Unsolicited writing advice - A suggestion

[morgainegaunt]

Hi everyone!

You might have noticed the recent confusion/arguments about "How to write fanfictions others want to read". Before you start wondering, this thread does not intend to bash the Black-haired Witch, who gives fanfiction writing advice there. And it's not about starting a competition, either.

I really agree that some fanfics could be improved and that some advice might be useful. But I noticed that the idea of giving advice is becoming rather unclear between arguments about emoticons and sarcasm.

I don't have a problem with emoticons, sarcasm, or arguments about either. But I think we should focus of the original idea of giving advice.

And since the advice-giving of a single person includes the danger of being seen as doctrinaire/sarcastic/too personal or really being this, my suggestion is this:

• Everyone who thinks he/she can give advice about a specific topic (e.g. grammar, point-of-view, characterisation, OOCs...) posts their two knuts.
  
• If you know a really good essay about writing tips, you could post that, too.
  
• Every writer is free to ignore all the advice and write whatever and however they like. If you don't like it, don't read it.
  

That's my two knuts on this topic. Please comment.


PS.: @mods: If you think my advice has got nothing to do with the board, feel free to delete it.

[MMADfan]

No arguments here --- somehow the other thread got WA-AY off topic and some folk don't appear to have a sense of humor or the ability to leave a thread they don't want to read. I think that the Black-Haired Witch will be happy to see this post. She has also said that people are free to ignore any advice she gives. Which should be obvious, actually, since we can always ignore advice we are given, particularly when it is just general advice not directed at anyone in particular. I believe she intends to log in sometime tonight (in about six or seven hours for those in a different time zone from us), but I'm not sure about that. And from what I read, I don't think that the BHW ever said not to use emoticons and such, just that she wasn't going to use them in that thread. I think it may have partly been an attempt at humor, because I am always using them and little *sniffles* *grins* *winks* and the like when I post and give advice, and she finds it tiresome to use them herself, when giving advice, anyway. Which is fine with me! *grin*

Also, so far, BHW has only given one piece of fanfic writing advice, that I can remember, anyway, and that was about entering spaces in between paragraphs. It was just general advice and not given to any particular individual. I think BHW just wants to help writers without singling anyone out.

Anyway, I think the Writing Help Forum is the perfect place for people to give advice! Anyone! It seems a natural fit. *smile*

[The Black-Haired Witch]

morgainegaunt said:

Hi everyone!

You might have noticed the recent confusion/arguments about "How to write fanfictions others want to read". Before you start wondering, this thread does not intend to bash the Black-haired Witch, who gives fanfiction writing advice there. And it's not about starting a competition, either.

I really agree that some fanfics could be improved and that some advice might be useful. But I noticed that the idea of giving advice is becoming rather unclear between arguments about emoticons and sarcasm.

I don't have a problem with emoticons, sarcasm, or arguments about either. But I think we should focus of the original idea of giving advice.

And since the advice-giving of a single person includes the danger of being seen as doctrinaire/sarcastic/too personal or really being this, my suggestion is this:

• Everyone who thinks he/she can give advice about a specific topic (e.g. grammar, point-of-view, characterisation, OOCs...) posts their two knuts.
  
• If you know a really good essay about writing tips, you could post that, too.
  
• Every writer is free to ignore all the advice and write whatever and however they like. If you don't like it, don't read it.
  

That's my two knuts on this topic. Please comment.

Absolutely! You have my complete agreement. I particularly appreciate your final bullet-point comment. Very wise.

[morgainegaunt]

mmadfan said:

No arguments here --- somehow the other thread got WA-AY off topic and some folk don't appear to have a sense of humor or the ability to leave a thread they don't want to read. I think that the Black-Haired Witch will be happy to see this post. She has also said that people are free to ignore any advice she gives. Which should be obvious, actually, since we can always ignore advice we are given, particularly when it is just general advice not directed at anyone in particular. I believe she intends to log in sometime tonight (in about six or seven hours for those in a different time zone from us), but I'm not sure about that. And from what I read, I don't think that the BHW ever said not to use emoticons and such, just that she wasn't going to use them in that thread. I think it may have partly been an attempt at humor, because I am always using them and little *sniffles* *grins* *winks* and the like when I post and give advice, and she finds it tiresome to use them herself, when giving advice, anyway. Which is fine with me! *grin*

I didn't want to talk about emoticons, again. I couldn't care less whether people use them or not and I didn't intent emoticons to be the point of my earlier post.

mmadfan said:

Also, so far, BHW has only given one piece of fanfic writing advice, that I can remember, anyway, and that was about entering spaces in between paragraphs. It was just general advice and not given to any particular individual. I think BHW just wants to help writers without singling anyone out.

Yes. I read her posts, so I realised this. But that's not the point of my post, either. I don't want to insult you, here. But I tried really hard to make my point clear and I'm quite frustrated now, seeing it apparently didn't work.

mmadfan said:

Anyway, I think the Writing Help Forum is the perfect place for people to give advice! Anyone! It seems a natural fit. *smile*

Oh. I thought the "Writing Help Forum" is only for people to ask for advice and then for others to answer their specific question. I'm sorry if I misunderstood this and my post was completely pointless, then.

I merely wanted to motivate others to share in their knowledge, too, instead of waiting for the Black-haired Witch to do something. I though about writing some advice stuff myself but I haven't chosen a topic yet and I'm not sure whether this is a clever thing to do, anyway.

But thanks for your comment.

[morgainegaunt]

blackhairedwitch said:

Absolutely! You have my complete agreement. I particularly appreciate your final bullet-point comment. Very wise.

It seems to be natural. But I think it's important to bear that in mind while one is reading another person's advice.

[MMADfan]

morgainegaunt said:

mmadfan said:

No arguments here --cut!-- *grin*

I didn't want to talk about emoticons, again. I couldn't care less whether people use them or not and I didn't intent emoticons to be the point of my earlier post.



Yes. I read her posts, so I realised this. But that's not the point of my post, either. I don't want to insult you, here. But I tried really hard to make my point clear and I'm quite frustrated now, seeing it apparently didn't work.

mmadfan said:

Anyway, I think the Writing Help Forum is the perfect place for people to give advice! Anyone! It seems a natural fit. *smile*

Oh. I thought the "Writing Help Forum" is only for people to ask for advice and then for others to answer their specific question. I'm sorry if I misunderstood this and my post was completely pointless, then.

I merely wanted to motivate others to share in their knowledge, too, instead of waiting for the Black-haired Witch to do something. I though about writing some advice stuff myself but I haven't chosen a topic yet and I'm not sure whether this is a clever thing to do, anyway.

But thanks for your comment.

Sorry about the misunderstanding -- I was just blathering on randomly, which can be a bad habit of mine, and I got off track. I wasn't actually being very good about addressing what you said and just went off on a tangent. My bad, as they say! I wanted to be agreeable, but just got rambling . . . which I'm about to do again, so I'll move on!

And I do not think your post was completely pointless! I hope you don't regret posting it! I thought it was very positive and a good contribution to the board.

-MMADfan