Ficly

Times and Seasons, Learning and Playing

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.”
— Leo Buscaglia

Welcome to the schoolhouse. Welcome to the play yard.

I’ve always described ficly (and ficlets before it) as a giant online creative writing class with no teacher. Then people look at me funny. Still, I stand by that description.

Welcome to the schoolhouse.

Hopefully all this writing and reading will amount to something. Are you making the most of it? Have you tried a new style or genre yet? Has a challenge or sequel opportunity stretched your abilities as a writer. Most importantly, can you glean from the feedback something to improve, change, or just work on?

Welcome to the play yard.

Ideally the whole process is fun. As a good friend once told me, “If life isn’t fun, you’re not doing it right.” Can you find the pleasure in discovering a new story? Do your character excite and invigorate you? Does this whole thing get some creative juices flowing?

I hope so. I also hope we can all appreciate that this is a one room schoolhouse, so we have the grade school kids in the with the post-grad crowd. That may mean a little patience at times, from both ends of the spectrum. Best case scenario, it means people striving to be better while also attempting to lift others up.

“Was man nicht erfliegan kann, muss man erhinken…Die Schrift sagt, es ist keine Sünde zu hinken.”

39 comments Posted 2009-09-26 Author: THX 0477

Comments

  • StudMuffin (LoA)

    If you read my first few stories, and read the stuff I write now, you can see I’ve made a huge funking improvement.
    And, I think THX should write all the blog posts from now on, they are truly epically awesome.

  • ElshaHawk (LoA)

    well said Doc Tim. :)

  • blusparrow (LoA)

    very good way to put all of it THX. my writing is definitly improved. I went from a B english student in a regular class that didn’t like writing to an A college level student that loves to write. I still have much to learn and i enjoy learning from you all.

  • THX 0477

    Thanks for the vote of confidence, StudMuffin.

  • Coccinella

    Good point about the wide spectrum. There’s been a fair bit of flaming and inflaming lately; it’s occasionally diverting but never particularly constructive. It’s just storying, after all… if it’s not fun, what’s the point?!

  • Raegan Dauterive

    I’ve been creating more characters and turning some actual events into fiction a lot more since I started using Ficly. I think it’s made me see more of everyday things as story potential. One day in English class I saw this kid with a backwards baseball cap and suddenly then and there I wrote “The First Day.”

    I love seeing everyone’s comments and suggestions, and I especially love when someone writes a story and that inspires you to write one as well :)

  • Anonymuncule

    I think the central focus of this website, trimming things down, is a great idea. I for one am incredibly prone to not knowing when to shut the hell up.

  • Robotech_Master

    If Ficlets is a playground, it’s a playground where a lot of people are playing by themselves. I mean, I have a heck of a time getting anybody to sequel my stuff. There are hundreds of ficlets in the archives by other people that never got sequels either. And half the time when I go out and sequel someone else’s stuff, that’s the end of the chain, they don’t ever sequel again. And there are people who sit around writing long chains of ficlets, sequeling their own stories repeatedly (including me, since I can’t find anyone else to jump in). If we continue the playground analogy, I guess those people are just playing with themse—hmm, no, maybe shouldn’t go there.

    I guess, if you get right down to it, people mostly want to write what they want to write, not sequels to what other people want to write. And this is true for everybody, and that’s the problem.

  • SaveTheUnicorns

    While I think the intended purpose of ficly is really cool, I have to say that Robotech_Master made a good point. Some people just aren’t gung ho for collaboration. Nevertheless, I think that’s okay, since people can still grow as writers by reading and commenting on stories that are different from stuff they would write themselves. And that’s another great part of the ficly experience!!!!!!!!!

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    I think the only criticism I can relate, other than that of the Robotech_Master, is that there are too many cheerleaders and not enough coaches.

    Too often someone will write a story that has promise, but needs refinement in a few critical areas. However, rather than provide the vital constructive criticisms necessary to help the writer perfect their art, we are wont to pat them on the back, say “good job, friend!” and offer no criticism out of fear of bruising their delicate emotions.

