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Post by Tensleep on Jul 14, 2007 17:52:47 GMT -5
Zevie! It does sound like porn! Awesome observation!
See, I'm one of those "Only writing for me" people who ends up posting and writing for everyone else. Therefore those kind of people who adamantly defend their "I don't care" sentiments but still post and whine about reviews make me laugh.
Gotta love people like that...
See ya in the funny papers!!!
Tens
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Post by BlindedxxFalcon on Jul 14, 2007 18:04:09 GMT -5
A filter would be a nice idea...  |
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Post by Tensleep on Jul 14, 2007 18:06:24 GMT -5
Filter on what?
We do have a language filter, but I turned it off. A filter for those kinds of writers would be nice, too.
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Post by xoxgreasergirlxox on Nov 3, 2007 19:36:24 GMT -5
One thing i'm not sure of... How do you tell a person 'nicely' that thier whole story has no point? ok, i'm sure that we're all aware of how much of Outsiders Fanfiction is written by females. LOTS of those stories are great! but for those certain ones... you know what i'm talking about, The ones written by young girls for and about themselves. eg. "I was sitting in the Curtis house making out with Sodapop, i was so glad that Sandy left him because she got pregnate with Joe. Joe is my second cousin and he's coming to mine and Soda's wedding" These kind of stories tick me off. First of all the author writing this is obviously living in her own fantacy world. Soda seems out of character, and she just put in a character that we've never heard before that could change the whole story completely! And she's suggesting and claiming things that none of the readers care or want to know about. Read around. (Any idea how many fanfics are written by female authers about themselves and thier favorite male character?)- actully, some of the stories could be good. If they had an actual plot and ENDING to them. How do you tell a person that you can see in thier writing that they are completley lovesick and the story they are writing is pointless? |
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Post by Nittanylizard on Nov 4, 2007 5:45:50 GMT -5
eg. "I was sitting in the Curtis house making out with Sodapop, i was so glad that Sandy left him because she got pregnate with Joe. Joe is my second cousin and he's coming to mine and Soda's wedding" That example cracked me up, but partly because it's so accurate . I was just thinking about this for the past couple of days. Somebody is writing this story that goes on exactly like you described, for about seven (short) chapters now, and it's going nowhere. The thing is, the problems with the story were already pointed out to her, but she just keeps on writing and getting the same couple of people telling her it's great. In this case, it's apparently a 12-year-old girl writing the story. I've tossed around the idea of submitting a review, but haven't done it yet. I think what I would do is comment on something good about the story (for example, this girl's spelling and grammar aren't bad), and then go on to point out that what she's got isn't a story, but the mix of ideas that you move through on your way to creating characters and a story. Really, it's just an ongoing report of trivial everyday events. Maybe there are some characters, and perhaps they have the potential to be compelling, but with no plot or focus, it just doesn't stay interesting. I know, it's so hard to figure out how to be truthful without crushing somebody's interest in writing. Liz |
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Post by zevie on Nov 4, 2007 11:54:44 GMT -5
Yikes. Sounds like a dreaded Mary-Sue. I agree with what Liz said about mentioning something positive; maybe you could mention that something that could "make her story better" (not something that her story lacks, lol) is if she checks out that narrative story-arc thing we all learn at some point in school, lol (rising action, climax, falling action, all that). It could at least point her in a better direction, and eventually, if she really wants to continue writing, she'll stumble across the concept of MARY-SUE, lol. Particularly with young writers, when her grammar and spelling and formatting is already decent, the subject matter is something that she'll have to figure out for herself, rather than from reviews. I have plenty of horror stories from my past, lol, but I definitely didn't think they were bad at the time. If she's not really open to changing right now, I'd say just let her continue until she starts to really want the criticism, rather than worry about critiquing it, as the best way to get better at writing is practice. Ffnet may be a Pit of Voles, but the fact that the standards are so loose makes it a good place for *everyone* to sharpen their writing skills, regardless of what level they're at. (Now, we just need a community with higher standards to counter that, lol.)
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Post by BlindedxxFalcon on Nov 4, 2007 13:45:22 GMT -5
We should point her in the direction of the Mary-Sue wing of this board.
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Post by missmouse on Nov 4, 2007 19:55:14 GMT -5
How do you tell a person that you can see in thier writing that they are completley lovesick and the story they are writing is pointless?
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You can't, they don't listen.
I've tried being nice, I've tried being mean, I've tried everything, and no matter what... If it's a tween, I'll get some abusive PM the next day prattling on and on about how they are a better writer than I will ever be and how it is okay to use chatspeak in your fics.
I've given up on reviewing the Sues.
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