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
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
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)
copydude 7
Wow your complete lack of sensitivity is astounding!.. you TEENAGE son even if he is now 19 given 4 years that means he started writing this at 15! I have a 19 year old daughter and a 22 your old son and would love and proud of the fact that she or he had taken the time, energy and fortitude to write a 300 page book! You should be ashamed of yourself for criticizing him on this type of format. I can only hope my grammar isn't making your eyes bleed.
Axel5238 29
Still doesn't mean it's any good. Look at most of the fanfics on the net or what passes for original on deviant art. Even Eragorn which is well known is well criticized for being cliche and huge rip off.
Ryodin 11
Your son may need to learn the value of revision. 100 pages into anything I'll be proud of the last twenty and mortified at the first half. Revise, revise, revise. The best author I've ever known revised his work for literally years and it paid off.
tj4234 36
by any chance, is that J. R. R. Tolkien?
tj4234 36
I just want to put something into perspective for you OP. (watch out though, my maths can be sketchy at best xD). 10 pages is around 5,000 words (sized twelve font, a4 paper)S so 300 pages is around 150,000 words. Quite a sizeable work in other words. There are 365 days in a year, so in 4 years there are 1460. This means that on average, your son has written 102 words a day. This of course does not factor in the prep work involved... character mapping, brainstorming, whatever else, which can take several days/weeks to do in themselves. On those days of course, he probably never wrote anything at all. For someone who has never written a novel before, it is a lot of work. Heck... even for people who have it is STILL a lot of work. You should be very proud of him completing it. The majority of people would have given up long before.
doglover100 29
That's what editors are for. He took the time to write a 300 page book, that is dedication. Maybe he can take a writing class.
DalekSec 6
Well, he is your son, so be supportive. Offer advice, of course, but he needs you to be there for him.
gbrodee1 5
MY EYES, THEY BUURN!!!
Bebbo_fml 21
Time to go crazy with the red pen op.
MissMegan711 5
He writes a book and that is what you are concerned about? Parents these days!
funkybee 8
It's great that you're so supportive of him! I know I never had such encouraging parents when writing a novel. Instead of putting youself through the pain, gently give him some constructive feedback and help him when he asks for it. At least he's not doing drugs! :)
Axel5238 29
We don't know it could be an adventure time novel on finding the most delicious twinkie. In that case I'd be fairly sure the son was on drugs.
yumetoyuki 2
Keep with positive comments, be patient, and ask him if he doesn't mind you correcting what you know is incorrect. Or you could ask him if he doesn't mind having it looked at by someone with better grammar. I do it for my sister and brother, since I'm more efficient at correcting mistakes than they are; and sometimes I do it for anyone that asks because it helps them get noticed and helps me stay on top of my editing skills.