    We are writers, friends. And if we ever intend on becoming great at our art, we’ve got to see the bad among the good. I greatly value the criticisms I receive. Compliments make me happy and drive me to write more, but criticisms make me think, and drive me to write better.

    So, please, keep it respectful, but don’t be afraid to criticise, analyse, and encourage the stories you read. If it’s sub-par, explain why! If it’s wonderful, say so! But don’t be afraid to give criticism, for that is how we improve.

  • Coccinella

    @Eloquent Mess: In the immortal words of Mahatma Gandhi: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
    Agreed, we could all do with a lot more finely tuned, skilfully offered and sincere, generous critique. I also love it when I get it, but it’s rare. It is, arguably, the most generous gift any artist can offer another. Truth is, constructive coaching is a skill in itself, and one that takes practice. I greatly appreciate THX’s credo of commenting ten times as often as you write. The challenge is to keep the comments meaningful. The more we all participate in that, the more we grow as writers both individually and collectively.

  • Stewart M. Matthews

    “I think the only criticism I can relate, other than that of the Robotech_Master, is that there are too many cheerleaders and not enough coaches.”

    I couldn’t agree more.

    Good writing isn’t made by friendly comments. People need to critique work, and realize that a good writer is never ever satisfied with his or her skill.

  • Stewart M. Matthews

    Also an edit button for comments would be awesome.

  • Kevin Lawver

    I keep trying to think of a technical solution to the critique and lack-of-collaboration problems, and I keep coming up almost blank (I’m working on some features right now to help surface past stories, and we’re slowly making progress on the new Inspiration section, which will help). I think this is a human problem. If people aren’t writing enough sequels to your stories, you need to recruit people to the site who will. If you’re not getting the type of critique you want on your stories, start providing it to others and see what happens.

    I’ve put a lot of effort into search (we’re now on solution #3… let’s see how it goes) and we’re putting a lot of effort into highlighting the “best” stories (as basically picked by the community). I’m not sure what else we can do on the technical side. I’m definitely open to ideas, though!

  • Robotech_Master

    I have to admit, I’m a little afraid to critique sometimes for fear there will be a backlash and people will call me a negativist party pooper or something.

    On the other hand, I have decided to start downvoting anybody who does not separate their paragraphs properly for readability. Enough is just enough.

  • g²LaPianistaIrlandesa

    The problem Robotech_Master addressed reminded me of a challenge John Perkins did back on Ficlets that I’ve just decided to resurrect (and shamelessly plug here): http://ficly.com/challenges/305

  • Stewart M. Matthews

    Kevin, I think the only problem with featuring stories using the criteria that you guys currently use is that the community here has somewhat narrow tastes.

    Is it possible for the site admins to feature a story that has caught their eye?

  • Twyst

    I base every criticism I have off of this one question: “Would I pay for more of it?” and maybe that’s not the right question for every unfinished, rough draft, playful, poem, prose, etc piece of work on here. But I stand by that question, because someone has to, and I will willing play devils advocate.

    As for the technical side of critiquing, the rating system is based solely on a scale of 5 ambiguous pencils. 5 because it made me laugh, 5 because it’s really good, 1 because I don’t like you, 3 because I don’t understand, etc. There needs to be more robust scale of grading and posting for filtering purposes. If I come to know trust one persons critique, I want a filter for that. But that begs the question of what the incentive of taking the time to critique would be, and it would make sense to follow in the same incentive for tracking friends I suppose.

  • Kevin Lawver

    Stewart, that’s how the featured story worked on ficlets, and I didn’t like it. That meant the featured story was the product of one person’s taste (mine) and not the community. Now, it really is – for whatever reason (or combination of reasons) – a product of the community’s various forms of feedback (views, ratings, comments, etc) on each story.

    I think further down the road we can do other kinds of ratings – and other kinds of “featured” stories – but that will take more time and thought on the best way to implement those.

