>In a message dated 4/23/03 6:18:52 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
>michaelnellis{at}yahoo.com writes:
>
><< 
> Same advice we usually give in here: write your stories your way; in
> your own voice and style and let the Dimbulbs(tm)(r) who insist on
> spouting useless rules out of ignorance go hang.
> 
> You've got to keep in mind, Lynn, that when someone says "This thou
> shalt not do in thine writing" they are usually making a Grand
> Proclamation based solely on their prejudices.  When some dolt says
> "your writing sucks" it's not that your writing sucks: it's that he
> doesn't get the point of the story and such a one never assumes
> that's because he's too dense to get it.
>  >
>
>Not to mention that you could think you are writing short stories and 
>actually be writing a novel.  Writing methods vary by number of writers.  
>Usually(not always) a short story is smaller in scope than novels.  
>
>Mike S.

And, not to mention that taste always plays into everything.  There are those
who will swear that Chekov was a bad writer ... or, that Poe couldn't write a
sentence if his life depended on it.  When you get really depressed, read up on
Dasheil Hammett's life & how the NY literati tried to convince him to write
"real literature" instead of "mere pulp novels." there
is this current slavish
usage of "that" instead of "which" in everything
(active vs. passive voice)
that just curdles my blood. (That that -- ugh!)Lezlie

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