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ajblack4567
 16 Apr 2012, 09:09 #147599 Reply To Post
So how do all our loved ones influence/respond to our writing?

I have to laugh when I read writing guidance that says "disregard your partner's or family's feedback, as they will naturally think your piece is the best thing that's ever been written".

WRONG!!!!

On Saturday, I gave my wife a piece of flash I'd just finished to read over for me - it was a little experimental, admittedly: I was trying to do something clever with character names.

She read it, I asked what she thought and she said,

"People are just gonna pick it up and read it, then set it down saying, 'that was shit'."

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that falls into the category of "too honest".

Similar stories anyone?
This post was last edited by ajblack4567, 16 Apr 2012, 09:31
My story, 'An Encounter' - as improved by YWOers - is available in this anthology:

Speech Bubble Magazine Best Of Issues 1, 2 & 3 ebook

notleyab
 16 Apr 2012, 09:41 #147601 Reply To Post
Spousal feedback?? - I'd get down to A&E as soon as poss if I were you.
Sounds as if it could be fatal.
This post was last edited by notleyab, 16 Apr 2012, 09:44
PERRY
 16 Apr 2012, 10:41 #147603 Reply To Post
You're thinking electrical, notty.

At least you get feedback, Tony. After the plastic glee at the first couple of short stories published my entire family has had a severe attack of apathy.

Not a friggin one of them are fiction readers - well, acknowledged fiction anyway. They'd sooner read the snit in mags like OK, LOOK? or similar drivel - that and those small coloured pages with silver strips, watermarks and security tags.

They also expect my self-published stuff for free. How much does it cost to divorce a family?
This post was last edited by PERRY, 16 Apr 2012, 10:43
ajblack4567
 16 Apr 2012, 10:52 #147604 Reply To Post
Ha ha. You can pick your friends, PERRY, but not your family.

I have a sister and a work colleague who are unhelpfully keen on pretty much everything I write, but I can't help feeling The War Office overcompensates somewhat with her brutal criticism!

PERRY - am doing Martin Tyrell's wee six week evening course at QUB, Writing Fiction shortly - do you know anyone who's done that one? This is my first formal CW learning experience and I have to say I remain to be convinced about the merits of it in its entirety.
My story, 'An Encounter' - as improved by YWOers - is available in this anthology:

Speech Bubble Magazine Best Of Issues 1, 2 & 3 ebook

PERRY
 16 Apr 2012, 14:08 #147616 Reply To Post
Tony, just nod appreciatively now and then - it calms them. It must be taxing thinking up bollocks like clusters, freewriting, stream of consciousness and making it out that this doesn't happen perfectly naturally in the head of the writer anyway.

I don't imagine it is much different from the year long OU syllabus. It's okay for kids, but ...

Saw a documentary where a published author in her twenties did a great brainstorming with a unisex class of young teens and made up a nonsense poem. Great fun for them and she was quite .. ahem, but hardly great literature.

I'm wandering. Just sit back and enjoy. Like me, you'll probably find a couple of useful things. For me it was the specifics as to what publishers wanted, a few contacts, and the simple technique of leaving a piece alone for a few days before coming back and attacking it as an editor.

Good luck.
youngun
 16 Apr 2012, 18:30 #147649 Reply To Post
We're all very creative in my household. My missus is currently workshopping her one-woman production of 'Lysistrata' at home.
PERRY
 17 Apr 2012, 17:50 #147714 Reply To Post
youngun
 17 Apr 2012, 18:49 #147731 Reply To Post
Quote: PERRY, Tuesday, 17 Apr 2012 17:50


Had a hunch you'd get it - though I have to admit it's rather in the mould of a Frasier Crane joke. One of the ones with more bounceback on the teller than telling effect on the recipient.
PERRY
 17 Apr 2012, 19:07 #147733 Reply To Post
I cheated - I had to google the play.
ajblack4567
 17 Apr 2012, 20:17 #147747 Reply To Post
Ha ha, shame on you PERRY. Fraser and Niles would never need to resort to Google.

And nor did I.

I Wiki'ed it......
My story, 'An Encounter' - as improved by YWOers - is available in this anthology:

Speech Bubble Magazine Best Of Issues 1, 2 & 3 ebook

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