My little crusade didn't work. Not like it ever really stood a big chance of success. Macallister Stone doesn't want to discuss anything with which she disagrees. Her choice. She's about to get a cease and desist, since she's failed to remove my works from the SYW forum there. I told her I had two, and she pulled only one.
So I've completed the rewrite of my major work. I'm not going to let others' lack of professionalism stop me.
Anyway, I'm down to 115,000 words from 140,000. Progress. But I did it by removing plot points. I think I still need to tighten the writing. My goal, 100K to 105K. I'm pretty certain I can do.
Anyone wanna help?
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Passion Denied
Writing is an intensely personal and private venture. But if I as a writer want to make a living at it, at some point, I have to let the private become public. I have to take my thoughts and my imagination, and lay it out in front of someone who will decide whether my work is worth their time. Even if I self-publish, the reader directly decides this. And all the love and passion that I poured into the work won't change that person's mind.
What sells, sells. My feelings won't change that. If I want to be a writer for my own satisfaction, that's fine. But if I want to be a professional at it, then I have to behave professionally, and understand that my own enjoyment isn't the point of it. If I cannot let the product and the writing stand on professional standards, then I'm in the wrong business.
So it's interesting to watch certain places and forums that deny passion and difference of opinion. Walk through these places, and there's a commonality of thought, and a blatant disrespect for disagreement. For these people, they are "married" to their narrow worldviews that disagreement with them is evil, obnoxious, "boring", and they don't have to put up with it.
Customer service and professional courtesy aren't halfway items. You cannot "sort of" serve the customer. If you elect to provide a service, a product, then you've got to be prepared to deal with disagreements with respect.
Some people believe themselves exempt from both. That is rarely a path to success.
What sells, sells. My feelings won't change that. If I want to be a writer for my own satisfaction, that's fine. But if I want to be a professional at it, then I have to behave professionally, and understand that my own enjoyment isn't the point of it. If I cannot let the product and the writing stand on professional standards, then I'm in the wrong business.
So it's interesting to watch certain places and forums that deny passion and difference of opinion. Walk through these places, and there's a commonality of thought, and a blatant disrespect for disagreement. For these people, they are "married" to their narrow worldviews that disagreement with them is evil, obnoxious, "boring", and they don't have to put up with it.
Customer service and professional courtesy aren't halfway items. You cannot "sort of" serve the customer. If you elect to provide a service, a product, then you've got to be prepared to deal with disagreements with respect.
Some people believe themselves exempt from both. That is rarely a path to success.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Customer Service is NOT Trivial
There are very few events in life that truly make me angry. I have a stubborn streak ten miles wide, and that makes far more people angry with me than ever happens in reverse. I get that.
One of the things that *does* get me angry is an organization that take a cavalier attitude towards serving the customers of the service/product it provides. I unfortunately have run into that just recently.
Absolute Write (AW) is a fantastic source of information for writers, and what I'm about to describe does not change that. Their forums are great. The Bewares, Recommendations & Background Checks (BR&BC) forum alone is worth the visit, even if there were no other resources there. One of the traps you'll see subjects of posts there carry out is to take professional criticism personally.
Unfortunately, the Webmaster has fallen into the same trap. She has decided that I'm a troublemaker. I have been banned from there. I'm not posting to claim innocence. I can't. The Webmaster has refused any and all communications asking why I was banned. If you look up my name, I'm labeled as "banned for trolling."
I have asked what it was that I did to earn the ban via the Contact Us link on their site. I have been told that I am not owed an explanation. And that none will be given.
This refusal to engage in basic customer service is infuriating. I am willing to correct whatever it is that I've done. The commonly accepted definition of a troll is:
That is EXACTLY the sort of cavalier attitude that many of the subjects in BR&BC engage in when they discover themselves listed in that subforum. It's sad to watch such an excellent community managed so unprofessionally.
One of the things that *does* get me angry is an organization that take a cavalier attitude towards serving the customers of the service/product it provides. I unfortunately have run into that just recently.
