Absolute Chaos Discussion Boards
Fic Talk => General Discussion => Topic started by: mare on February 18, 2009, 07:49:22 PM
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You all know you have gripes about things when it comes to fanfic. Whether it be overused plots, very out of character boys, too much sex, etc... so this is the place to post those gripes WITHOUT naming specific stories please.
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Spelling and grammar! Two years later, I'm still irked by it...
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Yup lol that is a big one and of course what's mine?
[HIDE]BANNERS!!!!! I HATE THEM ALL!!![/HIDE]
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Could that possibly be banners? Especially ones featuring the author's lovely photo?
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Bingo! or should I say...BINOG!
And i'm an equal opportunity banner hater. I hate everyone's faces on banners! lol
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Even Nick's? GASP!
Hahah, Binog.
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Yes! Especially Nick's because he's always got some radom girl stuck on it with him. lol
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Good point! What if it were just a picture of Nick... Like icon sized? lol
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speaking of Binog!
I need to post today's words... I shall go...
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Does it upset you that that joke is still around? lol
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I hate really bad spelling in a story, and also when the writer hasn't presented it well, eg, no paragraphs, just all clumped together. It makes it hard to get into it.
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Does it upset you that that joke is still around? lol
lol no. It was too funny!
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I hate really bad spelling in a story, and also when the writer hasn't presented it well, eg, no paragraphs, just all clumped together. It makes it hard to get into it.
The clump is my biggest one. I'm a horrible speller so I'm a little less likely to notice that (though I take the time to run things through spell-check, so it is a bit odd to me that someone would post without doing that...). But The Clump to me is just a sign that they don't care at all about trying to make their stories readable (unless it's a formatting issue that a site has screwed up to no fault of their own; buuuuut I'm not likely to read it until it's fixed even in that case...)
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The clump is my biggest one. I'm a horrible speller so I'm a little less likely to notice that (though I take the time to run things through spell-check, so it is a bit odd to me that someone would post without doing that...). But The Clump to me is just a sign that they don't care at all about trying to make their stories readable (unless it's a formatting issue that a site has screwed up to no fault of their own; buuuuut I'm not likely to read it until it's fixed even in that case...)
The clump! I love it...perfect word to describe it!
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The clump is my biggest one. I'm a horrible speller so I'm a little less likely to notice that (though I take the time to run things through spell-check, so it is a bit odd to me that someone would post without doing that...). But The Clump to me is just a sign that they don't care at all about trying to make their stories readable (unless it's a formatting issue that a site has screwed up to no fault of their own; buuuuut I'm not likely to read it until it's fixed even in that case...)
I know what you mean, sometimes I don't run spellcheck and there might be the odd mistake which I'll go back and alter, but the clumping is the biggest one for me. It just looks so un-appealing.
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Another one....not reading rules reguarding posting pics in signatures! lol *Hint Hint* :)
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Aren't we supposed to have picture signatures? I'll take it down if so. I got carried away making graphics on photoshop and thought I'd use them :)
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LOl it's okay I was just playing with you and no you're not supposed to have picture signatures. They are allowed but need to basically be avy sized. It takes too long for them to load for the poor people on dial up.
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LOl it's okay I was just playing with you and no you're not supposed to have picture signatures. They are allowed but need to basically be avy sized. It takes too long for them to load for the poor people on dial up.
Do people still use dial up?
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Yup
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Yup
Who knew...I haven't been on a dial up connection in forever, I bet it feels SLOW...
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I know. I can imagine. My conection is so slow, it might as well be dial up. lol
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I had dial-up at my parents' house until 2006, which wasn't all THAT long ago, so I can sympathize with the dial-up users. I can't imagine it now, but I lived that way for a long time when I was at home LOL.
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How about people that put the same paragraphs of a story in three times...(basically not reading the dang chapter before it is posted? :shrug:
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LOL
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I removed the signature :)
Wow, I've not used dial-up in years, didn't realise people still used it!
