Three things...before dinner
1.On posting or rather reposting: While I don't mind people referencing and linking to my posts (actually adore that - means that my blog reaches more readers and I meet new people), I'm not quite sure how I feel about someone taking an entire post and re-posting it to their journal, with merely a comment - "originally posted by shadowkat67". And not asking permission. Very weird. Feels like they are somehow taking possession of something I wrote and making it theirs.
Never seen anyone do this without asking me first. Isn't there etiquette for this sort of thing? It feels like copyright infringement on some level. Granted I've linked to posts, reposted paragraphs, and referenced without permission...but I'm pretty sure I've never reposted something that someone else online wrote in its entirety. Doing that - sort of kills my ability to edit, change it, or delete it - doesn't it? Also makes me realize that maybe deleting posts isn't is effective as I thought. Not that I plan on deleting the post I wrote - definitely not deleting it, but still.
http://joans-journal.livejournal.com/45716.html?view=103572#t103572
Am I being unreasonable? Should I have written something at the end of the post requesting people ask permission before reposting?? Maybe I am? Not wishing to appear passive aggressive about this - I decided to tell the person (have no idea who they are - they aren't on my flist) that while I don't mind referencing through a link - or linking to the essay, I do have issues with reposting something I wrote in its entirety without my permission.
2. On writing: As the writers improve on these romance novels...you begin to notice certain things. Such as...the fact that more experienced and secure writer doesn't feel the need to describe what the characters are wearing, what they look like, the color of their hair and eyes...every six pages. They actually trust the reader to remember!
Everyone who read 50 Shades complained about the over-use of holy, that didn't bother me so much. No what bugged me was the overuse of the description "pencil skirt" - which apparently is a popular new style amongst the rich and classy in the romance novel universe. I have no idea what a pencil skirt looks like. At first I thought...oh, it is pencil color, but no, they come in grays, blues, and whites...also brown. So maybe pencil thin? Wouldn't that be hard to walk in? Also this odd tendency to describe the clothing that everyone is wearing.
Example: "I am wearing a pencil skirt and a gray silk shirt. Christian is wearing dark pin striped suite, with matching vest and that gray tie I love." (He wears that tie a lot, he doesn't appear to have a variety of suits.) She doesn't stop there, the author also describes the clothing of Christian's family. I'm starting to feel like I've fallen into an episode of Project Runway.
It's very odd. Better contemporary writers feel the need to wax poetic about their environment or surroundings, often with detailed description, while romance novelists feel a need to...I'd say wax poetic but that's only historical romance novelists - let's face it not all that easy to wax poetic about a pin-striped suit, a gray tie, and a pencil skirt. Now a corset, waistcoat, and top hat...that you can do something with. This is the bane of the contemporary romance novelist and chick=lit novelists existence - it just is impossible to write poetic prose about a pair of jeans or a silk sheaf of an evening gown.
Not to pick on EL James, she's not alone in this absurd need to describe what people look like and are wearing every three or four pages. Silivia Day, who should know better, also does it. It seems to be a thing with erotica writers. That and finding new words for ( Read more... )
You can learn a lot about how not to write from crappy pulp fiction. Not that I didn't already know these things...
3. On subjective taste overruling objective taste in my brain: I've realized something...I will watch or read something poorly written over something brilliantly written if it has a character, plot-line, detail of some sort that hits either my kinks really really hard or fascinates me on some deep level or is a story I've been craving. Now, even I have my standards...there are some things I can't read/watch - they are either so poorly written or too offensive to my oh-so-delicate sensibilities (I'd give you examples...but no, then I'd have to think about them), I have a rule - the sentences have to make sense. I have to be able to tell the characters apart. And you can't summarize the entire plot. Also don't bore me or put me to sleep - which granted can happen with brilliantly written stories...Proust is guaranteed to put me to sleep.
OTOH...if it is brilliantly written, brilliantly shot - but I cannot stand the story, the characters, or the plot...I won't read or watch it. If there's something in it that just makes it impossible for me to watch or read it - that's it, end of story.
So...in some cases I may love to pieces something I know objectively is not brilliant, and sort of on the poorly written side of the fence, and despise something that I know objectively is brilliantly written. Subjective taste often takes precedence over objective taste or my gut rules my head when it comes to pleasure reading and pleasure viewing...which in some respects is how it should be.
