Outlaw of Romance Writing

[XerXesXu]

Who is this 'censor'? They're a straw person who doesn't exist in the USA, except in some posters' imaginations. I hope my pronouns are correct; I don't want to be cancelled by the censorious, who, by and large, don't exist in their own imaginations. What's bad for the goose is bad for the gander.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

@jaF0

Three pages later you have been active in the thread yet STILL have not answered the question.

Outside of lit in general, do you support the rights of artists to produce work that violates your personal morals/ethics/judgements?

 

[Cagivagurl]

There is truth in your words. Threads where we actually talk about stories and writing? (other than our own) They rarely get to page two before dying out completely. But threads about prosaic stuff like memes and word games, about ratings, threads where we link our stuff and boast, yeah, those always seem to flourish. It's what AH is.

Although this particular thread, digressions aside, is about freedom of speech, so it's not a waste of time.

Talk about stories other than our own
Yeah right.
That'll never happen in this forum.

 

[lovecraft68]

Talk about stories other than our own
Yeah right.
That'll never happen in this forum.

Enough about me, let's talk about you...what do you think of me?

It should be an AH sticky.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Talk about stories other than our own
Yeah right.
That'll never happen in this forum.

I've been talking about the bookclub idea for ages now, a thread where we would discuss random stories and analyze the strengths and weaknesses, share opinions on how it could have been done better, etc.
Topics like that could be incredibly helpful - there is so much we could learn from each other about writing.

I picked up a good advice or two here, and I've given more than my fair share to other new writers, but those moments are so scarce. It's as if people are afraid someone will steal their talent and writing knowledge, or they simply don't want to share what they believe makes them unique or better than other writers.

No helping the competition, eh? That is such a terrible mindset as there is no real competition here. This isn't a zero-sum game.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've been talking about the bookclub idea for ages now, a thread where we would discuss random stories and analyze the strengths and weaknesses, share opinions on how it could have been done better, etc.
Topics like that could be incredibly helpful - there is so much we could learn from each other about writing.

I picked up a good advice or two here, and I've given more than my fair share to other new writers, but those moments are so scarce. It's as if people are afraid someone will steal their talent and writing knowledge, or they simply don't want to share what they believe makes them unique or better than other writers.

No helping the competition, eh? That is such a terrible mindset as there is no real competition here. This isn't a zero-sum game.

I can't speak for others, but I always enjoy talking about writing. When people start a thread about whether they should write something this way or that way, I almost always jump in.

The one stumbling block is that we all have different tastes. I find that while I can appreciate other authors' writing styles, I don't want to be like them, and I don't want to tell them that they should be like me (except sometimes when the grammar nerd in me gets a'rising). It's not easy to give advice and suggestions and NOT make it sound like, "You should write like I do."

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I can't speak for others, but I always enjoy talking about writing. When people start a thread about whether they should write something this way or that way, I almost always jump in.

The one stumbling block is that we all have different tastes. I find that while I can appreciate other authors' writing styles, I don't want to be like them, and I don't want to tell them that they should be like me (except sometimes when the grammar nerd in me gets a'rising). It's not easy to give advice and suggestions and NOT make it sound like, "You should write like I do."

That's why it shouldn't be about style but more of an analysis, a review. Whether or not the pacing was done well, how was the fluidity of the dialogue, was there too much info dump, and finally, whether the story itself was good, clever, entertaining, hot, etc. It's quite easy to define some criteria so it doesn't turn into an " I would write it like this" - "No, it's better like this" thing.

 

[SimonDoom]

That's why it shouldn't be about style but more of an analysis, a review. Whether or not the pacing was done well, how was the fluidity of the dialogue, was there too much info dump, and finally, whether the story itself was good, clever, entertaining, hot, etc. It's quite easy to define some criteria so it doesn't turn into an " I would write it like this" - "No, it's better like this" thing.

