How to Tell Your Friend that Their Fic Sucks · 4:22am Jun 17th, 2012
Greetings fellow bronies! Max-0 Pony here.
So this was actually going to be saved for next week's blog post but this is an issue I feel that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
For those who don't know, I beta read a LOT of fics from aspiring fanfic authors. Some of these authors are good friends of mine. I read the drafts of their story and tell them what needs to be fixed. (My affinity for editing came from when I was the head editor of my school's newspaper.) I currently have 7 fics sitting in my inbox that need to be reviewed..... and I should get on that.
One of the hardest things in the world of fanfiction is when you get a fic from your friend and they ask you to read and review it. So you get it and you are eager to get your friend's fanfic writing career off the ground. Then you get the story.... And it's terrible.... It's really, REALLY bad. You read it a few times over trying to make sense of it but it just doesn't. But your friend is so eager to start writing fanfics but what is right in front of you is just so bad that you literally have no way to articulate it. (Well it may not be THAT bad but it's still a pretty bad fic.)
So what do you do?
Before I go any further, I would like to say that this has happened to me on many instances and it also happened recently. But in any respect, it has happened.
Well it's not easy to tell your friend that the story that they wrote sucks. The thing is, you don't actually tell them that... at least directly. There is a (rather) indirect way to ease the way of saying that what you just read isn't all that great.
Here's how you do it.
1. You write out everything that's wrong with what you just read. Everything. Write out everything you want to say as if the person wasn't your friend.
- Here's the trick though. You don't send it. Don;t even think about sending it.
2. You tell your friend that you have a bit too much on your plate right now to make any comments.
3. You then proceed to say that they should post it on a forum for fanfic authors asking for a beta reader.
4. Have that beta reader say everything you wanted to say but you didn't.
Again, I can't guarantee that this is a foolproof plan but it's easier than outright saying "This sucks".
Lol. I would rather be told outright if that were the case.