Why I don't leave con crit
Dec. 3rd, 2008 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pez[Skin Deep] 5, now with random Yanagi Renji appearance. Thank you to those who have been prodding for more of this cheesy little story. It continues to be cheesy and crap, so please continue to support it. XD;;;
Did a bit of drawing yesterday and... let's just say I should stick to writing. But maybe after I lol-ified it nobody'll notice the crappy artwork! >:].
Trail Hunter fic directory is here. I've only skimmed very quickly and haven't read anything properly yet, but in general it seems like people can write better there than at the PoT one#. Oh, I still shudder at the memory of some of the words and phrases that were used in the most recent round. (Though, to be fair, there was just one especially..... special fic and that really stuck in my memory of that round.)
I suck because I complain about quality but I usually don't leave con-crit. "Not like she actively asks for it anyway," and "it's an exchange, I shouldn't be criticising people's gifts," and "I know this particular person has a huge ego and will defend her writing and ignore all crits and likely mock me in a locked post too," and "she's wibbly about her writing enough as it is," and "the last two times I did bother, one didn't reply at all and the other literally went *shrug*##" are usually my reasons. But I'm also lazy. And I know I can be really harsh. And I suck at it in the way that I might say I find something really boring or the pace wrong but I can't give a specific reason why.
## I did discuss the problem I found with her other readers, who actually have had the same feelings as I did, but nobody else said anything before me and nobody else said anything to agree with me either when the author missed my point and glossed it over with "oh, thanks, but that's my style." So, fneh. Fine, if "unnatural" is your style. Maybe it's not just me or the authors, it's the general attitude of people.
Also, one thing I realised is that these days I start noticing problems with paragraph structure and overall pace that other people - usually those who don't use English in their everyday lives or those who don't write regularly - don't notice. They might also be those who have a narrow reading list, either fanfic being their main read or fanfic plus a very limited number of authors/sources. (But I might discuss the problems I felt with Liz and she might say yeah, the structure and pace is all wrong.) And if I do comment on those things, all these people might start thinking I'm picking on problems that don't exist. orz And maybe they are right, it might just me preferring a certain type of structure over others? Some people have written that way for so many years they'd probably also go *shrug* when I say I find it uncomfortable to read, anyway. And you know, it's not like not enough people think I'm a big bad meanie and my writing sucks and have no right to criticise other people and I'm an elitist and a show-off and I run a clique and all that already.
But - at least I comment, and I don't leave comment like "I have no idea what this team is all about and you might just have spoiled me and your fic totally makes that other fic by the other author make sense, finally!" which I probably shouldn't bring up because that's something really rather old, maybe last year, but it still amuses me so I'll bring it up anyway. Maybe the old tards are not tards anymore, but they're inevitably replaced by new ones so I bet this sort of thing still happens, just done by different people.
Now, having said all of the above... if anyone feels like throwing their fics at me (ZukaFuji, Troika pairings, Niou with any of Troika, and D1 only please) I'd be happy to give you my honest opinion. It might take some time though because I often get distracted by shiny things like the 360, so if it's a fic with a deadline please don't ask.
Hungry. Hot cross bun time, I say.
# but at least in the PoT one people do as they promise and have chats etc. Trail Hunter has a separate comm too, apparently for discussions and others, but all I've ever seen was ONE "we're online now come chat!" in the main comm rather than the discussion comm, and there seemed to be no consideration for people at different time zones etc. Rather disappointing since there are THREE mods. Surely someone could've organised something or at least left a note to ask if anyone wants to organise one. Or just start a discussion on the side comm, even, since it's a completely new comm and the mod should usually start things off, no? When I first asked "why is this being run at precisely the same time as NaNoWriMo?" I was told that was the only good time window for the mods, so I was expecting, you know, there being a bit more effort.
[edit] *reads entry* Wow, what a big jumble of words. Sorry about that!
Did a bit of drawing yesterday and... let's just say I should stick to writing. But maybe after I lol-ified it nobody'll notice the crappy artwork! >:].
Trail Hunter fic directory is here. I've only skimmed very quickly and haven't read anything properly yet, but in general it seems like people can write better there than at the PoT one#. Oh, I still shudder at the memory of some of the words and phrases that were used in the most recent round. (Though, to be fair, there was just one especially..... special fic and that really stuck in my memory of that round.)
I suck because I complain about quality but I usually don't leave con-crit. "Not like she actively asks for it anyway," and "it's an exchange, I shouldn't be criticising people's gifts," and "I know this particular person has a huge ego and will defend her writing and ignore all crits and likely mock me in a locked post too," and "she's wibbly about her writing enough as it is," and "the last two times I did bother, one didn't reply at all and the other literally went *shrug*##" are usually my reasons. But I'm also lazy. And I know I can be really harsh. And I suck at it in the way that I might say I find something really boring or the pace wrong but I can't give a specific reason why.
## I did discuss the problem I found with her other readers, who actually have had the same feelings as I did, but nobody else said anything before me and nobody else said anything to agree with me either when the author missed my point and glossed it over with "oh, thanks, but that's my style." So, fneh. Fine, if "unnatural" is your style. Maybe it's not just me or the authors, it's the general attitude of people.
Also, one thing I realised is that these days I start noticing problems with paragraph structure and overall pace that other people - usually those who don't use English in their everyday lives or those who don't write regularly - don't notice. They might also be those who have a narrow reading list, either fanfic being their main read or fanfic plus a very limited number of authors/sources. (But I might discuss the problems I felt with Liz and she might say yeah, the structure and pace is all wrong.) And if I do comment on those things, all these people might start thinking I'm picking on problems that don't exist. orz And maybe they are right, it might just me preferring a certain type of structure over others? Some people have written that way for so many years they'd probably also go *shrug* when I say I find it uncomfortable to read, anyway. And you know, it's not like not enough people think I'm a big bad meanie and my writing sucks and have no right to criticise other people and I'm an elitist and a show-off and I run a clique and all that already.
But - at least I comment, and I don't leave comment like "I have no idea what this team is all about and you might just have spoiled me and your fic totally makes that other fic by the other author make sense, finally!" which I probably shouldn't bring up because that's something really rather old, maybe last year, but it still amuses me so I'll bring it up anyway. Maybe the old tards are not tards anymore, but they're inevitably replaced by new ones so I bet this sort of thing still happens, just done by different people.
Now, having said all of the above... if anyone feels like throwing their fics at me (ZukaFuji, Troika pairings, Niou with any of Troika, and D1 only please) I'd be happy to give you my honest opinion. It might take some time though because I often get distracted by shiny things like the 360, so if it's a fic with a deadline please don't ask.
Hungry. Hot cross bun time, I say.
# but at least in the PoT one people do as they promise and have chats etc. Trail Hunter has a separate comm too, apparently for discussions and others, but all I've ever seen was ONE "we're online now come chat!" in the main comm rather than the discussion comm, and there seemed to be no consideration for people at different time zones etc. Rather disappointing since there are THREE mods. Surely someone could've organised something or at least left a note to ask if anyone wants to organise one. Or just start a discussion on the side comm, even, since it's a completely new comm and the mod should usually start things off, no? When I first asked "why is this being run at precisely the same time as NaNoWriMo?" I was told that was the only good time window for the mods, so I was expecting, you know, there being a bit more effort.
[edit] *reads entry* Wow, what a big jumble of words. Sorry about that!
