Today, my teenage son gave me the completed manuscript of the novel he's been working on for 4 years. Surprised and excited that he showed so much dedication to something, I volunteered to read it. I'm only on page 16 and it's absolute drivel, with grammar that makes my eyes bleed. Only 281 pages to go. FML
Collection
Thanksgiving
Questions about your love life, a burnt turkey and the cousin who knows everything: Thanksgiving, a contact sport.
Today, I finally asked some friends to read the beginning of a novel that I'd been slaving away at. One of them said it was the literary equivalent of aquarium gravel. Another asked if I'd been sniffing boot polish while writing it. FML
Today, I'm grading final projects for a junior level college class. A student finally turned in their work, after months of encouragement and coaxing. Half of it was plain wrong, the rest had so many spelling and grammatical mistakes, it appeared to be written by a drunk autocorrect program. FML
Today, my boss asked me to read through a document. I gave my feedback, saying it seemed like it had been written by an 8-year-old. Turns out it was in fact written by him. FML
Today, my 18-year-old son got his first tattoo. I would have loved it, if it wasn't a text on his hand with a glaring spelling mistake in it. FML
Today, I submitted my 5000 word assignment. When I got home, my mother asked if I'd checked it through one more time like she always warned me to do. I hadn't, therefore hadn't noticed the paragraph on page 11 that she'd written, telling me to pay attention to the small details. FML
Today, I had my teacher look over my essay before turning it in. He said it was extremely well-written, so I handed it in. When I got it back, the feedback he left said it was one of the worst essays he'd ever read. FML
Today, I uploaded the first chapter of my best writing yet to a popular writing website. After ten minutes, I was thrilled to already see one review and five comments. Each comment was telling me to immediately delete the story because of how horrible it was. The rating was half a star. FML
Today, I had to proof-read a terrible paper containing a bunch of mistakes. It took me 4 hours and I didn't eat dinner until I was done. His response when he got it back was, "What the fuck did you do to my paper?! You bitch!" FML
Today, I finally got a phone call from a publisher saying they would publish the book I'd written. I'd gotten loads of rejection letters, so I was so excited. Until I realized it was my dad, feeling sorry for me. FML
Today, I finally finished my 500 page manuscript and so went out to buy some paper to print it off. I get back home and find out my dad has infected my computer with a virus and the only way to save it was to wipe the hard drive, which he did. That script took me a year and I have no backup. FML
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Top comments
Awes0meperson 10
You could just be honest with him and maybe help him fix it instead of torturing yourself
hamzor 5
At least he's into writing and not drugs, you should be happy!
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Comments (119)
rldostie 19
As a writer, I'd like to point out that most young writers have that issue. It's not really "completed," most manuscripts get re-written at least 6 times. Find the positive but suggest he continue to read books in his field and the importance of grammar. Have him sign up for creative writing classes. He's 16. Unless he's a boy genius, it's going to suck to an adult. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have budding talent and something to work on as the years move on.
onorexveritas 24
that's how I get when I read my uncles "book"
Just_Kermit 13
I know the feeling of reading such horror but find a way to constructively help him improve it. The fact that he completed it is impressive. Don't let him stop!
SarahBearah1995 11
Offer to proofread. Fix the grammar, and even drivel can be published. Remember Twilight?
CrazyMelvin 14
Unless you're reading it in front of him, just tell him you read all of it
Morning_fml 22
Honesty is the best policy! You should tell him that he needs to work on his grammar skills or whatever else he needs to work on, because it's better than lying to him, then finding out that he isn't as skilled as he think he is yet through other criticizers which will harshly impose his lack of ability on him.
beelee1988 13
Okay, I'm most likely the only one bothered by all the comments saying the son is 16. Where in the FML does it actually say how old his son is. He could be 18, 17, 14, 15. Everyone seems to be agreeing on 16. Did I miss something?
vanaathiel 13
He still put a lot of effort into it, you should be proud he's so dedicated. Instead of being an asshole about it, offer to proofread it and offer constructive criticism. Your response now could either help him achieve something better, or make him to afraid to show you any of his accomplishments again.
bbciel 8
Well if he's been working on it for four years the beginning was probs written a while ago so it most likely will get better as it progresses
sNOOBie_fml 24
Endure it and then tell him in a nice way that the grammar isn't top notch as well as ogfer to do spell check on it for him. My brother has the same issue, but he came to me knowing that his grammar was bad as well as wanting critizism of his work. Being honest in a kind way is the best way to deal with this issue..