Ooh - I have a question for writers and readers:

[leethet]

I've gotten the impression that it's considered kind of bad manners to admit you think your story isn't good. If you agree, what is the reasoning behind that? Note: I'm not here to attack anyone's position. I don't even have one myself except that if this is a thing, as I've kind of gleaned, I'm not sure I understand why it's a thing.

As ever, any sort of response and discussion is welcome in my LJ.

Comments

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I've always been a bit of two minds about this - that whole 'oh, I know this is rubbish but I'm going to post it anyway' thing always grates on me. It comes across as either 'I don't give a shit about what anyone thinks but me' or 'please be nice to me, regardless of how little effort I have put in' and neither of these sit well with me. Keep your insecurities to yourself, like the rest of us! ;)

[leethet.livejournal.com]

:-) But neither of those are insecurities, are they? One is either confidence or arrogance (the latter type of person isn't likely to say "this story's not very good") and the other is lazy self-entitlement.

Hm ... see, I've posted stories that I don't think are very good. They're not the best I am capable of, though they're the best I was capable of at the time, but they had to go up (a challenge or something - this is why I usually don't do them!) so up they went. So why is it wrong for me to acknowledge that in my opinion they're not very good? Why is that wrong? Why is it OK for me to say "I think this is one of my best stories" and not OK for me to say "I think this is one of my worst stories"?

Inquiring minds want to know!