Fiction Writing: Advice and Discussion

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blue squares: Sep 28, 2007

systran posted:

Reach Reacher, Reaching Differently (Yet Just Out of Reach) And Slightly Lower

Lee Child just got the name of his next few books

# ? Sep 12, 2014 18:47

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# ? May 13, 2024 21:29

Liam Emsa: Aug 21, 2014; Oh, god. I think I'm falling.

Thanks for the critique. It took me a whole week to get up the courage to read the comments. I'm terrified of reading criticism.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 22:07

Liam Emsa: Aug 21, 2014; Oh, god. I think I'm falling.

Sitting Here posted:

I'm picking on this so hard because I suspect this story is riddled with the same adverb problems. I'm also guessing you use phrases like he noticed/he felt/he saw/he suddenly _______/etc a lot. I'm also also guessing you do too much telling about how the narrator feels. He was shocked, he was afraid, he was confused, he did _______ with trepidation, and so on.

Basically, the vaguer your subject matter, the more precise your prose have to be. Describe your protagonist's experiences in painstaking detail first, then add in flare. Build the scene for your reader, starting from things that are relatable (the sensation of having double vision from a medication or injury) and building up to the incredible (a ghost arm that juts out of your body from an impossible angle).

How do I not do this?

Do I do something like this:

"He noticed the walls were moving." and change it to "The walls moved."

edit: I rewrote the paragraph I posted earlier:

quote:

He reached for the glass of water on the table next to his bed to soothe the nausea. At the moment he reached out, he noticed two right arms reaching out of his body. The sight shocked him, and he pulled back. Was this his imagination? A side effect from whatever medication he was on? He slowly reached again. The second arm moved out, and he watched it carefully. He knew it wasn�t real, because he couldn�t feel it. But what was it, then? It extended from the exact same location on his shoulder that his real arm extended from, reaching for the same glass, but different. Slightly lower, as if it was just making a separate, second attempt for the glass. He pulled back once more in trepidation. He looked closely at his hand. It looked just like the view outside, slightly doubled, as if a ghost image was following it�s every move. He reached again towards the glass on the table next to him. The ghost image of his arm again went out separately. He grabbed the glass firmly with his fingers. The second arm reached the glass at the same time, only this ghost image knocked into it callously. A separate, ghost glass fell to the floor with a loud crash, shattering and spreading water across the floor of the room. His blood ran cold with anxiety. It felt real. Was it? Then, in an instant, it was all gone. The floor was clean. The glass was gone, and the arm had disappeared. He was left holding his glass in his hand.

Liam Emsa fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Sep 16, 2014

# ? Sep 16, 2014 22:14

blue squares: Sep 28, 2007

Liam Emsa posted:

Thanks for the critique. It took me a whole week to get up the courage to read the comments. I'm terrified of reading criticism.

This is not supposed to sound mean, I'm genuinely curious: can you (or someone else) explain this mindset? I just don't get it

# ? Sep 16, 2014 22:39

Djeser: Mar 22, 2013; it's crow time again

It's pretty tough to have to face up to and acknowledge what your weaknesses are. Knowing you're not great is one thing, but being told specifically where you're weak is hard to handle. I don't generally have a problem with reading crits of my own stuff (as long as I put in actual work) but I can totally see why it might make someone feel self-conscious and reluctant to read it.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 22:49

Blade_of_tyshalle: Jul 12, 2009; If you think that, along the way, you're not going to fail... you're blind.

There's no one I've ever met, no matter how successful they are, who hasn't said they had their failures along the way.

You have to develop a thick skin is the thing. Like, you spend effort and time creating something, and even if you know it's poo poo, it's still hard for some people to face criticism of that thing. I think the key is to find that happy spot in your own mind where "criticism of the work" does not in any way equate to "criticism of the worker". Like when I post a story in Thunderdome and it gets shat on because I am horrible at endings or whatever, I simply cannot take that personally. Is it a failing of mine? Sure. But just because my story is bad or something doesn't mean I am.

I mean, I am a lovely person, but it's in ways that my poorly constructed fiction doesn't have anything to do with :v:

But when you're new or uncertain, it can feel like criticism of the work is criticism of the worker. For sure.

