On the other hand...

[kaigou]

Maybe I should stick to technical manuals as the only 'short' thing I can write, if I listen to the slush response at Baen:

All setup, and not even good setup. The relationships between the characters are not at all clear.

Hunh. I'd say we're 2-for-0 on Baen, because the feedback's critical -- as promised -- but hardly constructive. A'course, I'm also possibly 2-for-0 on whether I can write a short story. Thus once again I must remind myself of mikkeneko's comment about writing short stories:

It involves being able to think of all sorts of cool complications and developments that could come of a scenario, and being willing to say, "That'd be really cool. Someone should write it. Somebody who's not me."

ETA: I should point out that this particular short story is one in which, in the fourth paragraph, an entire paragraph is dedicated to a judge's announcement that character B now has custody of character A. And the only other speaking part of note is described immediate upon introduction as working with B, and being B's best friend. So I'm left wondering what relationships are in doubt -- brother, sister, friend/coworker, gee, I thought that was clear.

Then again, I wonder if this is the same person whose "critique" on the Georgetown story was simply, "This is too wierd." Which, again, just such a sterling example of useful crit.

*rolls eyes*

Comments

[tiercel]

Wow, that's... harsh, and as you say, not exactly constructive.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Baen's bar seems to pride itself on giving strong crit responses -- treating itself as a slush pile rather than crit group, granted -- but still, when I've been rejected by magazines or agents, the response is usually more like, "[this part] I liked, but [this part] made me decide against it." Or the more vague (but quite valid), "this just didn't grab me" or "this doesn't work for me."

...Which is to say, that there's a difference between rejection of "this is not for me," which is what I say if you make me eat tripe. But I'm not going to say, "this is repugnant" because what am I saying then about the other people at the table who do like tripe?

After all, tripe sells. I know. I've sure paid for enough of it to take up space on my bookshelf. My tripe just needs to find the right table of diners, is all.

[annotated_em]

...that is really very useless feedback. *makes a face*

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Reading through the rest of the stories, there are maybe a handful of urban fantasy, but the rest are trad-fantasy. All I can think on reading them is "bored, bored, bored."

Does make me feel really bad for slush readers, though -- and explains (all over again) why agents can get that glazed-look stars-in-the-eyes glee while describing their newest author-addition. After reading nine hundred pages of absolute crap, finding something worth reading past page ten, alone, has got to be an exciting moment!

[kraehe.livejournal.com]

Well, fwiw, I think you can... I still remember one you had me read in college. I don't think I'd remember it if it sucked.

OTOH, I'm not that good at critiquing.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

Heh, and what I wrote in college definitely amounted to a whole lot of setup (even if decently written, for the most part). I just had no sense of conflict: what it was, how to write it, how to move it forward. Plot, maybe, conflict, no. I think that's something we develop with time.

Trust me, you're still better at critiquing that what I quoted above!

[maldoror-gw.livejournal.com]

What's Baen?

That's certainly critical, but I agree on the not-too-constructive ^^; It would have been constructive if at least she/he'd said how they perceived the character relationship and thus gave you an idea of- but you can't get much constructive out of two short sentences.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

(See also comments to Tiercel.)

Yeah, and if it's crit, then be constructive. If it's slush, then just say, "not for me." I really see no value in combining the two; critique relies on a sense of "here's bad, here's good, keep going," and that takes the sting out of knowing you've got more work ahead. Slush is, pure form, a yes/no rejection, and if you add too much crit, you make it personal by definition.

Baen's bar is an online forum set up by Baen's Universe, as a way to showcase unpublished authors in a separate slush pile. It's really an online slush, where you can post your stories with hopes of a bit more attention than being buried in the general slush pile alongside published/experienced authors. Thing is, I recall someone telling me Baen's prefers more epic/trad fiction, and I write anything but that.

Eh, well, it's just filler while I wait for the open submission periods for other magazines that will probably have a better fit with my style/content, anyway.

[meritjubet.livejournal.com]

Not too much in depth reading, if that's what the person wrote... they forgot details like that.

[kaigou.livejournal.com]

I'm contemplating writing the forum and suggesting they just attach polls to every story: a simple choice between "doesn't work for me" and "I'd recommend this" and "needs work, see comments" ... then those folks who want to reject but without actually, y'know, giving anything useful could get their jollies with the "doesn't work for me" but the neutral tone would mask their inherent maliciousness moronicness.