Some really bad writers on here.

[Guest]

No one's saying you have to be a professional author to post on Lit or to write a decent story. But the fact is, yeah, Lit publishes anything and everything, and 90% of it is bad. Probably 80% of it mind-numbingly bad, downright anti-enjoyable--flat, cliched, dull, unimaginative, and hard to read.

But Lit's not just for great literature. Not at all. Probably only 5% of readers care about that. It's a place where people come to get their rocks off on pure smut or learn how to write or follow their scores or see their stuff published and live the writing life too, and that's what it is. And yeah, criticism is mild, because doing a critique is very difficult and few people have the skills to tell what's wrong with a story, and even fewer really want to know.

But there's certainly stuff worth reading here. Lots of it. You just have to know how to find it. Picking random stories is not the way to go. Nor, for my money, are the top lists. I go by recommendations, just like I do for non-porn reading material.

What Zoot said.

It's a free site.

And it's where people can learn and grow as writers or maybe just toss up their one-time story of the frathouse gangbang and boast and point to it and email all their friends and reread it hundreds of times.

There is a place for that here, too.

 

[SlickTony]

Oh? I thought it was some new literary trend, like sentence fragments and quotes without quotation marks. Call me old-school, but I guess that's why I stick to reading older published fiction.

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. You can tell when it's a conscious stylistic choice and when it's simply slipshod, crappy writing.

Take writing in the present tense, consistently through a story. You have to be very, very, very good to carry this off. If you aren't, say, Damon Runyon, you might want to leave it alone.

With the lack of quote marks, this can be carried off, but you have to be consistent.

RicoLouis, I'm not published anywhere but here, but I can guarantee my stuff has been edited out the wazoo by someone who knows how. I have acted, albeit in an unofficial capacity, as a copy editor for most of my working life.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

TX RAD

I'm reading all the old Uncle Remus, Zora Hurston negro mythology, and its pretty clear that Joel Chandler Harris and Ms.Hurston violated pert nearly every civilized rule of writing with Brer Rabbit and the gang. But the writing drips magic and charm.

On the other-hand I read a modern, sanitized, grammatically correct translation of Uncle Remus, and its painful. The flavor is sucked out of it. Its like communion wafers.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

Sure! There are quality stories on LIT; I've come across a couple or three. And youre right about the ranking; it has nuthin to do with the quality of the writing. The usual suspects get together and inflate their scores.

It's the 'everyone gets a gold star' policy that keeps the good stuff hidden. Its like gold in seawater.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

DOC

Sure! There are quality stories on LIT; I've come across a couple or three. And youre right about the ranking; it has nuthin to do with the quality of the writing. The usual suspects get together and inflate their scores.

It's the 'everyone gets a gold star' policy that keeps the good stuff hidden. Its like gold in seawater.

Yeah. Everyone complains about the 1-bombing. No one complains about the 5-bombing.

 

[freshface]

Yeah. Everyone complains about the 1-bombing. No one complains about the 5-bombing.

That's because we know that the 5 votes are from insightful readers and the 1 bombs are from vicious trolls.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

DOC

I posted elsewhere that I'm reading all the negro mythology, viz., the Brer Rabbit tales. Several writers compiled them in book form.

I read Joel Chandler Harris last so he wouldnt influence my opinion.

Zora Hurston gets an E for effort because her tales are funny and outrageous and interesting. But JCH kicks her ass because he used the best versions of the old tales, linked them to a natural storyteller named Uncle Remus, and added the children.

The difference, in my opinion, is the people who mentored Harris and Hurston. Harris learned writing from humorist William Tappan Thompson, and Hurston learned from Margaret Mead and Franz Boaz....anthropologists.

 

[SlickTony]

That's because we know that the 5 votes are from insightful readers and the 1 bombs are from vicious trolls.

Fuckin'-A, Freshface. That's always been my take on it.

 

[Oblimo]

[passable Grandpa Simpson impersonation]

I'm a bad writer!

Pulls out wallet, rifles through membership cards

I'm also a Mason, a Communist...

Peers at third Card

I'm the President of the Gay and Lesbian Association for some reason...

[/passable Grandpa Simpson impersonation]

 

[Guest]

[passable Grandpa Simpson impersonation]

I'm a bad writer!

Pulls out wallet, rifles through membership cards

I'm also a Mason, a Communist...

