I recently posted to the poetry and prose forum and I am not happy.

The so-called critics in the devART writing community seem hell-bent on weeding out the "angsties" and finding people elitist enough to join them.

I'm sorry, I do not share that view. I believe in helping every writer, no matter how horrid, to become BETTER. Not to become great or classic or publishable, but merely BETTER. If I helped an idiot finally write a complete sentence, mission accomplished. However, if I also helped John Donne perfect a metaphysical conceit, well, then, mission ALSO accomplished.

Elitist attitudes within the writing community will get us nowhere. Collectively speaking, writers in society are already the outcasts, the people too smart for normal life. By isolating ourselves and saying "the angsties can't join us" will not only alienate the angsties, but will also further alienate good writers from a main stream already starved for good poetry.

This isn't about writing the next Rime of the Ancient Mariner. This is about learning and growing and offering constructive criticism to whoever crosses our paths. I have commented on a variety of stuff in my days here at devART, from the utterly crappy to the pretty damn good. I know that every writer here at devART is sitting at a different level of skill, and I adjusted my criticism to reflect this.

Let's face it; as writers, we KNOW who's good and who isn't. It's blindingly obvious 95% of the time. And if it's not obvious, then we aren't good writers. So is there really a need to tell a fledgling writer that they're "good" or "bad" when it's so stunningly obvious? Of course not. "Good" and "not good" mean nothing to unhallowed artists.

"Good" and "not good" can pretty quickly become character attacks.

My only advice to critics is to help those willing to learn, be it a published poet or a poor little angsty. If they take your advice seriously, they will become better. If they do not take your advice seriously, then fine. Let them suck. You've done all you can.

But when the advice becomes attack on set forms or genres of poetry (I hate haikus, so is every haiku automatically bad?), it gets out of control.

So out of control, that I no longer feel a need to either serve as a critic or writer at devART. This place is a fucking joke. You've obviously heard time and again that devART is rife with bad writers. It's true. Extremely true. However, devART is also full of critics who are nothing but elitists in disguise.

You may disagree with me, you may hate me for writing this. But as a student pursuing a degree in creative writing....a student who criticizes and receives criticism on a daily basis as part of her cirriculum....all I can say is this place is no place for fledgling writers. Get out while you still can.