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norcumiI think that one of the reasons that when I get depressed, I don't take much care of my personal hygiene is due to the simple fact that there's too damn much time to think in the shower. The rest of this post goes downhill from here, though there's probably not going to be any more mention of my hygiene, so take that however you'd like.
Today I was thinking about fic – the bit I posted earlier. One of the reasons I posted is due to the fact that it's WoW fic, and I would dearly love to post to a wider audience, but I refuse to let it out of my journal until it's done, dammit, 'cause otherwise the month(s?) long break between segments is a killer. I doubt even wildly enthusiastic responses to bits would overcome my exhaustion/inertia.
But I was thinking about trying to post it anyways, simply because it's Friday. Why the connection, you might very well ask? Because of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
wow_fanart's FanFic Fridays! Do you detect a saga? If not, buckle up or feel free to leave while the invective is cold (I won't feel offended, honestly!).
I like the WoW Fanart community. I get to see pretty pictures on a regular basis, and potential art commissions to lust after, and it makes me feel that I'm part of something. I keep seeing larger, busier communities (WoW Ladies is the one that springs to mind), but I don't want that much traffic on my friends page. This is fine. And when I first started lurking, there wasn't really any fanfic to be seen. That's ok, if I was in the mood to read more, I know how to use a search engine. Right around the time I actually joined, though, that changed.
No names shall be named. All opinions are mine, and it is thankfully unlikely that any of the relevant parties will read this journal/entry this far. So rant ahoy!
See, a very good author who I'd never heard of started posting an epic, every day of the week. It was good, solid writing, and guaranteed reading, though (as is often the case) never enough for my taste. I have a solid rule which I break to my chagrin FAR too often, which is don't start reading a series until it's done. Simple, right? Saves heartache and angst and impatience.
Doesn't always work. In this case the saga was well worth starting, and I greatly enjoyed it. But other writers saw that this was the new trend on the community, and at least one, who I am concerning myself with, saw a bandwagon to jump on. Now, one series, with regular posting rules, and when the author had asked on the first day of posting, “is this ok?”, is totally cool. When the other author started posting randomly, usually several times a day, with - well, let's get back to that. - without any plan or notion about anything, understandably several folks started to scream “spam!” Though when I stop and think about it, I suspect the second author also asked if it was ok, and again people indicated it was cool.
Disclaimer: I don't like second author's work. The writing is poor quality, badly punctuated, and the writer even declares that they don't know where the story is going, ha ha. Sigh. That's fine for your own journal, dear, don't inflict it on others until it's proofread, m'kay?
So the community finally said “we're about ART, [insert definition of ART here]”, and folks asked that Something Be Done About This. Second author decided folks did not like their fic due to homosexual elements (couldn't care less, IMO – it's still badly written), and made matters worse by making a pointless Author's Note post (on a community?? Um... Bad Idea? I'll admit I don't know much about the protocol, but gods know I always cringed when I felt I had to do such things in the Garg Fic Archive, and the noxious ones that were FAR more common about the time I gave up were so far out of hand, lord knows I did a damn ranty/rebuttal post about it – which I still can't figure if it's too damn ironic or whatall). Anyway. There was much debate. Opinions were polarized, often into camps of Fic Fans, People With Issues With second author, and Come On People, You Have Filters Use 'Em!
My biggest fear, however, was the mod's threatening to delete old fic. Not that I'd posted any, just that I have a horror of wiping history away in the fashion that the internet is so good at. Not just the posts – sure, First Author had alternate posts in their journal, but – the comments? The views? These are still a part of the community's shared history, and we want to pretend wiping the slate clean is going to help anything? Meh. There's a whole other rant here that I shall pass on, in order to hopefully get to the point I originally wanted to make.
In the end, sense prevailed (...kiiinda), in that the mods made a second community for fic (which I still boycott, since I'm silly that way), and allowed fic to be posted on Fridays. I feel good in that I made sure to post that first Friday, which is a remarkable political statement for me (for the curious, it was a slightly edited for typos version of Runeforging, which is totally NSFW, if you haven't run into the thread, in which case I direct you here).
But we have the right. I should exercise it, dammit. I'm not really an artist, much as I have pretensions on occasion. And that is what I wanted to address. Y'see, in my head (back in the shower, as mentioned waaaaay earlier in the post), I was addressing the second author. Imaginary conversations are my bread and butter, after all. There were things I wanted to say to this person, and as I went through the comments I could hear retorts and I wanted to address those too.
