My first stories!

[Agiel]

Okay. Write the story. Choose any living person and write a story about them to go in whichever category you choose.

I have one proviso. Make sure you have a decent plot, research the background, spell people’s names correctly, generally spell all words correctly, make sure your punctuation is okay. Not necessarily perfect but okay.

--#--#--

Well, you have obviously not read any of my stories since they all have a decent plot, are deeply researched and click the rest of the gobbledygook you listed.

Sheeeesh.

You are quite correct, Mr Homedog, in that I have never read any of your stories but, as the comment was about Katrina, I would have thought you would have realised my comments were in respect of her writing, not yours, although her choice of subject was ill conceived.

It’s obvious from reading the stories she’s submitted that she knows nothing about the subject, has done no research, and can’t even spell her main characters name correctly. The ratings she had received for the three chapters she’s submitted are evidence not only of my opinion but of the opinion of those who’ve read them.

Assuming you accept she needs to improve her writing you should be giving her constructive advice on how to do so not just making comments springing to her defence. I assume you are springing to her defence as regards the choice of subject matter and the standard of her writing?

 

[LAHomedog]

Assuming you accept she needs to improve her writing you should be giving her constructive advice on how to do so not just making comments springing to her defence. I assume you are springing to her defence as regards the choice of subject matter and the standard of her writing?

Choice of subject. I don't believe in rules, must do, must not do, shoulds, and limiting art as long as it is legal.

Back in the days of Reynolds and Sargent the Royal Academy of Art had stringent rules about what qualified as art until they didn't. I Picasso had followed the rules where would modern art be? The late, great Stephen Sondheim broke the rules and changed an art form. Orson Wells did the same thing with Citizen Kane.

Your original comment and HP's were about choice of topic and that is what I was responding to in all of my posts.

Even though I also made my wife laugh out loud when I read her my Joe and Jill sex scene

 

[lovecraft68]

You are quite correct, Mr Homedog, in that I have never read any of your stories but, as the comment was about Katrina, I would have thought you would have realised my comments were in respect of her writing, not yours, although her choice of subject was ill conceived.

It’s obvious from reading the stories she’s submitted that she knows nothing about the subject, has done no research, and can’t even spell her main characters name correctly. The ratings she had received for the three chapters she’s submitted are evidence not only of my opinion but of the opinion of those who’ve read them.

Assuming you accept she needs to improve her writing you should be giving her constructive advice on how to do so not just making comments springing to her defence. I assume you are springing to her defence as regards the choice of subject matter and the standard of her writing?

Because I don't feel like being subtle tonight I'll just ask

Who the hell are you to yammer about someone's writing and how anyone should write? You have one story published here.

Some people try to be encouraging, and I get your point of its not going to help them if you don't point out what's wrong, but drop the attitude about how other people choose to give feedback.

Your story has a 3.00, looks like opinions on your 'body of work' isn't high either.

 

[LAHomedog]

Because I don't feel like being subtle tonight I'll just ask

Who the hell are you to yammer about someone's writing and how anyone should write? You have one story published here.

Some people try to be encouraging, and I get your point of its not going to help them if you don't point out what's wrong, but drop the attitude about how other people choose to give feedback.

Your story has a 3.00, looks like opinions on your 'body of work' isn't high either.

Thank you LC for saving me from having to make the same post. I had just checked the work product and was coming back to make basically the same comment.

 

[JoeyAcrimonious]

Never would have thought this would be the thread I'd de-lurk on, but I'm surprised no one has pointed this out explicitly yet, so I guess I'll go ahead and say it.

Isn't it pretty much just cultural differences that are at the root of much of the controversy here? Some nations, including many of those in Europe, take speech-related offences such as libel very seriously in law and in legal practice. So their citizens learn to take it seriously too. The UK may not be in quite the same league as, say, France or Germany in this respect - but this is the royal family we're talking about here.

Meanwhile in many other nations, notably including the US, the threat of being prosecuted for libel or any related offence is relatively low. So the people do not care as much.

Case in point:

Would you do it for, say, the relative/s of your President ??

I'm going to assume this may seem like a sensible and persuasive use of rhetorical questioning, if you're from the UK like Handley_Page.

But when I read it with my western hemisphere sensibilities, it utterly fails in its intended purpose, because my gut reaction is yeah, no problem, who cares?

