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Sun 23/11/03 at 20:02
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Post these suck-ass stories somewhere else.
Somebody needs to say it and I don't care about what you think of me enough to be the one to stand up and say it.

They suck.
Plain and simple.
Harsh but true. Deal with it.
Most of this first page are stories. Bad ones.
A couple are alright, but most are sub-A Level English lit essays on predictability.
"He sat in a big armchair in room. The room was big, he turned on a television. The television was big"
Christ....

"What do you know Goatboy? Who are you to tell us what to post and where? Blah blah blah blah"
I'm me, it's true, shut up.
"Intelligent discussion"
Nothing about the bombs in Turkey, nothing about Dubya's visit to London, nothing about the anniversary of JFK's assasination.
"Well I'm not interested in that stuff"
Well you should be. It's the world, it's what is going on around you, it's what will affect and shape the outcomes of your lives.
Or if you *are* going to write a short story, write one that is
(a) Interesting
(b) Has a point to it
(c) Doesn't involve murder/blood/vampires/war

You want to learn to write?
Great, take a ticket and join the back of line. It stretches waaaaaaay round the corner there, bring a packed lunch cos you'll be there a while.

You want to write seriously, you want it to be what, published?
Go for it.
But please, once you've written something, read it back to see if it can be improved. Give it to somebody that doesn't know you wrote it.
And stop crying when somebody says "That's terrible/sorry not interested/read it before/whatever".

Do me a favour you budding Danielle Steeles:
I'll set you a topic to write about in another thread, write your best attempt in there.
Your very best, re-write it again and then again.
Then submit it.
Write about what you know, something that matters to you. Inject it with yourself and not 5 sentences trying to describe the bloody temperature.

I'll pop back in a couple hours and give you the topic.
Trust me, I'm (in 2 years time) an English Teacher, and y'all are my students.

Just please stop bashing out gore stories with your forehead rods and getting huffy when somebody says "That reeks of ass".
Wed 26/11/03 at 07:25
Regular
"Puerile Shagging"
Posts: 15,009
I personally can’t believe this thread is still alive and kicking. It really didn’t warrant 45 posts.

People should except that some guy on the Internet is entitled to say if he thinks people stories are “poor”, and entitled to say “please read them before you post”.

Just so long as that same guy accepts the people he’s talking to are as fully entitled to disregard everything he has said and continue to post what they like.
Wed 26/11/03 at 02:57
Regular
"cachoo"
Posts: 7,037
unknown kernel wrote:
> When I was at school I had a really good English teacher who said:
>
> "If anybody writes a story that ends with '...and then I woke
> up: it was all a dream!' then I'll throw them out of the
> class."


Ha!! I got a B in one of my mocks back in year 9 for writing something *like* that. Like.. I was looking down on Earth whilst up in Heaven. Although, I think it was just my punctuation and such that got me high marks :s
Wed 26/11/03 at 02:39
Regular
Posts: 23,216
Almost your entire reply seems to be based on the fact I agreed and called you a to**er.. I'm not perfect and I still say things I don't mean on occasion. Whoopsie. Therefore I'll apologise, and that's serious. I'll also apologise for missing the post you made after, because that I did.

But no.

You cannot tell everyone on here to read through their posts, to make sure they're putting out exactly what they think is right, when blurt out into a topic then reply a bit later "oh but yeah sorry I may not be right" as a disclaimer. But you know what? There's nothing wrong with it. You can do that because we're all human and do stuff like that on occasion.

You cannot tell me, or anyone else in here that I'm distracting from the main point when swing out your ego to the masses to try and bend them to your will. You apologise later and realise you were in the wrong to attack everyone in your original post? Ok, ok.

But the topic is bullying. To manipulate, to force others to your design just because you're feeling a little bit selfish when you could have made the entire topic a lot more diplomatic explaining your true views more clearly.

But anyway, here's an idea, no, and no again. You can tell people they're pathetic to get wound up over a faceless character yet you then admit that you're so angry you need to respond.

And don't you dare call us pathetic, whiny babies when you're the one that's sitting there taking childish snipes at an entire group of people instead of individually addressing each one with the intelligence and patience to provide guidance through your experiences.

You ARE a bully. Yes, sometimes you put your point across and you do it damn well. Other times I've seen you become angry at people who disagree with you, who are unable to argue as well as you. Yes, you have a presense, you affect people. There's no need to wave about the place 'look! important, listen now!". I've seen you lose control on here, and get really bloody carried away and I understand that. But the only attack I'm wanting to send here is that you're being really bloody selfish and trying to enforce what would make life easier for you.

