Most Common Writing Errors ✔️

How To Criticize A Story + How To Take Criticism

If you are someone who speaks bluntly, I ask you read this entire section before you comment because I do address that later.

I have been writing for 10+ years and I have found maybe two authors who are open to "harsh" feedback.

Most people don't realize there's a difference between harsh feedback and honest feedback. I remember posting on Quotev about harsh feedback, and someone got upset about it because they said they give harsh feedback. After I explained the differences between harsh and honest feedback, they were like "Oh, I give honest feedback. Sorry, I got them confused."

You can be honest without being harsh.

Most writers aren't making a lot of money. The vast majority of writers are struggling to get by and have a passion for a career that's extremely hard to get in to. So why make it worse by being bitchy?

In many cases, these people giving harsh feedback can't handle receiving harsh feedback. I once saw a judge call stories "cringe" and "immature," but as soon as they got feedback that was remotely harsh, they threw a temper tantrum. And this isn't an isolated case. This happens quite often.

Look at the definitions of honest and harsh and you'll see why there's a massive difference between them. Being harsh is being cruel while being honest is being truthful. You can be truthful without being cruel.

And no, switching your feedback from harsh to honest isn't sugarcoating. Sugarcoating would be you purposefully making the issues seem less severe, or straight up not mentioning some issues, to spare the author's feelings.

Being honest doesn't mean the author won't get hurt, but harsh feedback is using harsh language like "cringe," "bad," "immature," and many others that will almost certainly hurt the author, even if they say it doesn't.

There's a difference between:

"This story had weak moments due to the slow pacing and OOC moments."

And:

"This story is cringe because the pacing is bad and the characters are immature."

Both criticisms are basically saying the same thing, only one isn't insulting the work. Maybe the first one still hurts, but at least it's constructive and relatively specific. 

No, the author shouldn't "get thicker skin," you should get a more advanced vocabulary.

One time I saw a judge tell an author that their story was cringe and lacked creativity, meanwhile their entire review lacked the creativity to explain their criticisms in a coherent way without harsh language.

Do you see why that's hypocritical?

I understand some people tend to speak more bluntly, and that's fine. I'm not saying there are never situations where the author needs to be told straight up that their characters are immature or something along those lines. What I am saying is that isn't the majority of cases. The majority of cases are strangers on the internet seeing an author writing fanfic and decide to shit on it.

If you are someone who speaks more bluntly, then warn authors before you give feedback. I'll explain more in the time and place section, but sometimes authors really don't want to hear it, and I suggest you respect that.

If you can't be constructive without being harsh, maybe you shouldn't be leaving feedback at all. It's the kindergarten rule: if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. It simply does not help the writer (in most cases).

Let's say you're playing basketball for fun. The main coach yells at you and calls you a bad player while the assistant coach pulls you aside and gives you specific instructions to help you succeed. Who are you more likely to listen to? The same applies for harsh and honest feedback.