03-12-2013, 07:54 PM
AJ,
Always love how well thought out your comments are. When I think about the three critique forums, I think about my own progression as a writer.
Novice: When I first got started, I didn't have the ability to execute on many things. The phrasing and the effect of the phrasing felt locked away. If someone had given me at that time both barrels of all the critique they could muster I would have probably agreed with them but been unsure how to proceed. I'd hear I like your sonics or assonance and they might has well been speaking Basque to me. I had no idea how to critique. It took me a while to gain any of these skills. This is what I see the Novice forum providing. It's less a rank and more a reminder to the critic not to use jargon without an explanation, and to try to provide feedback that the person might be able to use. Even among the mods, we have different views on what constitutes acceptable critique here. We have to balance not scaring people off, and actually giving them enough information to work on. I tend to slant toward the more information. There are good poems or at least the bones of good poems that get posted here. There is also typical beginner poetry with all of the issues that that implies. It's where most of us started so we try to be honest and kind. If we can't be kind, we at least go for honest.
Mild Forum: Transitional forums are like middle children. This one has a few uses. It gives critics a little more breathing room. I tend to post here when the poem seems exceptionally light to me, or if I'm honestly unsure of whether its even working. I'm often looking for impressions not a deep dive. Is this worth developing?
Serious Forum: My general thought, and again other moderators may or may not differ, is that if you can offer critique in serious than you're capable of posting in serious. If the best you've got is: I like it. You're probably not ready for the forum. Now there are times when you read something and just think, damn why do I write this is genius. I wish that happened all the time. You should still try to explain why it works so well. It's the difference between this meal is great and your use of basil really brings out the flavors in the pork. I don't want there to be an imposed gulf between people. I also don't want to be fixing tons and tons of basic errors in serious. When you go to far down that road, you end up rewriting the person's poem and no one learns or gets better. Serious is the forum where people can love it or hate it, come on strong, and you the writer have the confidence to say even if just to yourself, I agree or I don't agree. It's a place where you have the ability to distance yourself from your work enough to view it objectively. If you are still your poem, you're not ready.
I don't know if that ramble helps any, but it's where your comments took me.
Always love how well thought out your comments are. When I think about the three critique forums, I think about my own progression as a writer.
Novice: When I first got started, I didn't have the ability to execute on many things. The phrasing and the effect of the phrasing felt locked away. If someone had given me at that time both barrels of all the critique they could muster I would have probably agreed with them but been unsure how to proceed. I'd hear I like your sonics or assonance and they might has well been speaking Basque to me. I had no idea how to critique. It took me a while to gain any of these skills. This is what I see the Novice forum providing. It's less a rank and more a reminder to the critic not to use jargon without an explanation, and to try to provide feedback that the person might be able to use. Even among the mods, we have different views on what constitutes acceptable critique here. We have to balance not scaring people off, and actually giving them enough information to work on. I tend to slant toward the more information. There are good poems or at least the bones of good poems that get posted here. There is also typical beginner poetry with all of the issues that that implies. It's where most of us started so we try to be honest and kind. If we can't be kind, we at least go for honest.
Mild Forum: Transitional forums are like middle children. This one has a few uses. It gives critics a little more breathing room. I tend to post here when the poem seems exceptionally light to me, or if I'm honestly unsure of whether its even working. I'm often looking for impressions not a deep dive. Is this worth developing?
Serious Forum: My general thought, and again other moderators may or may not differ, is that if you can offer critique in serious than you're capable of posting in serious. If the best you've got is: I like it. You're probably not ready for the forum. Now there are times when you read something and just think, damn why do I write this is genius. I wish that happened all the time. You should still try to explain why it works so well. It's the difference between this meal is great and your use of basil really brings out the flavors in the pork. I don't want there to be an imposed gulf between people. I also don't want to be fixing tons and tons of basic errors in serious. When you go to far down that road, you end up rewriting the person's poem and no one learns or gets better. Serious is the forum where people can love it or hate it, come on strong, and you the writer have the confidence to say even if just to yourself, I agree or I don't agree. It's a place where you have the ability to distance yourself from your work enough to view it objectively. If you are still your poem, you're not ready.
I don't know if that ramble helps any, but it's where your comments took me.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson