BookMaggot

My favourite review should be in my signature.
Makes me laugh every time I see it

Oh hilarious! I just had to say something. When I first read this, I read "Unohana wiped Shunsui's ass." I thought, WTF? Did he soil himself or something? Oh yeah, I know better, I read the chapter, but I couldn't stop laughing at the imagery.

Laughing so hard as I catch up on this thread right now. I took all of several years worth of reviews from the two sites I posted on, the good, bad, and ugly. Now I am completely revamping a whole series at the moment and moving them to this site in the Initial D archive section.
Looks like I must warn everyone that I helped a dear friend who is a reading fanatic to get onto this site. She doesn't write, but she will review anything that catches her eyes. Every single chapter . . . Not even kidding here. She and I met when I was an active Urbis contributing writer who royally sucked at the time.
For 10 years, any site I start posting on, she starts combing through looking for gems to entertain herself. She's partially paralyzed and something of a shut in so she does have plenty of time. The reason she has stuck with me for so many years is she likes my way of turning phrases. She has helped me get even better at finding new ways with words.
Please be nice to OldOwl if she does review your work. She's one incredible asset if you look at her review with an eye for "maybe I can fix that little problem" mindset. She tells me every single typo and every grammar problem, and I absolutely love her for it. She's helped me improve my writing greatly over 10 years. Sometimes she goes on character kicks, and sometimes she's a grammar Nazi, but OldOwl is one of the greatest assets any writer could ever befriend.
She broke me of the horrific bad habit of not being well versed in which character was talking to the other. Now I have that trait down pat. She is the reason I learned to use idioms, catch phrases, and other tricks like stuttering and other personality keying factors to make the character personalities clear through the way they spoke to each other. I can assure everyone she is worth listening to when she does tackle a project. After all, I'm pig headed and she tackled me and won me over. ROFL.
Frankly, this is the first time she has reviewed any of my work without growling that she should have known which character was talking without the proverbial Character 1 said and Character 2 replied tags.

Reviews make the world go round ^^ It's a fact. So in light of this I would like to hear from different writers what the worst or best review was you ever got, and how did you react/get through it?
Just one rule: This is NOT a bashing fic, don't insult people . Try to keep it anonymous as far as possible! We don't want any trouble Of course if you want to thank a reviewer for anything then by all means! Just use your own discretion and don't be mean about it.
My worst review was in regards to a Watchmen fic I wrote years ago. And this particular reviewer told me, and I quote:
"This is probably the most shallow and pathetic attempt at humour I have witnessed. The story was very predictable, unimaginative and a simple theme was handled very poorly. From someone who has written a few good stories, I really expected better. Better luck next time."
Yeah I went fetal for like three hours before my friend came in, and then I started crying. I felt better after that but I stopped writing for like a month, I didn't type a word, and almost deleted my account. I was fifteen, okay? >_< Everytime I tried to write I started crying again.
Eventually I got over it, but I still carry this with me. It's a constant reminder that just because I am writing well doesn't mean that I can throw-up anything and people will still see it as good.
Humility is a painful lesson >_<

