RJ Santos

Forever's the plan Until you walked out on me— I dread tomorrow.

Your lips are heaven— Water to my thirsty heart. I wish you'd leave him.

Just real life haikus.

I did think that you seemed to have had a short fuse back then... Things seemed to be looking up for you now, and I hope it goes on. I wish you luck in your writing too.

Um, after something like that ^^ ... it's hard to create something in the same caliber.

I've been searching the right words for how I feel about this subject, and I just found it. Thanks! *Two thumbs up!* Rad

Thanks, guys! And :hugs: BSK.

Wow, that's a response I didn't think I'd get. But thanks! And Mike, too, thanks. You too, Benji, thank you. Right now, I'm feeling so determined that I feel I can get my degree even with the usual hurdles.

Hey guys, No big announcement really. Just thought I'd inform everyone (who's concerned) that I had changed my pen name from Rad Steven to RJ. I hope there'd be no confusion about this in the future. For anyone curious about my reasons, please read this blog entry of mine: "Amazing Grace". Thanks.

Being a minority, we should all hope for all of us to succeed rather than expect one of us to fall.

Exactly. For me, the reason Archer's list became what it is, is that a lot of people fantasized about what could be, could've been. The geek/jock romance is a perfect example of this; it's a fantasy worth fantasizing about. Just imagine that there's only one story on the planet that depicts this story... geek bumps (literally) into jock, they get along, one of their parents died and now the other's parents offered to take care of him... so on. Imagine there's only one written story about that and there's a million variant of Gone from Daylight. Imagine. Would you think the story is without literary merit? Even in the real world, I'll say there is. It's about going against the odds. It's about crossing the absurd lines that society has drawn. Like I said, going back to the real world... imagine - again - that it's someone's first time at Nifty - everything began there anyway - he found one of that story and he's like "this is great". It's his first time, so cut him some slack. He finds more of the same kind and now he's like "this is really cool". But eventually he finds that there are a lot of that kind of story and he grows tired of them. But what if he had only found that one story the first time he was at Nifty? Dunno what you mean exactly. Anyway, to be a bit off-topic - LOL - I think there's a lot more to "Thou shalt not kill" than what I've thought of it when I wrote it last. When I wrote it back then, what I thought it meant was "thou shalt not kill" the first person you meet in school, or the guy sitting next to you on the bus, or your neighbor, etc; I really hope no one disagrees with that here. Capital punishment - I agree with it (how barbaric must I be! LOL). Wars - silly events, but they happen.

Where do you find someone to be penpals with, btw? ( Yeah, I think I'm interested.)

I like being here because of the forums. I don't really think much of GA as a story site, but more as an online gay community. Though I'm really more of a lurker. I think the community is GA's best asset. As for stories, the authors I enjoy here are Comicality and dkstories. They have great imagination. I tried reading the others', but I can't seem to connect much with them. But I found I enjoy the stories at AwesomeDude, DaBeagle, and CRVBoy much more - many sleepless nights because of them. And anyway, I don't find Nifty that icky. You just have to know what to look for in titles.

When it happened to one of my first stories, I was both flattered and angry. I contacted the admin of the site and we just agreed on a setup. I think though that site owners should be responsible with this thing. It's stealing and all sorts of bad things.

Well, if this: meant this: I can see why we didn't understand each other. Grammar rules are rules that we should follow to write properly, like "Thou shalt not kill". Nick Archer's list is a list of the things he doesn't want to see in a story -- some of the things he listed, mine too. If you agree with him, that's fine, but don't expect others to agree with you. It's your opinion, but others also have their own opinion, which could be the polar opposite of yours.

Who, indeed? The simple solution here is to stop reading the story. If you want, drop the author a note and give him a few tips. But there's no saying you're right. It really depends on the audience. I mean, not everyone is looking for a literary jewel (at Nifty, especially), if they want to know the length of a certain body part and the author obliges, who is anyone to disagree? But tell me: what is a bad plot? What about the readers out there who think those qualities you say that are essential for a good story are nothing but crap? Would you say they're wrong? What do they think about you? Don't get me wrong. While I don't think Dom's stories are that great, I'm not saying they're bad either. And all the same, I don't have the right to say that someone's stuff is bad writing just because their story doesn't have the stuff that I'm looking for in a story. I have an uncle whose taste buds are already dulled, by smoking, they said, so my aunt has to cook a little saltier for him. She has to put a little more of something just so my uncle wouldn't say her cooking's bland. Do the rest of us who sometimes eat with them think her cooking is a bunch of wonder? No, and that's why she cooks another dish for us. But it is not us who she is trying to please; it's her husband, and because he is pleased, she is happy. And cooking does need rules, like: "Don't overcook the vegetables" or "Preheat oven to X degrees". But if someone likes their vegetables overcooked or their baked stuff burnt, who am I to argue? You're honest with yourself. And that's good, right? Try looking for a mountain tribe, those who doesn't know anything about pop music or haven't heard Pavarotti sing, and sing for them. I'm willing to bet that some of them are going to like it. They'll probably let you marry the chief's daughter.

What is bad writing? For me, it's all about technical stuff - grammar, spelling, plot inconsistencies - if you know that you violate those, then you don't need anyone to tell you that your writing is bad. Be honest with yourself and get an editor, but don't stop writing; that's the way to learn. And if writing does have rules, outside of the technical stuff, then I guess I'm embracing anarchy and abolishing notions of good/bad writing. But I consider writing an art and not something that you make rules about. If a new author does use all those clich

PW, I disagree with what you said about grammar rules being similar to Nick Archer's list. They are not. Grammar rules are the technical stuff. Like in building a web page, you need to use the proper tags, or the page woudn't look like the way you want it to. That's why you would need someone who is knowledgeable in that stuff; similarly, editors, when it comes to writing. There would always be one thing that a reader wouldn't like about the way you write. What if one thousand readers told you not to do one thousand different things? Would you stop doing those one thousand things to make those readers happy? It doesn't matter what someone says about your writing as long as you're happy about it. I personally agree with most of Nick Archer's list, but it shouldn't rule my writing or anyone's. It is his list. And I agree with FrenchCanadian. Everything's all about personal preferences. If you don't like something, it doesn't mean it's bad or wrong; you just don't like it.

Sorry, I don't know. I'm not much into music videos.

I like Flying Without Wings by Westlife and When You Say You Love Me by Josh Groban. The Rose too, cover sang by Westlife but I don't know who the original artist was.

Thanks, Lugh! Actually, that's what I'm counting on if I don't find what I'm looking for. The site you posted was helpful, but I can't use it much because.... I can't really say my reasons because it would reveal the specifics of the story. But thanks! Rad

I'm not really sure if this is the right forum to post this topic on. Anyway... I'm researching something right now for a story I'm working on, and I don't know where to look. Google seems fine, but I'm tired of filtering through all those links. Does anyone here know where I can find a graph of the religions on earth before the year 1960? Like a map of the earth that shows the religion of each places? Thanks in advance. Rad

Well, nothing wrong with them. They just became either The Best Friend or The Boy Next Door.

You're welcome.

That was a story by Drake Hunter. Its title is Through Different Eyes. Here's the link. Enjoy! Rad