2008-08-26, 02:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 2008-08-26, 02:07 AM by Schrodinger.)
[SIZE="2"]I've often wondered why writing forums exist.
The first reason why I've found this idea intriguing is because writing forums do not provide any form of practical help in real life application to the reader or the writer. There are many different forms of writing. However, the one that most people have a trouble with are usually five-paragraph [intro, three-body paragraphs, conclusion] expository style writing formats.
This is usually not covered in any writing forum I have seen unless it is an "English-class tutorial" type writing forum. The type of writing that usually dominates with so-called "writing forums" are usually fantasy-fiction centered types of writing such as on the majority of forum sites; i.e.: fanfiction, MegaTokyo, SW, Southperry, ect.
Because many people cannot write research format papers, expository papers, scientific papers, ect. in a satisfactory manner, they often choose to treat these types of writing as being "pointless" and "trivial." They often think that the method of writing is suffocating and in a sense "blocky" in terms of format structure. Granted, to a first time writer who is exposed to these foreign concepts, it will probably seem extremely structured. But the fact is, writing is an art. And with all things artistic, even the most structured formats can smoothly blend into one another if the reader makes steady transition and logically explains their creatively original ideas every step of the way.
Even though it is usually inappropriate to include some fantasy-based literary elements in a "practical paper," creatively original ideas are heavily rewarded. How you present it in a five-paragraph manner and carefully connect it is where the "work of art" comes in.
If someone cannot write a "practical paper" then they will surely have trouble writing a "fictional story." Fictional elements serve as parodies to the modern world. Even though they seem to be cleverly original, they basically stem from cliched ideas such as "magic, gothica, violence, love, hope, despair, retribution, ect" that bears a great similarity to current society. In this sense, fiction appeals to people because it repaints old social issues in attractive colors. Pulling the reader into something they think is "genuine" but really sticking in the same ideas in a different colored jacket.
Fiction-writers do deserve to be heavily patted on the back for their ability to repaint social issues in a different light. But if a normal "writer" does not possess the ability to craft a satisfactory five-paragraph essay, then I have no choice but to be skeptical on their ability to write a novel on a constantly spanning-imaginary universe. The lack of interest in basic-grammar tutorials or working on fundamental structure undermines the foundations of fiction as fiction is rooted in reality.
The second reason why I do not understand why writing forums exist are purely from a cost-benefit perspective. As stated before, writing is an artistic skill. A good author is able to string words together in a manner that evokes images and emotions from the reader. A good-author also constantly revises their work to the point of anal obsession.
When a reader reads an author's work, they are seeing a finished piece of work. They have no idea the struggles the author went through in determining what type of perspective to use (first person, third person limited, third person omniscient), how hard the author worked to make the text seemed like a natural flowing dialogue
The time investment to write a good piece of fiction is staggering. When your work can easily be stolen on the internet and when the only form of thanks you will get is, "that was a good story, thanks. Please post more! I greatly appreciate it," why would good writers want to continue writing? Especially when a majority of readers can only handle paragraph information and nice colorful pictures sourced from photobucket.
And even though this is not an issue on the Maple-story based forums, some other forums have a writing staff that is highly pompous and based in old-community bias. New writers are heavily criticized and hazed to the point where there is no longer any point to writing. Why would you write for people who don't appreciate your tone of voice?
One of the many special exceptions is when several good writers all devote a lot of time into writing stories and share them with one another via public access on the net. The fact that other good writers will contribute something without much incentive leads the writer to try to match another writer's moxy and to escalate the quality of writing.
Many writing forum boards attempt to "fake" this method in order to promote future writers. But you can't trick superior writers into believing something which is undeniably "crap" is not "crap." Good effort deserved applause. Half-assed effort is simply half-assed effort. An individual's status quo should not be lowered simply because there is no one else writing something of equivalent quality. Even though if one must be a heavy critic, they should have written something that is agreed by the community to be superior.
As internet lingo and uncompleted sentences becomes more and more of a dominate status quo for forum boards, it is an undeniable fact that the quality of fiction provided to the audience is also limited. It is also an undeniable fact that internet-writers and professional writers alike will continue to be a minority since their craft is one which is not commonly appreciated by the growing-illiterate community.
The role of writing forums seems to serve as more of a historical reference to the growing tragedy of modern writing rather than a positive counterforce to the decadence of the artistic profession. However, I will concede that I am not a good writer as I have yet to write anything that has been published by a notable company and that I do not understand abstract poetry. In fact, I personally detest poetry. But that is a personal bias that probably stems from the fact that I am a technical writer. Thank you for reading, well, not really.[/SIZE]
The first reason why I've found this idea intriguing is because writing forums do not provide any form of practical help in real life application to the reader or the writer. There are many different forms of writing. However, the one that most people have a trouble with are usually five-paragraph [intro, three-body paragraphs, conclusion] expository style writing formats.
