The lights in the room were off making it so the only light came from Angeline's computer. She quickly typed what she had wrote into her journal that day at school. The new chapter to her story was up in a matter of minutes, and she proceeded to check the reviews to see if there were any new comments on her story. She stopped short when she read one particular comment.
"I like your story idea, but there are some problems. The first problem with your story is that it is hard to read because of the grammar issues in your story. You should think about getting a Beta to help you with said issues. I am also bothered by the characterization in your story. I don't remember the main character of the story being that concerned about her appearances, nor do I remember her being that shallow minded and rude."
"There are also plot holes in your story where you say one thing, but write another. At one point for example you say the main character is sixteen, but at another you say she is fifteen. Some of these plot holes occur from chapter to chapter, but others occur within chapters."
Angeline's fingers tapped against her mouse buttons while the corners of her mouth twisted up. She could feel a deep feeling rising up from her chest as she fought back the urge to cry, or even throw something across the room. A lot of thoughts crossed her mind, but the final one she settled upone was, "How dare she tell me how to write my story!"
Her fingers went to keyboard in order to write out her response. "Sweetie, I didn't ask you. If you don't like then don't read. I don't like people like you because all you do is tear people down rather then leave them alone. Go complain to a person who does care."
She let out a deep breath and thought that would be the end of the situation.
…
The reply Angeline gave is actually based off a reply I received in the past from someone I critiqued on another site – a site I might add allows full blown critique. The first issue I pointed out to the writer was that she was committing plagiarism. The second issue I pointed out was that she needed to clarify things so readers didn't think she was going for an incest pairing when she actually wasn't. Both are serious issues the writer did need to address. Plagiarism is as I've noted in chapter two is stealing. As a writer you want what you intend to get across, and not something you don't want.
The response I received went like this.
"ok you know what shut the heck up! No body asked you and it only goes to show you know NOTHING! Just because I have not really included her in the beginning few chapters does not mean that she isn't going to have more of an impact later! And secondly no this will not be an incest because despite what you think I do know that [blank] would never do that! If you don't like my story that's fine, but don't go picking it apart when you have no idea where I'm going with it or how my character will differ later in the story or how I plan to change things! People like you really piss me off because you're always tearing people down when you should just leave them alone! Go complain to someone who cares and leave us nonjudgmental people alone!"
Why am I choosing to share the response I received from the writer? First – there is no way to identify the writer via the reply they sent me. Second – the reply is ideal for discussing what not to do when you receive critique because the response is filled with quite a few things a writer shouldn't do when responding to a reviewer. What though does responding well to critique have to do with being a good writer? The answer to that question is something I plan on covering in the next chapter This chapter focuses on how to respond to critique when received.
Address the person you're responding to in a polite manner. This particular writer started off their reply by cursing me out, and telling me to shut up. Telling a reviewer to shut up says that you the writer that you don't want to listen to what they have to say, but that you also feel what ever they have to say has no value what-so-ever. This kind of reaction also amounts to a tantrum on your part.
This particular writer was lucky their response was just seen by myself. I've seen other writers make their replies public. Some writers managed to gain support from people who agreed with their point of view, but they also had other people losing respect for them because they choose to react in such an immature manner.
Throwing a tantrum is not though the only way to show a lack of respect towards your readers. Another way to show a lack of respect is to speak down to your reader. This particular reader spoke down to me by telling me that I "know nothing". Never belittle your reader's intelligence – don't do it even if you think they are belittling your own intelligence. You are just stooping to their level if they really are belittling you.
Another way to patronize a reader – or even a writers for that matter – is to use nicknames like "hun", "honey", or "sweetie". Look up all three of these words and you'll find that they're terms of endearment. You do NOT use terms of endearment for people you do NOT know. Calling anybody you know "hun", "honey", or "sweetie" is like attaching the honorific -chan to everyone name in Japanese. You just DON'T do it.
I am fully aware here that some people will disagree with what I just said – I've had a few people tell me that they supposedly refer to everybody as "hun", "honey", or "sweetie". There is a high chance they don't actually refer to everybody in such a manner like the claim, but instead just use the word in the exact same manner as -chan is used in Japan – in other words I doubt they would call an adult male any of these words unless said person was their sweetheart.
What if they are telling the truth? The fact they're telling the truth doesn't change the fact they're being rude to other people. That would be like saying someone speaking Japanese shouldn't be considered rude for attaching -chan to the names of everybody. You don't have any business acting familiar with a person you don't know. Even ruder still is when you say something like, "hun, I don't know you".
By posting to the net you asked people to comment on your work.The comments you will receive will not just be positive, but also negative ones as well. As such saying something along the lines of "nobody asked you" is the same as saying "don't respond unless you say what I want to hear". A few people may be wondering why I didn't say it is the same thing as saying "don't respond unless you have something nice to say."
The phrase "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything" actually doesn't mean "if you don't have anything to say that doesn't hurt a persons feelings, don't say anything at all". What it actually means is "if you don't have anything polite to say, don't say anything at all." Polite of course doesn't mean not doing anything that will hurt a persons feelings just like bullying doesn't mean not hurting a persons feelings. In real life you don't always get what you want.
