Maine Finn
05-11-2004, 07:23 PM
This is an essay I just wrote and posted on the fiction and poetry site I joined awhile back. Just thought I would cross-post it here, and see what kind of response it gets.
The essay can be accessed here (http://www.fictionpress.com/read.php?storyid=1606524) as well.
What does it mean to write a “good” review as opposed to a “bad” review? Where does the line get drawn? At what point does the author of the piece getting reviewed get to say that “enough is enough” and request that reviews follow certain criteria? These and other questions have formed in my mind over the course of the past couple of weeks as I have visited several different pages on FanFiction.net and read stories that have been posted by authors of varying levels of talent and experience. Some stories simply were painful to read as a result of the complete lack of plot and purpose, some as a result of a lack of skill with the English language and a good spell and grammar checker, and others were simply both. That’s not to say that there were not good stories – there are very talented authors on FF.N and I have read several of them – but to find them is a tedious task as they are buried amongst the scores of others who think they can write.
I reviewed one of the stories that was teetering on the edge of being a good story and offered some pointers that have proven useful to me in the past, after reading what had been posted in its entirety. Much to my surprise and dismay, my input was greeted with hostility from other readers who labelled my initial review as “bad” and “nitpicking” and told the author to not “let the awfully critical dumbasses get to you”. Indeed, the author herself posted a chapter that said little more than she was discouraged by all the bad reviews she was getting and that it was difficult to balance school, sports, and writing. Does this mean that the rest of us who manage to squeeze in writing time don’t do those things? Myself and a number of other authors I know have a difficult time balancing our lives and our stories, but yet we somehow manage to proofread our own pieces or beta someone else’s before posting.
The lack of respect for a constructive review astonishes me, because there are really two primary reasons to post a piece on the Internet. One is to allow others to read your writing and enjoy. The other is to receive feedback – good and bad – about that particular piece. I come across stories where the author either asks that negative feedback not be submitted or that it be sent directly to the author. Where is the purpose in that? I fail to see the harm in allowing others to see what advice to improve may be offered to a story. I have picked up some very good pointers by reading some of these so-called “negative” reviews and used them to improve my own style. For my part, I’m entirely open to criticism – as long as it’s constructive. I have received reviews that err a tad too much on the nitpicky and have addressed it, but aside from that I don’t believe in discouraging people from offering advice. A writer can never get better if nobody gives him or her hints and tips on how to improve. It is simply not possible.
To me, the sole purpose of allowing reviews is to get both the praise and criticism. Open flames are another matter entirely, and no author wants to check the reviews page and see those. It takes a certain degree of talent to write a good review and a simple “good story” or “keep writing” is far from sufficient to tell the author what he or she is doing right or doing wrong. These types of reviews are encouraging, to be sure, but still not the only type of review that should be submitted. I have found that reviews that outline what’s working or what’s missing from a particular chapter are extremely helpful in allowing the author to know what to keep on doing and what to stop doing or to change.
Not everyone will see a chapter the same way – that’s a given – because everyone’s style and taste is different. The author needs to realise this before jumping on people for offering suggestions for improvement. Others need to realise this as well, and should try not to be too defensive of the author because of the perception that the one who submitted a critical review has no idea what he or she is talking about. I do not know how many others have been the victim of hostility because of something they have said in a review, but I was sickened to read the reviews following mine that urged the author to disregard the suggestions I made and to continue on as she had been. In the face of that, I have to ask: where in that does the author learn anything? Where does she gain anything helpful to help her become the writer she wants to be? Sure, she can ignore everyone who was critical and “negative”, but where does that leave her?
Allowing people to read and review your stories and poems is to open yourself up to criticism. It’s that simple. Whether or not you can take the criticism is indicative of the type of person you are. The sad fact is if you are unable to handle criticism, life will be very hard. As I stated in a subsequent review of the same story, “Every writer has to start somewhere, and the reality is that someone will criticise your work no matter how good it is.” Stephen King gets criticism, I have no doubt. One of the more talented authors out there. It doesn’t make a difference how well known or experienced an author is, somebody will be critical. The test of the author comes in how he or she deals with that criticism.
Whilst I admit that the stories posted on FF.N are written solely for entertainment, there must be some sense of decorum on the part of the author. A person needs to know how to write, how to put words together to make sentences, how to form thoughts and ideas into meaningful paragraphs that support the content and plot of a story. People also need to learn to be less critical of those who are critical, and realise that maybe the person who is offering advice just might know what he or she is talking about.
