Topher Phaestus: Man, rejection is hard. I'm on my fourth rejection letter now. I keep thinking it'll get easier, but it really doesn't. |
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Topher Phaestus: I've been thinking about the classes FS offers. Can anyone tell me about their experiences with them? |
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Topher Phaestus: I don't get people who, upon receiving a review, come back with things like "it made sense to me", "everyone else liked it", or "well, if you can't understand it, why did you read it". If I'm telling you that something is off, it's because I read it and something was off. I'm a reader of your work. If I'm telling you something, it's in your best interest to listen. I could be wrong, but I might also be raising the flag you need to look at it. Defending yourself doesn't make you more right. It just proves you're stubborn. Or when they say, "Well, I only had so many words" or whatever. If you can't fit what you're trying to say within the limits of the form, maybe you should say something else. You don't pack your clothes into a suitcase that's too small. Don't try to pack your words into a form that's too small. Or the "I'm just writing this for myself". Then why'd you put it up on a site that encourages critique? Honestly, if you didn't like my review, just say thanks and move on. It's actually, literally in the site rules to do that. Ask for as much clarification as you want, but don't argue. |
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Topher Phaestus: Stupid holidays. Make my life all hard and busy. Good problems to have, I guess. Happy to have time to write again. P.S. I totally won Nano. Go me. Now to edit that mess. |
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Topher Phaestus: Today, I'm hoping to get caught up to where I should be. Yesterday, I ended with just shy of 200 short of goal. I've written over 6k words in the last two days to get caught up. Hopefully, I can do that again and get a little ahead of the game so I can go back to doing normal life stuff along with my nano. |
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I hope you're doing well. - | |
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Topher Phaestus: So, Nano is kinda giving me trouble. I seem to be a little MIA for now. |
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WOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA--ONE AMERICA!!! :))) - | |
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That particular character, Tamara, is there because she always trusts the wrong men, and now she's falling for Lucifer. It was also, sadly, cut out of the movie, but it plays during the closing credits. - | |
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Topher Phaestus: You know what really gets me about horror movies? No one ever wipes blood off their faces. They just walk around with it dripping all over them, or with their face just covered in it. If it were me, I'd have blood all over my sleeves and shirt, probably even pants, but I don't think I could deal with my face being all sticky for hours. Then again, I can't even handle wearing make-up. |
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I was like, "Finally! A guy who knows what kind of movie he's in!" - | |
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I didn't like any of the Paranormal Activity movies. :( I'm a curmudgeon like that. Thank you, Real! And it really does drive me crazy. No one would do that. Everyone I know would wipe that stuff off. - | |
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Topher Phaestus: Please, calm down everyone. I don't know why so many think I want to ruin their day. |
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:~) - | |
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Topher Phaestus: I used to hate haikus (haiku? What's the plural form?). I hated them so much that this is what I turned into to my creative writing teacher when we were assigned to write one: I dislike haiku it's not really poetry when it's a word game The short amount of time I've been on here has made me realize something. All poetry is a word game. And when someone hits that right combination of syllables and sounds, it's brilliant. Even in a haiku or a six word poem there's a crazy amount of beauty to be shared. |
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Topher Phaestus: Woo! Achievement unlocked: Win a user created contest. Thanks, guys! But did you read the other entries? We had some pretty great ones. |
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Woohoo--congrats! :)) - | |
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Topher Phaestus: I don't understand some people's reactions to reviews. Why would you put your work up on a site that promotes critique to help you get better if you have no intention to change a thing? And why would insult the people that take the time to read and go over your stuff? |
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Red, I already had to once. The others I've noticed aren't really insults, per se. Just a little rude. I've gotten some critiques that raised my hackles, but I've tried to always follow the rule of not defending my work. I have to remind myself that if the reader is having trouble, I may not have made my point clearly enough. Rather than defend it, I should fix it. Unless I think they're wrong (which I have a couple of times). In which case I thank them and don't take their advice. But responding with snark just seems ridiculous. - | |
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Two things seem to happening here. One, yes, I know you reviewed one of my poems harshly. I read your review, as I read them all. The issues you had with it were things I wanted to keep. I thanked you for the review and moved on. Other poems and prose I have people have commented on and I've changed a lot. Entire stanzas, in fact. The second thing is this... my own writing has no bearing on my reviews. I don't have to be good at singing to know if someone else is. I don't have be a game designer to know if a game is crap. I don't have to be a great writer to know if something is wrong in a piece. It sometimes helps, but it's not necessary. I don't understand why you would bring the quality of my writing into a discussion about how people receive reviews. I do practice what I preach. I write, I read, I change the things that I agree need to be changed, and I'm always polite to reviewers. - | |
