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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If it's fic submitted voluntarily I don't really see the problem. The scary "concrit" communities I've seen are the involuntary ones, which tend to get out of hand.
If you're talking about Star Trek fiction though, I'll be surprise if there wasn't already a community for concrit. O_o There's one for Final Fantasy if I recall, and I (don't believe) it's as large a fandom (discounting maybe Japan? rofl).
May I? I believe that public concrit could go out of hand very easy. I think that a small circle of people willing to share honest opinions would be better. I know you can take concrit, and after giving it some thinking, you take it or you don´t. But most people writing on fandoms don´t really want it. They don´t want to write literature, they just want to have fun, share with other people with similar ideas. They wouldn´t want their fics to be subject of concrit. But others want to improve, or just know what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. They are the people who would like putting their fics and egos on the spot. Find them, share your thoughts with them. That would be rewarding.IMHO Anyway, you know I´m always willing to destroy the written word. On private.:D Speaking of, I had a flow on my storage room. Almost 300 books wet...History, literature, legal, sci fi....
You realize that when I'm queen of the universe I'm gonna change all that, right? Everyone will be taught how to give critique professionally and everyone will receive it in the spirit it was given -- to improve things. My only problem is: I don't know what to do till that day comes. *frowns* *studies her nails*
Your nails? No, they aren´t. They are doomed, my dear Queen of the Universe. :D OMG, now I have a picture in my mind...Flash Gordon singing...Flaaaaaash, a-aaaaaaa *wants to die*
Re: In that case who want to be my betaariadnechanSeptember 1 2010, 04:52:29 UTC
i think the problem is that we are not native english speakers!
I totes understand what you mean by this idea. i really want to grow as a writer and this is a good thing growing with something you like and cherish like this fandom, being better is always a must.
for me at least maybe for you too is really difficult to publish in my country i write poetry in spansih more than drabbles or short novels. But i like the genre and in spanish no one will read any of my fandom stuff because there is no more than handful of people who are fan of star trek in my country.
The grammar kills me, even the punctuation is totally different, but i want to be better and people could read my view of characters and story telling. maybe it isn't show too much but i write since before i could know to do it but in english i'm like a teen i suppose and i really would love to be better.
Re: In that case who want to be my betakianspoSeptember 1 2010, 08:33:16 UTC
i think the problem is that we are not native english speakers!
Well, as convenient as the notion is, I don't believe that's the problem here. ;)
I suppose I could write in Russian, but I don't want to, and I won't get into why, 'cause it's ancient history and not important. On the one hand, English is so much more simple than Russian as a language. It doesn't have genders, it doesn't have cases, a lot of words mean a whole spectrum of things -- which makes it difficult to translate into a native tongue such as mine, but easy to understand and use. On the other, the system of grammar is pretty alien to me, because we only have 3 tenses, not twelve or whatever, and we don't have articles at all, and -- I could go on
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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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If you're talking about Star Trek fiction though, I'll be surprise if there wasn't already a community for concrit. O_o There's one for Final Fantasy if I recall, and I (don't believe) it's as large a fandom (discounting maybe Japan? rofl).
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I know you can take concrit, and after giving it some thinking, you take it or you don´t. But most people writing on fandoms don´t really want it. They don´t want to write literature, they just want to have fun, share with other people with similar ideas. They wouldn´t want their fics to be subject of concrit. But others want to improve, or just know what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. They are the people who would like putting their fics and egos on the spot.
Find them, share your thoughts with them. That would be rewarding.IMHO
Anyway, you know I´m always willing to destroy the written word. On private.:D
Speaking of, I had a flow on my storage room. Almost 300 books wet...History, literature, legal, sci fi....
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OMG! Are they salvageable???
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I totes understand what you mean by this idea.
i really want to grow as a writer and this is a good thing growing with something you like and cherish like this fandom, being better is always a must.
for me at least maybe for you too is really difficult to publish in my country i write poetry in spansih more than drabbles or short novels. But i like the genre and in spanish no one will read any of my fandom stuff because there is no more than handful of people who are fan of star trek in my country.
The grammar kills me, even the punctuation is totally different, but i want to be better and people could read my view of characters and story telling.
maybe it isn't show too much but i write since before i could know to do it
but in english i'm like a teen i suppose and i really would love to be better.
Reply
Well, as convenient as the notion is, I don't believe that's the problem here. ;)
I suppose I could write in Russian, but I don't want to, and I won't get into why, 'cause it's ancient history and not important. On the one hand, English is so much more simple than Russian as a language. It doesn't have genders, it doesn't have cases, a lot of words mean a whole spectrum of things -- which makes it difficult to translate into a native tongue such as mine, but easy to understand and use. On the other, the system of grammar is pretty alien to me, because we only have 3 tenses, not twelve or whatever, and we don't have articles at all, and -- I could go on ( ... )
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