[howardcosell]

While I'm recovering from another illness lol, I wanted to say a huge thank you to the great writers who choose to share their works and the works of others on this site. It is a great feeling to read the emotion, the visual action, and the humor of these stories and I tip my hat to you. Anybody can be a critic; anybody can sit at a computer and act tough; anybody can be keyboard warrior with no real life in the real world, but it takes people who understand what is really important to say thank you and be happy with the efforts others put forth. Happiness to each of you always!

[~Rox Erotique~]

awe... bless! that's sweet!

x G x

[Brit_Brat1]

While I'm recovering from another illness lol, I wanted to say a huge thank you to the great writers who choose to share their works and the works of others on this site. It is a great feeling to read the emotion, the visual action, and the humor of these stories and I tip my hat to you. Anybody can be a critic; anybody can sit at a computer and act tough; anybody can be keyboard warrior with no real life in the real world, but it takes people who understand what is really important to say thank you and be happy with the efforts others put forth. Happiness to each of you always!

I really agree with you that praise is important........ but to be honest I disagree that anyone can be a critic.  I think it takes an enormous amount of skill to be one of those that do it in a way that the writer feels his work is worthwhile whilst at the same time seeing areas where it can be improved.. and lets face it anyones work can become better.  I know I cant do it but a really good writer can, one of these days I will trawl through stories and find a good example of a critic unless anyone else knows of one to save me the task . If every story has praise in the comments there would be no learning curve would there? and the outcome of this no moving on and no improvement . 

I was once taught how to write a memo where I would wish something to be changed and went something like this

Praise, problem and ending with a priase.

 I seriously do not think anyone should criticise or correct in anger/frustration as that will come through very loud and clear and will have a negative affect on the reader

Brit

[howardcosell]

@ Tom, you are definitely included in the authors to be praised, as your work demonstrates. Thanks for the kind words and I love boxing and I definitely get the Cosell Frazier/Foreman reference lol.  Brit Brat... you missed the point of what I was saying. Anyone can criticize; it's like that  saying about opinions being like assholes. I am not talking about anybody being able to be on level with a professional critic. This thread is to thank the writers who contribute here. There are people who try to act tough online and hardly ever have anything positive to post about anything. These people overcompensate for something lacking in their real lives by trying to be keyboard warriors and internet bullies. There are more of them than there are people who are truly grateful for what we have here sand on other sites. As an author and as a fan and reader, I wanted to say "good job."

[Brit_Brat1]

Hi,

Following on from these posts I tried to find an example of what is being discussed here without success, probably because posts had been deleted.

I think, when something like this is being discussed it would be great to have an example of some sort?  Would save everyone having to trawl through what is a vast amount of literature trying to find a specimen so as to respond in a knowledgeable fashion.  I guess I am ignorant as I hardly ever read stories or go to this section.

Having said that whilst looking for something to identify I came across a story where the loser of a fight was left with earphones listening to the winners music which caused me to smile.  I think this was an excellent and unexpected end to a fight and very imaginative.  Tom, in addition to this I do think your fights are very well laid out with headings, colours and different sections.  I don't read stories as a general rule because I do not have that much time online what with work and in real life events and am more interested in being a participant in chat than a reader.

I had hoped this subject topic, and I am sure howardcosell brought up this topic for the purpose of change, would cause different responses to stories.  I do think those that read the stories could give more feedback perhaps? because I have noticed that stories as a rule have very few replies.  I totally agree that feedback needs to include praise at what the author has doene well ......... if this cant be done then I would say do not bother responding as its worthless. But there is no harm in a writer including with priase what could be improved and the writer weighing up whether there is any substance in what is being said after all everyones idea of perfection will be different.

Brit

[tomcfstories]

Hi, Having said that whilst looking for something to identify I came across a story where the loser of a fight was left with earphones listening to the winners music which caused me to smile.  I think this was an excellent and unexpected end to a fight and very imaginative.  Tom, in addition to this I do think your fights are very well laid out with headings, colours and different sections.  I don't read stories as a general rule because I do not have that much time online what with work and in real life events and am more interested in being a participant in chat than a reader.

