The Great Write Meme

[findmeakor]

Ok, so I thought it would be fun to do a little informal critique on each other's fiction. The idea stemmed from blessed_beast's The Icon Truth Meme, for icon makers.

THE GREAT WRITE MEME- Comment with your username, and those willing shall reply with thoughts on any fiction, fandom or original, that you compose. That means it does not make a difference what

Comments

[anonymous]

I have to agree with what many others are saying. And because so many others have already said this I would generally pass on by and assume you'd get the message, except that I was just paging through your LJ and noticed a post you made (not the one from the past couple of days) where you were really annoyed that people had been suggesting that you should give the beta process more attention. Now I understand that you might not want to hear that, but I was really surprised to see you saying you didn't think the criticism was warranted. Because we aren't just talking about a random comma here and there throwing people out of a story. I very nearly stopped reading your latest SGA fic midway through the first section because I was appalled by how many obvious errors there were. So much of it was stuff that a single pass through spellcheck would have caught. I understand that you write some really long stories and that it takes a lot of time and effort, but posting something with as many errors as I saw in your most recent fic really makes me as a reader wonder how much you care about the story if you're willing to give up on it before it's been polished.

[amireal]

So much of it was stuff that a single pass through spellcheck would have caught.

This is what confuses me, because I spellcheck. Constantly. I think maybe what I keep missing are the homonymns, either that or my dictionary got corrupted somewhere along the line.

Some stories get multiple pass throughs, and still look like they were unbeta'd. And beleive me that's very-- disconcerting.

As I said above, I have patience issues which I'm trying to work on, my current fics are coming along far more slowly for several reasons, one of which is my own purposeful slow down. It's not that I give up on it, it's that I-- well I honestly think (especially with the last one) that there are possibly a handful of errors left and that the fresh eyes of readers will catch them far more quickly.

As for the LJ post. I agree with the sentiment, just not the expression of thought.

[becky_h]

Corrupted dictionaries are miserable. Quite honestly the best, and probably only, thing I've found that improves my finished fic is to step away, and come back to it after at least 24 hours. I have a hard time with this, because I don't *want* to read through it once I've written it. The story's done. I don't want to do more.

This is largely why I haven't written anything longer than a few hundred words in the past... well, more than a year. Good luck with getting a grip on your impatience. It's a bitch.

[amireal]

Easier said than done. :) But I hear what you're saying.

[anonymous]

I agree with a lot of this - I also think you need to get a stronger beta. I know you posted recently jumping to the defense of your current beta, and that's admirable. But you also have to admit that most of the criticism that you've been getting deals with the same issues - things that a reliable and strong beta should be able to find and correct.

Your stories are interesting to me because they are some of the very, very few that I actually read (and read again and again and again) despite the glaring and multiple grammar/punctuation errors. I usually don't have the patience to slog thru a story that keeps throwing me out of the narrative with misplaced commas and random apostrophes and homonymn errors, etc. But yours are able to make me work thru those issues because your plots are strong, your characterizations are dead-on, and you have a great hand with dialogue.

I do disagree with the person who said you had an oversized ego. Yes, you have posted rants and bitchfests on your LJ in the past, but overall I've taken those more as you just venting in general. Not being a writer I can't even imagine how difficult it must be for you to create a story and have dozens of people trample all over it. I do hope you will take my advice as it's meant - a way to get even better. Because honestly, if you had a stronger beta and dealt with the grammar/punctuation problems, you'd give every BNF out there a run for their money.

[amireal]

*grins* Agree, agree, agree.

Actually part of it is my own impatience, really. I rush and I push and I don't send back for revisions and I don't find second betas sometimes. Before I completely give up on my current ones I should, you know, impliment these other things too.

Thank you for the ego comment. Yes, really, you've got it right for the most part. Thank you for the lovely advice, I know exactly how you meant it, there was absolutely no malice felt at all. Your post is the sort of comments I was talking about in my LJ, or rather, not talking about.

Thanks again!