wilderthan: ((Fujin) Won't understand)
2008-01-29 10:16 am

Musing: fic - The reading thereof

I was just thinking -- I really don't read much fic any more. If I have a craving, I go and hunt stuff down, and if someone recs something really interesting, I might read it, but posts that come up on my flist from [livejournal.com profile] getbackers or [livejournal.com profile] over_look or even [livejournal.com profile] fated_children, I just don't read. And, I confess, I haven't read anything written by [livejournal.com profile] irishais in ages. >>;;

I think part of that's my tendency not to read anything unfinished. I very, very rarely start buying a trilogy or series until it's finished. The only time I've done otherwise is when I bought the first three books of Sarah Zettel's Arthurian romance series. And I haven't read those yet. Oh, and Garth Nix: I have up to Grim Thursday already despite the series not being finished.

Another part of it is, I guess, that a lot of the stuff I come across just doesn't interest me that much or tends to disappoint me even if it does. Still, I don't like it, 'cause here's me getting a reasonable amount of comments -- usually, one or two per fic post! -- and I don't give anything back to my various fandoms in that way. Most of the fics I come across and like are ones I've hunted down after the fact and I feel shy leaving comments.

I think I'm going to go round and leave comments to any fics I've got bookmarked in my del.icio.us, for a start, and then I think I'll try and set myself some kind of goal of commenting on at least one fic a day. 8D

So! If you have anything you'd really like me to read that you think I skipped, drop me a link (or a couple of links -- not too many >>). Please, though, not anything still in progress. In fact -- it'd be better if it wasn't a chaptered fic. Chaptered fics intimidate me. Long one-shots are a-okay, but nothing with more than, say, two parts.

Preferred reading fandoms: Final Fantasy III, IV, VIII, X, X-2, XII (RW). Kingdom Hearts (I/CoM/II). Robin Hood BBC. The Dark Is Rising. The Fionavar Tapestry. Good Omens. Doctor Who (but not Torchwood, yet). Phoenix Wright. Firefly. Heroes (season one). GetBackers. Gundam Wing (which I never watched, but acquired a huge knowledge of by osmosis).
wilderthan: ((Yuna) Dance)
2007-07-14 12:22 pm
Entry tags:

Musing: general - Concrit

I'm notoriously bad at getting concrit, and I'm not much better at giving it. I don't like to hurt people's feelings, and I don't trust my own opinions. When I do give concrit, I tend to point out any spelling/grammar errors and typos, and to pick out a few phrases that I really liked, or a little element that I loved.

In future, if there's any element that didn't do anything for me, I might try and mention that too.

But I was thinking about concrit, and me, and the way that my English teachers could give me back a story absolutely covered in red pen, and I would grin and I would edit. Sometimes I didn't agree with what they said, but I'd look at their suggestions and rework what I'd written a little -- not so that it became more their story than mine, but so that what I wanted to happen became more believable for them.

On the other hand, someone left me a comment picking on the structure of the piece, the characterisation, etc, and I hated it, because they were stating as facts that these things didn't work for them so they didn't work for anybody.

I was thinking about the different critical approaches I learnt for English Lit., and I thought of one I think is really appropriate when it comes to fanfiction: reader response. We may not all be English teachers, or particularly literate, or even native speakers, but we have our own responses to something. Often, that leads to someone saying "[plot point] is wrong because [character] wouldn't do that". Sometimes it's obvious that that's just their opinion, sometimes it comes off as "hey, everyone who reads this thinks you suck!".

I think that the easiest way to review and dodge offending anybody, save the least willing to listen, is to pick out the thing that forced you out of the story and say "[plot point] doesn't feel right to me because the impression I got of [character] in canon is [x] because of [canon plot point]". Or perhaps "I'm not sure why, but [plot point] doesn't feel right to me, perhaps you could tweak it so that [x] instead" -- that kind of thing. It sounds like a lot of pussyfooting around, but I think that I at least would take concrit like that a lot easier. Obviously, grammar, spelling and such aren't subjective, but for anything that's a matter of preference, it's probably best to make sure it's obvious that you're entering the world of opinion -- to think of it not as "concrit" but as "reader response".

Of course, there are some people who don't do that and leave brilliant responses that help the authors. There are authors who won't take even that and will stir up a shitstorm about it, and "opinions" are often more volatile than cold hard facts -- but opinions disguised as "cold hard facts" are worse.