I don't read your posts since I dislike your writing. If I had more patience, I'd proof it, or perhaps critique it, but I haven't the care to sit through an entire fic bit of yours. The style doesn't suit my taste or, in my mind, the setting – your language is too casual, too modern, and not right for the characters you describe. I dislike the art you post not because they are inevitably sexual and/or homo-erotic, nor even because they aren't very skilled (I hesitate to say “not very good”). They don't do anything for me due to the sex themes and the lack of practice, shall we say, but that's not the killer. The reason, nameless, is due to the fact that you have an attitude. Your art makes passing mention of how you don't have skill that others in the community do, in the way that begs overly kind comments, while you ignore constructive criticism. You don't express care about your characters in any way I understand, making it seem that you find pounding out words, lots of words, to be a fruitful exercise because you think a high word count in a post will garner you adulation for the ages without any need to edit, prepare plot, or put in any of the blood sweat and tears of crafting decent writing so long as you imitate a monkey pounding out Shakespeare. Does good – or even decent! - writing require any of that? No, not really, but it helps. Basic skill is required if not, and you don't have that.
But I have never said these things. Some might say it's me being passive aggressive, and there might be some truth to that. I don't know. But in the end, I would never say “give it up, you suck.” You have art or writing to post? Fine, though I'll skip past to someone else's work. But yes, please post. The only way to learn, is to do. Try. Make scribbles on paper, see what people say! Listen to the crits, take what you can, and try again. If you don't get feedback, consider that to be information as well, and try to find a roommate or community where you GET crits. All the “fun! More!” and suchlike comments in the word may be good for the ego, but it's the words of “but” and “how about” that are most important. If you aren't finding that, then look for it. This is what helps you improve. Mind, the former makes the latter easier to take, but it's the second one that's necessary.
Maybe this is why I'm so harsh in judging my works. I never feel I get enough of the harder comments to take, and the problem is, life rarely hands them out. You're LUCKY to find someone who likes your stuff enough to suffer through it, and then tell you where the flaws are.
Anyway, I'm on page 3 in the writing program, so I'd best post this and shut the heck up, especially since I suspect that was mostly, if not entirely incoherant. If you read this far – wow. In all sincerity, have a cookie. And thanks.
Today I was thinking about fic – the bit I posted earlier. One of the reasons I posted is due to the fact that it's WoW fic, and I would dearly love to post to a wider audience, but I refuse to let it out of my journal until it's done, dammit, 'cause otherwise the month(s?) long break between segments is a killer. I doubt even wildly enthusiastic responses to bits would overcome my exhaustion/inertia.
But I was thinking about trying to post it anyways, simply because it's Friday. Why the connection, you might very well ask? Because of
wow_fanart's FanFic Fridays! Do you detect a saga? If not, buckle up or feel free to leave while the invective is cold (I won't feel offended, honestly!).I like the WoW Fanart community. I get to see pretty pictures on a regular basis, and potential art commissions to lust after, and it makes me feel that I'm part of something. I keep seeing larger, busier communities (WoW Ladies is the one that springs to mind), but I don't want that much traffic on my friends page. This is fine. And when I first started lurking, there wasn't really any fanfic to be seen. That's ok, if I was in the mood to read more, I know how to use a search engine. Right around the time I actually joined, though, that changed.
No names shall be named. All opinions are mine, and it is thankfully unlikely that any of the relevant parties will read this journal/entry this far. So rant ahoy!
See, a very good author who I'd never heard of started posting an epic, every day of the week. It was good, solid writing, and guaranteed reading, though (as is often the case) never enough for my taste. I have a solid rule which I break to my chagrin FAR too often, which is don't start reading a series until it's done. Simple, right? Saves heartache and angst and impatience.
Doesn't always work. In this case the saga was well worth starting, and I greatly enjoyed it. But other writers saw that this was the new trend on the community, and at least one, who I am concerning myself with, saw a bandwagon to jump on. Now, one series, with regular posting rules, and when the author had asked on the first day of posting, “is this ok?”, is totally cool. When the other author started posting randomly, usually several times a day, with - well, let's get back to that. - without any plan or notion about anything, understandably several folks started to scream “spam!” Though when I stop and think about it, I suspect the second author also asked if it was ok, and again people indicated it was cool.
