It's like people talked about in the other thread--hate threads and badfic can get pretty boring pretty quickly. It's kind of like MST3K itself--it's always better if it's a GOOD bad movie than a bad bad movie. The one time I went to Fanfic_hate it seemed like people were much more interested in tearing down better fic they felt was overrated or whose author was a BNF they didn't like. Not only did people probably have more to say about those but I even suspect that critiquing them might have been a better way to talk about what makes fic good, you know? Like, if you have a good fic but somebody is complaining about one aspect it's almost easier to see how to improve it.
I think there's a good reason people are insecure about leaving less-than-good reviews. After all, some people have even put up rants in their lj about how you have no right to criticize unless they've asked you personally for criticism. And sometimes, more understandably, writers do just consider the source. If somebody whose work they admire has something to say they are going to listen to them more than an anonymous person--heh--it's like that Simpsons ep where Mel Gibson makes the mistake of listening to Homer about the movie he's making.
Sometimes I think it's just a case of listening to what the criticism is-I've come to see that criticism can be a skill just like anything else. Some people really just don't get that story conferencing and telling the person what they should have done=!constructive criticism. "Neville and Draco would never be together!" is not criticism. "This is boring" is not constructive criticism. Not everybody really gets it. And even for those who do, they never know when they're going to say something like, "I felt like it took a long time for the story to get started. The opening three chapters of Harry making his bologna sandwich made me think this was a story about mustard. Perhaps you might want to start closer to the moment Draco appears at his door naked," and get back, "Puh-leez! u r so meen. im writing for my bffs and every1 else sez it R0XORRR!!11" Followed by thirteen earnest posts about how mean you are.
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Date: 2005-01-19 12:48 pm (UTC)I think there's a good reason people are insecure about leaving less-than-good reviews. After all, some people have even put up rants in their lj about how you have no right to criticize unless they've asked you personally for criticism. And sometimes, more understandably, writers do just consider the source. If somebody whose work they admire has something to say they are going to listen to them more than an anonymous person--heh--it's like that Simpsons ep where Mel Gibson makes the mistake of listening to Homer about the movie he's making.
Sometimes I think it's just a case of listening to what the criticism is-I've come to see that criticism can be a skill just like anything else. Some people really just don't get that story conferencing and telling the person what they should have done=!constructive criticism. "Neville and Draco would never be together!" is not criticism. "This is boring" is not constructive criticism. Not everybody really gets it. And even for those who do, they never know when they're going to say something like, "I felt like it took a long time for the story to get started. The opening three chapters of Harry making his bologna sandwich made me think this was a story about mustard. Perhaps you might want to start closer to the moment Draco appears at his door naked," and get back, "Puh-leez! u r so meen. im writing for my bffs and every1 else sez it R0XORRR!!11" Followed by thirteen earnest posts about how mean you are.