Not signed in (Sign In)

Categories

Vanilla 1.1.8 is a product of Lussumo. More Information: Documentation, Community Support.

Welcome Guest!
Want to take part in these discussions? If you have an account, sign in now.
If you don't have an account, apply for one now.
    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2009 edited
     

    At my school, the librarians received copies of a not yet published book. A few other students and I, along with students from another school, are going to meet with the author and tell her what we thought. How do I tell the author that her novel has extraordinarily purple writing?

  1.  

    That’s a pretty tough question, actually. Best advice I have is to be tactful. Let other people speak first and see how she and they interact, and use your best judgment to frame your criticism in a way to which you’d think she’d be receptive. Frontloading your views on her purplosity is probably not the most constructive approach.

    Of course, plenty of people don’t want to hear any criticism at all, so I guess you can either tell her what you think regardless, or give her an asspat, or just not say much of anything.

    Post how it turns out though, I’m somewhat curious.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2009
     

    The thing is that she’s not always purple. She has good ideas and the book is interesting at times. She just tends to get diverted off into Edward-esque descriptions of the male lead.

  2.  

    I echo sansafro’s post.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeOct 28th 2009
     

  3.  

    I just facepalmed IRL.

  4.  
    Oh.......dang. Yeah, gal I know submitted her unpublished manuscript to me and some other people (she said she wanted feedback, but I don't think she did) prior to publishing. My advice: be as honest as you can while still being nice. But let it go.



    You'd be amazed at the glowing-ness that will come from people just because they "know" the author. It taps into our petty desire for being famous.
  5.  

    The thing is that she’s not always purple. She has good ideas and the book is interesting at times. She just tends to get diverted off into Edward-esque descriptions of the male lead.

    See, that’s what you should tell her. You should tell her what’s good about the novel and then tell her what’s bad (but try to say it in a nice way) and then say some more good things. If you mix good with bad, she will be more receptive, at least, that’s what I think. I always like when teachers edit papers and comment on the good things, and then go into what needs to be fixed. It softens the blow a little bit. She might really want criticism also because it’s hard to get friends and family to tell their actual opinions on things because they don’t want to hurt the author’s feelings.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 2nd 2009 edited
     

    So…
    I met the author today. She was quite nice, but didn’t particularly want our opinions.
    I told her I liked the villain best, which got me a comment on how a lot of people had said that.
    And then… I told her I wished the heroine didn’t get rescued so much (which earned me a “I’m fixing that in the sequel”) and that I couldn’t get into the hero’s head because I got derailed by all the text about how handsome he was (which earned me an awkward look).



  6.  

    ^^Haha.
    About how old is this person whose default response is “I’m fixing that in the sequal”?

    Jimmy has very weird parents and al he wants is to be normal. Who wants to read about someone who wants to be NORMAL?”

    Aren’t there a lot of books where people want to be normal?

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 2nd 2009
     

    I’m guessing late 20s, early 30s.

    And yes, a lot of children’s books are based around being “normal.”

  7.  

    What was the book even about?

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2009
     

    Actually, that sounds like an interesting premise to me- it’s like the opposite of the “superpowered person who must hide their powers” thing, like in 98% of superhero stories. They’re the only normal person in the family (or, even if they do have powers in my hypothetical superhero story, the only one who wants to be normal and doesn’t want to go out and fight evil or whatever) and so on.

  8.  

    The way you described it, swenson, sounds more interesting. But it’s annoying when the person is all whiny and complaining about their abnormality, only to learn from some wise guru that their abnormality will actually save the world.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2009
     

    About fallen angels- a guy angel and a reincarnating (not quite sure why) girl fall in love; but she explodes every time they kiss.

    So he wanders the earth forever and keeps running into her, and she always falls in love with him, and there is much angst.

  9.  

    I think I’ve heard of this plot before…didn’t read it, but saw the back cover.

    Haha, when you said ‘explodes’ I thought of a big KABOOM!

    That would be interesting, actually.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2009
     

    Exploding characters DOES sound interesting…hmmm…

    •  
      CommentAuthorswenson
    • CommentTimeNov 4th 2009
     

    @SWQ’s previous comment – well, those sort of stories drive me crazy, too. But looking at it from a different light (where wanting to be “normal” isn’t a bad thing), it kind of sounds like an interesting twist on the usual story.

  10.  

    Yeah, I see what you meant.

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2009
     

    Do you mean something like “Everyone in the land is a _____ (ex. magic user) except me, and I want to be one”? Because while we wouldn’t consider being a magic user normal, in the book it is.

  11.  

    The idea itself isn’t bad, I’m just saying that some people execute it with way too much angst.

  12.  

    @ People ^^

    I actually recently watched an anime built around that premise (anime’s called To aru majutsu no index)
    It’s about a guy in a city of espers (people with special powers) who’s pretty much a zero-level esper, the only ability he has is that his right hand has the ability to cancel any esper and magic abilities

    about the anime:

    -YAY! for off-topic ness- !!!!

    •  
      CommentAuthorEbelean
    • CommentTimeNov 5th 2009
     

    Wouldn’t the right-hand power count as his ultra-special power?

  13.  

    It is his ultra-special power, but its also his only power ( in a city where people can control lightning, reverse vectors, teleport, etc. etc.)
    The anime hasn’t covered much story (the series itself kinda goes in circles building the premise), so i dunno much …... _

  14.  

    I think she turns into dust or something….

    That’s, er, different.