TheBlackadder Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Okay, Has anyone else had this problem? You're writing a story, all gung ho and gang busters, popping out chapters day after day, then suddenly BAM. One bad review and you have instantly developed writers block. It's strange really, I mean I got boatloads of good reviews on the story, but one detailed, extensive, long winded critic seems to have just shut down my creativeness. Why is that? I can usually take criticism constructive or otherwise, but in this instance I've developed writers block. What's that all about? Oceans of Love, ~Marian the Blackadder~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saitochan Posted October 23, 2008 Report Share Posted October 23, 2008 Well, there's not a single writer out there that can deny the reader's influence on his stories. Sometimes, critics can be a lot harsher than we expect them to be, but think that if someone took enough time to find and point out all of your mistakes, as well as suggestions to correct them, they help you improve your writing skills. On a different note, the total opposite thing happened to me. I was used to writing without any kind of feedback, and managed to produce some rather decent chapters. But when I posted a really good chapter, i began receiving positive reviews... and those were what gave me a writer's block. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FlamesEmbrace Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 It's happened to me before, back when I still commonly posted my writings. ^^() Lots of mindless support, the occassional bit of advice or amusing flame would make me want to keep writing, while one detailed (and not even mean-spirited!) critique would make me shut down. It can be kinda silly and not make much sense, but I don't think it's that rare. Critique takes a bit of practice to swallow effectively... I've had to take a lot of it, and I've learned to appreciate it and respect how important it is, and I still don't much care for it. xD *ashamed* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBlackadder Posted October 24, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 I'm not saying that it hasn't helped improve my writing since I first started. I actually still have the first story and fanfic that I wrote and I can easily say i've come ALONG way LOL. I mean, REALLY come along way. This one, horrible, horrible person that was like an Ex-English major or something tore me a new one inside and out, and of course I got the all feared "Mary Sue" badge. Even though the person I was writting about was nothing like me, and she was kind of a wuss and guys had to save her left and right. Lets be honest here, Pirates of the Caribbean, even though it's my all time FAVORITE Trilogy . . . .isn't it one big Mary Sue story? I mean REALLY!!! The only thing Elizabeth had going for her was the kiss of death. Every time someone kissed her they had a life span of four minutes. Every single person she kissed died. Okay, i'm digressing and getting off topic, but the point is!!! I learned valuable lessons. 1. Don't use YOUR name in the story for the character 2. Run on sentences are not good. When one sentence makes up one long winded paragraph, it's a problem. 3. Don't repeat yourself (Unfortunately, I still have a problem with this one. Repitition is my curse when fighting writers block) 4. Conflict is a GOOD thing. 5. Sex scenes don't have to be a blow by blow discriptive porno, in fact they are better when much is left to the imagination. That's just some of the lessons i've learned. There are more, and I'm still struggling to improve my writting, but I think the TONE of some reviews are sort of . . . condecending? Those are the kind of reviews that irritate me. Expecially when those people who make those sort of toned reviews don't even have anything posted of their own. Oceans of Love, ~Marian the Blackadder~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wicked_Kitten. Posted October 24, 2008 Report Share Posted October 24, 2008 Yup, sometimes a review can take the wind right out of your sails. Makes you read through your work and then doubt it and then all of sudden you're not posting because you want absolute perfection.... Scary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ezriee Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 I've had that happen to me once, and I take what they're saying as their opinion, and sometimes it does add to the writers block that I already have. After a while, I start to think 'Its fanfiction, I don't have an editior or any deadlines to meet...I shouldn't stress over someone's opinion, but it doesn't hurt to take a little advice,' Then I look at the review counts for all my stories, whether they be on aff or ff.net net and go 'Well, out of all those reviews, only one bad one, so many others are enjoying my work.' I know I'm not perfect and I know I make mistakes, but that just means that I will be scanning my stories when I get chances to to try to fix them. I don't, and never did understand why people have to be nasty about reviews when it comes to errors made by an author. Jebus, its flipping FANFICTION. I admit, I don't like mary sue's or oc's much, but if I happen to read any story where there's errors, I will leave a review (if they don't have an email listed) telling them what the error is and suggesting a correction. Personally, I think that kind of stuff should be done in private more often than not. I'm sorry that you had to deal with that. I simply think that if you don't have something nice to say, or something helpful to say (in an adult, non-confrontational