Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
For the record, I don't consider being directly or indirectly called "inhuman" and "fascist" constructive criticism, and it isn't exactly making me want to visit this thread, nor to heed anyone's advice when I already feel so on the defensive.
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In other words, you didn't really want advice. If you can reject advice because people referred to Orson Scott Card, Robert Heinlein, and John Ringo as having fascist-like views,
you didn't really want advice. If you really wanted advice -- if you wanted ways to make your writing earn you a living -- you'd dig that advice out of a pig barn manure pit if that's where it was. It would mean everything to you (it
is people trying to help you make a living, after all) and you'd be looking for ways to get it, not reasons to reject it.
But every piece of advice I've seen offered to you has led to the same response: you're looking for reasons to reject it.
I think you've showed us what you want: Not advice on how to make better choices, but praise for the choices you've already made. You don't want the answers you've asked for; you want to be treated as a special snowflake and told how good and how perfect you are. Well, you're not. Neither am I. None of us are. But some of us want to get better at what we do, and some of us want to be told we're already the best. You get to decide which category you fall into (one of the few choices you
really have in the writing life) but you don't get to decide how your readers are going to react.
So make up your mind, here and now:
Do you want advice?
Or do you want praise?
You can only get one.
And if it's advice, you're probably not going to like some of it. Look at what people said up-thread about Robert Heinlein, and you're no Heinlein (neither are most other people). If that's still what you want, keep asking -- and be more gracious to the people who are giving their time to offer you whatever advice they have. If you want praise, be open about saying so, tell people you want to be petted, not criticized, and don't pretend it's advice you're looking for, and you'll probably get that, too. But don't confuse the two, because they're nothing alike.
Advice? Praise? Pick one.