butterfly | As a Writer (on feedback/concrit/litcrit)

So, there is a thing happening on the sidelines of my flist -- seems to be mostly SGA-related, which is not my area of focus, so I will not be getting involved in any of the details. Anyway, the thing in question is about whether or not public crit of fanfiction should be allowed, and if it should, whether the author's intentions should be taken into account.

For the record -- I do not, and feel that I should not, have any say in what people say about my stories. If you love them, yay. If you hate them, I'm curious as to why. If you mostly like them except for one or two (or twelve) things, then I really, really want to know. Because I want to know how good a job I'm doing and how to improve. Writing is communication. If people don't understand me, then I didn't succeed in communicating to them. And, to me, that is what matters.

So, I pay attention to my feedback. I notice what people point out as their favorite spots (especially if it's mentioned by several people -- I'm still thrilled to bits over people praising my Leia characterization), and I also notice when people mention that something doesn't seem to fit.

There are three recent cases that specifically stand out to me -- one where I disagreed with the feedback and two where I agreed.

In one case, someone disagreed with my characterization of Anakin as dropping his lightsaber perhaps more easily than most. I disagreed, citing Attack of the Clones as a reference point -- they were focusing more on his characterization in Revenge of the Sith. As the story in question has an Anakin who is between those two states of being, and because the point of view was Obi-Wan, who would remember all the earlier times Anakin wasn't so great at holding onto his lightsaber, I decided that my story worked as it was and didn't need adjusting.

In the second case, someone disagreed with a thought that I had Anakin actively thinking -- I reread the thought in question and while I thought that it was potentially in-character, in the end, I agreed that it disrupted the story's focus, twisting what was originally a tense moment into something more humorous. In this case, I deleted the line from the chapter.

In the third case, I was told that my story didn't flow quite right in a certain section and a couple of paragraphs felt a little choppy -- I ended up adjusting the section and actually writing a few extra lines to give the story the push that it needed.

All of which is to say -- if you are moved by my fiction on a level deep enough to comment on it, please don't feel that you need to sugarcoat your words. I can take the truth.

More than that, if you don't want to, you don't need to inform me of your comments -- speaking from experience, many rec journals don't actually tell the authors that they've been recommended. They have that right and so do crit communities. Once my stories exist outside my head, they are no longer my sole property, though I retain the right to edit them as I please and repost them -- much as George Lucas has done with the earlier Star Wars movies. But any earlier versions do still potentially exist, of course -- if nowhere else, they exist in the minds of the people who read them and remember them. Theoretically, a story that was only under friendslock exists outside these boundaries, as it is not public, but as I post my stories public, this does not apply to me.

Now, if an author dislikes being criticized in public, then each reader does have to decide if they want to move forward anyway, balancing the risks (if an author takes crit to heart or feels that they're being personally attacked, they may leave fandom) against the rewards (honest and open discussion of a particular story). And the potential always exists that the author will feel insulted or hurt, because our stories are like dearly beloveds, in many ways.

But, bottom-line, I don't believe that readers (or any consumers of public media) require permission to speak about something that has been publicly released in any form, web or otherwise.

Though if you'd prefer to have the author's permission before dissecting a story of theirs, I'm giving that permission right now.

Threaded | Flat

You know, I was actually thinking about this earlier and it seems to be a touchy subject. I wish authors would write disclaimers in their heading to let me know what they will and will not accept--without being dishonest and biting off more than they can chew. It seems that authors feel obligated to say they love concrit.

Unrelated to your post... It just occured to me, have you watched the Clone Wars? Its really, really good, in some ways better than Revenge of the Sith.

Since Revenge of the Sith takes off immediately after Clone Wars, I think you'll enjoy it very much, especially the characterization of Obi-wan and Anakin.

I love how Obi-wan was dryly sarcastic the whole time with Anakin and Anakin consistently loses his lightsaber in the Clone Wars:)

Okay, you know I already adored you as a writer, right? I adore you even more now. This totally sums up my feelings, only you put it across far more articulately than I ever could. Even right down to the acknowledgement that it does hurt sometimes, but you have to weigh the decisions. If you decide to walk out in public with an ugly t-shirt, expect people to say something. I even use my flames as concrit. Seriously.

Thank you for this post. ♥

Well-written and wonderfully expressive. I think all of us who write struggle with this paradox. I, like you, want to know what works and what doesn't for readers. At the same time, the pain when something doesn't work is hard to overcome.

Thanks for writing this. :)

Mind if I ~~plagarise~~ quote your second paragraph in my LJ? It's so dead-on about how I feel on the subject.

Word. I like it if people tell me if they're critting me somewhere I wouldn't otherwise see, but I do concede that they have a right not to.

My God, you are so remarkably...sane, about this issue. It's delighfully refreshing. One of many reasons why you ROCK. :)

I don't believe that readers (or any consumers of public media) require permission to speak about something that has been publicly released in any form, web or otherwise.

Absolutely - I can't believe anyone's suggesting otherwise, apart from, say, a Fascist dictatorship...

I don't have much to say except that I agree with you.

if you are moved by my fiction on a level deep enough to comment on it, please don't feel that you need to sugarcoat your words. I can take the truth.

I'd love to say this. I want to say this. I'm just not sure if it's true.

I've never gotten a lot of feedback on anything I've written except a my latest effort which was for SGA_flashfic. Even then, I don't think any of the comments I received were criticism. In fact, I don't think I've ever really received any concrit. (Though most of my other fic is at ff.net, so this isn't really a big surprise.) The only helpful review of a fic that I can remember receiving was one for a SG-1 zine fic that I finished at the last minute, right before the deadline, and I only got the feedback then because I had my mother beta it. (She wasn't a fan though, and half of her critique was 'What does this acronym mean?')

So I'd like to say that I can take it, that any feedback is good feedback, but I really don't know if that would be the truth or not.

I for one would love to know if any of my fics are ever recced or discussed in any manner, because that would mean that people had read them. (Said 'zine fic only ever received one comment to my knowledge, and it was only a brief sentence or two to the effect of 'that was funny'. It was from a person who was talking about the 'zine as a whole and the fb was fwd to me by the editor.)

*Looks up* Eeep! Sorry! That was a bit ranty.

What a great discussion here. I think you have brought up some seriously valid points here.

If we take fanfic as any other kind of fic, then I see no difference. We criticize movies, books, tv all the time. How should fanfic be different?

As a writer myself, while it can sometimes be hurtful--mostly to my pride, to hear someone criticize my work, I would say that most of the constructive criticism actually improves writing. And doesn't that make things better for the writer and reader in the end?

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