There comes a time in every parent’s life where they realize they have lost control of their little kid. For me, this was when Sophia earned her purple belt in taekwando a few weeks ago.
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“You want me to go to bed WHEN?”
Welcome to Diane Patterson's eclectic blog about what strikes her fancy
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There comes a time in every parent’s life where they realize they have lost control of their little kid. For me, this was when Sophia earned her purple belt in taekwando a few weeks ago.
 Â
“You want me to go to bed WHEN?”
Posted on Written by Diane
Paul Krugman, today:
Nouriel is right: this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and the Fed, with the best will in the world, probably lacks the tools to deal with it. Broader action is necessary.
But then comes the question: who ya gonna call?
The Gang That Couldn’t think Straight still holds the White House; no good ideas will come from that quarter. Worse, Incurious George would probably veto any sensible plan from Congress, even if said plan could get past a filibuster.
Hey, here’s an idea! Let’s create a nonpartisan expert commission, headed by Alan Gr …. oh, wait. He’s part of the problem. In fact, is there any way we can repossess his book royalties?
Seriously, it’s very hard to see who can take charge.
Things fall apart, and the center doesn’t exist.
The guys who broke it are still in charge. I can’t believe how doomed we are with this setup.
Posted on Written by Diane
There’s the famous Zen koan about the Zen master, his student, and the cup of tea — rather than repeat it, I’ll point you to this retelling of it — I often think about. Particularly during writing workshops. People often come in with their work and they don’t want feedback, they want praise. And they tell you that your criticisms of the work are wrong — who are you going to believe, the writer or your lying eyes?
I’ve seen a couple examples of this recently. In playwriting class we do a cold reading/basic acting out of someone’s script, the writer speaks about what they think of how it turned out, and then the class critiques what they’ve just seen. There’s always one writer — maybe one or two per quarter, thank goodness, not every week — who starts to argue back. And it goes on. And on. Until people (finally) realize it’s a lost cause and stop commenting.
All of the feedback you get might, in fact, be wrong. This can absolutely be the case. But you have to consider it first. Empty your damn teacup and look at the tea. Not the right tea for you? Great: toss it out. But taste it first before you decide. (In fact, I should tell the playwriting teacher we need a new rule: as now, the writer gets to speak first, and then they shut the hell up.)
Now, I have been guilty of the teacup full of hubris myself: I think I know it all, only to discover, Eh, whoops, not so much. In fact, thinking I know it all and finding out I’m dead wrong seem to go hand in hand. So whenever I’m completely certain I’m right and they’re wrong, I take a moment to consider various ways to look at it.
This doesn’t mean I accept any and all criticism as valid. I’m still the one in charge of my writing, and I have to decide if what they’re saying is true or not.
There are several levels of criticism:
This stage requires you to know your critiquer. Is this how they generally express their feedback? Or are they trying to write your story for you? Also, your main character may be completely fine as is and your critiquer is out to lunch.
I’m sure there are several other types too. (Feel free to post in comments.)
Yes, there can be all kinds of misguided feedback in workshops or writing groups. A certain amount of groupthink does go on and you have to decide, Is this feedback about my play, or do they tell everyone that every play needs a fool character?
So pick your commenters wisely, listen to them, and then consciously decide which parts of the feedback are valuable for you and how.
Otherwise, you’re just wasting all of our time.