Sunday, February 1, 2009

Mean Writers

In my spare time when I'm bored I hang out on a writing message board that would probably be one of the largest on the net. Its filled with very serious writers. Posting something for critique there is like chucking a bit of meat into a pit filled with tigers. They rip you apart. I've posted things there about five times and with the exception of the last time I did it (I only got one terrible review instead of five or six! yay!) I would get so many incredibly nasty responses it would be like being pelted with rocks. I'll come away, dazed and confused, and ask myself "WHY THE HELL DO I DO THAT TO MYSELF?" I guess on some deep down level I want to impress this group of snobby writers. Most of them are in their 30s and above. And alot of them are published. The thing I hate about that website is there are a couple of people there who are just flat out MEAN to younger, less experienced writers, and it bugs the shit out of me. For example, a young girl posted on the site recently asking about e-books. Of course, she got a million responses telling her how bad they are, which is enough to irritate me, then this other little shit started critiquing her POSTS and pointing out all her spelling errors and told her that "If your writing in your posts is any example I do not think your novel would benefit from further critiques" so just because she was a bad speller apparently that makes her a terrible writer and incapable of improving. I was SO TEMPTED to post a snotty reply but I didn't. I would just alientate another person on that board. I've gotten into a few arguments there. LOL. That person's reply disgusted me. Writers are supposed to SUPPORT other writers. Not shoot them down because they're young or might have a problem with spelling. Just because a writer has a problem with spelling DOES NOT mean that they are incapable of writing a good story. With practise their spelling will improve. Sometimes I wonder why I go to that site. So I've opened my own writing forms called Writing Realm:

http://www.hostingphpbb.com/forum/index.php?mforum=atlantis&sid=992416359c2094440f00365571afc8f8

At the moment its just me rattling around there. LOL. I'm hopeful others will come soon.