Can't think of anymore fic related peeves :)
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Yeah. I'm not on dial up anymore, but this summer after the floods (which hit the qwest phone/internet bldg and took out a large portion of the internet service in the area) we were really limited and it was just painful to go online again. Funny how spoiled we all get by the faster speeds lol. Even now that the home one is back up to speed, I hate it because it's so much slower than the one at work. (Of course my kids keep me from being on a whole lot from home anyway, but still...)
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Yeah, I know what you mean about work's internet being faster. My home one is fast but at work it's instant.
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This is the fic that never ends,
it just goes on and on my friends
One day I started writing, not knowing what it was,
and I'll continue writing it forever just because...
(Next chaps, same as the last!)
Erm. Yeah, okay, so I have nothing against long fics in general, but there are some that just go on and on repeating the same sort of things over and over and never really going anywhere new. There comes a time to put an ending on the story. You can always write sequels, but every good thing must come to an end.
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Fanfic pet peeves... hmm... I dislike lyrics thrown into chapters. A line or two is fine, but full, complete, song lyrics... to what purpose does that serve?
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I have to agree on both counts.
Being overly wordy is another pet peeve of mine. There is no reason to babble on and on about what color someone's house is. It's green we get it... lol
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But mare, it's not *green*. It's a shade of green that lies firmly between celery and lime, but with just a hint of gold shimmer when the light hits it...
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But mare, it's not *green*. It's a shade of green that lies firmly between celery and lime, but with just a hint of gold shimmer when the light hits it...
That matches Kevin's eyes, and the stripes of the shirt Nick wore that time, once, during that photoshoot, with the guy with the hair and the camera. Ya know.
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^exactly!
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You left out twinkling....t here always has to be twinkling!
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I'm guilty :(
I've put a few lines of songs into one of my fics, but it's supposed to be Nick writing a few lines of poetry, so it does have a purpose.
I don't mind songs in fics if they are relevent to the story.
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I'm guilty :(
I've put a few lines of songs into one of my fics, but it's supposed to be Nick writing a few lines of poetry, so it does have a purpose.
I don't mind songs in fics if they are relevent to the story.
Yes but that's a few lines. I hate when the whole chapter is like:
John went to the store. He heard a song on the in-store satellite radio that they always kept tuned to the same station even though there's no way he would know that.
2
5
l
i
n
e
s
o
f
l
y
r
i
c
s
So he left cuz he didn't like that song.
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I'm with you; if it's relevant to the story, I don't mind it at all. However, there are some stories where the lyrics are being used in lieu of an actual story and that's really not my cup of tea. (mmm tea.) It can be nice to have a "soundtrack" and it's okay to use more than a few lines of a song if it's actually serving a purpose other than to just simply have the song in the story (i.e. I've read stories that were essentially about 100 words longer than the lyrics to the song that is included in the story--there is one sentance of "fic" to one verse of song, etc...)
Of course, I must say that we all have done most of these things. It all comes with developing our writing. I *know* I'm still guilty of the being too wordy and of doing the telling-not-showing (still catch myself doing that all the time...ugh!) And I'm terrible when it comes to using proper grammar (altough sometimes I do that purposely, depending on the character...) I like reading these threads to find other things that I'm doing that I may not even be aware of until someone else points them out.
Also note, even if you recognize something from your writing in threads like this, remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Just because you (proverbial, not you specifically ;)) do something mentioned here, doesn't make your writing bad by any means--it's just something that you may want to be aware of when you are writing and make decisions like "is this really necessary to the story/does it serve a purpose other than to show that I like it?".
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Speaking of song lyrics... there was this fic I read once (not on AC) where the author posted the lyrics to an entire song as one chapter... and that was it. That was the whole chapter. None of her writing at all; just this song LOL.
