Re: [bookclub] Prose style in 'Losing Your Grip'

["Winthir" <pr-edlbauer@DELETE_THISuumail.de>]

J.D. Berry schrieb in Nachricht <87apnv$fub$1@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>
>My take on puzzles is that 1) people don't take criticism of
>their puzzles as personally as their writing and 2) puzzles MAY be MORE
>of an objective thing to discuss.


From my point of view, the first is right, the second wrong. Let me explain,
please.

Ad 1. The problem is that people think of personal style is the mirror of
their soul. If you criticize their writing, you'll criticize them
personally. That's a real problem when you're a magazine editor (which I
happen to be). Either be honest with some freelancers, and they'll hate you,
or flatter them unduly and get bad articles from them.

Writing is a craft like any other. You're never finished learning it. And
your personal style is not diminished when you learn to write, it is
improved.

Ad 2. Because writing is a craft, it can be objectively discussed. I am
certainly able to discuss writing more objectively than puzzle design. Sure,
I do have an opinion about a puzzle I have or haven't solved. But I've never
given puzzles per se much thought. I never can give more than a personal
opinion on puzzles, which of course is the opposite of objectivity.

When I talk about writing, I have a hundred rules (and counter-rules) and
thousands of examples in the back of my mind. (Well, in German, I do.) I
know a few tricks. I have applied these rules to all texts I've read in
years. I usually know when it's better to stick to the rules to achieve a
certain effect. I often can guess where I might impress the reader by
digressing from the beaten path. (And sometimes I utterly fail.)

I'm not saying that I'm a good, an accomplished writer. I'm saying I'm a
practised writer and editor. Practise, in a craft, is worth far more than
talent. Practise needs criticism, or at least, criticism allows the craft to
develop more quickly.

That's why I think that criticism is more than valid in this Newsgroup.
There's no need to be embarrassed when someone tells you how you could have
expressed yourself better than you did. It's something you have to get used
to when you want to improve.

*After* that, there's still personal preference to be discussed. As in "I'm
bad at solving puzzles, I didn't like the Babel fish episode in that game".
That's valid, too, though less useful.

By the way, the average work of Interactive Fiction is quite well-written, I
think. So why feel insulted when someone tells you which adjective might
have been more effective in the third paragraph of your work? Just treat it
like a bug report.

Florian Edlbauer