But... butbutbutbutbut.... I like fanpoodles
Lol, just kidding. No I completely agree with what you said. We need reviews to tell us we're doing fine, they give us comfort and security. In how you present yourself through PM's and A/N depends also on whether you get reviews. Which is a factor not a lot of people consider or realize. I am not a big chat-fan per se... I talk to much at home lol, so I don't always say a lot at forums and stuff >_>. But at the end of the day reviews have to be appreciated for good or bad. Especially those long essays that blatantly expose every insecurity you've ever harbored.
But then again those silly fan-drooling posts where they act all silly and make you feel like the awesomest writer ever... it really does something special to the cynical bastard inside us all.
Like shuts it up for a few minutes
It's always the dillema I think we all face. That mix and match feeling of anger and depression when we don't get any recognition for the work we put into a story.
Oddly enough when we wait that long for a review we usually appreciate them alot more, even if they're a two word review along the lines of 'Dis AWESOME!". And at the same time when we get instant gratification, like they review two minutes after you post, you feel great but unless it's a long review, we usually feel a little peeved and cheated. Like mostly we think... "why aren't you telling me how awesome my dialogue is?" It's not wrong it's just most of us are very insecure about these types of things! O_o
I think all fanfiction writers (maybe men excluded) will always have that self conciouse and insecure teenage girl inside of us. It's like the night before prom or some other big dance. Eveyrone's telling you you look fine and you look great, and some of us will say "No! Are you an absolute twat? EVERYONE is going to be there, I need to look good!"
Others will say, "I don't really care, let's just get going," and some more might even say "I look great, I'm going to be soooo pretty!"
But when you get there all of us turn into that insecure one. Because we want to look good, and part of us want to be noticed and when someone drops a comment on our dress. It feels awesome. Not because we're vain but we went through a lot of trouble to look this good, and its nice to be noticed, even by a passerby. And it's always special when people you don't even know tell you you look beautiful.
But no matter how many times we go through it, everytime you put on a new dress and get ready for the next dance or wedding, the same butterfiles will come, the same insecuriteis and until someone tells you you look good, you won't be able to breathe.
*clears throat*
I think this post ran away with me >_>

::chuckles:: I promise not to pummel anyone.
I'm going to speak strictly as an author here, and not as staff, so keep that in mind.
I love reviews. I love the quick "That was great!" reviews, and I love when someone takes the time to leave a long and thoughtful review chock full of the kind of concrit that will make me improve as a writer. I like to know what works, and I like to know what doesn't, because I'm not suffering from the delusion that I'm awesome. I'm good, but I can be better. Lots better.
Now, I don't care if you want to leave me a quick line, and then come chat on my review thread. That's wonderful, and I'd love to hear the concrit portion there. I'm fine with forum PMs, too. But the whole point is that I like to know I'm not just wanking here. I like to know people are reading, and I like to know how they reacted to what I wrote.
I don't always have a lot of time to leave long reviews, but I'll try to at least say something if I take the time to read a story. If I get the feeling an author wants real dialogue, as opposed to just pats and squeals of delight, I'm happy to chat more. That's how I've met some marvelous people.
I won't fanpoodle, though. That is just beneath me, and anyone over the age of twelve, actually. You want blind adoration, get a dog. I'm more of a dragon myself.

I think most of us are in the same boat here. We feel offended with opinions and we struggle to express opinions without offending. >_< We artists are such balanced people!
But I must say that I don't agree whole-heartedly with everything that's been said. I rarely review-
-Don't pummel me before I've finished-!
-and when I do review I PM them. Well most of them if the option is there. And if I don't feel like I am annoying them. And they were recently online. And... oh whatever I PM them! Okay?
My own opinion is, and please this is my opinion you may pummel me with apples should you feel the need, is that if you write an in depth review it is for the authors eyes only. The reason why I feel like this is because my own experience has had me cross paths with people who take GREAT satisfaction in telling you exactly what is wrong with your story, with an attitude that can't be called rude but definately 'Better than thou' This has thankfully not happened on AFF though but people are very sparse with reviews at the same time
This 'better than thou' attitude has led me to believe that some reviewers review to get attention for themselves, and to show off how good they are. And awesome and smart and pretty and.... *sigh* it makes me feel inadquet for some reason.
It also curbs that 'I need reviews to show how good my story is' bug. Because the person gets an indepth (well as deep as I can go with my choop wings) idea of his story and doesn't feel like the mistakes are being broadcasted all over the world. My opinion as I stated >_>
So personally I don't mind if people don't review. Because I don't always review myself. I appreciate it whole-heartedly, like seriously I go nuts, and if they review my story I will review theirs. But... I would rather send a PM if I can rather than posting it on the story. And if they request I will happily post something on the story itself, which will still be honest but not glaringly pointing out the faults. AFF does not offer PM's and I'm not comfortable with sending it to the forums because not everyone is active on them, so they might miss it.
Right. I get the idea alot of people are glaring at me and hankering to throw the very sharp objects they are holding O_o...
*Puts on armor and helmet*
Proceed to beat me into oblivion!