We've had some interesting threads about dialogue and dialogue tags, for example. There are a lot of different opinions about that issue. Tense, point of view, the amount of detailed description. Favorite words.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've been talking about the bookclub idea for ages now, a thread where we would discuss random stories and analyze the strengths and weaknesses, share opinions on how it could have been done better, etc.
Topics like that could be incredibly helpful - there is so much we could learn from each other about writing.

I picked up a good advice or two here, and I've given more than my fair share to other new writers, but those moments are so scarce. It's as if people are afraid someone will steal their talent and writing knowledge, or they simply don't want to share what they believe makes them unique or better than other writers.

No helping the competition, eh? That is such a terrible mindset as there is no real competition here. This isn't a zero-sum game.

I think the answer to this is this is what the feedback forum is supposed to be for, but it doesn't really have a lot of traffic.

In theory, your idea would be a good thing, except if you discuss weaknesses, even in a very fair and professional way, the butthurt will be long loud and everlasting. "I'm thick skinned' is what many here say, until someone doesn't care for their story for some reason, then we find out those words, were just words.

It has happened here both on the boars and behind the scenes. There was a writing cabal here for some time, and they would read each other's stories and gush all over them on their little forum. But when one person had the nerve to point out some flaws in the ring leaders story? They were banned from the group.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and a review thread here would just break down into arguments and "what do you know?"

I think many who have been here for a while have found people here who will beta read for them and they're comfortable with that, letting anyone see and discuss their work is a different thing, especially with a certain troll here, and the host of know it all types.

Tread at your own risk

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I think the answer to this is this is what the feedback forum is supposed to be for, but it doesn't really have a lot of traffic.

In theory, your idea would be a good thing, except if you discuss weaknesses, even in a very fair and professional way, the butthurt will be long loud and everlasting. "I'm thick skinned' is what many here say, until someone doesn't care for their story for some reason, then we find out those words, were just words.

It has happened here both on the boars and behind the scenes. There was a writing cabal here for some time, and they would read each other's stories and gush all over them on their little forum. But when one person had the nerve to point out some flaws in the ring leaders story? They were banned from the group.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and a review thread here would just break down into arguments and "what do you know?"

I think many who have been here for a while have found people here who will beta read for them and they're comfortable with that, letting anyone see and discuss their work is a different thing, especially with a certain troll here, and the host of know it all types.

Tread at your own risk

Yeah, this is a fair warning.
I've seen much of what you describe and more. There were examples of authors who asked for a review and then reacted badly to it. There were also examples of reviewers going over the top and not taking into account the sensitivity of the topic. There were definitely lessons to be learned.

That is why I would strictly limit the reviewing process to stories of authors who last published on Literotica a couple of years ago at least, and who do not have any AH presence. Maybe we can even include the work of some mainstream authors. But absolutely no reviewing of authors with any, however small AH presence, and no volunteering of author's own stories, regardless of how hard they want to convince us that they are okay with harsh criticism. It's a slippery slope, always.

Anyway, if there are authors here in AH who would be interested in something like this, feel free to let me know. Maybe we can start the ball rolling.

 

[MindsMirror]

We don't think freedom of speech regulation that has subjective ineffable quality standards is free speech. "Just write better, Bro" suggestions don't make anything we've written (no matter how poorly) safer from banning.

Literotica isn't a free speech platform, they're a business and have the right to impose whatever standards they like.

 

[SimonDoom]

We don't think freedom of speech regulation that has subjective ineffable quality standards is free speech. "Just write better, Bro" suggestions don't make anything we've written (no matter how poorly) safer from banning.

Literotica isn't a free speech platform, they're a business and have the right to impose whatever standards they like.

I don't fully agree with that. As a privately owned site, they have the right to do what they want. They're not subject to the First Amendment. But I believe platforms like this one can support speech and further the cause of free speech as a principle and a policy by imposing minimal regulations and endorsing the idea that artists should be free to publish a very wide variety of content. I think that's what Laurel and Manu support, too, based on what I see here. There are some regulations, but not too many. The few regulations they have are imperfectly enforced. I think that's a good thing.