On 8/22/97 11:29 AM, Jeremy 'Loki' Blackman at loki@thekeep.org wrote:

On Fri, 22 Aug 1997, Travis Butler wrote:

On 8/21/97 3:04 AM, Mark Page at ayanami@merlin.net.au wrote:

This is misleading. ;)  I'm the one responsible for the below quote using
Caroline as an example (again, sorry, Kun-chan);  don't blame others for
what I write. ^_-

I knew it was someone else; unfortunately, Mark's post didn't put 
attribution in. :(

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 
[snip]

Ah, but you miss my point.  It's not the particular -comments-, but the
way it's phrased.  

Perhaps you're missing mine. ^_^ Yes, I realize that was what you were 
trying to say, and all that goes with it, as I noted later. My point is 
that in at least one respect, *it doesn't matter*. If you get a flame in 
response, you not only know that the reader didn't like it... you know 
that you really p*ssed him off, and you need to think about what that 
means. (See below.) And if the majority of comments are like that, then 
it's time for a serious reality check. Sometimes what you write *is* bad, 
or completely out of touch with the things that drew most people to the 
series to begin with... and if that happens, then you need to accept it 
and decide what to do next -- not deny 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 

True; however, receiving a large amount of 'idiot flaming' as opposed to
useful critique -can- get annoying.  

Undoubtedly. :) But like I said... it's a fact of life, and you've got to 
learn to deal with it. How you deal with a flame is going to depend on 
the circumstances -- whether you know this person, do you normally 
respect their opinion, whether it's well-written or a mass of technical 
mistakes, and so forth. Though if you receive a 'large amount'... then, 
like I said, it's time for a reality check. It doesn't mean you should 
necessarily change your story, especially if it's about a controversial 
topic; Richard's written before about all the flames he got from "Thy 
Outward Part," and I still remember how Zen was acting before the fanfic 
panel at A-Kon, not long after "Bitter End" was released. :) But you do 
need to think about it.

I write for the fun of it; because I
happen to enjoy writing and enjoy what I create.  I don't post most of my
stuff to the FFML anymore (for several reasons; main one being that a lot
of it is original work, not anime fanfiction, and I've generally seen bad
reception of original work on the FFML - namely, no one reads it). 

I've seen that as well, though I can't say I'm terribly surprised. There 
are a number of outlets for original fiction, but only a few for 
fanfiction; it's understandable that people who come here for anime 
fanfiction prefer to read anime fanfiction.

*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.

Correct; however, getting something like:

"I really liked it; I thought it was a great story overall, but there were
one or two little places that I thought could've been better.  For
example, here..."

...tends to make an author feel better than just "Well, have you
considered changing <x>?".  Both are constructive C&C, but if you did like
the rest of the 'fic but those places, tell the author!

Agreed, which is why I said both groups need to be aware of this and 
compensate for it. :) Writers as well as readers -- if someone gives you 
something like the first comment, then take it for what it is and don't 
get discouraged by a list of problems. :)



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/>)

...Classified Ads: The Final Frontier.