Advice, Being Alone, and Amazon: Positive feedback makes me
write more. And writing more
makes me a better writer. I've
received a fair amount of
negative comments, and
EVERY one of them has
simply made me give up
writing for a while. Sometimes
months
Anonymous asked: Honestly I
appreclate what you've been saying
about unsolicited comments an fic b/c
when I was small & first started
writing fic - I didn't speak English
very well my 1st language ls
Hawaiian Pidgin which uses some
English words but they're spelled
VERY differently & the grammar is
VERY different & anyways I was lke a
tiny child getting roasted by grown
adults In the comments of my fic for
spellingigrammar & it wasn't helpful
It just made me an Insecure writer.I
dan't write fic anymore
i have literally never had good
I once had a "concritter" on
ff.net fail to understand the
difference between
Amazon reviews and fanfic
reviews/comments. She
used the existence of the
former to justify being
harsh in the latter. And l
could not get her to
comprehend that Amazon
reviews are not the same
thing as fanfic reviews
#stop hurting us for your own personal ego trip
if you've ever wondered
why i stopped writing, it's
because of exactly this. i
was in a highly emotionally
fragile place, writing was
one of my very few healthy
cathartic outlets, and one
person too many decided
to be 'helpful in the
comments
#but the one time I got a lot of negative feedback on something I posted
#it stuck #it hurt #it ruined my entire day
Hand bled into the rest of my week
#now this was multiple people writing paragraph on how I was wrong and
#something that hits home this week
an have
#1 dont care if they think my writing sucks
#but they didnt need to share it
lose to home
ause all theyve done is mad
and made sure ill never touch tha
delete
arac
or fear of the
se
people coming after me
#ionly got a couple of negative reviews but i thought about them long
after l should have
yeah. It didn't drive me out of the Sterek fandom. But it could have, very easily
Ten years previous it almost certainly would have, because belleve me, before
I was on anxlety medication, that sort of comment would have left me in a
spiral for weeks.
#see actually this is why I'm not writing currently
and like that really made me deflate and not wanna work on the next fic
#idk #dumb petty problems #I'm still a little sad about it
#I'll admit that I ta
te harshly
-even if it's worded well
#1 was almost put off writing fic forever when the forst fic i ever posted got
scathingly-picked apart
and l was
he
#l thought I was a terrible writer and never wanted to post fic again
#really tho
#i didn't write more tsyl for months bc of one horrible review
've gotten very tired of comments
#tired and leery
eaction now is more
on't wan
#just
#sigh
-don't get me wrong!
#1
leay
hell alone
#it's not fun at all
like 98% of why I'm on a03 mainly now
ere so many lovely people on fnet
cause there were
who seem
in
something because i enjoy writing
#like #what #why
#all of this -particularly the constructive criticism section
#don't be a dick -fanfic problems
#and things like that are why I barely write for that ship now
very important
#(and a huge reason i can't bring myself to keep writing a story I'm very
#-because someone wrote a nasty comment on a couple of chapters and
ican't get past that)
#all of my fics have been beta read by 2-3 ppl
on't want any unsolicited opinions
ove
#as much as i wrote this fic with my whole soul
#if I'm happy with it then it doesnt matter
-I don't care/
#actual criticism is har
arranted its impossible to just appreciate it
and being a beta
fjust throwing in a sentence about how you didnt like one thing or one
fact is wrong isnt actually helping most of the time
#and forgive my arrogant ass but unless I specifically asked for your
negative critique
m not gonna trust what you say anyway
always despis
#1
en
ad to pass our papers
around the class for people to metaphorically rip apart
#agreed #iam the same
#if I dont ask for critique then dont do it pls even if you are being good
mannered
#if I want critiques i will ask someone spe
#if I'm looki
ing for constructive feedback
# why are you telling me about a perceived plot hole in a 104k word fic
#pst it wasnt a plot hole I did th
npurpose
cknowledge given that we've gotter
having free fic
#some don't want to improve! #maybe in a broad sense yes
#if I knit a blanket and give it as a gift
none of these autho
you improvement
#1 don't want the only thing out of the recipien
!
#that's just shitty
you were given a gift
ay someo
tiny comment alon
in
it wasn't that bad actually
othered m
#even if they specifically told me that they liked it
#it took an 11 friend's comment about it for me to let it go and be at peace
#they knew enoug
different culture
#someone might get 99 praises
flame) that stays with them
#1 have a pretty good ego about my writing
eta readers sometimes
an
en
ис
#there's plenty of stuff i wouldn't share online simply because the criticism
ould hu
on
away from my passion
#this #this so much #i accept criticism from very few people
#because they know how to tell it to me
#even if sometimes it does sting
#1 trust these people to know what is missing/lacking/bad about my writing
ince i have asked for it
ont wa
m when i finally post my stories
#1 just wanna know if people have lik
#1 don't care #clearly it wasn't written for you
#the improvemen
one reason only #because I've kept writing- and reading)
#I've honed my skilled by myself
ed them #ifn
ot
#don't tell me
ar
een made for
ou can say something nice about thi
for a friend and spent years of my life on
for you can shut up
i feel like these are the pe
writing workshop
#they need to grow the fuck up
are forever stuck in their creat
#and get out of our comment sections
#well i am glad someone thinks this way!
