Now that comments here have to be accepted before they display, I'm reading them before approving them.
Some of the comments coming in on the stories are just mean. Shame on you!
Critque is fine and you don't have to like everything. It's okay to point out weaknesses and things that didn't work for you but I'm not going to put through comments that are cruel, calling stories "tripe" or writers "the most untalented hack I've ever read."
Ain't happenin' here.
18 comments:
I kinda wondered why I wasn't seeing any of those this time, since I felt like I got slammed by anonymous comments for a story I did almost 4 years ago.
Hope people liked mine better this time round.
Thank you LDSP.
I'm honestly not trying to suck up when I say this, but "Thank you." I was thinking the same thing. I don't think it bodes well for writers who are so mean to others just because it's a competition. If it's not helpful then keep it to yourself. Somebody said something nasty about my story and I just sat back and thought, "That wasn't even helpful. At all. What was the point of that comment? I hope they feel better now that they got that off their chest."
I'm glad you noticed.
What a shame that has happened. It's just wrong to attack other writers under the Anonymous guise. Where's their manners?
LDSP, could you just block Anonymous comments from your site? Since it seems like those are a lot of the problems.
Karen, you're assuming that all the nasty comments were made anonymously. They weren't.
Also, if I'm going to be anonymous here, I feel I should grant commenters that same privilege. But I may do comment modification during story contests from now on.
And Susan, you can't really suck up because I don't know which story is yours. I went back through the comments and didn't see any that I thought were "nasty". Not all of them were uber polite, but if they had a point that I thought would be helpful to the writer, I left them on. If I missed a truly nasty one, email me and I'll delete it.
David, four years ago, I was still learning Blogger and finding my way on this blog. I often didn't see comments until the end of the week so bad ones slipped through.
I know better now.
I really hope that no one takes anything I have said as mean. I promise I never intended it that way.
I guess I assume that others see comments as I do: when someone takes the time to actually read what I write and help me fix problems they see, I'm grateful for their time and that they actually thought about what might improve my story.
I think that this kind of critiquing has the potential to be extremely helpful, like a kind of writers' group, if people are 1-not mean, and 2-able to take the criticisms and think about how they might be valid.
I confess that I am kind of a critique junkie. I'm dying to know what people think and how they might fix my writing, because I can't do it on my own.
I agree. We need to leave the anonymous available to people who don't have Google IDs and who aren't familiar with how to comment.
Emily M, I was quite happy with your critique on my story. I didn't think it was mean at all, on the contrary, I found it quite helpful. And I agree with everything else you said, too. :-)
Speaking of comments, LDSP, have you already started emailing your critiques, or were you going to do that next week? Just wondering.
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The more time goes on the less happy I am with the first five or so paragraphs of my story (especially because I fear people will have stopped reading by the time it starts getting better).
In other news, if it is no hassle for you, I would love to have any nasty comments on my story forwarded to me. I take a great pleasure in being mocked. I don't know if it's cruel or not, but one of my all-time favorite reader comments on my first novel is "Would I reccommend the book? I wouldn't tell anyone to buy it. I might tell that it's a mindless read that was semi-enjoyable if they borrowed it from a friend."
That sort of thing can get you through a lot of sleepless nights.
Thanks so much for not allowing the mean-spirited comments to come through. A "critique" that sticks a knife in the heart and then twists it would discourage any writer ... published or unpublished.
Melonie, I'm glad. :-) Whew!
Thank you! You are so nice! Way to keep things constructive--we're all about improving writing, not shooting people down, right?
Good for you, LDS Publisher! Comments should help writers, not pull them down!
I am the most untalented hack I've ever read, and I'm proud of it. And I'm happy to have any of you point it out. It onlyr reconfirms my previously held analysis of my writing and, more importantly, it reaffirms my superiour judgement.
Not to also mention my superior copy editing.
Turn off your editor brain and laugh, would you all, please just laugh with me.
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