Well, it's time for another Q & A session with our site authors, poets, editors, and readers!  As you can see, these features have a little something for everyone. If you have ideas for questions for one of these groups, feel free to PM me!  And while you're at it, why not answer one of the Round 4 questions!  Now, let's see what we have for you this month!  This month, we're going to turn it around a bit and start with our editors first!

 

 

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Editors: What is the most common error you see? How can authors avoid it?

 

@Kitt - I have a lot, but the worst are misused homonyms hear/here and your/you're.

 

The first you can remember by the fact that you hEAR with your EAR,  but you are either here or There

 

The latter try replacing the words "you are" for the your/you're in question.  If you are works, you need the apostrophe!

 

@Timothy M. - I'm sure someone else will have mentioned homonyms like bare/bear and break/brake, and using apostrophes (') where they're not needed.

 

So I'll go with shift in verb tense. Experienced authors rarely make this mistake if the whole story runs in the same tense. But since a deliberate change of verb tense from past to present, or back, can set the pace nicely, the wrong verb tense may occur even to the best among us/you.

 

I'm not sure how to avoid it, other than putting the story away for a day or two, and return to read the sections with different verb tenses separately.

 

@Valkyrie - I would say comma usage tends to be the most common error I encounter when editing.  It's something I struggled with when I first started writing, so I understand it can be difficult to get a handle on.  If an author is unsure if a comma should be used or not, they should ask themselves if there is a complete sentence following the conjunction.  If there is, then add the comma.  If not, then don't.  Commas are also necessary after introductory phrases.  For example:  After I woke up, I got a cup of coffee.  I realize there is a lot more to comma usage, but the two instances I outlined are the most common omissions I see.  

 

 

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Readers: What is your favorite genre? What is your least favorite? Why are they your favorite and least favorite?

 

@Disjecta Membra - My favorite genre (to read and write) is fantasy.  I love fantasy because to me, reading and writing is about getting lost in a different world.  There is so much that can be done in fantasy worlds that cannot be done in other kinds of writing.  I find it also allows for a great deal of invention, with creatures, magic, places, etc.  I always find it wonderful to see what the unique minds of other writers can come up with.  There are really no rights or wrongs in fantasy either; a reasonable answer can always be provided for something even if it wouldn't make sense in the real world.

 

That being said, I do still enjoy other genres.  Fiction is fiction, and it always has the ability to take the reader somewhere else.  However, I have never been a fan of historical fiction.  I don't know that I have a super justifiable answer as to why not, except that I've just never been able to get into it.

 

@Thorn Wilde - Interestingly, the answer to both of these is Fantasy. IRL I practically only read sci-fi and fantasy. Good SFF is interesting and engaging and plain fun, it lets you escape from your own life, your problems, everything that hurts, even when it's serious stuff. But then you get to the tropes. Oh God, the tired old tropes! If it's not absolutely excellently written fantasy, they cannot be overlooked. You've got your high fantasy with Tolkien inspired elves and other creatures, your vampire stories that all seem to draw on Anne Rice in one way or another (and don't even get me started on Twilight, ugh), so many dragons, crappy world-building where everyone is white (because for some reason all fantasy has to be based on medieval Europe, apparently; you can have elves and gnomes, but you can't have people of colour? Give me a break!) , and the list goes on. Mix magic into your sci-fi, and it all becomes crappy Star Wars rip-offs. I swear, a lot of fantasy novels could just as well be fan fiction of better works. If they were, I think they'd be better.

 

@mollyhousemouse - i really enjoy reading stories about second chances, and slice of life stories with adult characters.  i'm not too fond of teen romances, might be that i'm so far removed from that time of life; also, not too fond of shifter stories.  well i did enjoy those by @JohnAR , but they weren't what you would normally think of when you say "shifter stories" 

 

i like the second chance stories because we all like to believe in second chances, don't we? and the slice of life ones well it's nice to peek into the neighbors house to see what's going on.

 

 

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Poets: What inspires you to write poetry?

 

@aditus - When I feel the need to bring order to things it’s good to sort by meter.

 

@Mikiesboy - The world, people, feeling, colours, nature. What i see and feel everyday. Poetry let's me express my joy, pain and love.

 

@Valkyrie - I tend to draw inspiration from my life and surroundings.  Sometimes I'm inspired by current events or an article I read.  I also enjoy the challenge of National Poetry Writing Month and seeing what I can create based on daily poetry prompts.

 

 

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Authors: What was the hardest story for you to write? Why?

 

@Thorn Wilde - I think it's a tie in my case, between the Craig short in Hubris, and Nobody's Valentine.

 

With Craig, it was simply the subject matter. It was a hard story to write because it was so painful and heartbreaking. It was also difficult to give a character who did such awful things a backstory and a soul. A reason, even if it wasn't an excuse.

 

As for Nobody's Valentine, I wrote it a few months after my ex dumped me and it was more than a little bit based on what I was going through at the time. It drew on my own recently lived experience of heartbreak, and that hurt a lot. Even when I reread it now, three years after the break-up, I relive the pain of it and I kind of want to cry. It's hard to admit, but I still miss him, even though I've otherwise moved on.

 

@CassieQ - It is usually whatever story I am working on when the question is asked, but that’s a cop-out.  Some stories are easier to write than others, but the one I struggled with a bit was Save Tonight.  It is about grief and loss, and those are very hard things to experience and write about.  I was pleased with the final result, and I’ve gotten great feedback on it, but there were definitely some moments when I had trouble getting the words down.

 

@aditus - Noli Me Tangere. This story doesn’t have a HEA ending, only hope. I knew the readers wouldn’t like it.

 

@Mikiesboy - That's a tough one. Changes because it took a lot of research and it was quite emotional. But i think it would have to be After The Past. I had to make some tough choices with respect to what happened with the characters. I had to make sure i wrote it well enough so readers would accept the choices i'd made.

 

@Superpride - The hardest story for me to write was Hero Wanted.  The first reason was because it was hard for me to find an exact premise of how the characters got their superhuman abilities.  This story is actually the third iteration before I officially published the first chapter in this site.  It took me a lot of research to find how my characters got their abilities that would make sense in my head.  After going through nanotechnology and ether, I finally settled with the manipulation of light as the premise. 

 

Another reason is the balancing of world-building and the romance between the two main characters.  I really wanted to write how the world of Hero Wanted works, but I also wanted to go deep into the developing romance between Ryan and Chris.  I wanted both elements of my story to be just as captivating, and I didn't want to focus too much on just one of the two.  I don't know if I was successful with that endeavor, but I hope to continue that mission as I make this story into a series.

 

The last reason is the tons of research I did to connect this story to the various world mythologies, specifically Filipino mythology and connect those mythologies together, like the diwata of Filipino mythology named Maria Makiling who could transform ginger into gold and connect her to the origins of the three sacred treasures of Japanese mythology.  It was a lot of time I spent with my eyes on my computer screen, but it was really worth it since I learned a lot about different mythologies, and I got to learn about my own Filipino culture as well.

 

@Valkyrie - I found my anthology story for the fall 2016 anthology--"Lost and Found"--quite difficult to write.  When I wrote it, I was struggling with a bout of writer's block, so I  had to to push myself for every word.  The subject matter didn't help, as it was a difficult topic and not easy to write about in the best of times.

 

 

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Well, that's it for this session of Q & A. Don't forget to check out the thread for the Round 4 questions!