Must be free of formatting, grammar, syntax, and spelling issues.
That is going to very hard for most of the writers on here. You do realize that there is not one known work of Stephen King that would meet those requirements? Reality is there will always be errors that get in the way, multiple and endless errors yes those works need work. But one or two errors out of 1000 or more words, you need to have a broader perspective. Also, remember, there are spelling difference between American English, EU-English, NZ-English, and Australian English. Not all english speaking country use the bastardized spelling of color, some still use colour.
@bashadow, I'd like to personally invite you to the Fiction Workshop on Discord. It can be a confusing forum to navigate for some, but once you find the workshop channel, you're set. I see from your blog that you are definitely a reader. Don't know if you do any fiction writing, but we always have stories in the queue needing feedback. We have a lot of great Steemit writers dropping in from time to time and it's just a fun place to be. Here's the invite link: https://discord.gg/dXrCAxX
Thank you for the invite, right now I am still trying to learn more about steemit, and am not really interested in the chat-room side of things at this point in time. I will look again in a few months maybe as winter gets in full swing up here, but I really do not like chat rooms that much anymore.
Excuse me, but do you seriously think we are ignorant of the differences? We have curators from multiple places in the world and many of us are well-read with international fiction and accustomed to the differences. We don't rule something out because they aren't American. Once you have a big name in the mainstream world, you can get away with a lot of things. But to get published initially and develop that big name, you have to put out pretty clean work. An author who isn't willing to work to improve these things is never going to make it anywhere. And the SFT has been known to set its curators to work helping a really promising author do final polishing on a piece when the author was interested in doing so. Spending some time in the fiction-workshop on PALNet is highly recommended. A peer critique system is extremely effective at working out the majority of the bugs, if an author is, again, WILLING to do the work.
As a non-native English speaker who was nonetheless curated by the SFT on my first piece, after having received a huge amount of support and encouragement and guidance from the members of the MSP Fiction Workshop, I can honestly say that I have never felt my multilingual ESL background or my preference for colour over color to be a disadvantage. Language evolves differently indifferent cultures, leading to differences in spelling. To refer to these cultural differences as bastardized versions is, in my humble opinion, a bit of a supremacist attitude that grates on a world citizen like myself.
Thank you for taking the time to point out that they are not as stringent as I first thought. There are so many good stories and writers that are not native english speakers I felt that the rules they laid out were pretty much out of reach of non English speakers. Thank you for showing me I was wrong.
One or two errors out of 1000 or more words - that would be fine.
What we see, routinely, is failure to proofread and (more time consuming for unpaid editors to handle) the need to *teach * basic grammar, syntax, and puctuation in dialogue. I'm ever amazed at how many errors show up. As for Stephen King, a lot of editors *would * reject a lot of his stories. Once established, writers get away with a lot more than unknown writers do. King's latest, co-authored with his son, has some pretty harsh reviews. Anyway, if SFT's criteria sound too daunting, try reading some of the work that's already been curated. We know there is always room for improvement. Also, we offer a Workshop (free!) to help with the formatting, grammar, syntax, and spelling issues. Ignore it at your own risk. Thank you for reading and commenting, and please know it is not our goal to scare people off with impossibly high standards.
Thank You, I did reply to myself to thank all of you. I will try to find some of the works that have already been curated.
Another thing to consider is the authors themselves who produce very high quality, well edited work. Do they not deserve special recognition for that effort? Recognition doesn't always coincide with payout. Over time, perhaps it will. But until then, should we continue to allow the best fiction published on Steemit to go unrecognized? I think not. I think the SFT can help fill that gap quite well.
I am sure it will. I was just not sure about the purpose after reading the post, and then seeing that one rule. I would like to thank you all for pointing out that things are not as they always appear. @tinypaleokitchen showed me that non-native english speakers are not ignored. I have found so many good stories and writers from areas that english is the second language.
Try using that same argument on the literary agent who rejects your work time and again.
It is true that not everyone aspires to achieve these standards. Not everyone wants to publish in the mainstream. And that is perfectly fine. But for those who do, these standards do not seem unusual or too stringent.
I would like to take the time to thank all of you who have replied. It would seem that you are not into elitism as much as my first read would have indicated. Thank you again for pointing out my error in my interpretation of your post. The part I posted and commented on seemed to be a warning off of any new writers seeking any sort of assistance. I am glad I was wrong.
I live in a country where I primarily speak a language that is not my native language. I understand the challenges of writing and communicating in a second language. While SFT only curates things in English, the global perspective is appreciated. There is also no reason why a similar endeavor couldn't be created for authors in other languages. It just isn't something we can do. But the fiction-workshop does ask participants to mention if English is their native language or not and collects info on native language in the hopes that someday there will be an author base to allow people to support each other in other languages.
It should be hard for most of the writers on Steemit or anywhere else for that matter, hence curation. Are you in all seriousness suggesting that SFT should lower their standards because you find them to exclusionary or elitist? Also––as pointed out by @tinypaleokitchen––your use of 'bastardized' justifiably raises quite a few eyebrows in an open writing community. I assure you the curators are well aware of the international nature of this community and as such would not consider a regional spelling of a word a spelling mistake. It's interesting to me that in this single comment you manage to both imply a certain elitism of the SFT curators AND a lack of understanding of how language works.
No I am not suggesting that. It was the wording of the post and the stringent requirements that made it appear that way. Fortunately several individual have responded and corrected my mis-perceptions about what it is SFT is trying to do. I am very aware of people that try to be elitist and that one requirement seemed to me to have been from one of them. No I would never tell someone that they need to do away with their own rules or standards.
I do not see how my comment on the use of 'bastardized' when it came to the spelling of color evoked any of your quote above. I honestly do not understand how it implied Elitism on the part of SFT or its curators. I just really hate how so many people see the word colour and assume that it is spelled wrong. We all have our pet peeves, now you know one of mine.
Because your wording, perhaps unintentionally, made it sound like you assumed the SFT would be judging people who used other English variants unfairly because we required correct spelling. But correct spelling means correct for the variant you use and consistent. Don't spell it color half the time and colour the other half. And it is fiction, so you still might have characters who do NOT use correct grammar and spelling. We can tell the difference. But now you know we don't judge that way, so we'll put it all behind us and move forward happily. In future you might want to ask for clarification before assuming someone would judge against your preferred variant of the language. You might have meant it as a joke. That is not always easy to determine without a context of body language, which would normally be written into fiction but not into this media.