Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Train wreck

It's been a long time since I last followed an online train wreck. I remember the last time clearly, since I was one of those who very naively tried to help and stop the person who was having a public melt down. It can't be done unless you disconnect them from the internet and keep them away for days, weeks or even eternity. The poor mentally ill soul I tried to help ended up being IP banned from the site and I think it was the nicest thing anyone did for her.

This train wreck is different. It has gone viral, touching countless sites, blogs and forums. It seems as if the writer having the melt down has also potentially ended a future career in the process.

There are several important lessons to learn form it all and I decided to post about it because of that.
  • Being confident is good, being blind to your own imperfections is not.
  • Reading the dialogue/story out loud might not help you at all.
  • Making the effort of editing the story you spent years working on is never redundant. 
  • Having an impartial person proof reading the work before publishing is worth it.
  • Avoid responding to a review of your work. The review is for potential readers not the writer.
  • Take opinions serious enough to question yourself but not so seriously that you have an emotional melt down over it. It might be good advice, use it, or it might be an opinion that doesn't matter, then leave it. That's all there is to it.

Why do you necessarily have to be wrong 
just because a few million people think you are? 
- Frank Zappa -

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