Actual stuff from yesterday can wait.
Nov. 29th, 2015 04:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedSomeone tell me just what defines good writing, the very basis of constructive criticism? How do I explain the importance of consistency with a given work's rules, to someone who already maintains consistency with everyone's character and other basic established facts, without condescending them (assuming they actually ask me at some point and actually want to know)? How does one even explain the importance of maintaining a character's personality? Is it about inclining people to read your bullshit, especially when either lots of people are already doing that or barely anyone does no matter how hard you try to perfect it? For all it's gonna matter, why don't you just post some proto-story you wrote when you were five and had no concept of composition or logic and just perceived whatever you read or watched as a bunch of stuff that happened for no particular reason?
Really, though, I could go on and on and compare the whole thing to this concept or that. Don't be a jackass. Sounds like a basic rule of life, but there are plenty of folks who succeed in life exactly because they are. Corporate bosses who treat their employees like shit and successfully retire. Some kid's dad in Grounded For Life whose parenting methods Sean doesn't agree with but, as he eventually finds upon trying out, works in its own way. Animals who kill weaker animals for food because that's how they're programmed to survive. There was even an Atlantic article about it, just months ago. Meanwhile, look at My Name Is Earl; the eponymous character seeks to make up for all the "bad" things he did, but really just wants to improve his own life after learning about the concept of karma from some celebrity, which eventually falls apart when he makes some sacrifice that lands him in prison, loses everything as a result, finds an old friend of his conning an old lady after coming out, and then finds out that said friend is living the good life. Is it any wonder that he reverted back to a sleazeball? (And maybe instead of staging an intervention by everyone he had helped prior, his friends probably should have contacted the very person who inspired his atonement campaign in the first place to explain why the world had contradicted what she said on TV about karma.)
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Now that I just mentioned an intervention, let me mention another one that took place in I Was Kagami Hiiragi. Putting aside the fact that she's unknowingly been drugged by antagonist Yuka Miyakawa, of course it failed. Who the fuck would willingly play along in an intervention that consists of the subject listening to one pre-written speech after another about how much her friends and family care about her and why she needs to get off her drugs before she finally gets to talk?
During hers, Miki even states that it was a mistake to have called her out on some artifacts that she hocked earlier on, and that the correct move in the first place would have been to try to offer support. Kinda like how I realize how author bloodscorpion4ever might have been more open if I was a lot friendlier and less imposing about his storytelling errors (in general, really).
But, as Brian mentioned on a conversation I went to Starbucks with him to have last night, which is exactly what led since then to this very rant, this is why first impressions count a lot more than second chances. He also did mention, though, that no one lives without pissing anyone off, and all one can do is use those experiences to do better with others.
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I would show Chelle my plans for any further PMs from the one that I've already sent, but she has already told me, in response to something I had shared with her only recently, that all I can do is to find it within myself to stop engaging with that guy and his stories.
On that note, while she did say that one other time about No Birds, No Bees, that that's the only way she was able to put Shinzo behind her, she did say later on that she actually managed to by seeking out the root of her negative obsession with it, which was her ownership of a deviantArt group she was still in charge of up until then. So, at least with that, she wasn't just "letting it go", something that doesn't work for most people any more than "cheer up" or "it could be worse" despite being such common advice to give by default as it is.
(And no, I don't mean to insult you there. Can't really argue with whatever works for you, and it is only natural to give advice to others that actually worked for oneself. It's also only too well-known that what works for one person doesn't always work for another.)
Really, though, I could go on and on and compare the whole thing to this concept or that. Don't be a jackass. Sounds like a basic rule of life, but there are plenty of folks who succeed in life exactly because they are. Corporate bosses who treat their employees like shit and successfully retire. Some kid's dad in Grounded For Life whose parenting methods Sean doesn't agree with but, as he eventually finds upon trying out, works in its own way. Animals who kill weaker animals for food because that's how they're programmed to survive. There was even an Atlantic article about it, just months ago. Meanwhile, look at My Name Is Earl; the eponymous character seeks to make up for all the "bad" things he did, but really just wants to improve his own life after learning about the concept of karma from some celebrity, which eventually falls apart when he makes some sacrifice that lands him in prison, loses everything as a result, finds an old friend of his conning an old lady after coming out, and then finds out that said friend is living the good life. Is it any wonder that he reverted back to a sleazeball? (And maybe instead of staging an intervention by everyone he had helped prior, his friends probably should have contacted the very person who inspired his atonement campaign in the first place to explain why the world had contradicted what she said on TV about karma.)
-----
Now that I just mentioned an intervention, let me mention another one that took place in I Was Kagami Hiiragi. Putting aside the fact that she's unknowingly been drugged by antagonist Yuka Miyakawa, of course it failed. Who the fuck would willingly play along in an intervention that consists of the subject listening to one pre-written speech after another about how much her friends and family care about her and why she needs to get off her drugs before she finally gets to talk?
During hers, Miki even states that it was a mistake to have called her out on some artifacts that she hocked earlier on, and that the correct move in the first place would have been to try to offer support. Kinda like how I realize how author bloodscorpion4ever might have been more open if I was a lot friendlier and less imposing about his storytelling errors (in general, really).
But, as Brian mentioned on a conversation I went to Starbucks with him to have last night, which is exactly what led since then to this very rant, this is why first impressions count a lot more than second chances. He also did mention, though, that no one lives without pissing anyone off, and all one can do is use those experiences to do better with others.
-----
I would show Chelle my plans for any further PMs from the one that I've already sent, but she has already told me, in response to something I had shared with her only recently, that all I can do is to find it within myself to stop engaging with that guy and his stories.
On that note, while she did say that one other time about No Birds, No Bees, that that's the only way she was able to put Shinzo behind her, she did say later on that she actually managed to by seeking out the root of her negative obsession with it, which was her ownership of a deviantArt group she was still in charge of up until then. So, at least with that, she wasn't just "letting it go", something that doesn't work for most people any more than "cheer up" or "it could be worse" despite being such common advice to give by default as it is.
(And no, I don't mean to insult you there. Can't really argue with whatever works for you, and it is only natural to give advice to others that actually worked for oneself. It's also only too well-known that what works for one person doesn't always work for another.)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 02:11 pm (UTC)Oh, now that PM makes sense. Without context, it sounded more about what the point of improving fanfic quality in general was, but this seems to be a social thing.
In reply to the question of importance, on the obsessive scope you're dealing with here, it's not. It's just internal inconsistency in one art thing, not even harmful like narrative stereotypes can be. If one author doesn't care while others do, that's all it is.
I'd still advise against sending further PMs when there's no reply to what you already sent. From the other person's POV, that might look creepy, getting a string of super serious messages about some minor dispute with a stranger from months ago.
(That club wasn't the root of my obsession with that show btw, just a hook that helped to keep it going. Knew the show long before I ran the club. I had to train my mind to stop going back to it, club or not.)
no subject
Date: 2019-07-17 02:12 pm (UTC)But anyway...
I'd still advise against sending further PMs when there's no reply to what you already sent.
Brian actually said the same thing last night. Will be sure not to dredge it up if he doesn't reply, but if I think of asking him anything unrelated later on, I might ask if he'd give me permission to do so before proceeding with it.