Gary Kleppe wrote:

"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.

Amen, I took Gary's adivce to credit... and will use it.  While, like all
writers I love to hear, "I liked your fiction, want more of it..." Neg CC
pointing out problems, is more vaulble to me than all the ego boosts out
there, It doesn't tell me what is wrong (and I know there is stuff wrong.)

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?

I still have Gary's CC (and Kevin's and Bryan's) and I refer to it. There is
not shame in getting corrections to things... it's totally negviate flames
that annoy me... and most of us, I take it... (I reply to ANY fiction that
cacthes my attention, even if I didn't like it for a reason or two... and I
say WHY I don't like it, or found something wrong with it, and I say what that
is...)

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.

Amen.  Most of Gary's CC tend to go to errors in grammer and spelling more
than anything else when he does full CC... he does make comments about fics
(Like Shattered Faith... he said that Genmabashing fic's make him reach for
the Del key, and that is his Right.) Negaivte CC on the fictions themselves is
one thing (I, Like Kevin have recevied comments that are outright flames...
just becuase someone didn't like the premise of the fiction... I don't mind
someone saying that they didn't like my fiction because they didn't like the
premise, or it was dark... but I do mind comments like ...
Quote from Email received...
"You suck, you made Ranma a wimp and a gay faggot... " (Side note... I did
edit the comment, certain words do NOT go out under my name...
That annoyed me... someone else made the commet that i made Ranma too much of
a girly man (effimate would be a better term, mind you... but since he was
voicing his thoughts and asking what did I plan to do... I didn't put HIM in
the kill file... like the first one.) If you tell me you dislike a story and
say why, without being insulting or rude, I listen. I MIGHT not change it...
(esp if it is in char. or plot.) but I will listen and thank you for the
comments.

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

Andrew Norris
http://silver.sdsmt.edu/~atn6581/