BronxWench

While fan fiction is a great hobby and has been proven training grounds for some authors (Not Twilight or 50 shades) but some darn good fantasy writers, I think if someone is THAT obsessed with a fictional charater that they will spew off a crap ton of profanity and hatred at a total stranger who did nothing to them, perhaps they need to rethink their mental state. That just isn't healthy.

I think that's the part of the rabid fandom thing that bothers me the most. When you drive a person away from writing simply because they wrote a pairing that isn't "beloved" of the masses, there's something profoundly wrong with that fanbase. Some people need to step back, look long and hard in a mirror, and think about how they'd feel if they were on the receiving end of the vitriol they spew with such abandon.
Maybe there's a "50 Shades of Cyberbullying" out there handing out misinformation on what constitutes appropriate online behavior in a fandom?

I think that's the part of the rabid fandom thing that bothers me the most. When you drive a person away from writing simply because they wrote a pairing that isn't "beloved" of the masses, there's something profoundly wrong with that fanbase. Some people need to step back, look long and hard in a mirror, and think about how they'd feel if they were on the receiving end of the vitriol they spew with such abandon.
Maybe there's a "50 Shades of Cyberbullying" out there handing out misinformation on what constitutes appropriate online behavior in a fandom?

The Harry Potter fandom isn't much saner, to be very honest. I'd wager most fandoms can be obsessive. When I do write for a fandom, it's for a game fandom. The Dragon Age fandom doesn't seem quite as hysterical about sacred pairings, and I haven't been shot for my Neverwinter Nights 2 sidestep from the "canon" romance.
But, like Melrick, most of what I write is original fiction.

If I was going to read fanfiction, I'd much rather read stuff that I won't come across in the book/series/movie/whatever. After all, what's really the point if you can simply see it in the show/book/etc? I've really never understood that. A bit of variety is always nice.
A relevant quote from the wonderful English author Terry Pratchett: Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.

Yeah, we enjoy ripping flamers a new cavity, so feel free to report them.
As far as annoying, overly obsessive fans are concerned, I'm not sure if Harry Potter is as bad as it was, because as much as I really enjoyed the books, I found the fandom just a giant pain in the arse, where people demanded that everyone write stories exactly the way they know they should be written, so don't you dare write anything even slightly different! Screw that; screw that right to the wall and hang a picture on it. As much as I can see the appeal of writing fanfiction - all the hard work has been done for you - I much prefer to just stick to original fiction... when I can be bothered. I really don't like having my creativity stifled to such an enormous degree that it inevitably is when you write fanfiction.

If he becomes an annoyance here, we'd be happy to assist.

The Harry Potter fandom isn't much saner, to be very honest. I'd wager most fandoms can be obsessive. When I do write for a fandom, it's for a game fandom. The Dragon Age fandom doesn't seem quite as hysterical about sacred pairings, and I haven't been shot for my Neverwinter Nights 2 sidestep from the "canon" romance.
But, like Melrick, most of what I write is original fiction.

The Harry Potter fandom isn't much saner, to be very honest. I'd wager most fandoms can be obsessive. When I do write for a fandom, it's for a game fandom. The Dragon Age fandom doesn't seem quite as hysterical about sacred pairings, and I haven't been shot for my Neverwinter Nights 2 sidestep from the "canon" romance.
But, like Melrick, most of what I write is original fiction.

I like constructive criticism, although I'll never turn down glowing praise. I might blush a little, but I do like it. What.s really, REALLY useful is knowing what worked for readers, and what didn't. My editor was all bothered by one review on Goodreads, where the reader felt I could have done more character development in my debut novella. And you know what? That reader had a valid point. I don't see that as a negative, because it tells me what I need to do better. The reader did go on to say that they were looking forward to the second book. Let's hope I did better, but if not, that's still valid from that reader's perspective, and I'm not crushed to be told that.
I don't worry so much about long or short, or if it's one returning reviewer or many reviewers. When I write online, either is fine. When I publish, I get one shot at a review, so it's not an issue.

I've got to admit, I like praise and admiration (who doesn't?), and I like concrit just as much really, once I've had time to think about it.
But...
The reviews I adore are those that are a clear emotional response to what I've written. They're not always "good" reviews, since I have been known to write some rather horrific things. My favourite ever was quite long and the reviewer was sorry they had read the story, because they couldn't get it out of their mind, but they did acknowledge they'd been warned, and decided to ignore it, and then were subsequently afflicted by the horror and the atmosphere. *nods* I like those kind. It meant I did the job right for that person, regardless whether they "enjoyed" it or not.
Likewise, when I've written things I consider to be comedies, and someone says they laughed. They're good, too.
I suppose what I'm saying is that for me, the aim of all writing is to make the reader feel things, and if I get some indication I did that accurately, I'm really happy.

