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This week: Writing Should Be Fun! Edited by: Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline  
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Do you cringe when you receive a rating that is lower than you expected? Don't. It doesn't matter.
This week's Comedy Newsletter is all about the joy of writing.
Your guest editor - Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline |
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As writers, we can be a bit precious about our work. There are good reasons for this. Writing isn't easy. Sometimes, I have to drag the words out of my mind and onto the paper, or the screen, and then I have to shove them into an order that doesn't make the reader think that I have lost the plot. I doubt that I am the only one. So, we take our writing seriously. Too seriously, at times. Every story, every poem, every novel is a victory. And after all that we have been through to get it right, it's not nice when a reviewer comes around and tears our efforts to shreds. Even a three star rating can sting. Was it really that average?
We all want high ratings, of course. High ratings are nice. The more, the merrier. Validate me! Validate my work! Tell me that this is the best piece you have ever read! If you want to give it a ribbon, all the better... or at least be gentle... please? The truth is, when we shy away from constructive criticism, and cringe at ratings that are not what we had hoped for, it can actually affect our writing, and not in a good way. It can stop us from taking risks, place boundaries around our freedom to create. It can make writing even more of a chore. It can take away the fun.
Writing should be enjoyable. It should be fun. Why else do we do it? This is not some tedious job we have taken on because we need to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. Even professional writers, who do need a regular paycheck from their work, chose to write for a living because being a writer is something that you are. It is a necessity. It's a passion. It brings us joy, relief, release. It fulfills us and makes us complete. Once we stop writing in a way that makes us happy, it can put the brakes on our creative flow, and even lead to a writer's block. That is something to avoid.
If you recognise yourself in the above, here's a tip: forget the ratings and be silly. Write some intentionally bad poetry. Or an intentionally bad story. The kind of item that invites one star ratings. Why? It offers some light relief. It also makes you realise that the value that is placed on ratings is all in the mind. What I give five stars for, may well be different to what you give five stars for. How you interpret a three star rating may well be different to how a reviewer of your work intended it. If someone gave your items one or two stars, so what? If they offered constructive criticism alongside that rating, that is of help to you, that's great. That is what is important. The ratings in themselves are not worth stressing over. Inviting one star ratings, then, can help you free yourself from that mindset. It can be fun, for you and for a reviewer, because they can give a one star rating without any guilt.
It is also good practice. When writing an intentionally bad poem, or an intentionally bad story, you might want to use clichés. In order to do so, you'll have to recognise clichés and will be able to avoid them in your serious work. The same goes for rhymes. Kiss/bliss, I love you, yes I do, you know it's true, I can fly, high, into the sky blah blah.
Unoriginal story-lines, Mary Sues or Gary Stus, endings you can see coming from the very first paragraph, or even from the title... you will know exactly what you are doing, and why you are doing it. And you are doing it because you know that it is bad writing, and will be recognised as such by those who read it.
Make your main character as unlikeable as you possibly can. Let them have the most questionable motivations that you can dream up. Use baffling imagery. Go on. Do it.
Not that easy, is it? Writing intentionally bad items is actually quite difficult. There is a reason for that. You are a writer. Why not, then, enjoy your work, and stop worrying? 
Kitti the Red-Nosed Feline
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Comedy Newsletter Team
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Comedy: February 17, 2016 Issue [#7489]
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