Is there a writer in the crowd

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[Please don't read this if you've never been published except in your school newspaper]

Representing myself as an erstwhile writer I'm surprised that in all these years I've encountered hereabout only one other participant who so represents himself

(I use "erstwhile" rather than "former" as less pejorative)

It think it was Cis, was it not, Cis

If so, fellow writer, isn't it your impression that for some reason very few of us inhabit the Internet/Forum community

Specifically our cavalier if not obstreperous style for reasons provocative, is attacked by the typical forum participant as if we're deadly serious. On almost every occasion we'ere attacked mercilessly by the participant seemingly angry at all times about almost everything

For instance if we gripe about digital editing routine, as in http://able2know.org/topic/202883-1
……we get meaningless comments such as, "SO boring," "Dementia," "Dale being Dale," "Shampoo rinse [?]," "Deranged lunatic," "Ad Nauseam," etc etc etc endlessly. Really helpful

Fellow writers, am I alone

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@dalehileman,

Participants could be having a bad day, or they like vent online behind the comforts of anonymity. Some like to get cheeky, and some like drama where they demand negative attention through their conduct and when they receive it, they like to play the victim. Somewhere along those line describes a troll, but it's a grey area.
Likely you are in the minority, but not alone in your displeasure.

This is the internet dale, you shouldn't take these things too personally. It's not healthy for you.

1 Reply

@Enzo,

Judging Enzo from your style, wasn't it you not Cis

Quote:

….bad day or…...the comforts of anonymity,

Strongly contributing factors, guys who feel inadequate to everyday life flock to the Internet Forum where they can vent their anger at themselves by tossing it in the direction of other participants, many perfectly innocent

They dance around us like savages burning a victim at the stake

Quote:

or some like drama where people demand negative attention through their conduct to play the victim…... but it's a grey area.

Oh yea I can so testify, I myself Enzo have been cast off numerous forums, many for life, being called a troll

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Likely you are in the minority, but not alone in your displeasure.

Wow Enzo you can say that again

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This is the internet dale, you shouldn't take these things too personally.

I try not to, I try to be objective, but my probes are soundly rejected at all corners, alas

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It's not healthy for you.

Or for anyone for that matter. I wonder how many of our participants (besides myself) have curtailed their existence by that continual anger at all times about almost everything

But thank you for your most kind approach, a rarity indeed, you have made my entire day if not week, or perhaps until I express my feeling about things in my next outrageous OP

……whereupon again mercilessly attacked by all and sundry thank you once again

1 Reply

Dalehileman wrote:

Representing myself as an erstwhile writer

You have said that in almost every post you made.

It's certainly your right to brag about it but I have the right to think you have, so far, demonstrated only a pseudo knowledge.

You pretend to an eminence far beyond your very limited merits.

In addition, having published some silly stuff doesn't mean you are a decent
writer, let alone a great one.

I've found single posters on forums (A2K included) that surpass brilliantly whatever prose you might use.

Just saying..

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

Quote:

[Please don't read this if you've never been published except in your school newspaper]

Look here dunderhead, if you don't want people to read the thread or post then just don't post it. If you do place it here, under current settings we are all allowed to read it and comment on it to our liver, kidneys and other internal organs content. Word has it that a future version of this site will give superpowers wherein and whereby a registeralated member (be they Mennonite, Mormon, Methodist, Moravian or something other) will be able to use super-blocker and keep those on an ignore list from even viewing their posts. That however is in the future when George Lucas and Geronimo have finished appearing at the Burning Man Festival.

So, as I was saying...I can read your posts and there's not a danged thing you can do to stop it as of now.

For the record, I was not published in my school newspaper; in large part because I didn't write for them.

Quote:

(I use "erstwhile" rather than "former" as less pejorative)

Why not use quondam?

Quote:

...if so, fellow writer, isn't it your impression that for some reason very few of us inhabit the Internet/Forum community

Specifically our cavalier if not obstreperous style for reasons provocative, is attacked by the typical forum participant as if we're deadly serious. On almost every occasion we'ere attacked mercilessly by the participant seemingly angry at all times about almost everything

No, the participants are not angry at all times about almost everything. Some may be annoyed, nay, disgusted, yea, I say heartily nauseated and aggrieved, by your lunaticish rantings and the inane repostings as 'new threads' on the same blasted topics.

