Do as I say, not as . . . I do?
We‛ve all seen it happen: almost every time somebody rants about bad spelling or bad grammar in fic, the rant itself is littered with misplaced modifiers, subject/verb errors, and enough spelling mistakes typos to sink the Titanic, twice over. Sometimes people are inclined to excuse these posts because it‛s clear that the poster was a bit . . . well, let‛s say "agitated" when s/he posted, and if s/he‛d taken a couple of deep breaths before hitting the send button, most of those mistakes would have been spotted and fixed (...although, honestly? I‛m not sure I see any substantive difference between writing mistakes that are the result of anger/disgust/annoyance, and those that are the result of Giddy Beta-less Fic-Writer Hysteria).
The thing is, this general syndrome - does it already have a name? - is carried over into all areas of [fannish] life.
And we all do it. We complain about people attacking our fiction preferences one week (because "it‛s fiction, not real life"), then go ahead and attack someone else‛s fiction preferences the following week because if someone‛s writing about it, they must be a child molester/nazi/rapist. We talk about how mean certain people are . . . using the meanest and most accusatory language possible. We roll our eyes at "kids" who use netspeak, while seeing nothing wrong with our own supposedly ironic uses of "OMGWTF!" or "ph34r my l33t skiLLz." We decry bad characterizations and MarySue/GaryStu original characters in the fiction we‛re reading, and somehow forget that story we wrote last month where Snape was wearing a pink tutu and distributing flowers with Starlight Ravenfeather.
Is this a post asking why "can‛t we all get along?" Hell no. Because (1) hah! As if!, and (2) see #1. It‛s just that sometimes it drives me a little crazy to see the number of people ranting about things that they do on a regular basis.
Of course, I fully expect my next entry to be about people who start stories and never finish them, so that people can point fingers at this entry and mock me. *g*
The thing is, this general syndrome - does it already have a name? - is carried over into all areas of [fannish] life.
And we all do it. We complain about people attacking our fiction preferences one week (because "it‛s fiction, not real life"), then go ahead and attack someone else‛s fiction preferences the following week because if someone‛s writing about it, they must be a child molester/nazi/rapist. We talk about how mean certain people are . . . using the meanest and most accusatory language possible. We roll our eyes at "kids" who use netspeak, while seeing nothing wrong with our own supposedly ironic uses of "OMGWTF!" or "ph34r my l33t skiLLz." We decry bad characterizations and MarySue/GaryStu original characters in the fiction we‛re reading, and somehow forget that story we wrote last month where Snape was wearing a pink tutu and distributing flowers with Starlight Ravenfeather.
Is this a post asking why "can‛t we all get along?" Hell no. Because (1) hah! As if!, and (2) see #1. It‛s just that sometimes it drives me a little crazy to see the number of people ranting about things that they do on a regular basis.
Of course, I fully expect my next entry to be about people who start stories and never finish them, so that people can point fingers at this entry and mock me. *g*