Opinions Needed!!!!

[tabaqui]

I wrote this yesterday, i think...

Yup, did it again.
Another bit of pr0n from the cracktrailer universe.
*hangs head in shame*
But have no fear! New 'Credence' tomorrow!

Truck Stop

My husband replied thusly:

Subject: cracktrailer universe, ugh...
....it just hits a little too close to home, with all the rabbit hutches and truck stops and meth. It makes me feel uneasy, the whole concept is just.. umm.. BLEH.
*shudder*
Write about nice, creepy, fantasy vampires and werewolves, that's fun!
*Don't* write about the people living down the road from me, PUH-LEAZE.

fond regards,

I deleted the comment, 'cause it really kinda bugged me. I can get not liking a genre/verse, but to say 'i don't like this, don't write it anymore' made me feel...like somehow, my writing got 'bad' when i wrote the other 'verse, and what i was writing there was worthless.

The deletion caused some upset.
So, i want some opinions. What do you, my fellow writers and addicts think of the post, and my deletion?
And my putting it back?

And, while we're on the subject... I love, love, love the 'ooh, that was great' feedback, but i welcome - i CRAVE - feedback that picks at my writing - that points out flaws and challenges my characterization and my word choices and my ideas.
Really!
'Changes' is the only think i've linked to my LJ that's beta'd - the other stuff get's once-overs by super-cool folks from time to time, but no formal beta, so please don't post back to me about all the comma mistakes i made, 'cause i KNOW how awful my punctuation can be...

But yes, i would love to see some feedback about all of the above.
Or, you know, just tell me shut up and write.
:)

Comments

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

Well it is your hubby, and that makes things a bit different. Personally I'll write whatever I want to darn well write and if you don't like it you don't have to read it.

Sorry, 1st Amendment issues here.

You're writing is just great, I don't think I could ask for anything different, and I personally don't give a damn for commas.

That being said, will there be more Credence. Please?

[tabaqui]

Reet, the whole hubby thing...
Which is probably why it freakin' HURT to have a comment that was basically 'i don't like this, don't write it anymore'.
Gah.
Not - this really sucked 'cause you so screwed the characterization, try again', but 'don't write it anymore'.
Grrr!

:)

[amejisuto.livejournal.com]

Well you could withhold sex, but that would hurt you too.

Just write another one, and make sure he's in it somehow. The pen is mightier than the sword.

[tabaqui]

Ha.
Well, suppose not.
Although the pissy attitude ain't helpin'.
:)

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

I think it was tacky of him to do that, to be quite honest. He could have said it's not his kind of thing, but to ask you, and especially in a public forum, to not write it any more? Totally unreasonable.

He appears to be upset with your subject matter, not your writing, which is most definitely not worthless, but that still doesn't give him the right to ask you to stop doing something you enjoy, and that you're good at (not that I've read any cracktrailer fic, nope not me, nuhuh, not a word) just because it's not to his taste.

As for constructive criticism, it's a good thing, but many people are too worried about it being taken the wrong way to actually get up the nerve to say anything, especially in a public forum like LJ. There, they don't just have to worry about you taking it the wrong way, but all your readers too, any and all of whom might decide to jump in to defend your honour.

Well, that's my 2c worth. :o)

[tabaqui]

Now see, that's so stupid - i think being afraid of stating your opinion where it's asked for (otherwise disable comments!) is silly. Unless you're just a tactless boor who says things like 'U fucking suck!11'
In which case, you should be shot.
:)

I hate to shoot down people who are really TRYING, that's for sure, but i won't hesitate to say 'hey, this isn't quite right'...

You trailertrash, you. :)

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Well, now you've asked, hopefully you'll receive. But if you want it each time you post fic, it might be worth putting a note at the top asking for constructive criticism and giving an email addy in case they don't want to speak up in public.

I tend to wait for people to ask for CC and then I check to see if they want it in LJ or email. And then I let 'em have it. ;o)

Trailertrash? Moi? Surely you jest? :op I'm not into RPS at all, not even the trashy pretty hard drinkin' stoner boys that... I've never ever ever read about in any trailer park at all. So there.

[tabaqui]

Hrmmmm...seems like haveing the 'comments' thing should just INVITE it, but... yeah. I might just do!
Although such request could get boring and repetative...hehe.

Hey, i LIVE in a trailer! It's a doublewide, but still...
These people are the people i went to school with and live next door to, and i guess i don't have a problem writing and reading it because a)the idea of ANY of them gettin' down and dirty with the same sex is laughable in the extreme, and b)these boys are all so PRETTY and HURTY and stuff... I could read about them in D.C. or a monostery!
*monks, hmmmmm*

Hehe.

And sweetie, you KNOW you love it.
Just give in.

[darkhavens.livejournal.com]

Although such request could get boring and repetative...hehe.

"Constructive criticism welcome (email address)" should do it.

My best friend back in my birthtown is selling her house so she and her hubby can move into a trailer park and I've spent time in one myself (albeit living on the French Riviera, it was still a trailer), so I know the living conditions even if the setting is somewhat different. :op

But yes, the boys are pretty enough to imagine them going at each other like bunnies wherever they are. Hee!