Further, even when the balsamic vinegar-like responses stop stinging your sensitivities, you have little to no comprehension of what has been said to you.

Quote:

For instance if we gripe about digital editing routine, as in http://able2know.org/topic/202883-1
……we get meaningless comments such as, "SO boring," "Dementia," "Dale being Dale," "Shampoo rinse [?]," "Deranged lunatic," "Ad Nauseam," etc etc etc endlessly. Really helpful

Actually dale old man, those were not comments, they were tags. Kindly learn the difference darling or your scroll bar will be used to beat against your withered shins.

Quote:

Fellow writers, am I alone

Do you really care?

Lastly, all who make responses here on this board are in a sense writers. Not authors, at least not in the sense of published for pay authors; yet, we are all writers. Well, that is, if the items we post here are our own original thoughts and not just pilfered from elsewhere. So you see dale, I am a writer, as are many of the members here. ( I won't say all, since some may be just transferring previously written statements from the New England Journal of Microbes or Mausoleums Monthly or any of a whole myriad of other publications or websites)

Be sure to take your meds dale and eat properly...it might help.

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@dalehileman,

Quote:

Judging Enzo from your style, wasn't it you not Cis

If that means what I think it means, then no. I rarely add tags, and so far I have never added any tags for comedic purposes or intentions. If you want proof, just go to my profile and investigate under "My Tags."

1 Reply

@Enzo,

Quote:

If that means what I think it means, then no.

No Enzo, my apologies, I wasn't clear, I'm guilty of the kind of omission I so deplore and complain about in others

I had asked if it were Cis who called himself a writer but then judging from your superior journalistic approach and construction I wondered instead if it weren't you instead

Thank you once again Enzo for your tolerance and temperate responses

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This is my life and this is how it reads
For every chapter, a thousand memories
A murder, a mystery where everybody bleeds
A fantasy, a thriller with romance and disease

Diary entry 9th of May '62
We've had some ugly babies but none were quite like you
Diary entry '62 end of May
It looks as if the nose and chin are definitely here to stay
They're here to stay, they're here to stay

If my lips start smiling and my knees start a-knocking
I'm a failure
You are, you are
And if I seem half-hearted, it's because I'm broken hearted
And I'm a failure
You are, you are, you are (I am)
You are, you are, you are (I am)

This is my life and this is how it reads
A documentary that nobody believes
Albert Steptoe in 'Gone with the Breeze'
Mother played by Peter Beardsley, father by John Cleese

Diary entry '68 end of the year
A cardboard Apollo 6 has given the all clear
11th December '68 Captain's log
Proposed trip to Mars is cancelled due to fog
It's due to fog, it's due to fog

If my lips start smiling and my knees start a-knocking
I'm a failure
You are, you are
And if I seem half-hearted, it's because I'm broken hearted
And I'm a failure
You are, you are, you are (I am)
You are, you are, you are (I am)

This is the play, it was I who wrote the script
Terry meets June in 'Tales from the Crypt'
It was going to be a film but the camera person slipped
They later found him scolding a banana

Diary entry 10th of April '89
The world is going mad but me I'm doing fine
I'm doing fine

Back to bed, back to reality
Just fine.

0 Replies

@dalehileman,

Just to try and satisfy your apparently insatiable curiosity, I had my first short story published (for money) while still a freshman at Boston University. It was published in the now long-defunct men's mag yclept Saga (just trying to ape your style, dale), part of the McFadden Group publishing venture. I received the handsome sum of $500 for it. Back in 1958 that was real money. After university, I worked at a number of news-writing jobs, including a two-year stint for United Press International (UPI) and saw clippings with my byline on them from as far away as Utah, while sitting at a desk in NYC.

Seeing my name attached to a piece of writing in print is hardly any novelty for me. Nor do I see any reason whatever to dwell on it. I wouldn't ever have dreamt of mentioning even this much, had you not asked.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Hi Andy

Quote:

I received the handsome sum of $500 for it. Back in 1958 that was real money

Hell I remember when $120 was a goodly return

Quote:

I wouldn't ever have dreamt of mentioning even this much, had you not asked.

Thank you Andy for your input. So after all there are 3 of us

But I wonder if you have noted tendencies of the typical writer as I've touched upon

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

But I wonder if you have noted tendencies of the typical writer as I've touched upon

I've had several books published. Not fiction. I've known several people who are writers--both fiction and nonfiction.