Absolute Write (AW) is a fantastic source of information for writers, and what I'm about to describe does not change that. Their forums are great. The Bewares, Recommendations & Background Checks (BR&BC) forum alone is worth the visit, even if there were no other resources there. One of the traps you'll see subjects of posts there carry out is to take professional criticism personally.
Unfortunately, the Webmaster has fallen into the same trap. She has decided that I'm a troublemaker. I have been banned from there. I'm not posting to claim innocence. I can't. The Webmaster has refused any and all communications asking why I was banned. If you look up my name, I'm labeled as "banned for trolling."
I have asked what it was that I did to earn the ban via the Contact Us link on their site. I have been told that I am not owed an explanation. And that none will be given.
This refusal to engage in basic customer service is infuriating. I am willing to correct whatever it is that I've done. The commonly accepted definition of a troll is:
someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.No one at AW can show where I have engaged in any such activity. CORRECTION: They will not.
That is EXACTLY the sort of cavalier attitude that many of the subjects in BR&BC engage in when they discover themselves listed in that subforum. It's sad to watch such an excellent community managed so unprofessionally.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Leftist Groupthink
In case you believe there's no groupthink among writers, see how this has degenerated into an anti-religion tirade, and no one challenges it?
Mix business with politics, and idiocy can flow from all sides.
My username got banned from there for saying that.
Mix business with politics, and idiocy can flow from all sides.
My username got banned from there for saying that.
It's Professional, not Personal
As a wannabe writer, I feel a personal connection to the works I'm trying to polish up. So if you read through writer resources like Writer's Digest, Writer's Market, and so on, you'll run into lots of stories of writers who get so personally invested in their works that they refuse to accept criticism or to have elements of their work edited.
I recently attended a seminar where a VP for a publisher told us all not to be "married" to our work's title because the title rarely makes it through to publication without being modified or completely changed. One of the attendees argued with him for five minutes about this. And it wasn't even her work being discussed.
I've been blessed with an inherent professional distance from my work. I mean, when I write just to write, that's one thing. But when the times comes that my work is ready for submission, I understand that the work has to stand on its own merits. I'm part of that, but my feelings won't make bad writing sellable. It won't even make GOOD writing sellable.
In the end, it's not about me. It's not even about my work. Not really. It's about the reader and what the reader will buy. The reader doesn't know me.
I recently attended a seminar where a VP for a publisher told us all not to be "married" to our work's title because the title rarely makes it through to publication without being modified or completely changed. One of the attendees argued with him for five minutes about this. And it wasn't even her work being discussed.
I've been blessed with an inherent professional distance from my work. I mean, when I write just to write, that's one thing. But when the times comes that my work is ready for submission, I understand that the work has to stand on its own merits. I'm part of that, but my feelings won't make bad writing sellable. It won't even make GOOD writing sellable.
In the end, it's not about me. It's not even about my work. Not really. It's about the reader and what the reader will buy. The reader doesn't know me.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Being Alone Sucks
So... first post. And all I want to do is rant. Got banned from a forum.
The hard part is that I don't see why. I'm not writing this to debate the why. It's not mine to have, it's theirs to allow or not.
It's the damn not understanding. It feels like I'm not liked on some personal level when the real me never was the point. That's a lonely feeling. I don't like not understanding, and I'm feeling like me, not my posts, became the issue. I felt like I was joining the community, participating, that I was adding something, and then it feels like it's been yanked just because someone wants to do it.
I've sent emails to the forum owner through this account. I know how the above will seem if he takes the time to see this. It's not accusation. It's just how it feels to me.
And that feeling sucks.
The hard part is that I don't see why. I'm not writing this to debate the why. It's not mine to have, it's theirs to allow or not.
It's the damn not understanding. It feels like I'm not liked on some personal level when the real me never was the point. That's a lonely feeling. I don't like not understanding, and I'm feeling like me, not my posts, became the issue. I felt like I was joining the community, participating, that I was adding something, and then it feels like it's been yanked just because someone wants to do it.
I've sent emails to the forum owner through this account. I know how the above will seem if he takes the time to see this. It's not accusation. It's just how it feels to me.
And that feeling sucks.
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