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	<title>Comments on: Poll Dancing #6: The Results</title>
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	<link>http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/</link>
	<description>The Fundamentals of Our Publishing are Wrong</description>
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		<title>By: Sean Lindsay</title>
		<link>http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/comment-page-1/#comment-1576</link>
		<dc:creator>Sean Lindsay</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Jul 2007 03:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/#comment-1576</guid>
		<description>My biggest concern would be some Cat Piss Man sending me a sample from &lt;a HREF=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_Argon&quot; &gt;The Eye of Argon&lt;/a&gt; or &lt;a HREF=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Nights&quot; &gt;Atlanta Nights&lt;/a&gt;, and then mocking me from some imagined high ground because I didn&#039;t immediately recognise it.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;I think the only way to do this right will be to choose writing samples at random from the Interweb -- some poor sap who&#039;s actually hoping for constructive criticism.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>My biggest concern would be some Cat Piss Man sending me a sample from <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eye_of_Argon" >The Eye of Argon</a> or <a HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_Nights" >Atlanta Nights</a>, and then mocking me from some imagined high ground because I didn&#8217;t immediately recognise it.</p>
<p>I think the only way to do this right will be to choose writing samples at random from the Interweb &#8212; some poor sap who&#8217;s actually hoping for constructive criticism.</p>
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		<title>By: Paul Riddell</title>
		<link>http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/comment-page-1/#comment-1575</link>
		<dc:creator>Paul Riddell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2007 19:17:00 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Heather, the only reason why this won&#039;t work is that reading slush, as with working for weekly newspapers or becoming a movie critic, is a perfect example of the power of Proverbs 26:11.  You have enough shit flying through the aether from desperate wannabe writers that this would just give them a bit more attention.  You don&#039;t WANT to give them attention, because then they&#039;ll never quit.&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;(A quick example.  Back in the early days of the Web, I was a regular at a now-sadly-defunct site called &quot;The Dysfunctional Family Circus&quot;, which took Bil Keane&#039;s &quot;Family Circus&quot; comic strips and let people make up new captions.  Many of those captions were brilliant, but some were so dopy that the Webmaster set up the &quot;Red Zone&quot; and listed those as an example of what not to submit.  By the time the feature syndicate that distributed &quot;The Family Circus&quot; issued its cease-and-desist letter to the DFC Webmaster, he was already noting that you had morons who were &lt;i&gt;deliberately&lt;/i&gt; submitting particularly obnoxious and dumb captions, because they had more of a chance of being listed than the ones they thought were funny.)</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Heather, the only reason why this won&#8217;t work is that reading slush, as with working for weekly newspapers or becoming a movie critic, is a perfect example of the power of Proverbs 26:11.  You have enough shit flying through the aether from desperate wannabe writers that this would just give them a bit more attention.  You don&#8217;t WANT to give them attention, because then they&#8217;ll never quit.</p>
<p>(A quick example.  Back in the early days of the Web, I was a regular at a now-sadly-defunct site called &#8220;The Dysfunctional Family Circus&#8221;, which took Bil Keane&#8217;s &#8220;Family Circus&#8221; comic strips and let people make up new captions.  Many of those captions were brilliant, but some were so dopy that the Webmaster set up the &#8220;Red Zone&#8221; and listed those as an example of what not to submit.  By the time the feature syndicate that distributed &#8220;The Family Circus&#8221; issued its cease-and-desist letter to the DFC Webmaster, he was already noting that you had morons who were <i>deliberately</i> submitting particularly obnoxious and dumb captions, because they had more of a chance of being listed than the ones they thought were funny.)</p>
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		<title>By: Heather</title>
		<link>http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/comment-page-1/#comment-1574</link>
		<dc:creator>Heather</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:57:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/#comment-1574</guid>
		<description>I know of a great way to boost your readership. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;Solicit samples.  And promise to post the most mock-worthy online as new reasons not to write.  People FLOCK to that shit.  Look at Miss Snark! She was downright nasty to people, and she had so many submissions she didn&#039;t know what to do with &#039;em all. &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;And you&#039;re lucky. You have a ready-made group of helpers who&#039;d help you sift through the crap.  And then you can have a new reason:&lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&quot;If you write like THIS guy, quit writing.&quot;</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I know of a great way to boost your readership. </p>
<p>Solicit samples.  And promise to post the most mock-worthy online as new reasons not to write.  People FLOCK to that shit.  Look at Miss Snark! She was downright nasty to people, and she had so many submissions she didn&#8217;t know what to do with &#8216;em all. </p>
<p>And you&#8217;re lucky. You have a ready-made group of helpers who&#8217;d help you sift through the crap.  And then you can have a new reason:</p>
<p>&#8220;If you write like THIS guy, quit writing.&#8221;</p>
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		<title>By: Paul Riddell</title>
		<link>http://101reasonstostopwriting.com/2007/07/11/poll-dancing-6-the-results/comment-page-1/#comment-1573</link>
		<dc:creator>Paul Riddell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>Well, I &lt;i&gt;would&lt;/i&gt; call, but I don&#039;t have your number, either.  Personally, I can&#039;t blame you:  I wouldn&#039;t want some goofy, slobbery American with too prominent a Canadian accent for comfort screaming at me at strange hours, either.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Well, I <i>would</i> call, but I don&#8217;t have your number, either.  Personally, I can&#8217;t blame you:  I wouldn&#8217;t want some goofy, slobbery American with too prominent a Canadian accent for comfort screaming at me at strange hours, either.</p>
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