The scary thing is, I think you are right. And lord help you if you think the reader has to do anything in the process of enjoying a work of fiction. You know me well enough by now to know I have no problem picking on stuff like Potter. Someone has to do it. A bunch of boys sleeping in the same room, in an for-all-intents-and-purposes British public school, making sparks come out of their wands ... yeah.
https://www.writingforums.org/threads/bad-plots-story-ideas.36420/page-2#post-701866 https://www.writingforums.org/threads/twilight-fiction-or-that-other-thing-we-never-speak-of.131279/#post-1207260 https://www.writingforums.org/threads/twilight-fiction-or-that-other-thing-we-never-speak-of.131279/page-2#post-1208285 There are others....
Here's the funny part: This very obvious surface layer of British Public School Boys Gone Wild porn never even occurred to me, though now, what has been seen cannot be unseen! For me the porn in the story came from a different layer of the tell of the tale.
Yep and nobody better then you buddy. Sincerely. Best classic readin fella around Well everybody should read the classics of course but its like your 'THING' and always make for a wonderful conversation. Plus you filled parts of my empty reading calendar for this year XD
I had a few before i disappeared for awhile (i highly doubted anyone missed my silly ass) but they all parted on their own paths so the only ones i know well enough are really Jannert, Mammamia, Lemex, Link and Steerpike that are still around. Along with the moderators too. I kind of miss the old days, just not my young stupidity.
It feels like a family member that just recently moved away to a different state or something. It's hard to describe.
I don't like speaking ill of people who have left but she was the bane of this forum, and il quickly explain why if only to point out what NOT to do on a primarily amateur (that means most of us are unpublished) writing forum. She spent 90% of her posts bragging/ asserting her writing authority, yet, stangely never had any credentials to show, as opposed to someone like Terrence. She used her own self imposed authority to dominate writing conversations, and members would parrot whatever she said without even reflecting on the value of her posts. Her critiques were usually terrible, often damning. Look, I'm not a nice critiquer either, but I always explain what I don't like, and I always tell the person to ask me if more elaboration is needed. Maia would say "unfortunately this was not very good," with no explanation, no examples, and sometimes it was simply because she didn't personally like the content, especially if she felt it was derogatory to women in any way. When she praised something, it was the same. No explanation as to why, but when one introduces their praise with "anyone here will tell you I very rarely give praise," you're going to be jumping up and down even if the praise is unsupported. I don't want to know about your life journey, all the presidents you've dated, or your supposed 200 IQ. I want to see your PUBLICATIONS, otherwise, show humility like the rest of us, give your opinion but don't try to force it as dogma. It got to the point where people just assumed Maia was right because she was already here, sort of like a self fulfilling prophecy. Maia convinces a few people she is an authority, and then new members see those convinced members, and become convinced themselves. Maia liked to say that amongst unpublished writers, it's the blind leading the blind. I agree. But with her, it was one blind women leading blind men and women off of a cliff. And I'm not even going to get into her strange advertising, and im still waiting for her to return and rub her "major poetic discovery" in our faces.
She'll not. She's been banned. I know a bit more about her discovery than most here will, I found the website she made dedicated to that author. I think the author was producing work of fairly decent quality I must admit. I didn't agree with everything she said, and she knew it, but really I never had any strong feelings toward her. I think it's because I have long been an old face, but she never did anything to annoy me and I tried to do nothing to annoy her.
No worries. I just want to make it clear to anyone reading this thread that we don't ban people for differences of opinion. The disagreement she had that was made mention earlier in the thread was with me. I made it clear that the rules by which we abide are the same for every and all. There will be no Animal Farm here where everyone is equal but some are more equal. I don't care how long a member has been with us, the rules are the rules, be it the very first member who ever joined or the very newest member just receiving their confirmation email. I stated the new course of action as it would be implemented and she made her choice. The two things were not consanguineous. She was never even infracted, to be honest.
I didn't have as much of a problem with @mammamaia's opinions despite not sharing many of them, we all come with different skill levels. Her exaggerated claims were mildly annoying but unlike another member that was banned, she didn't put everyone else down when she bragged about her own prowess. But she shilled for her 'mentoring' services telling almost every new member that she mentored "young authors" claiming to have skill in whichever genre they expressed an interest in. Whatever her motive, driving people to her web site or hoping they'd eventually pay for her services, it was still shilling and it went well beyond merely referring to one's novel(s).