Improve or stop? How exactly may I ask, are people going to truly improve with completely vague criticism? People post on here not just so everyone can tell them they love them, which I'm sure must anger you, but -also- because they do want to see if they're heading in the right direction. Time after time, in the stories posted here, they ask for criticism, direction. For christ's sake man, they're learning! If you really find it that difficult to understand that people on here are learning with what they write and improving through themselves and through comments left for them.

Because you know what? People mature on here. People change. They go through what they do, their experiences, and they come out of it better. They learn, they grow up. They experiment with new thoughts, ideas, roads to travel down. On occasion they go really bloody far down them before they turn back and sometimes they don't ever turn back.

We're not all stubborn fools. We don't just spread our word and then stick to that till the day we die. We say what we think. We see what others think. We review what we think.

The average age on this site is low. People are still changing the way they think all the time, constantly changing their views on life, why? Because they are maturing. Maybe one day they'll find ways that make them happy, but for now, I guess they're still looking. The people in here are a good intelligent lot, and they're seeing what they can do with their lives.

My arguement was that you wanted to stop that. Not everyone on here, if any, will go on to become a professional writer or whatever. It doesn't matter, because they're just testing the water. They're growing up.

Spread the love, yeah whatever. It's more like let the buggers grow. I've learnt so much about writing, stories, etc, from this site. I've learnt about poetry, writing about flowers and trees and love, and eventually I learnt to despise it.

But during that time I was encouraged and allowed to post whatever the hell I wanted. Even though the thought of them, and reading through most of them sends chills down my spine these days, I'm glad I was allowed to post what I felt at the time.

So if you want to get angry, sure, get angry. This isn't a punch in your face, it's a request. So don't lash out again at anything thrown at you. I'm not the big boy in the playground, or the big man who dragged your face down the stairs so you had carpet burns right up your tiny little nose.

Because to be honest I agree with you. Half the stories here suck but to be also quite frank I'm too lazy to even read them or respond to them. Good Christ, I'm not perfect either, who cares, I never will be.

Just let people do what they want to do. Your presense on here carries a large power. Don't abuse that. You're not wrong to hate the stories on here, but you're not right to actively encourage people to stop writing.

If indeed you wanted to be taken a little more seriously with less comment from me, then perhaps you should have taken away that first line in the topic. You don't have to blurt out your anger in every post you do. If you want to make a point like this, make it. Don't throw a bunch of words around it to get attention.

BUT.

In finalisation of this, the authors on this site yes I agree, should make the effort to read through what they write as stories, make sure they're perfectly happy with them and that they represent a piece of work that they're ok with not trying to improve.

Replies however should be of a lot more use than "this is crap".

I'm now on going to make a bit more of an effort to give a bit of guidence to people writing stories on here.

But for christ's sake, Goatboy, if you wanted to say that, then couldn't you have used a bit more clarity instead of just wailing out? This could have easily been an extremely informative topic about what and not to do when writing stories, but it seemed more like a squirt of frustration.

On that note, wonder if there could be some guidelines set out for people wanting to write stories... this site has been such a fantastic teacher to me, I'm sure that could be worked on?
Wed 26/11/03 at 02:23
Regular
Posts: 11,038
Azul wrote:
> Mithras wrote:
> Well, were the hell else should stories be posted? There is no set
> forum.
>
> You're missing his point completely.
>
> Just stop pumping out crappy stories in the first place. Because they
> are just that. Crappy. And they're all the same - man blows other
> mans head off with shotgun, psychopathic delinquent runs rampage with
> machete etc etc.

Man goes to bed, wakes up and gets crushed by his house....

That was definately worthy.
Tue 25/11/03 at 23:55
Regular
"relocated"
Posts: 2,833
When I was at school I had a really good English teacher who said:

"If anybody writes a story that ends with '...and then I woke up: it was all a dream!' then I'll throw them out of the class."

If we had been a few years older then I think she would have extended her threats to people considering writing about murderers and blood-spattered psychos.
Tue 25/11/03 at 22:55
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Ok, now I've been thinking about this and getting more and more angry.

You, Grix, talk about me bullying etc. Yet you feel it's ok to call me a to##er?
Why?
I haven't posted in any story threads with comments. I haven't said "So and so sucks, you're terrible".
Yet you, and several others, feel the need to make it personal and start labelling me, calling me names?
It's the same hypocritical crap that Belldandy spews. Bleating about bullying, and then starts throwing personal insults and comments about at me.
I've said either raise your game or stop. But some of you can't even handle non-personal criticism?
You pathetic, whiny babies.

You, Grix, calling me a to##er? Where do you get off making personal comments at me?
Do I ever castigate you for your cringing, Hallmark Card, Forrest Gump outlook on life of "Hey, it's the person inside/let's all hug" platititudes towards life?
No.
Have I ever made a personal attack on you for your views/outlooks on life?
No.
Yet you have, on different occassions, felt it perfectly reasonable to make personal attacks on me.
This isn't the first time.
If you're going to preach your "Hey maaaan, hug the kittens and love strangers 'cos, like, we're all people" views, then at least stand true to them and don't start slinging insults.

