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 |   All that remains: here in my afterlife as a 'mainstream' blogger, with what little I know. |
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The Idiotic Ideate?? Formerly: New Zenith To Hell…(all started with arc as writer here from the trials of Rising Stars to Preferred Author to WDC Quills Best Poetry Collection to the falling action I feel now that settles in a white case.) Got to hustle to preserve the best of me before fully fading on that virtual horizon glowing more brilliant with each passing day to permanent nuclear winter. if people don’t get it, I don’t need to explain it. We kill all that’s beautiful before we question it’s purpose. So many people find it easier to think in the black and the white. God forbid you get lost straying in the gray. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it…he does not become a monster.” I’ve been to the abyss and back. Not so bad. The loneliest happy person you'd ever meet, when not the saddest person who needs to be alone. In an ever-changing world, we need to handle topics at the ready. If you roll over and give in to the narrative without lending a voice of your own, you might as well hand over your civil liberties. We have voices that should connect to true conscience and spirit for honest and open discourse. Why feel so redacted? Unify on issues and put drama aside. Open minds require complete objectivity. If none need apply, question the unbendable sources for answer. If you knee-jerk react to every issue lurking out there that clutches your neck, you fall victim to your own ignorance born from a life of apathy (no doubt) in pathetic cries of injustice. Just writing what I feel without the narrative-altering mind f---ing with my head. [MY Chorus] In your house, I long to be Room by room, patiently I'll wait for you there, like a stone I'll wait for you there, alone "It amazed me how truth was often suffocated in minutes, but lies were given sufficient air to breathe indefinitely." "You are all better than you think you are, you are just designed not to believe it when you hear it from yourself." ![Merit Badge in Second Time Around Contest
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Congratulations on winning the Grand Overall Prize in [Link To Item #2164876] with your beautiful poem, [Link to Book Entry #933358]. This poem really moved me. Great writing!
Rachel *^*Heartv*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/group-Second_Time_Around_Contest-2164963_14.gif)    "...lasting art is never anything more than a mathematical expression of the relations that exist between the internal and the external, the self [le moi] and the world." -Jean Metzinger I'm in love with carefully chosen words, arranged just so, audible, edible, to inhale. I attempt to post new poems and epiphanies daily with some links to what inspires. I am legally blind with a rare, genetic form of glaucoma. I'm described as "end stage" after two successful surgeries, still subject to further vision loss. Cataracts complicating matters. Writing Can get strenuous but seldom deters what yearns to emerge, despite a documented history of depression and recently diagnosed ADHD and undefinable social disorders and/or PTSD. My recent poetry:
Sometimes epiphanies about my insights on writing and life and what goes on... Making sense of life is maddening. Why do I need to know, when truth may not actually exist? Learning to accept would be a better pursuit? Flailing about in my own mediocrity, hoping to bust out. I am visible. You can put a face with a name. I would like to see other writers, too. Fiction is what you write, not who you are. Reinventing myself. I couldn't continue on the path I was on and needed a fresh start. This time around I want to put the focus on writing and the world outside of this community as it affects my life. I realize now that I have been baring my chest a bit more, as when young. fake me much more boring and unliberated than the real me. A world arriving as silent as that blossom in your garden that I told you about... |
by Brian K. Compton (this article as yet under review) Honesty is rare but not something sought or coveted until needed. And even then, we stand back from its glare. Reviewing is a double-edged sword. Cliché. Here we have writers who share and get critiqued for their efforts. But, what's on the other side of that door (cliché) is a bit daunting. How will the community receive us: like, dislike, ignore? So, when I see the responses (or lack thereof) to my reviews, it's a gambit. Some are pleasant and appreciate with their takeaways, some are short and thankful, some put on defenses that range from short to point-by-point reasons, some just seem like the obligated acknowledgement. No one really goes off on me. I see it restrained in some backbiting comments that could be taken two ways. I honestly get it. If I see someone review my work in a way that does not convey what I intended, I can have a knee jerk reaction. But, don't. Writers should do themselves the favor of actually trying to see it from the reviewer's perspective. It can be hard if it is words that contradict what we thought our efforts are worth, or about. Perhaps, visualizing how others see us is a step toward progression and maturity as a writer. That is the audience. What