tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post5774235902724891901..comments2023-09-05T12:51:25.656-05:00Comments on edittorrent: Don’t Be This GuyEdittorrenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14295505709568570553noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-46939346738075618102008-04-21T21:38:00.000-05:002008-04-21T21:38:00.000-05:00In a lot of years in various arts industries, I've...In a lot of years in various arts industries, I've run across my fair share of jealous trolls. The size of the air of entitlement, in my experience, is directly related to the quality of the work. I tend to ignore them. <BR/><BR/>As an editor, it's easy to spot them when they come across your desk.ssashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15527483283426518167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-38286074437164994322008-04-20T10:01:00.000-05:002008-04-20T10:01:00.000-05:00"Cultures we have no rights to" - isn't that just ..."Cultures we have no rights to" - isn't that just a can of worms? Who decides who has 'rights' to a culture? How restrictive should it be? Should I only be writing about middle aged male computer geeks who work for flooring manufacturers in the southeast U.S.? Is it too late for me to include engineering colleges and dairy farms in upstate New York, or can I mention them as long as I state the right decades?<BR/><BR/>I guess I need to drop the 3-eyed, 2 trunked elephants before they become offended...Dave Shawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773380114295267509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-43251952698729259422008-04-20T06:17:00.000-05:002008-04-20T06:17:00.000-05:00even I am tired of reading about nothing but White...<I>even I am tired of reading about nothing but White women.</I><BR/><BR/>Now there's a can of worms. <BR/><BR/>I write fantasy, and you'd think speculative fiction would be immune to that - one of my characters is half tree, for heaven's sake, and the whole field is full of aliens and cat people and people doing magic and whathaveyou - but we *still* get, on occasion, admonished that readers want to read about 'people like them' and we shouldn't appropriate cultures we have no rights to.<BR/><BR/>Well, I partly read because I want to know about _other people_. I want to know what it's like to be male, a mother, an astronaut, a dragonrider... so that doesn't fly. And second, I am such a multi-facetted being, that 'people like me' is meaningless as a category - there's only one person like me, and while my life sometimes reads like a penny dreadful, it certainly wasn't planned that way. <BR/><BR/>It disturbs me that there seems to be a forced segregation, a - mostly unspoken - assumption that people only want to read about their own skin colour and gender.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-27221923293191786272008-04-19T19:53:00.000-05:002008-04-19T19:53:00.000-05:00Geez. No one deserves to go through that, especial...Geez. No one deserves to go through that, especially good people.<BR/><BR/>I just got back from the Romantic Times Convention and the vibe there was incredible. There was a HUGE awareness that we're all here to help each other. Not just writer-to-writer, but writer-to-reader, too. I am hopeful that more writers are getting and sharing this message.<BR/><BR/>As for the same but different thing, I made a point of picking up all the free excerpts I could. I read a bunch of them -- and put one down because it read TOO MUCH like something else I'd read. It wasn't different enough. <BR/><BR/>I sat in a panel about multicultural books, and at the end, I was chatting with the lovely editors of Kimani Press. I said to Linda Gill, even I am tired of reading about nothing but White women. <BR/><BR/>Maybe it's just me, but I'm thinking different is good. Helping fellow authors is good.<BR/><BR/>Trolls are evil, however.Susan Helene Gottfriedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12778191943289129869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-3732326916836133222008-04-19T13:06:00.000-05:002008-04-19T13:06:00.000-05:00Theresa--So sorry for your friend. There is a way ...Theresa--<BR/>So sorry for your friend. There is a way to monitor and delete comments--your friend may want to consider learning how to delete unwanted comments that serve no purpose other than to advance the bizarre theories of this guy. Good luck to her!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-23095289959723262112008-04-18T23:58:00.000-05:002008-04-18T23:58:00.000-05:00Re trolls, if it's really bad, your friend should ...Re trolls, if it's really bad, your friend should consider blocking the person. That may mean stopping anonymous postings. So be it. I'm sure the members would appreciate the offender being gone, too. There is no excuse for uncivility. Points can be made without being nasty. I would imagine this person has already been told multiple times about his/her behaviour.