# ? Sep 16, 2014 23:08

blue squares: Sep 28, 2007

That makes sense. For me, when I post something I think is good, and other people disagree, all it does is make me glad that I have just gotten better.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:39

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

It makes sense to me. I'm a decent writer. I read and constantly write ...

I'm scared of Thunderdome.

I'm going to be completely honest and say, I don't think criticism serves a real decent purpose. No one is critical of themselves, so when they get criticized they are defensive. Even in the army where you get criticized constantly, you just learn to stop caring about it.

It is different when you ask someone to edit your work, but just making GBS threads on a story because you didn't like it... Eh, it has never sat well with me.

Motivation, on the other hand, always seems to help people.

I don't think the greats became great by people telling them "You are loving dogshit," constantly. I mean it happens because a lot of artists die penniless, feeling worthless but, for some to become something grand they usually have to have people encouraging them.

That's why it sucks being a writer sometimes. There're millions of decent writers in the world, but not enough people giving them motivation or supporting their work. Plenty of assholes that are, "just giving criticism," though. Any rear end in a top hat can point out flaws, not everyone can encourage growth.

Some writers are such masochists too. They just believe that they have to be poo poo on to grow as a writer. It isn't true. You can do that if you like, but I think life experience, encouragement, reading and writing constantly is going to take you a lot further.

gently caress criticism. You want my attention, compliment my work. You want my respect, buy my work. But, if you want me to criticize what you've written, I don't want to judge you... I'd rather encourage you to keep writing.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:52

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

That's just my two cents with other writers...

There is plenty of books out there that I think suck balls. I'm pretty vocal about it when I read a terrible book and I don't know that person. I'm also a giant hypocrite though.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:54

crabrock: Aug 2, 2002; I

AM

MAGNIFICENT

Zip posted:

It makes sense to me. I'm a decent writer. I read and constantly write ...

I'm scared of Thunderdome.

I'm going to be completely honest and say, I don't think criticism serves a real decent purpose. No one is critical of themselves, so when they get criticized they are defensive. Even in the army where you get criticized constantly, you just learn to stop caring about it.

It is different when you ask someone to edit your work, but just making GBS threads on a story because you didn't like it... Eh, it has never sat well with me.

Motivation, on the other hand, always seems to help people.

I don't think the greats became great by people telling them "You are loving dogshit," constantly. I mean it happens because a lot of artists die penniless, feeling worthless but, for some to become something grand they usually have to have people encouraging them.

That's why it sucks being a writer sometimes. There're millions of decent writers in the world, but not enough people giving them motivation or supporting their work. Plenty of assholes that are, "just giving criticism," though. Any rear end in a top hat can point out flaws, not everyone can encourage growth.

Some writers are such masochists too. They just believe that they have to be poo poo on to grow as a writer. It isn't true. You can do that if you like, but I think life experience, encouragement, reading and writing constantly is going to take you a lot further.

gently caress criticism. You want my attention, compliment my work. You want my respect, buy my work. But, if you want me to criticize what you've written, I don't want to judge you... I'd rather encourage you to keep writing.

this post sucks.

I will just say that when i started thunderdome, i was afraid to get critiqued. Several people told me my writing was poo poo. I had to learn to swallow that, and then learn what advice to ignore, and what to accept. it made me think more critically about my own stuff, instead of just assuming it was good because I liked it. nowadays when i get a bad crit i still get a little annoyed, but it's not scary nor bad and I think about why it didn't work for them. sometimes it's something i can change, and sometimes they just need to shut the gently caress up. but to say criticism is bad is literally the stupidest thing i've ever seen posted in this thread.

crabrock fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Sep 17, 2014

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:55

neongrey: Feb 28, 2007; Plaguing your posts with incidental music.

I don't think you understand what criticism is.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:57

blue squares: Sep 28, 2007

Seriously. I don't expect other people to encourage growth. If I need others to do that for me, I'm not driven enough. Tell me what's lovely about my lovely stories, and I'll grow myself by using that information and doing better next time.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:58

Echo Cian: Jun 16, 2011

Zip posted:

I'm going to be completely honest and say, I don't think criticism serves a real decent purpose.

...

