Advice
Jan 25, 2023 6:53:39 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Jan 25, 2023 6:53:39 GMT -5
Type of Short Story Website to Avoid
That depends on what your objectives are. If your objective is simply to see your stuff displayed on the web, then there are plenty of websites available that offer very little else. Criticism is kept to the minimum, and even discouraged since it might offend the new member and the webmaster doesn't want to lose new members. Feedback on such a forum is limited to telling the storyteller that his story is good, great or awesome. If you categorize it as fair, then the webmaster will think that you are trying to drive members away, and will begin looking at your work with a jaundiced eye and at you as a troublemaker.
For example, I recently suggested that the person use paragraphs, since the whole story was one big, unreadable blob on the page. Immediately, the website owner pounced on me telling me that if I had nothing good to say, then to say nothing at all. She accused me of being rude, and communicated this to me publicly and in a message to the new member whom she considered to be on the verge of tears and of leaving the website based on my advice.
Weird, since the member is not a child and I have advised others much younger than her to use paragraphing in order to enhance readability and they have thanked, me not burst into tears as this webmaster assumes that they will do.
Which means that at such a website you will either receive good feedback, or none at all. Not receiving any feedback means that the members didn't like your story, consider it flawed, and are telling you by not providing any feedback since if they do, then the webmaster will publicly pounce by calling them rude, and none of them wishes for that to happen.
Limited and Limiting Expectations
Another thing that makes such a website detrimental to a writers progress, are the type of story-expectations. If indeed the website caters to happy stories with happy endings, then all stories with unhappy or unclear endings will be deemed annoying. In contrast, all stories, regardless of how well they were written they might be, will be considered awesome and great or good, but never fair.
Invariably, the writer of such stories will receive an abundance of accolades and profuse encouragement, regardless of how ridiculous the idea might be, or how poorly he describes scenes or the characters. The important thing is that readers there get a feeling that the universe is OK after all. In short, you best be good at finishing your stories happily, or you will soon me made to feel unwelcomed.
Unfortunately, this isn't something that is written out so you that you are forewarned. Instead, this pernicious modus operandi is something that you gradually come to realize, and, what is at first merely a slight annoyance, gradually begins to grate on your nerves and you wind up feeling constantly insulted by the non-reaction of the members there who consider their non-reaction as a negative reaction to your work.
What do You Learn From Unearned Accolades?
What does a writer really learn from pieces that are a disaster in planning, characterization, have a host of horrendous grammatical errors based on laziness, and yet are tagged as excellent and awesome? Nothing, except that he can write in any which way he chooses to and it is OK by their standards. In short, as a writer you may feel happy and fulfilled, but only on that website since at any other website that allow sincere feedback, your piece will be categorized as it should regardless of what your reaction is anticipated to be.
Leaving it up to the Reader Excuse
It breeds laziness and placing the blame on the reader for lack of a good imagination to fill in the gaps. Most stories I encountered use the pronouns I, me, he, she, him, her, them, without describing anything at all about physical appearance. When asked why they offered no details, they invariably said that it is up to the reader to fill that in. Interestingly, these stories are called awesome. Yeah right
Then there is Silence
What do you learn when no feedback is given? Absolutely NOTHING except that those who are silent didn't like your story for some mysterious reason. Here are some very common reasons why they might choose to remain silent:
1. They don't like your ethnicity and are doing MAGA.
2. They don't like stories that don't have happy endings.
3. They envy your ability and want you gone.
4. They can't understand English and are confused by your vocabulary.
5. They don't wish to offend their favorite pet writer.
6. They are intellectually incapable of understanding what you are saying so tag it as nonsense.
Second Language Writers Excuses?
First, as strange as it might seem, English is technically my second language which I had to learn gradually from age eight onward. That doesn't give me the excuse to ignore grammar and punctuation-does it? So no, I am not being severe with those to whom English is their second language. Punctuation is easy to learn and writers thinks should learn it before posting their work for public view.
Disrespecting the reader
Unwillingness to learn basic punctuation, shows a disrespect for the reader. It's similar to a restaurant cook serving rotten food and then expecting the customers to ignore it or else to tell him that the food was excellent or awesome or else to remain silent. Obviously, such a chef will continue to serve rotten food since he is being positively reinforced to do so. The shocker will come when he attempts to serve the same food to people who haven't agreed to go easy on him and they tell him that what he is serving is junk.
Advice
Best thing to do? Never post your work online in such places.
First you ruin your chances with publishers who reject work that is published online.
Second, you expose yourself to plagiarism.
Third you expose yourself to unjustified criticism and concerted efforts to discourage you.
Finally you are muted and muzzled as if your right to free speech means nothing.
Worse still, if you make the mistake of telling someone that he should use paragraphs to improve the story, then you will be immediately and publicly accused of rudeness and will run the risk of getting banned. In that case, your stories will remain posted where you are not welcomed. Requests to remove them might or might not be heeded.
Ironically, here at this website, which has zero participation, and no hopes of ever getting any, you won't find the attitude I just described. But nobody chooses to post their stories here. So it really makes no difference, does it?