"Dumbing Down" D;

[Paradoxia]

Hm, I never thought I would post a rant in here, but oh well.

Okay, so i go to one of those primary K-8th grade schools, and every week we "mentor" kindergartners(aka. reading random books to them even though they don't want to.) Anyway, we had to make a group project which was called Fairy Tale Big Book: an Original fairy tale just for the kindergartners. I was pretty much the best creative writer in the whole entire school, so i ended up in a group that has an around average writing level for their grade. Obviously, i was chosen to write the draft by myself. I gave an outline of what i wished to do, and it was just REJECTED. Even my best friend wasn't agreeing with the idea since it was too "sophisticated" and "violent." Well, I'm sorry if my writing style is more tragic and dark than most people would like. I'm just your stereotypical INFP personality type.

Well, because of how my stories are violent, tragic, bloody, and full of hate, the group decided to make the plot. It was basically about a dancing cat who was cursed into a bird because of a witch who just wanted to be pretty. It was ridiculous. Sounded more like a parody than an actual fairy tale. I tried to object, but the group kept telling me that it has to "dumb down" since it was for kindergartners, and that they didn't know any better. Then i told them about how fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel was a pretty dark story before they sugarcoated it until it was plain stupid. We kept arguing until there was threatening and... well, i shouldn't tell you the details of that.

I was like "FINE. MAKE THE STORY A STUPID PIECE OF SH*T AND GET A BAD GRADE FROM IT! AT LEAST THE ENGLISH TEACHER KNOWS THAT I CAN ACTUALLY WRITE!"

They still made me write the draft since they were like, "Oh, but you're the best writer around here, you just have to write the story!" Even though we just argued about what kinds of content can or cannot be put into there. If this was just for fun, then I might've had agreed with them and just do it. But nooo, the teacher wanted this to be the 2nd most important project in the quarter. It's for KINDERGARTNERS. We can't write our best without having it be too complicated for the little kids. So I took the plot that I was LEFT OUT OF, and tried to make a "fairy tale" with it. I was able to write it, but it was completely dried out of style, tone, and everything else that made my writing mine. It sounded like some robot wrote it, like most of my group's. I e-mailed the group project "leader" and next day, SHE DOESN'T HAVE IT. She asks if I might've accidentally pressed another button instead of "send," since she just checked her email last night. I told her that "yes, I can actually write an e-mail and use the send button."

NO ONE BELIEVES ME. Well, nobody but my best friend, since she likes violent stories like mine. I was accused of just being lazy, and then the worst writers in our group had to write 90% of the fairy tale. Ugh. It looked like chopped up sentences and was worse than my 3rd grade writing. Every time I try to spice the story up, they just reject the idea ENTIRELY. They reject it without considering it. The only possible way i can be part of the work is if my best friend convinced the rest, and that's if she's lucky. Near the end of the class, one of them was like, "Phew, seven pages. FINALLY." as if seven pages was the longest thing you could write in one class period. I say that seven pages was WAY too short, that there should be at least 6 more pages, if you wanted a short fairy tale. But no. They finished the project, which I was barely able to write on.

Next day, they complain to me about how I should've wrote more or at least gave more ideas to the story, since it was one of the worst and also the shortest.

WTF.

Edit: sorry it sounds so fragmented and... well, not so good. But it's a rant, and a rant is supposed to get some steam off.

Edit again DX : I only kept it dark when i first thought of my plot, when i was reading horror book. I later tried to make a funny, parody-style writing. I should have added that in the first place.

[Shoo]

ima be contradicting my philosophy of "there is no such thing as a bad rant," but you seemd kinda ridiculous here. i understand that you have you're own style of writing, and i agree with you that your group mates were kinda messed up. what i dont agree on is the fact that you wanted to write a sophisticated, violent fairytale for kindergartners. There are expectations as to what is to be exposed to the youth, and you can't just blatantly ignore them like that. it seems to me that you were annoyed at the fact that you weren't able to show off you're writing skills to everyone...

[Genchou]

I agree with Dib. While it's annoying how they kept rejecting your ideas, at least they're not writing about something violent & inappropriate for children so young. :\

[Paradoxia]

... Yeah. After about two minutes, I realized how ridiculous this was XD. Not all of my ideas were violent like that, though. I tried a light mood next, but everyone constantly bickered about how "outlandish" it was.

Well, a rant's a rant.

[Metty]

What the hell is INFP? Also I feel for ya. Twice when I was resitting my English GCSE in college due to not getting a high enough grade for it in high school similar thing happened to me. I'm one of those people who jots down ideas, puts them on tape etc for future reference as well as sometimes sketch outfits of characters I make up or have in stories.

Anyway, we had the choice of personal writing or creative writing for the first one. I ended up using an ancient Soul Calibur fanfic which later at the end turned to smut. Oh the *****ing that came after that. "Porn is not creative." How a samurai and ninja nearly killing each other out of hate and revenge(Mitsuguri was basically having fun slashing bits of Takis suit and goading her into a rage), having flash backs of their pasts, and then later knocking boots doesn't fall under creative I don't know.

Second time was we had to do some 4 paragraph story about some assassin based on a real story of one or something. Mine wasn't accepted because I said she was a "deathly beautiful killer". It was basically she was on a hill watching some house with a sniper rifle, blew off a guys head in extreme detail like I was asked for, said "Dos vi donya brother" got in her car to drive off, and then gets a silenced bullet to the side of her head with the words "goodbye my sister" at the end. Teachers are fun huh?

[Shirakani]

The fact the whole thing was for kindergartners pretty much shitcanned anything dark or moody or whatever. I can see your side of it, but your group mates were totally in the right to reject you here, sorry to say. Arguing back would have made you look extremely self-centered.

It's one thing to stick up for your writing style, but it's another thing if you have to work WITH others to make a product for a certain demographic.

[Paradoxia]

INFP= Introverted iNtuition Feeling Perception. It's one of the sixteen personality types made by Carl Jung. Basically the dreamer type who lives in la la land and is extremely idealistic.

Right now I'm glad that there's a teacher that accepts my creativity and writing ability and calling me the "most talented person she found after working with advanced level students for ten years." Unfortunately, she doesn't work at my school T_T

[Shoo]

That's what INFP means? lol, then i guess im it too sometimes :O

[Shirakani]

INFP = Hikkikomori Fighter lvl99

[Milano]

Originally Posted by Dib

what i dont agree on is the fact that you wanted to write a sophisticated, violent fairytale for kindergartners.

I second that.. if I saw violence when I was in kindergarten, I would have nightmares. I think the idea of the project is to appeal to all levels, and in this case, kindergartners.. they wont understand it if you write too sophisticated. A great writer can have writing skills at any level. Take this as a challenge to appeal to their age level and hold their attention instead of it being a rejection of your writing. Yes, it may have been great, just not for the children.

As I said, look at it as if it was a challenge more than a rejection. Try to challenge yourself to write to what would appeal and help keep their attention while they understand. =)