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I've been playing around with ways to make reviews easier to read. I hadn't realized you copyrighted the arrow method. My bad. I think I lot of editors who actually get paid for their work and don't write would object to your claim that writing plays into reviews. I may have gone to public school, but I assure you I graduated. And I'll admit to community college rather than something fancy. But, one of my proofreaders majored in English and graduated with a 4.0. I think it's a bit hyperbolic for you to insinuate my work resembles that of a 3rd grader. I read your work. It was pretty good. I didn't review it. And don't worry, I won't. I don't know how perception often being reality has anything to do with push-back on reviews, but I have looked at my methods and I'm making an effort to temper my bluntness with a bit more sugar. We all have things we're working through. I never said anything about being perfect or even better than anyone. I was simply making a comment about being surprised at how some people reacted. Since I've never reacted to you with anything but politeness, I'm still not sure why you've apparently decided to talk to me as I were beneath you. Because I'm not. And neither is anyone else. - | |
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Eliza, that's sad to read. Please don't be put off by a few negative responses. I promise there are lots of us here who will discuss openly, take constructive criticism, and don't believe that everything we write is worthy of the Booker Prize. Stick with it, please! - | |
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Mark, that's not what you were saying. But it's okay. I don't know you, I won't be one of your reviewers, and you probably won't be one of the people I'm writing for. It's okay. And the picture? It is, in fact, me standing on a dog house, trying desperately not to fall as I pretend to play guitar. I can see how you'd be confused though. I'm not particularly blessed in the mammary region. - | |
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Makinghismark, I don't teeter between security and arrogance. I live in insecurity and use arrogance as joke alongside self-deprecation. I'm a riot at parties. Just ask my mom. I use the criteria given to me by the site: Six Stars (Exceptional: Simply Outstanding) Five Stars (Excellent: Enjoyable and no revisions needed) Four Stars (Good: Adjustments needed) Three Stars (Below average) Two Stars (Below Average: Needs lots of work) One Star (Poor: Major revision required) - | |
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I gave someone four stars one something the other day, told them about how much I liked the poem, pointed out of a couple of issues, and they responded by telling me I should quit writing because I suck. And then went and gave me some bad reviews (good star ratings though, weird, huh?). I reported that person because I don't think it's okay to bully people like that. I've gone back and changed my star rating after having dialogues with several writers and working with them to fix the issues. They reacted well. But there also seem to be some who do the opposite. It's them I don't get. It's not hard to just say "thank you" and move on. - | |
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When I was in writing workshops all the time, we had two rules: (1) The work and the author are separate. Someone critiquing the work should direct all of their criticism at the work, leaving the author out of it. This is a direct effect of the Death of the Author movement in literary criticism, where the author no longer matters in the interpretation of a piece; what matters more is its substance and sociohistorical context. So we should be able to receive criticism openly and without hurt feelings because our work, when we click the "submit" button, is no longer our own. It belongs to the context within which it was created, and its substance and soul are its own. (2) If you don't have something nice to say... Every criticism should start by saying something positive. Nothing in the world exists without some merit. Even the worst, most poorly crafted work of literature has something worthwhile in it. We must assume that our fellow authors are not stupid and that they pushed "submit" because they thought something about what they wrote was worth sharing. We should find THAT thing first, and then we are free to indulge our red pens in to whatever extent we choose, so long as we remain CONSTRUCTIVE while we do it. - | |
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Boy, I'm completely off your original subject. Thanks for humoring me. Guess I should sleep now. - | |
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Did you realize my deceased brother was bipolar and I don't appreciate these comments. - | |
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Topher Phaestus: Does anyone else find it interesting that when you enter a "blind" contest, it strips all identifying information of the story page, but if you happen to look at someone's profile you can see the entry right there? I feel a little like I accidentally cheated. |
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It's not a time for my thoughts on the person to come into play. It's not even about my thoughts on the subject matter (unless it's important for a contest). It's about the quality of the storytelling. - | |
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Topher Phaestus: I love rock and roll more than I love you. |
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Nhala, I'm on to Guild Wars 2 now with my MMO's. I love the Secret World, but it was kinda too short. I'm not supposed to beat an MMO my first month of playing. Always awesome to meet a fellow gamer. :) - | |
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thought you might dig this, from actual WoW players... I've heard good things about GWars, never tried it myself. I really like the Elder Scrolls series and Baldur's Gate 2 etc. - | |
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