Writer's Workshop General Chat Thread

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Never had lucid dreams before, or if I had, I don't remember them because I sleep WAY to well.

[adiosToreador]

So who was asking about lucid dreaming and why again?

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Think it was Red who started the discussion.

[adiosToreador]

Ah, all right.

[Red]

Yeah. It was me. I also asked if anyone knew what a Tulpa was. My friend made one. It's not that he's lonely, but his parents are divorced and there's a lot of shit that happens he doesn't like talking about. I tried to talk to him about it, but he feels more comfortable with a Tulpa. It's actually really cool, but I don't need one.

[Selemena]

Just a note, guys: while this is an off-topic thread and meant to be fun, posts should still all be meaningful and contribute to the discussion at hand. Two- or three-word posts don't tend to do that, and I really don't want to hand out any pointless post warnings/infractions since this is meant to be a chill thread. Additionally, if two members are just trying to have a conversation about one thing while other people are talking about something else/not talking because they feel excluded, it's probably better to take it to VMs. Not aimed at anyone in particular; I've just been noticing that the thread keeps getting derailed a bit over the last few days.

Seeing as we've apparently said just about all that is to be said regarding lucid dreaming (and it's giving me the heebie-jeebies), might I suggest a writing topic of sorts?

Harsh reviewers. We've all had one or two, yet sometimes they are surprisingly helpful. They often bury it below thick layers of sarcasm and snark, even capslock and flat-out abuse, but after reading their review, you suddenly find yourself enlightened as to the state of your fic. Do you ever find that, or is it just me?

(Oh, and as for tulpas . . . count me out. I'm sorry, but I find that kind of spiritual thing meaningless. I know people get a lot of comfort from it sometimes, and I don't begrudge them that, but at the same time . . . it makes me uncomfortable.)

[adiosToreador]

Eep. Sorry about that.

Meh, I've dealt with a ton of overly-harsh reviews in my workshop classes, but they've never really bothered me. Most of them have just been searching for things to fill up space and meet the required length for the review (which I always found to be irritating, but at the same time, you know there'd be assholes who'd only write one or two line reviews if some length requirement wasn't in place). I haven't really encountered any snarky or sarcastic reviewers, though.

[Selemena]

I'm personally thinking of a certain encounter I had with a notorious BNF on fanfiction.net a while back. I disagree with her on many things, but when she happened to review my story - despite being a complete and utter bitch about it - I actually learned a lot. I ditched that story (she was right to say it was terrible, incidentally) and applied what I learned to my new projects.

[unrepentantAuthor]

Aaaaaaaaaaand it is done!

Very impressive, I like~ I approve of the cutie mark. And yessss, goggles! Perfect.

Harsh reviewers. We've all had one or two, yet sometimes they are surprisingly helpful. They often bury it below thick layers of sarcasm and snark, even capslock and flat-out abuse, but after reading their review, you suddenly find yourself enlightened as to the state of your fic. Do you ever find that, or is it just me?

I have a beta whose sole purpose is to spew as much in-depth, unrelenting, unforgiving critique as possible. She's an immense help, and she keeps my writing well within the margins of acceptable quality. I am honestly, deeply grateful for her help - for help is what it is - as it is largely through her efforts that I have become as good a writer as I have. Thank you, @R0-S3; you deserve much credit.

I'm personally thinking of a certain encounter I had with a notorious BNF on fanfiction.net a while back. I disagree with her on many things, but when she happened to review my story - despite being a complete and utter bitch about it - I actually learned a lot. I ditched that story (she was right to say it was terrible, incidentally) and applied what I learned to my new projects.

Ohohoho, I have a guess as to the person. It occurs to me; harsh critics aren't always right, and a person your 'BNF' reminded me of has reviewed my work with - I believe - entirely invalid critique on one occasion. She didn't show me enough respect to discuss it, either, she merely insulted me. On that note, the thing about 'harsh' criticism is that making it abusive - with caps, vulgarity, defamation, etc - is almost always an entirely unnecessary indulgence that assists no one and serves no creditable purpose. Gotta be altruistic and get some constructive crit all up in this bitch.

[Lugion]

Harsh reviewers. We've all had one or two, yet sometimes they are surprisingly helpful. They often bury it below thick layers of sarcasm and snark, even capslock and flat-out abuse, but after reading their review, you suddenly find yourself enlightened as to the state of your fic. Do you ever find that, or is it just me?

Farla. Period.

She basically told me that Stainless Steel was shit, and, obviously, "Poké Ball" is one word, "Pokéball." Of course, she also went on about not capitalizing Pokémon species names.

[Kelleo]

I've had a lot of harsh reviewers. And I hated it. When I would ask them to stop being like that, people would just pass me off as being immature and not wanting to accept criticism. I did have a bit of a problem doing that in the first place, but that was no excuse. Some of those reviews really were too harsh.

Gastly's Mama writes the kind of reviews and critique I would accept.

[TheLlama]

Oh, there's this reviewer who was active at serebii a year or so ago, yami ryu or something. It was around the time when I was doing a lot of reviewing there as well, and she was really notorious for her harsh reviews. She leaned more towards the flaming than the actual helping though, so she got banned in the end afair.

Haven't gotten anything but positively-toned reviews myself though.

[LightningTopaz]

When i review, I focus on what the fic did right first before moving to constructive criticism. Even then, I will phrase the criticism as a question if I can.

[Tophat Dragoneye]

The first review I got for the first chapter of my first fic I thought was a bit harsh to be honest. But when read it over once more, I could see where I could improve in the future and it has to this day been a great help.

[Gama]

The first review I ever got told me that I was a terrible writer. That was very upsetting.

@Kelleo; I'm glad you found my review helpful, I often worry that I'm too harsh.