I will. I'm not sure when that will be, but I will.
Dawn: Is that supposed to scare me? Spike: Little tremble wouldn't hurt.
'The Killer In Me'
The Great Write Way
A place for Buffistas to discuss, beta and otherwise deal and dish on their non-fan fiction projects.
askye - Dec 20, 2002 9:51:57 am PST #423 of 10001
Thrive to spite them
Am-Chau Yarkona - Dec 20, 2002 9:57:39 am PST #424 of 10001
I bop to Wittgenstein. -- Nutty
Well, whenever it is, I'll look forward to it.
Betsy HP - Jan 17, 2003 5:56:15 pm PST #425 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
I went to a quite nice critique group last night, and it was useful, and I'll be adding it to my routine.
One person described a section as "too clever by half".
I recognize the problem, but I'm not sure how to solve it.
Connie Neil - Jan 17, 2003 6:00:21 pm PST #426 of 10001
brillig
Too clever="I'm smart and I'm going to show it"? Maybe she was feeling like she wasn't getting all the references or following the style.
Betsy HP - Jan 17, 2003 6:02:34 pm PST #427 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
"I'm smart and I'm going to show it"?
Almost certainly. And come to think of it, she did complain about too many culture references. Which are deliberate, and are character statements, and are all classic-romance-novel references (GWTW, Jane Eyre, P&P, all of which have had well-circulated video adaptations.)
Connie Neil - Jan 17, 2003 6:04:49 pm PST #428 of 10001
brillig
I drop strange references into stuff all the time (ask Teppy about my faux-James Joycean "Rain was general over Sunnydale" some time). I thought it was clever. Not everyone's going to get everything.
Betsy HP - Jan 17, 2003 6:05:24 pm PST #429 of 10001
If I only had a brain...
I just don't want to write a Look How Clever I Am novel.
Can you tell my junior-high-school insecurities are showing?
Connie Neil - Jan 17, 2003 6:06:25 pm PST #430 of 10001
brillig
That one would be a personal "is it a clever aside or does it stop the story and yell 'See! I paid attention in lit class!' and call attention to itself?" Case by case, naturally, the annoying things.
Ms. Havisham - Jan 17, 2003 7:47:50 pm PST #431 of 10001
And we will call it... "This Land."
Not wanting to write a look-how-clever-I-am story is perfectly valid. It sounds silly, but you might want to sit down and just count how many references there really are. How many per paragraph? Per page? Pull out a few published romances for comparison.
Not everyone's going to get everything.
And you can't please everyone. t mememe I got a crit that said "Your characters are unsympathetic, your pacing is glacial and your dialog is boring because it sounds too much like real people." Aside from being the only person who said anything this stringent, it's not terribly helpful. I mean, what does that leave? The font I wrote it in? t /mememe
Hope the crits you get are more helpful.
DavidS - Jan 17, 2003 8:53:22 pm PST #432 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Heh. I was just thinking about the phrase "too clever by half" the other day and decided that while I understood the complaint (and it's occasionally valid), that it usually reflects the speaker's insecurities. Because cleverness is a positive value. I guess it's problematic if its a kind of stunting. Preciousness I guess. But clever plotting and clever dialogue are big pluses with me.