Why is no one critiquing anything?

I posted two poems in the critique forums. Ain't nobody said nuthin good or bad about nuthin I wrote. And in the past several hours ain't no one said nuttin about nuttin ain't nobody wrote.

Why dis forums soo not have much active?

Excuse the slang. This is nonetheless a serious matter.

 

Critiquing takes time and effort, if you're going to do it well. We don't all have both of those things at any given time. It's also a matter of feeling that you have anything useful to say on a piece, assuming that you even find one that you want to read - a lot of people have genre preferences that prevent them from reading a fair amount of what gets posted.

I'd also point out that one of the pieces you posted is titled "this is a terrible excuse for a poem". Frankly, a lot of people aren't even going to bother to click on that. If you think it's terrible why should anyone else read it? The self-deprecation doesn't come across as humility, it just makes folks more inclined to check out something with an interesting title.

 

Take it easy. Nobody's on the clock here. Critique is purely voluntary. Joining this forum does not obligate you to critique someone else's writing (unless you want your own writing critiqued - have you done your required critiques of other members' work?).

It's also a long weekend in the USA, and maybe a lot of members are away from their computers. Some are recovering from weather-related disasters and are understandably unavailable.

So relax and don't be so demanding. Be grateful for any comment, positive or negative, anyone finds time to give you.

 

How can you have 410 posts here and not know how this works? I am genuinely baffled.

 

What's with the slang? Are you pretending that that's what you're being asked to write when people tell you to lay off the King James/cadence thing?

Editing to add: Actually, I wouldn't even give it the dignity of calling it slang. It's just a willful and deliberate basket of errors. Or possibly a tantrum.

 

That's like expecting the rough draft of a work to be published immediately(well... then again twilight) it takes time and effort. I know when I post my first chapter in my story once I reach the requirements it might even take a month considering everyone in this forum probably has a relatively busy life.

 

Also, one of the poems that you posted for comment appears to be about how you wish people would stop commenting on your writing...

 

You know, I'm in a wish-granting mood tonight; I'll tell you what, when I get home from dinner, I'll Critique both of your poems OJB-style.

 

I don't know shit about poetry so I don't critique it. I'm sure I'm not the only one here who falls into that basket.

 

I don't know why, but I like writing poetry and loathe reading 90% of it. All the poetry I like was written by people who died a long time ago. Even then I'm not sure I could critique any poem.

 

1. I don't critique poetry because I don't like it and can't tell a Keats from a dirty limerick. Most people on the forum are writing novels, so the novels (and short stories) get the most attention.

2. You've been defensive about feedback in the past. When I see someone arguing with critique or going into defense mode, I don't critique anything of theirs unless I see an attitude change.

3. You title your work "This is terrible" and "I'm not sure if I want to continue this." Either you're putting up crap for critique, which is disrespectful and pointless, or you're already in defensive mode before you've had a single critique. Neither inspires people to spend time helping you.

 

At the moment, I'm working on beta reading (and giving extensive feedback to) two forum members for their finished novels—with a couple of others waiting in the wings. I also promised two people I would write reviews of their published work on Amazon.

I love doing critique work for the novel section, and occasionally short stories as well, but I almost never touch poetry, flash fiction, scriptwriting, etc. There's just so much any one person can do. And I would also like a wee bit of time to work on my own as well.

Try to give people some time to look at your work. I know it's easy to want feedback NOW, and I hate waiting for responses as well. But everybody's got other committments and other projects.

 

I wrote a critique on Friday.

Then I deleted it, because even I recognised that it was too insulting. As far as anybody (except perhaps somebody who clicked on it in that couple of minutes before I deleted the post) knows, I haven't critiqued that work.

 

Well you surely got your critique now by the looks of all other comments!

 

Aw man, all the good responses have been taken. I'll just give a mass +1 to all the above.

 

I would like to apologize to everyone for arguing about advice and critiques. I may not agree with everything you say, but from now on I will not argue against it. Please forgive me.

 

Bruh.
You wrote a poem in a perfect meter about how wrong everyone's advice is.
You can blow it out your ass.

 

You've said this before. You've never held to it.

And what's with the ridiculous phrasing in the first post of this thread? Are you pretending that that's what normal non-Biblical writing looks like?

Write something, and read a book written in the past fifty years.

 

I was just acting silly.

I don't have too many books written in the past fifty years. Most of the ones I do have are instructional. I will have to purchase some books or borrow some from the library. Can you recommend some?

 

Oh, no. I'm not falling into that trap. "A book written in the past fifty years" isn't the One Ring or some other hard-to-find quest goal. Go get one.