...outside of DLP ? Does anyone even bother to leave reviews with the intention of helping the author, or is it just a platform for laying waste to less-talented writers ?

I ask because I recently left a fairly long review of a fairly terrible piece of fanfiction. In the past I had taken to reading whatever was recommended on a well-known member's c2 or favorites list, and had stopped by Nonjon's to pick up something to pass the time. Just clicked on the title and started reading.

Mistake, mistake mistake.

It was my fault for not reading the summary, as it very clearly stated that the story would have a slash pairing. It hadn't gotten to that point yet, but what was posted had all the hallmarks of a typical slash writer. Weak plot, tons of cliches, a jarring bounce between "serious" moments and crappy humor (or, a typical manga or anime).

Anyways, I felt compelled to leave a review. Not a flame, but a legit review that listed out the specific parts of the story that I felt didn't work (which was all of it, essentially, but I gave my reasons). Needless to say, my input wasn't well-received.

So I ask the rest of you: have you ever left a review on ff.net (or similar sites) that ended up influencing the tone of the fic, or have they all ended with the author's displeasure ? Or have you, as an author, ever been influenced by a well-crafted review outside of DLP ?

 

I've rarely received a review from FFN that influenced a story. Mostly they consist of straight-up compliments (which, I admit, I love) or straight-down criticisms that mostly point out that the reviewer didn't actually read the whole story. I can count on one hand how many I've had that gave a specific cricism, with reason, that made me stop and re-think something.

The feedback I get here, OTOH, is more useful. Changes of phrase, changes to the order of scenes, hell, entire plot points and character arcs have been inspired by comments from DLP.

But, I'm a shameless review whore, so I continue to post at FFN, mostly to get those compliments I mentioned.

 

Most reviews are just "GREAT STORY UPDATE SOON KTHXBAI" but honestly its FF.Net so it's expected.

 

Did one the other day, offered some advice, no flames but just telling why the cliches are bad and why the oc seemed to much better than the main character of the fic, which just got to me.

The reply? "It's my story, I can do what I want, if you don't like it, I don't care."

 

@ Jnottle a LOT of people are like that, mary sue OC's are just pathetic attempts at inserts. It's pointless to try to leave helpful reviews on FF.net, if they want help they would look for it, hopefully coming to DLP.

 

It's just fucking annoying, because many of the authors state, explicitly "Please leave reviews, as they help me write my story!" - only to have them flip out exactly as JNottle described when you do go out of your way to review.

They should just say "Leave praises and <3's"

 

But then they can't have the illusion of being mature! Herpa Derpa Hurp

 

^^^ Pretty much it. Most (99% or therabouts) don't want criticism, constructive or otherwise - they want gushing praise. Unfortunately, most (99% or therabouts) of the reviewers are also 'writers' of the same ilk, and only leave compliments because that's all they want back.

And these are the people we're leaving the world to.

I weep for the future.

The un-earned sense of entitlement (or USE syndrome) so many people (99% or therabouts) have really disturbs me: "i bovered to do someting, so i deserve luvs!"

...

Go fuck yourselves. if you can't take criticism, don't post on the internet.

 

Word up, cause awesome thread is awesome.

 

Yup, I don't even bother anymore.

As said before, when wannabe-authors say 'reviews please', they (or at least 80% of the people on there) actually mean they want mindless praise and story hits. I feel sort of bad for the 20% on ff.net that do actually want honest, constructive reviews, because they're lumped in with those praise-tards, and there's little-to-no way of distinguishing the two.

 

I suppose you could say "Don't leave a review if you're just going to say 'good job', but that might seem a bit ungrateful...

 

One reader's extended review of one of my early stories changed the entire way I go about writing. I can't think of much more impact than that. I'll be honest, though: if the reviewer weren't one of my top three favorite fanfiction writers, thereby establishing unimpeachable credibility and (I'd like to think) bona fides, I might not have taken the words quite so much to heart. Credibility counts a lot for reviews; if the author thinks the reviewer is worth listening to, he'll listen. This is why I only leave signed reviews and tend to only leave reviews when I think the author might be inclined to pay attention to what I say. Maybe it's a little selfish on my part and maybe some writer out there who may have listened won't get to hear what I say, but that's life. I don't have infinite time and I try not to waste it with futility.

