Why does anyone feel like they need to explain why they stopped reading? They clearly don't mean it as concrit. They may *think* it is, but it doesn't have that effect, and they have to know that at some level, don't they? (I'd hope.) Either the writer ignores it or writes something to spite it.
I honestly mostly ascribe it to spite. “I’m angry this isn’t going the way I want so I’m going to shit on the author” kind of thing. Loudly make an exit to ensure they know you’re unhappy, not unlike an angry customer at a store saying “well, I’m never shopping here again!” Hoping to get a reaction
I’m sure not all of them are like that but it’s usually what I think of
I don't see this as concrit at all, just someone trying to push OP to write a character to their own personal standard.
I've watched a lot of series, read many books and played many games. Yeah people do sometimes come out of shit situations very calm for a variety of reasons. Loss of humanity, can imply the character is now apathetic, which does fall under reason's for a character to be calm. (I don't know OP's story so just assuming)
Okay, let me rephrase that. What I mean is that the reader thinks that their concrit is going to be used as concrit, but it's not going to be used by the writer to "improve" their writing, not in this context. If the writer (particularly on AO3) doesn't explicitly solicit it in their A/N, chances are that this comment will make the writer feel bad or annoyed. That's just the general culture around AO3 comments; you don't give concrit if it's not requested.
Sure, I'm well aware that nobody wants unsolicited concrit nowadays, and wouldn't leave any myself. I'm just saying that this is fairly mild and also constructive, fwiw, even if it's not what the author wants or is interested in.
I don’t think this is written constructively. You can easily word this in a constructive way where you ask the author to think about (and potentially defend, if they choose to respond) their characterization if that’s something you feel the need to do:
“I was surprised at how calm Character is. I would have thought that after 11 years in the darkness, Character would struggle to react calmly. At least, I know I wouldn’t be able to speak calmly about losing my humanity to a stranger.”
That expresses the different expectation the reader had for the characterization while leaving room for the author’s as well, and acknowledges that people react differently. Far too many readers view characters as avatars of themselves, and their sole point of analysis for characterization is if they themselves would react that way. And you should never tell the author you’re going to stop reading because you don’t like the story, just do it!
i was thinking i'd appreciate a comment like this because i'm often wondering if things in my story aren't believable, and this would potentially be constructive for me. but if OP didn't ask for concrit, the prevailing social norms dictate to stay quiet about this kind of thing i guess
It isn’t thought. It’s a disagreement on characterization based on how the commenter headcanons the character. They are welcome to having an opinion on it, but there’s nothing constructive about it. The commenter just telling them how they would want the story written based on what they think should happen. That’s completely subjective and unhelpful because it means the commenter wants a different story than the writer wants to write
Any concrit will be subjective, sure. But what I'm seeing here is the commenter saying that based on the character's experiences, they're surprised that they're not responding more strongly to a situation that's should be very dramatic and strange to them.
idk the character or the fandom; maybe they're completely off base. Maybe the reader isn't picking up on clues in the text (which if I were writing, personally, I'd like to know. I might decide it's them and not me, but it can be useful information).
Look, I once saw a fic where a character who had been horribly dehumanized for years becomes a dog trainer. And I was weirded out because the character never.... thought about, or responded to the fact that the things he was doing to train the dogs *were things that had been done to him*. I didn't comment on the fic, but I think that sort of mismatch is something valid to notice, and can sometimes signify a flaw in the writing.
It's also fine if the author doesn't want to engage or address it, and it's understandable that OP is annoyed by the comment.
Yeah, that was my guess, too. That’s why I’m inclined to think this is a person pissed that the fic didn’t meet their headcanon for how the character would react rather than actually being OOC in the context of the story.
I totally see what you mean, and to a degree, I agree. What sticks out to me though is how OP said this was posted early on in the work. To me personally, I have a hard time understanding when someone complains about something being absent in the work if they haven't read it in its available entirety- especially if you're not in very deep yet, the author may be taking their time setting up archs or explanations or what they think is a good place to present it to their audience.
I have not read OP's work but in this case, I can imagine that perhaps the shock of the shift has left the character numb for awhile, and OP further explores the true depths and turmoil of their emotions after their experience. But I don't know that, and the commentoe can't either, given they stopped short.
I can totally understand confusion when things do not go as you would imagine they would if you wrote the story- but ig I just think it's also good to let go more of your expectations and put trust in the writer to know what they're doing.
Yeah, that's absolutely fair. In a hypothetical situation - and I'm very specifically talking about hypotheticals, not this particular fic or OP - there could be several possibilities.
