Friday 18 September 2015

Curses, foiled... well, not again, since this was the first time. But still foiled!

I'm off to spend most of the next two days doing steam trainy things (here), so the episode review may be a little bit late this weekend. Though as it's always late, I don't expect you'll notice any difference. Yay for procrastination! :D Anyway, I do have a little bit of news, though it's probably of interest to no one but me. This is my blog, though, so you can lump it. :P

It Doesn't Matter Now has been rejected by The Royal Guard. In all honesty, I'd almost forgotten that I'd submitted it at all! The TRG prereaders felt that my fic "lacked substance", that Pinkie was inconsistently written and that there wasn't enough buildup to the ending. Oh, and they didn't like that 50-word-plus long opening sentence: it was considered to be "clumsy" and overlong. This was the first fic I'd ever submitted to TRG, so I didn't know what their replies looked like. Answer: a standard template with some story-specific comments added in. Seems pretty sensible.

With one tiny exception (pointing me at Overly Extensive Editors, which is intended for 4k-word-plus fics) I've no problem with any of the feedback, as it was pleasant, helpful and constructive. I won't be changing this fic, though: I don't want to make it more substantial, for one thing. It might be a more accomplished story if I did that, but it wouldn't be the story I wanted to tell. It got into the RCL in the form it is now (admittedly to my very considerable surprise) and has been very well received overall, so it's staying as it is. First sentence most definitely included. :P

9 comments:

  1. Well, don't feel too bad. The Royal Guard is the hardest thing to get your story accepted into, in my opinion. They do give really good feedback, though, if sometimes a little anal-retentive. I've found some of it to be excellent and some of it to be so nitpickish that I'm pretty sure it's a "Well, my reputation is on the line, so I'm going to underline every single possible thing that might have the whiff of deviation from what I consider to be perfect grammar or storytelling."

    Pointing authors to the Fimfiction editors groups was one of my big bones of contention with The Royal Guard because I've found those group to be worse than useless. They were actively harmful to my stories early on. It's great to have editors, but not ones that don't know what they are doing. When you submit there and someone picks up your story, it's very hard to tell if that person is qualified. Mine certainly weren't, and I had to learn it the hard way.

    So good on you. I'm a proponent that authors have to draw the line at some point and say, "I'm happy with this work the way it is." Someone will always have things about a story they want you to change.

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    1. Oh, I don't feel bad. None of the criticisms are things that I look at and think, "Argh, why didn't I do it that way instead?" They're all "We think X because Y", and since I generally don't I'm happy with it.

      I have to agree with you about editing groups, though to be fair I have limited experience with them. I may just be biased after encountering a WRITE reviewer who clearly didn't understand the secondary fandom for a crossover story. (They criticised it extensively for talking heads syndrome, but the show in question -- Yes, Minister -- really is full of talking heads, and that's what makes it work. Taking that out would have stopped it being a crossover in any meaningful way.)

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    2. (I should clarify that this wasn't one of my stories.)

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    3. I sent a lot of things into EQD and had them send it back with a "Um, maybe get an editor before you send this in..." message. I'd just be boiling mad thinking about all the time I spend with this editor from the group doing all this stuff that EQD would then tell me was detrimental. Not that I think EQD is the law or anything, but when I look back at the advice those editors often gave me, it's just terrible stuff. EQD is where I really learned what I was doing to some degree. Then Inquisitor M and Pascoite beat me with sticks for the rest. Now I'm pleasantly mediocre!

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  2. It is a shame that the Royal Guard didn't accept the story, but I'm glad they sent at least some kind of feedback. Better than some places that rely on the tired old yawn, "if you do not hear from us, please assume you have not been successful." Notwithstanding, it is a shame, but it pretty much boils down to "you can't please everyone." Considering it was good enough for the Royal Canterlot Library, with that great review they did, as well as yourself, me, the readers on FimFiction, etc...

    I'm also glad you don't plan to actually change the story. It could put at risk the fact that a) they still might not like it, b) the fans of the original might not like it and c) you yourself might not be at all happy with the altered version.

    It reminds me a bit of when I went for my uni interview. The gitbag in charge of the interview threw aside my sketches, claiming they were nothing special. And then he saw the 6 paintings I'd done which were my representation of 6 songs from a Talk Talk album. Almost red in the face with indignation he snapped that "nobody cares about what you think the music represents in a painted form. This is worthless. Utterly worthless. Irrelevant. They have no meaning to anyone but you, and who cares?" And for a while I believed it - and also believed that the paintings had to appeal to others, even if I didn't like the results.

    But then, it turned out the rest of the *college* students, as well as both college lecturers, liked the paintings a lot. I'd enjoyed putting them together, which was also somewhat important. And, particularly importantly, the examiner himself (a bigwig art guy who pretty much decided if each student had passed the college art course, therefore hard to please and pretty intimidating!) found the paintings to be "unique, and totally fascinating." I took his opinion to be worth a damn sight more than the uni lecturer. (It also helped that the examiner knew that guy and to put it mildly, made it pretty clear he couldn't stand him...) So, as I say, you can't please everyone, but if you enjoyed creating something, and there are fans out there that like the results, you're quite right to say that it isn't going to be altered, particularly if you're happy with it yourself! :)

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    1. Well, I'd hardly say my experience was anything like that! These guys were entirely polite and I have no complaints. It's just a case, as InquisitorM says below, of "not what we're looking for" and that's fine.

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    2. Oh I know that. Just saying that you can't please everyone. :)

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  3. Eh. Horses for courses and all that. Hell, you remember last year when I ripped on that guy who rejected 'Mare for Twilight's Library? Today, that's in the RCL too.

    Frankly, it's almost nice to reject something that hasn't tried to melt my brain. 'Not what we're looking for' is a lot less common than producing a list of errors and failings.

    Not that we mind doing it, of course: the feedback is just as much a part of the 'Guard as the site-posts.

    Still, it's kind of a shame when technically competent stories just don't light a pre-reader's fire, but for what it's worth, we do it just as much to each other.

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    1. Oh, I'm sure. It would be silly to say, "I love getting detailed rejections as much as I love a story being accepted" -- because who does? But if everyone who read a story of mine gave me useful feedback, I'm damn sure I'd be a considerably better writer than I am today. No complaints at all.

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