butterflydreaming (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
butterflydreaming) wrote2004-06-20 12:53 pm
butterflydreaming) wrote2004-06-20 12:53 pm
Huh.
It's never happened before. She removed my review.
It is justified, since she made the corrections, and it's not like my review was a nice review. But still... I'm stunned enough to want to talk about it.
(And I've was able to bleed off some of the red. Creation is cathartic.)
I probably wouldn't have even said anything myself, but I'd already seen someone else comment on the dreadful errors, and I just couldn't NOT say anything. And she did make the changes. There's no guarantee that it's going to make the fic a good one, but at least my words improved the world ever so slightly for Clow.
I take reviewing very seriously; you've seen me comment on this before. I kind of like the idea of getting the rep as "the Reviewer butterflydreaming", the possibility that my mark on a fic will make some new writer shiver with accomplishment. Wonderfully egotistical, that. But really. There are very few cases when I don't review, or comment.
One of those cases is when I want, really want to say good things, but can't. When I want to point out problems, as CC, but feel that to do so will only sound like I'm desparaging a writer's style. Y'know, I can't like everything. Mediocre writing is easier to review, because I find it easier to point out positive areas, and stick to very simple CC, like asking questions to make the writer think about her/his plot. Good, or excellent, writing is still not too hard to review because I'll want to praise, and will look for specifics. And I still might ask questions, just to explore ideas.
When someone is technically very much above average, but has a style that I have problems with...
Well, there is one person that I find it nearly impossible to make comments. And then I carry around this guilty feeling, instead. So what should I do? Do I tell her the truth -- it might hurt her feelings, or worse, give her a moment of discouragement. What would you want? With me... I would want to know when someone has a reason for not saying anything, but nevertheless continues to read, or try to read, my writing. I say this, but I wonder if it's true. The first time I got any sort-of negative reviews, I was elated. Really! I got called disappointing and I think I might have even laughed out loud in delight.
(I have been able, since then, to write something that that reviewer liked. I didn't write it for her, but in a way, she's always in the back of my mind.)
But I'm completely backwards. Always seeking out disapproval so that I can think of myself as better than the one judging me. And at the same time, wanting to be liked... (but enough of that).
What would a Normal person think, to be told that she (that's a safe pronoun to use in this case) had flaws in storytelling, or that her writing on this one or that one didn't keep my interest, and why? In this, I'm speaking as an avid reader, of literature and multiple genres as well as fanfic. That I also write is secondary; it supports only that I speak with sympathy.
When I was in high school drama (and usually landed the leads), my fellows all said that they wanted to be professional actors. (I didn't. Even then, I distinguished between play and work.) Now, among writers, I see writers saying that they want to write professionally. How serious is that wish? How many people are ready to work on the Craft, pushing themselves and never taking the easy way?
I know this is "just" fanfic, but, my God, if I don't hurt a little when I'm writing, I know that I'm being a cheat. (Like this week's challenge. I'm doing it, or trying to, and it is extremely painful to put so much heart into something I don't believe in.) It's not metaphoric pain, either -- it's a real discomfort within me, sometimes accompanied by weariness afterward... a lot like acting, actually... and at the same time, that Writer's High. I wish I'd started commiting to this sooner; although I have more experience at the age I am, I can see the differences in execution from just seven months ago. I really never finished anything but poems until I started with the fanfic'ing. I have piles of sketches... still born short stories, plot ideas, characters. When I finally sit down to write Turning the Key seriously, I think that it will even be good.
And once again, I've rambled.
It is justified, since she made the corrections, and it's not like my review was a nice review. But still... I'm stunned enough to want to talk about it.
(And I've was able to bleed off some of the red. Creation is cathartic.)
I probably wouldn't have even said anything myself, but I'd already seen someone else comment on the dreadful errors, and I just couldn't NOT say anything. And she did make the changes. There's no guarantee that it's going to make the fic a good one, but at least my words improved the world ever so slightly for Clow.
I take reviewing very seriously; you've seen me comment on this before. I kind of like the idea of getting the rep as "the Reviewer butterflydreaming", the possibility that my mark on a fic will make some new writer shiver with accomplishment. Wonderfully egotistical, that. But really. There are very few cases when I don't review, or comment.
One of those cases is when I want, really want to say good things, but can't. When I want to point out problems, as CC, but feel that to do so will only sound like I'm desparaging a writer's style. Y'know, I can't like everything. Mediocre writing is easier to review, because I find it easier to point out positive areas, and stick to very simple CC, like asking questions to make the writer think about her/his plot. Good, or excellent, writing is still not too hard to review because I'll want to praise, and will look for specifics. And I still might ask questions, just to explore ideas.
When someone is technically very much above average, but has a style that I have problems with...
Well, there is one person that I find it nearly impossible to make comments. And then I carry around this guilty feeling, instead. So what should I do? Do I tell her the truth -- it might hurt her feelings, or worse, give her a moment of discouragement. What would you want? With me... I would want to know when someone has a reason for not saying anything, but nevertheless continues to read, or try to read, my writing. I say this, but I wonder if it's true. The first time I got any sort-of negative reviews, I was elated. Really! I got called disappointing and I think I might have even laughed out loud in delight.
(I have been able, since then, to write something that that reviewer liked. I didn't write it for her, but in a way, she's always in the back of my mind.)
But I'm completely backwards. Always seeking out disapproval so that I can think of myself as better than the one judging me. And at the same time, wanting to be liked... (but enough of that).
What would a Normal person think, to be told that she (that's a safe pronoun to use in this case) had flaws in storytelling, or that her writing on this one or that one didn't keep my interest, and why? In this, I'm speaking as an avid reader, of literature and multiple genres as well as fanfic. That I also write is secondary; it supports only that I speak with sympathy.
When I was in high school drama (and usually landed the leads), my fellows all said that they wanted to be professional actors. (I didn't. Even then, I distinguished between play and work.) Now, among writers, I see writers saying that they want to write professionally. How serious is that wish? How many people are ready to work on the Craft, pushing themselves and never taking the easy way?
I know this is "just" fanfic, but, my God, if I don't hurt a little when I'm writing, I know that I'm being a cheat. (Like this week's challenge. I'm doing it, or trying to, and it is extremely painful to put so much heart into something I don't believe in.) It's not metaphoric pain, either -- it's a real discomfort within me, sometimes accompanied by weariness afterward... a lot like acting, actually... and at the same time, that Writer's High. I wish I'd started commiting to this sooner; although I have more experience at the age I am, I can see the differences in execution from just seven months ago. I really never finished anything but poems until I started with the fanfic'ing. I have piles of sketches... still born short stories, plot ideas, characters. When I finally sit down to write Turning the Key seriously, I think that it will even be good.
And once again, I've rambled.
no subject
:)
no subject
Personally and as a writer, I know that if I received a review from someone whose opinion I valued, stating that my style was not working for them, I would be inclined to consider the criticism as a valid comment. It is important to know what does and does not work both for you as a writer and for others as a reader, and as such it is important for reviewers to say if they think an element of style works or does not work. The writing and learning can't all come from the insides of our heads, after all!
This week's challenge was, in retrospect, not the best idea. My own piece was written as honestly the best I could do at the time and for the subject, but it honestly pains me to look at it now. Writing *is* like acting; you can't act or write a situation that is honestly repulsive to you. If you do, neither the story nor the scene is as good.
And now I'm rambling. I'll join you in Ramblingville, where all the rambling writers go.