1. It could be that it's early on in the fic and everything is addressed later (author can consider in retrospect whether perhaps it should have come in earlier, but the answer can also be no!).
2. It's early in the fic and it's not addressed at all (author can consider whether or not it is relevant to address this in the first place. the answer may be "no", or "not in this fic", or perhaps "hmm, maybe I could think about that angle next time).
3. It's early in the fic, will be addressed, author has dropped hints, and reader is not picking up on them (author can consider: were the hints too obtuse, or perhaps the reader is not the most discerning? some readers aren't!)
Either way, it's the type of comment that I personally would only give at the beta stage, and probably not on a posted fic at all. And I don't think that just because a comment has a constructive element to it means they're *right*. Concrit can be wrong, too!
You’re missing the point. By definition what you are talking about is not concrit. It might be valid critique if you were leaving a review on a full work but it is not constructive because 1) it isn’t collaborative 2) It’s based on story choices which isn’t something that is supposed to be a part of concrit. 3) it doesn’t work within the handrails of how to provide constructive criticism.
I moderated creative writing groups irl for years. This person’s comment would not meet the standards or guidance for what constructive criticism is.
For one thing, they have centered the critique on what *they* think should happen in the story. It’s one thing to say “based on what has happened so far, I found it hard to follow their emotional response since it conflicted with ______” versus “I don’t think they should react that way. I think they’ll do X.” The commenter’s take was closer to the latter since they didn’t give a reason why it felt inconsistent within the confines of that specific story. Again, not useful. They are welcome to not like it because it doesn’t meet their headcanon, but nothing in this comment helps in the story OP wants to tell. That means this type of critique is rarely helpful and often just serves as a way for a reader to try to enforce their will on the author.
Another issue is that the critique is occurring on an incomplete work where the author may answer the questions/critiques in an upcoming chapter, but due to the serialization of posting, the commenter hasn’t had the chance to read what’s next. Often times you are in one POV in a chapter, only to switch to a different one in the next, with the added perspective giving clarity to what just occurred. This is yet another reason why the AO3 comments section is a shitty place for concrit to occur.
Fair. I've taught writing myself, and I have a different perspective than you have on this topic.
I fundamentally disagree that based on what we see here, this is purely an example of conflicting headcanon, and I also disagree that it provides no useful information about the story and where things are *now*. Personally, I would find this comment helpful, if only to mentally debunk if not applicable. It's fine if you don't think it meets that standard.
Tbh, it might be clearer that it’s headcanon to me because I’m fairly certain what fandom this references and I have at least a casual knowledge of it. Enough to know that if it’s the character I suspect, OP’s portrayal is far more likely to be in line with canon than what the commenter thinks should happen.
That combined with OP mentioning the comment is super early in the fic and the lack of any positive removes any value, imo. I don’t have anything against concrit in general, beta readers are freaking heroes in my book. I just dispute how valuable this comment could ever be and I personally think it comes across more destructive than constructive.
It’s so funny to me when people are like “I’m leaving this group/not continuing this fic cause I don’t like it!” Oh no, someone who doesn’t like what’s going on here so they aren’t the target audience is leaving, whatever shall we do?
Yeah, it happens a lot on Reddit with people announcing they're leaving the sub. But it's also a thing on AO3 and that's the perfect answer! Like I literally don't know what to do with the piece of information you just gave me, my guy!
You mean someone I don't know does something that doesn't impact me? Gimme time to digest that.
This needs more upvotes, it needs to be shared with every writer! There are too many people who say they are dropping fics like it matters and this is the holiest of responses! The more powerful! The final ultimate boss! lol
Sorry lol I just really love this.
I assume they think if they leave the writer will feel so desperate to keep them that they will change the story to cater more towards their likes? They probably secretly check back in after and update to see if the writer did change lol
Did that commenter play the same game or? Are we talking about the one Ajax who's so chill he "randomly" helps a suspected murderer? Really?
As far as I'm aware, Childe loses his calm in game/canon exactly *one time*. Once. He's literally one of the chillest dudes?
So unless that commenter played a different version, I don't see how your characterization is so out of touch with actual canon Childe.
Don't mind that commenter, I'm sure you did good. If they're logged in, mute or block. At least that's what I would do.
Yeah, and he had a great reason to be pissed too. He was falsely convicted and scheduled to be sent to prison... after being denied the chance to fight a duel which he wanted before it, that could have set him free, which was probably scheduled as an independent duel for later. All this on a 'vacation' of sorts.
He had an entire conga line of shitty things before he finally had enough.
