Hi Monica!

I'd better check if I posted anything nasty about editors and edit it

You and other posters advising the same are right. The reviews got to me. My language was always wrong. But, hey, they're going to say that anyway, so one may as well let rip.

Ages ago, a champion helper of writers called Ma, over at (am I allowed to mention?) MWC, told me as much. Then, I was assailed by it and was terrorists, who gunned me down as though the interjectives (or whatever you call them) were criminally blasphemous. I never quite recovered.

But I tried to follow your advice when I drafted my contest entry. Especially in the 1st person, the little words felt more natural (to me), so I left most of them in. After all, that's the way real people speak.

"Tell your tale to the end in terrible writing," said Ma. Like a sculptor, cut the whole shape out of the block, and then chip-chip-chip-chip until it looks like Marilyn Monroe

The only downside is, none of the chapters are ready for review until you've reached the end and edited, and THEN you find out you got other things wrong besides the style, grammar and typos. Then you have to start over and rewrite the whole darn thing