Same as some others of you here, I say something you don't agree with - yet rather than simply saying "Dont read it then, I'll post what I want to", you'll take it and make it personal.
"Goatboy's this" "Goaty can do this to himself" "Goatboy you're (insert insult here)"

At least have consistency you simpering cowards.
If you're going to accuse me of bullying/being nasty, then don't do exactly the same.
Read the original post.
Then read the additions I've made afterwards. At no point have I said anybody in particular sucks.
If you take it personally, then that speaks more about your own valuation of your work than any comment made by me.

It's this faux-congratulatory reward for simply bashing keys that galls me.
I've simply said some of the stories are awful, and you should re-read/revise/rewrite before posting.
Why? Because other people read them. You owe it to them to make it the best you can.
Or, if not, be an adult and take criticism.
Whoops, except I haven't made any have I? I haven't told anybody they were bad.
I made one post breaking the news that some people cannot write to save their lives.
Yet others offer critical advice based on...what?
What makes somebody with zero history of published writing more valid than somebody saying "That's terrible"?

It's ok to fawningly congratulate somebody, yet as soon as somebody else says "Actually...", you all start screaming and calling me names?
Why is it ok for everyone to offer advice and pat each other on the back, but you all get moody and insulty if somebody says "That's bad"?

I'm not going to post congratulatory rubbish for fear of upsetting people. If somebody posts something worthwhile, I'll acknowledge that whether I actually enjoyed their writing or not.
I personally don't enjoy IB's writings, but I cannot deny he has ability and at least makes them interesting and not cliched blood/guts stories.

You people complain about me being rude/arrogant, yet I don't walk around calling people names etc.

Bunch of hypocrites.
Author wannabes, frantically sucking each other off because nobody else is going to and mortally offended at the thought you might not be the next George Orwell.

You want to take a long look at your responses in this thread before you start shrieking about me being rude.
Tue 25/11/03 at 20:00
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Grix Thraves wrote:
> Sorry, but I'm not going to stand by and watch as you bully others
> into doing your will. If you don't like the stories, don't read them.
> It's your loss.

-
Bully?
Bully?

By writing a topic saying some are terrible and some people should revise and re-write before posting?

Jesus some of you are soooo precious it's embarassing.
Life sucks, wear a helmet.
Tue 25/11/03 at 19:57
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Insane Bartender wrote:
> I have visions of Goatboy receiving a piece of work, reading over it
> quickly, calling the pupil to his desk while lighting a cigarette
> (SMOKER!"!"122). When the kid gets close enough, he takes a
> deep drag and blows the smoke in the kids face.
>
> "Now" he says "re-write this, only this time don't
> make it crap."
>
> The kid, coughing and sobbing amidst a stream of tears, runs wailing
> back to the back of the class.
---

It's like you peered into a crystal ball!

What gets me is this:
Why shouldn't I say that I find them boring?
Why should I not say when I find some of these stories absolutely terrible?

Jesus, if you people get moody over a faceless bloke on a forum saying "this is awful", then you'll be making a noose and eyeing the bannister when you recieve rejection after rejection after rejection trying to secure an agent or submit for serious publication.

But nobody says anything even remotely critical. Somebody mashes out another story involving death/guts/zombies and everyone claps politely and says "Hurrah!".
Well I'm sorry but sometimes some don't deserve it.
Stop being so bloody precious about your "art", some people aren't going to like it and some people will say "Look, please try better or not at all".

"Waaaah waaaah waaaah, nasty Goatboy said my story sucked"
"You're a to##er"
Not at all. I just say what I think.
You have the right to post these things and I have the right to say "That was bad".
Because some of them are. What's the point in encouraging mediocrity?

And, once more for the skim-readers that don't understand self-deprecation:
I'm not saying I'm right.
Tue 25/11/03 at 19:47
Regular
"Infantalised Forums"
Posts: 23,089
Goatboy wrote:
> And I'm not saying I'm correct, I could just be a loudmouth knowidall
> oaf trying to impose his idea of "good" on everyone else.
---

Nice to see people read thoroughly before getting all huffy and clutching their missives to their chests with an indignant eyebrow raised.
Tue 25/11/03 at 07:39
Regular
"Brooklyn boy"
Posts: 14,935
If people want to post their stories up then they're fully entitled to, whether you think they're crap or not, since when did you become the highest power around these forums to dictate what people should and shouldn't post?
You may think they're rubbish but then someone else may think they're a great read, everyone has different opinions.

Anyway it makes a refreshing change having something other then your boring and childish, handbags at 10 paces, hissy fits with Belldandy to read around this forum.

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