The essay can be accessed here (http://www.fictionpress.com/read.php?storyid=1606524) as well.
What does it mean to write a “good” review as opposed to a “bad” review? Where does the line get drawn? At what point does the author of the piece getting reviewed get to say that “enough is enough” and request that reviews follow certain criteria? These and other questions have formed in my mind over the course of the past couple of weeks as I have visited several different pages on FanFiction.net and read stories that have been posted by authors of varying levels of talent and experience. Some stories simply were painful to read as a result of the complete lack of plot and purpose, some as a result of a lack of skill with the English language and a good spell and grammar checker, and others were simply both. That’s not to say that there were not good stories – there are very talented authors on FF.N and I have read several of them – but to find them is a tedious task as they are buried amongst the scores of others who think they can write.
I reviewed one of the stories that was teetering on the edge of being a good story and offered some pointers that have proven useful to me in the past, after reading what had been posted in its entirety. Much to my surprise and dismay, my input was greeted with hostility from other readers who labelled my initial review as “bad” and “nitpicking” and told the author to not “let the awfully critical dumbasses get to you”. Indeed, the author herself posted a chapter that said little more than she was discouraged by all the bad reviews she was getting and that it was difficult to balance school, sports, and writing. Does this mean that the rest of us who manage to squeeze in writing time don’t do those things? Myself and a number of other authors I know have a difficult time balancing our lives and our stories, but yet we somehow manage to proofread our own pieces or beta someone else’s before posting.
The lack of respect for a constructive review astonishes me, because there are really two primary reasons to post a piece on the Internet. One is to allow others to read your writing and enjoy. The other is to receive feedback – good and bad – about that particular piece. I come across stories where the author either asks that negative feedback not be submitted or that it be sent directly to the author. Where is the purpose in that? I fail to see the harm in allowing others to see what advice to improve may be offered to a story. I have picked up some very good pointers by reading some of these so-called “negative” reviews and used them to improve my own style. For my part, I’m entirely open to criticism – as long as it’s constructive. I have received reviews that err a tad too much on the nitpicky and have addressed it, but aside from that I don’t believe in discouraging people from offering advice. A writer can never get better if nobody gives him or her hints and tips on how to improve. It is simply not possible.
To me, the sole purpose of allowing reviews is to get both the praise and criticism. Open flames are another matter entirely, and no author wants to check the reviews page and see those. It takes a certain degree of talent to write a good review and a simple “good story” or “keep writing” is far from sufficient to tell the author what he or she is doing right or doing wrong. These types of reviews are encouraging, to be sure, but still not the only type of review that should be submitted. I have found that reviews that outline what’s working or what’s missing from a particular chapter are extremely helpful in allowing the author to know what to keep on doing and what to stop doing or to change.
Not everyone will see a chapter the same way – that’s a given – because everyone’s style and taste is different. The author needs to realise this before jumping on people for offering suggestions for improvement. Others need to realise this as well, and should try not to be too defensive of the author because of the perception that the one who submitted a critical review has no idea what he or she is talking about. I do not know how many others have been the victim of hostility because of something they have said in a review, but I was sickened to read the reviews following mine that urged the author to disregard the suggestions I made and to continue on as she had been. In the face of that, I have to ask: where in that does the author learn anything? Where does she gain anything helpful to help her become the writer she wants to be? Sure, she can ignore everyone who was critical and “negative”, but where does that leave her?
Allowing people to read and review your stories and poems is to open yourself up to criticism. It’s that simple. Whether or not you can take the criticism is indicative of the type of person you are. The sad fact is if you are unable to handle criticism, life will be very hard. As I stated in a subsequent review of the same story, “Every writer has to start somewhere, and the reality is that someone will criticise your work no matter how good it is.” Stephen King gets criticism, I have no doubt. One of the more talented authors out there. It doesn’t make a difference how well known or experienced an author is, somebody will be critical. The test of the author comes in how he or she deals with that criticism.
Whilst I admit that the stories posted on FF.N are written solely for entertainment, there must be some sense of decorum on the part of the author. A person needs to know how to write, how to put words together to make sentences, how to form thoughts and ideas into meaningful paragraphs that support the content and plot of a story. People also need to learn to be less critical of those who are critical, and realise that maybe the person who is offering advice just might know what he or she is talking about.