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by TigerLily7

by TigerLily7

I was researching more werewolf stories (which is slowly killing me, honestly) when I came across the problem that lead to this rant:

Comments

Well, let me start from the beginning. There's this girl I fanned (or followed, whatever) a while back and she just recently started being involved in Wattpad again after going on a hiatus. So, she wrote a werewolf novel (which was not the reason I followed her (I think she deleted the novel I was following her for)) and I thought, yeah! Let's check it out! Really, it seemed smart on my part because I'm letting the stories come to me, right?

Anyway, so I love to read comments, because I like to know what readers actually have to say. (Also, I'm one of those people that like to sit idly by and silently offer my opinion in their conversations). But, reading those comments made me mad.

So, people would offer constructive criticism. "You need to slow it down." "Why are they being so aggressive? It doesn't make sense." "It would help if you describe things more."

Keep in mind she had like a million reads. But do you know what she replied to one girl? Quite literally something along the lines of "I don't like your comment. To be honest, I haven't liked any of them. But I guess I'll have to try to accept them."

Damn right you're going to accept the comments. There is no reason to be rude to someone that comments critically. It doesn't matter if you didn't ask for criticism. If you're serious about being a writer, learn to take the criticism and don't whine. That's insanely rude. And the girl she was reprimanding hadn't even left rude comments! It would have been a different story if she had, but she hadn't!

Sure, maybe it's rude to comment things like "You suck."

But as a writer, you are always going to get those comments. I don't care if you're the greatest writer on the damn planet, you are going to get rude comments. There is no reason to be a little bitch about it. That is ridiculous. There is no excuse for that.

Now, that being said, don't be the person that says "you suck." Tell them why they suck and do it like the ladies and gentlemen I know you can be.

Here's a general rule of thumb. Start with a compliment, give your criticism (and it better be constructive) and then end with another compliment. If you can't find two things to compliment, then don't start with one. Always end with the good stuff, though.

So don't say "you are horrible! This is shit! Stop writing!"

Why? Because that makes you sound ignorant. (But more likely than not, if you're saying that, you are ignorant)

Say "I think the title is catchy. However, I think you need to slow down. Show me the characters, don't tell me about them. Show me the setting. Tell me the events slowly so I can take it all it. You're going really fast and it's hard to follow. But I really like your dialogue. I thought it flowed easily."

SEE? Now they know to slow down and they probably won't be as offended. However, you are going to run across those people that are just downright bitches.

And long story short, I'm unfollowing the girl that wrote the novel then bitched about the constructive criticism because I didn't not respect that at all. She can take her shit somewhere else.

So, here's another story and it came from reading more of the comments on the same book. I discovered that another girl was copying this werewolf story and posting it on her account as her own. (I don't know why. It wasn't anything special, honestly.)

Anyway, so all the little fans of this story start going to this other story and telling that girl that they are reporting it and that she copied and blah blah blah. Insert the whinyness here. (Don't get me wrong, it's HORRIBLE to steal another person's idea. It's obvious there is not a lot of creativity on here, but now we're stealing? Grow up. Get your lazy ass off the computer and think of your own shitty idea. But the reason I call it whinyness is because those two stories were quite literally like 80% of the other werewolf stories...so if you report one, you have to at least report both of them).

So, that was this girl's defense: it was like a lot of other stories. But she has to be a little kid that says "fuck" as every other word and calls everyone a "cunt" and refers to all "hate" comments (Really? Hate? If you're using that term, then it's safe to say that you don't know anything about "haters". Quit acting like you do) as "bull".

But do you know what pissed me off more than anything? The fact that one of her stupid little friends said to one of the accusers, and I quote "do you have down syndrome (no offense if you have down syndrome) or did you let your 7 year old sister write that?"

What the hell.

You cannot say "no offense" and then say whatever you want.

But anyway, here's the summary of this rant. When people give you a bad comment, don't respond like a little kid. Be classy. If someone says "you suck" either ignore it (or if you're like me and have to have a comeback say "I'm sorry you feel that way. Could you please tell me why I suck or perhaps inform me as to how I could fix the issues that you found?" (and when all else fails, talk over their head, respectfully)). And when you have a negative comment to make, use the formula. Compliment, Criticism, Compliment.

Comments are crucial! So do it right! Be constructive!

But anyway, thanks for reading! I'm off to do whatever it is I do.