Chapter 2

Even More Rants

Here's some more from my old rant collection, which is really my old blog back-ups. At the time I had no idea why I'd ever want to back up my SOL blogs, but maybe I have ESP and knew I'd want to use them someday as an excuse to post pornographic pictures on my website.

Whatever the reason, some of this stuff might make sense (you tell me) but a lot of it, well ... You had to be there. Blogs are like that, which is another reason why it's so stupid to save old blogs. I never claimed to be smart! Don't go putting words in my mouth, I'd prefer something else! heh!

(That's a joke.)

And for my next magic trick...

2009-01-20

Hmmm ... What's left to rant about?

I just popped off a note to the admin people to de-volunteer myself as a reviewer. I just don't have a lot of time for extra-curricular activities and I wasn't really good at it anyway. I kind of approached the subject as an exercise in creative writing more than a practical, factual commentary on a particular story. My opinions were my own and I stand by them, but so far as what would serve the authors and the site best ... It probably isn't me, at least not in that capacity.

I did get a lot of email about my reviews though, a number of them, like 6 or 7 different readers, basically commented that my reviews were more often better than the stories. I'm not sure how true that is, I certainly reviewed a number of very well written stories. My reviews might have been funnier, but I doubt they were better in all or even some cases.

It was fun though. I enjoyed the writing a lot. I was supposed to read Ken Randall's "Charlotte's Movie" and I sorta, kinda promised him an opinion, if not a full review of it. I'm still working on it. It is a nice piece of writing and he deserves much credit, and I sincerely urge all of you to take a look at codes and synopsis and then take a chance on it. I'm just a very slow reader and it is a lengthy story. But I'm getting there!

I guess I can rant about reviews, since I have read them, written them, and been subject to them ... I have a pretty good perspective, I think.

What I dislike about reviews are that many of them are too short. I mean, they say "I like this story..." and take maybe two paragraphs to say that and the end. Look at the review for Charlotte's Movie, for example. I just don't see the purpose of those. Here I'll post the review in its entirety:

Review by y2 [other reviews by y2]

Reviewed: 2007-03-11

Now I know some people will opine that such a review is all that's necessary. That's all a reader or an author should expect. But I know for a fact that Ken wants more from a review than that. If it was my story I'd want something more. It's public feedback. It's a message from one reader to alllllll the other ones. If you could email every person on SOL about a story, is that all you'd want to say?

Maybe that's why I tended to go a little overboard with my own reviews, I'm not sure. Obviously I have that sort of attitude and ego. But it baffles me, it really does and that isn't the review or the only reviewer I can point at with my unhappy finger.

Fuzzy ... Come on, dude! You give everybody tens all the time (except me heh!) or it seems that way. That's the perception people have about a Fuzzy Wuzzy review. Paula Abdul... :)

There's a limited number of slots for reviewers and I'm not saying it should be a full time job, or carries any specific obligation to select stories a reviewer won't like, but I'd like to see the selection mixed up a little more. A negative review isn't necessarily a bad thing. It doesn't have to be brutal and an honest opinion of a less than average story can be beneficial to the author. I've beaten up some people in my reviews, but generally they came right back at me asking me to look at a new story and see if I thought it was better, or asking for some more information on what I liked and disliked. Give authors some credit because sometimes it looks like the reviews avoid anything that can be construed as negative.

Not true, I know! They're getting ready to mug me, because some of them do in fact review stories that they didn't necessarily enjoy and they do tell us about it. But in between those few lower than average scores, the review board is generally a flood of 9's and 10's ... But people like to say nice things. It's much easier to read, finish, and want to review a story we find enjoyable. That's human nature, so I understand it. I'm not asking for a flood of really mean reviews, far from it. I'm just making an observation without really having a good answer.

The scores ... I dunno. an 8 is the new 5 it seems to me. I mean everyone gets eights and so that's the middle of the bell curve. basically the scale for stories, reflected in reviews, is 7-10 ... a four point scale with anything less than a six being punishment. Maybe it's a love hate thing. "I love your story, I give you a 10" or "I hate your story. I give you a six, because I don't want to hurt your feelings."

Of course I get 1's all the time, so I'm biased about scores.

