I’m really starting to ask that question a lot lately. This isn’t just a matter of writing forums but a lot of things. We will focus on writing forums this time out and I could venture into other things later though. So what is the point of having any of these forums at all?
I don’t know, you tell me!
Now this isn’t just writers, I want to make it clear up front, but they’re the people I’m talking to and therefore, they’re going to get called out for it.
Recently, there was a thread on a writing forum about sex scenes. One person was asserting that there were no sex scenes in sci-fi and fantasy and others were telling them that they were wrong.
I threw my hat in the ring and said that, in my very subjective, personal opinion, graphic sex scenes in sci-fi and fantasy were largely unnecessary and done for titillation, not telling a good story.
Then everyone shit themselves.
This kind of thing happens far more often than you might expect, but this was a perfect example. Over on a writing forum, someone asked a question about the really tired, obnoxious trope, the fact that a lot of conflicts, especially relationship drama, wouldn’t exist if the two characters would just carry on a decent, adult conversation. This goes on in TV dramas all the time, where the writers are seeking a 45-minute plot that could, and should, go away in 5 minutes if the characters involved would just open their mouths.
And this is when someone I’m well acquainted with opened his mouth.
If you ever needed a good reason to stay away from a lot of modern-day highly-political writing organizations, this is it. Mercedes Lackey, on the exact same day that she received the SFWA Grand Master award for lifetime achievement, they decided to kick her out of an online Nebula conference because she said a “bad word”.
Here’s another thing that is really starting to wear thin. Whenever an author does something, anything at all, everyone huddles around them and congratulates them for a job well done.
Guys, enough! It’s like saying “I managed to get out of bed this morning”, followed by a round of applause. Writers write. It’s what we do. Stop acting like managing to do something that you’re supposed to be doing anyhow is somehow magical!
George Orwell, who write 1984 and Animal Farm, among others, once said:
“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon… And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.”
Therefore, the question was asked, are all good stories inherently political? I don’t think that’s remotely true.
I was having a talk with a moderator of one of the writing forums I’m on and part of this was a laugh but mostly, it was just sad. This is just more evidence that these people are really, really pathetic. Not the mod, we’re friends, but the rank amateurs who care more about their feelings than they do about reality.
So let’s talk about it.
So, someone posted this on a writing forum and while I did respond there about some of the aspects brought up, some of it I thought would be best served responding here because a lot of these places get mad when you start to talk about reality unfiltered.
I hope it helps because it’s really sad how many people can’t comprehend the real world.
I have complained on numerous occasions about the ridiculous things that I see constantly on writing forums. It’s just not that often that I see a perfect example of why I have a problem with it.
Until now. Read on to see just how absurd some people can be and why I desperately want to get away from it.
Earlier today, I found myself in a discussion with a professional author friend of mine, someone who is part of my writing critique group. It isn’t like we get to talk a lot, in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen him face-to-face in a couple of years. However, we got to talking and the conversation rolled around to dealing with amateur writers and I was rather surprised at the response, because he seems to think pretty much like I do.
Here I was thinking I was alone.
