[ SECRET POST #3143 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3143 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 038 secrets from Secret Submission Post #449.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

15. http://i.imgur.com/ktvINNl.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Projection = Gettin steamed up about flaws in other people that you are unable to see in yourself.

[quantumreality]

I could swear someone else complained about something very similar a few weeka ago.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, that was me. (Not OP of this one.) This secret really nails what bothers me about my friend's fic too, lol. It's strange how some writers can be technically skilled, but totally fail to add flavor to their own works.

[(Anonymous)]

I think anon hate might be the way to go here, and I'm totally serious. Like, don't be mean about it, but just... review honestly.

[sarillia]

That would be really awkward if the friend decided to vent to OP about it.

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt - Awkward, or... a good excuse to open up that line of discussion.

[sarillia]

Or both. But I'm a very awkward person so maybe that's just me.

[(Anonymous)]

If you think your friend might take note, the anon review sounds like a good idea. Don't post it when you feel emotional. Write the review, leave it a day, and then re-read before you press send. You're trying to help her, so write what she'd be most likely to respond to well.

[(Anonymous)]

I've seen this complaint before, and I still find it hard to understand how a technically skilled writer can be so boring to read.

Writing skills don't stop at being able to spell. They include knowing how to create atmosphere, pacing, character development and much more. If you're truly technically skilled at all these things it would be hard to write an entirely dull story.

[(Anonymous)]

Being skilled doesn't automatically bestow creativity, however.

Boring or inane are still boring or inane, no matter how grammatically perfect the sentences.

[(Anonymous)]

(I like how the other reply to this seemingly completely ignores half of your comment.) I'm also finding it weird when people say this. My best guess is that the stories are too cliché to hold one's attention even when well constructed? "No redeeming qualities" just sounds awfully harsh, lol, but I wish there was a good frame of reference.

[(Anonymous)]

Ayrt

I think of it the same way as when people say someone is good at mathematics but they really mean good at arithmetic. Many advanced mathematicians can't even count that well. They use calculators for all that.

Spelling and grammar are probably the least important technical skills for being a good creative writer. Any editor can fix your spelling and grammar.

[(Anonymous)]

I think you're sort of wandering away from what people mean by "good technical writer" when you start talking atmosphere and character development, though. There are people who know the nitty gritty details of what a story is supposed to have, but it doesn't necessarily mean they can do it. Most prolific readers know of stories where the writing is accurate and all the elements seem to be there but for some reason it just doesn't work.

Conversely, there are people who are quite good at telling a story, but rubbish at the technical bits so their sentences are all over the place, there are POV jumps and run ons, etc. All of those things can and do detract from the overall quality of a story, but there are still stories that can transcend the technical flaws and suck people in. Most prolific readers know of a story like that, too.

[(Anonymous)]

The author may be trained extensively in another form of writing which isn't fiction writing. For example, journalism. That would train you to be an excellent and accurate recorder of *facts*, perhaps even an excellent editor of other people's work, but not how to be great at making stuff up, because in that job, making stuff up is highly frowned upon and you have to tailor your writing to be understandable by any audience, like people with a fourth grade reading level who are skimming your story on the commuter train.


Being a better judge of other people's work than your own is not the slightest bit unusual. Roger Ebert was a brilliant film reviewer- could he have actually made a movie himself? Probably not.

Has the OP ever considered offering to help their "friend"?

[(Anonymous)]

Ebert did make movies, you can see how well know they are.

[(Anonymous)]

When people talk about technical writing, they're talking about the strictly mechanical parts: grammar, sentence structure, word choice, etc. Someone can be great at all of that, but rubbish at everything else.

In the same way, someone can be great at creating atmosphere, developing characters, etc, but have terrible grammar, sentence structure, and word choice.

Not to mention...

[(Anonymous)]

Authors whose works are brilliant, really fucking brilliant, nuanced emotional masterpieces...but their responses to people's comments are completely asinine.

There's this author that popped up in one of my older fandoms, basically this fandom got a reboot and she apparently caught wind of it, started churning out amazing fic after amazing fic...but when people started commenting on her stuff, her comments back read like she's a ditzy high schooler. I've even tried to engage them in semi-intelligent conversation and all they did was lol at me. It makes me NOT like her fic, even though they're like some of the best fic I've read. But maybe I'm just an asshole like that.

Re: Not to mention...

[(Anonymous)]

some people just like to have fun. you sound liek a pretentious douche.

Re: Not to mention...

[(Anonymous)]

DA

Yeah, it's also possible the author doesn't want to sound like they take their own fanfic too seriously.

Re: Not to mention...

[(Anonymous)]

... or maybe all those amazing works are plagarized.

(65.3% serious)

[(Anonymous)]

To be kind:
maybe she thinks she executes those ideas better or maybe she has a hard time coming up with ideas

To be not kind:
maybe those fics gain her hit points and views and that is what she cares about or she's jealous of the other stories for their hit points and reviews and thus vents about how awful they are

(without concrete examples of fics you enjoy versus fics you find as drivel, it is hard to be able to break it down into anything more concrete. Perhaps a compare, contrast with your friend should be in order.)

[(Anonymous)]

maybe I'm projecting, but in my experience authors like that don't include enough of themselves to be interesting. they're lukewarm because they're embarrassed, or are so proficient as reader that they just rehash something safe.