Peers at third Card

I'm the President of the Gay and Lesbian Association for some reason...

[/passable Grandpa Simpson impersonation]

You're a Mason????

(Our engagement is off.)

 

[Oblimo]

(Our engagement is off.)

Well then at least give me back the diamond-encrusted paddle I sent you!

 

[IrezumiKiss]

You're a Mason????

(Our engagement is off.)

uhhh...I have a slight fetish for Mason jars. Is that a green light or a red light in your book?

 

[Guest]

Well then at least give me back the diamond-encrusted paddle I sent you!

You can have the crust - I'll keep the paddle.

 

[Guest]

uhhh...I have a slight fetish for Mason jars. Is that a green light or a red light in your book?

Wide mouth?

We'll talk.

 

[champagne1982]

They're good at that -- all while proclaiming (in apparent sincerity) that they don't try to make others feel inferior.

I don't recommend praising everything as fabulous, but as far as that forum goes, the prevalence of sneering is very distasteful to me.

Doesn't your burden get heavy when you carry around little shit like that all the time?

 

[cloudy]

Doesn't your burden get heavy when you carry around little shit like that all the time?

She's not alone. There are many, many more that feel the same way, but no longer bother to voice it, since it does no good.

 

[Guest]

She's not alone. There are many, many more that feel the same way, but no longer bother to voice it, since it does no good.

She's not alone.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

It's really easy to generalize about an entire group of people, especially a group with whom you don't interact.

I won't argue that any area on this forum is better or worse in the snarkiness department than any other. Seems like they're all pretty much the same: groups of people, some of whom have formed friendly subgroups, with a very complex set of dynamics. Every possible profile, every possible level of courtesy or lack of same.

good thing no one's recruiting, so we just don't have to worry about it. I do notice, however, that there isn't a lot of discussion over in the PF&D about how Mean and Awful some other board is. We're generally too busy being snarky elitists about other things, I guess.

I found it interesting, though, that Dr. M (and I don't want to put words in his mouth) seemed to be saying that in his first encounter he was sorta new and not quite polite with his first post about Lotsa Bad Writers Around Here. So his point may have been, if you're going to interact with a group, watch a little first, and try to be polite. Which, if that's what you were saying, Dr. M, seems like a very wise point to make.

bijou

 

[starrkers]

There are really bad writers on Lit; probably a few on the AH. Ditto the Poets. And we all get highly defensive when poked by outsiders - the overwhelming reaction is usually "Well, what have you written that's so bloody good?"

Is that likely to change? Nope. It's human nature.

 

[unpredictablebijou]

There are really bad writers on Lit; probably a few on the AH. Ditto the Poets. And we all get highly defensive when poked by outsiders - the overwhelming reaction is usually "Well, what have you written that's so bloody good?"

Is that likely to change? Nope. It's human nature.

Well said.

I'd venture to say, even, that there are plenty of writers who have good work and bad work, and some in between. Everyone has something they are totally proud of, something good, and probably at least one or two Bad things hiding in a file somewhere. If every one of us were a perfect writer, we wouldn't be here, right? Why gather with other writers and try to improve your skills if you're already perfect?

Mostly, though, it's an excellent way to meet other people who share one's interests. I see that, and skillbuilding, as pretty primary goals for being on Lit.

bijou

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

STARRKERS

The thing is, regardless of how long the other guy's dick is, if your dick is small you still have a small dick. When you try and sell your writing, and no one wants it, your "lemme see yours" argument wont wash.

 

[starrkers]

STARRKERS

The thing is, regardless of how long the other guy's dick is, if your dick is small you still have a small dick. When you try and sell your writing, and no one wants it, your "lemme see yours" argument wont wash.

Who said anything about trying to sell stuff? I haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of hawking my crap for money and I know it.
Doesn't stop me from giving the odd "put up or shut up" on threads.

 

[Guest]

Who said anything about trying to sell stuff? I haven't got a snowball's chance in hell of hawking my crap for money and I know it.
Doesn't stop me from giving the odd "put up or shut up" on threads.

Don't quote the poo monkey!

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

STARRKERS

Well this is the place to do whatever you want so long as you conform to STARRKERS idea of how things should be? Is that about the gist of it? STARRKERS gets to make the standards? I think it is.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

SARAH

Pour yourself another toddy.