#38: Talk about a review that made your day. I appreciate nearly all reviews (there are those few that just make me go WHAT and shake my head for a while, but they are few and far between luckily) and lots of them have made me happy. I appreciate the ones that go on for a while quoting things from the story, and the grateful ones, and the flattering ones, but perhaps my favorites are the funny ones, especially when it's clear someone's been touched and is being dryly humorous about it. I had someone tell me about "L'oiseau qui vole" that "I was expecting not to like this, but it tripped me in an alley" which is pretty much how I felt about writing it, and I laughed forever about gogollescent's comment on "the heart is hard to translate," beginning with a quote from the fic:
"but, instead, the brain-rubbish inventions about people he cared for being hurt or lost forever, or saying ridiculous sentimental things to him."
I'm so glad that those three scenarios are listed together, fresh out of nightmare. What a perfect moment. I mean, counting out the total number of times I thought "Oh, Simon" in this could take a while, but that one in particular-- just. Simon Illyan's deathly fear of being taken out behind the woodshed and told "You did a great job, thanks for the thirty years of intense loyalty to our family". And then maybe getting clapped on the back or something. Wow.
In other news this is really great.
That's perhaps my favorite comment of all time, though the one on the same story where raven talked French to me comes pretty close.
#14: What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across? I kind of blanked out on this one - I'm sure I've read some horrendous bits of writing advice over the years, but I purposefully don't remember them, I guess. There are some methods that just seem absurd to me - all of that making charts about your characters' favorite colors and preferred foods and family vacations and grade school embarrassments and so forth - but if they work for some people, I'm not going to put them down.
I do have a personal grudge against "Murder your darlings" because - though I understand what it's getting at; let's avoid the overly fancy and out-of-context clever-clogs bits - I think it makes many writers edit out stuff that's actually really good, because it's really good and they think that can't possibly be right, as if the singing phrase should be shot down like a songbird before anyone's disturbed by its noise. And I hate cute meaningless tips on principle - anyone who's ever murdered darlings in the right way already knew where they'd gone wrong without being lectured at, and anyone to whom the admonition might have been useful if it were phrased better was probably confused or depressed hearing it, or else oblivious to its wisdom.
How about we try not giving advice that makes people feel worse about themselves and their accomplishments, for a start, and how about if we feel we must say something then we explain what we mean instead of being pithy and trite? There.
no subject
"but, instead, the brain-rubbish inventions about people he cared for being hurt or lost forever, or saying ridiculous sentimental things to him."
I'm so glad that those three scenarios are listed together, fresh out of nightmare. What a perfect moment. I mean, counting out the total number of times I thought "Oh, Simon" in this could take a while, but that one in particular-- just. Simon Illyan's deathly fear of being taken out behind the woodshed and told "You did a great job, thanks for the thirty years of intense loyalty to our family". And then maybe getting clapped on the back or something. Wow.
In other news this is really great.
That's perhaps my favorite comment of all time, though the one on the same story where
#14: What’s the worst writing advice you’ve ever come across? I kind of blanked out on this one - I'm sure I've read some horrendous bits of writing advice over the years, but I purposefully don't remember them, I guess. There are some methods that just seem absurd to me - all of that making charts about your characters' favorite colors and preferred foods and family vacations and grade school embarrassments and so forth - but if they work for some people, I'm not going to put them down.
I do have a personal grudge against "Murder your darlings" because - though I understand what it's getting at; let's avoid the overly fancy and out-of-context clever-clogs bits - I think it makes many writers edit out stuff that's actually really good, because it's really good and they think that can't possibly be right, as if the singing phrase should be shot down like a songbird before anyone's disturbed by its noise. And I hate cute meaningless tips on principle - anyone who's ever murdered darlings in the right way already knew where they'd gone wrong without being lectured at, and anyone to whom the admonition might have been useful if it were phrased better was probably confused or depressed hearing it, or else oblivious to its wisdom.
How about we try not giving advice that makes people feel worse about themselves and their accomplishments, for a start, and how about if we feel we must say something then we explain what we mean instead of being pithy and trite? There.