Mending a Shelf: Review like Tie · 3:55am Jun 10th, 2013
Hi. I... I need some advice. And to just talk it out of me too, I guess.
[url=http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/173925/write-review-of-gen
tleman-for-mares]I’ve just killed a story. A story with over a thousand likes. A story that a lot of people derived pleasure from reading. And I’m not entirely sure if I can justify myself doing it.
For those who aren’t here because of Equestria’s End, I’m pretty much going to be preaching to the choir: I review. I’m not a writer, not really – that’s a side job. I stopped being a writer over a year ago when I started helping to run the second largest reviewing site in the fandom. I like to think I’m a fairly decent reviewer, even with the track record of dream crushings behind me.
OtterMatt was the first person to have been confirmed as “dream crushed”. You can read it dancing about in the back of his vault interview over here. There was another instance with Incoherent Orange over on Eclipse which got described as haunting, and is still being talked about twenty four weeks later. There’s a few others which I suspect but can’t confirm. The current one walks between the two: unconfirmed, but deeply suspected, even if only through being the final reason for the story's demise.
The smoking gun of a review is this one. I don’t personally think it’s the best one I’ve written under the WRITE banner, being as it is an exercise in rephrasing “no” for over three thousand words. I don’t think it’s terrible either, or says anything I don’t believe is true, but I do find myself questioning the manner in which I gave it.
I’d been considering writing a joking blog post in which I stated I needed to lose a few of you and would happily review one story per watcher in the hopes of preserving my triple digit virginity. I’m now worried by the fact I joked about such a thing. I feel contaminated, as arrogant as that feeling is. I feel like my opinions are best kept to themselves till I learn how to phrase them in a manner that doesn’t end in tears.
For example, Chromosome recently posted a new story which, in a follow up blog post, he guessed that part of the reason it wasn’t so successful – Seven hundred followers. Sub two hundred views. He has a point. – is down to the fandom’s general disdain towards darker stories. To be blunt, I disagree: the reason I didn’t read much more of Pinkie Pie is Dead isn't because Pinkie Pie is Dead and that is sad*: it's because the narrator wasn’t really noteworthy, which is a problem in FPP; there wasn’t really much of a hook beside Pinkie’s death alone, or in other words, I didn’t really feel like it had much mystery to it beside the fact that the act was done; the world doesn’t really gel with FiM as better dark stories do so much as it feels shoehorned in and over; the language used occasionally seems to hit comically grim; events don’t really seem clear to my mind or coherently explained (Why are the police first on the scene? Why are the Cakes surprised to have the police burst in? Is that even what's happening/what the use of rape means? Either way, I am utterly confused here, and not in a good "I am going to figure things out" type way.)
And that was just the surface level of opinions. If I’d sat down and spent a few hours on it, there’d probably be more.
I didn’t mention any of that because I’m a lazy bugger unless contracted else, but I am curious as to what might have happened if I had. It’s probably a disservice to Chromosome to suggest that anything I have to say would be brutal to him, but still. Extrapolating here. Can I trust myself to leave an opinion and inadvertently ruin someone else’s day if it's a possibility? I left a comment on Harmony once that morphed into a full out refrain throughout the comments section and a follow up blog from Aquaman. Again, arrogant perhaps to suggest I am the reason or that this was in any way a cause of distress to Aquaman.
Still. I don't feel safe to speak.
I feel like a nuke, because patterns show that my defecating opinions, whilst useful in the long run, are disastrous in the short. I seem to have a talent as a reviewer for getting under people’s skin and voicing their own worries: I don’t so much cripple a writer as I personify their fears and do the woogie boogie dance around them. I am the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
And as satisfying egotistically as that is, I hate it. I don’t like causing distress, even inadvertently. And even if the author improves from this – which I hope they do, otherwise its destructive and pointless both – I’ll have still caused distress.
I need advice. Do I carry on in the manner I am now – confronting writers with my opinion of the truth without regard to the consequence – or shut the hell up till I learn how not to get dressed up in the ghost costume.
Oh, and no hugboxing, please. Present your opinions brutally. I want to reap what I sow.
