I've already learned my lesson with these girls: They don't want critic. They want praise - and the entire board works in the "if you praise mine, I will praise yours" way. Disturbing the cosiness of this "aren't we all great writers"-circle isn't seen as "nice" and certainly isn't appreciated.
Yet being already known for being a rather rude person I just couldn't resist joining you. Although I don't believe in getting the kids serious about their writing anymore and have given up hope that they grew out of their "If I feel like that, everyone should feel so too" attitude - I just remembered the old saying "silence gives consent" - and to a plea for avoiding critic I certainly won't give my consent.
The author has read your opinion, offers her own opinion and says that, although she appreciates your honest criticism, she is content to keep her story as it is. I didn't feel her response was particularly defensive or immature - indeed, it's a lot better than some I've seen - but perhaps that's just my interpretation.
This whole 'writers should be prepared to accept criticism' interests me a great deal. I certainly agree that writers who aspire towards making a career out of it and/or those who wish to excel should always be open to feedback. It is, as Max says very well, pretty much an essential part of improving your writing.
But what about those who write for pleasure? Should they be expected to behave in the same way? Is it necessary - and indeed healthy, even - for us to want to excel at everything we do?
I'd be interested to hear the points of view of adults on this topic, rather than the usual immature bickering.
If the author had only written the "this is what was in my head", followed by the "I'm happy with it" portions of her response, I would not have interpreted it as defensive or immature either. However, her inclusion of "other people said it was fine", and "this person interpreted it like this", tipped the balance toward defensiveness and immaturity for me. The many positive reviews of the story were all there for everyone to see, so to point them out came across to me as "all the others like it, so you must be wrong". I will say, though, that with one or two notable exceptions, the entire AD/MM community is undeniably the "kinder, gentler" side of HP fandom
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part 1 of a long rantmaexleFebruary 2 2005, 13:52:14 UTC
But what about those who write for pleasure? Should they be expected to behave in the same way? Is it necessary - and indeed healthy, even - for us to want to excel at everything we do?I actually think it is. Writing is dealing with language - and language is something one can't value enough. Language is the base of our civilization, language makes us able to communicate and language should be treated with the highest respect. Someone who writes (and/or speaks) slobbily, thinks slobbily too. And leading it to the extreme: Laziness in writing - expressed by the lack of complexity and subtlety, mostly stands for laziness it in thinking too
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Although the author did begin by explaining her thought process, the "other readers appreciated it" part came across as a bit whingey to me - kind of like "They all liked it, so what's your problem?" All you said was that her choices weren't plausible in the context of her own story. Yet almost all of the respondents seemed to take that as an attack on her choices, when you made it perfectly clear (at least to me) that credibility was the actual issue. The first few sentences of your response seemed a bit strongly worded, though. Not rude, certainly, but conveying more annoyance than the posts you were responding to seemed to warrant. Am I to deduce from this and from Max's post that there is a history of negative reviews being discouraged in some way on that board?
Yes and no. Let's say so: Doing a rather critical review in the AD/MM fandom normally gets one ignorance which sometimes looks rather alike to sulking (I remember one writer's duo I gave twice times one of these "Your story's great, but just because it's so fine I'd like you overthink a point in it [followed by a description why I wasn't happy about this certain point]"-review. In one case my "point" was a tipp about European manners, in the other it was a clue to a flaw in the plot. In both cases I never got an answer and it become even better: As I approached once a chat room one of this duo was in, the person in question ignored me for five minutes. As I directly asked her if she'd have a problem with me, she disappeared without answering my question). And if you get to hear something critical about your story, it's almost always done in a pm. So the kiddies obviously see critical reviews as "rude". The reactions to my statement on the board are a further proof of that, aren't they? No one answered - except of the very young and
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Comments 9
I've already learned my lesson with these girls: They don't want critic. They want praise - and the entire board works in the "if you praise mine, I will praise yours" way. Disturbing the cosiness of this "aren't we all great writers"-circle isn't seen as "nice" and certainly isn't appreciated.
Yet being already known for being a rather rude person I just couldn't resist joining you. Although I don't believe in getting the kids serious about their writing anymore and have given up hope that they grew out of their "If I feel like that, everyone should feel so too" attitude - I just remembered the old saying "silence gives consent" - and to a plea for avoiding critic I certainly won't give my consent.
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The author has read your opinion, offers her own opinion and says that, although she appreciates your honest criticism, she is content to keep her story as it is. I didn't feel her response was particularly defensive or immature - indeed, it's a lot better than some I've seen - but perhaps that's just my interpretation.
This whole 'writers should be prepared to accept criticism' interests me a great deal. I certainly agree that writers who aspire towards making a career out of it and/or those who wish to excel should always be open to feedback. It is, as Max says very well, pretty much an essential part of improving your writing.
But what about those who write for pleasure? Should they be expected to behave in the same way? Is it necessary - and indeed healthy, even - for us to want to excel at everything we do?
I'd be interested to hear the points of view of adults on this topic, rather than the usual immature bickering.
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