Plenty of assholes that are, "just giving criticism," though. Any rear end in a top hat can point out flaws, not everyone can encourage growth.

...

gently caress criticism. You want my attention, compliment my work. You want my respect, buy my work.

I, too, wish to stagnate and never improve my craft, because my ego is far more important than developing critical thinking skills.

Also: good luck earning any respect in turn if yours can only be bought

Echo Cian fucked around with this message at 01:08 on Sep 17, 2014

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:58

Meinberg: Oct 9, 2011; inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)

When I go to most places and I get critiques of my work, I'll listen to the negative feedback, so long as it is constructive. I see the inherent flaws in my work, and so seeing what other people see is the problem is very helpful. When they offer positive criticism, though, I'm inclined to think that either a) they don't know what they're talking or b) just being polite. I devalue my output to the point that from most sources, I simply cannot accept positive feedback.

When Thunderdome says I did something well, you're sure as poo poo that I listen up. The skin of abrasiveness that they wear allows Thunderdomers to be completely and utterly honest. Plus, they know what they're talking about. These combined mean that you can accept whatever feedback you get from Thunderdome at face value.

Motivation is nice, and so is the structure provided by the dome. These are things to get you to write a draft. But the draft is only the first step. You have to revise your work, and when it comes to revising, criticism is absolutely vital, until you've developed the skills necessary to be accurately self-critical. And the best way to develop self-criticism is by observing the criticism you get from others, thinking through the bits you understand and agree with, then applying it to your own work.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 00:59

anime was right: Jun 27, 2008; death is certain
keep yr cool

crabrock posted:

this lack of capitalization, what the gently caress crabrock, jesus, get yourself together post really not a fan of the word post, a post sounds so neutral, i would go with the word content, or drivel sucks. imo its insane to think in this day and age we can get away with urban dictionary garbage in our literature, thanks for giving into this millenial horseshit like with the yolos and carpetbaggers

overall i would argue this post, while succint, really lacks the tone necessary to get your point across. also, crabrock is the worst pen name ive ever heard, who the gently caress named you, a biologist a little too interested in cat feces?

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:01

crabrock: Aug 2, 2002; I

AM

MAGNIFICENT

LOU BEGAS MUSTACHE posted:

irl crying

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:01

anime was right: Jun 27, 2008; death is certain
keep yr cool

goddammit crab rock why did u have to edit im gonna eat all your yogurt and bread and theres nothing you can do about it

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:01

God Over Djinn: Jan 17, 2005; onwards and upwards

Zip posted:

It makes sense to me. I'm a decent writer. I read and constantly write ...

I'm scared of Thunderdome.

I'm going to be completely honest and say, I don't think criticism serves a real decent purpose. No one is critical of themselves, so when they get criticized they are defensive. Even in the army where you get criticized constantly, you just learn to stop caring about it.

It is different when you ask someone to edit your work, but just making GBS threads on a story because you didn't like it... Eh, it has never sat well with me.

Motivation, on the other hand, always seems to help people.

I don't think the greats became great by people telling them "You are loving dogshit," constantly. I mean it happens because a lot of artists die penniless, feeling worthless but, for some to become something grand they usually have to have people encouraging them.

That's why it sucks being a writer sometimes. There're millions of decent writers in the world, but not enough people giving them motivation or supporting their work. Plenty of assholes that are, "just giving criticism," though. Any rear end in a top hat can point out flaws, not everyone can encourage growth.

Some writers are such masochists too. They just believe that they have to be poo poo on to grow as a writer. It isn't true. You can do that if you like, but I think life experience, encouragement, reading and writing constantly is going to take you a lot further.

gently caress criticism. You want my attention, compliment my work. You want my respect, buy my work. But, if you want me to criticize what you've written, I don't want to judge you... I'd rather encourage you to keep writing.

