I had joined a writers group some time ago called My Writers Circle. I had stopped going there because people there don’t seem to have any manners. It is one thing to give constructive criticism, another to be plain rude. Its like what the heck did I do for you to get such an attitude with me. Yesterday I decided to give the site one more try. I figured it couldn’t heart right. I posted my poem Stuck in my head there, witch is about writers block. This is two out of the three replies I got :
When I get ‘writers block’ which is hardly ever, but when I do
I just write. I write anything, even words about not being able to write, but I don’t poet them.
This comes across as no more than a mind-dump.
Very poor post.
Now this one is just rude. Plus writing about not being able to write is exactly what I did, but in a structure. The way he said he dose it is a mind dump if you ask me. I chose to create something out of my writer‘s block. How is this comment helpful, it only said he doesn’t like it, and that he is sapearier to me.
He then said after a little back and forth.
I am absolutely positive that there “are people on other sites that loved it.”
You may find some here. I did not.
If you choose to stay in RMP you may want to indicate
what level of criticism you are comfortable with.
1. I found the opening lines to be weak and Telling.
2. The rest of S1 is very unoriginal and over-the-top. It lacks any inward visual that a reader might expect.
3. The first line of S2 is naively retro, romantically rhetorical and frankly dopey.
4. The rest of S2 is repetitive and platitudinous.
5. The lines in S3 are just ridiculously blah -
“How long shall I roam
unable to return home
o muse where have you gone
I beg you wont you come”
6. The last stanza is stunningly predictable and poorly expressed.
I usually don’t offer a detailed review for such poor writing, but you requested it.
Learn!
**********
A first draft?Pick another subject maybe? This didn’t work for me. I will see if I can dig out an old one that was my take on writer’s block.
Found it…………..
A writer’s life
Mont Blanc
in sweaty grip, he stares
at the empty sheet of vellum
in front of him on the cracked antique bureau
with a sigh he leans back in his Chippendale chair
stands up, wipes his watery eyes,
cleans his Ray Bans, slips into
his Barbour, green wellingtons,
takes the shotgun from the rack,
rubbing the polished stock he smiles
and closes the back door firmly
Now this one at least is a little more constructive, but still trying to tell me he is better. This peace is not clear its about writers block, it sounds more about suicide. It isn’t that its bad, simply not clear.
This is the poem that prompted these responses. I have posted it before but in case you haven’t read it before I figured I would add it.
I am stuck in my head
what a sad place to be
words run round and elude me
Images flash by
some real some only mine
I stomp I scream I let it all out
I wish for peace but scramble about
Where have you gone o muse of mine
am I to stay here for all time
am I to run round desperate to fly
if only you’d come lift me to the sky
if only I could catch those thought that fly by
I sit and wait hands full
I sit and wish for only you
you fill my mind
yet my hands sit idly by
How long shall I roam
unable to return home
o muse where have you gone
I beg you wont you come
Make my idle hands fly
across my keyboard words wont come
still I sit and wait for you to return
Not every line rhymes, but this is called free form poetry. That is the only site I have gotten any bad comments at all. On the other sites I posted it to I have gotten nothing but good, two spelling fixes and that they really liked it. I even posted it to http://xynobooks.com/ and got this comment from one of the admins :
Maria, please, talk to Nick the editor about writing your thoughts on the main site–in addition to your novel aspirations.
I did, and was then asked if I would blog along with there other writer, and before I could reply he upgraded me to an author account. I of course accepted. But here is a good question, if it was so bad Then why would they have asked me? A family friend in FL even read it to her church, and it reseaved grat aplose from the hole congrigation. So give your honest opinion. Am I over reacting, I may be just a little. But on a post about my book on the very same site I was told I had no taling and shouldn’t be writing, no ideas on how to improve just hertful words I egnored.
Here are some sites I do like for writing, you can get good constructive comments :
