Authors: A question

I wrote what I wrote and that is all there is to it. Like Blimp has suggested, it is time to move on to bigger and better things in the New Year.

CS

And we should all write what we wrote and feel free to say what we think. My comment was more intended as supportive to the original questioner than critical of CS (or indeed Blimp who was of a similar mind to CS).

Having been roundly criticised for a blog post that I made on another site I am very aware how nice it is to hear a voice in support.

Geoffrey Stirling

I am truly sorry that my original post has generated the unintended debate as to my attitude regarding my question. I have a lot of respect for those who spend hours on the site to make it better through story writing, forum posts, commenting, etc. To those who still doubt my intentions I can only ask that you give me the benefit of the doubt. English is not a precise language and misunderstandings are common. What helps is when we are gracious to each other.

Thanks to all who have responded to the original question and even to those who doubted my motives as I will be more cautious in future posts.

Worry not Spankingfire, you managed to ignite at least three interesting debates and a very long correspondence. More powder to your shot.

Geoffrey Stirling.

I think Spankingfire did a good job of raising a worthwhile issue. I don't have many stories on here, but I welcome any comments, positive or negative. When I post comments (my profile identifies me as "sluggish"), I'm mostly motivated by my enjoyment of the story, and even when I have some critical comment, it's in the context of that overall enjoyment. Since the site essentially requires readers to post comments or they will eventually be shut out, it would hardly be fair to further require that their comments always be positive. At that point, commenting would be like being assigned to attend a parade and handed a flag to wave. I find positive comments much more gratifying if I know there was an alternative.

I do desire to grow as an author. I am glad for more analytic comments as they tell me where I need to improve. Even positive comments can help with that. In my first story here, many comments said that X should have happened and yet the whole point of the story i thought was that X did not happen because the main character intervened to prevent it. That lets me know that I should have gone into more detail about that crucial plot point. I should have elaborated on the whys and wherefores of that decision. So I do learn even from non analytic criticism

I am a published professional writer in the vanilla world. Compliments are always welcome from appreciative readers. As for criticism, if it's specific and respectful in its language, I welcome that as well. Sometimes we can be so close to the things we write that we may overlook something. In addition, comments and suggestions from readers can often trigger new story elements or ideas.