I would definitely be up for this and would be happy for all my fic to be submitted and given concrit on. Like you, all my improvements in my writing skills have come about through the help of some really useful feedback. Because of the unspoken LJ rule "If you don't have anything good to say..." all the useful concrit I've received has been from my beta readers, most notably: ragdoll987, rhaegal and garryowen who are all excellent writers in their own right. But I would love to spread the net further
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When I receive feedback, I tend to take into account several factors. If the giver is right or wrong. I'm not a saint, I write OOC stuff and use plot convenience devices a lot. If a reader points out some such thing, I usually think, 'Yeah, he/she's right, but I'm too lazy/unwilling/whatever to change it, so.' I usually say as much, too.
It gets interesting though when the reader is wrong. Because people are wrong as often as they are right, sometimes they dislike something because of purely personal reasons, or don't udnerstand something because they're not as familiar with the characters as the author is. Sometimes people are just wrong, particularly when it comes to interpratation of facts, speculations and extrapolations of what a character would or wouldn't do. If I were to take that personally, I'd stop writing altogether.
I had to look up 'erstwhile.' ;)
I'm mulling on it. There has to be a way of being honest without giving offense.
There has to be a way of being honest without giving offense. Can I make you go and steal something. Can I make you feel depressed? The answer to both of those is, no I can't. The choices for both are yours. I can suggest you steal and I can say things which may lead you to feeling depressed, but I can't MAKE you do anything
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*shudders* I don't think I'm going to be using that one any time soon... :D
As for the readers being wrong, I was talking more of fact-based comments. Or, more often not fact-based. E.g. when someone's suggesting something that couldn't possibly happen within a strict military system of any fleet, Starfleet included. The thing is, this is a sci-fi terrain, by definition, a world of fantasy. So people tend to forget that even in this universe, there are established facts which the authors use in their work.
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It gets interesting though when the reader is wrong. Because people are wrong as often as they are right, sometimes they dislike something because of purely personal reasons, or don't udnerstand something because they're not as familiar with the characters as the author is. Sometimes people are just wrong, particularly when it comes to interpratation of facts, speculations and extrapolations of what a character would or wouldn't do. If I were to take that personally, I'd stop writing altogether.
I had to look up 'erstwhile.' ;)
I'm mulling on it. There has to be a way of being honest without giving offense.
Or maybe not. >.<
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As for the readers being wrong, I was talking more of fact-based comments. Or, more often not fact-based. E.g. when someone's suggesting something that couldn't possibly happen within a strict military system of any fleet, Starfleet included. The thing is, this is a sci-fi terrain, by definition, a world of fantasy. So people tend to forget that even in this universe, there are established facts which the authors use in their work.
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