Victimized by a Nasty Drive-by Review? Take Heart. |
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Smith Corona
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 19 Jul 2016 Location: Illinois Status: Offline Points: 1727 |
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What I see people here saying is that getting only the negatives is hard on most writers, especially new ones, so it's important to balance out constructive criticism with acknowledging what did work for you in the piece. I think your example above does this - it points out that character motivation is an issue but acknowledges that worldbuilding worked well. The writer gets a suggestion on where to focus in editing but also gets the encouragement of knowing that they were successful with you as a reader in other areas. |
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Micro Round 2 Geraniums Should Be Illegal
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Drib
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 14 Jul 2017 Location: UK Status: Offline Points: 582 |
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Great thread on an important topic.
(This answer got much longer than I anticipated. Apologies. Clearly, I need an editor...)
First things first: none of us have paid our fellow writers to post their stories. That anyone chooses to post their story for us to read is a free, added-value privilege that we should all appreciate - and acknowledge when we respond to their stories. That being said, I assume (dangerous thing, I know) that most of us post our stories because we've done the hard yards of sweating under a deadline to produce the best we can and most of us are desperate to find out what 'ordinary' readers think of what we have written. (By 'ordinary' I mean people who encounter our work like they encounter other writing, perhaps writing that they have bought. People who don't know us and so have few filters between them and our work). As writers we want to know, is it good? Or at least good enough to stand up in the eyes of a stranger? So we'd like some feedback. Feedback about whether the story worked. Feedback about what a strange reader thought was good. And feedback about what could have been better. And this is where the landmines are. As a reader, it's damned hard to provide good, specific, actionable feedback about what we like in a story. Not without drifting into gushing empty compliments. But it's really easy to find things we don't like - and complain about them. And easy to make complaints specific. And easy to cast them down from our keyboards as if our critique was the voice of God issuing holy writ to a hapless prophet on a mountain top. (Whoops. Runaway simile). It's easy, and, if this is all we do, it is lazy. And here's the thing: humans are hardwired to pay attention to criticism much more than praise. Five times more. That means that one piece of negative feedback hits with the force of five pieces of positive criticism. If we get more than two or three negative crits, that can be devastating. It can completely destroy any sense of pride in what we have written or belief in what we could write. It could stop us from trying again, ever. And that should fly in the face of the reason we are here. For many of us, putting our writing out here in the Forum is something that makes us vulnerable. Perhaps we've never shown anyone our writing before. Perhaps we've never told anyone we'd like to write before. Perhaps we think - for whatever reason, a bad teacher, a throwaway comment from a sibling - that we shouldn't be arrogant enough to think anyone will like our writing. Perhaps we hope we are taking the first step towards our dream of being a writer. Yet we're putting something out there that many of us think of as a reflection of ourselves. And when someone crassly kicks our writing, they are kicking our dreams. So negative crits can hurt, and hurt badly. And yet we still we want to find out how we can do better. So what's a reviewer to do? All I can speak to is what I try to do. Sometimes (often) I fail. But I try.
That's it. I know they're going to focus on the negative crit - that's what we all do - but I've done my best so they don't feel bad about it. This works for me - and, I hope, for the readers who have allowed me to read their work. I know other folk think about reviews differently and offer feedback in other, often brilliant, ways. But it is easy to spot a review motivated by an honest desire to appreciate and help, versus one that that has been written to make the reviewer feel good at the expense of the writer whom they are critiquing. Let's not be those reviewers. This competition is a tough gig. Everyone has worked hard to produce the best work they could. I see that my role as a reader is to recognise their effort, support what they have achieved, and offer a little help how, in my opinion as a reader, the story might work a little better, for them to improve. It's not about me or showing off my knowledge - it's about their writing. And it's about showing the respect I would have others give me. Edited by Drib - 06 Feb 2019 at 8:50am |
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LaurieH
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 18 Jul 2017 Location: Louisville, KY Status: Offline Points: 1064 |
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I got it, and laughed and laughed and laughed. And I've given up all my semicolons for emdashes.
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SSC R1 G125 A Girl and Her Dog
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LaurieH
NYC Midnight Addict Joined: 18 Jul 2017 Location: Louisville, KY Status: Offline Points: 1064 |
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And yet you didn't get what I was saying. Everyone reviews differently. Everyone. I think I found the reviewer you are talking about, and honestly, I see nothing wrong with the reviews except for the fact that they aren't coddling the reviewee. Either that or I have the wrong person, I dunno. Even all the bullet points you listed as excuses for why a person reviews the way they do are fully valid bullet points. I didn't realize it until you pointed them out that in any review I get where I don't like the criticism, I go through many of those points in my head. And if I care to go back to my story, I adjust it accordingly, while mentally thanking the person(s) who pointed out the flaws. What you seem to be saying, at least in what my little brain is comprehending, is that any review that points out the flaws in a story is a "nasty drive-by review" whether the comments are helpful or not. So, someone posting, "Your story sux," is a nasty drive-by review. Someone posting, "I read your story, and I didn't understand this, this, or this, and couldn't figure out what the character's motivation was, so you may want to make it clearer. But the worldbuilding was nice," is a nasty drive-by review. Someone posting, "Oooh, I loved your story, great job!" is a good review. Color me strange, but I'd much rather have the second nasty drive-by review. |
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SSC R1 G125 A Girl and Her Dog
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sootfoot5
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Location: outer space man Status: Offline Points: 6638 |
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Who here is going to assist this the cruel reviewer? Let the volunteers speak up in this thread.
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SakuraHime
NYC Midnight Regular Joined: 29 Jan 2017 Location: Avondale, AZ Status: Offline Points: 340 |
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Zero Wing reference for the win! Also, I share your passion for semicolons. I just wanted to pop by and reiterate that I appreciate this discussion so much. And I also wanted to offer assurances to Zelda (love the name!) and everyone else who's commented thus far that from the reviews I've seen, you're doing everything perfectly. If this discussion started because of the person I think it may have, it's not that constructive feedback is an issue; the problem is when someone is overly negative without providing ANY positive thoughts. We know constructive feedback is necessary for growth (jeez, way to speak for everyone), and we look forward to that.
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2019 FFC R1 Who Needs a Wall? (Gr: 35 – PoliSat/A Garbage Dump/A Grill)
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topangarose
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 4739 |
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SEHBicycle : YES! When a reviewer causes writers to actually remove their stories from the review forum, their review is neither appropriate nor helpful. Random: Your Pythonesque insult did not go unappreciated! Edited by topangarose - 05 Feb 2019 at 10:37pm |
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Random
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 17 Nov 2017 Location: C. of Letters Status: Offline Points: 5401 |
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Offense cannot be given, only taken. It's not a popular truth, but it's still a truth. Personally, I can't be bothered. I'm a little bummed that I went to so much trouble composing a Pythonesque insult and you didn't get it, though
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Random
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 17 Nov 2017 Location: C. of Letters Status: Offline Points: 5401 |
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All your semicolon are belong to us. You have have the dots, but I'm taking the commas. If you ever want to see then again send 10,000 erudite words in a plain brown wrapper to...
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chrissie0707
NYC Midnight Black Belt Joined: 07 Feb 2018 Location: Indianapolis Status: Offline Points: 4005 |
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I think I told my best friend during a recent beta read "you love semicolons more than your fiancé." |
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