RE: ::BuffyWantsWillow:: Essay: The Decline of B/W Fan Fiction]

[Mad Hamlet <Mad-Hamlet@xxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

Thanks to Cilia a fierce conversation has begun on the our beloved list!
Namley feedback, C&C, and 'Authors Emotional Values'. 

Then there's the debate over wether 'The Golden Age' of B/W has passed us by.


About damn time I say!

On the latter subect I have no real opinion. What I read, I like, what I like,
I read. Unless I don't.(HUH?!) 
On the former, yeah boy, do I ever! But you knew that already. 
I've been told that conversations like this have happened before and always
just lost momentum and drifted away, leaving nothing
changed. Hmm..don't like the sound of that. 

I cannot emphasise how strongly I disagree with the attitude of... 

'New Writers are Frail Creatures who have to be lovingly tended.' 

In my opinion that's a load of Huey.(Louie and Duey are fit for conspumption,
but Huey? He's bad quality meat. Uncle Scrooge is too, he's
stringy.) 

If anything new writers should be the first to be C&Ced and the first to
accept it. They're NEW! They havn't got well established bad habits nor good
ones! If they get really proper C&C they can save themselves a
lot of trouble later on, after becoming 'established' if they don't have to
crack long expierence of bad habits. Like talking heads, or Telling, not
Showing. 

At the same time, if they're new, their good habits can be enhanced and grow
without being burdened with watching out for bad habits
IF they have been nipped in the bud. 

Some of you may scratching your heads and thinking, 'What the hell is he
talking about?' 

Simple. New writers are more maleable. 
                        
And if they really are there to write, to share, and to IMPROVE than they'll
take the C&C on the chin! 

                        
You can write stories to share, and you can write stories simply to write, but
if you don't come in also expecting to improve, wanting to improve, well... 

I have to say you're in the wrong place. 

There's a fanficcer named 'CarrotGlance'. He is, in my opinion, the epitomeof
Bad. His grammer is good, spelling, construction are fine. His descriptions
are adequate if nothing to boggle over. His production values are beyond
reproach. This guy can hammer out a sixty page chapter over a weekend! 
                        
BUT 

He accepts NO C&C, he accepts NO Pre-Readers and EVERY SINGLE ONE of his
fanfiction basically boils down to a Self Insertion Fic.(AKA-Mary Sue.) As if
that wasn't enough he think when he C&C's anyone elses work it is the word of
God and should be ahereded to verbatim. 

The phrase 'Carrotglance has Spoken' springs to mind. And if you don't take
his 'Advice' as sacred or try to suggest something to him
he will spend weeks slamming you, your family, your genetic heritage, hell,
even your pets and any and all plant life that happens to
be around your general vacinity. 

This is _The_ Definition of a 'Bad Fanficcer'. 

I'm thinking that's part of the problem, people are afraid of something, or
someone, like that is going to spring up.
It's not. I would find it very diffilcult to believe that anyone on these
lists is under seventeen and if we all are that means we all managed to
survive grade school relativly intact.
And if you can survive grade school, somebody saying negative about a pieceof
your work is not only survivable, but, if not educational than definetly
humerous, Specially if they do it BADLY.

Bad fics are funny.
Bad C&C is Funnier!

Good C&C is incredibly precious.
People are not going to get hurt here. We just know each other to well.
Again I cast my vote for the 'Yea' of Public C&C.
                        

I don't think I'm some sort of God, I don't think I'm better than anybody
else..at least I hope I don't. I think I have an opinion and I think I express
it. Perhaps a tad vehemently. 
But if you want to blow me off and think I'm just a crack addled street punk,
that's okay. 
And if you nod, think to yourself, well he's got a few valid points, that's
okay. 
And if you agree with me one hundred percent, consider me your new personal
Jesus, and want to send me your college fund? 

That's okay too! 

I'm honest, I never said I was ethical. 

I remain, as always, 
Mad-Hamlet 

There is only one thing that can damn me.
That can send me down in a swirling maelstrom of fire and pain.
And it is not the word of Man.
And it is not the lessons and rules of the Church, hypocrites every one.
And it is not the words of God, nor the judgements of Angels.
And it not a fair tribunal of my 'peers' that can find me guilty of crimes
immortal.
No. 
I can only be accused, judged and damned by my own Soul.
And I would never be so betrayed.

Mad-Hamlet