Bad Reactions to Constructive Criticism

[Cuckoo]

Have you ever given a piece of constructive criticism and had your head chewed off by the writer, 'cause they're just the greatest when it comes to writing and can do no wrong (Exaggerating, I know not all writers think that.)

I don't know, it's like, yeah, you might be writing to have fun, but that doesn't really excuse a very badly written story that has been posted for others to read. Am I right to judge badly written stories, though? Absolutely not. It's when I'm attacked for KINDLY pointing out glaring errors that completely detract from the story that I'm trying to enjoy is when we're gonna have problems.

There's been one that gets on my mind occasionally, that ticked me off when it happened and is actually a pretty large reason why I don't even bother to review bad stories anymore. I really just wanted to share, get it off my chest and see what others think.

See, a few years ago I read the first two or three chapters of a HP fanfic, and there were incredibly large glaring errors that I pointed out, 'cause I'm of the mind that just because a story is marked 'complete' doesn't mean people aren't going to start reading it from the beginning and things can be fixed up. For this particular story, there were a complete lack of commas, it was either fragmented sentences or run-on sentences. It was almost unreadable. Definitely a headache, but the plot seemed good, so I thought I might give a quick word, 'cause, hey, sometimes the writing gets better by the end of the story and it can become one of my favorites. I'd even went to the last chapter and, low and behold, the writing had improved. Still, beginning chapters can completely ruin it for a reader. In my review I mentioned the issue, but went on to say that I LIKED the story, thought it had potential and planned on continuing. I suppose I stopped for the night, with the intention of continuing it the next day, 'cause that was the last chapter I read of it after receiving the most nasty reply to my review. I still have that response saved to my e-mail, too.

This is it (can I post even post this? If it means anything it was on FF.net)

Subject: the only thing worse than a beta w h o r e is a stupid beta w h o r e

A response to your review at:

Get a pair of eyes. On avergae, every sentence has beteen 2 and 3 commas in
them, are you 1. blind and can't see what is a comma and what is a sentence or
2. stupid.

I normally tell asses who think they have to be beta prostitutes to go to
Betas whores are us, and leave those of us having fun alone. But your grammar
is too stupid, I don't think they'll hire. So no, I don't know what you mean.

I just can't let it go. I'd like to say it keeps me in line if I'm ever responding to CC but it's not true, because I welcome it, as I KNOW my stories aren't the best. It doesn't mean I can't see bad grammar in other stories, and point it out.

And I know I shouldn't let it affect me like it has, but just thinking about it makes me so angry, and maybe it's not as nasty as some have seen, and that I'm making a larger deal out of it, but, gah! What's funny is, I checked the reviews for that story just a bit ago, and most of the others said the same thing I did, that the first few chapters flowed horribly and grammar was atrocious. There were many that said they couldn't finish the story by how horribly written it was.

While searching for the above e-mail I did come across another reply to to another review on *gasp* another story. I guess I had mentioned some grammar issue that the writer had, and the the writer came back and joked about it. It was very nice, she was understanding and respectful.

Still, with the reply I got for the HP fic, it was the last time I gave out CC for a long while.

I'm curious if others have had bad experiences with CC. Even those on the other side, the writers that have been given CC, have you had reviews from people that just don't understand or know what they're talking about?

Edit: Just remembered, after they sent that nasty reply, they immediately blocked me, so I couldn't message them back or review on their story again.

Edited September 28, 2014 by Cuckoo

[BronxWench]

Okay. I'm going to stand right up and stay this loud and proud...

I love good concrit.

There. I said it. Now, what do I mean by good concrit? Tell me where I screw up, by all means. If I have run-on sentences (a major problem of mine), tell me. If I messed up the chronology of a story, or have a dangling thread, tell me. If my vocabulary for a character is quite frankly OOC, tell me. All of these things are things I need to know to improve as a writer, and I know I can improve. I'll keep trying to do better until they pry the keyboard (or whatever it's become in future) from my cold, dead fingers.

But I also need to know that I did some things right. Tell me what worked, what you loved, what made you stick with me long enough to want to review.

