Poor work

You shouldn't concern yourself with getting cherry picked. If it happens it happens. If it doesn't it doesn't. Your work is of excellent quality. Many people often make the mistake of wanting recognition for something that they do. If this fails, at least you can relax knowing that you put out quality work. To summarize, do not let a little cherry define whether your piece is or is not quality. From birth, we all eventually spiral into darkness. Some just do so more quickly.

It's nice that you are concerned for other writers, Jacquelinann, but if they are going to give up writing just because they were not awarded a cherry, then I'm afraid they're unlikely to get very far. I'm afraid that the cold hard truth is that trying to get published - trying to get good - is all about rejection after rejection; surviving them and improving. You have to think about why it is that you are actually writing...

I'm afraid this comes back to that old discussion about feedback that has been coming up on these forums for years and years. I don't think a cherry should be looked upon as a sign of quality writing, as far as I'm aware, the editors use them to flag up pieces of work they feel deserve attention. Now, that could be for lots of reasons, and it's up to the individual editor. What's more important is having feedback on your work, and that is much harder to get. In my experience you get feedback if you give it, and that's not always an easy thing to do, since a lot of writers (myself included) are not natural critics and find it very difficult. Some people here clearly read a lot and comment a lot and that's great. Bare in mind here, Jacquelinann, I'm not suggesting you don't give feedback, I'm just speaking generally. I try to follow the "unwritten rule" that for every piece you post, you provide feedback on one piece of writing. Anyway, like I said, try not to get too focused on the cherries. It's always nice to receive one, but they aren't the most important aspect of the site.

Hi Kenny, I feel you offer a balanced appraisal, but it is the loaded word 'deserve' akin to worthiness, that makes my skin crawl..but hey, that's my problem :-)

lenchenelf, I meant nothing by that...it's perhaps a poor choice of words considering what I was trying to say. Like you say, I'm just trying to be balanced about it, but maybe that didn't quite come across properly. Sorry.

Nononono! I meant in general terms on this site, you've nothing to apologise for. atb Lena xxx

Ah okay, phew! :)

Time for a song :-D http://tinyurl.com/n63t5r

I got a bit hung up on cherrying but I remind myself that the giving or not giving of cherries is so subjective that I can't take it too seriously one way or the other. I did notice that I got a cherry the other day and the email said it was from the cherry-picking robot - is there something sinister going on behind the scenes?

The email is sent out by the robot - the cherry picking is by hand! Cherries, I should remind you, are not a pure measure of excellence. Great work should always be awarded a cherry - but we also try and give them for a significant improvement in someone's work - that may sound paternalistic (and it probably is!) - but it does mean that you read something by someone who has previously not impressed a great deal but suddenly get that bit better, then you are able to award a cherry. It encourages and sustains. I am also always open to challenge. No cherry will ever be removed but if you read something that you think should be cherried then please either raise it on the 'Writing on ABC' forum or email me and I promise that it will get another read.

As for the 'deserve' comment... every time I browse a bookshop or switch on the radio, there is published material (books, songs) that I consider to be 'undeserving' of being there - do not forget that all *art* is subjective... it's not mathematics! Yours, the tortured, undeserved artist, J x

Hmm, inevitable subjectivity in perception does not bestow worth though, except to the beholder or those of a like mind or value set, that is, unless art is defined as a fashionable, marketable commodity, where its worth can be measured according to sales figures through hype. But I digress...wanders off to knit yoghurt.

I must say that I have never looked at my poetry in a "How Good is it as compared to others" way. For me, an emotion or an inspiration hits me and I have to get it out of my head, that's why some poems are written on card board, or what ever else I could find. I have been writing for as long as I can remember and I have everything I ever wrote. What I have now is an autobiography of my life and when I start at the begining of my put to paper my thoughts way, I see a boy grow into a man. Just recently I have discovered that people enjoy what I write and I have come to know just how different everybody is from watching them pick their favorite one. I gave up trying to go by looks or demeanors as to which one they will pick, I get surprised frequently. When it comes to cherries, I know the difference I have made in some peoples lives just from something I have written and there is no amount of cherries that can compare to something so real as that. Perhaps if I'm asked, I'll tell of circumstances in which I have changed a life just from being able to put a feeling into words so that someone can relate. As far as I'm concerned, those A's B's & C's are the greatest thing man ever discovered, there's only 26 of them and you'd think that by now we would have arranged them in every way they could be arranged and yet, there's still no end in sight. I don't see good writings and bad writings, it's just that some writings just didn't get arranged in a way that moved me. I don't like watermellon and all my life I have wanted to like watermellon but I just can't, now, do I feel contempt for watermellon? No way, watching people eat it makes me smile, that's the way I feel about writings that do not move me, I smile at the thought of someone felling the need to write for as long as their are poets in the world, life has the potential to be beautiful!