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edenfallingI have been reading through this year's Narnia Fic Exchange stories with great enjoyment. I am not done yet, even though there are only twenty-five of them. This is because I try to take more time with gift exchange fics, and leave thoughtful comments.
I think I do that partly as a sort of interest payment on my normal utter failure at leaving feedback ("kudos" and "like" options are a godsend, seriously), and partly because I know that I spend the anonymous portion of such fests twitchy and nervous, wondering if people will like my work without my name attached to it. I mean, not that I have all that much name recognition to start with, but I have a little simply by virtue of kicking around various fandoms for twelve years now. There is value in being a known quantity. And I figure that if I feel nervous, at least some other writers probably do too, so I want to say, "Yes, people are reading your work and responding positively!"
This can, of course, get tricky with some stories, depending on the subject matter and the writer's skill level, but there is always something you can pick out and say, "I liked this metaphor," or "I liked how happy everyone seemed," or "You got the melancholy mood across very clearly," or "I had never thought of X that way, but you have convinced me it's an interpretation worth examining," etcetera ad infinitum. And you just shut up and don't mention the parts that are Not Your Ship, Not Your Kink, Not Your Writing Style, or whatever, unless you know the writer is okay with concrit in a public arena... which, given that the stories are usually anonymous at the time, you have no way to be sure of. So be polite. :-)
(I guess this maybe sounds like I advocate fraudulent praise as payment for participation? That's not what I mean, though. My praise can be extremely selective in focus -- I would never deny that -- but if I say I liked an element of a story, I honestly mean that I liked that element.)
I think I do that partly as a sort of interest payment on my normal utter failure at leaving feedback ("kudos" and "like" options are a godsend, seriously), and partly because I know that I spend the anonymous portion of such fests twitchy and nervous, wondering if people will like my work without my name attached to it. I mean, not that I have all that much name recognition to start with, but I have a little simply by virtue of kicking around various fandoms for twelve years now. There is value in being a known quantity. And I figure that if I feel nervous, at least some other writers probably do too, so I want to say, "Yes, people are reading your work and responding positively!"
This can, of course, get tricky with some stories, depending on the subject matter and the writer's skill level, but there is always something you can pick out and say, "I liked this metaphor," or "I liked how happy everyone seemed," or "You got the melancholy mood across very clearly," or "I had never thought of X that way, but you have convinced me it's an interpretation worth examining," etcetera ad infinitum. And you just shut up and don't mention the parts that are Not Your Ship, Not Your Kink, Not Your Writing Style, or whatever, unless you know the writer is okay with concrit in a public arena... which, given that the stories are usually anonymous at the time, you have no way to be sure of. So be polite. :-)
(I guess this maybe sounds like I advocate fraudulent praise as payment for participation? That's not what I mean, though. My praise can be extremely selective in focus -- I would never deny that -- but if I say I liked an element of a story, I honestly mean that I liked that element.)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 12:06 am (UTC)Yes, for sure it's a good thing to leave comments in gift exchanges, much more than for plain voluntary postings. Obviously it's plain courtesy to thank the writer for the story that's specifically written as a gift, but other than that, in an exchange I think there's more reason to read and leave reviews about all the stories. After all, it's something like a party game,isn't it? People are writing to other people's taste, not their own -- ships they'd never ship, eras they really don't enjoy....
(No-one has the time for this, but I just had the idea for a party game where we all write bad fics,and the game is to try to find something good to say about them, as in: I thought that the font you chose was beautifully uniform... :D )
Absolutely of course re: not writing anything fraudulent, but also I totally agree that it would be a rare fic that didn't have some interesting and enjoyable aspect to it, and in the exchange environment that's what to focus on in a review.
In ordinary fanficcery, if you don't like something, then you just pass by in silence (unless you're one of those-who-shall-not-be-named). If I do like something, I'll say so in a review, but I'll also make suggestions where I think it would be wanted (This part is tricky! but I did it the other day, for example, on an ffnet story). But the suggestion would always be a smaller part of an overall positive review. But not in an Exchange.
And thank you so much for opening a discussion on this! I often feel at sea with etiquette in fanfic world generally.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 01:12 am (UTC)Exchanges definitely push people outside their comfort zones -- sometimes more than others, but you're always, by definition, writing to somebody else's interests rather than writing something you would have come up with on your own. And I do think that work should be recognized! Also, the more positive feedback there is, the better people feel about participating, which means a greater chance that the exchange will continue. And I really like NFE, so... :-)
There are a lot of stories I open and then back-button out of in silence. There are others I read to the end and am left saying, essentially, "Meh," in which case I also leave in silence. Life is too short to go around telling people all the ways they are Doing Fiction Wrong -- especially since "wrong" almost always really means "not to my taste," and arguing about taste is one of the dumbest and most futile things people have ever wasted time on.
Every fandom is going to have its own preferred etiquette quirks, but I think the two main things that will keep you out of kerfuffles are to avoid arguments over ships or kinks -- in other words, Your Ship/Kink Is Not My Ship/Kink, And That's Okay! -- and to ask before leaving concrit in the comments of a story or artwork unless the creator has specifically said they want concrit there. (Making a critical review on your own journal/blog/website is a different issue, but not a lot of people do that kind of analysis within fandom so it doesn't come up very often.)
Anyway, I've been reading the NFE fics in reverse length order -- from shortest to longest -- so while I have only a handful left, they probably equal all the ones so far in combined wordcount. I hope to finish them on Wednesday or Thursday, and have some time left for writing at least one quick Madness fill. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 02:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 02:16 am (UTC)*clicks through works in helpless fascination*
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 01:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 12:36 pm (UTC)Thank you for expanding my horizons!
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-01 01:20 pm (UTC)I've never been in a kerfuffle (ie in fanfic. :D least said, soonest mended about the rest of my life.) I would love to see critical reviews of fanfics (presumably not one at a time, but looking at movements within, or whatever), but I don't imagine such will happen,mostly because the people most interested are using their energy to write it,not crit it.
As for reading, I'm about two-thirds through, I think -- I still have at least one of the long ones to go. I can't see myself managing a Madness fill.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-09 03:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2014-10-09 10:59 am (UTC)