inkstains

I've only done that sort of stuff in creative writing units at university. It got weird sometimes, like when we were critiquing a girl's script, and this other girl in the tute kept going "do you think Orlando Bloom would play [dude character]? I think he should. And then you can [play [girl character] and get to make out with Orlando Bloom!" even though the writer had said she wasn't planning on those characters having a romantic relationship.

There was the tutor who'd claimed she loved all genre fiction, and welcomed genre fiction, and then when I presented a genre piece to the tute went "oh I don't know about genre, you'll have to find someone else to critique it, all I can say is I liked your use of italics" and the most pressing concern from my peers was that a lady character's underwear was not sexy enough, and then I went to one of the genre tutors, he told me it was terrible science fiction, even though it was actually fantasy-based.

There was the girl who couldn't figure out an ending to her story, and became annoyed when half of the tutorial started going "what if the old woman was a ghost?" "or the MC was a ghost!" "or a zombie!" "or a time-traveller!".

And, of course, the time that I mentioned a couple weeks ago, when after I had lambasted a girl's main character for being so obviously unsympathetic and cruel to her dying dog that the happy ending felt hollow and undeserved, I found out that it was an autobiographical piece, and she got really upset with me.

Then there was the time someone weaselled their way out of being critiqued because they were scared of me. Good times, good times.