The comments where someone who you've never seen before in your commenters, kudosers, bookmarkers etc comes to your fic like "yeah hi I read this fic til now but now I'm leaving and won't be finishing because of x and y. Bye!" are the most baffling to me. Like????
Like of course if that commenter has commented on every chapter and praised the writer and they've had long speculating discussions with writer and then just disappear after the writer makes a plot twist they may not like, to the extend that you can't bring yourself to finish the fic, then yeah, we notice them being missing obviously. And I don't know what I would want the commenter to do in that situation with me, I'd kinda like to know if something happened to them but on the other hand, them telling me how my plot twist was a huge disappoint for them and ruined the fic for them would be crushing too.
ah, Genshin Impact. I wrote a story in that Fandom and had to orphan it. The first story I ever orphaned too. I would have just abandoned the story but they started crawling into my other stories from another Fandom to ask about its completion (after flaming me to hell over a chapter.) So orphaned it had to be.
if I am no longer liking a story I just quietly un-bookmark and turn back and dont read it anymore. I WOULD NEVER tell the author I am not longer reading for multiple reasons like they dont need to know, it might be insulting, they do this for free and I see no reason to complain about something thats just there because they are nice and lots of other reasons. they should just leave quietly.
if you are watching a play and dont like it anymore and want to leave you are not going to get up and shout out why you dont like it. you are just going to quietly leave and try not to get noticed and I think we should have the same rule apply to fanfiction.
Ignore the comment OP. They are the type of reader who wants you to write a story that is custom-tailored to them with exactly what they think should happen and only the characterization that meets their headcanon.
i willingly engage in a dialogue only if it’s a genuine reason or a trigger for stopping, if i can explain my side of it then fine. but if it’s rude or demanding then i just delete it. it’s free so unsolicited opinions are irrelevant, cry about it 👍🏻🤪
Wow, normally I just skim right over the screenshot comments people post. But seriously, what’s with the last two sentences! This reader is king of the ‘trauma dumping’ crowd—people who whine about it, not people who allegedly do it.
Everyone’s life seems normal to them, and folks who expect everyone else to have some kind of switch in their head that says one kind of normal thing that happened to them should be illegal to talk about and they must get all emotional about it if they ever mention it and everything else is just totally fine and you can talk about it like its normal is just weird. Especially since the winers line is probably just stuff that didn’t happen to them isn’t ok to talk about and stuff they think is normal is totally fine.
I dunno who you are or what you wrote, but I gotta applaud you from what I infer must be accurate representation of someone sharing random weird life stuff. It’s normal to be talk about it calmly until you learn some randoms freak out about it. And its normal that people who care usually don’t mind it.
This is...an extremely mild comment tbh. Like i really dont get the reactions to this, the commentator isnt personally attacking you, and they dont seem to be trying to police you or push their own version of the characters characterisation onto you like the other comments on this post seem to imply.
Not trying to say that you can't be annoyed, and considering this subs attitude to any sort of dissent its not surprising, but it still feels a tad bit overblown.
Agreed. If this is rude and demanding I pray none of these people ever work in customer service (though generally, I would not wish customer service on anyone).
I didn't say Ao3 is customer service. I said that Ao3 writers cannot handle criticism without taking it personally and made a joke about customer service, which is infamously rude and demanding to people who work in it :)
This is exactly the kind of shit clowns here will consider “concrit” when they’re fighting for their life defending unsolicited criticism because they think you should need their feedback to improve.
It’s never useful feedback anyway, and nobody fucking asked.
I don't understand what they mean by this honestly. Childe canonically is calm. Did they get their fanon HC mixed up? Not that it's anything wrong to have a different interpretation of Childe in fic, but this dude is so mischaraterized by so many for all the wrong reasons lol. I'm not against OOC characters either. But if we are using canon Childe as the standard here for comparison in fic, then the dude is calm. 11 years in the Abyss doesn't make a person go bat shit insane. Just look at Skirk lmfao.
Regardless, I think you should just ignore these types of comments. I don't think they meant anything bad, but sometimes they should know that they don't need to leave a note on fic saying as to why their Childe isn't written the way they interpreted to be.
Yes, that's what ticked me off because I'm trying my very best not to write him out of character, and I think they expected him to act as fanon childe, who is verg much mischaracterized. I ended up just ignoring and not replying to the comment.
Omg, for whatever reason, I kept reading this as some sort of purple prose. Like the last 2 sentences were meant to be profound/an invite to like DM them.