I like constructive criticism, although I'll never turn down glowing praise. I might blush a little, but I do like it. What.s really, REALLY useful is knowing what worked for readers, and what didn't. My editor was all bothered by one review on Goodreads, where the reader felt I could have done more character development in my debut novella. And you know what? That reader had a valid point. I don't see that as a negative, because it tells me what I need to do better. The reader did go on to say that they were looking forward to the second book. Let's hope I did better, but if not, that's still valid from that reader's perspective, and I'm not crushed to be told that.
I don't worry so much about long or short, or if it's one returning reviewer or many reviewers. When I write online, either is fine. When I publish, I get one shot at a review, so it's not an issue.

Constructive Criticism is probably best for me, pointing out things like missing words and incorrectly chosen words (the stuff that spell checkers don't pick up and I haven't noticed on my own check through), although "I came over your story" and "X part was hot because Y" is always nice when it is porn, and slightly confusing when it isn't.
But I'll take pretty much anything.

Hi guys,
I'm just wondering. We writers know it's hard to get reviews here, especially detailed ones that are clearly personalised to the exact stories we've posted up (ie., more specific than just, 'plz rite moar'.
I'm just wondering: if you could get the reviews you crave, what sorts would you want:
Glowing praise and encouragement?
Constructive criticism?
A mix of both?
Short and sweet reviews?
Long reviews? (and what does 'long' mean to you?)
Lots of reviews from one-time reviewers?
A series of reviews from the same reviewer who keeps coming back?
Do you like having a breakdown of your spelling and grammatical errors in reviews, or does it annoy you when that happens?
What else do you look for in reviews?
Just wonderin'!

Okay, because I was obviously NOT clear enough in my previous post:
DO NOT POST LINKS TO A STORY THAT THE AUTHOR HAS REMOVED. DO NOT POST LINKS TO A SITE THAT DOES NOT HOST THE STORY WITH THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT AND PERMISSION.
Michally took the story down, does NOT wish it posted, and we will not allow this forum to be used as a conduit for piracy. If you can't abide by our rules, don't post here.

One of the things lists like that don't take into account is author voice. For creative writing, as opposed to blogging or writing textbooks/technical manuals, every author has a voice, a personal style. Stephen King abhors adverbs. George RR Martin takes delight in killing off as many characters as possible in as short a span as can be managed. Ray Bradbury strings together words until they become music. But all of those differences are why readers love them. It's their voice.
I think a writer needs to care about good grammar in the narrative portions of a story, while dialogue can be looser. I think worrying about repetitive use of certain phrases is fine, and looking for alternatives to the more common action phrases (he looked, she smiled) is wonderful. But I also think that worrying too much about conforming to a checklist runs the risk of ruining that voice. If you've ever done that little test to see who you write like, it's our quirks that make us sound like one of the "name" authors, not how well we pare out the forbidden words of the moment.

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And just like that, we've all got something else in common!

The very first thing I ever wrote was handwritten, because I just love dating myself here. I put it aside until I had time to type it, and never saw it again.
In retrospect, I'm entirely sure it was a mercy killing by the universe as a whole.

The very first thing I ever wrote was handwritten, because I just love dating myself here. I put it aside until I had time to type it, and never saw it again.
In retrospect, I'm entirely sure it was a mercy killing by the universe as a whole.

My first story was hand written, which I had for ages until it mercifully disappeared. I also had a typewritten story or two that likewise thankfully disappeared. Suffice to say, I'm not exactly crying in my soup that they're gone.

The very first thing I ever wrote was handwritten, because I just love dating myself here. I put it aside until I had time to type it, and never saw it again.
In retrospect, I'm entirely sure it was a mercy killing by the universe as a whole.

I had a 70 chapter, 350,000 word story running around that ended up deleted between computers. There are fragments existing on various sites, but at this point they read more like loose outlines than my actual chapters.

Somewhere my mother has a pile of school exercise books from when I was around seven or eight, full of stories about alien abduction and criminal overuse of the word 'suddenly'
Every now and again, an anguished cry echoes through England as I lose access to another hard drive, though to be fair it's been a few years since the last time that happened.
I've lost more work than I can bring to mind, and more than I want to remember, but I do still mourn the loss of an SPN/Torchwood crossover I was working on years ago that I never posted.

My very first fanfic, Harry Potter, Snape/OFC. I took it down to work on it and my kid ran a magnetic toy over the CD.