Home

Well, I’m slacking in the blog posts here again. But I think I have a good excuse! (Well, at least a reasonable explanation. No, I can’t blame Jack or Bill or any of the muses per se for my slacking this time). I was on vacation for a couple of weeks in September and was busy with some non-writing projects during that time (although I did get a little writing done) and would’ve had time to post to the blog but I couldn’t think up any topics. I think it was safe to say that my brain had finally exploded. Heh!

And now since I’ve been back to work, I’ve been busy with the post vacation work related stuff, but I have thought of blog topics I just haven’t found the time to write ‘em up. Figures eh?

Anyway, I think things are settling enough that I can get back to posting regularly again. So, in honor of that, and with a topic having to do with writing in particular, I present the following piece of wisdom:

“Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge. But he who hates correction is stupid.” – Proverb 12:1

Back in September, a friend of mine was talking about fanfiction for a particular fandom and about reading some stories that were posted at Fanfiction.net. One author in particular had posted a few stories in this particular fandom but they weren’t exactly of the greatest caliber.

When I say not of the greatest caliber, I mean that the stories were severely lacking in proper English mechanics. Punctuation, capitilaztion, paragraph structure, proper use of quotation marks for dialogue, spelling, whathaveyou. A few reviewers attempted to kindly point out to the writer that, although their idea seemed good, it was difficult to read the story in the format it was in. Seeking out a Beta reader or finding someone to help with the mechanics was suggested.

This author, turns out, is living proof of Proverb 12:1. She got all defensive, basically told her readers to f— off and that once she finished her story she was going to remove it from FF.net. Well, good riddance! (The stories have, in fact, been removed.) Now, I’ve been around writing fanfiction long enough that I’ve seen my fair share of really crappy writing. And it never ceases to amaze me how some writers just plain have a blatant disregard for learning the proper mechanics. Or for even wanting to learn the proper mechanics. They either don’t acknowledge that they don’t know proper mechanics or they get all defensive about it and basically tell everybody to go to hell.

Look, it’s okay that you don’t know. We’ve all had to learn and some of us, such as myself, are still learning. Writing is a constant learning process and if you really want to write, you’ve got to want to learn. Plain and simple. And one of the best ways to learn, believe it or not, is to read.

So don’t go telling your readers off. That’s like biting the hand that feeds you! Writers want readers to read their stuff, to give input and feedback. And when it’s tough or critical feedback, you have to be ready to either take it as a learning tool or put it in the trash. Don’t take it personally and proceed to lash out at all of your readers.

Man, I’ll take critical feedback over no feedback any day.