And sweetie, you KNOW you love it.
Just give in.

You enabler, you!

[tabaqui]

I AM an enabler! It rocks getting people to be as obsessed and neurotic as me!
Whoot!

Actually a brand-new double-wide is really, really cool.
But these guys don't live in double-wides, they live in single-wides that were built in 1972 or something. So, yeah - yerrrg.

shut up and write OR *monks, hmmmmm* PART ONE

[(Anonymous)]

A pressie in lieu of actual comment.

"The brother superior, also called the master of novices, was a tall, bald man with sandy eyelashes; he had, as I thought, a rather insincere stoop and was in the habit of clearing his throat a lot as though he was about to make an announcement. When he looked at me it was as if he suspected I wanted to slap him. Curiously, that was exactly what the devil was always telling me to do; but I resisted him. Stooping Sandy, whose monastic name was Etienne, always encouraged the vary keen members of the novitiate to call out reminders to the more timid ones of what our ideals: to be modest, by which was meant we should not look at each other; to be pious and meditative; to work hard and not think for yourself; and, especially, to be obedient. The shouted out reminders of our ideals were meant to inspire us, to keep idle thoughts away and so on. Come to think of it I suppose you could call out anything you wanted as long as it was fine and noble. It was not unusual for someone to call out at breakfast: ‘Let us think of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga.’ There would be a general sigh of satisfaction all round and if you caught the reference it nourished you. St Aloysius Gonzaga was famous for his chastity so just the thought of him would lower the boom of your lust. He was an easy reference and we all responded. And if another fervent young novice bawled out: ‘Let us all be minims’, you might not get the reference to St Francis of Paula who was big on humility. But the passion to be a minim was very common and we would all bow our heads and pray for lowliness.
One cold damp morning in January, so damp we were allowed to sleep with our socks under our pillows, I tried to overcome my timidity about the calls to piety by suddenly yelling out ‘Polycarp of Smyrna’. Thirty-nine young men, faces buried in tin basins of coffee were caught on the hop. I thought it quite droll to see them forget their modesty for a moment and glance at each other as if to say: ‘Who the hell is Polycarp of Smyrna?’ There was a small pause and the noise of thirty-nine gorgers ingesting coffee pobs eased and someone called: ‘Let us not be obscure.’ This rebuke irked me a bit and I countered: ‘St John Bosco?’ Plain Clogs reposted with: ‘Joseph Cupertino.’ The sandy master of novices tapped the rim of his tin bowl and hissed: ‘Let us have silence.’ And the silence descended. The obedience was absolute. You could nearly hear the building growing older. I never called out again, though I was often tempted to. The devil ricocheted in my head and did his damnedest to provoke me. He kept suggesting I shout: ‘Everybody get his dick out.’ But I never dared."

shut up and write OR *monks, hmmmmm* PART TWO

[(Anonymous)]

"Once at a collation, a few months after I had been urged not to be obscure, I inadvertently, oh very inadvertently lost complete control of myself and glanced up at the novice sitting opposite me. He’d been sitting there for at least six months because I recognised a broken button near his throat but I’d never looked past that broken button and into his face until now. As I looked at him (in my weakness), I was quite shocked at how beautiful he was; but not only beautiful, interesting, too, in the way I imagined the devil might be interesting if one could only catch a glimpse of him. As I looked at my opposite novice he seemed contemplative – by that I mean he was looking into his lap. I longed to look into his lap with him. I longed to lay my head in his lap. I wanted to be in his lovely lap forever. I wanted to be his lap dog. But even before I could enjoy that thought the ugly bugger next to him read me real quick and shouted out: ‘ Be modest, let us all be modest, let us not look at one another.’ The ugly ones always wanted the others to be modest. He was called Linus, I think, the ugly one, and taking him at his words I never looked at him again. Compared to him the floor was mysterious. It was a strange life only loving someone’s buttons or fingers or feet: the part for the whole, so to speak. I would have liked to possess that broken button and suck it in chapel during the meditation on our last ends.
I once spent about half an hour looking at a chap’s clogs and felt quite affectionate towards them; he was in them, of course, but I never saw his face and I never once shouted out a call during the remainder of that whole year. All I wanted to do was stroke clogs and suck buttons. Somehow the idea of calling out ‘Let us recollect ourselves’ didn’t appeal to me, though I was often tempted to cry out, ‘Let us love one another.’ It was indisputably a good thought but it might have been misconstrued by Brother Linus or old Stooping Sandy."

‘Who on earth is Tom Baker?’- an autobiography.
Extract from chapter eight, p61 – 63.

Tom Baker did not become a fully fledged monk; instead he bailed in favour of becoming an actor, subsequently one of the most well loved Dr Who actors, getting laid, and general bohemian hedonism. Lucky us. :)
Love your stuff TQ, and yeah the cracktrailer stuff may ick-out some folks who is neighbours with Cousin-Dad over in Eight Mile, but heck *I* find it exotic :P so shut up an' write babee...

'whorly
XXXXXxxxxxxxxx.........

