Infuriating authors · 3:33pm Nov 1st, 2015
I don't make these things very often, in fact I'll probably start making them more often, but I'm a bit ticked off right now and that's going to leak into my writing and reviewing if I don't do something about it.
I cannot stand it when well-known and respected authors act in a juvenile and childish manner and no one says anything about it.
I won't say exactly who or on what story (though you're perfectly welcome to identify either if you somehow manage to discern who or what I'm talking about), but I recently read the first few chapters of a new story by a well-known author. And I wasn't impressed. It was confusing, and very dully written with very little to grab my attention. A lot of people were raving about it simply because of who wrote it, but they can be forgiven for that.
Anyway, the problem arose when I commented on the story. It was a very short comment, merely stating what was already said above about it being boring and confusing. At first, the author responded reasonably respectfully, suggesting that I wait and keep reading as it would get better later. I responded equally respectfully about how a story that doesn't provide a good enough hook at the start is not something I'd be interested in. If the start, the part that is supposed to be interesting and attention-grabbing, is boring, then what does that say about the rest of the story?
They responded a little defensively, and with a little bit of contempt, that if I dropped the story after the first three chapters, then I was impatient, and akin to someone who stopped watching MLP after the opening theme, or someone who stopped playing a video game during the tutorial. I responded— still respectfully I feel—with what I felt were the differences between those situations and this one.
And then they gave up all pretence of a rational and objective discussion by openly insulting my intelligence, stating more or less that I wasn't intelligent enough to understand the story and that I should read something more straightforward. Like, as they suggested, something by Michael Bay. I refused to continue the discussion with them at that point.
This is what raises my ire. Honestly. You see this sort of behaviour in a much more explosive manner in newer authors, with their seventh elements and alicorn OCs. The difference is, people call them out on it. In this case, it was almost worse than the loud, explosive burst of anger from a new author. The author of the story in question started out by being halfway respectful, then became passive-aggressive and defensive, and then finally just gave up and became openly mocking and scornful.
Yet not a single person called them out on it. In fact, I had one person leap to their aid and call me pretentious for not liking the story and attempting to discuss the reasons with the author. Why? Is it because this author is well-known and people are simply afraid to speak up, lest they themselves become a target? It's ridiculous. Immature behaviour should never be excused, no matter how well-known an author is.
TL;DR I recently had an argument with a very well-known author in which they were extremely passive-aggressive and outright insulting, yet they were not called out on it.
EDIT: The author just sent me a PM telling me that they blocked me because they didn't want the comments to be flooded with the discussion despite the fact that they were the last one to post and I have not posted in over an hour. This PM was also very passive-aggressive and demanded answers which I cannot give because I have been blocked. So I'll just leave my response here. This might aid people in figuring out what author and story is in question, but I've stopped caring at this point.
Erm? I didn't answer on the story. I left well enough alone after that last comment. You're the one continuing it, not me. Also, I was not feigning slight. I find that when you suggest I read stories that are not as cognitively challenging, it is an insult to my intelligence. And if you've ever read one of my rage reviews or comments, you'd know that I can't stand it when an author assumes that someone is stupid, be it in the story or otherwise.
As for the answer you so clearly desire, the story is confusing in the manner that very little attention is paid to the setting. What's the Tenochtitlan Basin? What's the Great War, for those who have never read Fallout Equestria? There's a difference between allowing things to progress naturally and offering absolutely no context whatsoever.
Sadly, its its not worth bothering to comment on many bigger authors at least here at times.
Their, fans love white knighting to their defense, and get rather rabid sometimes, you'll lose a limb if your lucky. Unlucky, its continued harassment and very directed attacks against you by those 'fans'
3512728 I left the story, since I was blocked. I don't know what's happening right now. It's just extremely obnoxious.
3512731 I feel your irk and aggravation with this, as ive commented on many stories, just to meet what you described. I wish you luck with avoiding these folks.
I really don't get that mindset. If you've got a loving audience, good for you, but that doesn't mean you've reached some pinnacle of writing perfection.
Heck, speaking off, one of the best writing advice I ever heard was that the average reader gives a book the first hundred words or so before deciding if its worth it or not.
Because nobody is a special little snowflake anymore. You're not your little towns only story-teller.
You are in direct competition against not only every other story on this site, but every other story on the entire internet. With just as much effort as it takes a reader to slog through one page of your magnum opus 'with a slow start,' they could at the same very moment be reading Dracula, Frankenstein or the entire life-work of Jules Verne.
Thinking like that can be intimidating as hell, but if you're writing 'good enough' you're not only doing yourself but your audience a disservice.
And of course there's exceptions, like how even most of Tolkien's outright rabid fans will admit that it takes to the mines of Morria before The Fellowship actually hits its stride, but those are the exceptions. The normal for stories not hitting their stride until page 350 or whatever it even was is to end up in the nearest dustbin.
I ... think I know who you're talking about now (I figured it out when you mentioned the Tenochtitlan Basin and the Great War), and quite honestly, I was a little less than impressed by her second offering myself.
I'm still following it, but it does seem a bit disjointed and confusing, given that it was written by such an otherwise talented author.
And I'm sorry that she was (and obviously still is) being such a butt to you. That takes my respect for her down more than few notches.
I haven´t been in the situations you described, mainly because i never wrote too much of opinions on stories.
BUT i have seen exactly the same thing happening over and over, (ye we are not calling stories out here i presume ?)
Kinda irked me, even if the critique was spot on. The worst thin is(and simultaniously the best thing you can do) that the only thing you can do about it is to.... well
just go away and read another authors work.
You are lucky that the story revealed its suckiness at the beginning. Imagine if you had to read 100k+ words and THEN it became boring and clusterfucked. Yea.
TL;DR I know how you feel *pinkiehug*
Hi I'm a follower of one of your stories and noticed this post. First of all:
I greatly recent that but I'm willing to ignore that. BTW it's spelled behavior.
Secondly I know how you feel. I remember I made the stupid choice to say a less than positive comment on a story because of the homosexuality of the story. I remember saying: I will never understand homosexuality
They responded saying:
They then said something about rocket science being much easier.
I responded saying that I found rocket science a very easy subject and that kind of makes their analogy flawed when it comes to me.
In response they became very rude and proceeded to call me stupid.
Apparently they were right in that because I responded with my knowledge of quantum physics at only the age of 16 and was not very kind about it.
In response they called my an absolute idiot saying that kind of stuff is fifth grade work.
The argument went on between the author, a commentator, and I. Eventually I wised up and left. I made another mistake complaining about homosexuality on a TwiDash story. After that I learned my mistakes and wised up. Now I come to my most recent story.
I'll make this short. I posted a story before it was edited because both my editors were unavailable. I got a lot of down votes and some slightly rude comments. I tried to as reasonable and as calm as I could in my responses. I was meat with more rude comments and my comment got a slue of down votes despite the fact I was trying to be reasonable about the situation. I said nothing mean or rude and yet I still got down votes on my comments.
I try and avoid being mean, but when I get negative responses for trying to be reasonable that irks me. I understand what you mean and it's just stupid how some people act. I've learned from my mistakes and try to avoid any more situations like that. What story is this by the way I want to see this issue for my self.
3554925 "Behaviour" is correct. "Behavior" is the American way of spelling it, and we don't all live in the US. As for your own little anecdote, while I won't say what I think of the problem you had with the the story, I will say that I am glad you were called out on it.
You were clearly not acting a polite or respectful manner, and people called you out on this. In this case, I was met with passive-aggressiveness and subtle little insults, and yet because the author was well-known, they weren't called out on it, whereas I was yelled at by a fan and told to stop being 'pretentious'.
I won't link you to the story, since this happened more than two weeks ago on the very first chapter of the story. I also think my comments may have been deleted. And finally, I won't out of respect for the author and their story, even if they didn't seem to have much respect for me.
3555180
Okay then. Yeah I was aggressive and I learned my lesson but even then on my own story were I was trying to be passive I was still being attacked.
3555180
I've checked back to the story I suspected and your comments are still there.
Well, damn. And to think I used to respect that author so much.