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[cleolinda]

I can't stop listening to the V for Vendetta soundtrack at this point, which makes this the second Dario Marianelli score in a row that I've gotten hooked on. I'm even to the point in my predictably cyclical obsessions where I would like to listen to something else, maybe some nice Garbage or at least something with guitars and maybe even some

Comments

[cleolinda]

No, I know what you mean. I didn't want to be too specific about the comment, but I've gone and frozen it now so people can't dogpile on it, and basically it said that the parody was "overlong and barely funny," or something along that line. I think "paraphrase of the whole movie" was involved as well. And I can look at that and go, you know, I actually was really worried that it was a bit bland and definitely too long, but there was a point where I had done as much as I could and had to set the thing free into the wild. The part that stung was the indignant tone, you know?

"You know, you could cut [this entire chunk] out and lose nothing" might sting a little bit, but it would also tell me something constructive.

[cleolinda]

See, exactly. I was shocked because there were a ton of things in V/15 that I wasn't all that happy with, but just didn't know what else to say, and people would then quote those parts back to me as their favorite lines. Like "the cheese then stands alone," which I thought was meh and random, or "zomg I just got that," or "does this mean there's a glitch in the Matrix," or whatever. And that's why I only ask for constructive criticism BEFORE I make something public, because I get people whose judgment I trust, and then I weigh their opinions with what I want to achieve with the thing. And if I feel like [this chunk in question] needs to stay, it stays, but if I think they're making a good point, I can take it out. But it's still my judgment at that point. Once you make it public, I feel, Happy Fun Constructive Time is over, because there's no way to make everyone happy.

And maybe weeks or months from now I'll try to revise it and think of something better, but at the moment, I was just like, "It's time to let go, just put it up."

[cleolinda]

Aww, thanks. Well, what I struggle with is that one of my goals is to write something that people who have not seen the movie can follow. Otherwise, you're limiting your audience, and tons of people say, "And now I really want to see the movie!" What you've then done is created a situation where you *can't* leave things out, or the storyline makes no sense. I could have left out just about every scene with Finch, as much as I liked him in the movie, and just focused on V and Evey and been perfectly content, but you need Finch for the actual mystery plot. You can get away with leaving out half of, say, Van Helsing, because that one doesn't make sense no matter what you keep in or leave out. ; )

[cleolinda]

Aww, thanks. But that's still no excuse for indulgent rambling, which does happen with me sometimes.

[lesamalie]

I had a staged reading of one of my plays the other week during Story Week, which is a big thing at my school and Chicago for writers, and I totally spazzed when I just got polite applause at the end. I don't know what I expected. I didn't even like how it was done but still...they didn't laugh where I wanted them too and they didn't seem to enjoy it as much as I did or rather as much as they were suppose to enjoy it.

But actually I talked to many of them later, and they liked it. Most everyone in fact and it got me another playwrighting gig. The worst moment was when someone told me that I needed to "finish it" but I thought I already had done that. But now I have something to work on and curse and slave over.

And I don't really know where I'm going with this other than, I get ya, Cleo.

PS I can't wait to go see V for Vendetta so I can read your m15m

[cleolinda]

You know, I hate that--I've had readings (not of Fifteen Minutes--of pieces you could actually read out loud) where people were very quiet, and only afterwards did I find out they liked it. Sometimes crowds are just quiet, and no one wants to make any noise because no one else is, and it's just the way it goes.

[lesamalie]

Well I think the worst thing was that before and after my play were plays that had everyone rolling in the aisles laughing. And while mine was going on, all I could hear was the scratches I was making on my notepad going "Wow, that was a dumb line." and "Maybe I should change majors.." But then maybe its just the writers craziness that keeps us away from actually calling our work good.

[tabbyclaw]

Sometimes crowds are just quiet, and no one wants to make any noise because no one else is, and it's just the way it goes.

I believe it was in Belgium that my French teacher once discovered this. She and her friends were quite bewildered to find themselves at a concert, in the middle of a crowd that was giving appreciative but politely reserved applause...to Whitesnake.

[pygmymetal]

Refresh my aging brain - were you reviewed in Empire? As I think that's a way better UK mag than TF.

[cleolinda]

I was! And I think it is too, which is why I was counting on getting a better review there, and then they BOTH gave me bad reviews.

[pygmymetal]

My bf is a scot and a writer and he says there are also differences in the way that writers write. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

[cleolinda]

Well, interestingly, Irish magazines/papers seemed to love it, while the Guardian was like, "Of all the books causing the decline of Western civilization, we can stand this one." So there may be something to that.

[wolflady26]

You know, another reason why some people might be over critical is that they love your previous work so much that they get bitterly disappointed if they don't love the new one just as much. It's a weird sort of backhanded compliment.

Think about it - if some yahoo on LJ posted something like your VFV summary, do you think he or she would get a lot of negative criticism? In the same way, if your all-time favorite writer writes something average, you probably think the book is awful, whereas if someone you'd never heard of before had written it, you might see the glimmer of talent shining through and think it was ok.

Because I can't be the only writer who feels such deep, crippling fear that she can't even open Word in the morning.

No, no you're not. I feel the same way far too often, and most of the time, it's not even motivated by a critic outside of my own head.