On Writing and Creating in General... I Baked A Cake
It seems that in SHINee fandom there's been a little ripple of drama or debate about "constructive" criticism and writing and art and so on.
Let me just say that, yes, I believe that a writer should attempt to maintain a decent capacity for spelling, grammar, sentence structure and the like. Given that a lot of fan fiction is written, for whatever reason, in English - then yes I'm referring to English grammar, spelling, punctuation especially since I'll be talking about my own views on the above.
All "you" references are generic.
I also believe that writing is Art. Whether we give the word Art a capital or a lower-case, it's still art. Moreover, it's your creation. That also goes for whatever else you do that's creation. That can be baking a cake or drawing a picture, singing a song, making up a new dance or a joke... creating a flower arrangement or making jewelry. There are literally an infinite number of ways in which humans express themselves by creating something. And though they may be following a recipe in terms of baking the cake or a convention in terms of drawing or good advice in terms of making jewelry or building a house or whatnot... let's face it, we can always find someone more experienced to help us out with what we want to do... in the end, that creation is ours.
That cake is my cake. I baked it. Maybe I used more salt or more sugar or maybe I added fruit or a flavoring to that cake. Maybe I made it exactly to the recipe.... it's still *my* cake. We all know that five people can bake the same cake to the same recipe and each one will be slightly different. Whether some one else says this cake is better or worse based on their own criteria... in the end... what matters I feel, is that it's my cake. I baked it. I am offering it to my friends and family and even just passersby to enjoy and odds are... it'll taste good, even if I burned it slightly or it's a little lopsided or the frosting came out lumpy. If my cake is not to your taste, that's okay. You are free to leave the cake on the table... but good manners dictates one would at least appreciate that hey, someone baked a cake and offered a piece to passers by. You don't have to eat it or like it... but you know, respect the effort and generosity that went into offering it. Respect, by my definition, is to simply perhaps give a nod of thanks if that seems appropriate and pass on by. Say no, thanks for offering. It seems to me that generosity is a dying art in our world these days; and worse, appreciation for generosity is also almost unheard of. People are more likely to make fun of an imperfect cake rather than say, hey... that's pretty cool that you made that cake.
I'm using cake because all of us understand the concept of a yummy dessert that maybe we made for the first time or maybe we tried a new recipe. Usually the dessert tastes yummy whether it looks like the picture in the book or not... And think how hurt you can get if you offer the dessert to a friend or family member or a stranger at school and have them look at it funny or make a remark or refuse to try it in a hurtful way.
The same exact idea can apply to writing. Except... writing comes out of your head. It comes out of your soul. There's no template... there's no recipe for how writing should go aside from the basic tools of writing - punctuation, spelling, grammar. We could say these things punctuation, grammar, spelling are like the salt, sugar, flour of making the cake. They aren't the cake itself, merely the components of what will become the cake...
I know other authors out there have referred to their writing as their children or their art and I think those are both very valid and emotionally descriptive ways of talking about their writing. I have used similar words. But when I sat down to write this... what I feel about my own writing is that this is a part of my heart. This is a part of who I am inside. It's not hard, I feel, to read between the lines and understand the workings of my emotions and my being as a person. I feel too that emotions and feelings and soul and heart and art are not things that you can put in a box and say that anything that doesn't fit in the box is not good enough. And that's what some types of supposedly constructive criticism does. It says to me or to whomever its addressed, this very personal and intimate thing which you have shared with the world... is not good enough because it doesn't fit my criteria of good.
Let me be clear. If someone says to me... um, bb... I don't get why this person did this in this fic.... it doesn't ring true to me. That's one thing. I am always willing to discuss and debate and agree to disagree about the view of the character in the story. There are plenty of friends of mine who can attest to the fact that I do this all the time. In my case, especially, when we are talking about my interpretation of real people... I think certainly there's room for discussion over how I may see that person. It's true I try my best to make observations and base my interpretations on real facts as much as I can... but in the end... I can never really know.
Likewise if a comment points out a word that's misspelled or one that is used incorrectly, that's helpful because you can read your own words so much that you just miss things like that no matter how many times you go over it. I know I have trouble with transposition of words. I use one word that's similar to but not the same as the word I actually mean. The wiring in my brain misfires sometimes or something. So having that pointed out so I can fix it, I'm grateful and I'll say so. Hey Thanks for pointing that out. Same with punctuation and spelling. If you've read my fic you know that I love ellipsis. :D
Or, I got a comment once that said that my fic was "over wrought" ... That's not the exact word used because I'm not trying to start a drama over it. However, it really worried and bugged me and I went to various people asking them if they thought the comment was valid and if they thought I should be upset about it and so on and so forth. From the context of the comment, it was obvious that the reader was not intending anything negative and that this was just her thoughts on the fic. Yay that she shared her thoughts.
Eventually I came to the conclusion that a comment like that was like someone saying the spaghetti has too much salt in it. It's a matter of taste. And the fact that I the author have a different taste than a given reader.... that's okay too. And it's okay that the reader said so... because it got me to look at my fic again and consider whether I was okay with being "overwrought" if that's my style. And it is... that overwrought quality is part of what makes my fic mine and not another person's. So I'm okay with that.
However, if someone says to me... "Lol, this was so cheesy and lame and this character would never ever do that...".... What exactly in this sentence is constructive again?
My point in all this, I guess... is that there's a polite and respectful way to say something and there's a rude and unkind way to say it. There's a way to deal with things that are not to your taste or that even outright offend you without stomping all over someone's art and heart.
And yes, I realize we are not talking about the greatest novel ever written. Mostly we're talking about porn fic, smut fic...whatever. But in a sense, that's really where we reveal the most. How many authors do you know, for example, who have trouble writing het fic if they are straight or lesbian fic if they are lesbian etc... I can only speak for myself as to why that is... but for me, writing a het fic is just too personal. It's too difficult. It cuts even closer to the bone of who I am as a person. I become embarrassed at what I'm putting on the page in a way I never do with writing boys together. And you know... many, many, many authors who are now very famous began as fanfic writers. I only have to point to 50 shades of gray which is a best seller now... which I remember reading as a Twilight fic. It's an awesome story and I'm glad the author shaved the numbers off and rewrote it to publish it to share with so many people and I'm so happy for the authors success.
So you know... authors... remember that a criticism is really nothing more than a reader expressing they don't like lobster, however rudely they are saying it... and readers... remember that when you write a comment... in many ways you are treading on the writer's heart.
and now i'll shut up. *hugs*
ps, i has an ear infection again, bleh. can't see doc til tomorrow, le sigh