is the audience saying? Is it syncing up with other reader's thoughts? Chances are there is not a large enough sample size. Perhaps, writers here have gotten use to having smoke blown up their ass from all the false flattery. Try to separate from the people trying to massage more participation from you and look objectively at what has been given to you as an honest review. You still don't have to agree after you've taken the time to assess. You just need to get over yourself. I've been learning and am still learning. Sometimes, it takes the simplest person to help you understand the basics, the foundation of what you offer as writing. Perhaps, we get too deep into our minds to realize writing is not just about us. In fact, it is intended for people to see. I'm not saying give people what they want. Figure out what it is you do that draws them in and that they appreciate best. Look at those suggested weaknesses and wonder if there was something you could have done better that would have made your talent for writing sing a little sweeter. We don't come with these built in tools for conveying storytelling into words. Hopefully, we all went through a vetting process before allowed to graduate from some institution that taught about critical thinking and processing everything into forms of understandable communication. Writing hasn't been around as long as the ability to verbalize, if even just a grunt. Maybe, you don't like how reviewers grunt. They might seem too gruff, direct to the point. They don't spend enough time dancing around the 'I think', 'I suggest' or 'I suppose' lead ins, but rather 'I didn't like' or 'you should' do something about this or that. You don't have to respond to reviews. You should consider, even if briefly, what the reviewer is trying to get across. Of course, they don't know enough about you to make an informed opinion. They're going off one evidentiary block of writing. They don't know you, yeah. There you go. If you do acknowledge a review, try to realize why they shared. Was it incentivized? Did they mail it in, perhaps only skimming or reading the first few lines? Or, was it someone who shows knowledge of what you offered and can convey it in words? Did it sting just a little? Did it make you want to write off a missive in retaliation? Don't shrink from it. Own it, let is pass through. These are normal things to consider, and normal responses. How we act on it and utilize it to make us better writers is what is most important. You might be lucky to get any attention at all. If you are a newbie or preferred member and higher, it's easier to draw attention. If you are 'other', then you likely work at self=promotion a lot more. Perhaps, the more you ply for attention, the more prone you feel to a heightened awareness by readers to intensely read and respond to your writing when you were just hoping to share something you love. You might be involved in community activities that keep you in inner circles where you have core followers who you follow back. All good. Whatever it takes to get noticed, a reviewer at your door is always a good thing. Eventually, it will give something we can use, even if rare. Even if it feels phoned in, you might notice something common in all that fluff. In summation, my takeaway from reviewing in this community is don't be discouraged, as a writer or reviewer. Read and respond to what you like foremost. The obligation is to your craft first. If people see something good in us that can be better, broaden your horizons if you desire. And hopefully, even more and better attention will keep coming back to your door. 8.27.20 How do you like to respond to a review? What is a common response you get from your review? |
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In the Falkland Islands, internet is very limited and very expensive. The place I'm currently staying only lets me use it in the middle of the night, so when I have to get up at 3 am to check my texts (no cell service to the US here unless I'm on the internet) or WdC, I don't do nearly as much as I used to. 
I currently have 2 very long emails I still need to get to from several days ago. Anyway, I miss everyone, but I also miss sleep, so there's that. 
Have you spoken to the doctor about your vision problems lately? I know there are special glasses for it because I have to wear them to read much ever since the brain injury. It's part of why I now only listen to audiobooks instead of reading regular books. It took 8 years for anyone to diagnose it because I have a brain injury and while one might think it would be obvious to me that I see double, it wasn't. Partly, my brain does a fair job of compensating. But also, partly, you use your brain to realize and understand that the 2 images you constantly see are double vision and something you should mention to your eye doctor. Since my brain was damaged, even basic things like that can escape me. 
I never once thought to mention it, even with annual eye exams in the Army and an exam every 2 years at the VA. Though, in my defense, since it happens in something like 41% of people with a brain injury, it should have been discovered by an eye doctor much sooner. 
I know doing that activity is a CRAP TON of work. But you made a difference in lives, not just his, but for all the people he's reviewed since. 
Well done! 