manner), just move on to the next story in your list of things to read and dont say anything at all. Being a archive mod for aff, believe me, I see many, many horrid stories where the grammar is awful, the plots are mediocre at best or something that just irritates me. I don't flame or criticize that person to the 7th layer of hell because of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBlackadder Posted October 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 I have a feeling that the most helpful reviews CAN be the most scathing ones. But at the same time, it's hard to grow a shell and take criticism well. Especially when it's severe and makes you feel about half an inch tall and as low as a worms belly. I mean, you put all this thought, imagination and hard work into a story and POOF . . . . your told you suck. My grammar and spelling is probley one of the worst out there. I have mistakes left and right, but someone once pointed out to me is because I type extremely fast, and the ideas and stories go through my fingers the instant they go through my head. Hence the terrible mistakes I get because i'm not writting slowly. I'm writting what pops into my head. It irritates me that there is no such thing as a useful grammer check in any word document program whatsoever, but the spelling check is a God sent, even if sometimes it changes the word or gets it completely wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDenton Posted October 30, 2008 Report Share Posted October 30, 2008 I have a feeling that the most helpful reviews CAN be the most scathing ones. But at the same time, it's hard to grow a shell and take criticism well. Especially when it's severe and makes you feel about half an inch tall and as low as a worms belly. I mean, you put all this thought, imagination and hard work into a story and POOF . . . . your told you suck. My grammar and spelling is probley one of the worst out there. I have mistakes left and right, but someone once pointed out to me is because I type extremely fast, and the ideas and stories go through my fingers the instant they go through my head. Hence the terrible mistakes I get because i'm not writting slowly. I'm writting what pops into my head. It irritates me that there is no such thing as a useful grammer check in any word document program whatsoever, but the spelling check is a God sent, even if sometimes it changes the word or gets it completely wrong. ^^ well I must say I can completely indentify with that (although I have improved a lot since I first started writing), still I type very fast and make a lot of errors. Thank god I have found a beta reader who is going through my chapters before I post them on this (and other) sites. So it might be recommended to do the same. And the flaming critic... well it's always easier to take a dump on something then to create something from nothing, so don't be bother to much about it. And if the things he says are usefull well learn from them (but I figured from your reactions you are already doing that ^^) And you'll get better the longer you write ^^, my first chapters that were corrected by my beta were... well almost completely red ^^, but I got a lot better. It helps to see what you do wrong rather then just to hear someone say your gramma sucks (if you catch my drift) And a beta can be a great help with that. And if someone starts complaining about how you write your story (so not about the poorly constructed sentences or faulty gramma, but really where you are taking the story) >.> Don't listen to it, it's your story so you write it the way you like it. It can be helpfull if you consider someone's advice on somethings (like 'maybe you should stall a little in your stories, to keep the tension up' or something like that) but if you don't want to don't feel obliged to. At first I thought my chapters were to short so I desperately tried to write long chapters... which didn't work at all for me. So I now write pretty short chapters, but they fit my story more then the long ones. well good luck with your story ^^, I bet it will be great ^^ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taziekins Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 Back when I used to post on FF.net I put a note on my profile saying flamers would be reported to admin since only an idiot would read a fic after going past the paragraph stating the content warnings, and ignoring the fact that said warning included stuff they didn't want to read. I mostly get writers block because I'm a perfectionist who never gets it right, and my own worst critic. I'm currently trundling along with my first attempt at an original piece of writing, and it took me six months of constant tweaking to be satisfied with chapter one. My long list of self perceived faults include: silly spelling mistakes ("gonig" instead of "going" "jsut" instead of "just" etc.) repitition long winded paragraphs of internal character monologue "jumping" scenarios that just don't flow like they should Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canterro Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 Back when I used to post on FF.net I put a note on my profile saying flamers would be reported to admin since only an idiot would read a fic after going past the paragraph stating the content warnings, and ignoring the fact that said warning included stuff they didn't want to read.I mostly get writers block because I'm a perfectionist who never gets it right, and my own worst critic. I'm currently trundling along with my first attempt at an original piece of writing, and it took me six months of constant tweaking to be satisfied