11 Comments
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Angelique Fawns's avatar

So funny. And I've met ALL these guys/gals.

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Joyce Reynolds-Ward's avatar

Oh dear ghod yes.

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Sarah Zachrich Jeng's avatar

“Why are you teaching if you’re not there to improve people’s writing? (answer: you need a paycheck bc your books aren’t selling well.)”

I’m so here for this pettiness.😈 Especially directed against people who are unnecessarily mean and enjoy killing other people’s dreams. And I had heard that Frey’s project was predatory, but…holy shit.

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Evelyn Griffith's avatar

This was quite a ride. I'm not quite sure what to say about it except that yep, these people do exist. But it also doesn't take away from all the great people that do and work hard and genuinely want other people to succeed so keep at it folks! Thanks so much for writing!

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kathryn radford's avatar

Makes Dante look dainty.

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Laura Leffler's avatar

"What do I have to do to fall up like him?? Plagiarize someone I’ve murdered..??"

LOL

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Grace Cultivar's avatar

This was funny. The caricatures are all there. You hit the nail when you wrote, "I sometimes think people write takedowns because it’s very easy to make yourself seem smart." Also so happy to see somebody else publicly saying there is nothing wrong with gatekeeping. Yesss, thank you!

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Jamie Anderson's avatar

I very much enjoyed this post and am eagerly awaiting the next one. 😀

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Tracey S. Phillips's avatar

This was really funny, Vera! Thanks for making me laugh!

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Ada's avatar

The title of this is pure gold.

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Ada's avatar

I don't remember anyone like these mentioned in my writing classes, though I know to watch out for them!

Everyone was pretty supportive, though I do wish critiques were more substantial. Too many people said, "This was great!" & didn't say anything else or they said "I didn't understand / got confused" but didn't explain how or where.

There was one guy who wrote something so boring I couldn't even finish it, but that was about it.

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