even with the risk of sounding elitist, I have to get this off my chest

[pez]

My god. I wonder what's wrong with people these days. It seems like as long as a fic has a high word count it automatically means it's awesome. I just read a long piece of crap that could've been written by five different people and then meshed together into one fic and apparently it's supposed to be amazing. Or so the comments say.

And I do mean it when I say it's crap. You know I don't publically bash fics often, because I think it's usually a matter of taste. But this one, it's got characterisation inconsistencies, more than a handful of typos, skippy passages (which aren't stylish or clever), unexplained character traits that are really important... the whole lot.

But take santa_smex for example. I haven't read a lot of it yet, but almost every fic that's too long for LJ and therefore has to get a webpage? Gets lots of comments. Not saying that long = crap (I love a good, long story), but do people feel obliged to say nice things even when it's crap because it's long and therefore the author must have made huge effort? Or does longness drown minds out and make them not see that something sucks? I can verbal diahoerra, too, you know. Would fandom bow at my feet for it?

The sad thing is, a lot of those who commented positively are people who leave feedback to me, too. Some are even from my own flist. So probably the standards of my own writing are just about the same. Well, shit.

Shit, I'm supposed to be asleep since an hour ago. Maybe that's why I'm bitching. Haven't been having a very good night (thanks, Hana, for talking to me). Now I have 4 hours to sleep before work.

Comments

[mayezinha.livejournal.com]

I apologize for butting in, because you have the right to defend your matter of taste in writing. And this is the other side of the coin of taking writing as seriously as you do.

It takes a lot to be part on a fic exchange. I respect your decision of not participating because you claimed "having bad luck" at them, getting less in reciprocity for what you worked on; also that you decide the participants on a fic exchange, maybe that's the formula to prevent deadbeats and assure its quality, we'll see.

You took the time to get your data in statistics about the feedback, but I believe there are not absolutes in reader's comments. A fic gets you in a particular moment and because of it makes an impression on you. Or there's a particularity that makes you like it. Maybe in a second lecture you see the plotholes or the characterization's flaws. The typos irk me too, but I don't have the basis to comment on everyone of them because my own comments come out awful frequently and don't have the chance to edit them.

I'd like to see myself as an accomplice reader and cut some slack to fics. See what good may have -a description, an idea, only a character- or if there's none, take note of what NOT to do. I don't think is just "being nice" at all.

And I personally disagree when you say
So probably the standards of my own writing are just about the same.
because everybody has their own standard, I can't measure you equally with Pix, for example; it wouldn't be fair because everybody has their own background, life experiences and writing purposes aside their favorite pairings.

Fandom is supposed to be fun, and if we want it to have a revival or boost it up, we have to give chance to new writers to develop their work.

And who knows, maybe I would've had the balls to suscribe in this year's smex and be the suckiest fic of the exchange or be the one who got many comments: some of encouragement, some out of obligation from my betas, from people whose judgement you won't consider reliable or just a lurker and decide to comment because my fic said something to her.

I apologize again for the long comment, but there's one certain truth: there are no absolutes in writing. Less in fanfic writing.

[seraphim-grace.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstand, there are fics out there that are truly dire and there are fics that are wondrous and amazing and we don't take the time to encourage the good writers, but we do encourage the bad ones because we know with a little coaxing and a lot of love they'll become great too
it's frustrating when you've worked hard on something and bared your soul for all to see and it gets ....nothing. Fandom sucks it into a black hole
but then you see something that frustrates you because it could be better, or it should be better, or it would be better and no one has the heart to say anything that might improve it, or might discourage them.
Personally I encourage concrit, and you have to pretty much be incredibly offensive for me to consider it a flame, but not everyone does and some writers can take good concrit and run off crying thinking their shit and so we don't say anything

you're talking about ignoring the bad, but if we do we'll never be good, if we encourage the writers who write badly with no instruction we're not going to improve the fandom, we'll drive people away with "you don't want to read there."
I can think of pairings I have no issue with in canon that turn my stomach because of the way that they've been written, but at the same time, I'll forgive a writer a million typos for one beautiful sentence
and I like yuki_scorpio's writing, and worry that if a talented author like her doesn't get feedback where do the rest of us stand
perhaps we too should be writing bad pron where the rules of physics do not apply and spelling is more of a suggestion than a hard and fast rule.

[yuki-scorpio.livejournal.com]

I think there's nothing wrong with encouragement of any kind. The difference lies in what you (general you, not you specially) say in the comment.

I suppose this is entering more general terms now, since like I said in another comment, I wouldn't go leave crit on an exchange fic easily. Have done it before, but it highly depends on the situation.

But there is difference between "this show promise and you can do better (maybe elaborate a bit more)" and "this is one of the best things ever". If you comment with the intention of encouraging development, the former is far, far better than the latter. Of course, you can tell them it's the best thing ever if that's how you feel, but to see words such as "amazing", "phenomenol", "best" dished out easily just makes the words mean less, and the writer has no idea there is still room for development. They just go walk around with their heads up in a cloud. I can think of a few people who are like that. When you see, say, Pix or I, laugh about fic writers, it's usually those writers. They just think they're so awesome when they're mada mada dane. But it's hard to blame them when they have a crowd of people telling them they're the best, all the time.

(btw, my exchange being invite-only is primarily because 1) I have no experience in organising an exchange and can't deal with too many participants and 2) the theme of the exchange is somewhat controversial and it's something only few people can pull off.)

[mayezinha.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying to ignore the bad aspects of a fic, there are ways to comment and maybe people go overboard. Or really an awful fic was the best thing they have that day, who knows.

It's already difficult to get comments on writing so it's more difficult to get real advice or crit that really can help you evolve.

Also you can have a bit of perspective knowing what to expect from people. There are people with their head in the clouds as you say because of all those "phenomenol!!!111" people.

Mainly my previous comment was because you said how people measure your writing. I measure you for yourself.

(You have your reasons and of course the theme is difficult, you're working with a blurry line over there)