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I think I've read that one ;)
The thing with that is that they could actually get into trouble for copyright infringement for doing just that (it's unlikely that anyone would pursue it; especially with all those lyric sites out there, but...technica lly speaking, they're using more than what would be considered "fair use".) If it's just a few lines, it's not so much of a copyright issue, but the whole thing--especially if not including some original work as well...yeeeah. pushing it. lol
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Also note, even if you recognize something from your writing in threads like this, remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Just because you (proverbial, not you specifically ;)) do something mentioned here, doesn't make your writing bad by any means--it's just something that you may want to be aware of when you are writing and make decisions like "is this really necessary to the story/does it serve a purpose other than to show that I like it?".
And also, one person's pet peeve is not another person's pet peeve...
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^very true also!
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And also, one person's pet peeve is not another person's pet peeve...
This is definitely true, though a lot of times writers don't realize it's something they're doing
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Or they do realize it, but since it's not their pet peeve, they don't care.
It's all a matter of fact and opinion. There are some pet peeves we've talked about on here, which, in fact, constitute poor writing. Poor grammar, for instance. No expert on writing will ever tell you it's okay to publish something that is chock full of grammar errors, unless they're there intentionally as part of a character's own writing or dialect or something, or that it's okay to write a novel that is all one paragraph.
But a lot of the other things we complain about - banners, song lyrics, lengthy description, etc. - are just a matter of opinion. There are bestselling, highly-regarded, published novelists who use lyrics in their books and write lengthy, wordy descriptions. And banners are the online equivalent to the cover of a book. Sure, as a writer, you might want to take the opinions of other writers and your own readers into consideration. .. but when it all comes down to it, you need to do what you feel fits your story and your style the best. Our styles and tastes are all different, so definitely, one person's pet peeve may be another person's love.
Still funny to see what drives everyone nuts though LOL.
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OMG a whole chapter of just song lyrics and nothing else? That's not a story at all!
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It is fun to see what drives everyone crazy. lol
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I hate when everyone is in love with the main character and they all fight over her and think she's perfect.
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I hate when the main character is a she in a BSB fic. It's a BSB fic, one of them should be the main character. lol
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I don't like it when someone totally changes a character from a fandom without any explanation for it (not counting AU). If there's an explanation--even if it's a rather flimsy one--I'll usually accept it, but if it's just like out of the blue, say Howie is suddenly just completely evil for no reason. Try to at least stick close to their "character"--or have an explanation of why they're *not* their normal character...
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ooh yes, that's a good one too! Sometimes I think that also has to do with lack of research. Writign in a fandom you might not know every well. Still, if you are going to write in the fandom, learn about the people before you do.
Although, I still think Howie may be slightly evil lol
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It's always the quiet ones...
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Evil Howie is fun! LOL But like Ash said, even then, there needs to be a reason.
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Because he's like... totally evil...duh! That's enough of a reason!
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Especially when he's got that long, slicked back Latino hair... definitely my idea of an evil mastermind!
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And his eye twitch.... lol
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Yay evil Howie! Muahahahaha! ;) >:( <--- look there he is lol
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LOL I'm totally guilty about the song lyric thing...i have to confess about that though, i just tagged the song lyric at the end of one of my short stories because i was lazy to think of how to end it better :-[ but it was just one story...so hopefully i'll do better on the next one! :)
one of my pet peeves besides the ones already mentioned is grammatical errors, like using "their" instead of "they're or there" or "you're" instead of "your." it kinda drives me crazy. I am such a perfectionist with my own stories that i re-read mine over and over and end up changing an entire dialogue just because it has some problems LOL. so it gets me particularly irked, not necessarily peeved per se, when i read stories with these errors.
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Some of mine have already been said, but they can't be stressed enough. ;D
The sentence-level errors in some fan fics are horrible. It is beyond me that people will post, wanting others to like the story and review, but not bother to look over the chapter first. Editing is essential to being a writer. You're not going to catch every single mistake, but when you don't try? :'(
Which leads in to my next pet peeve: when you give someone constructive criticism on a certain type of error that keeps occuring, and the author doesn't bother to fix it.
As far as characterizati on, I get annoyed when the leading female in a story is completely cliche and undeveloped. There is absolutely nothing unique about her, yet one (or more) of the Backstreet Boys magically falls in love with her for no apparent reason. Hmm....
