I'm getting a contact high just reading your torrent of incoherent "posts".

Wish I could say the same.

You mean the one that realized he had a problem and stopped drinking a long time ago?

Or better yet, are you suggesting that other alcoholics might not actually be the BEST people to tell you to stop drinking/etc? I guess alcoholics anonymous meetings are just a joke? Ha ha?

N.B. One of my critiques from the cross-over cluster****. Despite being a big enough fan of a particular grammar textbook to include it in his cover art, he wasn't a big enough fan to actually read or internalize it. The odds of him learning proper syntax from a legitimate source are remote.



ding ding ding ^^^ something everybody has been telling him for months, which he desperately needs to learn, but never will.

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Bohemian

Is it for real though, does he think he is Bohemian?

Koobie needs to bite the bullet already

CM, I barely drink. I prefer to etc.

Anyway like I said I'm a bit busy because got an acceptance for a story I'd submitted 85 days ago and forgot all about it, they liked it but asked to change a few things (not the syntax, and guess what, unlike you three schmucks, these are actual SF zine editors who review thousands of submissions and know what they're talking about), and have another commission to write ... Reid, I will tell you why your re-written sentences were terrible after I do my other writery stuff.

I'm not saying it's not helpful though, like I've said some of your comments seemed very helpful, but I don't have the time to read them (as I wasn't asking for a crit) because I don't have time to work on this particular story right now.

>>I've read short stories written by community college students that blew yours out of the water, yet I have yet to meet one that thought their stories were yet worth money. They have an appropriate humility for how talented they are at writing, which is something you haven't yet found.

Oh ye I just say that cuz my stories sell. I'm not talking about self-publishing here. So I know they are worth money.



Hear ye, Hear ye.



Available for FREE here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/401482

A dear friend of mine plays in a band that has routinely been paid to play shows at bars for the last decade. This means they are a successful band, right?

ALSO: That type is horrendous.

Aggressive unpaid marketing on online forums will gain you a few dollars, sure, but not as many as you would by working for minimum wage at a convenience store

April 20 is Easter.

I ABUSE JESUS.

Duh.



I didn't criticize anything. I said Asimov is hard SF and PKD is soft SF.

Star Wars is Sci-Fi. I like Star Wars too.



What, dude? Anyway, I've never read Nietzsche because I'm not as educated as Jon'C. I might one day, but I've other priorities.

Oh, good point, Reid. I forgot to mention that my friend who has been consistently paid to be a musician for the last decade has also worked full time at various call centers for that entire time.

No, but it probably means that he's not utter ****. Oh yeah? I quite like the font, actually.

Selling stories to magazines has **** all to do with marketing ...

Nietzsche is one of the most widely studied and recognized philosophers who wrote beautifully, and he didn't have an editor criticize his works. He didn't even edit much of his later works, they were drafts.

Being paid to do something is not the mark of being good at doing it. There are a lot of people who are absolutely terrible at what they do and still get paid to do it.

So what is the mark of being good at something?

Jon'C, Antony and Reid from forums.massassi.net liking my stories?

Because if that's so, I'm in biiiiiiiiiiiiiiig trouble.

Self-reflection.

I can assure you that having your story purchased by some bush-league zine is not the mark of success or talent.

Did you ever consider that all of the hostility toward you stems from your own obstinance? I'm also going to go ahead and put it out there: If your behavior doesn't stem from a serious substance abuse problem, then you likely need a significant amount of therapy.

No wonder I don't like you. You're a narcissist.

Self awareness is not the same thing as self obsession. There's a terrific bit of irony on display here.

>>Did you ever consider that all of the hostility toward you stems from your own obstinance?

obstinance
the trait of being hard to influence or control

Maybe? But if you don't like me because I'm hard to influence or control, is it my problem, or yours?

There's an often-cited hierarchy of skill acquisition, related to the experimentally-observed Dunning-Kruger effect. It goes something like this:

1. Unconscious incompetence: unskilled, and with such low skill that they are not even aware of how bad they are.
2. Conscious incompetence: unskilled, but genuinely aware of their need for improvement.
3. Conscious competence: skilled, but applying their skill requires great deliberation. Characterized by works which are overwrought.
4. Unconscious competence: skilled, and applying their skill requires no conscious thought toward the art.
5. Consciousness of unconscious competence: skilled and can apply their art without concentration, but also self-reflective and analytical.

True mastery of an art isn't simply the ability to practice effortlessly. It is the conscious awareness of the actions you take subconsciously; the ability to reason about your art, and explain your technique to others in exacting detail.

