Some days, it just takes one comment for everything to dovetail right into each other, and make a lot of things snap into place mentally for you
( Read more... )
Oh man... I'm one of those people who leaves loooong and usually detailed comments of concrit. And, yeah, I can see how that might be intimidating! But honestly, really-o truly-o, all it takes is an opinion. We've all got those.
It takes an opinion and the willingness to share it. Opinions are valuable! "This sentence really hit me hard. I got emotional at this point" or "I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be laughing here, but I was. It wasn't scary" are important things for a writer to hear if they want to improve. Now getting into the *why* of it not being scary or it having a big impact or whatever is harder, but anyone can do it with practice, I'm convinced.
And the more you do it for other people's work (even if you don't share - but sharing is great!) the easier it becomes to do with your own stuff. I tend to shelve things for months at a time and then come back to them and go "oh... yeah... I was trying for comedy and this just doesn't work, does it?" or whatever.
Also, it's one thing to have gatekeepers as judges (meep!) and quite another to have them as the arbiters of who gets to play at all. I'm really happy it's an open contest. It's waaaaay more fun that way! Plus, it's hella fun improving and watching everyone else growing and changing too.
I agree with you re: gatekeepers as arbiters. If there was a minimum "you have to be this good to get in", I don't think I would have played in Season 8, let alone this season. :)
Your concrit for my Killing Floor piece was sensitive, and at least let me consider what you were saying rather than "Augh! Everyone hates this piece!" Which is my knee-jerk reaction to criticism.
I wish it weren't, but my mother found flaws in everything I did-- everything-- to the point where that feeling is kind of ingrained now.
Which is to say, tone very much matters!
And also the consideration that you're trying to work with the author's tastes and objective, rather than your own.
My beta feedback tends to be like that (and takes so much out of me, because I have to put myself in the writer's context first): how can I help the writer better do what he/she was trying to do? And keep it in his/her style?
Feedback of "I totally wish you'd written a completely different story" generally is not very helpful. Or, "Use this phrasing: (*stilted/loose/jargony/precious style that in no way matches the rest of the piece*)"-- that might be what you would write, but the author is not you.
How can you make the author's piece more "them"?
ETA: Holy shit, why did LJ randomly select the "Yay-kitty" icon instead of my default? Wait-- I'll bet it's a side-effect of whatever took the site down yesterday. :O
ETA2: LJ, why must you always interpret my side-carets? Sometimes a caret is just a caret, not HTML code. :(
It takes an opinion and the willingness to share it. Opinions are valuable! "This sentence really hit me hard. I got emotional at this point" or "I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be laughing here, but I was. It wasn't scary" are important things for a writer to hear if they want to improve. Now getting into the *why* of it not being scary or it having a big impact or whatever is harder, but anyone can do it with practice, I'm convinced.
And the more you do it for other people's work (even if you don't share - but sharing is great!) the easier it becomes to do with your own stuff. I tend to shelve things for months at a time and then come back to them and go "oh... yeah... I was trying for comedy and this just doesn't work, does it?" or whatever.
Also, it's one thing to have gatekeepers as judges (meep!) and quite another to have them as the arbiters of who gets to play at all. I'm really happy it's an open contest. It's waaaaay more fun that way! Plus, it's hella fun improving and watching everyone else growing and changing too.
Reply
I agree with you re: gatekeepers as arbiters. If there was a minimum "you have to be this good to get in", I don't think I would have played in Season 8, let alone this season. :)
Reply
Guess who volunteered to be one of the people deciding that? ;)
Reply
I wish it weren't, but my mother found flaws in everything I did-- everything-- to the point where that feeling is kind of ingrained now.
Which is to say, tone very much matters!
And also the consideration that you're trying to work with the author's tastes and objective, rather than your own.
My beta feedback tends to be like that (and takes so much out of me, because I have to put myself in the writer's context first): how can I help the writer better do what he/she was trying to do? And keep it in his/her style?
Feedback of "I totally wish you'd written a completely different story" generally is not very helpful. Or, "Use this phrasing: (*stilted/loose/jargony/precious style that in no way matches the rest of the piece*)"-- that might be what you would write, but the author is not you.
How can you make the author's piece more "them"?
ETA: Holy shit, why did LJ randomly select the "Yay-kitty" icon instead of my default? Wait-- I'll bet it's a side-effect of whatever took the site down yesterday. :O
ETA2: LJ, why must you always interpret my side-carets? Sometimes a caret is just a caret, not HTML code. :(
Reply
Leave a comment