How This Critter Crits
Viewing comments for Chapter 9 "Intermezzo B.Y.O.B"GROWTH? ADULATION? HURRY -- CHOOSE!
81 total reviews
Comment from LIJ Red
Did you invent clatteral? And three feet is way too high. Two is plenty. Well, this was a transitional chapter, flawlessly written, stylishly FS short, but not sagging with information. Waiting on the next.
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Did you invent clatteral? And three feet is way too high. Two is plenty. Well, this was a transitional chapter, flawlessly written, stylishly FS short, but not sagging with information. Waiting on the next.
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, Red. If this hadn't been posted 7 years ago, and just now revived, I'd accuse myself of taking a word out of LIJ Red's lexicon with clatteral. You have permission to use it in one of your stories or poems.
Comment from giraffmang
Hi Jay,
your writing is this piece is so engaging, and funny. I find myself being drawn to them, time and again. As a newbie, I feel I can gleam a lot from these posts, al least a starting point for myself. Long may they continue.
Great stuff.
GMG
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Hi Jay,
your writing is this piece is so engaging, and funny. I find myself being drawn to them, time and again. As a newbie, I feel I can gleam a lot from these posts, al least a starting point for myself. Long may they continue.
Great stuff.
GMG
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, GMG. I appreciate your reading and enjoying this series. It's almost at an end. Hope you hang on for the last segment.
Comment from Eigle Rull
Thank you, my friend, for writing this very interesting chapter. It is as always well written and contains thoughts and ideas that might help me better my writing.
My published book is "self-published." I sometimes think that I will never be a good writer with published work. This is one of those times. I wonder if all that I'm trying to cram into my mind will ever steer me into a well crafted book. I read the works of so many others on this site, including yourself, and compare my work. My work is not close to the perfectness I find in the works of some other people.
Sorry, a depressed day today.
I enjoyed your chapter very much. It brings a lot to the table and teaches how to imagine greater. Thank you, my friend.
Always with respect,
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, my friend, for writing this very interesting chapter. It is as always well written and contains thoughts and ideas that might help me better my writing.
My published book is "self-published." I sometimes think that I will never be a good writer with published work. This is one of those times. I wonder if all that I'm trying to cram into my mind will ever steer me into a well crafted book. I read the works of so many others on this site, including yourself, and compare my work. My work is not close to the perfectness I find in the works of some other people.
Sorry, a depressed day today.
I enjoyed your chapter very much. It brings a lot to the table and teaches how to imagine greater. Thank you, my friend.
Always with respect,
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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It's extremely dangerous to compare your writing against anyone elses. No one has your specific experience, your knowledge, your personal voice. Rejoice to that. Keep adding to your personal legacy every day.
Sorry about today's depression. Hemingway would have said, that too gives you something to write about. Just don't post it.
Comment from Margaret Snowdon
I found this most interesting as I'm always
looking for ways to improve my writing. I like
your ideas; when I'm reading a new book from now
on, I will be analyzing. Mind, I'm already
amazed by some I've read - how they were
published in the first place is unbelievable!!
I'm sure they've never been edited.
I look forward to the next chapter, Jay.
Margaret
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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I found this most interesting as I'm always
looking for ways to improve my writing. I like
your ideas; when I'm reading a new book from now
on, I will be analyzing. Mind, I'm already
amazed by some I've read - how they were
published in the first place is unbelievable!!
I'm sure they've never been edited.
I look forward to the next chapter, Jay.
Margaret
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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I appreciate your reading this Margaret. I know what you mean about currently published books. This was the reason why I suggest, for this post, choosing someone who has a track record.
Comment from Shirley McLain
Once again you have written valuable advice for us writers. You also did an excellent job with your presentation of the material. Shirley
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Once again you have written valuable advice for us writers. You also did an excellent job with your presentation of the material. Shirley
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you so much, Shirley. I'm pleased you liked it enough to award me your six stars.
Comment from Adri7enne
Wonderful, Jay. I'm so pleased you chose Alice Munro as the author of the short story you would teach us to analyse. I read "Dear Life" this year, for my book club choice. A Canadian woman, Nobel Prize winner for literature. Dare I admit some of her stories left me as befuddled as some of yours? By the end of the collection, I had acquired a new appreciation for her work. She's brilliant.
I'm eager to see how you go about the process of "deep-level analysis". I think I will consider myself fortunate to attend this class, given by an extraordinary teacher. Lead on, Mr. Squires.
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Wonderful, Jay. I'm so pleased you chose Alice Munro as the author of the short story you would teach us to analyse. I read "Dear Life" this year, for my book club choice. A Canadian woman, Nobel Prize winner for literature. Dare I admit some of her stories left me as befuddled as some of yours? By the end of the collection, I had acquired a new appreciation for her work. She's brilliant.
I'm eager to see how you go about the process of "deep-level analysis". I think I will consider myself fortunate to attend this class, given by an extraordinary teacher. Lead on, Mr. Squires.
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, Adrienne for the six, of course, and the thoughtful words. I'm happy you've read Alice Munro. She is a special person.