I have no idea what the tendencies of the typical writer are. Everyone is different, including writers.

3 Replies

@Roberta,

Wow Rob that makes four of us

Quote:

Everyone is different, including writers.

Yes but don't you find writers more spontaneous, critical, curious, outside the box, dissatisfied, fearless in the intellectual arena, exploratory, forward if not brazen, determined, invulnerable to attack and so many other qualities that raise the dander of a certain typical forum participant

2 Replies

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Yes but don't you find writers more spontaneous, critical, curious, outside the box, dissatisfied, fearless in the intellectual arena, exploratory, forward if not brazen, determined, invulnerable to attack and so many other qualities that raise the dander of a certain typical forum participant

No, not particularly.

1 Reply

@Lustig Andrei,

Okay Andy, yes, no, there's always room for a difference of opinion. So how would you describe him

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=qualities+of+a+typical+writer&oq=qualities+of+a+typical+writer&gs_l=serp.12...188520.195937.0.198015.29.19.0.8.8.0.515.3129.1j9j0j1j2j1.14.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.VAp5vUcD9_U&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=470fb0d49eac1a9&bpcl=39314241&biw=1364&bih=809

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

I would say that the qualities that make for a good writer are exactly the same qualities that enable a person to be successful in any other endeavor -- i.e. attention to detail, a willingness to learn and adapt, empathy for other people, punctuality (deadlines cannot be missed), and a thorough familiarity with the tools of his trade (I mean language, not computer savvy).

Sounds a lot like the qualities that make a good salesman or bicycle repair person.

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

dalehileman wrote:

Wow Rob that makes four of us

Quote:
Everyone is different, including writers.
Yes but don't you find writers more spontaneous, critical, curious, outside the box, dissatisfied, fearless in the intellectual arena, exploratory, forward if not brazen, determined, invulnerable to attack and so many other qualities that raise the dander of a certain typical forum participant

Some of these qualities apply to me, and some don't. Some of these qualities apply to other writers I've known, and some don't.

The only quality I can think of that applies to all the writers I've known is a sense of humor. And that includes Andy. Did Dostoevsky have a sense of humor? Don't know. Did Faulkner have a sense of humor? Don't know. We know that Chaucer and Shakespeare did.

I'm sure that there are certain qualities that apply to writers. I believe that some that you've listed are probably accurate. And some aren't.

2 Replies

Spontaneous - Almost never, very conservative by nature....in writing though, I can usually come up with something decent on the spot, real or bs, in just a few min.
Critical - Mainly of myself, and what I write.
Curious - Very, which for me leads to reading, which in turn leads to writing, so much goes in, something has to come out.
Outside the box - Not often.
Dissatisfied - I tend to be very content....more sex would be great....duh.
Fearless in the intellectual arena - I tend to avoid intellectuals or mainly those that pretend to be....if possible, in my little world, intellectual is a naughty, naughty word.
Exploratory - Yes,
Forward if not brazen - Almost never.
Determined - Eh, not so much anymore.
Invulnerable to attack - Hardly, but as stated before, I tend to avoid confrontation.

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@timur,

Quote:

You have said that in almost every post you made.

Hoping Tim to attract new respondents

Quote:

you have, so far, demonstrated only a pseudo knowledge.

Verily a rank amateur

Quote:

You pretend to an eminence far beyond your very limited merits.

Terrible habit I must admit

Quote:

doesn't mean you are a decent writer, let alone a great one.

No such claims made

Quote:

I've found single posters on forums (A2K included) that surpass brilliantly whatever prose you might use.

Oh I'm sure of it

But Tim you seem angry

Why

0 Replies

@Roberta,

Faulkner had a fine sense of humor. He just wasn't very good at conveying it in writing. But he tried from time to time, viz. Spotted Horses.

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@Lustig Andrei,

Quote:

and a thorough familiarity with the tools of his trade (I mean language, not computer savvy).

This is the part that Frank Apisa just cannot seem to get his head around, Merry. And he's not the only one.

There are many great writers, many good writers and many lousy writers but virtually none of them consciously know their language, ie. know about the grammar of their language. Shakespeare didn't know "grammar", you don't know grammar and Frank sure as hell doesn't know grammar.

Not that that's a bad thing. In fact it points up the miracle that is language. We all function admirably in language without actually understanding what we are doing.

1 Reply

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