Be friendly to your reviewers.
Here's something that bothers me, and I'm going to apologise before I get into this so you can wander off and ignore another of my supremely prolific non-fic related posts.
I'm just started reading a WIP, and I shan't say which because I'm not going to F-lock this post, and after every chapter, the author pretty much demands reviews.
Now. As a writer myself, I understand that feedback and appreciation for your work is the beef in your broth, but there's an inelegance about asking for people to review. Maybe that makes me a snob, but writing for reviews is pretty horrific, no matter what the quality of the material.
In my opinion, this particular piece that I am referring to isn't of a spectacular quality. I've read through 5 chapters, and offered my feedback, because I think you should give people a chance with their work, otherwise no one would ever improve. If it were better written, I'd feel more bad about wanting to run a mile because of the grabbiness. But I must say, it seems a trend that poor writing, and authors who might be accused of having little talent (yes, I know, everyone starts somewhere, but let's be painfully honest and say that there are many fiction writers out there, a large proportion of which seem to be PUBLISHED (oh the horror of it all!) who are lacking in any decent skill) and the demand for reviews.
I know that I am likely to be stepping on a lot of people's toes with this one. However, whenever I see the "REVIEW!" plead at the end of a fic, when it's done inelegantly or even obnoxiously, I feel automatically less inclined to give feedback. I usually do anyway, but it's not an appealing thing.
I think the trouble behind these kinds of expectations writers sometimes have of their audience is that when you do provide useful criticism, you run the risk of being bitched at.
I call into point a situation in another fandom, because I have been lucky enough to avoid it in Supernatural fandom so far (not to say it doesn't happen), where I called a writer up on what I saw as an abundant abuse of the poor, meek comma. What I got in return was, frankly, a disgusting diatribe, full of abuse and swearing, from both author and (apparently) other readers.
It seems that all too often, people forget that fan fiction is a give and take relationship between audience and writer. No recognition or profit is made from it, sometimes writing takes precedent over real life, and the value of a good, constructive and polite criticism of honest flaws within a piece, as well as praise, is taken for granted.
I just felt like venting. I hate that people are so driven by recognition - the wonderful thing about fanfiction is it isn't run by sales figures, or popularity contests, or hey, reviews.
So why am I not f-locking this small storm of poop? Because the small percentage of fanfic writers out there who DON'T go around asking for epic recognition (and the ones who are SURPRISED when they're so popular) don't get the credit they deserve. They don't hold updates hostage for reviews. They write because they love doing it, and if no one reads their stuff, well, that sucks, but it's not the end of the world.
So my task for you: offer advice, congratulations, opinions, flails, squees, profound mental bondage, and demand MOAR because it's good. And if you don't take the few minutes it takes to reply to what likely took HOURS for a writer to work through, then don't go around demanding feedback in QUANTITY for your own work. Because chances are - what you get will be nothing but useless, empty praise from people who don't know the difference between writing and gumf, and you'll never get any better.
And if you don't think you need to improve, that even the greatest writers in history never strove to do better... well... maybe you could take your self-serving narcissism elsewhere, and stop snarking at people who are only trying to help.
Rant over.
I'm just started reading a WIP, and I shan't say which because I'm not going to F-lock this post, and after every chapter, the author pretty much demands reviews.
Now. As a writer myself, I understand that feedback and appreciation for your work is the beef in your broth, but there's an inelegance about asking for people to review. Maybe that makes me a snob, but writing for reviews is pretty horrific, no matter what the quality of the material.
In my opinion, this particular piece that I am referring to isn't of a spectacular quality. I've read through 5 chapters, and offered my feedback, because I think you should give people a chance with their work, otherwise no one would ever improve. If it were better written, I'd feel more bad about wanting to run a mile because of the grabbiness. But I must say, it seems a trend that poor writing, and authors who might be accused of having little talent (yes, I know, everyone starts somewhere, but let's be painfully honest and say that there are many fiction writers out there, a large proportion of which seem to be PUBLISHED (oh the horror of it all!) who are lacking in any decent skill) and the demand for reviews.
I know that I am likely to be stepping on a lot of people's toes with this one. However, whenever I see the "REVIEW!" plead at the end of a fic, when it's done inelegantly or even obnoxiously, I feel automatically less inclined to give feedback. I usually do anyway, but it's not an appealing thing.
I think the trouble behind these kinds of expectations writers sometimes have of their audience is that when you do provide useful criticism, you run the risk of being bitched at.
I call into point a situation in another fandom, because I have been lucky enough to avoid it in Supernatural fandom so far (not to say it doesn't happen), where I called a writer up on what I saw as an abundant abuse of the poor, meek comma. What I got in return was, frankly, a disgusting diatribe, full of abuse and swearing, from both author and (apparently) other readers.
It seems that all too often, people forget that fan fiction is a give and take relationship between audience and writer. No recognition or profit is made from it, sometimes writing takes precedent over real life, and the value of a good, constructive and polite criticism of honest flaws within a piece, as well as praise, is taken for granted.
I just felt like venting. I hate that people are so driven by recognition - the wonderful thing about fanfiction is it isn't run by sales figures, or popularity contests, or hey, reviews.
So why am I not f-locking this small storm of poop? Because the small percentage of fanfic writers out there who DON'T go around asking for epic recognition (and the ones who are SURPRISED when they're so popular) don't get the credit they deserve. They don't hold updates hostage for reviews. They write because they love doing it, and if no one reads their stuff, well, that sucks, but it's not the end of the world.
So my task for you: offer advice, congratulations, opinions, flails, squees, profound mental bondage, and demand MOAR because it's good. And if you don't take the few minutes it takes to reply to what likely took HOURS for a writer to work through, then don't go around demanding feedback in QUANTITY for your own work. Because chances are - what you get will be nothing but useless, empty praise from people who don't know the difference between writing and gumf, and you'll never get any better.
And if you don't think you need to improve, that even the greatest writers in history never strove to do better... well... maybe you could take your self-serving narcissism elsewhere, and stop snarking at people who are only trying to help.
Rant over.