Oh, God, I'm neurotic

[ratherastory]

This is me being insecure and neurotic. Nothing to see here, move along.


Dear Self,

We have been over this. Just because a reviewer obviously didn't understand your story or maybe just didn't read it carefully does NOT mean you suck forever as a writer. Come on. There are plenty of people whose opinions you trust who told you the story worked just fine. One *anonymous* reviewer should not be enough to reduce you to a quivering pile of insecure goo.

Jesus H. Christ, woman, pull yourself together!

Love,

Me



Dear Anonymous Reviewer,

Really? You read all 8,000 words of that fic and came away with the notion that I have sympathy only for Sam and that I'm awful to Dean? Really?

I'm a little flummoxed that that's what you took away from the story. Truly.

Maybe you ought to read it again a little more carefully. Or, better yet, go away before I enlist Missouri to hit you with a spoon. I am all for constructive criticism, but that? That wasn't it.

No love,

Me

Comments

[hansons-angel.livejournal.com]

I suck at negative-type comments. I mean, so much that I fear posting because I might get a negative comment.

And I'll be honest -- many people say they welcome concrit, etc. but I don't -- to me, it's the same as criticism. I don't mean telling me that I typed something wrong grammatically or punctuation wise -- please, I beg people to let me in on those kind of errors -- but as far as "critiquing" how I wrote my characters or the storyline I took -- even if they say it in a nice way -- it is what it is and if someone says it "would've worked better this way," then I start to doubt myself and for Christ's sake, I already doubt myself enough as it is.

Does this mean I only want people to leave nice comments? Why yes, yes it does. I'm not going to lie. But I also know this ain't realistic, someone somewhere is going to have something negative to say about something I write.

I've gotten a couple of iffy reviews on fan fic.net and my policy is to ignore, even the signed ones. I won't delete any comments but I won't engage in any dialogue either. It's so hard, it hurts my guts and usually sends me into a flipping tailspin for days but I have to toughen up. I have to.

Oh, and this is the other thing: I've read tons of stories that I didn't love or whatever and guess what? I actually walked away without leaving any sort of negative comment. Imagine that! And it wasn't even that difficult.

But you do know that for every one bad comment you get you've had like, hundreds of great comments, yes? But why is it that one shitty one that always sticks in our heads?

*hugs.*

[tifaching.livejournal.com]

"Oh, and this is the other thing: I've read tons of stories that I didn't love or whatever and guess what? I actually walked away without leaving any sort of negative comment. Imagine that! And it wasn't even that difficult."Yes this exactly. If you didn't like the POV of the story you just read, then click away 'cause there's lots of other fics out there that will be JUST what you're looking for. I read a story yesterday that I didn't like at all and didn't comment on, but there was one (anonymous of course) comment taking issue with the whole point of view of the story. The writer had every right to write the story she did and just because you don't like the storyline is no reason to trash someone's work. That sort of thing annoys me to no end. Just go away and read something else for Gods' sake!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Taking issue with the POV? Really? That's... beyond not constructive. POV is writer's choice.

Oy.

just because you don't like the storyline is no reason to trash someone's work.

Yes, this.

That wasn't the criticism of my fic (just that I apparently don't understaaaand how much Dean is sufferiiiiing and only have sympathy for Sam. *g*), but it drives me crazy when I see people doing it elsewhere.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. I don't mind concrit, as long as it's actual, well-thought-out concrit, which it almost never is.

"Your Dean is OOC!" is not concrit. "I feel that Dean wouldn't have reacted in this way because of X, Y and Z reasons that are made clear in the show," is concrit.

I usually won't leave comments in a fic I didn't like. Fanfic is a different beast entirely from regular writing, and if I have nothing nice to say, I won't say anything at all.

And why is it that it's so easy to focus on the one negative comment amidst the myriad of nice ones? Bah.

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

I agree. I don't comment if it really didn't do anything for me, and I don't leave any sort of critical comment unless I really liked it. And even then, it's usually a small thing, like typos, small errors, that kind of thing.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

Same here. If someone really wanted concrit, they'd have asked me to beta. :P