  • Kevin Lawver

    Oh, and I’m very close to implementing a new way to “pick” the featured story so it will be something you can keep track of over time – and the featured story will only change every 24 hours instead of (possibly) every 2 hours. Look for that to launch some time this week.

  • Kater

    Great blog post. I do agree with Eloquent Mess, and I know I have a tendency to be more of a cheerleader. I think it’s because I’m very conscious of how damaging criticism can be to writers (especially the unconstructive kind).

  • Raegan Dauterive

    Personally, I don’t sequel other people’s stories because I feel like maybe they wouldn’t want that, or that I wouldn’t do it justice.

  • falconesse

    Eloquent Mess makes a good point.

    I know I’ve been a slacker about posting recently, but I’m also hoping that the new way the featured stories get picked depends less on the number of comments and more on the story’s rating. It’s more than a little disheartening to see people essentially gaming the Featured Stories system by having conversations in the comments that are unrelated to the writing.

    I’d far rather a story be featured story because it’s a good story from a lesser-known member of the community than see something bumped to the top because someone with a lot of followers asked “Cake or death” in the first comment.

    In the spirit of being part of the solution, I’m going to try to read and comment more widely going forward. This is a great community; we can all help one another be better writers.

  • Kevin Lawver

    It’s really hard to write software that judges “quality”. At work, we’ve spent years of PhD’s time and lots of money coming up with a quality algorithm for music – and it works – but it’s complex. I started trying to write a “quality” measurement for stories – but it’s far more complex than I have the time or brain power to implement. The best I can do is try to build something that gets close to community consensus and tries to compensate for those trying to game it.

    The challenge I’d like to present to the community is to find those good stories written by lesser-known members of the community and give them feedback. The featured story system is only as good as the community’s collective feedback…

  • Mighty-Joe Young (A.K.A Strong Coffee)(LoA)

    Ok I have the answer. If you are a lesser known author on here and you want to be recognized…Read peoples stories. comment. If you see a story that no one has read that is awesome, note all your friends and tell them. Every single person reading this has probably gotten a note from me about a story i thought was awesome, and every time that story got featured. If you dont like something about the system the solution is to be more active, put more of you into ficly and it will start to resemble what you want.
    On the critique..there is a way to do it. If you point out a problem point out a solution. If you are in a challenge with the person you are about to say something bad about, send it in a note. I have never seen a story win a challenge that some one ripped up even if they were unjustified.
    And on the paragraph thing robo, we cant indent, an space take characters so how about if we just start a new line. can you see that fine. Because without indentation it is still wrong.

  • Robotech_Master

    There is a reason magazines that don’t have paragraph indents do have spaces between their paragraphs.

    It’s a physiological fact—the human brain is a lot better at reading stuff when it’s in discrete chunks. This is why there needs to be a clearly visible breakpoint between the beginning and end of your paragraphs. On ficlets, you do this by hitting enter twice at the end of a paragraph instead of once.

    It costs an extra character, but pays such a dividend! Your story is much easier for people to read when it’s not one long block of text with some lines shorter than others. This means more people are likely to bother reading it—and following up or rating it, which might get you on the “Active” list. And you can easily pay for the extra characters by pruning just one or two unnecessary words—like “really” or “somewhat,” which are redundant even when you aren’t counting characters.

    Given that no ficlet ever ends exactly on 1024 characters anyway, you already have some throwaway characters built in.

  • Rachel Addison Miller

    Interesting thread…
    As for the commenting 10x as much as writing: All too often in life, we find the tendency in people to criticize more than act. It’s so much easier and requires less effort. I am hesitant to over-comment in comparison to how much I contribute, lest someone think I’m here just as a leech or naysayer, or even an overly exuberant cheerleader. However, maybe that’s just in my head and isn’t really relevant.

