What are some major misconceptions that amateurs have about writing?

Probably 2. I don't want my views to be misunderstood as "if you can't take someone being mean to you, don't put your work up because I'm going to be mean to you so you better take it".

Equally, I don't care for someone putting words in my mouth, to claim I'm saying something when I'm not.

Have you ever seen me give a mean critique? I've given harsh critiques before, but I *always* find something encouraging to say, and I never rip someone apart just for the hell of it. If someone starts getting defensive about their writing, I wish them a good day and exit the thread.

 

If you're really interested, PM me. I'm not going to dig up this sort of stuff in public, it's not fair to the members involved.

 

Yes, that's what I had in mind. Thank you.

 

Name one. Provide evidence.

 

Hardly. There's this thing called "conversation", maybe you've heard of it? It requires back and forth between people of various viewpoints. Maybe you should look it up. Otherwise, this entire forum would be nothing but one person making some pronouncement and other people making their own statements back and that would be the end of every thread.

Again, that's not how forums actually work. For as long as you've presumably been out here in Internet-land, it's surprising you don't know that.

Too bad. This is a forum for writing, not a forum for psychoanalyzing writers. It isn't a safe space. It is a place for helping writers to get better, not to make them feel better. Maybe you misunderstand the purpose of the forum, indeed all Internet writing forums. That's not meant to be cruel, only honest. Whatever issues any individual writer is dealing with are largely irrelevant to anyone but themselves. A publisher isn't going to look at a mess of a manuscript and say "well, it sucks, but it's okay because the author had to deal with X". Nope, it's going to go right into the rejection bin because it doesn't meet quality standards. Stop looking for emotional excuses for why people aren't writing well and just accept that, no matter what else is going on in their lives, there are standards and those standards are not emotional. Whether you like it or not, out here in the real world, your feelings just don't matter.

 

Mod hat on here: Oi, guys. This is getting way too heated and personal. It's a good topic, but we need to avoid attacking EACH OTHER when we encounter an opinion we don't agree with. Attack the opinion, not the person who holds it! Who knows? People might even change their minds or take on another perspective, if you can present a sound enough argument for your own point of view.

That's a lot better than making fellow members feel angry and upset, by putting words in their mouth or assuming you know what their actual agenda is.

I'm temporarily shutting this thread down to give the participants time to cool off and re-think their approach. I'll re-open it in a few days' time, and see how things go.

REMINDER: The topic is:
"What are some major misconceptions that amateurs have about writing?"