What in the heck was wrong with that?

To distract myself from the brick wall I just hit in my job search..I decided to write a review of Salem's lot, then I got stuck so I read my FL list, which in turn caused me to wander off to fanfic_hate, curiousity you know. Fanfic_hate is an experience - sort of like revisiting your sixth grade classroom, when people thought criticism and being a jerk sort of went hand in hand. (Although not all the posters are like that - I did see some constructive threads - but these tended to be ones signed by livejournal posters.) This got me to thinking about constructive criticism - in school I learned how to criticize things without pulling punches but also without harming the person who wrote or created it. A nifty balancing act, to be sure. The best way to learn is to take a creative writing workshop - where you have to write something and sit in a room, not say a word, while your classmates tear it to pieces. It teaches you how to give and take criticism. Also since you are giving the criticism face to face and are forced to sign off on it - you have to think through your thoughts first. You can't be a jerk. There's no safe computer screen to hide behind. First rule of criticism - sign off on it - give a name. If you can't do that? Then your criticism deserves as much attention as a blank piece of paper. No one is standing behind it. Enuf soap box.

( rambling reviews of Salem's Lot, Mystic River, and Bubba Ho-Pec, what went right and what went wrong )