I'm going to quote a review I got here, on AFF:

kurahieiritr kurahieiritr@gmail, com 2013-07-06 id # 3000209063 I liked the way you threw the character into action immediately. I was firmly looking over the character's shoulder through your story which is always a pleasure. I knew who I was riding along with, and I felt connected. My only problem was a few overly long sentences that were not quite true compounds. The long sentences could easily be spliced into independent standing sentences. Other techniques that would work include removing extra prepositional phrases. Setting details off in more direct structures with an action set off with a very limited number of details per action would clarify the wordy feeling or awkward reading spots. There are not many of those to require worry. Yet, a clean up would not be remiss.

Another positive aspect for your writing is the active voice use. It is rare to find someone who is consistent in voice tone. Staying in character with an active voice is one of your writing strengths. I would love to see more detail in the outer space fight, but that is simply a personal desire because I enjoyed the active writing style. I hope you continue writing for years to come. I have 2 email addresse=s, the second is kurahieiritr@yahoo.com

I haven't made it back to fix the issues, but can I tell you how awesome a review this is? And this detail was for a 1,000 word flash fic. I LOVE reviews like this. Don't get me wrong. I won't turn away a short and sweet, "Loved it!" review, because that's always fun. I don't even mind hearing, "I just didn't get into it." That's fair enough, and I'm not silly enough to expect everyone to always love my work. But to take the time to give a thoughtful review like this is just so damned flattering to me as a writer.

Now, why don't we see more of this? Authors like the one you encountered, who only want to hear how marvelous they are. Me, I learned a long time ago that we only learn by making mistakes. So, I play with words, and put them together, and I really, really want someone to tell me what they think.

I do try to give concrit when I can, but I have to admit, it's harder as a staff member. I'm always mindful that I am an archive mod here, and even though I only leave concrit reviews as just another member, I do run the risk of someone thinking it's an official sort of thing. Trust me, it's not, and I am making a conscious effort to review more when I read for pleasure. And so far, no one has hated my concrit, so let's hope that continues.

[magusfang]

Eh, If I give a little advice or point out errors and get something like that, I just let it roll off my back; if you don't want my help so be it. I get constructive advice all the time and I just gotta say FU I"M PERFECT SO THERE!!!...no just kidding. I have a problem with typos, and I'm gonna blame it on large manly hands

But I do make errors in the stoy line from time to time. Those that read BITG know how I accidently changed someone's eye color...

But I like when people point it out because I tend to see what I wanted to write and not always what I actually wrote (I wonder does this happen to other people) and someone will point it out and I'm like no way and go check and them I'm like shit!

But even if you don't agree with the review, there's no reason to get nasty; even if the review is nasty, don't lower yourself to their level, just ignore it.

now before everyone slams me for this post, I know that the grammer and spelling are atrocious but I have been up for like 48 hours....(that's a pity plea in case you missed it)

[DemonGoddess]

Like you, being flamed for leaving concrit years ago made it so for that a long time I wouldn't review at all. Now, I do make the effort. If I read something, I leave something.

[Cuckoo]

I'm not going to lie, I love the reviews telling me how much they like my story, my writing style, characters, etc. but I do like the CC. Keeps me on my toes, and I do like knowing if there's something I'm doing wrong, so that I can correct it.

Recently I recieved a review from someone who, while they enjoyed my story, were having a problem with my sentence structure. They told me why it was wrong, gave me advice on fixing it, and gave me an example of how the sentences in question read.

Of course, I thanked her for it, and went on to have a friendly, albeit short conversation about it. From now on it'll be something that I'll watch when writing.

Easy as that.

[BronxWench]

I'm not going to lie, I love the reviews telling me how much they like my story, my writing style, characters, etc. but I do like the CC. Keeps me on my toes, and I do like knowing if there's something I'm doing wrong, so that I can correct it.

Recently I recieved a review from someone who, while they enjoyed my story, were having a problem with my sentence structure. They told me why it was wrong, gave me advice on fixing it, and gave me an example of how the sentences in question read.

Of course, I thanked her for it, and went on to have a friendly, albeit short conversation about it. From now on it'll be something that I'll watch when writing.

