In the Realm of Writers

Artists are a wonderful breed of folk, aren't they? I fancy myself an artist, although most definitely not one of the best. I partake in the wonderful world of photography, but my main art form is writing.  

I've had plenty of experience with writers from all walks of life. And, being a member of several writing websites, I've met plenty of fellow writers who stand out in my mind. Both good and bad. The talented and the talentless who try really hard, which does, of course, make you give them automatic kudos for trying to improve. And many do improve.  

However, as in any other area of life in general, there are those who stand out for being completely out of this world. In a bad way. I've met them in contests I've held, reviews I've gotten, reviews and contests others have. And I've noticed there are certain groups. I'd like to highlight a few. If you are a writer and see yourself in one of these categories, please try to fix it. Not for everyone around you, but for yourself. Your writing cannot improve if no one gives you feedback... and eventually it will come to that.  

Contest Entries  

1. What do you mean I didn't win?! I have held several contests at two websites now, and I have met at least three of these at each site. These are the people who enter their works in to a contest and automatically assume they are going to come out with the gold. When they don't... they accuse. I've been accused of favoring friends (even in contests where my friends didn't place), not reading the entries at all because if I had then they would have obviously won, etc.  

2. I read the rules... but I don't get it. These people are just dense. I held the same exact contest at two websites, and got several strange responses. The contest was to write a poem about an any gender couple (human or fantasy creatures, straight or gay) either falling in love or having a romantic moment in nature. The rules said that erotica was ok to use. But with erotica you need to specify things like no animals, no children, no rape, etc. Which I gladly did. Don't want any surprises! At least two people wrote me messages about the rules. One was incredibly nasty. They refused to enter the contest because nature includes animals, so how could I say no animals? The average person realized that, putting that rule in to context with the other things included, it meant "no animals and humans making it" not "no animals at all."  

3. Sneaky This is wrong. But I've found several people who have done it. The contests are basically to give you writing ideas, improve your skills, and open your mind. The contest owner can choose to accept pre-writes or not (if they are accepted, you get a drop down menu when entering. If they aren't, the drop down menu of your poems does not exist, so to enter you must create an original). So many people go and open an older work, copy and paste it in the box, and enter it as a new poem. Kind of defeats the purpose.  

General  

1. It's not my topic of choice. I hate it when people read a work of yours then down rate the piece or bad mouth you... because it is not a genre they like. All of the pieces at both sites have the option for the writer to place them in to categories such as horror, adult, erotica, fantasy, humor, personal, etc. So... why do you open up a horror piece if generally you don't like horror? And then, to top that off, you write a nasty note or down rate the piece badly because you don't like the genre? Make it sting extra bad, write this in the note: "I think this was really well written and you have a wonderful talent. However, I hate this genre, so I'm only giving the piece 1 star out of 5." That was a real note I got once on a longer horror story I had written. That made me madder than someone else who told me the piece was just down right crap. I've had people read my works that are in genres they generally don't enjoy, or downright hate. But they rated/noted based on the writing... not the genre. These people are perfectly fine.  

2. I don't like the character names. I had a piece down rated one time because the girl didn't like the name of the lead character. It was Javier. She had an ex-boyfriend named Javier. I'd never met her or her ex-boyfriend, but because I chose to use the name Javier... she gave me 1 out of 5 stars, then flamed the living daylights out of me. The kicker... she'd broken up with Javier herself several years prior to this and was now happily married to someone else. What is the point?!  

3. Don't bother commenting... my works are the best on the planet, and you can do nothing to help me improve on them. I'm just posting them here to do you a favor. Please. Don't bother. If you are posting your work just to hear everyone tell you how wonderful the piece is, just open your own website or message list (why beg for these wonderful comments anyway? You obviously think it's the masterpiece of the century. Or do you need that to be repeated several times to you without the pesky people who actually try to help fellow writers?). Don't post it in a writing community where people are trying to improve. You do make mistakes, a lot of people don't like your work because it's not their style, it didn't do anything for them, or whatever the reason, so no, you aren't the best there is. If you don't want help - especially if you turn that help away by being incredibly rude, nasty, mean, or go in and down rate every work by a person who pointed out a spelling or grammar error - don't bother joining the community. To keep yourself a little humble, in whatever field you are in, always remember one thing: no matter how good you are at a craft, there is someone out there who is better. AND, if you create any kind of work of art, you need to have skin like leather. Because not everyone thinks it is as wonderful as you do.  

4. If it doesn't rhyme in some way, it's not poetry. Personally, I do not enjoy writing poetry in this style. I've read some I enjoyed a ton, but usually it's not my style. I write free form for the most part. It's actually a common form. And many famous pieces are written in the same way. You don't like free form? Fine. But it IS poetry. And a note to the wise: there are many, many people out there who completely hate, and will not read, a poem that rhymes. Think of this before deciding your word is law.  

5. This is too long! Poetry isn't supposed to be this long! And proceed to down rate and/or insult the author. May I point out something? Shakespeare was a poet. His poetry became full plays. You want to talk about a long poem?! Have you ever read an 800 page poem? I have! Have I written an 800 page poem? No. I may have written poems that stretched over two or three pages, this is true. But long doesn't mean bad. I wouldn't, in any way, say Shakespeare’s poetry was bad because it was long. Come on! (note: no, I am not comparing myself to Shakespeare. That would be painfully sinful.)  

6. The Erotica Issue I have, from time to time, dipped in to the wonderful world of Erotica. I don't have many pieces of this nature. And as of right now, I only have one piece that is complete Erotica (that is, one piece that I have completed to date, I have several in the works). The rest are generally something else with Erotica included. However, this one piece I wrote... generally, it's not a smutty piece. It is, but it's not a few pages of dirty words and slang comments. Mine is a committed couple who, as established in the story, are actually in love with each other. Its one moment in one day of their relationship. The focus is obvious. But it's gotten the most views of any piece I have ever written (it was awarded 256 in two days on one site). It's also gotten the biggest mix of comments. They've ranged from noters telling me it was hot but tasteful to people telling me it took too long to get to the sex (I believe the sex started a few paragraphs in, mainly because I wanted to establish the characters a little). On the twist side, some people said I moved in to the sex too fast. I was told it was dirty. I was even condemned to hell because the couple in the story was - surprise! - two men! Again, on the flip side, I had people actually write to me and tell me how wonderful it was to see homoerotic tales that weren't two women. And, of course, there were many notes on both sides about an erotic scene between two men that was created by a female author. You can't please all the people all the time, so true.  

The good and the bad are in all walks of life, I suppose. And you need to collect a portfolio of them all, if you can. But I can't help but think that humans are an amazing species.