Have you ever read Thunderdome? Crits that just say 'you suck, stop writing' without giving you specific things to improve are one in a million & you usually get them by being both incoherently bad and an rear end in a top hat.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:04

ravenkult: Feb 3, 2011

SA critiques are accurate, but needlessly mean spirited. I'm scared too. :ohdear:

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:06

anime was right: Jun 27, 2008; death is certain
keep yr cool

to be real about criticism: everyone has an opinion, and every opinion has an underlying reason behind it. that reason might be dumb as hell. for example, a person thats doesnt like sci-fi or something may have just been bored to tears by star trek once and never got over it. but then they could go around and tell you "i dont like the characters they didnt grab me". their boredom manifests in misplaced criticism, and while it may be impossible to parse it, what you need to do is search for the pattern behind it.

for example, if you get a bunch of crits that are like:
"i think the characters are boring, they dont grab me" im bored, nothing happened
"the prose is too flowery" - im bored, nothing happend
"the setting just isnt grabbing me" im bored, nothing happened

etc, depending on how people state what they didnt like, you can search for patterns that connect their dislike of something. the same thing actually applies to positive criticism as well.

what i learned in working in other creative indusries is that everyone has a thing to say. ignore it and instead find the reason they said that thing. that is where you're going to find what you're looking for in a crit.

you will always get white noise. always. but on the surface level, what may appear as white noise might be valuable, and what may sound valuable and informative may actually be white noise.

this applies more to people who give poo poo criticisms, by the way. you have to look through their bitterness, their selfish projection because basically people are dumb smelly idiots who think with their butts and farts.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:09

Meinberg: Oct 9, 2011; inspired by but legally distinct from CATS (2019)

ravenkult posted:

SA critiques are accurate, but needlessly mean spirited. I'm scared too.

The tone lets you know it is honest! I won't deny that it's scary to face the judges, though.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:10

crabrock: Aug 2, 2002; I

AM

MAGNIFICENT

show me one real writer that doesn't have people telling him/her that they suck and should die and stop writing and suck a big fat turd. getting used to the mean stuff is part of not having a meltdown when somebody doesn't like your stuff. and there WILL be somebody. there is no 100% universally loved writer. but if there was it should be me.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:12

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

(Keep in mind I did say I'm a hypocrite.) I will accept criticism from some people. Friends of mine who have gone a bit further than I have.... but, I was in a writing group that was just poisonous.

It was an overflowing toilet bowl of bad advice.

I decided at that point I was going to try to stop criticizing people. I don't think it really helps most people. I'd rather give good examples or tell them what I liked or tell them to keep writing.

One of my good friends actually won a Hugo, and that guy, almost never criticizes anyone directly. Even when he's upset he's vague about what he doesn't like. I think people respect him more for it and he certainly seems to be surrounded by great people.

Maybe you think you need criticism to succeed but I think you'd much rather have encouragement.

I know I would.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:14

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

Zip posted:

(Keep in mind I did say I'm a hypocrite.) I will accept criticism from some people. Friends of mine who have gone a bit further than I have.... but, I was in a writing group that was just poisonous.

It was an overflowing toilet bowl of bad advice.

I decided at that point I was going to try to stop criticizing people. I don't think it really helps most people. I'd rather give good examples or tell them what I liked or tell them to keep writing.

One of my good friends actually won a Hugo, and that guy, almost never criticizes anyone directly. Even when he's upset he's vague about what he doesn't like. I think people respect him more for it and he certainly seems to be surrounded by great people.

Maybe you think you need criticism to succeed but I think you'd much rather have encouragement.

I know I would.

When you get nothing but praise you get Froglight. Who has, to be fair, improved a lot since he started. Can't wait for the next instalment!

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:15

Sitting Here: Dec 31, 2007

Oh yay we haven't had the crit argument in a while

This thread has more running tropes than a wiki made specifically to aggregate and categorize tropes.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:17

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

God Over Djinn posted:

Have you ever read Thunderdome? Crits that just say 'you suck, stop writing' without giving you specific things to improve are one in a million & you usually get them by being both incoherently bad and an rear end in a top hat.

I think I should be clear that I really love lurking the Thunderdome thread. I think I learn plenty from just reading the submissions and... I think most of those souls are braver than I (or more brutal) to keep going back as often as they do.

I just don't think I'd enjoy participating.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:19

PoshAlligator: Jan 9, 2012; When SEO just isn't enough.

Meinberg posted:

The tone lets you know it is honest! I won't deny that it's scary to face the judges, though.

