weather, birthday, criticism, brains

[flambeau]

It's very hot today, with a bunch of clouds hanging around looking as though they'd rather be off somewhere else, raining. The sweetpeas are in bloom, finally, and smell wonderful. Possibly they are celebrating elynross's birthday, yay her.

Lots of talk about concrit here and there, like summer reruns when you turn on the tv. synecdochic has a post here that's all

Comments

[synecdochic]

That's pretty much my attitude on concrit, too. Best Beloved got feedback last week or whenever for a seven-year-old story, telling her that the story was very good blah blah but it was the 'wrong' pairing and the wrong ending and she should change blah blah babycakes. That's kind of the point at which you say "Thank you!" and back away. *g*

[mickeym]

Dude. *boggles* wrong pairing?? Wrong ending?? Good lord.

OTOH, I got a comment on my big bang a couple weeks ago, where the reader started the comment with "I enjoyed your story, but I don't really like reading present tense." Which really made me want to ask why she read 45,000 words if she doesn't like that. I didn't, but I really wanted to. :P

[synecdochic]

Or, of course, the ever-popular "I liked your story, but you should fix the formatting."

[mickeym]

That was...odd. Huh. *shakes head*

[mickeym]

I don't like concrit, myself. Or well, I don't like it done in a public forum. Tell me about typos, sure, or if I got a birthdate wrong, or something like that. But if it's a (and I've had these recently, which is why they're fresh on my mind) bigger thing and you feel like you really need to tell me how/why it didn't work, or that I got something major (in you, the reader's, opinion) wrong...send me an email or a private message. Don't tell me in comments that you really liked my story, BUT _____________________. It kind of cancels out the positive, for me, anyway.

And hi! I've missed seeing you around :)

[flambeau]

Hi yourself! I'm trying to post more, although the weather is conspiring against me omg.

See, I think this is why it might be helpful if people make it clearer what they want, because people have such very different views on what makes them comfortable. Me, I'd much rather have people talk in public about what they didn't like about the story, ideally with someone who is not me *g* because I just don't have much to say back except, well, sorry to hear that, and that's probably not very satisfying as a response.

[elynross]

*smooooch* fnu!

[flambeau]

Happy birfday, elynperson! I hope it's an excellent one.

Now I must brave the weather to find food-like items. Is there something I can get for you? (With mint in?)

[elynross]

Oooh, there's this medieval minty drink I can't remember how to make that's v. refreshing!

Then you should come and help me bully mary into watching Avatar! She's all "but then it will be over!"

[flambeau]

Well, I'm trying. But until provided with recipes, will stick to refreshing minty drinks that I actually know how to make.

[twistedchick]

I've gotten into the habit, over the past umptymumble years, of sending concrit by email rather than in a comment. Why embarrass the author in public by pointing out that she misspelled the name of the university in several ways? Concrit as part of the beta process is fine. I'm not so fond of what Synecdochic considers to be reviews that are actually not so much reviews of a story but head games; that's one of the reasons I have not put more long stories online for nearly a decade now, and have seriously considered taking down everything I ever wrote.

[flambeau]

I don't really have strong opinions about corrections of that kind in public vs. in private; I can see why you'd do it by email, and I know some people make a comment and then delete it so others can't see it but the poster still gets it, which also seems very considerate. I didn't even think about the fact that a comment would be public when I wrote that bit, although I suppose it would feel a bit disheartening to have the very first comment on a story be something about how I obviously cannot spell. Actually I haven't really sorted out my feelings about this whole public feedback thing either, after however many years on lj.

I'm not sure what you mean by head games when it comes to reviews. I'm sorry to hear you've come to feel uncomfortable about posting your stuff online, though.

[twistedchick]

I'm not sure what you mean by head games when it comes to reviews.I don't consider them reviews -- because when I was writing book reviews for newspapers, if the author wanted to offer an alternative view or talk about how or why something was done the way it was, the author was welcomed, as another voice who could shed light. Not as 'the authority', but as someone who might have something to say about her work

[flambeau]

Yeah, I can see that. And I have such mixed feelings about this - not the specific incidents you talk about, which I don't think I'm familiar with, but the conflict between talking about stories and people getting hurt by it.

Cause I'm all for talking about stories, freely and frankly, and personally, yes, I'd rather the writer stay out of some of those conversations, including cases when the writer in question is me. I think the cutting board had the policy of not letting writers comment on discussion of their stories because then it would seem like they were correcting a test or something, giving the right answers, and that would give all the power and authority to the writer. Whereas for a writer getting their work discussed, it would seem that the people doing the commenting had all the power and were speaking with an authority the writer felt those people didn't have, shouldn't or couldn't have.

I commented to synecdochic that she was welcome to use my stuff for sample crit, and even though I volunteered, and also don't think she'll

[kestrelsan]

I wish more people would point out typos and weird spellings, because I end up finding them months later when I reread the story, like my underwear's been hanging out the whole time *g*. Then again, I rarely point them out to other people, not knowing how they would respond; it does feel a little ungracious, and it brings up all the difficulties of not really knowing someone, or not knowing if you're sharing the same rules and norms

[flambeau]

Fandom! Totally weird

[kestrelsan]

But when people usually speak of stories and comment on them in hyperbolic terms, "I quite liked this" becomes a hard comment to make, let alone "I quite liked this, but-"

Yes, this--I'm guilty as both a commenter and writer, because I'd think twice about commenting with, "it was a pleasant way to spend an hour," even if that's the most accurate description. So most times I don't feedback at all in those instances, because as a writer, I can't say that *getting* that kind of feedback wouldn't be a little...deflating. Which seems messed up *g*.

I do think LJ's changed the nature of commenting, where reading comments can be part of the the whole story experience. I guess that's where the social aspect bleeds into the, I don't know, individual consumer aspect?--a group interaction with a story rather than a personal one. For me, that kind of changes why and what I read, and to an extent why and what I write.

and when debate about a story erupts it tends to be more like an exploding pressure cooker kind of thing. Seriously! I think