Whine like a baby, now with 500% more drama!
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
Ignore him. Give into your anger. Feed your frustration. Strike your enemies down and take your place by my side so we can crush this world under our heel!
Mwahahahahahahaha!
<ahem> Sorry, got a little carried away there.
i would normally give DA holy hell, as this is the whine thread, but as ive seen he is dealing with his mothers issues, i cant expect him not to be a jerk.
Just a little info for ya, I have had a package from New York delivered to Texas that never showed tracking until after I received the package. USPS just don't care.
GasBandit
Staff member
A buddy of mine's wife refuses to watch TV at the same time as me because I mock the stupidity out loud.
I told my mom that she should go see Arrival, but leave my dad at home when she does, because that's him.
Or is in the room, but misses everything anyway because they're staring at their phone.
My dad does that too, but only to newscasters. He passed the habit down to me, for better or worse
fade
Staff member
My 13 year old does this. The freaking movie just started. How the hell would I know either?
Our kids do that too. Drives me bonkers. Especially when they ask me questions and talk over the show where we would learn the answers.
Sigh, my kids were supposed to go to the dentist tomorrow, but I had to reschedule because my daughter has been sick for the last few days and is missing school today, so I don't want to risk having to pay a cancellation fee if she's still sick tomorrow. I would have just kept my son's appointment, but if my daughter IS still sick, I'm not going to bring her with me, it's counter productive. But the actual whine is that the soonest appointments I could get were the end of March and a week apart, instead of together. *grumble*
GasBandit
Staff member
I feed the cat in the morning. Generally he only eats half his food by the next morning, though, so really I could feed him every other morning.
I was going to put this in the Rant thread, but then saw bhamv's post and it didn't feel right.
I've talked before about trying to re-work or completely re-write my YA novel from scratch. The one that I finished last summer. There are a lot of things I don't like about what I wrote and I wanted to try again, fleshing out side characters, knowing the two main characters better, and figuring out exactly how this fantastical world works and some of its rules.
Today, I had a long conversation with a friend of mine who helped edit my last novel. I thought maybe we could brainstorm and he could provide some insights.
Instead, what I feel like I got was a complete systematic destruction of everything that I established before. And he did it in a way that made me feel like every idea I had before was complete shit. He was suggesting throwing out entire concepts entirely that were - what I felt - were integral to the plot. No matter how much I tried to argue, he shut me down and made me feel like a complete fucking idiot. He was making so many suggestions that it no longer felt like my story anymore. There was so much of my story that he systematically destroyed that I don't even know where to even start anymore, even with what I had in mind before.
Keep in mind that he's the kind of person that also loves going on long rants, taking forever to get to the goddamn point, and would barely let me get a word in half the time.
The absolute worst part of the conversation was right at the end. He was so excited by all the ideas and how he "improved" this story that he said, "I really want to read this now! Hell, I want to write it."
That exact line has ALWAYS been my biggest fear as a writer: to share an idea with a friend in order to spitball or brainstorm an idea only for them to take it and make it their own. I am fucking terrified now that that's exactly what he's going to do.
Actually, no, the worst part is that I feel like this idea has been so systematically destroyed that I think I might trash the whole thing and forget it.
I've talked before about trying to re-work or completely re-write my YA novel from scratch. The one that I finished last summer. There are a lot of things I don't like about what I wrote and I wanted to try again, fleshing out side characters, knowing the two main characters better, and figuring out exactly how this fantastical world works and some of its rules.
Today, I had a long conversation with a friend of mine who helped edit my last novel. I thought maybe we could brainstorm and he could provide some insights.
Instead, what I feel like I got was a complete systematic destruction of everything that I established before. And he did it in a way that made me feel like every idea I had before was complete shit. He was suggesting throwing out entire concepts entirely that were - what I felt - were integral to the plot. No matter how much I tried to argue, he shut me down and made me feel like a complete fucking idiot. He was making so many suggestions that it no longer felt like my story anymore. There was so much of my story that he systematically destroyed that I don't even know where to even start anymore, even with what I had in mind before.
Keep in mind that he's the kind of person that also loves going on long rants, taking forever to get to the goddamn point, and would barely let me get a word in half the time.
The absolute worst part of the conversation was right at the end. He was so excited by all the ideas and how he "improved" this story that he said, "I really want to read this now! Hell, I want to write it."
That exact line has ALWAYS been my biggest fear as a writer: to share an idea with a friend in order to spitball or brainstorm an idea only for them to take it and make it their own. I am fucking terrified now that that's exactly what he's going to do.
Actually, no, the worst part is that I feel like this idea has been so systematically destroyed that I think I might trash the whole thing and forget it.
Neil Gaiman:
“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
Notice when I'm editing your stuff, if there's something beyond the absolutes of grammar/spelling, I usually mention two or three different things you could do about the problem? Because it's not my story and I don't know the Right way to fix it; only you'll know that.
QFT.
These weren't just minor tweaks like you usually suggest. These were compete systematic breakdowns of the mythology and universe that I was trying to build. Removing HUGE elements of things I really liked and worked hard to include them in the story.
Sounds like he wasn't really commenting on your story then, more like coming up with the one he wants for himself. Maybe he knows what's best for THAT one, but you know what's best for yours. It's your universe.
Or, you know, what Mr. Gaiman says. I'd trust his advice, it seems like he knows a thing or two about the whole writing thingamajig.
Or, you know, what Mr. Gaiman says. I'd trust his advice, it seems like he knows a thing or two about the whole writing thingamajig.
That's so rough! Do you think he would really do that to you?
I messaged him about it on Facebook. He said there's nothing to fear there. I feel like I know him well enough to believe him, but I'm still too paranoid about it.
I can certainly understand why. I'd be totally concerned too with the way he was talking. What a gross thing for him to say.
Yeah, it didn't really feel like he was trying to work WITH me on these ideas. Instead, trying to push his own ideas into it and basically change everything that I meant it to be.