I also like what Lucy Gillam has to say on the matter in her essay "An Apology For Criticism." She says, "imagine, if you will, telling a fanfic writer that henceforth, she must only write short dramas. Or telling a slash writer that she could no longer write slash, but must only write gen. The mere suggestion of putting those kinds of limits on the creative endeavor would be greeted with cries of horror. And yet no one thinks twice of putting extreme limits on the creative endeavors of the critic."
Be sure to actually read the review someone took the time to read you.The writer who replied to my critique didn't take the time to read what I had to say, but then again they decided from the very start that they wouldn't listen to what I had to say because I said something negative about their story. They completely missed the two most important points I made, and then over looked the more minor ones.
First – they thought my issue with the story had to do with the fact the character she created wasn't yet playing a big role in the story. In reality my issue was the gratuitous plagiarism with the source material – the only change being the addition of an original character who runs around watching the story unfold exactly as it did before.
Yes – she threw in a few new lines of dialogue, but the fact remained nothing changed. She even participated in ways she wouldn't have participated just so the writer could retell the exact same story. Adding in a new sibling for the main character, or even changing the main characters gender – it doesn't involve dumping the OC into the world, or simply changing ever pronoun related to the character.
Here is the other thing – integrating an OC into the world slowly, and methodically is actually a good thing. I wouldn't have taken issue with this at all, but it also wasn't what she was doing despite the fact she claimed she was doing so. I actually dreaded finding out what kind of impact the character would have had due to how much plagiarism was going on – in past experiences most writers don't quit plagiarizing, and the "impact" ends up feeling out of place, or not as big as it could have been.
Second – I didn't think the writer was going for the incest route, but I also couldn't be sure. What I did know was that the writer already had one review from a reader who did in fact question why the writer was going the incest route. That meant there was a problem with context clues that the writer needed to address before continuing on.
In this particular case it had to do with the tagging. The only two characters tagged were [blank] and his sister. The story was also labeled as being of the romance genre. For a main genre to be romance you need to have focus on a romantic relationship developing. The only pairing possible due to the plot being exactly the same was an incest pairing.
The real problem though comes from the fact the story actually isn't of the romance genre – or at least it's main genre isn't romance. What would you expect if you labeled the Harry Potter series as a romance? You would expect Harry to get together with Ron, Hermione, or Draco depending on what trope you're going for. On top of Harry not getting together with any of these characters we find that the romance does occur until much later books. That's the situation the writer has.
The fact a person critiques your work doesn't mean they don't like your work. Critique has to do with how you the writer can improve your story. That is one of the reasons critique is important – I again plan on talking about that more next chapter. A sound critique is also based around facts rather then opinion.
Most times people say "don't like, don't read" they means "only voice positive opinions". In most cases a reader will not be able to tell if they like a story until they start reading it – as such it is their right to voice whether they like your story or not. So never say "don't like, don't read". What you're doing is trying to censor another persons opinion of your work.
Some people of course leave warnings like, "if you don't like slash, don't read". The person is asking for people who don't like slash fic not to voice their opinions about how slash is gross, but they are not asking for people to not voice their opinion of their work. Comments about how slash are gross are actually out of place as they really have nothing to do with the story, but the persons biased.
A person can still leave critique if a writer puts "if you don't like slash, don't read". Topics a person can cover are characterization, plot, the probability of said situation occurring or anything else that deals with the story content, but not the subject matter – in other words they can't complain that the story is a a slashfic.
A few people may be thinking along these lines now – if I post "if you don't like OoCness, don't read" that means people can't complain about the characters being OoC. This however is like saying "if you don't like bad writing, don't read". Admitting to a problem in your story just means the person can complain about said problem without reading your story.
Saying "don't like, don't read" in response to critique when the reader does like your story is a major insult on the part of the writer. Show thanks kind of disrespect publicly, and you will end up losing your readers. One time I asked a writer what direction they were going with their story – I followed up with telling them they were doing a good job depending on what kind of direction they were trying to take.
Their response was to publicly say "don't like, don't read" to me. This occurred here on Wattpad where all the comments you make are shared with the people who follow you. The few people they had following them and the story ended up dropping both the writer and the story. I've also found that the more I like a story, the more I delve into my critique of what the writer can in prove – this isn't because I expect the writers to improve the story, but because I want them to have the tools so they can improve if they want, or even use some of my advice on later stories.
It is possible to tell where a story is going if said reader is well read. This concept is honestly something that floors some of the people I've talked to. In their minds a person would have to be a mind reader in order to tell where their story is going, but in reality a person doesn't have to be.
One of the things that allows a reader to tell where a writer is going is personal reading experience. A reader with a lot of reading experience will know the patterns to look for in order to guess where the plot is going. An inexperienced writer is far more likely to follow patterns then an experienced one. Why though are inexperienced writers more likely to follow patterns that allow a person to guess where they are going?
Some writers fall into the trap of "what do I do next" with their writing because they've not planned out a beginning, middle and end. Other writers only know what is called the "three-act plot" and use it's format in their writing. Other times a writer thinks they have an original idea, but in reality it's been done a thousand times already. There are plenty of reasons why stories end up being predictable.