 

[Agiel]

Originally Posted by lovecraft68 View Post
Because I don't feel like being subtle tonight I'll just ask

Who the hell are you to yammer about someone's writing and how anyone should write? You have one story published here.

Some people try to be encouraging, and I get your point of its not going to help them if you don't point out what's wrong, but drop the attitude about how other people choose to give feedback.

Your story has a 3.00, looks like opinions on your 'body of work' isn't high either.
*********
Thank you LC for saving me from having to make the same post. I had just checked the work product and was coming back to make basically the same comment.
LAHomedog -

#########################

My dear Mr Lovecraft and Mr Homedog,

When have you ever been subtle, Lovecraft? That’s not an accusation just an observation. From reading your posts over the years it just seems to be one tirade after another particularly against anyone with whom you disagree. Mr Homedog is doing a good job as your apprentice.

As regards Poison Ivy neither of you have obviously read my signature. So I’ll give you the opportunity to read it twice.

#
Poison Ivy - outrageous and trashy and nonstop fucking fun. Written tongue in cheek and hopefully enjoyable.
#i

When it was published I started a thread “Poison Ivy is a success” pointing out I’d written it, exactly as it says in my signature, as a piece of fun. As I said in the thread I’d written it to specifically excite those people who hammer LW stories without ever reading them. Did either of you read it? I wanted to see how bad a score it would receive and at one time it was well below 3.

I was so successful at antagonising them that one writer of LW stories took it personally and eventually, because of his comments, got the thread shut down. That was because he accused, by name and with no evidence whatsoever to back up his claim, the person he thought had written the story and publicly asked people to trash that writers stories. Pretty despicable wouldn’t you agree?

I haven’t written anywhere near the number of stories you have, Lovecraft, and am nowhere near as successful if you look at the number of H ratings you have. I’m also nowhere near as good a writer. That’s not flattery, it’s the truth.

However, the number of stories I’ve published under my “real name” is roughly the same as Homedog. The difference is, if you go by the H’s, the percentage for his stories is 33% whereas my percentage for a similar number is 77%.

Finally, I would say everyone is entitled to their opinion and if you disagree with me that’s fine. As is if I disagree with you. I maintain that by highlighting the deficiencies in the OP’s writing I’m being constructive in my advice to them, as is anyone else doing the same, and that’s better than not helping at all.

 

[LAHomedog]

When have you ever been subtle, Lovecraft? That’s not an accusation just an observation. From reading your posts over the years it just seems to be one tirade after another particularly against anyone with whom you disagree. Mr Homedog is doing a good job as your apprentice.

First, thank you for the cordial response. I appreciate it. Thank you.

LC's apprentice, no.

We simply agreed on this one.

If you look at my posts on the AH, most of them are very positive and encouraging. I want to nurture, teach, and encourage writers of all kinds. I believe in encouraging artists to pursue their art.

And that is when I get snippy and negative. I hate it when folks on here tell a writer that their idea -- assuming it is legal and in the rules -- should not be pursued. Or they are wrong for following their muse.

There are no rules regarding art. Let me say that again, there are no rules regarding art. Writing and the creation of a story is one of the arts. Probably the 2nd art assuming that cave drawings were first. But maybe the first, if cavemen telling stories around the fire was the first.

The problem we have between us is you acted as part of the story police and told this writer that they should not follow their muse and write their story as conceived.

And then you dressed it up as a review of their writing. But that was never my point. You joined the story police and tried to stop someone's muse.

That is not our role here. Our roll is to encourage every writer's muse even if it is not our own!

If you know my posts on the AH, you know that I am mostly positive and also religious about there are no rules regarding art.

Got it? Done?

 

[windar]

Sayre's Law

I'm sure many of you have heard of Sayre's law, which states, in one of its forms: "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." This board and the various personal disputes that break out here demonstrate the truth of that law on a daily basis.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm sure many of you have heard of Sayre's law, which states, in one of its forms: "In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake." This board and the various personal disputes that break out here demonstrate the truth of that law on a daily basis.

Yes, and there is a corollary to the rule, which is that there is a tendency in a thread (here and elsewhere) for the subject to move from the important to the trivial, and from the substantive to the personal, increasing the intensity of feeling like gas thrown onto a fire.