For that I am sorry. I mean, I hate it, I'm sorry to be wrong, especially when it's on such a public forum as my own blog, which has thus far a grand total of eight followers (YAY ME!). I can stand up and apologize for being incorrect without again saying I should have pointed out other instances where forums vanished because someone got their proverbial panties in a bunch, but no I can't, I only cited the one, and since I was wrong about it, I'm sorry. I could have let my post remain up for time immemorial as a tribute to all my other criticisms, but if you read the blog, and considering only two people actually read the blog who both share the same first name, and one of them left a supportive comment and the other was pissed I decided that there was no need to leave it despite the fact I retract that statement with this post. I just felt that it was the right thing to do.
I spent several days thinking over what my response should be, or if there should even be a response at all to the e-mails I received from the owner of that site. I have, even though I initially told that person that I had no plans to leave their site, deleted my account from that site. Not due to being wrong, or being told what a bad boy I was, or being called a hypocrite (a case of the little kettle calling the pot black).
But before I go any further, I again have to say, I'm sorry for getting my facts wrong. I'm sorry, for venting, ranting, even having a little fun on my own personal blog for my eight followers instead of posting in on the forums of your site where the dozens and dozens of people who frequent those forums on a daily basis could have seen it. I don't know any other or better way to say I am sorry, so let me do so in the form of an eCard.
Okay, I know what you're thinking. No I'm not being racial. Socks the Cat isn't trying to say that Foster's is Australian for sorry. In fact I'm sure that I'm sorry is Australian for I'm sorry. Either that of a 1.5 liter bottle of Yellow Tail Sparkling White.
I'm sorry, for not having my facts straight, for pointing out a post that in fact had not been removed from forums.
I'm sorry, for not getting the fact that STORIES is in the domain name and not WRITERS. After all it was that mistake, coupled with what seems to be your disdain for the actual writers on your site, that was one of the motivating reasons I decided that I would rather disassociate myself from your site, instead of as I said, waiting around until the Band had finally drowned before I pulled out.
You questioned my statement about saying that what attracted me to your site was that it was a community of budding writers helping each other out. You asked, AND I QUOTE, "And where does that take place exactly? Behind closed doors? In the occasional forum post?"
Well, if you don't realize that there is in fact a community of writers on your site it only goes to show how out of touch with the site you are. So to my list I'll add, I'm sorry for being part of a writing community, a network, an underground railroad of writers who actually give a rat's ass about helping each other out and encouraging each other existing on your site without your knowledge, Nay without your permission! I'm sure it's unthinkable. Why would there be? I mean that would mean that not every independent writer out there isn't some back stabbing little bitch who keeps the secrets of their success guarded closely in case someone they might help out should, heaven forbid, be more successful than they are!
No I guess I didn't get it and I should have. Again the name on the marquee is STORIES and not WRITERS. I'm sorry, I didn't get it. I should have realized it.
I'm also sorry I didn't get your focus. Me, a guy who prides himself on having an uncannily expert ability to read between the lines, didn't see your focus. I should have picked up your main focus from some of our early communications, after I actually joined your site, when you started talking about business and business tools. I should have realized then your main focus was not on writing and writers, but was in fact on money. I'm so sorry, how stupid I was for not getting it.
I'm sorry for being the only person to actually, in any way, shape or form, publicly disagree with the addition of a professional writer to your site. Sorry about saying what I though of the ass kiss fest, for someone with apparently nothing better than to do than to give away for free the advice she had written in some Idiot's Guide To Writing Erotica. I didn't know that, And I QUOTE, "Looking at the number of story submissions daily, which are littered with basic spelling and grammar mistakes, sometimes with no formatting whatsoever, very little plot or character development etc, it shows that many of the people who submit NEED the kind of advice that Morgan gives." So I didn't understand, obviously that you're not looking for writers, but instead for stories, from anybody. So you'll take what you can get, ad a professional to train them, so that first paragraph or two at least looks good before they casual reader takes off the the Dare Dorm or the good old Facebook O Sex, which is where they really want to be, and where the revenue actually is.
No, I guess I was not looking at the "big picture". I guess that I was not being fair when I ranted my opinion, but it is my blog and there's nothing on the marquee that says I have to be fair on my personal blog, just as there's nothing on the marquee of your site that says you have to be fair either.
Yes, I understand it must be hard, for someone who belly aches about people attempting to start multiple accounts on her site and stating that the act is forbidden around every other month, to actually keep up multiple accounts of their own, for the sole purpose of giving writing advice. Really? Is that all your other aliases do? Just offer advice?
That was the other thing, that revelation, that made me decide I didn't feel comfortable remaining a member of your site. If the owner of a website feels they have to use an alias, for any reason, to speak to its members, while misrepresenting themselves to the members about the fact they are the owner of the site is totally suspect.
