Are YOU a pretend-writer? - Page 7 - Writers Forum

The Backward OX · 01-22-2008, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ieuan

Calling good people pretentious farts is rude, it breaks the rules of the forum,

Quote:

Originally Posted by ieuan

we know deep down you are besides being a curmudgeon an egoistic old git and a colonist to boot.

Pot & Kettle time, Taffy, Pot & Kettle time.
XO

ps I'm starting to wonder if your inability to spell is no more than an act. You can spell well enough when it suits you.

The Backward OX · 01-22-2008, 04:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by missmia86

users who come here solely as a distraction from the fact that they have no goals and hobbies of their own.

xoxo

Quote:

Originally Posted by missmia86

Getting a buzz off "critiquing", are we?

Jesus H. Christ! Apart from the fact this thread was created over seven weeks ago and had died a natural death - until some busybody cabbage-patcher went stirring the pot - is not critiquing a hobby? Even Taffy thinks so.
XO

Edit - Unlike Brisbanabons, who have a river playground, I s’pose cabbage-patchers have to find other activities, like messing around in forums, with which to occupy their idle time. Poor old cabbage-patchers are at a complete loss when it comes to the River Yarra – it’s too thick to swim in, and too thin to plough. xxx

The Backward OX · 01-22-2008, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by missmia86

**** DISCLAIMER ****

USER 'missmia86' is in no way affiliated with USER 'The Backward Ox'. Further, 'The Backward Ox's inclusion of a quote by the aforementioned 'missmia86' as his/her signature does not imply 'missmia86' endorses the views or opinions expressed by 'The Backward Ox' on this forum.

As my old granny used to say - All publicity is good publicity.
XO

Malone · 01-22-2008, 05:04 AM

Being a colonist is considered bad to the British? Hmm...I would think having a man ordained by god to rule your country would be worse. Too bad there were no colonist to turn you guys onto the idea of democracy. Oh wait...

JP Wagner · 01-22-2008, 06:03 PM

90% of the crap on here is stupid and pointless, written by people who don't know what they are talking about trying to seem smart. trouble is there are 10% on here who know what they are doing, and whose advice should be considered. but for the most part, yeah, I agree with you.

i only post little things here and there for the hopes of getting the response of that 10% though. (especially since im in the process of submitting a novel) other than that, I take most my work to the magazines and publishers. heh.

missmia86 · 01-22-2008, 07:34 PM

Haha!

Very true.

"Jesus H. Christ! Apart from the fact this thread was created over seven weeks ago and had died a natural death - until some busybody cabbage-patcher went stirring the pot"... Pot & Kettle time, TBO, Pot & Kettle time.

Mike C · 01-23-2008, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JP Wagner

I take most my work to the magazines and publishers. heh.

Best way.

QuothTheRaven · 01-27-2008, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Backward OX

All you pretentious little twats who post supposed literature here are interested in only one thing - staying on the constantly-revolving wheel of telling each other all manner of jargon crap.

You are not writing for readers. And because the only feedback you ever get is from other pompous and conceited asses who pretend to know about writing, you will never learn what readers want.

When did you ever hear a reader rabbiting on about protagonists and narrators and third-person omni and voice and all the rest of that garbage?

You pretend story writers are barely more evolved than the pretend poets in the poetry forum.

For Chrissakes – when you slide behind the wheel of your car to drive to the store, you don’t give a f*ck that it has a d.o.h.c engine, MacPherson struts, rack-and-pinion steering, and a dual-throat Weber. You just want to get from A to B.

Same with a book. The reader doesn’t care what it’s made of.

Regarding “Show, don’t tell”, here’s one of the facts of life. I’ve polled this issue with a real reader - one who has read somewhere between seven and ten thousand novels - and her summary is that she hates padding. She would prefer one sentence telling her “Fred was scared” rather than two paragraphs – or even one - in which he demonstrated his feelings. Now, if she’s like that about her reading preferences, there have to be millions more just like her, out there in Readers’ World.

Here's the best part - if this rule is no more than an urban myth, probably so are most other rules about how to craft a readable book.

I suggest you go out on a limb. Write your freakin book and take it to a publisher. Staying here in this warm little womb is identical with the guy who says he’s trying to give up smoking. While ever he has that excuse of “trying” he doesn’t have to bother himself with actually quitting. And you’re just the same. While ever you keep asking for feedback, and filling each other full of bullshit –“I see you’re still experimenting with your voice” - on a regular basis, you don’t need to take that giant step.

Writers write. Posers come here.

Bah.

I agree with you to an extent, but I also disagree with you to an extent. The latter extent is probably more extensively extended than the former extent.

Writers have a jargon (Any business does. Don't forget to CC me in an email after you IM HR.) because it helps to analyze a piece. Though a reader probably can't analyze a work using the same terms that writers can, an educated and well-read reader (is this post extensively redundant?) will notice when things sound off. Such as if a story starts off in second person and switches to first person, then to third. They might not know what's wrong, but they will notice it. As far as showing rather than telling--yes, it's a catch phrase and it frequently results in too many adjectives in a written work. After I write something, creative or not (usually not), I have to go through and pluck out meaningless adjectives and phrases. Show-don't-tell is a rule of thumb, and any skilled writer will know that you have to pick what to show and what to tell. A paragraph with 5 adjectives in the right places will probably be better than a paragraph with 500. But once again, you can't go through an entire book just telling a person what is happening and what your characters are feeling, that will also read like crap.

The last thing that I'd like to say is that any good writer should also be an avid reader--before and while writing. Any good writer also needs to be observant and analytical, so he or she should know what readers like and what they want to read. You're right though, if you spend all of your time here, you won't accomplish anything. It's good to post here to get some opinions, but a writer also needs to talk to many people and have his or her work read and critiqued by all kinds of people.