(no subject)

[bubosquared]

I've been writing since I was ten. I started out writing horrible little short stories and fairy tales. That was over a decade ago. I've been sharing my stories with the general public for a little over four years. I'm going to be snobbish and say that after all that time, I know a thing or two about wirting.

I think people should not be allowed to call themselves a 'writer' until they've learned to make the distinction between themselves and their stories, and between a critique and a flame.

I don't care how harshly a critique is phrased, or how hurt you are by it, if it's the truth, it had to be said. I don't really care if you're only 14 and this is your first story. If you're so sensitive about your story that you'd quit writing, or fandom altogether, because you're being told the truth, then maybe you shouldn't make the story public, or at least not ask for feedback. Feedback does not equal praise.

Joanne made the anology between writing and painting, and I think it's a good one. I'm goin to run with it now.

Assume your hobby is painting. Assume you're somewhat average at it. Not really bad, but not really all that good, either. So you paint happily away, in the privacy of your own home. Maybe every once in a while you'll show something to your friends. Your friends, being the polite, good friends that they are, will nod and say "Good, very good."

Now, say you're gaining confidence, and you're doing an exhibition. People come and watch your paintings. Maybe one of them'll be a professional critic. Chaces are at least some of them will be amateur critics, or people who just generally know about painting. Exhibition ends, people go home, and a few days later, there's a report in a local newspaper.

Imagine that tis report is a page-long, detailed explanation of everything you're doing wrong in your paintings. What do you do? You can call the reporter a bitch/bastard, or you can seriously consider the critique, but you can't claim the reporter shouldn't have said all that in public, that [s]he should've been nicer about it, bla bla bla. Well, you can, of course, but you're going to make a fool of yourself.

I don't see any difference between a writer and a painter, other than their medium. Writers are not porcelain dolls, people. We don't break from public critique. [And aside from that, the more public critique we see, the less mistakes we make to be critiqued.] I'm sick and tired of people treating writers like we're something spayshul, something to be revered above all else. For fuck's sake! Everybody's got a talent. Ours happens to be writing. That doesn't make us God's Chosen Ones or something.

Get over it. And all you writers who casually throw temper-tantrums because you're not getting enough feedback, or the wrong kind, and threaten to stop writing if people don't play nice, get over yourselves!

Comments

*sympathy pats*

[darthneko.livejournal.com]

This is a rant I occasionally feel the need to revisit myself (usually when people on one list or another start piping up and complaining about the lack of feedback). (and again with the double standard since I was just slightly bitching about a complete lack of locs in my own lj... but when I say "feedback" I don't mean the glowing praise that some people seem to want. I'd be just as happy if somebody said it was crap, as long as I knew it got read!)

People who threaten to stop writing or pull out of a fandom just because of feedback... it's stupid. I've been tossing my stuff out here on the net for going on six years now, and there's always going to be flames, or honest crit, or just somebody telling you "hey, you missed a comma here!" Some of it's helpful, some of it isn't, but none of it is a reason to go crying to mommy. You know what? The internet really is a big playground. And you play by gradeschool playground rules. Develop a backbone or get run over. >_<

Okay, end my addition to your rant. Needless to say, I agree with you. ^_^

Re: *sympathy pats*

[rsadelle]

there's always going to be flames, or honest crit, or just somebody telling you "hey, you missed a comma here!"

Where? This is part of my frustration with the attitude that crit and pointing out missing commas is bad and evil; I never get any of those kinds of things. With the exception of one e-mail that was so badly written that I couldn't really tell if she was saying she liked my story or not, every piece of feedback I've ever gotten has been of the "I liked it" variety. Sure, sometimes it's in more detail, but it's still never of the "I didn't like this" variety. I know I'm a good writer, but I'm not that good.

Re: *sympathy pats*

[darthneko.livejournal.com]

Well, I won't say I get it all the time, but I've had a few. I don't use a beta and I only remember to use a spellcheck half the time, so it's certainly justified. *g* The ones that crack me up are where they make a point of saying my spelling and grammar were good, when I know I forgot to run spellcheck and I'm staring right at a typo.

Getting an actual helpful LOC with criticism in it is few and really far between, though. I get alot more of the "Oh my god, why are you writing this @#$%%!???" where its obviously the slash itself they're objecting to and nothing in the actual story. >_

Re: *sympathy pats*

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

And you play by gradeschool playground rules. Develop a backbone or get run over.

I love this quote! Can I use it on the next obnoxious person, please?

Re: *sympathy pats*

[darthneko.livejournal.com]

ROFL! Take it and run, please! ^_^

Criticism doesn't suck half as much as I think it does.

[zero3kid.livejournal.com]

Criticism is something I've always had a problem with...I used to always take it as a personal insult, and make an ass of myself trying to defend my story and what little dignity I thought I had. Now, after learning a thing or two about writing, and seeing writers who know a thing or two *more* about writing than I do, I want to emulate them...now I'm seeking out critiques, not just glowing reviews or flames (which is why I don't write Digimon anymore, their audience doesn't know how to review). It still stings, especially when the things being pointed out are little details that I should have known, but slipped up on...still, now I know the difference between angry criticism ("Your story sucked, you got this-and-this-and-this wrong, and the time frame was all fucked up, didn't you do any research?") and a flame (nothing about the writing).

Re: Criticism doesn't suck half as much as I think it does.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

See, you learned.

I can forgive it in new writers, but there's people who've been in fandon longer than I've been, and they still act like this, and it pisses me off.

In case you hadn't noticed. <g>