Disclaimer: I don't like second author's work. The writing is poor quality, badly punctuated, and the writer even declares that they don't know where the story is going, ha ha. Sigh. That's fine for your own journal, dear, don't inflict it on others until it's proofread, m'kay?
So the community finally said “we're about ART, [insert definition of ART here]”, and folks asked that Something Be Done About This. Second author decided folks did not like their fic due to homosexual elements (couldn't care less, IMO – it's still badly written), and made matters worse by making a pointless Author's Note post (on a community?? Um... Bad Idea? I'll admit I don't know much about the protocol, but gods know I always cringed when I felt I had to do such things in the Garg Fic Archive, and the noxious ones that were FAR more common about the time I gave up were so far out of hand, lord knows I did a damn ranty/rebuttal post about it – which I still can't figure if it's too damn ironic or whatall). Anyway. There was much debate. Opinions were polarized, often into camps of Fic Fans, People With Issues With second author, and Come On People, You Have Filters Use 'Em!
My biggest fear, however, was the mod's threatening to delete old fic. Not that I'd posted any, just that I have a horror of wiping history away in the fashion that the internet is so good at. Not just the posts – sure, First Author had alternate posts in their journal, but – the comments? The views? These are still a part of the community's shared history, and we want to pretend wiping the slate clean is going to help anything? Meh. There's a whole other rant here that I shall pass on, in order to hopefully get to the point I originally wanted to make.
In the end, sense prevailed (...kiiinda), in that the mods made a second community for fic (which I still boycott, since I'm silly that way), and allowed fic to be posted on Fridays. I feel good in that I made sure to post that first Friday, which is a remarkable political statement for me (for the curious, it was a slightly edited for typos version of Runeforging, which is totally NSFW, if you haven't run into the thread, in which case I direct you here).
But we have the right. I should exercise it, dammit. I'm not really an artist, much as I have pretensions on occasion. And that is what I wanted to address. Y'see, in my head (back in the shower, as mentioned waaaaay earlier in the post), I was addressing the second author. Imaginary conversations are my bread and butter, after all. There were things I wanted to say to this person, and as I went through the comments I could hear retorts and I wanted to address those too.
I don't read your posts since I dislike your writing. If I had more patience, I'd proof it, or perhaps critique it, but I haven't the care to sit through an entire fic bit of yours. The style doesn't suit my taste or, in my mind, the setting – your language is too casual, too modern, and not right for the characters you describe. I dislike the art you post not because they are inevitably sexual and/or homo-erotic, nor even because they aren't very skilled (I hesitate to say “not very good”). They don't do anything for me due to the sex themes and the lack of practice, shall we say, but that's not the killer. The reason, nameless, is due to the fact that you have an attitude. Your art makes passing mention of how you don't have skill that others in the community do, in the way that begs overly kind comments, while you ignore constructive criticism. You don't express care about your characters in any way I understand, making it seem that you find pounding out words, lots of words, to be a fruitful exercise because you think a high word count in a post will garner you adulation for the ages without any need to edit, prepare plot, or put in any of the blood sweat and tears of crafting decent writing so long as you imitate a monkey pounding out Shakespeare. Does good – or even decent! - writing require any of that? No, not really, but it helps. Basic skill is required if not, and you don't have that.
But I have never said these things. Some might say it's me being passive aggressive, and there might be some truth to that. I don't know. But in the end, I would never say “give it up, you suck.” You have art or writing to post? Fine, though I'll skip past to someone else's work. But yes, please post. The only way to learn, is to do. Try. Make scribbles on paper, see what people say! Listen to the crits, take what you can, and try again. If you don't get feedback, consider that to be information as well, and try to find a roommate or community where you GET crits. All the “fun! More!” and suchlike comments in the word may be good for the ego, but it's the words of “but” and “how about” that are most important. If you aren't finding that, then look for it. This is what helps you improve. Mind, the former makes the latter easier to take, but it's the second one that's necessary.
Maybe this is why I'm so harsh in judging my works. I never feel I get enough of the harder comments to take, and the problem is, life rarely hands them out. You're LUCKY to find someone who likes your stuff enough to suffer through it, and then tell you where the flaws are.
Anyway, I'm on page 3 in the writing program, so I'd best post this and shut the heck up, especially since I suspect that was mostly, if not entirely incoherant. If you read this far – wow. In all sincerity, have a cookie. And thanks.
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no subject
Date: 2010-03-14 05:23 pm (UTC)