Integrity and Pride

[oggbashan]

Never, ever generalize, as they say.

I could point to things in any of my stories that could be improved upon, but usually I get to the point where I just don't know how to make that improvement. Knowing what's wrong and knowing how to fix it are two different things. My critical faculty exceeds my talent.

For me, if I read an author's disclaimer telling me that the story didn't really matter to him, I'm insulted. Well then, fuck you too.

---dr.M.

I appreciate feedback because it helps me to improve. Since I started posting on Literotica I get closer to what I want to write even if I am still a long way from the ideal I am trying to achieve. I don't want to generalise - so I will. Any artist is likely to have a vision of what they want to do. Very few actually achieve that ideal. That is frustrating.

Some of my stories were written for a particular audience; some were written to see if I could write in that style/genre; some as an exercise. All my stories matter to me but some I do not feel strongly about because they were written for another, not for me.
Some of them can be considered boring and longwinded. I prefer to be honest about my work and deter readers who just want a quick wank. I don't object to the stories that are wankable. I don't write them -yet.

I think you might be underestimating an author's diffidence. If the author is aware of their own shortcomings they may well denigrate their work unfairly. "It doesn't matter" could mean "It does but I couldn't write what I intended to write."

Og.

 

[Sabledrake]

All of my stories matter to me. Most of them, I'm proud of. One, I hate like poison, but it still matters. Just in a different way.

gauche > what KM said

Sabledrake

 

[Guest]

Sculpture I know nothing about.

Painting, my partner paints and I can assure you that she does everything several times.
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______

You missed my point entirely. The italicized quote in my post was an introspective question I posed to myself some time ago, incorrectly assuming that little or no adjustment or modification to a work of art was necessary in the artists' crafts.

 

[jfinn]

Why I edit before posting

For fun I just looked at my stats and added up my hits on my combined stories. Now I don't write for the really popular categories, but still the total times someone looked at a story of mine was 140,904. But that's only hits, it doesn't mean they liked them well enough to read to the end so let's say that only 30% (just a guess, I have no way of knowing the real number) of those hits were actual reads, now the total is down to 42,277. Again though, I have to assume that a lot of those are from the same people reading my serials and the rest of the stories. That means maybe only 40% (another number out of a hat) of those hits are from new readers making my final total 16,908 different people looking at something I wrote.

Do I really want that many people looking at my writing and thinking I'm an idiot who can't spell or write a decently structured sentence?

Nope.

So this is why I edit.

Jayne

 

[TheEarl]

It surprises me that anyone could ever consider one of their stories "perfect". I didn't know that such thing as perfect writing existed.

I always consider mine perfect, mainly because I lack the critical faculties to see what's wrong with them. If someone else points them out for me (God bless WSO) then they can usually be fixed and then my story is perfect again. At least in my eyes.

If I could see something that I knew was wrong, I wouldn't rest until I could fix it. Imperfections bug me.

The Earl

 

[Sabledrake]

Earl > but once we start attaining perfection in stories, isn't that when we must deliberately insert at least one flaw, like those rug weavers?

Sabledrake

 

[wildsweetone]

TheEarlI always consider mine perfect, mainly because I lack the critical faculties to see what's wrong with them. If someone else points them out for me (God bless WSO) then they can usually be fixed and then my story is perfect again. At least in my eyes.

I find it very easy to put my editor's hat on for other authors. I find it very difficult to do it for myself. (just thought I'd get that in quick before dr. m comments on my crappy writing ).

Actually, I don't think I've ever claimed to have written perfect work. And when I first started submitting to Litland, I didn't know anything about editing. I proofread for typos and that was it basically. So in the relatively short time I've been here, I've learnt a lot.

But I do expect a certain level of skills from myself. Once I've achieved that level, I am confident that whatever I submit has been done to the best of my ability at that time.

I doubt I'll ever have the confidence to simply shrug off a piece of writing as it appears that some people do. But then, that's just a flaw of mine.

Thanks all for responding, it's been an enlightening thread. I appreciate your time.

 

[MathGirl]

Proantidiseditorialistally speaking ........

I find it very easy to put my editor's hat on for other authors.

That's something I can't do. Several people have asked me for editing and evaluation of their stories. I tried a few times and completely failed.

If I couldn't find a misspelling or grammatical error, I didn't feel qualified to tell someone else how they should write.

It's sort of a waste of time when all I can come up with is, "It seems fine to me."

Maybe I could take some lessons from Dr M or Karma Dog. They read and responded to DurtGurl's latest before it was submitted. Their responses were much funnier than the story itself.
MG

 

[wildsweetone]

Re: Proantidiseditorialistally speaking ........

That's something I can't do. Several people have asked me for editing and evaluation of their stories. I tried a few times and completely failed.

If I couldn't find a misspelling or grammatical error, I didn't feel qualified to tell someone else how they should write.

It's sort of a waste of time when all I can come up with is, "It seems fine to me."

Maybe I could take some lessons from Dr M or Karma Dog. They read and responded to DurtGurl's latest before it was submitted. Their responses were much funnier than the story itself.
MG

i guess it's possible some people aren't able to edit. i'm not qualified either... i just voice my opinions on what feels right and what doesn't. occasionally i slip in something i do actually know about (that's rare though)... but with practise and with looking at how others give feedback, then it becomes slightly easier. oh yeah, and the offshoot is, i learn lots!