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Clarion Week 2: Monday morning jibberish July 3, 2006 Not remembering the exact quote, but I believe David Mamet said that you should only take criticism from people who have a vested interest in your future. I'd thought one of the first challenges at Clarion would be to figure out who among us critiquers came to the table with no interest in seeing the stories succeed, however insightful their critiques are. Then I could just compartmentalize and think: "So-and-so" just likes to crap on stories. "So-and-so" would rather compliment than help. Etc. But either I've failed to identify these culprits in our midst, or so far the entire class is all coming from good (but still unique) places. There's no one here whose opinions I can dismiss. There's no one here from which I shouldn't take criticism. I hope the others view my attempts to help in the same light. But what's the old addage: If you can't figure out which person at the table is the mark... Third story is not doing much for me yet. I might have set my expectations a bit too high on this one. We have two Wills and two Steves at Clarion. One of our Wills (the very same one who generously drove me back from the airport after I dropped my car off) has posted a column at Horror World about what he's learned so far about giving and recieving critiques. And One of our Steves has posted a few photographs from the Delany reading on Wednesday. I'm the thorn on the left. Filed under Clarion, Journal  
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournalAt our Clarion in 2004 we had a really good group, too. Eventually you will figure out who are and who are not your readers. The first group will contribute things directly relevent to your type(s) of writing. The second group, because it is Clarion, will read your work nonetheless and they will often find mechanical things and oddities which someone in tune with the story will fly right by. This will let you pick and choose which sorts of comments from each crit will serve you best. Of course the Rules state that (a) you need to follow the Rules and (b) that as an author you are free to tell the Rules when to go jump in a lake. (grin) Dr. Phil ps - squinting at this posting won't help -- it still doesn't tell you anything that will help you now, only after you've left Clarion. (double-edged-grin) Posted by: Dr. Phil at July 3, 2006 3:07 PM 
Wow, That Steve came from Hungary! I hope somebody got him something to eat! (And the collective groans...). And wow! You're bald as a biceps again. Or still. Or something. Now, am I crazy, or does it sound like you're meeting your deadlines and is even a little ahead of the game? As my people are fond of saying, "You betta WORK it, Alex!" (That's Ebonics for "Good job, Alex!" Posted by: Alan at July 4, 2006 9:38 PM
Thanks, Phil and Alan! (and yeah, I reshaved my head just before Chip's reading). Alex. Posted by: Alex at July 4, 2006 10:26 PM
by Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com. |