cornerofmadness

I had a live erotic writing group that met and was encouraging and fun and WONDERFUL. I created an online erotic writing group through LJ that was supportive and kind but few wrote and it fizzled. I have never been in a group with others who cut writers down. That isn't how I teach or write or grow or love or anything. Feh.

I'll be happy to beta the Spock/Uhura. Email is mokomokosama@gmail.com .

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chaos-by-design.livejournal.com

It really sucks how some criticism can stick to you like glue like that. There's some my mother gave me way back that still stings me; wasn't so much what she said, but her tone. Bleh. I have trouble finishing things and getting started.

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masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com

I haven't been in many writers' groups, but I did go through a phase where I read books for writers all the time. What stuck with me in all of those was, "It's really hard to get published. Chances are, your little darling will end up getting five minutes of a slush reader's time and you will endure years of rejection letters."

I took that to heart and stuck my little darling away on a disc and got a regular job.

There needs to be a better way.

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robertlyon.livejournal.com

where do you join writer's groups?

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luckily my groups have been far and away very good. That said I've been blindsided by crap like this enough to be very unsure of my own writing

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Hemingway is a model for minimalists. If your description is good, helps the story, and doesn't get in the way of action, then it's the reader's choice. There's room in the world for both Hemingway and Henry James.

BTW, I need a critique group that (1) can read an entire short work (articles, short stories, chapters, etc.) and (2) gives constructive criticism. I've found a local group I may join for info, but when they do critiques (seldom), they're cold reads of two or three pages at most. Do you know of good groups that aren't fanfic-oriented?

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yes exactly. We should be more caerful with our words. they can hurt as much as a fist

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It helps if a group has critique guidelines. Even in proposal writing, we had guidelines for red team reviews to the effect that criticism needed to be constructive, not a personal attack, and that comments were directed at making the work better.

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the three groups (one is mine with only a few close friends) I have now are very good. If an asshat crops up they're usually asked to leave. I'm glad you don't teach that way because I've been in classes where the teacher's lead the humilation.

And thanks. I'll send it right over. Granted it's not very porny at all.

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yeah we do have them in the groups I'm in now. the person I'm talking about was teh co-mod of that group so really nothing was going to be done

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there is the group

wildrider and I belong to that is pretty good. I'm not sure there is any openings but i could ask.

there's also the one I run that's down to just me and two of my friends (

evil_little_dog &

silvrethorn who do stuff but it's monthly (i think i set the word count cap at 5,000 words at a clip)

the other group is about every other month and the cap there is 8000

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I've been in the two I'm in for 13 years now. You can find some of the online ones via google i'm sure but i don't know how good they are

For the life of me i can't even remember how i got into one of the groups but that group helped me into the second one

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Cool, I'll enjoy reading it.
Can you clarify, so I know, what you desire in a Beta?

There's Level One:
proofreading for typos and definite grammatical errors, punctuation mistakes, and misspellings.

Then Level Two:
Concerns over more iffy mechanics (grammar, language use, etc.)

Then Level Three:
Note any stylistic stuff that to my mind detracts, or where something could be changed in minor ways and made more vivid or clear (all just IMO).

I can do any or all, and I'm never anything but positive cuz that's what it's all about!

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you can go to level three if you'd like. I'm actually pretty thick skinned. I'm going to go look at it now and make sure nothing retarded is in it (like we just found looking over a story from last year where me and my beta missed me using his instead of hers for the lady's clit...)

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omg that's a pretty big miss.
i won't go easy on ya; i just word things constructively and am always sure to say "i would like x" rather than "you need to do x." i'm not always as nice in my teaching, but it depends on the assignment and whether i feel they've given me a serious effort or not. :)

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sounds good. You also don't have to go hog wild either if you don't have time

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sending it soon? if not, may need to do it first thing in the morning. need some hubby time soon. but i'm looking forward to reading it. :)

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sent it now. if it's not till the morning, that's fine too. i'm just glad to have other eyes on it (the more i look a it the more boring it is)

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Thanks. I'd like to try writing some nonfiction and some short fiction. It'd be great to have feedback. Setting a cap at 5,000 or 8,000 words is very reasonable.

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especially with the group my friend has, there are 8 of us. even with a cap it gets daunting

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Oh, great. Just what you don't need in a moderator.

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yeah i know there was a very strange divide in that group

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0-mother-0.livejournal.com

Geez, that person sounds like a total asshole.

And those are exactly the kind of things that get put on our 'brain track' and played back forever.

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yes they are. And it is very hard to get rid of it. Sometimes i hear it every time i open up criticisms from my writers groups, like I'm expecting to hear it again.

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a2zmom.livejournal.com

You are an excellent writer. Sounds suspiciously like jealousy to me.

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thank you.

That and i think that some of it cropped up after I corrected some scientific stuff he had in his story and he went ballistic

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ozma914.livejournal.com

Running them off is about all you can do; the irony of what that one said is that those kind of people never change.

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