victory is an elusive whore

[amand_r]

The thing is, given any current time you are bound to feel certain ways, and even though you feel that way now, you won't feel that way forever. So when I say all of these things, I already know that I might feel differently later. I'm always surprised at the number of people who feel the need to tell you that you won't feel a certain way forever

Comments

[milkshake_b]

Also, I have a real dislike of concrit that sums up as "your entire story concept just doesn't work," because what is the point of that? "This part could be better" or "I don't think the character would say that" you can use, but I don't think anyone who leaves a comment like "I tried to read this but the entire first half was just too slow and pointless" or "Sorry, this premise just doesn't work" or even your example of "this feels like fanfic, not like the real show" is actually leaving concrit, because there's nothing constructive there. Call it a negative review and stop hiding behind the more attractive-sounding word.

Although you're right about that being just a magnificently weird 'critique'. I've never seen someone apply that to actual fanfic before. It's really useful for professional things as a way to say "this feels subtly off-kilter with everything we have previously seen from this show/series/universe before this"; my best summation of why I disliked Babylon 5's Lost Tales was that it felt like a fanfic. An entertaining enough fanfic, but not like it was actually something that was part of the story I'd been previously watching. But fanfic... is fanfic. Just because "This is so much like the [canon]!" is considered to be a compliment doesn't mean that "this feels like fanfic" should be automatically an insult. And if s/he was trying to say "this did not feel realistically plausible to me" (as I can only assume was the case), s/he farked that up pretty hard.

Which brings up another point: critiquing isn't any naturally easier than writing. Good critiquing is a skill in itself, and nobody should have to be grateful for every unsolicited critique that turns up, because honestly a good percentage of them will be useless critiques, the same way as a good percentage of writing is crap. (A solicited critique is another matter, of course: if you asked someone to look at something, you should be grateful even if their remarks were crap. You might not use them again, then, but you should thank them anyway.)

I broke the comment limit length again, but this time at least it broke more tidily into two comments.

[amand_r]

Haahahah I was thinking about the stigma that comes with refusing crit, and I look at some of the people with whom I am familiar in fandoms, and really? sometimes I think they just want a license to bitch or prove how knowledgeable they are. I know one writer who is adamant to the poit of anger that unsolicited concrit should be allowed, but she blasts anyone who crits her work on a personal level.

I don't know anyone well enough to make accusations based on personal things. I really don't.