Totally unsolicited feedback:
It's kind of hard to convey teachable points when the bulk of the article is opinion related to a story about another person but none of the details are shared. I understand wanting to keep it vague to avoid a dustup with the people involved, but it just felt a bit devoid of specifics. If you're going to use an anecdote, either give us the details or just make fictional and do some character development.
I'll have to agree with this. These always read like they are totally made up but he doesn't want to put effort into making it a good story, so he tries to pass it off as a real story without the details. Sort of like thedailywtf but without being as over-the-top phony. This one was barely readable.
Give me an idea what to do. If I have to prove all my stories, it limits the types of stories I can write. This story, for example, I could not have written, because the person may not want this information linked to him.
I have the choice between writing stories about people vaguely, and getting to select the interesting stories that fit, or writing stories I can source, which limits me to only a very few stories.
If I don't use any stories at all, then the posts are less interesting. Your comment puts me in a bind - I'm not sure what the way out is.
Honestly, I felt like I was reading the cliff notes version of a personal anecdote. I didn't read the rest of the article. I might have if I didn't think that headline and "anecdote" were just there to make me click through.
Write the stories you can source. Sure you'd write less, but it would have more impact. As is your writing is frequently vague and anecdotal, and easy to dismiss. I might be more inclined to believe the anecdotal stories if you had other posts with more meat to them.
NB, I find it interesting that you refer to your posts as stories as your usage connotes that they are fiction.
This is how Max writes. A short intro followed by a personal anecdote. Which segues into the point(s) he is making and then finished with a conclusion to the anecdote.
That certainly makes one of us. I find these trollish posts annoying. I wish he'd cut 60% of the article and just make solid points, after the 15th extremely unlikely personal anecdote I figure they're all spun out of whole cloth.
I think calling it trollish is disingenuous. Certainly the post and title are written to attract an audience; but it has value and is a fun read. Better than some of the crap that gets posted ;)
Agree...the unrelated photo (stock?) doesn't help the credibility here. That plus the vague story made me think this was content from an article farm. Doesn't seem to be though.
Totally unsolicited feedback: It's kind of hard to convey teachable points when the bulk of the article is opinion related to a story about another person but none of the details are shared. I understand wanting to keep it vague to avoid a dustup with the people involved, but it just felt a bit devoid of specifics. If you're going to use an anecdote, either give us the details or just make fictional and do some character development.