There are a few non-writers (or occasional writers) from whom I've received very good reviews and to whom I'll always listen. They've street cred. SomeGuyFawkes is a good example. Diogenes (who used to review anonymously) left several very good reviews, many of which inspired me to go back and fix stuff that he brought to my attention.

I don't think leaving quality reviews is a lost cause entirely, but I agree it's not always worth doing. Perhaps the biggest reason why I don't review much anymore is that 99% of my fanfiction reading is from my iPad, on which it's a pain to leave a review detailed enough to be useful.

 

I swear that guy is the most prolific reader ever.

But yeah, I leave a fair number of reviews, always signed, most of them quite critical. It's perhaps not a good way of going about it, but when I like a story I tend not to review. I use it mainly as a way of airing dislikes.

 

I see this and I think you might not be exploring the problem fully. Of course they want praises; that's a given. What they are looking for in asking for reviews that help write the story is they want ideas because they have no idea what they are doing. I see dozens of stories every day that move along without any plot other then to simply sustain itself past 5000 words.

They get some simple angle they want to explore, like Harry gets turned into a sparkly vampire by Cedric. Then once it's done, they're clueless.

They won't admit that when they ask for reviews that they're actually asking for someone to give them inspiration, not criticism.

Until then, they just ramble on with cliche after cliche of crap until eventually they leave the story unfinished.

When someone comes along and points out that their story is a steaming pile of crap because of this, this, and this, and point out how to fix it, they take offense because they know they've been caught out. So they say, "It's my story... blah blah blah."

So, it's obvious, you shouldn't offer help in the form of criticism to 99.99% of the authors at ffn, you should just say, "Have Harry be Cedric's butt boy," or "Have Harry stab Cedric with his fork and tell him to fuck off! You're the greatest author ever!!!1!!" They'll appreciate that much more.

 

Stop projecting, Heather.

AND DO YOU RESEMBLE YOUR AVATAR (YES I'MMA KEEP CREEPING ASKING) ??!?! D8

But yeah, you're probably right. It's just slightly irritating when I get responses back to my reviews that go out of their way to justify every part of their story that I found hard to grasp/needed improvement - and then have the base nerve to accuse me of having an inflexible point of view.

Boggles the mind.

 

Don’t generalize. I’m sure you’ve found agreeable writers on ff.net just like you’ve found unreasonable ones on DLP. Sure, only ff.net has the classic “It’s my story, I’ll do what I want” reply, but is the DLP-version (usually shit-coated, snarky and self-righteous) really all that different? I’ll grant you that the percentage of the both of them isn’t comparable, but saying there’s no point in leaving a well-crafted and critical review on ff.net is wrong, IMHO. It’s just more likely to be bad-received or ignored.

 

I've noticed for smaller fandoms that every review counts. Whether you're pointing out problems you have or just mindlessly praising, they will almost always respond back for you (assuming activity). I reviewed a two-year old oneshot on the Baten Kaitos section a few monthes back and got a reply within days. Maybe it's just the Harry Potter forum being so active.

 

I rarely review anymore unless the author contacts me and asks me to leave a review. I used to try to review, but I realized that when I was in a mood good enough to leave a review I wasn't really saying anything useful to the author, or to anyone reading the reviews to figure out if the story was worth their time.

Most of the time now, the only unprompted reviews I give are short opinions on the characters, and pointing out a few typos and grammar errors that might stand out in an otherwise decent read. I'll give long, tl;dr reviews to authors that ask for it, though.

A couple of these reviews had more impact than I had thought possible. I struck up a friendship with a Kingdom Hearts author arguing about her OC fic - girl with amnesia falls into KH post-KHII, and turns out to be Sora's twin/baby sister/whatever. (Decent story at the time.) Another author who wrote fruity, contemplative 'family' fics that were usually crossovers of some variety actually went and edited the hell out of one of her stories and squeezed some of the sugar out of it. (Guilty pleasure fic, would never rec.)

So, yeah. Reviewing can have an impact.

 

I usually don't leave reviews. When I do, it's either for a DLP author, an author I'm on pretty good terms with, an author that's making god awful mistakes, or an author that personally asked me to look over their stuff for them. The last one has gotten a lot less common since my stories haven't been updated in years, though.

Usually my input seems to be appreciated, I've only gotten the 'this is my story and I'll do what I want' response once, and he changed his tune after I replied. I think a lot of authors just chuck out that response on reflex, since so many readers on FFN constantly suggest stupid shit that would have to be a plot point, not a minor adjustment.