Comment from Sis Cat
Yes, I read a leading journal of published stories yesterday. The quality of the stories shocked me and encouraged me to strive for publishable stories. Reading published, contemporary stories is good advice. Many of the stories on FanStory are unpublishable. The writers stop short by being satisfied with the stars, the reviews, the contest wins, the pats on the back, when "publication is the benchmark for a story's success."
After I finish reading this library literary journal of poetry I will turn to a journal I own so I could mark up the stories with red lines and yellow highlighters. Thank you for your essay and your encouragement to keep pressing on in the direction of analyzing contemporary, published stories.
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Yes, I read a leading journal of published stories yesterday. The quality of the stories shocked me and encouraged me to strive for publishable stories. Reading published, contemporary stories is good advice. Many of the stories on FanStory are unpublishable. The writers stop short by being satisfied with the stars, the reviews, the contest wins, the pats on the back, when "publication is the benchmark for a story's success."
After I finish reading this library literary journal of poetry I will turn to a journal I own so I could mark up the stories with red lines and yellow highlighters. Thank you for your essay and your encouragement to keep pressing on in the direction of analyzing contemporary, published stories.
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, Andre. I'm so encouraged you took my post to heart and are going to begin to dig into a published story the way a teenager would his first auto engine. You'll learn so much that way.
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Yes, I would love to mark up this lit journal I have but must return it to the library. The mag I buy will not be spared my pen.
Comment from Chris Tee
Another excellent chapter which is also very interesting and very well written. A lesson once more taken in to improve the proposed publishing of my novel.
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Another excellent chapter which is also very interesting and very well written. A lesson once more taken in to improve the proposed publishing of my novel.
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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May you have the best of luck Chris with your novel's publication. I trust you're not going the indy route, but are going to battle the brick and mortar gatekeeper. It's a good fight.
Comment from Antoine Charlemaine
Uh-huh. Right. Yep. Okay. Gotcha.
'Furthermore, since many of us want to earn our livelihood from our writing, why not study the fictional models that are representative of what is published today? Really study them! Not blindly copy their styles. Study them! Learn what makes them tick. Learn also what makes them clatter and clunk. And most importantly, by learning to recognize tick-tockery as well as the hyper-clatteral and the infra-clunkery, you might just learn what to embrace in your own writing, what to add to, subtract from or abandon entirely. You'll learn to recognize what works and what doesn't. You'll develop an ear and even a nose for what's right and what's not. '
This paragraph, I reckon, summarises perfectly the remainder of the piece (at least, it did for me). I could have read this paragraph and got exactly the same from this chapter as I did reading through the entire thing. You like wordiness, don't you, my friend??? Regretfully, were this the first writing of yours that I were to set eyes upon, I should have wondered (respectfully) what I had encountered! I also doubt (based on this reading) I would return to your Portfolio in search of more. Not your finest, I'm afraid, mainly due to the fact that much of it is redundant. Sometimes the KISS principle must be observed.
Just my humble opinion...
Having said all that, I have rewarded your writing with five stars, because it is well-written and clever, as always. Your grasp of the lingo is unsurpassed. And nary a SPAG... Besides that, you offered a reasonable reward for my patience...
Anthony :) :) :)
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Uh-huh. Right. Yep. Okay. Gotcha.
'Furthermore, since many of us want to earn our livelihood from our writing, why not study the fictional models that are representative of what is published today? Really study them! Not blindly copy their styles. Study them! Learn what makes them tick. Learn also what makes them clatter and clunk. And most importantly, by learning to recognize tick-tockery as well as the hyper-clatteral and the infra-clunkery, you might just learn what to embrace in your own writing, what to add to, subtract from or abandon entirely. You'll learn to recognize what works and what doesn't. You'll develop an ear and even a nose for what's right and what's not. '
This paragraph, I reckon, summarises perfectly the remainder of the piece (at least, it did for me). I could have read this paragraph and got exactly the same from this chapter as I did reading through the entire thing. You like wordiness, don't you, my friend??? Regretfully, were this the first writing of yours that I were to set eyes upon, I should have wondered (respectfully) what I had encountered! I also doubt (based on this reading) I would return to your Portfolio in search of more. Not your finest, I'm afraid, mainly due to the fact that much of it is redundant. Sometimes the KISS principle must be observed.
Just my humble opinion...
Having said all that, I have rewarded your writing with five stars, because it is well-written and clever, as always. Your grasp of the lingo is unsurpassed. And nary a SPAG... Besides that, you offered a reasonable reward for my patience...
Anthony :) :) :)
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Many thanks, Anthony. I gain nothing from stars, less from praise. I do learn from what does and doesn't resonate with readers. I thank you for your candor, my good friend.
But, hot damn! That was a good paragraph, wasn't it?
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It was a ripper of a paragraph, Jay. You are a word master extraordinaire. You just use too many of them, sometimes... :)
Comment from Tomes Johnston
This is yet another interesting addition to the critiquing saga from the author. I never thought that this subject would be so interesting. Well done again.
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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This is yet another interesting addition to the critiquing saga from the author. I never thought that this subject would be so interesting. Well done again.
Comment Written 31-May-2015
reply by the author on 31-May-2015
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Thank you, as usual, Tomes. I hope you come back next time, red pen in hand.
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I will.