Re: shut up and write OR *monks, hmmmmm* PART TWO

[tabaqui]

OH my god!!!
Oh, this is so cool!!!
*bounce*
Lurve ya, bay-beee!
*monks!!!*

[txrabbit.livejournal.com]

Hey! Shut up and write!

Ok. Now to the rest. Truthfully, I can see both sides.

If my husband made a comment like that in a public forum, I'd have to kick his tush. I mean, how hard would it be for him to lean over and say, "That really reminds me too much of the Smiths... How can you write that?" Much easier and less time consuming than typing and posting a comment. I think deleting the comment is fine. Tell him why, tell him it hurt and then kick his tush.

The other side? Well, I grew up in a small town in central Texas. The characters in cracktrailer are people I went to school with. It is seriously creepy to read some of the stuff that is written, but I choose to read it because the authors are talented and the fact that I can SEE and SMELL and REMEMBER all of the things that are being written... I mean, that is talent, no matter how much of a joke this thing was at the beginning.

Kick his tush. That's what I think...

[tabaqui]

Yeah, that's the petty part i'm not happy with - it hurt my feelings so i said 'fuck that'.
Plus - be supportive of my habit in public!
There was much yahoo messaging back and forth, which is why i put it back up.
Tush kicking will have to wait, 'cause i think i broke my toe earlier.
Gah.

[(Anonymous)]

The summary of my comment was this:

"I don't like this, I like that.. write more of that and less of this!"

I said it politely.

It amounts to something like:

I really disliked KISS delving into their disco-esque era in the late 70s.. that genre of music is NOT my thing, though i am a die hard KISS fan from way back. If I were to log onto a KISS fan site hosted by the record label and comment "I really hate this new style (genre) the band has taken, I much prefer their previous works and wish they would get out of this vein and play the stuff i LIKE." I would be quite preturbed if the site admin pulled my comment down so as not to blight their long line of praises with a negative comment about their new endeavors. THAT, to me, is stealing my write to freely express my opinion.
That's all it was, an opinion.
I could make the same observation about a multitude of artists, directors, musicians, and writers. I'm not saying (I *can't* say) "don't." I can only say "I, your fan, prefer this, and find that to be distasteful. It's up to the creative mind to write/sing/paint what they want to, that's their every right. My right as the "fan" to express my opinion is valid though.

I was censored.

That's fine. This isn't a free speech sort of place. Every author can eliminate the adverse opinions and comments if they like.

That said, I'll not be interfering again, my opinion is obviously unwelcome unless it suits the author.

regards,

CatBones

[(Anonymous)]

Oh and ummm... *blush* ...pardon my spelling, umm, it's late.. I'm not *really* illiterate, I just pretend to be most of the time.

Now I'm *really* leaving.

/wave!

CatBones

[saifai.livejournal.com]

I don't wanna say it's a hubby thing, becuase I know for fact it's more than that. Hubby's always think they know us better. But I'd mentioned this verse to my hubby too. I just think sometimes they get squicked. I don't really think it's a comment on your writing, like it's somehow worse in this genre. But there are definitely things that squick people, no matter how good the writing is to read. *shrugs* That's about the best way I can describe it. I can't say anything bad about your writing, it's just not in me. Love ya' too much. But I promise if I ever see anything that sticks out like a soar thumb I'll let you know.

As for the deletion, I probably would've done the same thing. *gr*

[tabaqui]

Is it childish of me to say 'Yay!'
Heh.
Yes, tell me when i suck, 'cause i wanna get really, really good and then...
Publish!
Sometime.
Something.
:)

[katholicgrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh boy, I know better than to get in the midst of something like this, but when did that ever stop me? I will try to word this very carefully and neutrally... First off, i can totally get not wanting to read about the rednecks down the road, i too read fiction to escape from RL. But, presumably you two live together? So he could have said that to your face? It sounds as if there may be some personal issues getting acted out in this public creative forum. So your deletion of his post is understandable, as an attempt to keep your private dispute, private. you two are intimate partners, and it seems disingenuous to act as if one of you posting on the other's work in a public forum is just the same as any other reader doing so. it could never be merely that. Maybe he's jealous because you posted that gorgeous sexy picture for all to see? Don't stop writing whatever the hell you want ~ nobody has to read it if they don't want to!

[tabaqui]

Yeah, and i should probably apologize to my whole Flist for doing this to you guys.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
:)

He'd already told me serveral times in person that he doesn't like the cracktrailer!verse so, yeah, this seemed petty to me.

ANd, yes, we do live together, twenty years next february.

[katholicgrrl.livejournal.com]

Petty's not the word i would use... But i'm not going to let my Mars in Scorpio out to play here...

[tabaqui]

BWAhahhahaha!
:)

[katholicgrrl.livejournal.com]

OOps, sorry, I just read that he did the pic, so just ignore that part of my post! (knew i was gonna get in trouble with this!)

[tabaqui]

*snarf*
that's okay, i forgot to comment on it.
He thinks it's really cool that i put that picture up (and i'm still in shock that i did).
So, yeah, not a problem.
:)