Greetings everyone.

For those who haven't red the comments that I put on popular stories (Augmented Love, Twisted Fate among others that I can't seem to find) that, for some reason, they are very popular despite, regarding my biased opinion, they have terrible writing.

In some cases, the author replies to me in a civil and educated manner, in other cases the author simply can't take constructive criticism and, sadly, in the end it all grows out of control as both of us start acting like children and insult the intellect of each other trying to prove only our points while disagreeing with the points the others make.

My point, before I start rambling again, is this.

Can we make a small group that find stories like these, and as a collective, send the author a message that will help the author improve his/her writing skills, so that one day, a story of that author will have the honor of being part of the RCL hall of fame here in fimfiction.

If something, anything really, similar to this idea can/will happen, I would be more than honoured and glad to become part of that group.

But in the end, sometime even if we offer help, our helping hands will be bitten.

For those who haven't red

Could you link to one or more of these comments?

It may just be a case of "what's popular isn't good" and its converse.

What Hap said, and I wish you luck resolving your difficulties accepting that some authors do not desire your help. It can be hard to walk away at times, I know.

5981511

Twisted fate by Reykan

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/319260/25/twisted-fate/strange-biology
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/319260/5/twisted-fate/one-persons-love-is-another-persons-lunch
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/319260/7/twisted-fate/in-which-the-deadline-is-reached

Augmented Love by Silentpegasus

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/143827/1/augmented-love/chapter-1-meet-the-flyer
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/143827/2/augmented-love/chapter-2-first-day-of-class
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/143827/3/augmented-love/chapter-3-home-early

5981536
I agree with that, but when the author states that the brain produces lightning (5,000,000,000 joules) of electricity to make the body work, I can't help but to feel insulted at the intellectual dishonesty the author is stating with that sentence alone.

Take this chapter of twisted fate for example: https://www.fimfiction.net/story/319260/25/twisted-fate/strange-biology

Good luck with that -you'll need it.

HP Lovecraft famously refused to allow his stories to be edited & thus found them almost unsaleable. Only one editor would buy them.

Spillane had a hissy fit about being edited. Editor defended himself "It was only one word"

Next novel, he left out the last word -the name of the killer. The editor had a hissy fit. Spillane "Hey, it's only one word"

So, some people just don't respond well to criticism

I think a group of people trying to offer constructive criticism to someone who doesn't take criticism well is just going to look like targeted persecution.

5981599
It'll be more in the line of, those involved in this, sending a private message to the author if he/she actually wants to receive ideas/suggestions on how to improve their writing abilities in order to become a better author with enough time.

However, once the author has agreed to accept this criticism, there is no turning back on it.

5981599
An example I can give of someone who really wants some help would be Mordy (he doesn't understand why his story didn't make it to Equestria Daily).

If, those interested, can group together and offer advice, once Mordy has agreed to accept the help being given by those involved, we as a community can help an author improve the writing skills, in such a way that Mordy can be considered a good and respected author.

If a person is incapable of taking criticism from one well-meaning reviewer (*cough*), then it's unlikely that an entire group of people swarming them to provide critique will have any more success (*cough* *cough*).

Being a prima donna and rejecting critique is something you either grow out of, or you don't. Sad to say.

Please, whatever you do, if you want to help authors, help the ones who want it. Re: 5981599, don't push your help on others, and especially don't do it in the RCL's name.

5981757
I will help as many authors as I can, I won't deny that fact about myself, but I will only do that using my own name.

I really REALLY hate it when people drag the names (of others or of organisations/groups) into the mud.

And as I have stated before, as long as something similar to what I stated in the comment that started all of this doesn't happen I won't make any public, nor private, claims that I am doing this using the RCL as a scapegoat.

I might be a douche, but I will never be that type of douche

Well, I hate to be the guy who is contrary, but if you're getting a lot of pushback from authors you may want to consider if you're actually giving good criticism.

What you need to criticize is not how the author broke the rules, or how you didn't just like their story, but how they failed to write the story they wanted to write. Getting shit criticism is basically the worst, and nothing ruins my day than getting feedback from people, especially when they're angry, that is about everything but how I fucked my story up. I've had people lay into me for caring about the "wrong" social issues, I've had people give me criticisms because they wanted a completely different story than the one I wrote in the first place, and I have had people actually throw moral condemnation my way for things that were not even part of the story. I've had shit critics before. Hell, I've been the shit critic before, and I've been a poor receptacle of criticism before, and I'm still embarrassed about all that, so don't take this as me just trying to defend my pwecious ego.

