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

[leethet.livejournal.com]

And if that story was part of a challenge and you had to post it?

And you know how hard it is to find good help these days - that is, beta help. :-) Though I don't use them myself, I'm an advocate, but I understand very well how hard it is to find one and how few who're willing are capable.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Then I'd post it, but without comment, and let the reader decide whether she likes it or not.

But I suppose I've been lucky. I've managed to find very good betas in all my fandoms.

[leethet.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do agree with you that "I'm not proud of this one" shouldn't be in a header field of any sort. I just meant acknowledging in general (in a discussion, like here) that you're not pleased with how a story came out. Announcements or flags "Warning: Story not good!" would just be weird, for some reason. :-) But then to me it's just as weird when people put "Warning: Very disturbing, dark, gritty" or whatever in their headers. In theory a story could be those things, if it's well written. But let the reader be the judge of whether you've pulled off your intent, when it comes to warnings or headers. I always hear Patsy from AbFab. "I'll be the judge of that."