User:Alucard vess/Sandbox

Grammar and Spelling

Written by Captain Malcolm Lysander

The best way to avoid grammar and spelling errors is to use the following rule: Read your sim out loud from start to finish at least once. If you can’t read it out loud, then read it from start to finish, in your head, three times, slowly. AND, if you have a spell-checker, USE IT!! It will, at first, catch a lot of words that aren’t normal like "Bajoran". Just click the "ADD" button, and it will add those words that you know are correct to the dictionary. So, if it gets the word "StarBase" and you KNOW that’s correct, then push ADD, and next time, it won’t point that out as a problem.

Good spelling and grammar are imperative to making your sims readable. When one spelling problem becomes twelve in your sim, it makes it hard to follow what you’re trying to say, thus making the whole experience of reading the sims not enjoyable. So PLEASE PLEASE read your sims back to catch these problems!

Here are some common errors that people make, and how to fix them:

it’s = Contraction of "It is".

• "It’s cold out here!" / "It is cold out here!"

its = The possesive form of "it".

• "Its value cannot be measured."

you’re = Contraction of "You are".

• "You’re very silly." / "You are very silly."

your = The possesive form of "you".

• "Your dog is blue."

their = The possesive form of "they".

• "Their car broke down today."

they’re = Contraction of "They are".

• "They’re crazy, aren’t they?" / "They are crazy, aren’t they?"

there = A place.

• "Your book is over there."

to = The first part of any infinitive.

• "Let’s go to town."

too = Means: besides, also, or to an excessive degree.

• "I want to go too!"
• "Too many dogs here!"

than = Indicates a difference in manner or identity.

• "He’s taller than she is."

then = A function of time.

• "Let’s go to the Academy, and then to the StarBase."

e.g. = Latin for "for example".

• "Pick up any writing utensil, e.g., a pen, then dip it in the ink."

i.e. = Latin for "that is".

• "Wise writers use them sparingly, i.e., primarily when documenting resources and then only parenthetically."

a lot = Two words!

• "We need a lot of money."

Rules of Writing From the Pros

Written by Fleet Admiral Tristan Wolf

The following texts are provided as some simple tips that you may find useful while writing sims.

Eight rules for writing fiction

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Kurt Vonnegut (source)

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

George Orwell’s 6 Rules for Effective Writing

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George Orwell (source)

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than saying anything outright barbarous.

Speaking for Others: The Voices You Borrow

Written by Captain Malcolm Lysander

As to speaking for other people in your sim, here’s the basic premise you should follow: feel free to write small things for other characters, as long as they are accurate with that character. Here are some examples using the characters that played in the StarBase 118 Operations sim. One example included a dialogue between the captain (Lysander) and a medical officer (Bizak): (sim)

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?”
“LYSANDER: I’d say that’s the best place.”

In this situation what Bizak wrote for Lysander was not something that would change the situation dramatically, nor was it something that was beyond the scope of what Lysander would say in that situation. So, we could say that “low impact dialogue”, or dialogue that really doesn’t have much effect on the entire sim is acceptable. HOWEVER, if Bizak had written:

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?”
“LYSANDER: Why would I want to start from there?! I have to go, I don’t like you.”

… that would be unacceptable. Why? First off, Lysander probably wouldn’t say something like that because he has never given an indication that he doesn’t like Bizak. After all, in that sim, HE asked HER to have a drink with him, so obviously he wouldn’t then decide that he didn’t like her.

The following also wouldn’t work:

“BIZAK: Well, I guess I’d better start at the beginning?”
“LYSANDER: Uh oh, watch out! The Enterprise is crashing through the wall behind you as we speak!”

… for most obvious reasons. For starters, nothing dramatic is happening in the sim that would suggest that there would be any reason for a ship to come crashing into the station. Next, before you put something into a sim that will changes things, like the Enterprise set to ram the StarBase, you need to talk to the captain first.

Another example of a GOOD use of someone else’s character:

“LYSANDER: Locke, fire phasers!”
“LOCKE: Aye Captain, firing phasers!”

Lysander put the words in Locke’s mouth that would more than likely be spoken by Locke, the tactical officer.

You simply have to walk a fine line between moving the sim along, and giving too much of someone else’s character. Use your good judgment, and try to use the other person’s character as little as possible, to avoid a problem. Keep your words neutral (so that you’re not stepping on the other person’s character in the wrong way), and only use the other character for simple actions, if you have to use them at all.

If you’re going to involve another character in such a way that the other character may be injured, you should CO-WRITE the sim together, or at least ask the other person how far you can go with their character. Co-writing a sim means contacting the other character via Instant Messenger or e-mail to write the sim out piece by piece. (So, one person would write one thing, and send that to the other person. Then the other person writes their response, and sends that back. Then you put all that into one sim and send it out.)