#1 always feel bad for wanting po
sitive feedback
#1 don't mind people asking me questions
#and I don't always mind comments about how i've improved
#but god it pisses me off when you point out typoes
y own editing bc i don't always use a beta
-and that's it
#fin
e??
#I'm doing this for free fuck off
ffanfiction #i get that people want to be helpful
Abut you're supposed to ask if your help is needed
for wait for your help to be requested
hank you
#im so shy abot my writing and then i got a comment that started hmmm
dove into all the things they didnt like and thought ishpuld
an
change
Hand genuinely i wasnt sure theyd even read it because this stuff was so
backward
ho
did it make me feel shit
#It's true
#1ike if you wanna give it to me then ask and I'll be okay probably
but someone else might not be
#and goddamn it's for fun
#THANKYOU #slow clap
e number of time
pent all day obsessing over
mean little
#mood #im dealing with this rn and it's pissing me off
Hunless you're someone I Actually Know #then fuck off
in
# agree so much with this #and I get shit over it occasionally
#but honestly #I'm not a published author #this isnt my job
it's just a bit of fun #and I am not about that negativity
#let me play in peace
#some people think their opinion or correction is SO
to be said
great that it just HAS
as i
#as if they are fucking experts on antic
#1 don't care if you are an editor in real life #if you aren't my beta
#keep your mouth shut on concrit #it's simple #really
much #people can tell me all they want about my spelling errors
at opinion is somehow
(because there's always one or two) #and i-don't care
#im not tDing it #especially not spending hours writing
#yes this
#i'm not a native speaker and I already know i make mistakes
#so give us a break
1 still posted the thing for you
#fanfiction
#I'm honestly probably never going to write fanfic ever again
#you'll never catch me writing TW fic ever again
#I've learned my lesson
I have peopleI take my
work to for critique. Serious
critique. I want that
criticism, and to be better. If
l post something and don't
say it's in some level of a
finished form or hey let me
know what you think,
probably best to assume
I'm not looking for your red
pen insight in my inbox.
literally like, I got my first
comment on a fic a while
back that wasn't just
keysmashing or
compliments or wtv, it was
literally just advice, but it hit
me like a sack of bricks to
the face and lost the will to
continue the fic I was
working on when I read that
comment my mood
plummeted off a cliff in the
span of a couple
sentences.
This is pretty Rich
actually, because l have
had my life destroyed by
online Critics on stories I
just posted for fun
Thank you, Kedreeva. This
is also how I feel when my
partner tries to give me
concrit on my Overwatch
game play. I didn't ask you
for concrit. Please leave
me alone. You're ruining my
fun thing by turning it into
homework.
Unsolicited concrit is
entitled wank
#honestly keep it to your damn selves
# constructive criticism is a huge part of why I don't fucking write anymore
ck off with that shit
#I've seen too many writers give up
tAnd stop writing
few a
ss holes who thought they needed to tell these
people that they didn't like their story for some reason
#1m sometimes still thinking about that one Concrit comment I got years
ago
#important #fanfiction #writing #criticism
#that's one of the reasons I never write sterek again
#whereas with my writing? Dont -please
#even if y
#1m going to remember the one inconsequential bad thing
#AT MOST you can point out like a spelling error or two
#but honestly don't bother if I missed them on the proof then I probably
don't care enough to edit it again
ou leave the nicest comme
nt otherwis
NOW
#as someone who writes
#i hate hate hate concrit on works that are posted unless I've specifically asked for
more
bad that im s
ometimes way too much of a wimp when it comes to
concrit
#Tbh I'm very wary of criticism
#I've had most people do it in a way that negatively affected the way I see
my work
#Asking first is a wonderful way to go about it!
kedreeva:
When I say “writers don’t want your unsolicited criticism” and “leaving unsolicited criticism on fanfiction hurts writers” THIS is what I mean.
This isn’t even all of them, this is just from a FEW posts on the subject. Read through these, and then look me in the eyes and say you’re ~helping writers~ by leaving that criticizing comment on someone’s fic when they didn’t ask you to.
You’re hurting or, at best, annoying us. You’re hurting fandom.
You’re not helping us.