• We're currently having issues with our e-mail system. Anything requiring e-mail validation (2FA, forgotten passwords, etc.) requires to be changed manually at the moment. Please reach out via the Contact Us form if you require any assistance.

VocaVerse Network

uncreepy
uncreepy
It's hard to give an opinion on what happened without actually being present for the discussions (we don't even know how long to poems were or if they all had the same subject matter or something). Like, what kind of stuff was said about everyone else's poems that it took longer? Did they have a lot of typos, were their comments mainly negative, were they singing their praises and wiping away tears?

I guess if I were you and I had to write a poem for class/get critique, I personally wouldn't care what people said about my poem because I don't like poems and probably would never write one ever again other than for this class. Do you think you're gonna write more poems after this and feel personally offended by what they think about your poem writing skills? Or are you just gonna go back to creative story writing and should probably focus on that?

In all seriousness, I know you're wanting some kind of eye opening experience from this class about your writing slump. But I feel like most creative classes in college (in my humble opinion) make a person want to run away screaming and never look back on their work from that time and are just glad they survived all the weird/hard homework by the end. S:
peaches2217
peaches2217
They were all roughly the same length and answered the same prompt. When talking about everyone else’s poems, there was a lot of talk about what was good and what worked and what could have been done to maybe make it more impactful. I’m not offended that I got critiques. I’m frustrated because I didn’t get any kind of feedback except for a few basic corrections. I don’t know what anyone thought about it because no one said what they thought about it. No one said “Hey, I liked this, here’s what worked” or “I wasn’t a fan, here’s what didn’t work and here’s what you could try instead”. It was just... nothing. No suggestions, no nothing.

A bunch of people have voiced feelings like they really know more about themselves as a writer after six weeks in this class. All I know at this point is that I write how I speak, because that’s all anyone has told me.
peaches2217
peaches2217
It’s not just the poem. That’s how the class has reacted to everything I’ve shared, poem or prose. I’m the one person no one ever has any feedback for, so what am I supposed to assume?
mobius017
mobius017
Take this for what it's worth: there are two reasons I can think of for which people have no feedback. 1) Maybe they really do feel that whatever they're reviewing is a hopeless cause. That seems unlikely to me, because, on the average, I'd say there are lots of people who like tearing stuff apart. Even assuming your classmates/teacher aren't mean, it seems unlikely to me that all of them are so apathetic that more people than you're implying aren't trying to pick at something. 2) What you've written is actually good enough that, for the most part, they don't find anything they know how to pick at. That's actually possible; I really don't mean to brag, but honestly, I've had that experience multiple times. When I needed feedback, it was a pain. If...15-30?...random people can't find something wrong, it's not because they're all so much better than you that no one wants to waste their time; it's much more likely to be because none of them can figure out something to pick at.

(The really evil thing about this is how self-fulfilling it is. You think your writing is awful, so when no one gives you feedback, you do what you said in your last comment and assume that it's because it's so awful that they don't know where to start...even if the real reason is more likely to be completely different. It's what people do--they fill in blanks with what they know or believe. But it can contribute to getting stuck in a painful place like this.)

This brings me to a question I've always had as I've read your profile posts. I think maybe I've asked about it before, or maybe I decided not to because I figured you knew your own writing best and that I should respect that. But in case it helps at all, my question is, why are you so convinced that there's something wrong with the stuff you write? For whatever I know or don't, I've read a few snippets of what you've written, and it doesn't strike me as being as awful as you say. Have you gotten poor grades on it? Is it more of a personal thing, something that you feel is wrong that you can't put your finger on, even if no one else can see it? That's a more difficult thing, for sure, but as long as everyone else thinks it's fine, that doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong, per se--it means there's a possibility for you to do some soul-searching and find whatever it is that you're driven to make better. The only area I know of related to this was creating more emotional impact, like we discussed a bit with your Kaito/Meiko story--and as you already knew, removing the length restraint would help with that issue.
peaches2217
peaches2217
They're all very kind people, it's just they never give me the feedback that they give each other (or that I give them for that matter). Once I finished reading my poem, there were a couple of noises made, and some people were smiling, but I didn't know whether to take that as "Wow, that was really good, there's not much to add" or "Wow, that was fucking awful, I don't know how to say that without sounding like an ass".

I know there's something wrong with my writing because no one reads my shit anymore. I write for an obscure pairing in a large fandom whereas I used to write for the Ultimate Fandom-Wide OTP of a relatively small fandom, and I acknowledge that's a large part of the reason, but even a vast majority of my few readers won't ever give me feedback. They're just like "Oh, hey, new chapter! Cool. Thanks for posting." And if someone goes to the trouble of seeking out something so obscure and then can't even say whether it's good or bad or whatever, I'm left to assume it's because my writing is just awful but they don't wanna complain because who the hell else writes OliLen anymore?

And maybe I'm not just awful. Even if that's the case, I'm certainly not good. And not being good is just as bad as being one of the worst writers out there. If I've been writing for twenty years and I'm still not bad but nothing more, what's the point of trying anymore? I'm not gonna go anywhere but down.
mobius017
mobius017
BTW...a logical fallacy in poetry!? When was poetry ever about logic? Is this math poetry?

"Forsooth," spake she, the math recluse
"I've stumbled 'pon the hypotenuse."

(Can't remember where I read something similar to this.)