Fic Talk > General Discussion
Question of the day part 9 (even though days go by lol)
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on July 06, 2013, 04:50:00 PM ---What is your one biggest pet peeve when it comes to fan fiction?
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My biggest pet peeve is the abuse of the English language that I see in too many stories! I'm talking about stories written by authors who are NATIVE English-speakers, not authors for whom English is a second or third language, because, honestly, those authors have a pass on making errors in English, and yet, they are not the worst abusers! As a teacher, it just makes me cringe to see teenagers and adults fail to use the writing conventions they should have been taught in school, basic things like writing in complete sentences, using punctuation appropriately, and choosing the correct homophones. That irks me more than anything else!
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on July 06, 2013, 04:50:47 PM ---And to blatantly steal the twitter hashtag from earlier lol
What is one thing you have learned from fan fiction?
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Like Steph said, I've learned so much about how to write fiction - everything from developing characters to structuring a plot to writing in different genres and formats. I never learned much about creative writing in school; we wrote lots of essays and reports, but hardly ever stories. Pretty much everything I've learned about writing stories has been self-taught by reading other people's stories and trying things out in my own. Through feedback from other people and just re-reading and reflecting on my own stories, I've figured out what works and doesn't work, and that has helped me to grow as a writer.
Something else that I've learned is self-confidence and pride in myself as a writer. Before I got into writing fanfic, I never had a real hobby or talent that I was known for. I played the piano and clarinet and sang in the school choir, but I was never amazing at any of those things. I did dance and tumbling as a kid, but again, I was not particularly gifted at either. I'm not athletic or artistic. I was always good at school, but learning isn't really a hobby, and being smart isn't really a talent. Writing fanfic is the first hobby I've had that I've been passionate about and stuck with for a long time - over thirteen years now! It's still mostly a private hobby that few people in my real life know about, but it's a source of pride for me. It's been a big boost to my confidence to get positive feedback and win awards for my writing, even if it's just for BSB fanfic. It's just nice to feel like I'm good at something that takes actual talent!
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: mare on July 07, 2013, 06:58:10 PM ---After seeing what some idiot said to Cinzia in a review, here is another question for you.
What is the worst thing someone has said to you in a review about one of your stories?
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I can't remember ever getting a truly "bad" review. I've never been flamed, as far as I can remember. I have definitely gotten reviews from readers who were upset with the direction the story was going or didn't like one of the characters, but I can't complain about those because they were honest, for one, and they were from people who were still enjoying the story enough to continue reading and giving feedback. Like a lot of you have said, those reviews show that people are passionate about what they're reading!
I have also gotten nitpicky reviews, like Julilly mentioned, that point out inaccuracies instead of commenting on the story itself, and those can be annoying, but they can also be helpful if they're right. When I was writing Broken, there was a girl who would email me regularly with feedback, and she was a med student, so she liked to give suggestions and correct my mistakes. At the time, it annoyed me because I was doing the absolute best I could to be realistic, and it was disheartening to be told otherwise, but I realize now that 1) she probably just wanted to show off what she'd learned and thought she was being helpful, and 2) she was right about most things, so it WAS helpful, whether I wanted to take her advice or not. I think being critiqued that way by someone who knew what they were talking about made me more of a stickler about doing research so that there wouldn't be any inaccuracies for people to point out. Not that my writing is factually perfect now, because I'm sure it's not, but I did not get nitpicky reviews like that for Curtain Call because I made sure not to write anything without looking it up first LOL.
I guess that shows the difference between constructive criticism and flames. At least you can learn from the concrit!
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: DelphinaCarter on July 07, 2013, 08:37:28 AM ---One of my biggest fanfic pet peeves is when people get one or two reviews and whine they will not update until they don't get a certain amount of feedback. Holding updates from readers is kind of douchey....I stopped reading someones story because of that.
I mean we all want reviews, yes, but there's always that person who goes overboard.
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I agree with this too! Like you said, Tracy, we all want reviews, but to punish the people who are actually giving them by withholding updates in an effort to get more reviews is just douchey.
RokofAges75:
--- Quote from: usako on July 07, 2013, 10:24:36 AM ---Agree with both of you, especially for the grammar part.
One of mine, always regarding review, is when someone leave a review only to attack me because I write slash. It didn't happen here but in the italian archive. If you don't like it, don't read it and, especially, don't come and tell me that I should write stories more "appropriate". :banghead:
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That is really awful! If they don't like what you're writing, they should just not read it. Simple as that. Like Steph said, we're all not going to like the same things, and that's exactly what makes archive sites like AC so great - all the variety!
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