This is usually not covered in any writing forum I have seen unless it is an "English-class tutorial" type writing forum. The type of writing that usually dominates with so-called "writing forums" are usually fantasy-fiction centered types of writing such as on the majority of forum sites; i.e.: fanfiction, MegaTokyo, SW, Southperry, ect.
Because many people cannot write research format papers, expository papers, scientific papers, ect. in a satisfactory manner, they often choose to treat these types of writing as being "pointless" and "trivial." They often think that the method of writing is suffocating and in a sense "blocky" in terms of format structure. Granted, to a first time writer who is exposed to these foreign concepts, it will probably seem extremely structured. But the fact is, writing is an art. And with all things artistic, even the most structured formats can smoothly blend into one another if the reader makes steady transition and logically explains their creatively original ideas every step of the way.
Even though it is usually inappropriate to include some fantasy-based literary elements in a "practical paper," creatively original ideas are heavily rewarded. How you present it in a five-paragraph manner and carefully connect it is where the "work of art" comes in.
If someone cannot write a "practical paper" then they will surely have trouble writing a "fictional story." Fictional elements serve as parodies to the modern world. Even though they seem to be cleverly original, they basically stem from cliched ideas such as "magic, gothica, violence, love, hope, despair, retribution, ect" that bears a great similarity to current society. In this sense, fiction appeals to people because it repaints old social issues in attractive colors. Pulling the reader into something they think is "genuine" but really sticking in the same ideas in a different colored jacket.
Fiction-writers do deserve to be heavily patted on the back for their ability to repaint social issues in a different light. But if a normal "writer" does not possess the ability to craft a satisfactory five-paragraph essay, then I have no choice but to be skeptical on their ability to write a novel on a constantly spanning-imaginary universe. The lack of interest in basic-grammar tutorials or working on fundamental structure undermines the foundations of fiction as fiction is rooted in reality.
The second reason why I do not understand why writing forums exist are purely from a cost-benefit perspective. As stated before, writing is an artistic skill. A good author is able to string words together in a manner that evokes images and emotions from the reader. A good-author also constantly revises their work to the point of anal obsession.
When a reader reads an author's work, they are seeing a finished piece of work. They have no idea the struggles the author went through in determining what type of perspective to use (first person, third person limited, third person omniscient), how hard the author worked to make the text seemed like a natural flowing dialogue
Spoiler
and the types of social-connotations the author chose to use within their story.The time investment to write a good piece of fiction is staggering. When your work can easily be stolen on the internet and when the only form of thanks you will get is, "that was a good story, thanks. Please post more! I greatly appreciate it," why would good writers want to continue writing? Especially when a majority of readers can only handle paragraph information and nice colorful pictures sourced from photobucket.
And even though this is not an issue on the Maple-story based forums, some other forums have a writing staff that is highly pompous and based in old-community bias. New writers are heavily criticized and hazed to the point where there is no longer any point to writing. Why would you write for people who don't appreciate your tone of voice?
One of the many special exceptions is when several good writers all devote a lot of time into writing stories and share them with one another via public access on the net. The fact that other good writers will contribute something without much incentive leads the writer to try to match another writer's moxy and to escalate the quality of writing.
Many writing forum boards attempt to "fake" this method in order to promote future writers. But you can't trick superior writers into believing something which is undeniably "crap" is not "crap." Good effort deserved applause. Half-assed effort is simply half-assed effort. An individual's status quo should not be lowered simply because there is no one else writing something of equivalent quality. Even though if one must be a heavy critic, they should have written something that is agreed by the community to be superior.
As internet lingo and uncompleted sentences becomes more and more of a dominate status quo for forum boards, it is an undeniable fact that the quality of fiction provided to the audience is also limited. It is also an undeniable fact that internet-writers and professional writers alike will continue to be a minority since their craft is one which is not commonly appreciated by the growing-illiterate community.
The role of writing forums seems to serve as more of a historical reference to the growing tragedy of modern writing rather than a positive counterforce to the decadence of the artistic profession. However, I will concede that I am not a good writer as I have yet to write anything that has been published by a notable company and that I do not understand abstract poetry. In fact, I personally detest poetry. But that is a personal bias that probably stems from the fact that I am a technical writer. Thank you for reading, well, not really.[/SIZE]