Man, I don't even know where to stand in all of this.
It's true that there are people who just write for fun (me included). If I was taking writing very seriously, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction at all. I'd be writing originals, but I digress.
I think people need to understand that there are others who do take writing very seriously, but also, people need to understand that there are those who don't.
That's why there are a lot of misunderstandings. In general, I wanna say that more than half of the people who are fanfic writers don't take writing seriously, and they're usually the ones that get a lot of feedback.
And those who do write seriously, well, it all depends on a lot of factors, but generally they don't get a lot of attention.
And then there's people in the middle. I'm just in the middle. I write for me, I write what satisfies me but I post for others. And it's true that that nobody is really obligated to leave a review, but then writers aren't really obligated to post anything either.
But then writers do post, and I wanna say that at least more than half of them post to get praise.
And when it comes to criticism-- all forms of it-- it really boils down to whether the writer/artist wants to improve. If they really want to improve, they would accept criticism. That's what I had to do for college. That's what I had to do for the violin.
And when it comes to feedback in general, I'll just be honest about it. I tend to stop posting when I don't get a lot of feedback, because not only is it discouraging, but if nobody is reading your work-- why bother posting it at all?
Same thing with art too-- if you're posting for others, and you don't get feedback, why bother posting at all?
It's just recently I kind of gotten past the whole review thing. I started writing this Loveless ficlet series, and my goals for that story was to finish it, to explore the characters, and to finish the 30 secrets challenge. My goal wasn't to get feedback. If I wanted feedback, I'd write porn. D:
So then maybe, when people post, they really shouldn’t be aiming for praise in the first place, but who am I to talk about such things. I’m really just in the middle. Like I take writing seriously to the point that my own needs are met; if I were to take it uber seriously it would kill me. It’d drain me. I’d get so frustrated with myself. You already saw what happened to me a few months ago. Block after block after block. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t even have fun writing anymore.
So I guess what I’m really trying to say-- just let them be. I know it’s frustrating, in all sides-- for people who want to improve and don’t get enough crit, and then for people who don’t want crit, but they get crit anyway and also for people who want to improve but they don’t want to get hurt either so they’d prefer tactful criticism over blunt criticism.
It’s really just a bunch of obstacles that people (me included) need to get over. I’m kind of going through this thing with all of my hobbies right now too, so man, who knows. I can’t be in the middle all the time.
Oh, I remember our conversations, hun. ^_^ I'm not that old of a geezer yet. ;)
For a while there, it was hard for me to let it be. As I said I went from hardly receiving any reviews on the stuff I truly cared about to receiving all kinds of meaningless reviews for stuff that I kind of cared about, and it happened quickly. I'll also admit I didn't react very kindly, either, but then I've already said as much.
I'm trying to let it be. Probably not very well . . . I don't know, I don't have any kind of an instrument to measure my progress.
-hugs- Sorry I missed you last night. Had to get a new data cable for the cell phone. It was dying . . .
It's true that there are people who just write for fun (me included). If I was taking writing very seriously, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction at all. I'd be writing originals, but I digress.
I think people need to understand that there are others who do take writing very seriously, but also, people need to understand that there are those who don't.
That's why there are a lot of misunderstandings. In general, I wanna say that more than half of the people who are fanfic writers don't take writing seriously, and they're usually the ones that get a lot of feedback.
And those who do write seriously, well, it all depends on a lot of factors, but generally they don't get a lot of attention.
And then there's people in the middle. I'm just in the middle. I write for me, I write what satisfies me but I post for others. And it's true that that nobody is really obligated to leave a review, but then writers aren't really obligated to post anything either.
But then writers do post, and I wanna say that at least more than half of them post to get praise.
And when it comes to criticism-- all forms of it-- it really boils down to whether the writer/artist wants to improve. If they really want to improve, they would accept criticism. That's what I had to do for college. That's what I had to do for the violin.
And when it comes to feedback in general, I'll just be honest about it. I tend to stop posting when I don't get a lot of feedback, because not only is it discouraging, but if nobody is reading your work-- why bother posting it at all?
Same thing with art too-- if you're posting for others, and you don't get feedback, why bother posting at all?
It's just recently I kind of gotten past the whole review thing. I started writing this Loveless ficlet series, and my goals for that story was to finish it, to explore the characters, and to finish the 30 secrets challenge. My goal wasn't to get feedback. If I wanted feedback, I'd write porn. D:
So then maybe, when people post, they really shouldn’t be aiming for praise in the first place, but who am I to talk about such things. I’m really just in the middle. Like I take writing seriously to the point that my own needs are met; if I were to take it uber seriously it would kill me. It’d drain me. I’d get so frustrated with myself. You already saw what happened to me a few months ago. Block after block after block. It was ridiculous. I couldn’t even have fun writing anymore.
So I guess what I’m really trying to say-- just let them be. I know it’s frustrating, in all sides-- for people who want to improve and don’t get enough crit, and then for people who don’t want crit, but they get crit anyway and also for people who want to improve but they don’t want to get hurt either so they’d prefer tactful criticism over blunt criticism.
It’s really just a bunch of obstacles that people (me included) need to get over. I’m kind of going through this thing with all of my hobbies right now too, so man, who knows. I can’t be in the middle all the time.
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For a while there, it was hard for me to let it be. As I said I went from hardly receiving any reviews on the stuff I truly cared about to receiving all kinds of meaningless reviews for stuff that I kind of cared about, and it happened quickly. I'll also admit I didn't react very kindly, either, but then I've already said as much.
I'm trying to let it be. Probably not very well . . . I don't know, I don't have any kind of an instrument to measure my progress.
-hugs- Sorry I missed you last night. Had to get a new data cable for the cell phone. It was dying . . .
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