Bitched Out

So, how many of us would be masochistic enough to send our work to a self-proclaimed bitch? Stephen, who blogs at CoolReading, pointed me to this lovely blog, The Fiction Bitch.

Yeah, yeah, it made me laugh out loud. She asks for writers to send their work to her if they suspect that they are actually just plain bad writers and their family and friends haven't had the heart to tell them. (Likely a pretty major concern for some.) If your work is suitably bad, she lampoons it on the site (and includes the original story where her vitriolic comments pop up when your cursor moves over the link, very nice use of technology!). Some poor sucker's fable got the treatment most recently.

I have to say, it's a funny idea, even though that's probably all writers' secret dread -- to realize, "Hey, I suck and didn't know it!" And the part of me that thinks it isn't too cool, thinks of people I've encountered on online workshops like Zoetrope and realized that generally speaking, the people who needed the most help were the ones who were the most grateful for constructive criticism. I think maybe there aren't enough people willing to give that and help others grow.

Yesterday, the Fiction Bitch hadn't posted since April, and I feared maybe someone offed her when they didn't like what she said. However, as luck would have it, when I checked just now, there was a post where the Web master gave a "mea culpa" and promised posts will begin again soon. Whether this is good for us literary types, or bad, I don't know, but it's worth checking out.

Write on,

LLB