You also need to be careful of presentation. There is a mile between "I think your story has potential but for me it fell apart at X" and "How could you fuck up so bad?" Of course, I say that, and you run into the problem that there is no perfect presentation. It's something you just have to work at with each case. The others are right though; you did need to understand some people won't want help, but you need to approach this sort of stuff with humility and empathy or else you're just wasting your own time.

Anyway, good luck. If you succeed, anything that brings more quality writing into the fandom is a boon.

5982128
I undesrtand quite well what you mean, and fortunately I never criticise the social issues/direction of the story/fucked up the story is/morality etc.

What I do, is that I read the chapter, find any inconsistencies regarding either grammar or literary sense, use the quote part of the bar where I write my review, underline (with # on either side of the error I managed to spot, and explain why that is wrong.

Take for example this small snippet of Silentpegasus story: Augmented love chapter 2 first day of class.

"

Yeah, yeah.” (1)She said with a groan. The girl said with a yawn(1). She threw on a simple cyan T-shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans. She quickly flew out the door and made her way towards school. As the large tan colored building came into view she saw a familiar (2)Unicorn man(2) walking to school. She flew up beside him and smiled. “Sup dude?”

(1) explain to me how can someone groan and yawn simultaneously.
(2) even though the bio of the story says that all characters are humanised, the author consistently insists that the characters are either unicorns or pegasi. You can not choose the anthro tag on your own story, then start calling every character a stallion/mare. You are contradicting yourself with that, and if you don't see the hypocrisy of your actions regarding the tag you, as an author chose for your own story, then you are a lost case.

5981508

The things you think are important aren't as important as you think they are.

I'm an author with a reasonably popular story posted on this site. It still contains grammatical errors, but enough people think that it's engaging enough despite that to read and up-vote anyway. Whatever Futurama memes may have told you, technically correct is not the most important sort of correct.

In my opinion, the measure of any artist's success is how deeply they can engage a reader with the world and ideas they've created. And writing with correct grammar and syntax is an important part of that, I'd agree. Getting things right helps your work flow smoothly, and minimizes unwanted disruption and distraction.

You're a bit like somebody complaining that cake shouldn't be delicious because it isn't a nutritionally complete meal. It's not that you're wrong, but you're ignoring the reason people find it satisfying.

I'm sorry, but I gotta be honest: You gave bad criticism. I tried to think of some other way to put this, but I can't. If I saw any of the responses you gave in one of my stories, I wouldn't give it the time of day.

I skimmed through all the comments you linked and in every single one, you didn't criticize, you nitpicked. There's a difference. Nitpicking lists flaws (ones that in the greater scope of the story don't really matter) and leaves it at that. No explanation why it's bad, or what could be different. Nitpicking is complaining. Nitpicking is not constructive.
Many of your criticisms are fact checks or research errors. Unless it's a major flaw in the lynchpin of the story, something like that needs a small note, not an essay.Things like a lack of research and consistency problems are issues, but the way you lay them out in a grocery list of flaws and/or stuff you didn't like reads belligerent and presumptuous. It looks like you're tearing down, not building up. Where do you suggest a way to improve? Where do you state what things they did right?

You also need to understand that not everyone has the same interpretation the same way you do. In the case of Augmented Love, the author CLEARLY stated in the description that their version of MLP humanization have wings, tails, and horns. It's a sort of "anthro-lite" middle ground between full anthro and human (think cat girls), but closer to human. As far as I know, humans don't have wings or horns, so calling characters unicorns and pegasi if they want reads fine to me. I mean, I also think it's kind of dumb, but if it's consistent, no harm no foul.

To some extent, you must give an author credit, my dude. Maybe there's a reason they did what they did that will come in later. Maybe their interpretation of canon is different than yours. Both of those things CAN be discussed, but not in the approach you've chosen which just screams "You're wrong and dumb and I know better than you." The tone just in itself is aggressive and off-putting. If I saw this in my comment box I wouldn't think you wanted to help, I'd think you were just being a facetious jerk.

It feels like you're telling people to write the story you want to read.
Instead, you should be helping people tell the story they want to tell, and I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing that.

5982365
I honestly never saw it that way. I am very grateful for your honesty and I will take what you said into consideration for the next reviews I will make on other stories.

And to be honest? It is quite shameful and embarrassing what I did once you really look at how I was acting back then.

I will try my very best to not cherry pick the faults of the story and focus on the story as a whole.

