On Reviewing

[dawn_felagund]

Reviewing (meaning leaving comments on stories) is one of the more anxiety-provoking and frustrating aspects of fandom participation, in my experience. I frequently see newbies lament that their stories aren't receiving comments; authors sometimes stop posting to or leave entirely from sites where they feel that their work isn't receiving adequate

Comments

[dawn_felagund]

I think those first reviews are very difficult. :) Not only is there the uncertainty about fandom customs (or the customs of a particular site or community), but online communication is so freaking hard as it is! So much of communication is nonverbal that having only cold, black-and-white words to express feelings about someone's treasured creative work is quite a task. I still spend more time than I probably should crafting comments online because it is difficult to be understood, especially when a person (like an author expecting the worst!) is sensitive to start.

On concrit ... I don't know of any sites in the Tolkien fandom where it is not allowed. At the same time, authors have mixed feelings about it. I know no authors who resent or dislike concrit on their work, but I do know (and have, on occasion, thought this myself) that some authors don't really find it useful, not because the concrit itself isn't useful but because they've put the story to bed a long time ago, and it feels ungrateful to have someone go to the trouble of a deep, critical reading, only to say, "Thanks, you're right, but I'm not going to do anything with it."

I personally do not leave public concrit. That's just me. I prefer concrit to be between me and the author only. Also (perhaps selfishly ;), before I take the time to crit a story, I want to be sure the author will actually find it of use and actually wants concrit. Others feel very differently, of course.

As an author, I believe that people are free to say what they want about my story, so concrit is always acceptable to me, even if--as I said above--the story is not one that I'm interested in revising. (Some, like AMC, have been revised multiple times over the better part of a decade and just need to be put to rest! :)

As far as author replies ... I am personally really bad about replies these days. I have two reviews in my inbox right now from within the last few weeks that need replies. >.< I try to reply to everyone, but lately, it is often that I read the review and don't have the time at the moment to write a reply, then forget over the ensuring days/weeks/months ... often, I'll get a comment on a story and see a brilliant comment that I meant to reply to months ago, still unanswered. When RL settles down, I really need to go through all of my reviews, on the SWG at least, and make sure they have replies. Anyway, long story short, I wouldn't take author silence as a reproach, like OMG-how-dare-she-I'm-speechless, but may just be a sign that the author is daffy or overworked (like me! :) or even just that the author doesn't have review notifications turned on (an issue on eFiction-based sites like the SWG, since the default is for review notifications to be turned off).

[shadowbrides]

Oh, definitely. I'm not used to being active in this sort of thing at all, so at first I thought I should approach it like writing to published authors. Then I actually looked at other people's reviews and though "...maybe not", haha. The whole idea of a fan community is still quite novel to me, but it's starting to sink it. :P
I do the review/comment writing and rewriting a lot too, except for a few times when I don't. Of course, those impulsive times are usually also the ones where I'm in an impulsive mood and don't look twice at spelling/grammar and wince upon seeing them again later, usually missing several words and looking like they were written by either a drunk or semi-illiterate person. Oh well. At least they're obviously enthusiastic...

I should remember that! So far I've not really written a lot of concrit containing reviews ( I think), but that is because I'm mostly not sure how to phrase it, or how if it's helpful at all, as I'm myself an inexperienced writer. I didn't know people actually disliked receiving it. I'll definitely keep that in mind when reviewing.

Actually, I think there are relatively a lot of author replies on the SWG. I still worry about having left a really stupid of somehow offending review, but that's just my natural tendency. When I first started reviewing the stories I read on ff.net, there were usually no replies at all, when there seemed to be conversations going on somehow. I'm an anxiety person, so obviously that made me pretty nervous, haha. I mostly worry when receiving complete radio silence from people I don't actually know at all. Which probably makes very little sense but fanfiction feels very personal, and reviewing can feel a little like intruding upon that ( particularly when there aren't a lot of reviews yet, or only from people the author obviously knows). I have to say imaging their reactions as "OMG-how-dare-she-I'm-speechless" is spot on - my brain just needs to calm down...

[rhapsody11]

As far as author replies ... I am personally really bad about replies these days. I have two reviews in my inbox right now from within the last few weeks that need replies. >.< I try to reply to everyone, but lately, it is often that I read the review and don't have the time at the moment to write a reply, then forget over the ensuring days/weeks/months ... often, I'll get a comment on a story and see a brilliant comment that I meant to reply to months ago, still unanswered.

Whoops, yes, I so know this feeling *coughs* Where can we petition for more hours in a day.

Seriously though, reviews are read and I have had it happen to me that I did cick on reply and then the day ran away with my free time.. over and over. We're all human and the fact that we might not reply does not mean we don't appreciate it. Nor will I think when I left a review and the writer does not reply that's she's ungrateful (or fill in any other assumption that one might have). RL happens. Blah.

[heartofoshun]

I usually passionately do not want what passes for concrit in Tolkien fandom. It's that "an elf would never use a contraction" kind of BS or "I find it OOC that Fingon would have ever spoken to his father like that." I want to answer those with rude dismissals. I generally do not answer them at all anymore. I do not want people messing with my plot or characterization. I do wish people would point out missing words or other mistakes. I used to make jokes that Tolkien fans offered so-called concrit too liberally and never caught a typo (typos are the bane of my existence).