Explain please?

[CiaoSteve]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I wouldn't.
You don't really have an obligation to answer. Don't sweat it and move on.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

None. If the person contacting me can't be bothered to provide more info about their specific question, then I won't waste my time responding or trying to figure it out.

 

[Writer61]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

Reminds me of "nice change of pace" with no hint of the point of reference.

 

[vanmyers86]

If a reader doesn't give me something concrete to explain, I'm not going to try to guess.

 

[HordHolm]

42

 

[Gamblnluck]

I've mainly had only very polite inquiries into the rationale behind a couple of my stories. They generally ask specific questions and are well though out. I took it as an invitation to discuss the story.
Rude, half baked questions I ignore. I have had my and I'm sure your good friend Anonymous send me a few emails as well. Without a return address you can't respond.

 

[Bamagan]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

Just copy and paste the definitions of the word 'please' and call it a day.

 

[MK_Whimsy]

More than likely, I won't have an explanation. A lot of my stories defy explanation anyway.

 

[TheLobster]

 

[KittyOfSteele]

 

[AG31]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

none

 

[ElectricBlue]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

If the chump can't ask a coherent question, why would I bother giving a reply?

In any event, I'd just say, go read the story again, it's not that incoherent.

 

[SkyBubble]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

I would ignore it. If you feel you must respond, say something like "Can you please be more specific?" But I'd just ignore it.

 

[Voboy]

Ignore. I'd not delete it, since I think it's harmless. And if I was skimming someone else's comments and saw that one, I'd find it amusing.

 

[Tio_Narratore]

There is no explanation for the ethereal and at times maleficent force in the universe or something like that that pierces my skull to alight on my brain, its talons or claws or fingers or fins pulling and yanking on neurons and synapses and driving me to virtual paper where it sends words like lawn darts or mortar shells to pierce or explode on the field that is my tabula rasa, raising images and ideas and sensations in myself and any and all who may come across that field either intentionally or by accident or fate or a combination of all and maybe more, and for some of those hapless happen-byers to leave them in utter and absolute confusion so that they cannot even discern what it is that leaves them with an ineffable feeling of unknowingness.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

I'm sometimes a little sarcastic, but I'd opt for something like :


The word "please" can function as an adverb or a verb.

When used as an adverb, "please" adds politeness or emphasis to a request or statement. For example: "Could you please close the door?".

When used as a verb, "please" means to make someone happy or satisfied. For example: "I hope I was able to please you.".

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I'm sometimes a little sarcastic, but I'd opt for something like :


The word "please" can function as an adverb or a verb.

When used as an adverb, "please" adds politeness or emphasis to a request or statement. For example: "Could you please close the door?".

When used as a verb, "please" means to make someone happy or satisfied. For example: "I hope I was able to please you.".

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Great example of how tight their harmony was.

 

[ThatNewGuy]

I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please?

It might be fun to take a maximalist approach:

It all started with Adam and Eve.

Now, maybe you don’t put no stock in that. Maybe you think everything just — BOOM — burst into existence from nothing. That’s fine. You can take that shit up with Old Scratch while the weasels are playing piñata with your sack. I ain’t here to judge. I’m just here to explain.

So before the serpent showed up, things were p-r-e-t-t-y boring. Same thing, day after day. Two naked people. Paradise. I’m sure you get the idea.

Let’s just say there wasn’t a lot of gardening going on in Eden.

If you know what I mean.

Sex. Sex is what I mean.

Anyway, the serpent started yapping about this delicious apple. What kind of apple? Well, some folks’ll swear up and down it was a Jonagold. Others’ll tell you it was an Ambrosia.

But that’s all bullshit. And it ain’t because those varieties didn’t exist before the 20th century. I’m pretty sure The Almighty can put whatever apple He wants on His tree.

No, it’s bullshit because any fella worth his salt knows that the sweetest, juiciest, most deliciously tempting apple in all of God’s creation is the Honeycrisp, and it’s damn sure the only apple coulda caused the Fall of Man.

[insert 100,000 words of ChatGPT nonsense]

Which brings us to The Dark Ages. Now there’s the biggest misnomer in the history o’ misnomers…

 

[TheLobster]

It might be fun to take a maximalist approach:

“In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

 

[NotWise]

So, I'm going to put it out there and see where it goes. I've just received a rather vague piece of anonymous feedback which simply said . . . explain please? I can try and second guess, but I thought I'd drop the question to you all . . . if I asked you to "explain please" on your latest story, what explanation would you give?

Responding would probably be a waste of time, but I might look for something in the question. I don't know the story, and the comment without context is hard to interpret. You know your story. Is there something to explain?

If the reader finished the story then the question is probably about something near the end of the story. The climax? The denouement? If you left the reader needing an explanation early in the story, then maybe they didn't finish reading and the question is about something that knocked them out of the story.

I'd try to get a handle on what the reader meant. Sometimes other comments can help. I'd take anything I found as a lesson for the future.

 

[CiaoSteve]

42

Love it

 

[CiaoSteve]

Hey all.... thanks so much for making me laugh a little. I'm not planning on responding. Just thought it was a rather strange comment for somebody to think of leaving, Loving some of your responses though, and the couple of serious replies I have already received.

 

[CiaoSteve]

Responding would probably be a waste of time, but I might look for something in the question. I don't know the story, and the comment without context is hard to interpret. You know your story. Is there something to explain?

If the reader finished the story then the question is probably about something near the end of the story. The climax? The denouement? If you left the reader needing an explanation early in the story, then maybe they didn't finish reading and the question is about something that knocked them out of the story.

I'd try to get a handle on what the reader meant. Sometimes other comments can help. I'd take anything I found as a lesson for the future.

I could imagine a couple of scenarios... the link between the story and the contest, which is tenuous but explained up front, and maybe what happens post the story, but that would be more of a please continue than a please explain... otherwise it might just be that I chose Vogan as a language to write in, in which case I only have myself to blame.