Commas. Really?

[clover_magic]

I just got the longest review on Loop bitching about the proper use of commas and periods within quotation marks. (The second half of the review was complaining about pacing, but whatever, I can accept that because at least it's logical and an attempt at constructive criticism. It's not going to change anything because that would accept that I,

Comments

[clover_magic]

Haha, well, I wouldn't go that far, but I really do wonder what some people are thinking sometimes. I don't mind constructive criticism. I do mind being treated as if I'm blindly ignorant of the fault in question. There is a vast difference between "I'm not sure if this is on purpose, but you're doing this" and "this is wrong and you need to read up on it". If the whole of the grammar was awful, then I'd understand the second, but the review itself said that this was the only real grammar issue but still acted as if I had no idea about it. If it's the only grammar issue, and one taught in elementary school at that, maybe it is on purpose. If I obviously know what I'm doing, why the hell would you assume that I wouldn't know about this? That and the focus on the stupid commas instead of more relevant criticism was what got me.

And arrrgh, I'm so stuck with Loop. So stuck. Fsdjhakdsjh. I hate this stupid chapter.

[icarusdg]

Well its not entirely true that nobody cares; I think anything should be written with the best of your ability (and I say this knowing that I have some serious editing to do and I should be making an effort to find a beta for my fics so no judgement or whatever I swear) because a poorly written fic even with the greatest of story lines is disappointing. At the same time, if the grammar was that bad I would have noticed and I didn't so it can't be bad enough to warrant such a review.

[clover_magic]

The thing is, it's such a small error. Literally, it's just a period instead of a comma in spoken sentences. I try to write as grammatically correct as possible in almost everything else. The only other thing is that I think I use the British quotation standards in that I won't put the ending sentence punctuation inside a quotation that ends the sentence (which you're supposed to do in American grammar, I believe) because having it inside the quote is retarded as balls. I'm pretty sure that everything else aside from non-beta-proofed errors and goofs is as correct as I can make it.

It's a tiny thing, but this person focused on it for like three paragraphs. I just can't understand how that is so distracting as to detract from the fic as a whole. They then proceeded to act as if I'd never heard of this magical grammar convention before and said I should "read up on it", as if I'd never heard this rule before despite the rest of the grammar being excellent. The fact that they chose to focus on a tiny grammar nitpick instead of

[icarusdg]

In that case, after reading 3 paragraphs about punctuation, take it as what it is. Amusing. At least you know someone out there is carefully reading it for punctuation mistakes? XD