Ha! Good for you, Dan. I've given annoying writers far more writing assignments than genteel ones by far. You can always tell they really want it.
That said, I've also found that saying yes to annoying young writers will get rid of them about 98% of the time.
Thos who come through are almost always legit and turn out to be great freelancers or contributors.
that is really nice of you...emotional blackmail is something I should have tried as a former intern there.
I can't stand people who talk about how brilliant they are, before they've even accomplished anything in their respective art. It implies a mindset that isn't willing to grow and adapt because they think they already know everything they need.
I think you've hit the perfect solution.
If you'd just published one of her mediocre essays, you'd have alienated all of the Stranger readers who couldn't give a shit about some highschool kid's essay. And you'd open the doors for hundreds of highschoold kids in the area flooding you with identical requests next year.
This way, if she comes through and writes something relevant to your audience, she gets published, just like she wants. If she doesn't come through, well, at least you gave her a chance, and you're off the guilt hook. And you won't be encouraging every kid in the city to send you their highschool angst essays.
826 Santorum
No one told me that putting out was one of the roads to publication, goddamnit.
Bitter Intern- What world do you live in? Putting out gets you everywhere! Try it!
Do essays submitted to the Stranger normally require this much copyediting to be turned into recognizable English? Because I don't see how these can be made comprehensible without completely rewriting them.
People that want to get published for the sake of being published are a bit odd in my book. You'll often meet people that say they'd like to be published, and when you ask what they write - you're greeted with the equivelant of a shrug.
Plus, who wants anything they wrote in high school "on the record"? If you read that crap even five years later and still think it is good, you're either a genius (doubtful), or you're well on your way to being a horrible failure in life (more likely).
how do you know she's not one of Santorum's brood? you'd better make sure....throw her in the lake; if she floats, she's a santorum...if she sinks, well, then she's just not...
Genius writing is extremely unlikely to be preceded by outstanding displays of skill in high school. Nabokov once said of his schoolboy writing ability "I was in all respects abnormally unpromising".
Was I the only one that thought that was pretty shitty writing even for a high schooler?
No, you're not.
That's true. Intelligence doesn't equate to life / writing experience and having anything worthwhile to say. I can think of a few cases of great writing from young authors, but it is certainly not the norm.
And yeah, leaving alone the trite subject of her first essay...
"thoughtfulness is show rarely"
"sit alone, ignored waiting"
That not be good english. And you shouldn't ignore waiting, you'll piss it off.
I can't even feign literary brilliance (big words, eh?), but damn, that writing is awful. The author needs to worry more about passing WASL and less about publication.
It's a good idea, though. Find some deserving high school students -- merit, not desperation -- and publish their work.
I'm honestly surprised. You Stranger folks have a soft spot I didn't know was there. I hope that kid has an editor. Bad grammar is a turnoff.
I think the reason her writing is so bad is because it's not really writing at all, or rather it's just writing, with no voice to it. The bad grammar comes from not knowing what to say; you can HEAR her stop in the middle of the sentence, and then start again, in a different tense, without going back to see what the hell it's supposed to say. You cannot imagine her saying these sentences aloud, or even thinking them. And good writing must have that continuity and that voice.
This gal needs to have a chat with her English teacher, and start worrying more about how to make a sentence say something, before thinking about publishing. Publishing is stupid in itself; you need to be able to say something first.
fnarf,
Well said.
The cluelessness of tenacity is funny, though.
She will be on a reality show in a few years, for sure.
Was the article ever published? I've scoured the archives, but
I can't find anything.
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