I had hoped this subject topic, and I am sure howardcosell brought up this topic for the purpose of change, would cause different responses to stories.  I do think those that read the stories could give more feedback perhaps? because I have noticed that stories as a rule have very few replies.  I totally agree that feedback needs to include praise at what the author has doene well ......... if this cant be done then I would say do not bother responding as its worthless. But there is no harm in a writer including with priase what could be improved and the writer weighing up whether there is any substance in what is being said after all everyones idea of perfection will be different.

Brit

That music story was Stella vs somebody I think.  Stella is a punk rocker, so that was quite the punishment.  I can't remember if she had to listen to other music or the other person had to listen to punk rock(in other words who won).  The best story setup I ever wrote was Natasha vs Lea and maybe even the postmatch in that same story.  I have to say that is my best story ever.  I also made it a story on itself talking about a writer (me) wanting to write it instead of an IRL and had a chat background to use as the material.  The quotes of what each other said were really true up as far as Lea saying Natasha wasn't tough enough, etc.  That actually came in a chat...actually multiple chats.  Natasha wanted the story...Lea didn't and had to be convinced by natasha to do it.  The reason the stories have few replies is obvious to me...there are so many stories.  I have 110 myself on this board.  No one criticized your constructive critique statement.  However, if you visited this area more (which you admitted you dont), you would see that there is one flamer who posted the same message on 8 of my stories (all 8 flames since removed) There is also another flame who doesn't even mind plagiarizing material to try to satire something apparently.  And on another story posted "just another story between 2 guys".  The story the person (not me) wrote was NOT 2 stories between guys.  If he has proof that those two subjects were men, that person needs to prove it or shut up and quit lying.

[tomcfstories]

Hi, Having said that whilst looking for something to identify I came across a story where the loser of a fight was left with earphones listening to the winners music which caused me to smile.  I think this was an excellent and unexpected end to a fight and very imaginative.  Tom, in addition to this I do think your fights are very well laid out with headings, colours and different sections.  I don't read stories as a general rule because I do not have that much time online what with work and in real life events and am more interested in being a participant in chat than a reader.

I had hoped this subject topic, and I am sure howardcosell brought up this topic for the purpose of change, would cause different responses to stories.  I do think those that read the stories could give more feedback perhaps? because I have noticed that stories as a rule have very few replies.  I totally agree that feedback needs to include praise at what the author has doene well ......... if this cant be done then I would say do not bother responding as its worthless. But there is no harm in a writer including with priase what could be improved and the writer weighing up whether there is any substance in what is being said after all everyones idea of perfection will be different.

Brit

That music story was Stella vs AsianSarah.  Stella is a punk rocker, so that was quite the punishment that Sarah had to listen to punk rock.  The best story setup I ever wrote was Natasha vs Lea and maybe even the postmatch in that same story.  I have to say that may still my best story ever.  I also made it a story on itself talking about a writer (me) wanting to write it instead of an IRL and had a chat background to use as the material.  The quotes of what each other said were really true up as far as Lea saying Natasha wasn't tough enough, etc.  That actually came in a chat...actually multiple chats.  Natasha wanted the story...Lea didn't and had to be convinced by natasha to do it.  The reason the stories have few replies is obvious to me...there are so many stories.  I have 110 myself on this board.  No one criticized your constructive critique statement.  However, if you visited this area more (which you admitted you dont), you would see that there is one flamer who posted the same message on 8 of my stories (all 8 flames since removed) There is also another flame who doesn't even mind plagiarizing material to try to satire something apparently.  And on another story posted "just another story between 2 guys".  The story the person (not me) wrote was NOT 2 stories between guys.  If he has proof that those two subjects were men, that person needs to prove it or shut up and quit lying.

[Brit_Brat1]

Hi,

Would like to make a suggestion that might just help the problem described in Tom's last post. 

