Meta Rec: reading writing meta meta by xanphibian

[seraphcelene]

reading writing meta meta by xanphibian

Can I get a hell yeah!

I love meta and I love discussing writing. I’ve often thought of treating fic as I would treat the books that I’m reading: lay them up against theory and classic crit to examine how the writer is able to do what they do (convey sen, emotion, visuals, etc.). In fandom, this would commonly fall under the banner of concrit. Most people seem to be Very Nervous about concrit, it’s bad form, unnecessary in a community where all is for fun, you don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or hurt their feelings. With that in mind, I offer concrit up to the people who I know are interested and can handle it. xanphibian’s post gets at what my ideas are of concrit on a larger level than just what some assume it is. That is to say, we’re not just talking about criticism in terms of “this is bad” or “this doesn’t work”, but also how the fic operates and achieves its goals via the more technical aspect of writing. We’re talking more than just concrit or a review but a critical analysis of a literary piece, and let’s be real – fanfic is literature. It may not be considered Literature because of its marginal status (copyright issues, derivative, etc.) but it is literature. Hell, if a pamphlet can be literature, fanfic can damn well be literature. Some of it is even Literature.

Personally, I am totally willing to offer up my fic for the attempt. All the same rules of fandom, of course, applying. Although, I have a feeling that there will be no takers because it always comes down to the same argument with concrit – people get their feelings hurt. Well, seeing as how I am an adult, and seeing as how I can only grow if I get concrit, I would love to see an essay or brief meditation on something that I’ve written or a compare/contrast to different pieces, etc. I’d love to do the same for other willing writers. I think that the closest I got was a comment I made to tkp’s Pretty Screams in Paradise. It was a fabulous thinky exercise and reminded me of all those reasons that I love Lit classes and academia, all the fun, technical reasons that I love and hate being a writer.

Comments

[xanphibian.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you for the rec and the thinky thoughts about what I had to say! I only wish I could oblige you with constructive critique, but unfortunately, I have no idea how to go about this. My own work is immature and a bit too raw for critique, I think, or I would offer it up to you or the general public for this kind of discussion. I've found some books online (finally) that I think may help me with understanding form and style a bit more, but I wish (as I said) that there could be that discussion in fandom that I could learn from. I'm going to check out the links left to me, and hopefully I'll find more of what I'm searching for.

Maybe, eventually, I'll be able to talk about this more in a 'this is what I've found, and this is what I think' kind of way rather than a 'why isn't there any of this?' way. :)

[seraphcelene]

Granted, I've never read any of your work, but, imo, everyone can benefit from concrit. You've already got the drive and the vision of what you want to see and what you want to do, so it could be a great exercise for you to receive really good concrit especially if its detailed enough to really highlight your strengths and weaknesses. My favorite betas do that for me. The key, of course, is your willingness to extend yourself. Writing leaves one incredibly vulnerable and it can be difficult to maintain the objectivity necessary to really get the benefit from concrit.

On the other side of that, as well, offering concrit could be a good way to start formulating in your own mind the more technical aspects of how to achieve an effect writing. Even if you don't do it formally, but just for your own benefit in a notebook at home. Take a piece that you really like written by another author and go over all the things that stand out to you, the things you like and the things that you don't like and start dissecting those thoughts. Consider why you react to certain things in a certain way and what it is that *you* think causes that reaction.

I hope that you can see how excited I am by the thoughts and ideas in your post. It's the same sorts of things that I've been wanting to see for a while, as well.