As You Want Me To Be...

[chicleeblair]

When I'm bored and roaming around fanfiction.net it is only the knowledge that there are hardcopies of my own horrible fanfiction on the shelf near me that keeps me from leaving "I want to shake you" reviews involving the use of the words "start flashback", and the horrible dialogue, the AUs that belong in Original Fiction and the other horrible

Comments

[recycledstars]

I'm coming round to a different view of ff.net lately after realizing many of my fandoms have quality stories posted there. I admit, I mostly avoided the site for many years, especially when I became involved in the Grey's fandom which was quite livejournal based (in my opinion - it still seems like anyone with talent eventually wanders over from ff.net) - and it still does make my eyes bleed at times, but you're right - we all start somewhere. I shudder to think of the things I came up with as a 12 year old. But I'm glad for the supportive space fandom has provided for me to mature as a writer. Without fanfic, I certainly would have given up on creative writing as a hobby by now.

That said, I think concrit is especially important in those cases: simple things like "the way you herald flashbacks with text really takes me out of the story" or "would you mind if I point out a few grammatical/factual/spelling errors..". I don't know. I always used to adopt a policy of nothing nice to say, say nothing at all but then I realized I was really sick of "omg i love this story it's the best thing ever" comments and, as a younger author, my writing would have benefited from them immensely. I mean to say: I think the interaction with younger writers is important. Certainly as a teenager hearing adults respond to my stories made me feel more a part of the world in a strange way; I guess we feel like we're grown up in all aspects of our lives when we're teenagers and to have my ideas respected really meant a great deal to me.

This is way too discussiony than your post warranted. I'm sorry, I've been in a super meta mood lately.

[chicleeblair]

*sigh* I agree, but when I'm wandering for fic I'm too lazy to do this (a) and (b) unlikely to read past one of those horrible conventions. Also, to be self-centered I don't remember anyone pointing out my horribleness to me-- I learned by observation.