Entries come in at Sunday midnight and posters get angry if there's no results and a new prompt on Tuesday at a reasonable time. The average amount of TD entries is 20[/url. [url=http://writocracy.com/thunderdome/stats.php?stat=wc]Even with a relatively low word count average (1080) that's still roughly 20 complete stories judges have to get through in quite a short space of time considering the average person has weekday commitments. Judges mostly do a good job at hitting the key points of critique, but have to be a bit sloppy and brash about how they convey it because that's just the quickest, and often most honest, way to do it.

Take Thunderdome with a pinch of salt though guys. It's a fun way to make sure you get something original out. Even if it gets shat on it can help you identify key bits to work on, especially if you submit a few times and people recognise your style. I kept doing way too make sentence fragments a couple of months ago. Even if it's unnecessarily harsh you can probably take something for it. Stories are about a 5 day turnaround so even if you work yourself way too hard over a weekly writing competition you're at best submitting a rough draft.

Sometimes I think people are way too afraid of editing their work and changing major things or doing major rewrites to it. Academic me would wizz through essays because when I allow myself to I vomit poo poo words anywhere I choose. But I'd have to rewrite that fucker like 8 times to hope to get a good grade. Don't be writing things expecting to get an A+ first time because that's just silly.

e: Oh God Zip you have been secretly reading my TD entries in silence.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:19

Sitting Here: Dec 31, 2007

Zip posted:

Maybe you think you need criticism to succeed but I think you'd much rather have encouragement.

Absolutely not.

I mean, sure, hearing what people liked about my work is nice, and occasionally helpful (especially if people enthusiastically like a certain character).

But I would take a hard critique over asspats any day.

And re: Thunderdome

I never thought I'd find a community of writers that I'd be excited to learn and grow and (hopefully) find success alongside. The CC writing community was fairly anemic when I first started hanging out here. Then Thunderdome happened. I'm not saying it's perfect, but the "regulars" are pretty much a group of people who want to help other people write better. Sometimes they're harsh, sometimes they're glib, but they are rarely insincere.

And sincere feedback is one of the most valuable things a writer can get.

Sitting Here fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Sep 17, 2014

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:26

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

PoshAlligator posted:

e: Oh God Zip you have been secretly reading my TD entries in silence.

I wouldn't say constantly... but I definitely thumb through it every couple of weeks.

It's... free short stories.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:27

Djeser: Mar 22, 2013; it's crow time again

Thunderdome can seem scary but for the most part when you get crits they're sincere. The harshness is part of the fun, but the people who get the harshest end of the multi-ended stick are the people who aren't taking it seriously.

As serious as a writing workshop where we all pretend we're post apocalyptic gladiators can be, at least. The harshest response I ever got was when I hosed off and wrote some dumb dick joke and every judge said "this is a dumb dick joke you rear end in a top hat."

The harshness doesn't come from a place of mean-spiritedness either. It's really meant to foster frankness because when you hedge your criticism in praise you're helping no one. It's important to know what you're doing right, certainly, but if the person doing the crit is afraid to speak their mind they're wasting the time of everyone involved.

PoshAlligator posted:

Take Thunderdome with a pinch of salt though guys. It's a fun way to make sure you get something original out. Even if it gets shat on it can help you identify key bits to work on, especially if you submit a few times and people recognise your style. I kept doing way too make sentence fragments a couple of months ago. Even if it's unnecessarily harsh you can probably take something for it.

Was it you where I just started going FRAGMENT each time you had a sentence fragment? That was a fun crit.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:28

Blade_of_tyshalle: Jul 12, 2009; If you think that, along the way, you're not going to fail... you're blind.

There's no one I've ever met, no matter how successful they are, who hasn't said they had their failures along the way.

Something else to consider is that every writer has their own priorities. Like, for me, just doing a couple of crits recently I realized I am really into emotions. If emotions don't make sense to me, I will totally fail to connect to your work. I also write a lot of scifi, but that's just icing on my cake of "how does this person's emotional state make sense?"

Some authors care about plots. Some about stories. :rolleyes:

Or grammar, because they're anal-retentive dicks that way. So when you get crits, it's important to remember who it is critting you. And having a wide variety of perspectives can only be beneficial, I think, because we all have our blind spots.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:35

Zip: Mar 19, 2006

Djeser posted:

Thunderdome can seem scary but for the most part when you get crits they're sincere. The harshness is part of the fun, but the people who get the harshest end of the multi-ended stick are the people who aren't taking it seriously.