    I also think new people might be less inclined to comment, because as some have said, we don’t know how people will take it. I am also not that experienced and really have no qualification to make professional-quality criticisms – especially on fiction. MJY’s point is good: if you have a criticism, make a suggestion on how to improve it. Sometimes those of us less experienced may not have a good solution, or not even know quite how to articulate where we think the area for improvement is. So be patient. :-)

  • Rachel Addison Miller

    I ran out of room – comment continued:
    Also, in relation to the sandbox commentary, some are more dedicated and others are here more as an occasional place to express. I sort of wish there were a way to designate that…it’s nice that everyone is here together – elementary and post-grad – but I think that results in some of the more serious contributors’ dissatisfaction with the critiques. I say this as one of the elementary. This is not a peer-reviewed journal or anything like that. You can only ask so much of us! ;-)

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    Despite our call for more critical reviews, there will always be more cheerleaders than coaches.

    1. Many of us are afraid of hurting the feelings of our fellow writers.
    2. Many of us don’t have the time to leave constructive criticism with good solutions.
    3. Many of us don’t know the solutions to the problems we see, and don’t want to mislead the writer.

    For these reasons (and probably more I didn’t mention) there will always be more cheerleaders than coaches.

    This is a good thing!

    Those of us who want to coach can do so, and can help others improve their work. We can keep an eye on each other and make a point to try to critique each other’s writing especially, so that we can improve as well.

    And those of us who are cheerleaders can continue to boost morale and make people confident in their skills, which can lead people to write more. And we all know that practice makes perfect!

    Either way, we can contribute to making Ficly a great haven for new authors.

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    (continued)

    So comment as you please, whether you be coach or cheerleader. Either way, you’re helping your team achieve personal victory!

    (Have I worn this sports analogy to death yet?)

  • Robotech_Master

    ARGH, why don’t people rate stories?

    For instance, my ficlet “Arguing in the Dark” – http://ficly.com/stories/8727 – has comments by four different people on it—but only one of them bothered to rate it! It’s just one extra click, people, come on!

  • Eloquent Mess {(LoA)}

    That frustrates me too…

    If you hate it, click the 1-pencil.
    If you loved it, click the 5-pencil.
    If you’re not sure, click the 3-pencil.

    The 2 and 4 pencils should be pretty self-explanitory.

  • ElshaHawk (LoA)

    Even though the pencils are free, sometimes a rating can make me feel worse than a criticism, so i tend to avoid giving them out. I will give out 5 pencils to something that knocks my socks off, but lately I find myself avoiding the whole thing. To me, its like a grade. It weighs down on me to see a few pencils on my work more than someone saying “hey you misspelled, had an awkward sentence, and used some cliche’ things”. It’s like “wait, you don’t like my story??!!” I realize it is a matter of personal opinion and taste and cannot begrudge a person for choosing fewer pencils, but as conditioned as I am to be sensitive to grades (ABCDF) in school, for some reason I carry this into the pencils..

  • Stewart M. Matthews

    If I write out a critique, I tend to not rate. I don’t want the author to think I am giving a biased opinion because I liked, or didn’t like, their story.

  • Stewart M. Matthews

    Also, what is this site running off of? It really bogs down both my laptop and desktop.

  • Robotech_Master

    The thing is, ratings (at least positive ones) count toward being featured on the popular/active lists. They’re not just “how much I liked this,” they’re “I thought this was worth giving a rating to at all.” So if you don’t rate, you’re not helping us get featured.

  • Marli

    Thanks THX for a comunity forum . It is a lot of fellowship that makes ficly work. Some people are lighthearted others are lovers,some are techno savy others prefer the darker side. Many ficly writers are here to write that really great novel,others try to do their best but whether its fellowship or writing or just to get it out of your system ficly has surpassed my expectations and the coterie will keep me interested. Thanks Kevin for a job well done and thanks THX for making us think.

  • ElshaHawk (LoA)

    good point robo! :) i’ll have to rethink my position.

  • Mighty-Joe Young (A.K.A Strong Coffee)(LoA)

    hey speaking of little known ficleteers this story is awesome i loved it and i hope you will all read it http://ficly.com/stories/4608