----- Original Message -----
From: Dave Menard <menard5078@rogers.com>
To: NEW FFML POSTING <ffml@anifics.com>; noirchloe <noirchloe@nyc.rr.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 10, 2002 1:58 AM
Subject: [FFML] Re: [Ranma] newRanma - Omake and Author's Notes

----- Original Message -----
From: "noirchloe" <noirchloe@nyc.rr.com>
To: "Dave Menard" <menard5078@rogers.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [FFML] Re: [Ranma] newRanma - Omake and Author's Notes

Maybe you should rest first, but in a nutshell.   Ignoring C&C that you
don't agree with and writing what you want, good.  Ignoring to the point

of

blowing off people who do C&C without acknoledging it, Bad.   Chris did

the

latter.  If it doesn't bother you, that's fine.

Second the comment about the FFML being a glorified spellchecker.  Well
Chris's attitude is part of the reason that it's like that.  When

author's

say theat they are only using it for that purpose.  But maybe as you

stated

with your experience, that's what you want, obviously, others don't

agree.

I think you misunderstood my comment here. (Although I likely didn't state
it too eloquently, so it's my fault) What I was trying to say is that the
thing I love most about the FFML is that there _is_ that dialogue, not

just

between writer and reviewer, but between individual reviewers as well.
However, some authors (and Mr. Jones might be guilty of this) seem to use

it

as a glorified spellchecker. And that's fine, as far as it goes, I guess.

To be honest, I think some people use it more like an glorified
spelling/grammar checker. Which isn't a problem at all.

_I_ try not to use it that way, since I have a spellchecker in my
wordprocessing program, though it fails me with alarming regularity.

That's

not to say I don't appreciate one or the other type of C+C myself, which

you

seem to have assumed; I simply try to take everything with a grain of

salt.

Which you are supposed to do.They are just opinions anyway but I always felt
 you at least need to pay the C&C comments a little bit of consideration. If
someone points out that they don't understand why Character A isn't doing
something
that the character might do in the situation you have created for them I
believe you owe it to
yourself to make sure the character has a reason for acting that way. And if
you can't
justify the action storywise then maybe you need to rethink what the
character's reasoning
and motivation.Now I'm not saying that you should consider everything in
detail. It depends
on the fic, how much effort you wanted to put into it, and what you want to
accomplish, but
you can learn a  lot more from thinking about other peoples comments and
viewpoints than
just ignoring them because it questions 'your vision of the way it should
be'.

As I stated in my original post on this topic, I've learned from bitter
experience that indiscriminately taking every suggestion into account

leads

to nothing but trouble, especially when you've a very firm idea in mind
about how you want a story to turn out.

But you do need to make others believe in your vision. The writer is like an
seeing-eye dog leading the blind readers through the world you created. If
they can't 'see it' through your writing  then maybe there's an problem. It
could be with them or you but just assuming it is them that has the problem
isn't good. Remember what happens when you assume...

According to his notes, Mr. Jones did indeed have a clear idea on how he
wanted things to go. He got there. If some readers decide that where he

went

wasn't to their taste... Well, that's an honest shame. No one can please

all

people, or even most people, all the time. I'll state again for the record
that I enjoyed the ride. Your mileage may vary.

Exactly. Good metaphor BTW.

As to _how_ Mr. Jones expressed his lack of desire for story input, see

(if

you care to) my response to D.B. elsewhere in this thread.

Now, that being said, if you take my defense of Mr. Jones as indefensible,
and therefore issue a blanket refusal to C+C any future works of mine,
that's a shame. That's one voice I suppose I won't be hearing from. Then
again, I gather from our vastly different opinions regarding the quality

of

Mr. Jones' fic, we don't share much in the way of taste, so I doubt we'd
have much constructive to say to each other regarding any of our

respective

works.

What the...? Just because I don't agree with how another person wrote his
fic
shouldn't exclude me from commenting on a different person's work who
happened to liked it. That is just ridiculous.

Yours in benevolent equanimity,
Dave Menard
Hack

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