I thank you for letting me know how childish I was being in order to write better, more solid reviews on the stories I read here and elsewhere.

5982293
I care more about the flow of the story rather than grammatical errors.

For example: if you write that a character is going to put someone under jail, then you really need to realize what that means. If you write that a character is going to put someone in then there's nothing wrong with that statement.

5982527
I'd correct that mistake if it were pointed out to me in a timely fashion, because I'd want to avoid derailing my readers suspension of disbelief. To be clear, I'm not opposed to pointing out mistakes like that. But if most readers flowed right past it without complaint, I wouldn't stress out over it.

5982128

you may want to consider if you're actually giving good criticism.

This is why I asked for sample criticisms.

5982390
Generally speaking, if you're set on providing constructive criticism to an author,* you want to build a "hamburger comment":

1. Open with at least one compliment about the work (top bun).
2. Explain the most important 1 to 3 issues with the story -- the top things making the reader's job difficult -- and suggestions on how to improve them (patty, toppings).
3. Close with a statement of goodwill, i.e. something along the lines of "I really think you have the potential to make this a truly great story, especially if you address these issues; keep up the good work!" (bottom bun).

*Especially if it's unsolicited, but do this for solicited critiques as well.

5982293

I'm an author with a reasonably popular story posted on this site.

Really not a statement you want to build a solid argument on, pal.

And it's not just memes that claim things should be technically correct. Arachne is mostly nitpicking, yes, but taking liberties with things like physics, biology, etc. is still a bad habit. If one insists on adding some science tidbit to their story, they should do one of three things:

1) Actually research the topic properly.

2) Give a proper explanation in case something violates known science (i.e put in some effort). Even if you claim it's a universe with different laws, be consistent with said laws.

3) If the story doesn't really need it, just don't put it in at all.

Even the screenwriter of the shitty movie The Core claims he based everything on known science, he didn't just pull everything out of his ass. He then fought tooth and nail to stop producers from making him add dinosaurs and other nonsense. On the other extreme, we have an author who gets upset instead of making a few minor corrections.

5983582

I'm an author with a reasonably popular story posted on this site.

(1)Really not a statement you want to build a solid argument on, pal.(1)

And it's not just memes that claim things should be technically correct. Arachne is mostly nitpicking, yes, but (2)taking liberties with things like physics, biology, etc. is still a bad habit(2). If one insists on adding some science tidbit to their story, they should do one of three things:

1) Actually research the topic properly.

2) Give a proper explanation in case something violates known science (i.e put in some effort). Even if you claim it's a universe with different laws, be consistent with said laws.

3) (3)If the story doesn't really need it, just don't put it in at all.(3)

(5)Even the screenwriter of the shitty movie The Core claims he based everything on known science, he didn't just pull everything out of his ass. He then fought tooth and nail to stop producers from making him add dinosaurs and other nonsense. On the other extreme, we have an author who gets upset instead of making a few minor corrections(5).

(1) out of curiosity, I checked out Eakins profile, Eakin isn't lying. There is a following of a little under 4,000 followers and all of the stories there have a gigantic difference between upvotes and down votes. I mean, I can hardly any red on the up/down vote scales in the stories there, it ain't an argument, it's a statement, and a very valid one.

(2) this might just be me, I never had the best communication skills with others, but how can I take liberty of something? I am very confused with that statement of yours and I would really appreciate if you could elaborate further and clarify so idiots like me won't get confused.

(3) if the story doesn't need really. . . what exactly? I mean, I know I am repeating myself, but when you are going to state something, at least make sure that dumb people (like me) understand what you're trying to say or we will only get more confused the more we read what you are writing.

(4) which screenwriter exactly? I highly dought that a 83 million dollar budget film will only have one screenwriter. And even if this mystery screenweiter did that, it doesn't excuse others of doing the same mistake of having a close minded perception is what should/shouldn't be part of the story.

5983714

(2) this might just be me, I never had the best communication skills with others, but how can I take liberty of something? I am very confused with that statement of yours and I would really appreciate if you could elaborate further and clarify so idiots like me won't get confused.

I was referring to the people you were criticizing. They may be right to call you out for nitpicking, but at the same time, they themselves may be guilty of laziness (i.e tossing in incorrect science and then waving it off when someone points out they got things wrong).

(4) which screenwriter exactly? I highly dought that a 83 million dollar budget film will only have one screenwriter. And even if this mystery screenweiter did that, it doesn't excuse others of doing the same mistake of having a close minded perception is what should/shouldn't be part of the story.

You can read the story here: (link)