at all was that I tried to read your story, but I didn't see it. I see that you've linked to zoomway's message boards. Why did you do that? Some of us don't have time to visit two message boards. Also, what is the poll for? I don't think anyone can read it.

I am really sorry that your personal life seems to be so hard. Maybe you should seek some professional counciling? From this and pretty much all of your posts, you seem like you really might need to talk to a doctor about your problems. They might really be able to help you.

- Laura

That you have to ask Labby to explain it.

that's where she lost me.

Zoomways.

I know. I was just teasing Labby. My questions are also listed there.

Although I do rant like lois with my fingers.

The problem with the poll, Laura, was that originally Kitty had posted part one of her story as a poll thread, with poll attached. It contained some questions she wanted answered about the story. Whether there was too much detail on the medical condition or not enough, whether readers understood the condition after reading the story - that kind of thing.

Obviously, the misplacing of her post made things difficult and it actually took a bit of Admin time to sort it out. We naturally wanted to fix the problem with the minimum disruption to what Kitty had intended. Unfortunately, that entailed a bit of headscratching. <G>

Did we leave part one of the story in polls and Kitty posted all of the other parts there? Not really an option having all those posts in the wrong folder. Especially as the other posts probably wouldn't have polls attached but just be plain story posts. Did we leave part one there so that the poll worked, but Kitty posted everything else in Fanfic? I figured that would be very confusing for readers wondering where part one was. I didn't think the poll section would be where they'd expect to find it.

So Kae moved the story here into Fanfic - the proper forum for it. Which seemed the simplest option. But that meant the poll didn't work any more, unfortunately.

If Kitty had been able to remember the questions it would have been relatively easy to fix that one too. She could have posted them in the new fdk folder and have readers respond to them there. Or she could have just set up a brand new poll without the story post attached. That's an option been used by authors before and seems to work well enough.

I only wish I'd thought to take a copy of Kitty's poll questions at the time. It would have been simple for me to insert them into the new fdk folder when I set it up if I had. And that would have solved that one.

Thank you, Laura. Just doin' my job, ma'am. <g> But it's always nice when the time you spend trying to help someone is appreciated.


LabRat