Sometimes I trick myself into thinking you're at level 3, because you've obviously overworked a lot of the crap you post. Mostly though your obvious lack of skill and overbearing arrogance about it makes me think you're at level 1.

Christ, I give up.

>>True mastery of an art isn't simply the ability to practice effortlessly. It is the conscious awareness of the actions you take subconsciously; the ability to reason about your art, and explain your technique to others in exacting detail.

We simply adhere to different philosophies. I was just listening to Alan Watts the other day, and he said this:

"An artist is a person who performs certain things skillfully but doesn't really know how he does it. You learn art by methods that you don't know how you learn. You can't describe it because your brain is capable of absorbing all kinds of information that is much too subtle to be translated into words."

I also never claimed to be a MASTER WRITER (well, only in jest, and only ITT).

Alan Watts is wrong, because:

1.) A craftsman who lacks the words to explain something invents a new word.

2.) The simple act of having a philosophical meta-theory about your craft is literally what I'm talking about.

By the way, since you missed this fact: yeah, no, you don't adhere to a philosophy. You aren't there yet. You quote sound bytes from smarter people. That's not having a philosophy, that's citing one.

I didn't say I adhere to Alan Watt's philosophy.

I said we adhere to different philosophies and cited a sound bit from Alan Watts I happened to agree with.

"Uh oh, I look like a retard! I'd better quickly cover it up with an unfalsifiable statement and limp-wristed evasiveness! Whew, that was close"

>>Sometimes I trick myself into thinking you're at level 3, because you've obviously overworked a lot of the crap you post.

Not really overworked. I just respond to the bs stream from Massassi armchair experts, and get told I'm the one who's overworked, heh.

Peace & love.

PS. I will address Reid's crits some time later out of respect for FGR, who is the only person who'd commented / asked a question who I know for a fact based on empiric evidence has what it takes to see things through to the end ...

PPS. Also, EAH_TRISCUIT as well because every time he'd promised somebody a game, he gave it ... But I don't think he cares much about the Massassi bs, just re: empiric evidence.

Certainly not being published in an unnamed magazine in 2013/2014. Do you realize that the amount of short stories being written is probably a function of time and is increasing exponentially? If you were published in a magazine fifty years ago then you would have a stronger case. There are plenty of magazines and other publications which have no qualms about publishing poor-quality work as long as that work is unique and has had at least some editing and effort placed into it.


I'm sure you couldn't even name a philosophy that pertains to art, except "rejectionism", which I made up to describe the philosophy where you reject criticism outright. It's a foolproof plan. When you stick your head in the sand only you exist.

I'm not claiming expertise and authority myself, but I have taken a few creative writing courses and have interacted with talented writers. You seem to want to remain in the cave forever, staring at pretty shadows and living on your imagination. I do have to commend your ability to avoid real introspection at any cost

Right, out of the thousands of ways to call someone a drunkard you settled on "half a hundred", because strangled alliteration just flows naturally out of a skilled pen.

I assume you're including yourself in that list of suspected failures, Mr. gets too bored and stoned to finish anything properly.

You're like a painter who hangs a phthalo blue gradient on the wall and calls it a masterwork landscape.

Well ok the middle half of my story has the pacing of a synopsis, and then it just peters out for no reason, but at least I published it.

real artists ship :smug:

>>Certainly not being published in an unnamed magazine in 2013/2014.

Nah, I was already published in 2009 in a magazine which also published at least two writers who went on to win Nebula awards ... but that's not the point! I personally didn't even like that story of mine so much; I'm not defending myself people, I'm just trying to get the facts straight ... but in reality, I'm arguing with a narcissist, an alcoholic (who gave up), and somebody who'd interacted with a few talented writers. Talk about self-reflection.

I'll post re: the crit when I have time. Bye for now.

Koobie, pray tell, what do you think of this introduction?

Making fun of a recovering alcoholic for getting his life together. Classy.


You're the absolute last person on this forum who should be mocking anybody for: 1.) self-love, 2.) substance abuse, 3.) casually interacting with talented people as their only claim to success.

My page filler was once in the same magazine as an award-winner!!


like an extra bragging about their bacon number.

I think extras get paid more than Koobie, Jon`C.

Could probably get paid by the line and get paid more.

I think some Russian dude for whom English was a second language wrote it.

It's whom when it's the object of the sentence. Yes, Nabokov wrote it, and I want you to do an analysis of it.

Yeah, well, guess you'll just have to want harder won't you?