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Sorry for the delay. Here is day four of “All In the Summary” week. The name is actually in the title and not the summary, but that combined with the actual summaries contents made me decide to include it with this week.
TITLE: Eva Winters
PERPETRATOR: shadowkat678
SUE-O-METER:
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TITLE: Eva Winters
PERPETRATOR: shadowkat678
SUE-O-METER:
( Read more... )
Absolutely as writers we should be able to take critique and our feelings are our own, but for those who want to help young writers, I believe there are far more constructive avenus.
And yes I'm aware I said I wouldn't come back. But I'm now starting my fitrst actual novel, and thinking back on where I started was curious if you'd ever seen this.
I hope what I said makes some sense. It may have been that you were trying to help in your own way, I don't know. All I know is how long it took to get over this. Thankfully I kept going, and have taken out of this my own way of critiquing for others that I hope both aids them in seeing their flaws as well as encourages them, and lets them know just having a place to start is important and a huge step towards growth.
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I am personally hoping this isn’t the writer, particularly since they should not only be older and know better, but also because the commenter brought up the fact they are working on their first novel. What we do here in Pottersues is absolutely no different than the kind of critique a writer of original fiction would potentially receive. Critique focuses on the story, not the writer.
Or is the writer referring to the fact people commented on some of the things they publicly said, such as publicly claiming to their readers that the sixth chapter is where the story “gets good” and I refuted said claim.
Truth is, I never mocked the writer for saying what they did but pointed out what they said wasn’t true before actually bothering to give them a tip I thought might help them if they should ever find their story here. More importantly, the writer is responsible for the things they say and do, not us here on Pottersues, just as I pointed out the fact it’s not okay for the writer to blame the negative feelings which result from being critiqued on the writer of said critique. Critique stings because hearing the truth is hard, not because the person leaving the critique is being a meanie for saying the truth about the story. So, if it is the writer, time to stop passing the blame for ones own actions and ones own words onto those pointing out the issue with their own actions and ones words.
As for the blog being “made specifically to belittle mostly beginning writers”, that statement is erroneous. For starters, Pottersues, myself specifically, doesn’t target beginning writers. I don’t even know what stage the writer is at until I actually pick the entry out for the given day. Second, most of the writers featured couldn’t be considered beginning writers. Third, lumping all beginning writers together majorly belittles the beginning writers featured here who’ve managed to achieve something amazing and unexpected in their story regardless of the rating. Not only does being a beginning writer not get a writer a pass, but by arguing that the blog shouldn’t ever feature beginning writers it means those beginning writers who’ve managed to achieve something amazing can’t be featured here like the more experienced writers who’ve done the same.
Personally attacking the writer has always been against the rules on this blog. No, as
I’ve said that doesn’t mean not calling the writer out on factual inaccuracies, nor does it include critiquing the work. It involves things like telling a writer to never write again, telling the writer they should go die, mocking the way the writer looks, etc. If this is the writer, they've still room to grow if they're still blaming the reviewers for how they felt regarding the critique they received, let alone if they think it is okay to label something as being "publically mocked" simply because their feelings got hurt, but that attitude won't go over well if they really are aiming to publish an original novel.
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In fact, one of the things I've discussed with others who do writing outside of just fanfic is how there is this poor attitude towards critique that someone demands that fanfic writers, beginning writers, young writers, etc, etc, etc, have some kind of exception for them only for my fellow writers with no experience to be completely floored. Not only did the fanfic writer make the decision to become a published writer, which one does simply by making their writing public in any manner and thus opening themselves up to criticism, the actual critique fanfic writers complain so much about is super mild to the actual critique a writer doing academia or professionally publishing their non-fanfiction works of fiction would recieve.
Let me repeat. It is mild in comparison, so if something which is one of Pottersues more mild reviews upset the writer so much that they almost quit writing, what's going to happen when they actually publish their first novel? This isn't to say the writer should stop writing, but more of that they should seriously consider whether publishing is the thing for them.
To me, if this is the writer, for like Pottersues I hope it isn't, they're still in need of a major reality check.
As for the commenter suggesting Pottersues specifically aim their reviews specifically at "beginning writers" and "young writers", the point of this blog is to discuss Mary Sues in a critical manner so it's never been intended for a "beginning writer" given the fact they'd logically not be aware of a lot of the lingo we use here, but Pottersues shouldn't be expected to explain this lingo every single blog entry. No, the "beginning writer" is expected to learn the lingo themselves, but this is why we don't link writers here as there are writers who this level of in depth critique will go over the heads of.
As for sparing young writers, I find it interesting that the commenter talks about belittling beginning writers, but they then go about talking about how there are supposedly better ways to deal with young writers. Which, by the way aren't the same thing because there are actual adults who are beginning writers, while some young writers have written longer than some adults. What's belittling is thinking that young writers should be treated differently particularly when so many young writers find themselves fighting ageism in fandom regarding their abilities. By this I mean they're dismissed as being the capable writers they actually are simply because of they are young.
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I feel like writing is a bit more difficult than most imagine. I feel like too many people romanticize writing to be something that just about anyone can do if they simply have the passion. And many people seem to think that writing is a matter of whether you "got it" or you don't.
I used to write soft-worded, but thorough reviews. And even though many people PM'd to thank me and agreed with the points I made, many of those same people simply stopped writing altogether. Some even deleted their stories days or weeks after. I think no matter how one words a review, it's simply daunting to see someone write a whole page discussing your story's faults. I feel like the only way to spare someone this feeling is to outright lie to them. But at that point, it stops being a review.
I think that it also has a lot to do with how people hand out superficial words of praises and encouragement too readily. They get blindsided by critique.
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