Oh, I know. You think I might be putting my best face forward. You may say, well you're distorting the facts, skewing them to fit your perception. Well, maybe so, and who doesn't. The fact of the matter is I no longer give a flying wallaby crap about your opinion. You see, I know there are those writers out there working together to help each other out. Call us amateurs, call us independents, we're there. There may not be a forum in your site that says Amateur Writers Helping Each Other, I may not have given some "great pearl" of wisdom every single day in forums when I was a member of your site, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen, or that people who consider themselves "real" writers don't form bonds and help each other out on your side "behind closed doors."
So, yeah, like your pet professional writer I put my best face forward. Why not? I mean you look on her profile and see a pretty image, much preferable to the one on her site where she looks like a rejected extra from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
"Two men enter, one man leaves! Two men enter, one man leaves!"
Again, I'm sorry I didn't stick around until she wrote a post on the proper use and crediting of quotes. I mean, I'm obviously not an established professional, but I was always under the impression that quotes from a film were either attributed to the film, the screen writer in certain cases, or the character within the film, and not the actor. I mean, I'm pretty sure that there was a character named Professor Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula and not named Anthony Hopkins, but it is to Hopkins she attributes the quote to on the home page of her site. So in advance, I'm sorry for being wrong, and I that means I need to go back and change the attribution of a quote I recently used from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes back to Mark Hamil, rather than attributing it to Luke Skywalker or even George Lucas.
Skewed views, and facts. Skewed quotes. Yes, skewed quotes. Anyone can look up a quote on abizillionfamousquotations.com and use it in whatever context they wish, even more easily so when they do not know the context a quote was used in the first place. And that for me what what got the ball rolling, before she was even graced to be the pet staff writer on your site. It was a quote from the late great Dr. Issac Asimov, in which he stated something to the effect that if you take the science fiction elements out of a science fiction story and you still have a story that works then you did it wrong. She went on to expound on this, if you took the erotic elements out an erotic story and it still works you did it wrong. And like mindless sheep others were saying yeah, if you take this out of this and you still have a story that still works you did it wrong.
Well, it's not that I disagree with Dr. Asimov. And in truth I probably do not disagree with him, as I do not know the full before and after of this statement. The meat of the argument. The context if you will. I can't say that he is completely wrong, seeing as there was a single sentence and obviously not the full and complete statement of what he is saying.
If you take the science fiction elements out of a science fiction story and you still have a story that works you did it wrong.
WRONG! WRONG!
If you take the main element, the subject, the genre elements out of a story, and it still works it means you're a damn good writer. PERIOD!
There was a long and drawn out post about how to write fetish stories. What to do. What to avoid.
Hummmmm. Instead of writing all you did as if you were giving a lecture, a clinic, on fetish writing, a lecture being given to a bunch of idiots your sponsor feels didn't even pass grammar school, then perhaps it would have been best, since your information in its boiled down state is the early basics simply state the #1 universal rule of writing, Write only about things you know about.
But I forget we're talking about a bunch of sheep writing sheep crap and not real writers. That's why I thought the whole thing about using other characters you know, characters from other works and TV and the movies, to base your characters on so they sounded as if you had put real work into them was in my opinion so precious. After all that's everyone's goal if they can't create a good and true character, just plagiarize the idea from something that works. I guess that's why some writers get comments like, oh, I loved it, it was just like reading an Anne Rice story, just by someone else. We call that Mock-Poe 'round hea'h in the South, sweetie pie.
Hell why encourage anyone to write original? To come up with characters, ideas and stories that are original? Oh, I almost forgot, real, original and actual stories might hold the reader's interest, preventing them from going to the Dare Dorm or Facebook O Sex!
Again, I'm sorry for ranting on, giving my personal opinion on my own personal blog.
I was told that I should look at the site and enjoy it for what it was. So I did. I looked through your eyes and found that you were right. It was not full of budding writers helping each other, those were just rare aberrations. No, what I saw was a lot of cyber grab-ass, forums full of teenage games, the possibility that I was about to be rewarded with a "badge" on my profile page for being there for a year like some first grader being rewarded for showing up to class with a little sticker. What I saw was yahoo.com's yahoo chat circa 2001 without the chat rooms devoted to every deviant perversion known to man.
So with this in mind, I reversed my decision and deleted my account. I will get along quite fine without your site, and your site will get along quite fine without me. Because the truth is, when you get down to it, is in this day and age budding writers need not be associated with any website to accomplish their goals. I am grateful for the friends that I have made through your site. I'm also appreciative for what support you did give me, and for being allowed a chance to advertise my book through your forums. I'm grateful for the lessons I learned from being on your site and for the experience of being on your site, as all experience is the fodder for writing. I wish you all the best of luck with all your future endeavors.
And truly, "That's all I got to say about that."
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| Master Vyle |
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