And a grumpy foul-tempered editor, too! Not one of nature's likers on the whole, so when I compliment, I mean it.
As to the whole beta thing, you've identified so many of the traps for young players. Between grammar being a dying art and language being shrunk down to a small set of cliches* it's so difficult for young writers these days. Some are still lucky in that their passion for language hasn't been kicked out of them, but others have no language to define what is good, so instead they focus on little rules and half-understood maxims. Your sort of education is what everyone deserves, but it's increasingly rare, more's the pity.
I too, prefer to self-edit, but by crikey am I rubbish at picking up my own typos ... (JKR memorial ellipsis)
Anyway ... Stop hitting the desk with your head, get some sleep, or at least tea.
* It's the anti-Shakespeare effect; I had a horrible moment during the World Trade Center attacks where I wanted to hit the commentators who kept repeating rubbish. Half of my brain was telling me to shut up, this was too serious to complain about journalists who could say nothing more than 'oh my god', but the other half of my brain was saying "But this is what will define how people go on, what's said now will be important. The Blitz was responded to with fortitude and courage because the language of the Blitz called for that; the Hindenberg touches us still because we connect with 'humanity'. They need words!"
A month later I was in San Francisco being introduced to an American friend's friend. "You're British!" he exclaimed. "I want to thank you so much for your Prime Minister, he had the words that our President didn't have that day. What he said was what needed to be said, and he made all of us feel as though we could take some comfort."
I had underestimated Americans, of course. Needing words, they looked for the ones that would give them solace. He couldn't quite understand why I needed a little personal moment at that point, but let me just say: legitimate misting!
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Date: 2007-08-31 06:21 am (UTC)As to the whole beta thing, you've identified so many of the traps for young players. Between grammar being a dying art and language being shrunk down to a small set of cliches* it's so difficult for young writers these days. Some are still lucky in that their passion for language hasn't been kicked out of them, but others have no language to define what is good, so instead they focus on little rules and half-understood maxims. Your sort of education is what everyone deserves, but it's increasingly rare, more's the pity.
I too, prefer to self-edit, but by crikey am I rubbish at picking up my own typos ... (JKR memorial ellipsis)
Anyway ... Stop hitting the desk with your head, get some sleep, or at least tea.
* It's the anti-Shakespeare effect; I had a horrible moment during the World Trade Center attacks where I wanted to hit the commentators who kept repeating rubbish. Half of my brain was telling me to shut up, this was too serious to complain about journalists who could say nothing more than 'oh my god', but the other half of my brain was saying "But this is what will define how people go on, what's said now will be important. The Blitz was responded to with fortitude and courage because the language of the Blitz called for that; the Hindenberg touches us still because we connect with 'humanity'. They need words!"
A month later I was in San Francisco being introduced to an American friend's friend. "You're British!" he exclaimed. "I want to thank you so much for your Prime Minister, he had the words that our President didn't have that day. What he said was what needed to be said, and he made all of us feel as though we could take some comfort."
I had underestimated Americans, of course. Needing words, they looked for the ones that would give them solace. He couldn't quite understand why I needed a little personal moment at that point, but let me just say: legitimate misting!