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I am totally going to write a story that involves all of these pet peeves... right after all my stories are complete and OOCarter is no more (*crosses fingers that it is a long way off*)
I re-read a prologue to one of my stories and CRINGED at the amount of errors I made grammatically. .. used "she" instead of "he", little things that kick my butt when I miss. I am not usually a perfectionist when it comes to writing my stories though and usually my read through before posting is sort of scanning so I am probably guilty of the grammar errors despite some driving me nuts. heh.. bad me!
Plot holes!!!!! That's my big one and one I try to avoid (but probably do not... lol)
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I re-read a prologue to one of my stories and CRINGED at the amount of errors I made grammatically. .. used "she" instead of "he", little things that kick my butt when I miss. I am not usually a perfectionist when it comes to writing my stories though and usually my read through before posting is sort of scanning so I am probably guilty of the grammar errors despite some driving me nuts. heh.. bad me!
My own typos are a huge pet peeve...I make a conscious effort to edit, and double check before I post, but without fail, EVERY time I post, I reread it later and see a blaring typo!!!
Another pet peeve in regard to my own writing is when I go back to the beginning and cringe in general. Makes me wonder why the heck someone wanted to read my thing and stayed engaged to begin with!!!
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Another pet peeve in regard to my own writing is when I go back to the beginning and cringe in general. Makes me wonder why the heck someone wanted to read my thing and stayed engaged to begin with!!!
I've done this lately. I actually went and tried to re-read Dark Nights, because I've been bugged to update it and I know it's only a couple chapters from being done...I cringed and closed it down because I was like "this is crap!" I did the same thing with LATB. :-\
I was completely annoyed with myself!
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Aww, I think everyone does that. But you know what the good thing is about that? It shows how much you've improved! If you're happy with your current writing, but cringe at your older stuff, that means you've improved and you know it! So it's kind of nice, even though it's annoying. Especially when it's within the same story LOL.
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When you go so long without updating a story that you completely forget what's happened and you have to go back constantly to make sure you aren't repeating yourself or contradicting yourself! lol
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LOL! I know how that goes too... It's especially annoying when you go back to re-read and catch up, and by the time you actually work your way up to where you should start writing, you don't actually feel like writing anymore LOL.
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Wow, haven't been on here in forever!
Hmm my pet peeve actually has to do with one particular type of review. I love hearing what people thought about my work and my favorite authors' works (I totally read the reviews on my favorite stories because sometimes I like to know if they liked the same things I do, etc.)
But what irks me more often than not, and I've seen this on many stories on a ton of different sites, is when it's a simple curt, "update soon." That can tend to be a little annoying even reading it on stories I didn't even write! lol. I am horrible at leaving reviews (too much stuff going on usually to even remember to review once I finish reading). Naturally I don't expect to receive any since I'm horrid at leaving them for my favorite stories. If you're just going to ask for an update, why not butter up the author a bit and say why you want an update?
Okay end thoughts on that subject. =)
Oh! One thing that totally falls under the spelling/grammar peeve. When in a story a character shudders, and it's written "shutters" that drives me crazy. I don't think I've seen it much on AC if at all (though it's been a long time since I've read anything aside from stuff from my favorite authors).
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I agree and disagree about the "update soon!" kind of reviews. On one hand, yes, I would LOVE it if they'd say something more, tell me what they actually thought about the update they just read. But on the other hand, at least that shows me they are reading, which is nice to know. So many people read and don't bother to say anything at all, and you don't know if that means they didn't like it, or if they're just lazy, or too shy to review (I've heard this reason before, actually LOL), or what. That's more annoying to me than the ones who leave really short reviews.
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People who do not respond to their feedback! It will take you just as long to say something nice as it would for the person reviewing you to. If you want reviews, respond to them. You'll get more that way. If not, then no one should complain about lack of reviews. I know if I give feedback and it goes unanswered, it's the last time I'll give that person feedback.