As serious as a writing workshop where we all pretend we're post apocalyptic gladiators can be, at least. The harshest response I ever got was when I hosed off and wrote some dumb dick joke and every judge said "this is a dumb dick joke you rear end in a top hat."

The harshness doesn't come from a place of mean-spiritedness either. It's really meant to foster frankness because when you hedge your criticism in praise you're helping no one. It's important to know what you're doing right, certainly, but if the person doing the crit is afraid to speak their mind they're wasting the time of everyone involved.

Was it you where I just started going FRAGMENT each time you had a sentence fragment? That was a fun crit.

These are all good points and that thread is fun to read because of this.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:41

PoshAlligator: Jan 9, 2012; When SEO just isn't enough.

Djeser posted:

Thunderdome can seem scary but for the most part when you get crits they're sincere. The harshness is part of the fun, but the people who get the harshest end of the multi-ended stick are the people who aren't taking it seriously.

As serious as a writing workshop where we all pretend we're post apocalyptic gladiators can be, at least. The harshest response I ever got was when I hosed off and wrote some dumb dick joke and every judge said "this is a dumb dick joke you rear end in a top hat."

The harshness doesn't come from a place of mean-spiritedness either. It's really meant to foster frankness because when you hedge your criticism in praise you're helping no one. It's important to know what you're doing right, certainly, but if the person doing the crit is afraid to speak their mind they're wasting the time of everyone involved.

Was it you where I just started going FRAGMENT each time you had a sentence fragment? That was a fun crit.

I think it might have been for the story where the blind dude finds a dead rat in his walls or something.

Honestly he just finds a dead rat and puts it in the bin because I ran out of words to have anything cool happen in between the walls.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:42

sebmojo: Oct 23, 2010; Legit Cyberpunk

PoshAlligator posted:

Honestly he just finds a dead rat and puts it in the bin because I ran out of words to have anything cool happen in between the walls.

thunderdome.txt

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:46

Bobby Deluxe: May 9, 2004

God Over Djinn posted:

Have you ever read Thunderdome? Crits that just say 'you suck, stop writing' without giving you specific things to improve are one in a million...

I think that's the important difference to keep in mind between bitching and criticism.

Bitching is people telling you your writing is poo poo, and can usually safely be ignored.

If however someone tells me why my writing is poo poo, it's great. I'm not going to pretend there isn't an initial "no gently caress you, this took me ages" but one thing uni was great at was teaching us how important feedback is. You just have to put your pride off to the side for a moment and remember why you write: for other people to eventually read it.

Also how insufferable people are who get to the end of year 2 and bitch about how they don't do drafts / editing.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:46

PoshAlligator: Jan 9, 2012; When SEO just isn't enough.

sebmojo posted:

thunderdome.txt

I like the idea of small word counts but I'm so poo poo at getting anything down to that. 2k is about my minimum for a "decent" story.

And then when I wrote a sci-fi story I kind of liked (but was rushed, I mean, Thunderdome) I got crit'd for not explaining any of the story background elements well enough.

It was a fair crit though.

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:48

anime was right: Jun 27, 2008; death is certain
keep yr cool

Bobby Deluxe posted:

Bitching is people telling you your writing is poo poo, and can usually safely be ignored.

absolutely false. bitching is done for a reason, and it hurts to hear it, but bitching is quite often done for a reason, it might be for a lovely reason, or a great reason.

my jobs have either direct involved reading criticism, parsing it, or compiling it. fun fact: amount of bitching about a thing is a very valuable metric to people in software development. bitching is useful. i would rather have 1 million angry nerds than 1 million silent ones, because one gives you information, the other doesnt.

you should ignore their hostility and bile, yes, but if you've got a bunch of sweaty jerks slamming fingers into your keyboard, theres a reason and you should learn what that reason is, even if its "gross misogyny" or "has personal issues", then you can ignore it.

anime was right fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Sep 17, 2014

# ? Sep 17, 2014 01:48