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A couple changes
Nov. 18th, 2012 02:21 pmWhat purpose am I serving?
Yes, this is ostensibly a blog about writing, but pointing out mistakes from writers that are trying to do stuff and get better... hm. Perhaps counterintuitive, even anonymously. Will making fun of bad writing birth good writing? Not necessarily. Perhaps even not at all. I say this because last time, I ended up being confronted (and summarily blocked on FA) by a friend of a writer of one of the stories I ended up disparaging, and she (I think it was a she, not sure) was upset, saying also that this person, had they come across my review, would be upset to the point of having to be talked off the ledge of never writing again.
While I find this particular response rather extreme and I did defend my position, it did sorta give me, and this blog, pause. Of course, it didn't help that I've had a bit of an upheaval in my live in the intervening month, which also caused the blog to slow to a stop, as well.
If I want other amateurs to write more good stuff, if only for the entirely selfish reason of having more good stuff to read, then why do I point out the bad? Easy, because some of that shit is so laughably bad that it's high comedy. But other than having fun at other's expense... what does that serve?
Some people get giggles. Other people... get offended. I don't think I can quite pull off satire quite yet, especially not to even Yahtzee levels quite yet. And while I'm fairly certain that I've made valid points, they can come off the complete wrong way.
In essence, this is not to say that this is the death of the Random Story Encounter, but it will probably be featured less in my blog as I'll have other things to say about writing. I'll probably write one up every now and then, and chances are they'll be less biting and sarcastic. There are good stories out there, and I think the good ones deserve more attention than the bad. Lord knows I have lots to improve in my own writing.
What you will see is probably more professional style reviews, especially since my new job had created a definite book fund. I can also probably telegraph the next few books that will be appearing; I bought recently a few books by Catherynne Valente, and plan to purchase the next Out of Position book: Isolation Play. So there are two things that you guys can look forward to.
Yes, this is ostensibly a blog about writing, but pointing out mistakes from writers that are trying to do stuff and get better... hm. Perhaps counterintuitive, even anonymously. Will making fun of bad writing birth good writing? Not necessarily. Perhaps even not at all. I say this because last time, I ended up being confronted (and summarily blocked on FA) by a friend of a writer of one of the stories I ended up disparaging, and she (I think it was a she, not sure) was upset, saying also that this person, had they come across my review, would be upset to the point of having to be talked off the ledge of never writing again.
While I find this particular response rather extreme and I did defend my position, it did sorta give me, and this blog, pause. Of course, it didn't help that I've had a bit of an upheaval in my live in the intervening month, which also caused the blog to slow to a stop, as well.
If I want other amateurs to write more good stuff, if only for the entirely selfish reason of having more good stuff to read, then why do I point out the bad? Easy, because some of that shit is so laughably bad that it's high comedy. But other than having fun at other's expense... what does that serve?
Some people get giggles. Other people... get offended. I don't think I can quite pull off satire quite yet, especially not to even Yahtzee levels quite yet. And while I'm fairly certain that I've made valid points, they can come off the complete wrong way.
In essence, this is not to say that this is the death of the Random Story Encounter, but it will probably be featured less in my blog as I'll have other things to say about writing. I'll probably write one up every now and then, and chances are they'll be less biting and sarcastic. There are good stories out there, and I think the good ones deserve more attention than the bad. Lord knows I have lots to improve in my own writing.
What you will see is probably more professional style reviews, especially since my new job had created a definite book fund. I can also probably telegraph the next few books that will be appearing; I bought recently a few books by Catherynne Valente, and plan to purchase the next Out of Position book: Isolation Play. So there are two things that you guys can look forward to.
Until then, I have some writing of my own to do.
