"The quarterly rant on fanfiction reviewing"
12 / 26 / 03
exanimate
Seeing people trying to be sarcastic at the expense of others, i.e. so called review sites that look for "bad fiction," only to revert to mere swear words when things get too hairy for them, is amusing. Where's the sarcasm? Where's the wit? Surely a person can come up with something better than "shut the fuck up" when they're getting bombarded by what they themselves initiated.
I'm not going to name the names here. There's no point, really. I've made my stance known. I just find it funny in a very sad and pathetic sort of way.
It's fanfiction. What reason one person may have for writing is not going to be the same for another. Maybe someone wants to see a character OOC. Maybe they want to get a blatant fantasy out of their head. If they don't whine for reviews, I could perhaps see a desire for wanting to knock the writer down a peg, but that doesn't translate into an obligation. (And whether or not certain parties who feel it thir "duty" realise, not every author wants reviews. They just want to write. If it's liked, great. But if it's not liked and an opinion wasn't asked for, leave it be. Nobody's forced to read, and it's easy to tell a bad fic early in the beginning more often than not.)
For something that nobody is getting paid for, fanfiction is being taken way too seriously. On my recent surfing, someone commented in a place that-won't-be-mentioned how writers used to be much thicker skinned than they are today. Hmm, maybe, but then again, the reviews were given in a much nicer tone, and not to make writers look and feel like idiots.
But I don't expect this to improve any time soon. In fact, I see things getting a lot worse over time. Granted, there are fics that, in my opinion, were better off if I'd never read them. Should they have not been written? No, I can't say that they shouldn't have been. Who am I to decide what should and shouldn't be written in the name of fanfiction.
Nobody's making me read it, after all.
Sorry, spammers forced my hand. Comments reviewed before being published.
still winds