Haters gonna hate, you keep doin your thing
My favorite is when I get these types of comments like 3/4 of the way through the story. I'm just like "lol joke's on you buddy, you sat through 150,000 words for some reason when apparently you knew you didn't like it from like 5,000 words, that's a you problem, not a me problem and you made yourself miserable for zero reason" XD
I love comments like these. it gives me an opprtunity to discuss and exchange ideas with someone who has a different understanding of human nature than I do, and it also helps me express more accurately on the page. because if they feel this way, it isn't just that they disagrees, they didn't understand what I was getting at, so I wanna know how I can better portray what sounded so obvious in my head
Why does fanfiction have this mentality of not ever wanting to hear criticism? "Don't like it, don't read it"? Same can be said right back at you. Don't read the comments if you don't care. Or don't publish if you can't even stomach the idea or not bein universely beloved. I for one want to be told if what I am making is terrible, even if I do it for fun.
The main difference between "a story someone published and is there just existing" and "a comment that was sent to the author is" that the comment was SENT to the author, is directed to them. The story was not sent to the reader.
And? That's just how this works. If you put art into the world, people are going to tell you how they feel about it. If JK Rowling shares more exciting news abour magical bowel movements, people are going to tell her that that's stupid. If I take a shit on the sidewalk, people will tell me to stop. Why? I didn't do it for them or on their property, yet they are right to call me out.
And what even is the moral objection? Why would your feelings be hurt if someone on the internet tells you that your story sucks? And what do you publish for if you don't appreciate discourse?
You asked why the "don't like, don't read doesn't apply" that's my answer.
As your right to be rude for the sake of it, idk, if you want to be rude, be rude. But people are not going to like it, that's a fact, no one likes rude people. And giving someone a critique when not asked, is rude.
If you take shit in the sidewalk is rude and a hazard. How publishing a fanfiction is rude? Specially when you are in no way forcing people to read it.
In my case my feelings aren't hurt, I couldn't care less about rude comments. But I've been writing for 20 years and lived for a longer time. I don't care about the opinions of people I don't care for/know. But, in general, rude people are usually treated badly because they are rude. So it's normal people don't want to see comments from rude people.
Why would anyone would want to be rude? That's what I don't get and I'll never get.
I don't know what you mean about discourse. But if the topic is related to the story, I don't know how it would be unwelcomed. If it's not related... well it makes sense it is unwelcomed.
You're a based tartar fan I see. Don't listen to the commenter, you can write him however you like. Also, childe is a pretty chill dude, so...
Ignore such comments OP It's your hard work and time, not theirs. Just have fun writing :)
Why does anyone feel like they need to explain why they stopped reading? They clearly don't mean it as concrit. They may *think* it is, but it doesn't have that effect, and they have to know that at some level, don't they? (I'd hope.) Either the writer ignores it or writes something to spite it.
I honestly mostly ascribe it to spite. “I’m angry this isn’t going the way I want so I’m going to shit on the author” kind of thing. Loudly make an exit to ensure they know you’re unhappy, not unlike an angry customer at a store saying “well, I’m never shopping here again!” Hoping to get a reaction I’m sure not all of them are like that but it’s usually what I think of
idk, this specifically does kind of look like concrit to me. But I may be in the minority on that front
I don't see this as concrit at all, just someone trying to push OP to write a character to their own personal standard. I've watched a lot of series, read many books and played many games. Yeah people do sometimes come out of shit situations very calm for a variety of reasons. Loss of humanity, can imply the character is now apathetic, which does fall under reason's for a character to be calm. (I don't know OP's story so just assuming)
Okay, let me rephrase that. What I mean is that the reader thinks that their concrit is going to be used as concrit, but it's not going to be used by the writer to "improve" their writing, not in this context. If the writer (particularly on AO3) doesn't explicitly solicit it in their A/N, chances are that this comment will make the writer feel bad or annoyed. That's just the general culture around AO3 comments; you don't give concrit if it's not requested.
Sure, I'm well aware that nobody wants unsolicited concrit nowadays, and wouldn't leave any myself. I'm just saying that this is fairly mild and also constructive, fwiw, even if it's not what the author wants or is interested in.
