On Criticism

Ask any critic, and the subject matter doesn't make a difference for these purposes, they'll all tell you the same thing: writing a rave review is easy and writing a dismal review is easy. It's writing the mediocre, fair-to-middling, "meh" review that is difficult.

After only about a week with this blog, I'm starting to understand why. Stories with something to say are interesting to read. When one has a point, they words seem to write themselves. How the hell do you make something interesting to read when you've got nothing to say? Here are a couple of pointers.

You can focus on detail, "while dining at Chez Glendale, the food was besides the point. Let me tell you about the service! The waiter with the visible sores and the hacking cough really made me feel welcome..."

You can also go the pretentious, "big picture" review, "'Jokes Aplenty' is the movie that puts all humor into perspective. The period between its release and when the crust of the Earth cooled, becoming habitable for all life, shall soon be known as the 'pre-humor' epoch of history..."

You can also simply lie. I wanted to write a story yesterday, but my computer lost the great, well-told, interesting file before I could post it.

As a last-ditch solution, you could also just launch into an explanation of you happen to be doing at that moment in time, which at least helps get around the writers block. But I don't advise this.