quote:It can't just be me who feels like when you write, you're really just putting yourself out there. It's like going to a nudie beach for the mind.
And the reply post suggested a new topic. I'm glad to see its not just me, but I'm also curious as to other reactions.
How many people strip off masks or personas on paper? How many of you feel you're bare and exposed? Even if your story has absolutely nothing to do with your life and if none of the characters resemble you, how much of yourself, personally, have you served up for strangers to scrutinize?
I seem to dress-up some of my most inner treasures with fiction without even knowing that I'm doing it. Then, later on, layer by layer, the story comes off and I can see this nugget of great joy, or pain, or fear that was there and I wonder if anyone else noticed it and if they did...
When the scrutinizing pen turns toward negative critique, how much do you take personally?
Tricks of the trade to distance yourself from taking negative critiques of your personal writing personally, without having to forfit the passion leant from letting yourself get personal on paper? Anyone?
[This message has been edited by Reagansgame (edited August 25, 2008).]
posted
It's because people judge you, and infer things about your personality/person that they otherwise wouldn't know, and still might not be true. If you write a lot of dark stuff (like me) that surprised people who otherewise might see you as a cheery, bright person.
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posted
To be honest I really do wear anything when I am in the Barracks where I do most of my writing now. Most of the MC’s are based on people I know well. So I don’t feel that I need to hide anything. Except one MC that is roughly based on me, in a short story I have been working on since I deployed back in March of 2007 but never had much time to write much in it. now that we are back I don’t really know how to write how it should be in my mind, I am to much of a every small detail person when I write, then have friends revise it to the final.
posted
I feel naked when I write, though I'm not sure how much of myself I put in my writing. Whether pursefully or not something does come through. I do know that I communicate better through writing than in speaking. It was very hard for me to let anyone read what I wrote. At first I would only let my husband read it and then I didn't want him to tell anyone. Then I realized I had to let others read or I would never get better.
As far as taking critique, I think the more often you do it the easier it gets. I know it's the same with music. I spent years playing in front of harsh judges that would rip your piece apart but you were always better for it. Then people would ask how I could play so easily in front of the nice and forgiving people of my church congregation where I could miss half the notes and they would still think it's wonderful. Keeping the passion? When I get a harsh critique I have to give myself time and then I get over it. You just have to keep putting everything out there and take the pain over and over again.
posted
I usually wear clothes when I'm writing, or doing something like going online and posting here---I keep it cool in here and I get chilled.
As for stories---well, if a really good incident comes my way, and if I have a story it suits, I'll put it in. Not necessarily adapting it from the real people to the characters on a one-to-one basis, though.
Also, I think I put a lot of me into my stories---things that happened to me, in some way. I can't say anybody's complained, or even noticed---at least nobody's said anything.
posted
“There are certain occasions where you just have to keep your pants on...”
A formation is one apparently, you must wear clothes even though it is outside your barracks. Or during a room inspection, and the bar doesn’t need to be fully stocked either.
posted
I always feel awkward allowing others to read my "sandpaper" copies as I call them. They are so rough and sometimes I can't exactly put to pen what I see in my head.
Yes, I do feel "naked" sometimes, like I'm exposing a vulnerable part of my soul. I don't want to see something I created put down.
Like my first thirteen I posted. Scared me to death because I personally know what the other thousand of words are and you are only seeing a snippet.
What if the snippet isn't good enough? Do I trash the rest?
I tell myself that if I like it and others do, then I can only improve on it. Not everyone is going to like everything written no matter how good it is. It's not a reflection on me, but on my style, or voice or genre.
posted
When I write I consciously try to make the reader think I'm probably a 12 year-old girl. With two little ponytails and a big collection of Barbie dolls. A little girl named Tracy, awhhhhhh, how cute - lets buy her little book honey, to encourage her. Awhhhhhh... poor little thing.
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quote:It can't just be me who feels like when you write, you're really just putting yourself out there. It's like going to a nudie beach for the mind.
Yes, a prose is much like a nudist. You can look at your own and think that's not too bad and look at it from another angle and think god is that ugly.
A critique site is very much like a nude beach. You're not going to find OSC on here test his first 13 lines for his next novel and asking for readers now are ya? Well, you're also not going to find Angelina Jolene or Brad Pitt walking that beach either. When you go to a nude beach or nudist colony you're going to find some people that probably never should have taken their clothes off in private much less for public view. In fact you'll find a lot of ugly. Truth is everyone that starts off in a crit site like hatrack is probably going to show some ugly. The difference between the nude beach and here is you'll get a better chance to look pretty. Face it, you don't go to the beach to hear "You need to do a few sit-ups and hit the stairs instead of the elevator. You also might want to think about sunscreen unless you like the feeling of shoe leather between those thighs." So as they say 'When in Rome...', So strip off those ambitions and show us your goods. We may even give you sexy whistle for your trouble.
posted
Okay, so the post was representing a little bit of an extreme in the analogy department, but Snapper, you carried it around full circle for me.
Maybe it was picturing BrAngie skipping along on the beach, while those of us who aren't getting call backs from Cosmo watch with respect and a bit o' jealousy.
Just keep writing until the day that I'm so Jessica Alba Fantastic on paper that confidence has made listening to reviews uneccesary. Until that day comes, we can spot eachother in the gym of creative writing, and with each workout get a little closer.
posted
Recent comments do remind me that I feel a certain unease at the notion of publication. Not the kind of thing I've talked about before.
This is more of a worry along the lines of, "Hey, if this gets published...people will actually read it. And what will they thing?" And by "people" I mean "parents," "family," "friends," "casual acquaintances," "Workshoppers," and anybody and everybody who's not me and not a slushpile reader. Right now writing is kind of a private thing---getting published means it'll no longer be private.
When the notion gets into my mind, every so often, I get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach...
However, I've taken a great leap of faith by just submitting once in a while. I've made certain others, like passing around some Internet Fan Fiction, and, recently, putting up a website with some of my old rejects. I'll have to bear up under the pressure...
quote:When I write I consciously try to make the reader think I'm probably a 12 year-old girl. With two little ponytails and a big collection of Barbie dolls. A little girl named Tracy, awhhhhhh, how cute - lets buy her little book honey, to encourage her. Awhhhhhh... poor little thing.
I wonder if that strategy backfires when 14 year old boys put it down, "ewww I'm not reading a book written by a girl!" (I believe this was the reason JK Rowling published under those initials, to be gender-neutral.)
[This message has been edited by Zero (edited August 28, 2008).]
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