OtherWorlds

Although I think NaCl was unnecessarily harsh on this site, I do have to admit I've seen some critiques that raised my eyebrows a little, compared to what I'm used to seeing on other writer's forums. I do feel reviewers might take the occasional reminder that pointing out the good parts of a story or peice of poetry are as important as pointing out the flaws.

That being said, I've received a lot of useful advice from *lin* in the past and have no quarrel with frankness. I think honesty and encouragement are both equal virtues when it comes to giving tips and advice. Besides, I've come to the conclusion that a lot of times reviewers are just in a hurry to get on to the next story/post and maybe don't think about taking the time to cushion things.

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Capricious Quills:
A resource for writers of fantasy and paranormal romance.

Wintermute

Apparently someone is taking out their frustration with this fine site on other outlets:

http://www.talkreviews.com/writingforums.com

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"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read." - Samuel Johnson

Baron

Only seemed to be two things wrong with their review, the comments relating to critiques and their confusing a public school with a reform school.

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lin

Sounds like we made some little bitch cry and he's dissing us for it.

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Sam Winchester

Woohoo! We're all pompous snobs. I suspected as much.

What a load of horseshit.

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Don't unlock doors you're not prepared to go through.

Baron

Maybe it's an outsider's objective view and perhaps instead of going into denial we could think how to improve the image?

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Sam Winchester

Why, because one person says so? "Oh, God, someone said something mean to me. I now have to go cry and waste my time writing pointless reviews that no one will ever read."

Give me a break. The sad truth is that the majority of the people who come on to this forum expect that everyone is going to like their work, and so when they get one bad comment, they run away to some corner and start crying like a dog that got kicked in the ass.

A lot of aspiring writers have this idea that they're going to write a few hundred pages of crap, toss it to an editor, and laugh all the way to the bank. It doesn't work that way.

I said it earlier in this thread - I'm a member of quite a few writing forums, and none of them have helped me as much as this one has. People don't try to spare your feelings and sugarcoat everything for you. They tell you outright that it was crap and it needs work. Yeah, it might seem harsh, but in the long run the advice is worth its weight in gold.

Whereas on other sites, people just say: "Well, I liked it." This is because they aren't truly allowed to say what's on their mind, for fear of getting into trouble for it.

If our image is that bad, how come we're getting at least half a dozen new members every day?

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Don't unlock doors you're not prepared to go through.

lin

Baron. Do you agree with that assessment?

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OtherWorlds

I kind of agree with Baron's comment. Sam says this site is all about telling people the honest "you suck" truth, but that doesn't really fit with the notion that the site itself is great as it is and doesn't need improvement. If we're going to be brutally honest,(no offense to anyone, I hope), I do think this site has a lot to work on.

I belong to four writers forums, and I have found all of them helpful on different points, but I feel that running people down, (whether we privately think their work is bad or not) doesn't make them write better. In fact, it seems a little arrogant. The reality is, critiquing is a very subjective business and what doesn't appeal to one person's tastes, may seem great to another reader.

I hope I haven't offended anybody. I just feel we can help people more by giving them encouragement, as well as advice. And no, I don't mean encouragement to shoot a bad peice of work off to an editor. I mean encouragement to keep reworking it until they've got a final product they can be happy with and that won't waste the editor's time.

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Capricious Quills:
A resource for writers of fantasy and paranormal romance.

Shawn

There's very little that can be done with a site to change the personalities of members.

And, speaking in a metaphoric sense, WritingForums is a bit like an introverted family. In that spirit, I say: this is our house, and anyone telling us how to act in our house betrays more arrogance than anything we could have done.

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The most frightening part of leaving a parent's home, to me, is not knowing where one's own home is.

Baron

No

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Baron

You're speaking through the wrong orifice

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Shawn

Yes, I know. I normally use my ass to speak on most things, but I thought I'd switch it up and use my mouth.

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The most frightening part of leaving a parent's home, to me, is not knowing where one's own home is.

Baron

Shouldn't someone be able to notice a difference?

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The Backward OX

Could someone explain to me the point of this thread?

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