(no subject)

Can I just take a minute to gripe about a pet peeve?

If someone is asking for criticism and they say, "Please don't pay attention to the grammar and spelling, (insert lame reason here)," I can't help but start to get just a tiny bit skeptical as to the overall storytelling ability that this person is about to display. I mean, okay, spelling? Sure. I suck at spelling. Go spell words wrong. If it's really too much work to run it through a word processor for a spell check, fine.

But grammar? Sorry - if you didn't get it right the first time, I get the feeling the second time around isn't going to be too much more kind to ya, if you know what I mean. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there are people out there who can write stories while lacking the most basic skill that one requires to be able to write, but I sort of doubt it.

If you haven't bothered to, y'know, even read the story back to yourself once, don't post it for public criticism, m'kay? Your readers deserve a better product to work with than that. And so do you.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled friends list. Have a great day.