Hell yeah, connie. Send it.

The only person my writing should really matter to is me.

And here you have tied directly into my deep discomfort with crit, whether on the level of teaching it, or getting paid to write it. I have absolutely no humility in me anywhere, so this isn't humble or faux-humble. It's pure puzzlement.

My opinion is mine, belonging to me, and if you want to hear it, I'll be glad to tell you. But value to anyone else but me? What the hell should it?

Anyone out there reading these words is presumably capable of reading and thinking and formulating their own take on stuff. So I get deeply uncomfortable with telling people not only why I feel one way about something, but far more uncomfortable about even considering telling them why they should think that.

I mean, go! Go go go! Go and read, or listen, or gaze, or stroke, or dance on your own, or whatever, but understand that the only thing I'm giving you, whether on your own stuff or anyone else's, is my opinion, mine, belonging to me.

Hopefully, those asking will find it useful. But if not? It aint the frickin' holy grail.

edited, to say it doesn't apply to people requesting feedback on the stuff they, themselves, have created. Different thing entirely.

I like knowing how other people take things, things I've consumed. It's why I'm here, after all, because I wanted to read other people's opinions on something I liked a great deal, to argue, be argued with, change my mind, learn angles, stick my ground.

Fuck the person who tells me what to feel. But I am curious about what they feel.

wrod. Writing is lonely, too.

But I am curious about what they feel.

Definitely. Sometimes, other peoples feelings on something will make me take a second look at something, or even a first look if I don't find the original premise interesting. It doesn't even have to be a positive take on something. I often go against Ebert and Roper when it comes to movies.

Roper is so Ebert's punk I'm surprised he can speak when Roger drinks a glass of water. That is not fun to watch. I miss the Siskel-bickering.

I miss the Siskel-bickering.

t Nods head vigorously.

I don't even to bother trying to catch them. I used to like it when Siskal and Ebert would just start laying into each other. You could see them putting each other's backs up. I always wanted to see one of them throw something at the other.

Deb, what's your preferred file format?

connie, a Word attachment is best.

Fuck the person who tells me what to feel. But I am curious about what they feel.

Yes on the first part of that, as you know. Unluckily, that's been my experience with the academic end of it, every. single. time: the assumption that I can't formulate my own take on something. Oh, man, do they have the wrong person to say that to...and, looking at it, that's probably gone a goodish way to poisoning the very concept of that kind of discussion.

Eh. I figure that I'm as capable of saying "hey, I just finished Blah by Fishcakes, did you read that? What did you think about the so-called plot twist in chapter eleventy billion" as I am of formulating my own take on it.

Mostly, I'm simply not that curious.

Word6 format from my WordPad coming your way.

Zenkitty, when I was in middle and high school, and writing my "stories" in my school notebooks, my mother told me I was "wasting" paper and ink. It took me literally decades to get over that, and to feel it was okay to "waste" not only time but paper--and not only paper, but to actually buy special notebooks to write in, and bottles of ink in special colors just for writing.

You know, one of the things I mentioned in my year-in-review post is that I wrote very, very little this year. Part of that was, I think, my class, where I started to feel like I *had* to produce something every week -- which is pressure that came entirely from me, not the class.

But another part of it is that my instruments of writing are just as important to me as what I write. There was a time when, if I couldn't use my computer, I just wouldn't write.

Now I'm feeling like the computer is very sterile, and my pretty, fancy journals (one has Catwoman on the cover!) are too....high expectations, I guess. Like, I *must* write something faaaaaabulous in it.

I think I'm going to buy a plain old school notebook, spiral-bound, or maybe a composition book with the black-and-white cover, and a blue Bic ballpoint pen, and see if that loosens up any writing. Because I *hate* not writing.