<BR/><BR/>As for competition, I mentioned in a talk a few weeks ago that I was astonished and thrilled to find that the writing community was so giving and sharing. As a relative newcomer [<5 years and still working hard to get something good enough to be published], this open aspect was not expected and I was thrilled to find it.<BR/><BR/>Re genre or lit or scrapbooking even, we're all story-tellers. The essence of the effort boils down to that. Whose story and who is interested in reading it or hearing it is unprescribable. That's what makes it so important. Any story can be told in many imaginative ways. And in today's world, it's even less of an economic issue to have stories shared. Creativity and narrative are nearly available to all. Wow!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-3804816167857884292008-04-18T10:23:00.000-05:002008-04-18T10:23:00.000-05:00It's so sad that the trolls of the internet can be...It's so sad that the trolls of the internet can be so ghastly toward others. i think the false sense of anonymity is at work. Peole forget that good manners are more important when you are not face to face, not less. <BR/><BR/>The sort of behavior you describe is like doorbell ditching with a flaming sack of poo was in the 50s and 60s. Cheap and disgusting.writtenwyrddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02280711822302493122noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-77408132341695067172008-04-17T19:20:00.000-05:002008-04-17T19:20:00.000-05:00Elizabeth Moon today coined the term 'Dungbat' for...Elizabeth Moon today coined the term 'Dungbat' for this kind of person - completely deranged *and* malicious. <BR/><BR/>Ok, there might be times when writers directly compete against each other - but more often, we compete with the complete entertainment industry and all the other demands the economy makes on people's pocketbooks.<BR/><BR/>People valueing books is good. Boundary-pushing books being published is good, because it makes my livejournal-style diary (a second-world fantasy novel) slightly more publishable. <BR/><BR/>The more I learn about the publishing industry, the more I begin to understand some of the choices agents and editors make. I think there's a lot of bad stuff going on - corporate practices that hurt the midlist and anyone trying to break into it ('let's publish only the bestsellers', anyone?) but the bar for publication hangs justifiably high.<BR/><BR/>I've just beta-read a mss for a multi-published friend, and the difference in quality between her stuff and the stuff I see from most unpublished writers - myself included - is pretty humbling. There's a reason she's doing well, and it's simply that she's producing good ideas *and* executing them well. <BR/><BR/>I'm slowly getting there, but it's a lot of work. And I think you're unlikely to develop the critical skills you need if you approach this with a sense of entitlement: I've given a year of my life, so publish me.<BR/><BR/>Sadly, every single self-or vanity published weriter I have come across on the net who was railing against the prejudices of the publishing industry had been lagging several tiers behind. <BR/><BR/>I do not think this is a coincidence.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-39801587761207112072008-04-17T18:11:00.000-05:002008-04-17T18:11:00.000-05:00Wise words! Am applauding and saluting you, Theres...Wise words! Am applauding and saluting you, Theresa.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-48270866278031613002008-04-17T15:38:00.000-05:002008-04-17T15:38:00.000-05:00Unfortunately, I really am beginning to think it's...Unfortunately, I really am beginning to think it's human nature to be jealous and vindictive of someone else's success. I couldn't agree more about the genre snipping too. My friend and I tease each other about our book choices. I comment on her picking yet another vampire book and she gets at me for all my serious book choices. It's all in good fun and we both understand that it's the pleasure of reading that draws us together.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6824896765631412903.post-64122490727565265222008-04-17T14:07:00.000-05:002008-04-17T14:07:00.000-05:00Science has so far been unable to determine whethe...Science has so far been unable to determine whether trollish behavior is the result of a gene, a virus, or learned behavior. The fact that many trolls seem to have difficulty learning anything at first seems to rule out the last possibility, but one hypothesis suggests that it's only after they reach full-fledged trollhood that they cease learning. Regardless of the cause, the most successful method of repelling trolls is to ignore them, although in some cases good-natured humor has also worked. Your mileage may vary, of course.<BR/><BR/>I feel bad for your friend, Theresa.Dave Shawhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773380114295267509noreply@blogger.com