On Receiving Feedback

[sr71plt]

So if I'm not getting it just by having comments open on my submission and from what you say I won't get it by becoming active in the forums, where the heck do I get critiques so that I can become a better writer?

Excuse me? I said just the opposite--that one of the reasons people post to the forums is to get more attention for their stories.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Excuse me? I said just the opposite--that one of the reasons people post to the forums is to get more attention for their stories.

I'd reply to you, but I'm supposed to be shunning you...

 

[sr71plt]

I'd reply to you, but I'm supposed to be shunning you...

Which, again, shows the advantage of being shunned.

 

[drksideofthemoon]

Which, again, shows the advantage of being shunned.

Do you think it takes more effort to shun someone, or to just outright ignore them?

 

[hmmnmm]

I posted under a female alt the other week and was quite astounded at the amount of feedback I got, compared to the feedback for this name. Plus more than a hundred votes which may have something to do with the new voting.

About 75% of the feedback was "Do you wanna be friends" Half of the rest was congratulatory on my style and the other half was about connections that the reader made.

I can't recall a single one that was negatively critical and I just know I'm not that good.

I've lately dredged up a few that were once posted but I deleted for the purpose of eventual rewrite/edit/etc.
One of them I wrote from first person female perspective, about having an experience with another woman. I also tried to write as if english was not my first language. The score is so-so, which is not surprising. But, I'm getting feedbacks wanting to know more about what happened to "me"
Warm fuzzies? Maybe so, but after plates of sludge, a warm fuzzy ain't nothing to sneeze at.

 

[mjl2010]

Do you think it takes more effort to shun someone, or to just outright ignore them?

Ignoring someone takes getting used to. At first it bugs the crap out of you because you don't know if they're saying something in response to what you said. After a bit you realize it doesn't matter. Hot air rises and blows away.

Eventually, even a dog with a bone gets tired of it and buries it or just leaves it laying around. The only way interest is revived is if another dog shows interest.

MJL

 

[sr71plt]

I also tried to write as if english was not my first language. The score is so-so, which is not surprising. But, I'm getting feedbacks wanting to know more about what happened to "me"
Warm fuzzies? Maybe so, but after plates of sludge, a warm fuzzy ain't nothing to sneeze at.

Interesting. A couple of times when I've tried to make it fairly obvious that good English wasn't part of a character's tools, a few commenters have failed to "get" that.

 

[KarennaC]

None of my stories garner much feedback; the most any of my stories has is six PCs and six emails. Other than my Loving Wives story, the feedback is mostly positive, other than comments that some of my stuff is too short. (What can I say... sometimes quickies aren't as satisfying. lol)

 

[sr71plt]

None of my stories garner much feedback; the most any of my stories has is six PCs and six emails. Other than my Loving Wives story, the feedback is mostly positive, other than comments that some of my stuff is too short. (What can I say... sometimes quickies aren't as satisfying. lol)

Seems to me you are sitting in a catbird seat then. I don't get that many PCs and e-mails on my stories individually either.

Congrats on the mostly positive feeback--and being told a story was too short has a lot better connotation to it than being told the reader found it too long, doesn't it?

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

None of my stories garner much feedback; the most any of my stories has is six PCs and six emails. Other than my Loving Wives story, the feedback is mostly positive, other than comments that some of my stuff is too short. (What can I say... sometimes quickies aren't as satisfying. lol)

Never worry about a story being too short. Most of mine start out at about 8 or 9000 words. Then I sit down and start chopping. Everything that isn't essential to the story gets chopped out and they end up about 3000 or so.

Brevity is God. You are wrting a story, not a novel. The people who tell you the story is too short simply have trouble getting it up and can't get off before the ending. Sounds like their problem, not yours.

 

[hmmnmm]

Interesting. A couple of times when I've tried to make it fairly obvious that good English wasn't part of a character's tools, a few commenters have failed to "get" that.

the commentors' toolboxes were a pair of pliers shy?

 

[mellowgyrl]

Ooops...didn't mean to post here!

 

[sr71plt]

the commentors' toolboxes were a pair of pliers shy?

Thanks. I liked that one. I usually fall back on the "not the brightest bulb in the chandelier," "not the sharpest knife in the drawer," or his/her "elevator doesn't go all the way to the top" explanations.

I got a couple of "Despite the misspellings . . ." comments on one of my Valentine Day's contest entries in which spellings of certain words of dialogue (including the title phrase) were rendered to represent an early twentieth-century, Midwest dialect.

On another Web site today, I received a comment on chapter 1 of a 15-chapter series (clearly marked as chapter 1) in which only chapter 1 has been posted so far to the effect of "very nice as far as it goes, but the story is too short." I'd like to see that guy's toolbox.