On 8/21/97 3:04 AM, Mark Page at ayanami@merlin.net.au wrote:
It'd be like someone sending Caroline Seawright (sorry for using you for
the example, Kun-chan, but you also posted in this conversation) a note
that "[Ranma character x] would never do something that hentai! You
pervert! How could you violate the vision of the most Holy
Takahashi-sama? etc..." - does Kun-chan get any useful feedback from that
note? Not really.
Sorry to be so blunt and negative ^_^... but wrong. At the very *least*,
you get the message that this reader disagrees with your charactization
of the character. If most of the comments are like that (as the original
poster seemed to suggest), then I'd say it's a message that you need to
take another look at how you portrayed that character. I may be going
against the majority, here... but I believe a writer's purpose is to
*communicate*. You can enjoy writing just for yourself, and take pleasure
in having written something you enjoyed. But if you can't share that
enjoyment with someone else -- can't invoke those feelings in another
person -- then you're missing something as a writer. And if most people
can't accept or share in your take on a character, then you're having a
problem communicating.
Now, for the critiquers, there are a lot more *useful* things you can
tell a writer <g>:
* You contradicted events at point x in the series. Many of us don't have
access to the full series (as, for example, those of us who are limited
to the Viz translations of Ranma are missing the full, complete portrayal
of the wedding fiasco... there are times when summaries don't cut it, and
from the ongoing arguments about Ukyo and Shampoo's roles therin, this
looks like one of them), and pointing out how what we did contradicted a
later point in the story at least gives us a starting point for research.
It's also possible we've missed an issue/episode or two, and now we'll
know what we missed and what we need to go back and check.
* You have this character doing x, when she's never done x before and
past actions a, b, and c suggest she even hates the thought of doing x.
In other words... if you don't believe something we did is IC, tell us
*why*, and BE SPECIFIC. We may not always agree with you, or with your
interpretation of events, but at least we'll be debating specifics we can
point to and not vague statements of opinion.
Maybe canonically the character wouldn't do something
like that. But Kunoichi chose to make 'em do so for the point of one of
her numerous lemon fics. And if all she gets - or the majority of it -
are comments like that, she'd probably be rather annoyed. If she were an
author new to the scene, she might even feel that it wasn't worth posting
her fic.
Just my $0.02 + sales tax where applicable.
----[Loki]-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is why I haven't bothered posting any of the fanfics I have bothered
to write. What's the point when 9 out of 10 C & C you're going to get are
>from people who are so anally retentive about things they can't accept what
you're writing cos you're not the series original creator. Either that or
they're going to say "this sucks" just cos they feel like it.
While I hate to sound cold-hearted... tough. Writing is often a cruel
vocation, and a writer has to learn to take criticism. It hurts,
especially when it's idiot flaming and not useful critique... but it *is*
a fact of life in the writing world, and if you want to write and
communicate -- share your works with others, instead of leaving them sit
in a directory on your hard disk -- then you're going to have to deal
with it. If it's flaming, then you need to learn to let it roll off your
back (unless, like I said, the majority of your comments are negative; in
that case, it's time for you to take a reality check on what you're
doing)*. If it's serious, then *you* need to take it seriously. Even if
you don't agree with what they say, you need to think about it instead of
just dismissing it.
*And along those lines... there is a certain obligation on the readers'
part to make positive comments when they enjoyed something. I do often
find it harder to make specific positive comments; if I really liked an
entire scene, it's a lot harder for me to say something useful about how
all the little good bits came together into a pleasing whole, than it is
to say something useful but negative about the one little bit that felt
wrong or out-of-place. If a story is very good overall, it just makes the
remaining problems in it stand out that much more clearly... leaving a
C&C filled with a few positive statements about the work as a whole,
followed by a lot of nitpicks about the problems left over. Both writers
and critiquers need to be aware of this, and adjust accordingly.
As far as being anal-retentive goes... well, again, that's life, and
you'd better learn to live with it.
Grammar, spelling, punctuation, formatting, and other technical issues
*are* real and important, and at least as important here as in
professional writing. We're all doing this for fun, after all, and
anything that interferes with that fun is a problem. I admit that if the
first screen of a story contains enough technical problems to make it an
effort to read, I'll skip it and move on; I'm doing this for fun, and I'm
not going to work to decipher something that a good writer should make
legible to begin with.
And let's face it... "people who are so anally retentive about things
they can't accept what you're writing cos you're not the series original
creator" also come with the territory. If you have a fan that's *so*
entranced with a series that he'll go and read fanfics because the
original series wasn't enough for him... then there's a good chance that:
* He's going to care more about the series than the average fan
* He's going to care about the characters and how they're portrayed
* He's usually going to have strong ideas of his own about the series...
and
* He's going to notice when any of these things conflicts with your
story, as often as not.
Not all fanfic readers fit this profile... but I'd bet a large proportion
of them do.
Travis Butler
(The Professor, formerly of Myth and Magick!, Lawrence, KS;
tbutler@tfs.net, now from the Wandering Powerbook;
<http://www.tfs.net/personal/tbutler/>;
Mac page <http://www.tfs.net/business/tbutler/>)
...Wait a minute! Strike that. Reverse it. Thank you.