"Kevin D. Hammel" <kevinsff@pacbell.net> wrote:

All the C&C I've given to stories I've read on the FFML has been private.
The
hours I have spent doing it will warrant neither one of Gary's finger or
toes, but
I did it.

And that's great. Really, it is.

Obviously, I was unclear in my earlier post, since a lot of people
misunderstood what I was saying. I'm not putting down private C&Cers. I
think private C&C is a great thing. But even if there are 5-10 private
C&Cers for every public C&Cer, which I doubt, that still means that only
something like a tenth of the list does C&C at all.

Moreover, the real problem (at least, the one I was complaining about)
isn't whether C&C gets done privately or publically. It's that a lot of
things that SHOULD be private, aren't. The posts that say no more than
"when is the next chapter coming out?" The off-topic discussions. The
endless goofy crossover ideas. Why can't THOSE be private?

To me public C&C of a fic the author doesn't care for is analogous
to
the stocks used a few centuries ago to humiliate people publicly. Why do
so? How does it help anyone to tell him or her how bad it is in public?

Because it's a learning exercise. Because analyzing a draft and trying
to understand why it doesn't work the way the writer wanted to is a
great way to learn something about writing.

Believe me, it's not my intent to ridicule or humiliate anyone. All of
us have things to learn -- if we didn't, we probably wouldn't be posting
to this list. Why should there be any shame in that?

If someone is really embarrassed to have the faults in his or her
writing pointed out, then he/she can ask for private replies only. But
as for me, I invite you to rip anything I write to shreds in public if
you honestly didn't like it. I may or may not end up agreeing with you,
but once I figure out why you didn't like it, I'll have learned
something.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics