Site Post » How to Handle "Criticism" · 6:15pm May 1st, 2014
How to Handle "Criticism"
Hi guys. So, one thing that's important on Fimfiction, as a site for authors, is knowing how to respond to criticism. Many times, in many places, there's a pattern of behavior regarding stories, the author, and criticism that goes thusly:
1. There is a story that is, by some measure, "bad." Either because the plot doesn't make sense, the spelling/grammar's poor, the characters are Mary Sues -- whatever. It contains some legitimate factor that is deserving of criticism.
2. Commenters begin to appear criticizing some aspect of the story. Oftentimes they come off as pretty blunt about it. "This character's so cardboard I got my pizza in him," "The spelling made my eyes explode, leaving behind dark portals to a realm of horror," etc. This'll become particularly prevalent if the story in question has become popular, for whatever reason, since A) more people will be seeing the story, and B) it will be the opinion of many people that its popularity is undeserved.
3. The author of the story does not respond well. Comments are deleted. People get blocked. The author argues loudly with the commenters, calling them trolls and haters, and refusing to listen to anything but "constructive criticism."
4. Streisand effect. Commenters mobilize. Friends arrive to support friends. Review-blogs are made, publicizing the scandal further. Eventually the story itself becomes irrelevant to the controversy. The comments section is a wasteland of commenters battling with the author. The story has accumulated dozens more downvotes overnight. Eventually the author either concedes the point, or continues on stubbornly and descends into infamy, their story's reputation a shattered hulk.
5. Neither steps 3 nor 4 needed to happen.
So, given that this seems to be a relatively common occurrence, I've tried my hand at brewing up a handy-dandy guide to show how you, as an author, should deal with this catastrophic comment meltdown. It won't be applicable to all situations, certainly, but based on my observations of various instances of this phenomenon and my own understanding as an author/commenter, it'll hopefully provide some perspective to how you should address the "haters" and the "trolls."
Let's begin.
First, decide who you're writing for.
It's a rather simple question, really. Why did you write your story? Did you do it for your own personal enjoyment? Did you write it because you hoped people'd read and enjoy it? Did you do it for yourself because want to become a better author? Any of the previous factors in concert?
It's a simple question, but one a lot of authors facing Meltdown situations don't entirely seem to understand when they give an answer, and many times that comes back to bite them.
Let's face it. We're all writing fanfiction here. Many people are writing for an audience, for the sake of improving as an author, for the sake of producing an actual, good piece of literature... but, in all honesty, you are not obligated to do so. All you are actually obligated to do is have fun, and while nobody has to like you or your story for holding that standpoint, it's the one defense against which a reasonable criticizer can merely shrug and say "Fair enough."
A lot of authors will claim that they merely wrote the story "for fun," "for themselves," or "for a few close friends." And this is fine, but there are two factors that tend to be ignored:
1. You have published your story in a public space. Whoever the story was "for" it remains visible to the userbase at large, and the response will reflect this. You don't have to like this, but you do have to accept that's what happens when you click the "Submit" button. Concede peoples' right to make criticism, regardless of whether or not you're just writing for your own kicks and giggles. Everyone will be much happier this way.
2. When you claim you weren't and aren't writing for an audience, you have to own it. When you resort to this standpoint, you are declaring neutrality for how people respond to your story--you aren't writing for an audience, remember. It is not an excuse to accept praise while rejecting criticism, or to brag that you got featured. Doing that is called hypocrisy, and commenters will be quick to call you out on it.
***
DO NOT DELETE COMMENTS
Do not delete comments. Do not delete comments. Do not delete comments. Do not delete comments. Do not delete comments.
Have I made that clear enough? Good.
NOBODY likes being censored (whether or not you have the right to do so) and the very first step in turning negative criticism into a war is trying to hide it when someone doesn't have something nice to say about your story. It makes you more of a target than the comment itself ever will.
When you delete a comment because it expresses an opinion about your story that you want to hide from people, you're no longer merely the author of a flawed story. You are a comment-deleter. A censorer. Anyone who knows what the comment actually was will renew their efforts to bring you low, and anyone who walks in and sees that a comment got deleted (particularly if it's by a well-known and respected user) will have suspicions about why it was deleted.
As a general rule, you should ONLY delete comments in the case where it's clear that the discussion's gone off-topic (and usually you should warn whoever's involved before resorting to that), the post is obviously trollspam ("EVERYONE IN HERE SUCKS"), or otherwise the comment is obviously not relevant to your story nor the discussion pertaining to it.
If someone is truly being caustic in your comments section, then you can block them, and allow the sheer vitriol in their comments to speak as to why it was justified. Some people will just be on your story to say little more than "This is awful garbage." It happens. But, simply put: Don't delete comments just because they don't have nice things to say about your story. Nothing good ever comes of it.
***
Most of the criticisms won't be from people who want to upset you... Not at first.
A lot of people don't seem to get how this one works. It's true that most criticisms for a "bad" story will come off as blunt, at best. "This character is an OBVIOUS Mary Sue," "You really need to read a book and see how English is actually written," and suchlike. And, if you respond poorly to it, it'll only seem to get worse from there--thus confirming your suspicion that these comments were made by trolls who just want to flame your story.
The thing is, a lot of this first wave of comments will be coming from the position that, to solve a problem, you must first be aware you have a problem. A lot of these people will actually be extremely reasonable and willing to elaborate on their criticisms if you're polite enough about asking. Do not dismiss them out of hand because they're "clearly trolls" and "not constructive criticism."
It's rarely that simple. Usually it just isn't worth the effort for passing-by commenters to discuss all the individual flaws and fixes for a story... unless the author has either made themselves deserving of it by expressing a willingness to learn, or the target of it, by expressing a refusal to learn.
How you respond to these initial comments will determine the tone of future criticisms of your story. Be nice. The worse you act in response to these first criticisms, the more likely it is that the goal will shift from pointing out flaws in your story to taking you down a notch by ripping your story apart in the most ruthless ways possible. You don't want this. If you're nice to people, they'll be nice too, and the "constructive criticism" you're actually looking for will usually follow.
***
Accept that they might be right
While you may not agree or be fond of all the criticisms people make regarding your story, do consider that they've got a point. Your first thought when someone points out that your character is a Mary Sue should not be all the ways in which they're wrong. It should be "Well... let's see if they might be right."
There is an ugly fact of life that will be the bane of any author, no matter how experienced:
Any story ever will be infinitely more fascinating, complex, and detailed in your head than it will be on paper.
This fact, interestingly enough, also explains why a lot of new authors don't understand why people see their wonderfully complex and interesting character as a cardboard cut-out. It makes sense in your head, maybe, but the test of skill for an author is how well they can translate the vision in their head to a story for the reader. When commenters point out that there are flaws in your characterization or that your plot doesn't make complete logical sense, they may in fact be right. Maybe it's "obvious" to you, but if it's not obvious to your readers, you've done it wrong, and you should consider that an issue worth addressing.
Obviously not all criticism will be valid or correct, and it can be difficult to figure out sometimes if a given piece of criticism is a red herring. It's ultimately up to you to figure out which is good and which can be ignored, but the point here is that you should give all criticism a fair shake before dismissing it -- and, when in doubt, it's rarely a bad idea to seek out second opinions.
Respond graciously
Whatever else happens, don't blow up at people. If someone's taken the time to read your story and write their criticisms for it, then first and foremost, you thank them for that much. Whether or not you disagree with what's said. Even if someone's being rather rude themselves, it is very rarely not to your advantage to be polite even so. This goes back to most criticizing comments actually being from reasonable people. When you're polite about criticism and listen to it honestly, then you prove yourself as a respectable author who is worth helping. And that's something you can take to the bank.
The more you yell at people for not being very good at helping you, the less anyone will want to help you in the first place.
***
Finally, don't be a passive resistor
This kind of case doesn't pop up too often, but I felt it worth addressing. Occasionally there are authors who say something to the effect of "You raise good points, buuuuut..."
This tends to be followed by a bunch of explanations as to why they don't need to make any changes at all. In effect, they agree with the criticism, but try to dodge out of any obligation to act upon it. It's usually most common when the criticism impacts something integral to the story, such as a central plot thread or a main character.
And, y'know, this attitude is fair to some extent. Many times when criticisms impact a central plot element, a common refrain is "You may just have to scrap this and rewrite." This is unpalatable to many authors (for obvious reasons). Either because they really don't want to scrap a lot of hard work, or because the plot element that's getting criticized happens to be something they particularly like.
It's tough to make sweeping statements about what you should do here. On the one hand, you shouldn't bend to criticism to the extent that you'd be writing something you simply don't want to write--remember, you're not obligated to do anything but enjoy yourself with your writing here. On the other hand, don't play games with people when they're sinking time into reviewing your story. If someone's making good points about your story, and you know that but you really don't want to have to rewrite things, be up-front about it. Acknowledge the criticisms, admit that you're simply not up to the task of rewriting, and be sure to note that you'll remember them for your future projects.
And be sure to actually remember them when you're working on your future projects.
If you really do want to improve your skills as an author, though, it can often be helpful to you to suck it up and engage in a rewrite. It's useful to learn the practice of "killing your darlings" (in which an author really likes a certain line, character, or scene, but acknowledges they'll have to leave it out or change it for the story's sake), and rewriting with the knowledge gained from criticisms can help you see how you're growing as a writer. If rewriting something all by yourself looks like a daunting challenge (and you're not entirely sure how to act on the criticisms you've received), it's also possible that you can ask for help from willing folks. So keep that in mind.
***
All said, be cool
Self-explanatory, and largely a summation of all the previous points. If you're a cool person to your commenters and criticizers, they'll be cool back to you.
The ones who just refuse to be cool back probably are indeed jerkholes and can likely be ignored.
Phew. That's a lot of text. Hope you guys enjoyed reading it. I'd like to believe at least a few authors will profit by this guide's existence, so if you thought it helpful, feel free to link it around to people where appropriate.
Excuse me now while I go eat some ice cream. It will be delicious. Hope you all have a nice day too.
All of this is understood, but one question; what if the criticism has nothing to do with the story all together?
Also, if a story is genuinely terrible and people really hate it, and tell all their friends about it to go witness the car crash that is uh, "Scootaloo marries Celestia inside a giant Twilight Sparkle" then it gets loads of hits, and the author becomes convinced they are a popular writer and the silent majority love them.
And then we get "Scootaloo and Celestia: Adventures in Twilight's Gall Bladder".
And it gets to the top of the featured box.
I'll go ahead and assume that this is directly tied to the "Mare Who Wants a Human Child" flame wars.
2067184
I seem to have missed that, sounds uh, intriguing.
I really need to learn from you.
Most of my stories aren't good...yet aren't bad at the same time.
Hmm: sounds familiar to the debacle that surrounded my "Heritage" story.
I'll have to keep these points in mind.
*Agreement with everything you say intensifies*
2067188
Story was full of the authors opinions on many political issues and was pretty much a Gary Stu-ish story. Then the author started deleting comments that were "negative", responded poorly to advice from several good authors, and actually threatened to set the moderators on those who were perceived as trolls. Then users were asked for advice and then blocked, so it got uglier. It only ended when the author revoked the original story and deleted the prequel he was writing so that he could re-write the whole thing.
This should be a site blog post.
Perfect advice for a rather imperfect age
Hmm... I feel like there's a question here somewhere, but I guess I could ask when it comes to mind. Good blog, this should be a site blog.
2067173 Also, please let someone write "Scootaloo and Celestia: Adventures in Twilight's Gall Bladder". Easily the funniest thing ive seen today
People taking stories about colorful talking ponies so fucking seriously.
Good posty, obsy. Now if they'll read it...
2067249
Thank you.
If you have the chance to read my stories, avoid the Mark of the Ninja one.
That incident, I see
You know, I suppose I responded this way to one review. It was a small grammar point really, anyone versus anypony. I had put anyone because I was stubborn and insisted that ponies can be "ones", too.
Whether I was right with that decision? Who knows…
Its kind of entertaining to watch the one where the author starts deletng comments.
*in a Discord voice* oh the wonderfull, WONDERFULL! Chaos!
2067266
They do use 'anyone' and 'anypony' etc interchangeably in the show.
And it doesn't help when authors rally all their followers to go shit on whoever they are criticizing.
You know, this blog post has been needed for a WHILE. Glad to finally see it up.
2067266
omai
What about the people who hate the story because they are absolutely jerkfaces.
I mean, look at all the Flash Sentry stories that get bombarded with downvotes just for including Flash Sentry.
It's ridiculous.
This is not constructive criticism, of course. These are just blatant insults with a thin layer of mean-spirits disguised as humor wrapped around them.
~The lizardman is finished
NO! You can't make me, Obs!
... sorry, couldn't help it,
Excellent blog post. Taking criticism in stride is a skill all on it's own, and not an easy one to learn at that.
2067173
Maybe I should write that and see what happens.
i.qkme.me/3vcw9c.jpg
2067301
Maybe you should!
2067292
I make that mistake far too often. I literally just corrected a comment I made yesterday with the same mistake, albeit it the other way around.
2067293
It's an unfortunate fact of life that some people will downvote stories simply because they don't like the type of content it contains. There remains little benefit in deleting comments that point out they only downvoted because it has Flash Sentry in it, or otherwise being less than polite in any responses to these posts.
2067282
Yeah, but "anypony" is used more and therefore more correct and I am better and more smart than you.
Was that a good impression?
2067310
Don't worry. When I get really tired and try to type, I develop a strange case of word forming dyslexia. I also have a problem with being able to type words correctly while typing fast. XP
I honestly suspected this to be a blank post.
2067316 Still, there should be a rule where you need an legit reason to downvote something. I know Flash Sentry isn't Best Pony or anything, but all this hate because of a possible shipping with him and Twilight?
Like I said, ridiculous.
And I agree with you, though, people should take their criticism like a man.
If deleting comments on stories never ends well, why do we still have the option?
2067314
If comments happen to be deleted if the author, for whatever reason of their own, deletes a chapter on their story, then there's little to complain about.
There is, however, a tendency for some authors handling the situation poorly to delete a chapter to clear off all the comments, then republish the same chapter. This tends to get called out for what it is (essentially a more elaborate method of deleting negative comments), and is usually treated thusly.
Really informative blog, faved for future use.
2067333
The option's there because there's a certain amount of trust placed in the author to responsibly curate their comments section, to the effect of being able to delete obvious spam, posts from people who're being truly caustic and awful, or so on.
Technically, there's nothing stopping people from deleting comments they simply disagree with or don't want other people to be able to see (lest it be a less-than-glowing review), but it's considered a bad move to make by the community at large. Which is why you probably shouldn't make it.
Obs, I was waiting for a moderator to blog something along these lines, I know that the horrendous story "The Mare Who Wants a Human Child" or whatever it was named was the start, but a lot of that has been rolling over to the bandwagon fad group of all the "League of Humans Acting as Villains" since the initial cause was revoked. I stayed out of it for the most part, but good lord, once you hit stages 3 & 4, it's a trainwreck.
Excellent Post, Obs.
2067323 2067282
I thought they used anypony when the group they're speaking to is entirely ponies and anyone whenever a non-pony (like Spike) might be included?
Guess I'll just have to go watch the show again and take more notes!
EVERYONE IN HERE SUCKSgreat blerg obs 11/10 would fap again2067354
How can you fap to this? You are obviously an inferior being.
#shotsfired #flamewar #parasucks
Hey obs diz blog sux and u sux and u smell like trout an I whruuuuuggghhhhh
Uh... I mean...
Nah, joking aside, great stuff. Always happy to see things which help keep the general peace. Thanks for all the time you put into writing this.
Now if there was only a way to deal with the silent haters who attack you from afar with thumbs downs for no reason and don't bother to explain why.
You know? In a perfect world I'd like to make it compulsory for everyone who gives a story a thumbs down to have to write a short comment explaining themselves. That'd cull out the haters, or at least, make them more transparent.
2067173
Dammit Blueshift, did you learn nothing from "Twilight Sparkle Eats a Peach"?
2067383
I prefer to forget that whole peach thing happened.
2067387
I actually enjoyed it. XP It was amazing how fast a fad can mobilize and then disappear.
Obselescence, your stories are stupid. They're not funny and not touching. They make me laugh when you want me to cry and make me cry when I should laugh. Your characters aren't relatable, your ponies are false, and your prose is comparable to the Antichrist.
That is why I'm glad I never read any of it.
(
)
2067394
Perhaps I am the Antichrist, and this was my goal all along.