Re: Critique rules

ShellyS <shelly.s@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_H...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote:
ShellyS <shell...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

There are people like that all over cyberspace. They'll
give advice and you have the choice of how to react.

Saying that now isn't going to change what effect the WCH
had on you, or that a similar attitude killed my story.

No, of course not, but it gives me insight I can share with
others and hopefully, if possible, help them avoid the
frustration and discouragement.

True.

I'm not arguing it, just pointing out what happens. The
people who do this are right here, after all, still not
admitting to any of it. (Just ask them on one of the
subjects they do this, and they'll confirm that their way is
the only way.) That means they don't know what they're
doing, and the danger of doing the same thing to new writers
is still existent.

That hasn't been my experience here. Nor have I seen it. I
have seen threads reduced to political posturing and I ignore
those as soon as it happens.

They usually just bore me. :)

(snip)

I mostly posted such questions on AOL, not here, but the
few times I have here and most of the time on AOL, when I
did, I got both sorts of answers and enough of them were
helpful and sufficient to teach me all the stuff I've
already mentioned I learned about writing and dealing with
comments and critique.

While I'm no wiser about how to write better. (As opposed to
a regular here still claiming that you get better when you
write more; that's a lie.)

I don't know. It's worked for me. Practice usually helps you
improve.

It hasn't worked for me. And how could I improve, without
knowing how to do it better? I only know the way I do write. The
same words (growing less, if anything), the same ways to arrange
them...

At some point, that probably ceases and something more might
be needed.

Perhaps I started out at that point.

They don't need to know I don't take their advice. I don't
understand your analogy at all.

It's someone demanding that you do something utterly loony,
with no idea what he's talking about, and then someone else
saying it's rude to object to that.

Huh? Are they showing up at your door and waving something in
your face?

The usenet equivalent to that.

Are they threatening you until you comply?

The equivalent ("throw the book at the wall if <that> stays",
without anyone ever asking him to read it, at that).

If you think it's loony, ignore them.

I do that now. That doesn't mean it didn't happen, and the
person is still around, plus there was also the person who said
it's rude to object to it.

It's just a newsgroup.

And the newsgroup is where I speak about it.

And telling people their advice stinks does no good.

It wasn't advice. It was the demand to do something their
way, as that's the only way, with no knowledge of the
subject. (The one fact that was mentioned was ignored, after
all.)

Maybe they saw it as advice.

Then they could use a reality check, like telling them they're
wrong. They could, after all, run over some new writer like
that, and do real damage, without ever realizing their mistake.

I object to leaving people the illusion that they did something
good when in fact they did something very hostile and uncalled
for.

But I won't discuss something I haven't experienced here
because I read and participate in this newsgroup and I want to
keep things congenial.

If only some other people had the same opinion, but there are
regulars that like to make snide driveby comments, without ever
contributing anything.

--
Tina
Reading: Seasons&Elements 1, Controlled by Magic: 196614 words, at 32.38%
WISuspension: Magic Earth series
Posted to Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.composition.

.

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