Writing a good short story and editing it using Grammarly.
I recently wrote a short story called He Touched Me as part of the #shortstorychallenge going around social networks like FB and Twitter.
It was just an idea and then fifteen minutes of my time.
Confession: I’d been having bus fantasy confessions and decided to push it out.
As it turned out, people enjoyed the story. 1000 views in two days.
MY PROCESS TO EDITING
When I want to punch out a story, I type in notepad where the spell check is off.
I can just focus on showing a great story to ready and not my Grammar Nazi Conscious kicking in and interrupting the process.
Afterward, I copied and pasted the story into a Word document.
(Don’t have Word? Google Docs has an awesome editor as well).
FIRST:
I use the word processor’s editor. I need it to check for the awful words.
SECOND
I turn on Grammarly. If you don’t subscribe to Grammarly, which I suggest any writer who’s dead serious about their career should, then you can go to their site and post up to 2000 words online and edit from there.
He Touched Me is about 2200 words, which is perfect for a short story.
THIRDLY:
I take it back through the word processor’s editor again.
Why?
Sometimes Grammarly and the word processor’s editor conflict and I make a decision on which one I trust. I do trust Grammarly more than the word processor’s editor most times.
This third step isn’t necessary, but if you’re OCD as I am, I just do it to see if I missed ANYTHING!
DONE:
I read the story once more and then I stop with trying to make the story perfect because I know deep down it cannot be accomplished.
I post it to my site, notify my social networks about three times that day and twice for the rest of the week.
The views came in.
SIDENOTE:
I should also note, I made the graphic for He Touched Me in Word. I found a simple picture and added words on top of it. 
Nothing complicated, but I love for each of my stories, long or short to try to have a cover so readers can relate to that story and not confuse it with another one.
I made sure at the end I let them know what other work is available by this author and to subscribe to upcoming work by this author.
I also put in a digital copyright signature:
He Touched Me (c) 2016 Sylvia Hubbard. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
OUTCOME:
My subscriber numbers increased, views increased on the site, and also I sold a couple of books.
For fifteen minutes of my time, a great editing process, I think that worked out awesome. Plus, I can still use the short as a beginning to another story down the line when I cry about I have nothing to write about.
I also added a guest post article, to which you are reading now, to help with the promotion of the short as well. Please let me know how you like the story. I would appreciate feedback and connect with me.
If you would like to read the story, just CLICK HERE.
http://sylviahubbard.com/2016/12/18/he-touched-me-shortstorychallenge-sundayshort-by-sylvia-hubbard/
Subscribe for updates, CLICK HERE
Related websites:
Social Media:
www.facebook.com/sylviahubbard
www.twitter.com/sylviahubbard1
www.instagram.com/sylviahubbard1
www.youtube.com/sylviahubbard1
www.periscope.tv/sylviahubbard1
www.snapchat.com/sylviahubbard
www.goodreads.com/sylviahubbard
www.amazon.com/author/sylviahubbard
By the way, you have my permission to repost this article in its entirety and if you could tag me on twitter that would be awesome!
Reblogged this on Motown Writers Network . . . Michigan Literary Network.