[stylist] has someone ever criticized your writing before?

[Donna Hill]

Vejas,
Good. Be careful whom you ask for criticism, especially in the beginning
stages of a piece. I'm sure you will after this.

Now that I know more about what you were doing, I am thinking about the
intrinsic value of asking for opinions about plots. When you get down to it,
basic plots can sound pretty boring. Most mystery novels come down to
"someone shows up dead, then someone figures out who killed them." Fleshed
out, it may look more like "The mayor's daughter, a beautiful but troubled
university student with a secret, is found dead in her father's office.
Without an alibi, the mayor is suspected. An old friend, now living in Los
Angeles,  with connections to high-power criminal lawyers learns of his
plight and assembles a team that figures out the truth in the nick of time."
Maybe that sounds interesting, if you're predisposed to like mysteries, but
it's only good writing that can pull it off and separate it from other good
books with similar plots. 

The other thing is that asking for specifics, narrows the reader/reviewer's
mindset in terms of how they perceive what they're reading and comment on
it. I'd go more with the approach, "Could you take a look at this and tell
me what you think." Part of my reasoning here is that the mistakes people
point out aren't necessarily what's wrong with a story; they might be more
of a clue as to how the tone of the work drew the reader into thinking that
way. I wish I could put my finger on an example of this from my own editing
process, but I know there were times when someone told me something that I
thought didn't make sense or that I thought was a trivial point, only to
realize upon closer inspection that something else was wrong. When that was
fixed, the objections went away, even though I didn't specifically change
what they originally brought up.
Donna
even fleshed out a bit, I find personally that it takes a major amount of
creativity in expressing it to make it sound exciting. I also think that
good writing can carry the most basic of plots. 
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of vejas
Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2013 6:58 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] has someone ever criticized your writing before?

Hi,
Thank you so much.  It seems like I should have known better.  
Actually I didn't know the person personally.  I asked the question on
Yahoo! Answers about whether I had a good plot, and the person that
answered, whose Internet name was "the walking dead" was the one who made
the comment.
I am never, ever, ever going to post another question like that on Yahoo!
Answers.
I really do appreciate your supportive comments.  And I am still going to go
on with the story.
Vejas

 ----- Original Message -----
From: "P.  Campbell" <pcampbell16 at verizon.net
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org Date sent: Thu, 03
Jan 2013 18:28:20 -0500
Subject: Re: [stylist] has someone ever criticized your writing before?

If they found problems with your writing, pointed them out and suggested
possible solutions to the problems that was one thing to say they hated it,
and that it was awful was their personal opinion, and if they thought they
were doing a critique, it proves they weren't qualified to do a critique.  A
personal opinion from me, they sound rude and immature.  End of my personal
opinion.  (smile)

Phyllis

Hi,
I know that in the past we have been talking about critiquing.  A good
critique is very helpful and gives insight.  What I mean is, has anybody
ever told you your work was awful and they hated it?
I'm just wondering because that has happened to me, and I don't think it's a
real critique.  Don't worry, it's not from this list.
Vejas
_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://www.writers-division.net/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/pcampbell16%
40verizon.net


_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://www.writers-division.net/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
for stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/brlsurfer%40
gmail.com

_______________________________________________
Writers Division web site
http://www.writers-division.net/
stylist mailing list
stylist at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/stylist_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
stylist:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/stylist_nfbnet.org/penatwork%40epix.net