Easy as that.

Exactly.

What I keep in mind is that most of these authors who can't take concrit have never been through a professional editing. An editor is not there to make you feel good about your work. An editor is there to make you clean up your grammar, and make your work presentable. They don't hold your hand and tell you that you're wonderful. They tell you what needs fixing, and then YOU get to fix it. You might get a chapter or two marked up to show you what to do, but you're on your own for the rest, You find it, you fix it.

And you know what? If you have half a brain in your skull, the next time you're doing that last round of proofreading before you submit something to a publisher, you LOOK for that stuff your editor made you fix, and you fix it before you submit the manuscript. You learn from the experience, and it makes you a better writer. You won't get pats on the back, and you won't be told how clever and wonderful you are, but you might not have to work quite as hard on the edits for that new manuscript.

And even as online authors, we owe it to ourselves and to our readers to be as professional as possible. That includes using proper grammar, running spell checks, and paying attention to the story line. It also includes wanting to improve, and accepting honest concrit gracefully. No one is saying you have to put up with flames, but learn to tell the difference between a flame and concrit. Simple litmus test? If it involves the story, or its mechanics, it's concrit. If it's about you as a person, and it's negative, it's a flame.

[bookworm51485]

Definitely, yeah. Yes. Yup. All the time. Today in fact :-)

I'm of a mind that a writer doesn't improve unless they receive positive AND negative criticism. No story is perfect, no writer is perfect and if no one ever points out things that need to improve, how will you? I know that it's possible to self-critique, but often it just doesn't work well. Myself, for instance, I've been known to write a completely nonsensical sentence and when reading it back, consistently read it the way I intended to write it instead of the way it was actually written. This is something that someone else reading it back would spot in a second, but my eyes missed it. So negative criticism is to be embraced, I know I seek it out because I prefer for my final products to be as high quality as possible. And I agree, even after that final product has been put out and completed, there's no reason why you can't go back and change something. I will admit that frustrates me with some authors. They'll spell a character's name incorrectly, a location incorrectly, make a canon mistake or even a mistake within their own established universe, acknowledge it when you mention it (sometimes even say that someone else already mentioned it, in a snide tone), yet refuse to go back and fix it... I don't get that.

But yeah, I've had some pretty negative responses to constructive criticism. I think one of the funniest was this one author who had maybe... 20 or so profiles. Yes, it was pretty clear that this was the same person. All from Canada, all using the same format for creating story summaries, and all stories the same basic variation of the others (even using identical phrasing at points). And when you'd send criticism, the response would consistently be NASTY and if you mention the other profiles, yeah... Somehow on one of the Yahoo fanfiction groups a couple of us came together and started collecting a list of all the profiles this one person had... It was pretty interesting and it makes you wonder what they do all day, that they have time to put up all these stories, even if they were all pretty identical.

I had another author once sic her readership on me for pointing out that rape is not a plot device leading to neverending love. Got nasty emails for awhile until they quit.

I had an author tell me that I had mental issues because I made a play on words joke about one of the characters that she, as an author within the fandom should have picked up on, and pointed out a few negatives. In this case, I actually included several positives before hand, but I guess those negatives were too much for her, and she went off. Tried to report it to the site (AO3) and the Abuse reporter was even more ridiculous (i.e. she essentially said that if you dare to leave negative critique for an author, constructive though it may be, you better bend over and take it if they decide to get nasty)

And just today, I had an author take offense when I pointed out that her Mary Sue was a Mary Sue and defend her refusal to label her OC character on her story, even though her OC was the main character. Something she neglected to mention in the summary or the warnings and that a reader doesn't figure out until a few chapters in because of how she chose to write the character's introduction. As if fooling you into wasting your time reading a story about an OC when you know you have no interest in reading stories about OCs (I specifically filter against them on ff.net because I'm not interested) will make you a reader for life.

So yeah, it happens. And often you can't do anything about it. It's frustrating as hell, but you just have to ignore it.... and post their story title and url on various forums so other like-minded individuals know to avoid like the plague.