How about those that write stories responding to others' stories in a manner that is going to benefit the writers ie what is good about the story, what could be improved and what was really exciting or something along those lines...remembering though that if the response is pure criticism its just not worth the bother as it will only discourage and have a negative impact on the author?   After all who better to make comments than story writers themselves.

There are a large amount of contributors to this section and if writers made comments then that would have the affect of drowning out those that wish to disrupt and discourage.......... just my thoughts

Brit

[peccavi]

Brit's idea is excellent. Let's comment on each other's stories, suggesting improvements or editing where that would help.

[tomcfstories]

Hi,

Would like to make a suggestion that might just help the problem described in Tom's last post.  How about those that write stories responding to others' stories in a manner that is going to benefit the writers ie what is good about the story, what could be improved and what was really exciting or something along those lines...remembering though that if the response is pure criticism its just not worth the bother as it will only discourage and have a negative impact on the author?   After all who better to make comments than story writers themselves.  There are a large amount of contributors to this section and if writers made comments then that would have the affect of drowning out those that wish to disrupt and discourage.......... just my thoughts

Brit

You're still slightly off target.  You are preaching to the choir as far as those who are legitimate critics.  I am already hearing from them and there is 0 problem with them.  So, good of you to repeat that thought (NOT being sarcastic) but this is really not necessary.  The others....guess what...they know exactly what they are doing and probably laughing at anyone's suggestion like yours or mine.  One of your lines isn't relevant to my knowledge at all:

"How about those that write stories responding to others' stories"...    I have seen very few writers respond to my stories.  Who I get responses from are the women in the stories, the couple of flamers, and a few random replies...never know why they responded to Story A and not Story B but doesn't really matter.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the legitimate posters are already doing what you suggest....only the flamers are not, and quite frankly, they don't care.  Oh, and BTW, I will give you IMO the reason the writers don't respond that much to others' stories....they are too busy writing their own.    To be honest, I dont' have time to read others stories which is unfortunate for me.  But when you have about 15 stories in the queue right now (technically it is 17 if I had opponents for the other two where I have one person wanting a story), I guess you know why I'm not reading a bunch of stories :-)

[howardcosell]

I have to text this post lol; Happy Halloween. Once again, Tom is right. Some people will only respnd to a story if they are in it. Sort of like a girl who won't read your poetry, but begs you to write her a poem. But there are enough folks who do respond. I try to respond to stories and just be positive. A person doesn't have to like my stories; if s/he is replying to others' works, I will respond to his or hers. I am a teacher, but this is not my class and there are people here who are just as talented, if not far more talented at writing these stories than I am. I don't intend to grade folks or give elaborate critiques unless I know the person well enough. Plus, unlike my articles and other works, I do not usually run my stuff through spellcheck. I reread and correct it as I'm doing it, but it's not that serious. I'm not writing Ultimate Catfighter to have it submitted to a scholarly journal. Another factor is in what people like. Some of the other authors and I joke that we'd get far more views if we put "mother" in the titles of our stories and simplified the writing. People will like what they will like and if I don't like like something, I just will not read it.

People do have egos; we all do, on some level. There is a strong chance that somebody will get offended by the slightest criticism.

No offense, but I don't want to argue with anybody about anything on this site anymore, especially not a trivial matter. I come here, do my stories, say hi to folks and read their works, and that's it. I want to just have some fun and that's what the authors here are doing. I used to get passionate and argue and it's not worth all that for me.

There's a line in Fellini's film 8 1/2. "Happiness is being able to tell the truth without hurting anybody's feelings." Sometimes, it's better to like and let like.     

[~Rox Erotique~]

No offense, but I don't want to argue with anybody about anything on this site anymore, especially not a trivial matter. I come here, do my stories, say hi to folks and read their works, and that's it. I want to just have some fun and that's what the authors here are doing. I used to get passionate and argue and it's not worth all that for me.

Amen brother! LOL, let's put a line under this now and all hug it out! You rock Howard! I like your vibe!

Peace! 

x G x