Scribblehub Leakage: Episode 3

I am an extremely busy person with multiple projects on the go and I decided to take up a reading and critiquing assignment because I’m really stupid. Let’s see if reading a lot makes us smarter!

The Rules

1: No AI. If your book cover has AI, if your book text is AI, or if you admit to using AI anywhere in your writing process, you go right on the slop heap. The slop heap is worse than the trash heap, because trash can be entertaining, even good, even if it’s trashy. You’re neither. Get the fuck out of here with that.

You do not get anything for tricking me and slipping AI past the radar. This shit is everywhere. However, AI detectors are laughably unreliable, there is no perfect way to catch it. I’ll be pissed if I find out.

2: I will give your work a fair shot. ALWAYS. This does not mean reading the entire thing, it means at least checking out a few chapters in. Tolstoy was long-winded because he got paid per word, and some of these stories make Tolstoy look like a bathroom advertisement.

3: I will leave a review on your Scribblehub page. It’s very difficult to get reviews for anything, good or bad. Most people don’t want to leave them. Well, I will. I will try to be constructive, too. Be the change you want to see in the world.

How Ratings Work

I will give your story letter grades in the departments. These are subjective, which if you’re new to the concept of artistic appreciation, is true for all works of art. Art is a conversation between the creator and the reader, it requires both, it will always be subjective. They are A through F, with A being good, and F being proFoundly bad. I can give out + or – added to the end but not for F, if you get an F reconsider everything. F’s are usually for a lack of eFFort, or perhaps, lack of skill(F).

Which categories get letter grades varies. Not all stories are the same, some have precious little dialogue and must be coddled and kept warm like a baby bird who drinks drinks with a lot of ice in them. I can’t give out a letter grade for dialogue to a story that has little dialogue.

Not all of these stories are TF stories. Sorry, I know that’s what you’re into but you’re gonna have to meet people who write about things like getting on the bus and don’t even turn into a bug.

Raccoon’s Gardening Guide

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/1369844/raccoons-gardening-guide

Like I’d miss the chance to review a raccoon story? Get the fuck out of here. Let’s get filthy.

60 chapters, ~100,000 words. This is one of the stories I’m talking about. Lots of ratings, lots of views, zero reviews. Review the stories people! Do it!

Raccoons – A+

This story contains raccoons and gets the maximum raccoon rating possible.

Weirdness – A

It’s the future (again) and there’s aliens and cybernetics. Our heroes don’t care about that, they want steak and potatoes. Has a lovable light-hearted and breezy tone and doesn’t stop to spend time explaining itself.

Overall Writing – B

Taking a few points off here because we actually don’t know what a lot of things look like in the early chapters. I know three of our heroes are raccoons but I don’t even know our protagonist’s age or hair colour, and the descriptions are very lacking in early action scenes. The series is very long so I know this will get resolved later, I’d just like a bit more in the early running.

This gets bonus points for having a cover made with love. More like this, please. I recommend this story for all people who like raccoons and also silly crime capers.

Ghost Girl

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2591320/ghost-girl

4 chapters, 10,000 words. Note: The cover might be AI, it’s hard to say at that size. I picked this one off the front page entirely at random.

Spacing and Spelling Errors – C

There are spelling errors within the first few lines and weird double-spacing scattered all over. There’s missing commas, double-periods, and the extra spacing gives it an uncannily slow pace. Just reading it makes my head hurt.

Baffling Dialogue – D

The way characters speak without tags means I don’t know who is speaking half the time. The dialogue is very awkward with lots of wasted space. This can be effective as it gives a character an awkward anti-social feeling, but every character has that affect.

Pain – A

Even if you work hard to get past the mechanical problems, there’s not much to find beneath it.

Overall Writing – D

This one doesn’t get an F because it’s not offensive or outright malicious, but it is legitimately bad. Unpleasant to read on several levels.

Phew! We kept getting good stories there so it’s nice to get some junk. Back to the drawing board with this one.

Boss’s Omega

https://www.scribblehub.com/series/2592993/bosss-omega

9 chapters, 15,000 words. I had to pick this one up, it’s Omegaverse! We’re in for some weird shit hoo boy! And yes, the title does contain a spelling error (it should be Boss’ Omega) which is an excellent sign.*

*Note: I double checked and some style guides actually do allow this for proper nouns, and instead reserve apostrophie-no-extra-s for plural possessives. I’m leaving this in because I learned something new but not interesting. Like learning about a menu for a dive restaurant on another continent.

Random Bolding – A

Proper nouns are bolded sometimes and not bolded other times. You might think upon reading that the first time a proper noun is mentioned it gets bolded but you’d be wrong within the first few paragraphs.

Omegaverse – A

Unironic A, I love the wild omegaverse stuff. Not to actually read, just to gawk at. I’m a pornographer so I can’t judge you, shine on you crazy diamond. It’s not my thing, it’s your thing, have fun talking about rutting while drowning it out entirely with a lot of discussion of beauty brands, launch dates, and scheduling conflicts.

Corporate Culture – A

Min-ho gets fired after being inappropriately attacked by an executive in the bathroom, but he’s a good employee and J Core needs him for their upcoming project launch. Hee-won personally apologizes and tries to re-recruit him, apologizing for the mistake and promising to restore his salary. Also they want to fuck each other pretty badly.

This is good, it’s important to maintain high-quality employee relationships. Corporations are built by their employees, that’s who makes the products and makes the money. Hee-won knows this. I think his business will go far.

Overall Writing – C

Several odd mechanical errors and a slow pacing are nothing big but the dialogue and actions are pretty boring. People love their office romances I guess. Maybe just not for me.

Wrap Up

Okay we got some weird stinkers in here so it wasn’t a total bust. While I may not want to continue any of these stories in particular, at least Raccoon Gardening was fun and started with a bang. The other two were crawling over broken glass to reach a field of broken glass where the shards are smaller.