*I once read and enjoyed a particularly sadistic story in which Angel bunny is cut up and eaten by a human. Following that, Fluttershy develops a taste for meat and the two begin a crime spree of capturing bouncy baby bunnies and making rabbit brain soup from them. The haunting part about it is how in-character and believable it is; I had to break away several times to laugh my ass out. It was similar, in many ways, to the Aristocrats joke, in that it found comedy in calmly stating horrible things, in the disconnect between the topic and the manner spoken.
Aquillo, pls
I think part of is people taking fanfiction too seriously. I take even the harshest reviews with a giggle, but that could be just me.
It doesn't sound like you killed the story, more like the was going to end anyway and the author just put it in the same blog post talking about your review.
1135180
This. Seriously, this. We're cool dude (almost. sent you a PM). You gave me good links and something to think about. Thank you for the review.
All I can say:
Is that I found your comments on my first Clandestine Corps story to be incredibly helpful.
Mike
Constructive criticism is sorely lacking in most of fanfiction. I say you provide something we need, a voice from outside the echo chamber. Keep doing what you're doing. If writers can't handle it, that's their problem.
...
That sounded a lot less callous in my head.
You talk about crushing Matt's dreams like that was a bad thing, or that it didn't help him. Nothing I've ever seen from you has made me say anything to myself aside from, "I want nothing more than to get Aq's opinions on something I've made—first I just have to make something I love enough that I'm willing to destroy it and build it back up."
You do fine work, man. When has your advice not done someone any good? And don't you dare take this as hugboxing; you really haven't done anything wrong, and it's stupid to be beating yourself up right now.
I'd take a review like that on my work.
Of course, I'm one of the older guys here. Taking criticism well is a skill an author has to build over time. I could take one of your reviews now and probably learn a lot from it. If I had received such a review in high school, it probably would have benefitted me in the long run, but it would have been very discouraging in the short.
I've taken that sort of hit before. I've had stories and fanfictions that have received such terrible feedback that I wanted to kill the story and quit writing forever. Long, detailed, and (worst of all) true reviews that just tore my stories apart and left my self confidence in shambles. It's not something that's just happened once or twice either. It's something that's consistently happened again and again, and it absolutely sucks every single time.
And that's totally awesome. It's hard finding decent criticism, it's harder finding people willing to give out decent criticism. It's great that there are people like you in this fandom who are willing to crush writers' hopes and dreams. Because that's exactly what writers need from time to time.
Are you writing reviews based on request, or do these come out of the blue?
As 1136883 says, what twists the knife is that the reviews are "(worst of all) true". You're not hurting people for the sake of hurting them, you're hurting them to improve the quality of their writing, and all you're doing is being honest. If it's the truth that hurts, how much of your guilt is actually your fault, and how much of it is you wanting to shoot the messenger (i.e., you)?
If someone can't handle the truth, and they asked for it in the first place, then they most likely need the harsh slap of the reality check. But, on the other hand … while you don't have control over the truth, you do have control over tone, and the younger writers that have the most to benefit from are also the ones who are most likely to have their egos crushed.
Maybe the thing to do is to focus more on authors and stories who are seeking out the feedback. Someone who comes to you declaring they want a story ripped apart is going to be braced for your deconstructions (which, really, reading through them, are thorough and useful).
Or maybe you simply need to learn more from the example of Best Princess.* In the forum RP I ran, in the distant past of Equestria, Celestia's job was to challenge ponies to improve themselves with the harsh heat of day, and Luna's job was to give them the safety and security of cool and peaceful darkness; everyone still slept through her night, but they loved her as a maternal figure, so they made a point of seeking her out and giving her the respect she was due. (The problems all started when Sunbutt — taking some well-intended but horrible advice — convinced my waifu to switch duties with her, and suddenly the night became a time to fear. Celestia became the maternal figure, but never quite let go of her trickster nature, and so started creeping into both roles and letting her ego crowd out Luna from the picture. And ponies found it a lot easier to avoid Luna entirely than to engage and appreciate someone who was just going to stare into their souls and drag them flailing and screaming through their fears in order to help conquer them.)
