Makhsihed

This is my writer's fire: an inconstant flame of words and poetry. It flares incandescent-hot for days, weeks, sometimes months before life events distract me from its tending. Then, the last fuel consumed, it gasps and sputters, guttering flame fading to sullen embers beneath the ash and char. The embers sleep, forgotten, just enough to support a lifeless essay or lightless ramblings. But always I rediscover it in the whisper of pages, and I coax the embers to full flame, dip my pen in fire and write with the blood of stars.
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A bit of information on how I work, especially in regards to writing sites such as this one:

- Friending Me: I've received various friends' requests from random people. I'm assuming this is a typical Writer's Cafe thing. That's fine, but I'm not going to friend some random person back. If I know you, I'll friend you. If you comment on something of mine, I will comment on something of yours and probably friend you if I like your writing. So - if you want to friend me, comment on something first so I know you're not just doing the "friending to have a large friends list and get comments" silliness common to sites like MySpace.

- Your Comments on My Writing: I'm always striving to improve my writing, as well, so constructive criticism is *most* welcome. Yes, comments like "This is great, I like it" are nice and appreciated and great ego-boosts, but they're not very useful; I prefer something that says "This is great, I like it, but you might improve it by doing *this*..."

- My Comments on Your Writing: Over the years, I've gotten into a certain habit whenever I read a piece of writing online. When I comment, I follow this formula:

1. General emotional reaction to the piece - did I like it or not? How did it make me feel?
2. Something good about the piece. I point out the piece's strengths and usually one or two lines I especially liked.
3. Something that I feel could be improved, including the reasons *why* I think those improvements could be made, and suggestions for how to make them.

If I can't find anything to give *constructive* criticism on, I often don't comment until I do, because I don't want to give a useless comment. The only times I'll comment without any constructive criticism is when a piece utterly blows me away, it's that amazing and has that much impact; only in those cases does a piece get 5 stars. I *rarely* give a piece 5 stars; there's almost always something that could be improved. 4 stars means I think it was pretty damn good.

In other words, please don't get offended if I give you constructive criticism. It might seem like I'm picking your piece apart; I'm not intending to do so. I'm trying to be helpful and give meaty, useful critiques.

- Returning Comments: I always return comments. If you comment on something of mine, it's very likely that I will comment on something of yours. It just might take me a few days to get around to it. Patience, please.

Are we all on the same page now? Great. Nice to meet you, I'm Dani. If you want to know anything about me other than "I write", visit one of the following:
- My Homepage: http://www.dreamofhorn.com/nest
- My LiveJournal: http://makhsihed.livejournal.com