I'm responding to this because I think there's a decent, neutral question
wrapped up in this message, one which others might consider to be worth
discussion on the FFML.

Now, the question I was talking about (unburdened from the biased language
used in the original asking, which is meant to beg a certain answer):  How
have you (anyone) as a writer been affected by the kinds of criticisms you
have heard from others on this list?  How have they (the criticisms)

changed

the way you've written?

Answering this may help those of us who wish to offer critiques understand
how our commentary and words affect other writers.

I'll give you an example of my own

<snip>

So that's what I mean.  Any other responses?

One of Nick's valid points is that many writers, especially begining
writers, are insecure and can take criticism too much to heart.  I just
finished a private e-mail in response to Nick's question, in which I
asserted that I most certainly WOULD post a story based on a sure-fire idea,
regardless of the controversy it might cause, because I could ignore what
others said.  This is true -- but it was not always true.  I've only been
posting to the FFML for a few months, but I have been writing for many
years, and it took me a long time before I stopped taking criticism
personally.  In point of fact, the first time my good friend Gene critiqued
one of my stories, (the first time ANYONE critiqued one of my stories), I
was very upset and refused to change most of it.  He was right, too.  ^_^

As far as criticism from the FFML, I've altered plots and characterization
when people pointed things out to me, because they're usually right.  I
didn't change everything suggested to me, because sometimes I was right, or
it was a judgement call and I came down on the side of me (strange how that
works ^_^ ).

As a recent example, Mike Allen, while prereading Monkey Head Butting part
8, expressed disappointment that Akane and Ranma were not more suspicious of
Nabiki at the end.  Originally they watched her go out, and went back to
watching tv.

Well, Mike was right, I had presented plenty of evidence to arouse their
suspicions, but I was ignoring their most obvious response (to follow
Nabiki) because it suited my purposes to have Nabiki succeed at what she was
doing.  Having them follow might lead to them discovering what she was up to
before I wanted them to.

Luckily for me, I took his advice, and then had to deal with the
consequences.  It's led to some new scenes and some rewriting of other
scenes, and hopefully to a better ending of the whole story.

As another example, several of the responses to part one of "I Can See
Clearly Now!" were along the lines of, "this is cool, but if Mousse is
suddenly better than Ranma just because of improved vision, I'll be
annoyed".  Okay, I admit it, that was most of the original idea, and it is
lame.  ^_^  I thought about it some more, and came up with more reasons why
my new, improved Mousse might present a special challenge for Ranma.  Along
the way Nabiki became more important to the plot.  Overall, I think the
story so far is vastly better than my (our -- I share blame with friends Sky
and Jeff) original plot would have been.

A writer who ignores all criticism is not likely to become a better writer.
But it can be scary, putting your work out there for the world to see.

Miko!

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather a scornful tone, "it
means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many
different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master -- that's
all."

(Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking-Glass)

Nausicaa@sprynet.com   Belldandy@angelic.com
Anime rpg at http://come.to/akane/
Fan Fiction at http://listen.to/bell/