After a while, I got up what little courage I had, and posted my newest fic,
which I found to be the best I had written so far. I patiently waited for the
C&C to roll in -- I had seen many other fics get tons of C&C with only the
slightest mention for it, and I had begged and pleaded for it. If I remember
correctly, my total number of responses was around 5.
Five responses isn't too bad, actually. A few stories get lots, true,
but most get only a smattering, or even none at all. I've had both ends of
the scale, personally -- one of my 'fics generated a great deal of C&C, but
I've posted others that got nothing whatsoever.
I found many fics that I probably would have C&C'ed, but I was afraid that
nobody would really take a 14-year old no-name seriously, so I dug myself
deeper. Many topics were way over my head, and I felt even more out of place.
Firstly: Nobody knows you're fourteen years old, unless you tell them. If
you have something relevant to say, the Internet is the great leveller.
Secondly: Yes, most topics will be over your head ... to start with. That's
true of any subject, not just writing. Perseverence is the only way to get
around it. It sounds like you already know this, though... :)
I don't really know the reason why I wrote this; maybe I just wanted to be
recognized. Maybe I wanted to tell people not to be so harsh on some people.
It's okay if you hated a fic, but don't scream at the writers. How am I, a
14-year old freshman girl with high school crashing down on her s'posed to
compete fics with people like Kleppe and Lurker and Lawson? My fic that I
posted was my pride and joy; one person killed it down with a single glance.
He later said he didn't mean to, that he *did* enjoy the fic, he just was
commenting on it. Those comments killed my meager little ego. All I'm saying
is please be nice with your C&C. You can't all expect for us to be perfect
writers. People join this ML to become better; shooting down their dreams
isn't a good way to do that.
If you approach fanfic writing as "trying to compete" with the "big names"
in the field, you are almost certain to be disappointed. I promise you,
there's plenty of room in the field! The most important rule you can follow
is to write what satisfies YOU. In the long run, nothing else is going to
keep you doing it.
Regarding your own unpleasant experience with negative C&C -- well, without
knowing what was said it's obviously hard to judge. But if you want to
write, then one thing you MUST be prepared to accept is that others may
find flaws in your work.
Most people on the list will try and comment in a positive way -- that is,
they'll tell you what they think is wrong, and suggest ways to fix it.
Believe it or not, this is the most valuable type of comment you can get.
You may not necessarily agree with the comments (that's always your
privilege), but at the very least you may gain useful insights into how
others see your work.
Sadly, a few may simply hurl insults, or couch their comments offensively.
Sometimes the offense may be unintentional (it sounds like this may have
been such a case) but there is one general rule to follow: if someone's
insulting you, you DON'T need to pay any attention.
Above all, don't let a flame stop you writing. Even the "big names"
get flames -- some of them frequently, it seems. They got to be at the
top of the field by NOT letting it stop them.
Hope this helps...
Cheers,
Angus
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Angus MacSpon Allen Gainsford
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/ http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/