On a happy note though, I think most people do respond to their reviews, which is awesome!
:)
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People who give you feedback which involves directing you to their own writing! lol
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^ Okay, that's annoying! LOL Both of those.
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People who give you feedback which involves directing you to their own writing! lol
This has to be one of the worst things ever! LOL
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I agree and disagree about the "update soon!" kind of reviews. On one hand, yes, I would LOVE it if they'd say something more, tell me what they actually thought about the update they just read. But on the other hand, at least that shows me they are reading, which is nice to know. So many people read and don't bother to say anything at all, and you don't know if that means they didn't like it, or if they're just lazy, or too shy to review (I've heard this reason before, actually LOL), or what. That's more annoying to me than the ones who leave really short reviews.
Very true, I feel bad that I don't review much, it's not that I don't want to, but usually that I don't have time. (Working the insane schedule I've been working the past six months has been pretty bad).
And Julilly that has to be one of the worst things ever too! Plugging your own work while giving someone a review is just wrong.
Mare, totally agree. I know I try to respond to all of them, but some I miss. I should go back and see all the un-responded reviews and get those responded to. I don't think I have that many, maybe.
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If you don't have time to read, that's one thing, but if you do read and don't review, the time thing isn't an excuse. Actually reading a chapter takes way longer than leaving a quick review. If you've got time to read, you've got time to review!
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If you don't have time to read, that's one thing, but if you do read and don't review, the time thing isn't an excuse. Actually reading a chapter takes way longer than leaving a quick review. If you've got time to read, you've got time to review!
Sometimes that's not necessarily true. I read right before I go to work and alot of times I finish reading when I have to actually leave so that doesn't leave much time for reviewing. Other times, things like family or friends distract me while I'm reading so I'll get halfway through a chapter and have to leave. That's just my situation though I have no idea for anyone else.
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I'm sure that's true sometimes, but I dunno, I guess a responsible reader who understands the importance of feedback will make the time to come back and review if they really don't have time when they finish reading. As we all know, it takes SO much more time to actually write a chapter than to read one, a quick review is the least a reader can do to acknowledge the time and effort the author put into writing that chapter for their entertainment.
From the writer standpoint, we write for free because we enjoy it, and we offer our stories for free because we want them to be read and enjoyed too. From the reader standpoint, we're getting free reading material from writers who do this for the fun of it; the least we can do to show our appreciation is review the work we enjoy. And AC makes it so quick and easy to do that, there's really no reason not to.
I'll get down from my soapbox now and say that I don't review every piece of writing I come across. A lot of the times, I don't because when it comes to reviewing, I try to follow the Thumper rule - if you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all LOL. But any story I read more than a couple chapters of, I do review, even if that means coming back to it later. I just think it's rude not to.
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I don't really read a lot of fanfic these days, but when I do, I pretty much leave feedback for anything/everything that I manage to read through the entire chapter (exception is if it's a really long fic I might not review every chapter, but I try to at least every few and/or when I stop reading for the day I review the last chapter I read (it helps me "bookmark" where I am when I pick up the next time ;) )
(Oh, and Julie. I doubt I was the one who gave the shyness excuse, but I *totally* get that one. Seriously. I have a borderline (okay beyond borderline) social phobia that on my bad days...I don't think I'd be able to leave a review because my brain somehow convinces me that no matter what I would say (Great story!) it would somehow piss the person off or offend somehow. LOL. Not exactly "shy", but same effect. (Fortunately while I'm still battling the phobia, I'm not *that* bad all that often anymore. Just...back to normal "shy". lol)
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Aww... no, I wasn't thinking of you, Chaos. I did hear that excuse from a friend of mine who became a regular reviewer of my story. She said she had been reading for a long time and had never emailed before that because she just didn't know what to say and didn't want to sound stupid. Maybe that's more common than I realized. I'm pretty shy in real life, but not so much online, so I guess I never really thought about that. I can definitely understand being afraid to critique, but you pretty much can't go wrong with praise!