PS: This should go without saying but...please don't repost anything listed above. You may reference it, of course. Or link. Just no reposting.
Never seen anyone do this without asking me first. Isn't there etiquette for this sort of thing? It feels like copyright infringement on some level. Granted I've linked to posts, reposted paragraphs, and referenced without permission...but I'm pretty sure I've never reposted something that someone else online wrote in its entirety. Doing that - sort of kills my ability to edit, change it, or delete it - doesn't it? Also makes me realize that maybe deleting posts isn't is effective as I thought. Not that I plan on deleting the post I wrote - definitely not deleting it, but still.
http://joans-journal.livejournal.com/45716.html?view=103572#t103572
Am I being unreasonable? Should I have written something at the end of the post requesting people ask permission before reposting?? Maybe I am? Not wishing to appear passive aggressive about this - I decided to tell the person (have no idea who they are - they aren't on my flist) that while I don't mind referencing through a link - or linking to the essay, I do have issues with reposting something I wrote in its entirety without my permission.
2. On writing: As the writers improve on these romance novels...you begin to notice certain things. Such as...the fact that more experienced and secure writer doesn't feel the need to describe what the characters are wearing, what they look like, the color of their hair and eyes...every six pages. They actually trust the reader to remember!
Everyone who read 50 Shades complained about the over-use of holy, that didn't bother me so much. No what bugged me was the overuse of the description "pencil skirt" - which apparently is a popular new style amongst the rich and classy in the romance novel universe. I have no idea what a pencil skirt looks like. At first I thought...oh, it is pencil color, but no, they come in grays, blues, and whites...also brown. So maybe pencil thin? Wouldn't that be hard to walk in? Also this odd tendency to describe the clothing that everyone is wearing.
Example: "I am wearing a pencil skirt and a gray silk shirt. Christian is wearing dark pin striped suite, with matching vest and that gray tie I love." (He wears that tie a lot, he doesn't appear to have a variety of suits.) She doesn't stop there, the author also describes the clothing of Christian's family. I'm starting to feel like I've fallen into an episode of Project Runway.
It's very odd. Better contemporary writers feel the need to wax poetic about their environment or surroundings, often with detailed description, while romance novelists feel a need to...I'd say wax poetic but that's only historical romance novelists - let's face it not all that easy to wax poetic about a pin-striped suit, a gray tie, and a pencil skirt. Now a corset, waistcoat, and top hat...that you can do something with. This is the bane of the contemporary romance novelist and chick=lit novelists existence - it just is impossible to write poetic prose about a pair of jeans or a silk sheaf of an evening gown.
Not to pick on EL James, she's not alone in this absurd need to describe what people look like and are wearing every three or four pages. Silivia Day, who should know better, also does it. It seems to be a thing with erotica writers. That and finding new words for ( Read more... )
You can learn a lot about how not to write from crappy pulp fiction. Not that I didn't already know these things...
3. On subjective taste overruling objective taste in my brain: I've realized something...I will watch or read something poorly written over something brilliantly written if it has a character, plot-line, detail of some sort that hits either my kinks really really hard or fascinates me on some deep level or is a story I've been craving. Now, even I have my standards...there are some things I can't read/watch - they are either so poorly written or too offensive to my oh-so-delicate sensibilities (I'd give you examples...but no, then I'd have to think about them), I have a rule - the sentences have to make sense. I have to be able to tell the characters apart. And you can't summarize the entire plot. Also don't bore me or put me to sleep - which granted can happen with brilliantly written stories...Proust is guaranteed to put me to sleep.
OTOH...if it is brilliantly written, brilliantly shot - but I cannot stand the story, the characters, or the plot...I won't read or watch it. If there's something in it that just makes it impossible for me to watch or read it - that's it, end of story.
So...in some cases I may love to pieces something I know objectively is not brilliant, and sort of on the poorly written side of the fence, and despise something that I know objectively is brilliantly written. Subjective taste often takes precedence over objective taste or my gut rules my head when it comes to pleasure reading and pleasure viewing...which in some respects is how it should be.
PS: This should go without saying but...please don't repost anything listed above. You may reference it, of course. Or link. Just no reposting.