I'm glad I found this thread. I wrote a bit of a rant on my bio in the archive section regarding this very thing shortly after I made an account. I've also recently emailed with a new author to AFF about it after she contacted me regarding a review I left (that she liked).
I found that my viewpoint has morphed over the short time I've spent on AFF. I started out very indignant about the "lack of reviews" and decided to set an example by reviewing everything I read. I even soapboxed in a review about other non-reviewers. I didn't flame anyone, though, because if I didn't like the story within about 9 paragraphs, I'd leave without a review.
Then I decided to write, for the first time. I figured that I should experience the other side for my reviews to be of any real value. I discovered the need and joy of getting reviewed. I lucked out because the fact that I had made an effort to review others, some returned the favour. This only fuelled my resolve to continue to review the stories I like. I had a momentary lapse of self-pity that some of the authors that I reviewed religiously, and was sometimes the only reviewer, had not honoured me with their opinion. However, I'm not upset anymore that others do not. Not everyone is in my headspace, feeling a responsiblity to support my fellow amateur writers.
I'm here to express my creativity, a facet of my being that has been neglected for decades, and I'm happy not to be an expert or genius, but maybe I can give someone else a smile, someone whose not too picky that I'm not very professional. If I get one review, especially from someone whose writing I respect and enjoy, it's worth it. A single review means that you shared with someone, not much different than talking with friend or coworker and getting a response for your effort. That is why I won't be discouraged and will continue to write and review as much as I'm compelled to.
While I really don't get why its hard to leave a review, I've accepted that situation as it is. Ranting doesn't change it. I never have a recaptcha problem. I always copy before I attempt and have only had it fail a couple of times, though my review didn't disappear. I even think that some of nonsense words are funny and worth exploring what their meaning could be. Has there been a topic on that?

I'm going to say this honestly... if you are here to get reviews, get out now. This isn't the place to do that. Some fandoms, especially those that cater to younger beings, get those no matter what craptastic, unreadable BS you put up but most of the fandoms don't get the kind of thing you are looking for, especially the older ones. Some stories, ones that have gone on forever, do get such things but newer ones from authors people don't know tend to not get the mega-hits or review counts. However, though reviews might be scarce as hen's teeth, that doesn't mean what you do get doesn't mean anything. Hell, I have a multitude of stories on this site that have been up for years that have no reviews. A few even came down to be published, and I don't mean self-published either, though they had no reviews on this site. Lack of reviews means nothing. It means that people aren't reviewing for their own reasons. You also need to take into account the concept of review karma, meaning the more YOU review, the more apt you are to get them in return. It does tend to work that way.
Reviews are an odd thing. As so many have pointed out, many stories that get mega hits, reviews and rates aren't worth it and you wonder if those that did that read the same one you did while really good ones don't get such things. It just goes that way on all sites I've seen.
In closing, I'll say this... if you like what you're doing and do it for your own reason, what difference do reviews make to you anyway?

Lol, I guess I am a little loose when it comes to reviews. I have noticed on AFF that people don't review very often, and when they do I am always relieved and so overjoyed that I don't really register what they say >_<
A review is a review I feel. You can't expect more from it. It's the reviewers emotions and feeling poured into a long or short comment and you can't really want to kick them in the guts for it.
I have never gotten the idea that they don't read the story. If anyone reviews a story of mine I appreciate it to the full because when you think about it not alot of people actually go through the effort to review. Most just read, enjoy the story check for updates and that's that. Out of 810 hits on my one story I've got three reviews. Which tells me the staggering ratio of view per review. I personally read between ten to fifteen stories a day, and I review once every two weeks. So if I do review it means I really did enjoy the story.
So I honestly don't think we should get angry abou this just the fact that they take the time to do so says a lot about how much they enjoyed it, no matter how insignifcant or silly the 'review' or comment is They thought you worthy of it, and I always feel a little flattered when they do