with chapter one. My long list of self perceived faults include: silly spelling mistakes ("gonig" instead of "going" "jsut" instead of "just" etc.) repitition long winded paragraphs of internal character monologue "jumping" scenarios that just don't flow like they should well, then take my advice and find a beta-reader it's really helpful to have an extra pair of eyes to take care of your story development. with fresh minds beta-readers always catch things that you can't notice being too immersed in the fiction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taziekins Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 I did have one, my best friends (then) bf, but when they split he moved away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Savaial Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 well, then take my advice and find a beta-reader it's really helpful to have an extra pair of eyes to take care of your story development. with fresh minds beta-readers always catch things that you can't notice being too immersed in the fiction. I agree whole-heartedly. I have a "sometimes" beta that catches the stupid things I do, like leaving out entire words. Word processing programs, while helpful, can't catch certain things. I also do beta for others, when I have the time. I've discovered trying to figure out what's wrong with someone else's writing has the effect of sharpening my own skills. As for the original topic, a negtive review is still a review. Think of it like this- Bad Reviewer- "You suck! I can't believe you wrote a seventy chapter story about Hojo!" You- "Well, I stole hours of your life while you read it and cussed to yourself. That's a few hours you can't have back, lol." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taziekins Posted November 27, 2008 Report Share Posted November 27, 2008 lmao! 'nuff said eh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animedevildog Posted November 28, 2008 Report Share Posted November 28, 2008 I found that when I posted my first story in another site, and had gotten some scathing reviews, It wasn't writers block that I got. It was simply a dark cloud over me that said I will not want to write. I endded up not writing for over a year. Now, I have finally gotten my head out of my ass and have learned to take the good with the bad, and take it all with a grain of salt. (some requires a bigger grain than others) I'm currently working on one that I started today, and I'm finding it a bit difficult, mainly because I haven't written for so long, I find it hard to gather my thoughts. (doesn't help that I'm ADD. HEY! that fits my pen name!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shinigamiinochi Posted November 29, 2008 Report Share Posted November 29, 2008 I had that happen to me a few times. The most recent was an immature review that just pissed me off so bad, I couldn't write for several days. I write a lot of rape, you just have to skim my author's page to get that. One of my most recent fics paints an accurate portrayal of what constant abuse can do a person and had several graphic abuse and rape scenes. In a recent chapter, the character is finally out of the situation, and to show how this character is getting stronger, he is almost raped, but finally fights back and stops it, something he was never able to do before. As soon as this person read this chapter, they sent me a review whining about how they were reading this fic JUST to see if I would stop writing rape and that the scenario I had written was unrealistic. I gave this person the unrealistic thing, despite the fact that it's fiction, not a research manuel, and there were several things in the story that were more unrealistic. However, I couldn't get past their reasoning for reading the fic. If you know that an author writes something continuously that you're not comfortable with, but then keep reading their stuff, just for the hope that they might change, I'm sorry, that's not only severely immature, it's a bit insane. It sums up an abusive relationship rather well, ironically. 'Hey, I hate it when you hit me, so I'm going to stick around in this sucky relationship until you stop hitting me, because I believe you can change, despite the fact that you have never said that you wanted to change in the first place.' I try not to let nonsensical reviews like get me down, but I guess I'm too sensitive, because every time I get a review that sounds like I'm getting scolded for someone else's personal beliefs, or something that should be damn obvious from the start of the fic, I feel like crying in frustration, or perhaps slamming my head into a wall. Criticism is one thing, but it seems like some people have completely lost all common sense and deem it necessary to beat on the author because their little world isn't the way they want it. I hate het in my fandom, but if I know that an author writes a ton of het, do I write them a review saying how much I hate het and hope they will write yaoi? No, I get on with my life, because I don't have time to waste on something I don't like, and I read something I know I WILL enjoy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saitochan Posted November 29, 2008 Report Share Posted November 29, 2008 Criticism is one thing, but it seems like some people have completely lost all common sense and deem it necessary to beat on the author because their little world isn't the way they want it. Well, you know what they say about common sense... http://www.joeydevilla.com/wordpress/wp-co...super_power.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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