The other way to tell where a reader is going is psychology. One of the complaints writer's throw out when I critique their work is that I don't know them – as in I don't know them offline. A reader though gets to know the writer through their writing. In part this is because there is going to be some level of self-insertion and wish fulfillment in all forms of creative writing. In part this has to do with a writer's life experiences.
In this particular case I've come across quite a few writers who started their stories off by plagiarizing a good chunk of the source material. One of the reasons this type of plagiarism occurs is because of self-esteem issues a writer has with their writing. Another reason is because they simply don't know what they're doing. With either case it is easy to fall back into what one was doing before if one does manage to break away from the habit – most cases writer's can't break away.
Critique is not a personal attack. I get the fact it can be hard at times to tell the difference between a critique and a flame – I've come across some flamers that hide what they're doing behind educated words to make the reader think they know what they're talking about. Some flames actually have legitimate advice buried in the attack as well – which doesn't help things.
Most of the time critique attacks the problems in the writing. Other times though critique attacks behavioral problems a writer may have. I can recollect a young writer who wrote a sequel to another persons fanfic without asking permission. Later on I ended up calling her out when she bragged about having written quite a few fanfics, and having completed them. It wasn't because she bragged about the number, or because there were major issues – it was because the high number meant squat when all of her works utilized poor grammar.
Did I hate this writer? I actually don't hate the writer despite the fact I majorly chewed her out in the review I left. For awhile I eventually got to work with this writer to improve her writing. Sadly this is one of the writers I ended up knowing quite a bit about her personal life – she posted her real name on her profile, and also had a blog that was easy to find. Thus I ended up becoming full aware of her being bullied by people off the net.
I'd like to hope she simply decided to move onto another account, but there is also a chance this isn't so. I do hope in part she moved onto another account, or even moved towards becoming a published writer. I may never end up knowing.
Avoid making false accusations, and avoid being a hypocrite. Without actually calling me a bully the writer accused me of being a bully. Bullies are known for tearing people down in order to make themselves feel good. This isn't the only way a person can find their ego torn down – critique can be quite humbling, but for those with sensitive egos who are easy targets for bullying it ends up feeding their insecurities unintentionally. Bulling feeds these insecurities on purpose.
The writer also accused me of being "judgmental" and claimed that they were "nonjudgmental". I'm quite sure that they meant I was one of those people who were quite judgmental about other people's writing while they were nonjudgmental because they didn't care to judge writing at all. The sentence though followed up a comment about "tearing people down" which made the comment about judging people despite their intents.
Despite their claim of being "nonjudgmental" they judged me to be unfair, lacking in understanding, and a bully. One of the worst things a writer can do is to act like they are being bullied when in fact they are really not. Is it really worth tearing another person who attempted to help you just so you can feel better about yourself?
On a positive note the writer didn't give up. After I clearly explained what she was doing was plagiarism she took down the original story and took another try at said story. This story was much better then the original one. Since it was actually her own story I got to see her personal style as well in that story – that was something I couldn't see previously. Did her fixing the plagiarism issue fix all of the issues – no, there are still some there. But the point is she made an effort to improve and it was reflected in her work.
What is the worst response I've ever had for a review? One day I received a review for my Avatar: The Last Airbender story 'Sister Avatar'. This piece was one of the first times I tried experimenting with turning a Mary Sue cliché on it's head. The reviewer in question skim read what I wrote back then, and also ended up showing a major lack of understanding in regards to the canon source. The writer also showed a major lack of understanding when it came to basic cause and effect that floored me.
The problems in the way I responded didn't start right away. I inquired into what she meant on a few things, and corrected her on a few others. The reader in question was a young reader who looked down on those of her own age because she thought she was smarter – she read more books then many had, and liked to use big books including bibliophile. She thought I was another person around her age who didn't know what I was doing and proceeded to treat me as such in her review.
She proceeded to receive a long lecture from me about proper reviewing etiquette. First – make sure you know what you're talking about, and not random knowledge from some random article that you can't even remember the name of or the exact content. Second – know the canon well, and third – don't skim read, and be careful about jumping to conclusions. I also warned her that if she wasn't careful she would become a flamer – not only did she eventually become one, she took great pride in it.
Here's where I messed up. I made the decision to publicly respond to her review to clarify a few things – there is nothing wrong with that. The original tone was all wrong though and my readers picked up on it. Her review was followed by another that was only slightly more constructive then the first. In a way I let it slide because the reader did respond better then the first. I did get some legit criticism later on though.
Why did I respond in the tone I did in the original Author's note? I was fairly pissed off when the reader in question admitted she enjoyed putting down writers her age because she felt they were stupid. She had a major ego about her intelligence level as well as a superiority complex. It was obvious I was pissed off at her. This was my first time ever dealing with someone like her online as well, but she wasn't the last either.
I share this to show that I too can mess up in this department. The next part I am going to go into in regards to distinguishing legit critique and non-legit critique as well as how to use legit critique when it comes your way.