I'm just rambling on. I'd like to see a small parenthetical number next to the title on the New Stories and Updates pages specifying how many stories that particular pen name has on the site. Just to make it super-readily apparent who is a new author posting his/her first story and who has posted 65 stories. Of course I'm saying pen names, so an author could have a hundred stories and have story number 1 under a new name. That's okay.

I suggest this mostly because when I look for stories to read I much prefer first time authors over the established ones and it's a pain going to everyone's homepage over and over to see how prolific the individual is. I also think new authors should be reviewed much more often than they are. It's kinda hit in miss because reviewers go off synopsis and codes and probably by author name if they have a favorite. A new author cannot be a favorite, obviously, so they don't get that little advantage. It's just something i'd like to see because new authors are the future, stupid as that sounds. I won't be writing forever, a lot of our favorite authors are gone, or busy, or retired, or in jail, whatever. Time marches on and we're all replaced by our children, so I always think new authors should be kind of spoiled like children.

My opinion anyway.

So that's about all I got to say and see ya later!

rache

My big writing tip ... seriously

2009-01-21

This is from a reply to a different post in a different forum, but it sums it up good enough for here...

Heyyyy :)

You know, when I first started posting to online sites, my first hundred stories were all short. 2000 words for me was a long story back then. I wrote hundreds of them. Some real stories, some just scenes really. But they were complete, they gave me tons of valubale experience with just building a story, or part of a story, posting to public opinion, and withstanding comments good and bad. Gradually I started getting longer and more ambitious and my first few years really served me well and continue to influence my approach and mind set to writing.

I think some readers, not necessarily yourself or anyone here, but some reader get the big eyes and have been sitting on an idea or two for a long time before trying to write it as a story. They end up starting something very large and very involved without the experience or the tools to really tackle the job. I think a lot of the incomplete stories we see are by relatively new authors who just gave up in frustration, or from time issues that they didn't anticipate. Others were perhaps frustrated by scores or feedback (or lack thereof) ... and that's too bad.

When people have asked me for advice (as if I know anything) I always say start small. No multi-chapter stories, just 2-5K words, crank it out and post it and do another one. Do a bunch of those. Not good for everyone perhaps, but that is my advice because it worked well for me. It was like taking little babysteps into the kiddie pool before I went for the diving board.

My suggestion to you, is to complete your stories by changing the code on SOL or asking Lazeez to do it. Mark them as complete where they sit, and start something new. The yellow stripes go away, you get some emails from people saying "Why did you do that?" but the monkey is off your back with just a little pain and you're free to try something else. Plot and outline your stories in advance, identify where things are happening and especially the end. Write towards a specific goal with a clear path in front of you. It's methodical and I don't like it personally, but it is useful to demonstrate a process that you can later intuit.

Does that make sense? I'm never sure when I try to talk about this stuff. The important thing is to move forward. Unfinished business that will always remain unfinished, needs to be dropped. You can always go back to a completed story and add to it. I've done it with a dozen of mine and I have a bunch waiting for a continuation that I marked complete because I didn't know when I'd be able to get back to them. They're my strategic reserve :)

Best always,

rache

Someone doesn't like my blog nyah nyah nyah

2009-01-21

That's pretty funny. Someone emailed me the other day, yesterday in fact, before I turned off anonymous feedback, and said my blogs suck. He ignores them completely as irrelevant and a waste of time. Maybe he's the same guy who emailed Bradley Stoke, I dunno. I'd like to see that email, maybe it's not too late to change my evil ways. I get a lot of hate mail so it's hard to keep track.

My big question is if I'm so completely boring to someone, why does he feel the overwhelming compulsion to tell me about it? I'm presuming that the other 50,000 people who don't read my blog and didn't email me have more sense than that. But that is a lot of presuming!!

Here's my opinion on my blog. Not on your blog, because everyone has their own purpose and requirements and I don't know what yours are. But I do know mine.

My blog is here first of all to give me a place to say whatever I feel like saying. Not to inform anyone. Not to validate myself or my decisions. Not to announce news or details about my life or writing. It's a big closet into which I can shout at the top of my lungs.

Once you understand that, it all becomes much clearer, doesn't it?

I have no overwhelming desire to explain myself or my stories. I do it largely out of habit, but even so that is so much work and how many people really care what the subtext was in Reasons Until After? I mean, if I have to explain it to a reader, well, that reader shouldn't be reading me, probably. I'm much happier with the people who "get" me right off the bat, as our most of us, I'm sure.