… Where was I? Oh yeah. As nice as it is to have an "I'm going to rip you to shreds now, nothing personal" disclaimer at the top, the fact remains that nothing but criticism is as withering as the Cake Tyrant's endless day would be. If a writer hasn't braced themselves to run the gauntlet of self-flagellation and style repair, then mixing in some congratulations for the things they did do well is a way to ease the blows while still getting the message through. The truth is, almost every writer past noob level will do some things well and some things poorly, and showing them how to take advantage of their strengths can be as valuable (and far easier on the ego) as showing them how to fix their deficits.
* Aquillo plz. You knew this was coming.
1135170>>1135678>>1136549>>1136316>>1136883>>1138813
I think it's probably best to point out here that none of the reviews I've ever given has resulted in the reviewee reacting badly in terms of disbelief or anger towards me for daring to say such things. The criticism hasn't been taken badly so much as that it has resulted in bad things: there's no storming off or telling me I'm a big poopy head. I do that myself.
The point of contention rests in that I'm not sure I can justify making people feel insecure, or that it's impossible for me to not rephrase what I'm saying so that it doesn't end up being destructive in the short term. I'm convinced of the usefulness of what I'm doing -- I wouldn't do it otherwise -- but am uncertain if how I'm doing it is the best method.
Apologies if that wasn't clear.
1135180
Possibly. Probably. Still, this is one item in a very long list. Even if it is spurious, there's still the rest of the data to consider.
1135198
Np + responded to pm
1136316
Not so much a bad thing as a sub-optimal one. I'm no longer convinced if the speed gained through abstaining from "ego soothing" is more important than the ego soothing itself.
If it's within my power to soften the blow while retaining the impact, then I should.
1136883
A large part of the reason why I review comes from having never really been reviewed before coming to this fandom. So believe me when I say I know the importance of it: I'm questioning the manner which I go about it, here.
1138813
Request usually, though I'm technically retired at the moment. The current review was done as a favour to a friend (1136316) because finding people willing to critique HiE clopfics is a hard thing to do, apparently, and I have no real limits to what I'm willing to review.
If, however, that was a lead in to the cautious around-about dance of asking, then yes, I review upon asking.
It's the manner presented that I'm unsure of, the sheer bluntness of it. I don't particularly like sugarcoating things, but I'm beginning to see the point and purpose of it.
Or this, in essence.
I've argued in the past that -- because this can take up a significant period of time; because there's no onus on the reviewer to shore up the feelings of the reviewee; because it runs counter purpose to the point of an authorial review, which is to find flaw and then suggest improvements; because it can lessen the impact and perceived significance of any flaws -- it should not be done.
I am no longer certain about that, and I find my reasons clashing with a general desire to not cause discomfort. I am unsure, in other words.
Thanks for the comments to all, btw. It's been good to think this through.
1139169
Well, hell, I think the best course of action would probably be to try softening the blow a bit on your next few reviews and seeing the results. If your review doesn't have the impact you wanted, weigh how much impact was lost versus how the reviewee's reaction was different than the norm. See if the difference is worth it to you.
Just, like, don't bother holding back on folks who specifically ask you to tear their work apart, of course.
1139169
I can see that. I can definitely see that. However, is someone can't take criticism for fanfiction then they aren't ready to ask for criticism at all.
1139169
> If, however, that was a lead in to the cautious around-about dance of asking, then yes, I review upon asking.
Appreciated, but I've got several prereaders whose constructive criticism I already highly respect, and I suspect my systemic problems are less tractable to simple analysis, so I'd feel bad taking post-publication concrit that won't make as much of a difference-per-unit-of-effort, and pulling you away from other writers who could much more readily benefit from your help.
The question was actually for context of your reviewing style: there is a world of difference between unsolicited savage ripping apart, and requested savage ripping apart.
wait
I mean
pLZ REVIEW mY hARSHWHINNNIAL kTHX (but onlie w/ith teh good revuwes && NO FLAMBES)