They tend to write very correctly, as if they had studied to learn how to write properly, but -- :|
When I spoke to my uncle once, who taught English almost 40 years, he said. ' I can teach you to write correctly. I can't teach you talent. ' I always remember that.
I've seen it a couple of times on forums on ff.net, with certain authors who seem to consider themselves the sole arbiters of writing and on judging excellent Tolkien fanfiction. There's one story there now whose reviews are filled with sycophantic smarming. The author herself will nitpick spelling ' You put ' their ' instead of ' there ' and come down very hard on authors. So when I saw a story up by her after reading her forums I thought I would see what made her the judge of fanfic. I can't say I hated it or thought it awful, it was just bland, with boring characters, and did not engage my interest.Of course, it would suit canatics and people who like het fluff. It was nothing, like any second hand book you pick up that some-one buys because they are on holiday and bored and then throws away. Apparently this is good writing? Inoffensive and dull as ditchwater?
There are a couple of others who people speak of in tones of awe, which I find amusing. It must be wonderful to believe oneself so elevated from the rest of us poor grunts. I have seen the writing and it's correct, yes, it's not something that's going to stay with me. I don't favorite those authors and I don' quite know how they became so ' famous '. Still, I suppose people take you at your own evaluation, and if you exude enough confidence, and have that much power of conviction, people believe it.
I don't even hold Tolkien in awe, I find his creation endlessly fascinating, deep and rich but I am not a canon purist and don't think every character or story he wrote was wonderful -- which is why I love fanfic.I am more likely to admire an author who is courageous enough to write outside canon while knowing it.
I'm very hard to please. I look for people who write with passion, and since I read mainly Elf-centric stories, authors who somehow inherently understand the nature of Elves. Sod the odd run-on sentence or wrongly placed word, there has to be a fire in the writing, and in this world of ennui, it's actually enormously hard to find.
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When I spoke to my uncle once, who taught English almost 40 years, he said. ' I can teach you to write correctly. I can't teach you talent. '
I always remember that.
I've seen it a couple of times on forums on ff.net, with certain authors who seem to consider themselves the sole arbiters of writing and on judging excellent Tolkien fanfiction.
There's one story there now whose reviews are filled with sycophantic smarming. The author herself will nitpick spelling ' You put ' their ' instead of ' there ' and come down very hard on authors. So when I saw a story up by her after reading her forums I thought I would see what made her the judge of fanfic.
I can't say I hated it or thought it awful, it was just bland, with boring characters, and did not engage my interest.Of course, it would suit canatics and people who like het fluff. It was nothing, like any second hand book you pick up that some-one buys because they are on holiday and bored and then throws away. Apparently this is good writing? Inoffensive and dull as ditchwater?
There are a couple of others who people speak of in tones of awe, which I find amusing. It must be wonderful to believe oneself so elevated from the rest of us poor grunts. I have seen the writing and it's correct, yes, it's not something that's going to stay with me. I don't favorite those authors and I don' quite know how they became so ' famous '. Still, I suppose people take you at your own evaluation, and if you exude enough confidence, and have that much power of conviction, people believe it.
I don't even hold Tolkien in awe, I find his creation endlessly fascinating, deep and rich but I am not a canon purist and don't think every character or story he wrote was wonderful -- which is why I love fanfic.I am more likely to admire an author who is courageous enough to write outside canon while knowing it.
I'm very hard to please. I look for people who write with passion, and since I read mainly Elf-centric stories, authors who somehow inherently understand the nature of Elves. Sod the odd run-on sentence or wrongly placed word, there has to be a fire in the writing, and in this world of ennui, it's actually enormously hard to find.