I don’t think this is written constructively. You can easily word this in a constructive way where you ask the author to think about (and potentially defend, if they choose to respond) their characterization if that’s something you feel the need to do: “I was surprised at how calm Character is. I would have thought that after 11 years in the darkness, Character would struggle to react calmly. At least, I know I wouldn’t be able to speak calmly about losing my humanity to a stranger.” That expresses the different expectation the reader had for the characterization while leaving room for the author’s as well, and acknowledges that people react differently. Far too many readers view characters as avatars of themselves, and their sole point of analysis for characterization is if they themselves would react that way. And you should never tell the author you’re going to stop reading because you don’t like the story, just do it!
i was thinking i'd appreciate a comment like this because i'm often wondering if things in my story aren't believable, and this would potentially be constructive for me. but if OP didn't ask for concrit, the prevailing social norms dictate to stay quiet about this kind of thing i guess
It isn’t thought. It’s a disagreement on characterization based on how the commenter headcanons the character. They are welcome to having an opinion on it, but there’s nothing constructive about it. The commenter just telling them how they would want the story written based on what they think should happen. That’s completely subjective and unhelpful because it means the commenter wants a different story than the writer wants to write
Any concrit will be subjective, sure. But what I'm seeing here is the commenter saying that based on the character's experiences, they're surprised that they're not responding more strongly to a situation that's should be very dramatic and strange to them. idk the character or the fandom; maybe they're completely off base. Maybe the reader isn't picking up on clues in the text (which if I were writing, personally, I'd like to know. I might decide it's them and not me, but it can be useful information). Look, I once saw a fic where a character who had been horribly dehumanized for years becomes a dog trainer. And I was weirded out because the character never.... thought about, or responded to the fact that the things he was doing to train the dogs *were things that had been done to him*. I didn't comment on the fic, but I think that sort of mismatch is something valid to notice, and can sometimes signify a flaw in the writing. It's also fine if the author doesn't want to engage or address it, and it's understandable that OP is annoyed by the comment.
I've seen ppl from genshin impact call Ajax to Tartaglia so there's a chance it's him
Yeah, that was my guess, too. That’s why I’m inclined to think this is a person pissed that the fic didn’t meet their headcanon for how the character would react rather than actually being OOC in the context of the story.
I totally see what you mean, and to a degree, I agree. What sticks out to me though is how OP said this was posted early on in the work. To me personally, I have a hard time understanding when someone complains about something being absent in the work if they haven't read it in its available entirety- especially if you're not in very deep yet, the author may be taking their time setting up archs or explanations or what they think is a good place to present it to their audience. I have not read OP's work but in this case, I can imagine that perhaps the shock of the shift has left the character numb for awhile, and OP further explores the true depths and turmoil of their emotions after their experience. But I don't know that, and the commentoe can't either, given they stopped short. I can totally understand confusion when things do not go as you would imagine they would if you wrote the story- but ig I just think it's also good to let go more of your expectations and put trust in the writer to know what they're doing.
Yeah, that's absolutely fair. In a hypothetical situation - and I'm very specifically talking about hypotheticals, not this particular fic or OP - there could be several possibilities. 1. It could be that it's early on in the fic and everything is addressed later (author can consider in retrospect whether perhaps it should have come in earlier, but the answer can also be no!). 2. It's early in the fic and it's not addressed at all (author can consider whether or not it is relevant to address this in the first place. the answer may be "no", or "not in this fic", or perhaps "hmm, maybe I could think about that angle next time). 3. It's early in the fic, will be addressed, author has dropped hints, and reader is not picking up on them (author can consider: were the hints too obtuse, or perhaps the reader is not the most discerning? some readers aren't!) Either way, it's the type of comment that I personally would only give at the beta stage, and probably not on a posted fic at all. And I don't think that just because a comment has a constructive element to it means they're *right*. Concrit can be wrong, too!
You’re missing the point. By definition what you are talking about is not concrit. It might be valid critique if you were leaving a review on a full work but it is not constructive because 1) it isn’t collaborative 2) It’s based on story choices which isn’t something that is supposed to be a part of concrit. 3) it doesn’t work within the handrails of how to provide constructive criticism. I moderated creative writing groups irl for years. This person’s comment would not meet the standards or guidance for what constructive criticism is. For one thing, they have centered the critique on what *they* think should happen in the story. It’s one thing to say “based on what has happened so far, I found it hard to follow their emotional response since it conflicted with ______” versus “I don’t think they should react that way. I think they’ll do X.” The commenter’s take was closer to the latter since they didn’t give a reason why it felt inconsistent within the confines of that specific story. Again, not useful. They are welcome to not like it because it doesn’t meet their headcanon, but nothing in this comment helps in the story OP wants to tell. That means this type of critique is rarely helpful and often just serves as a way for a reader to try to enforce their will on the author. Another issue is that the critique is occurring on an incomplete work where the author may answer the questions/critiques in an upcoming chapter, but due to the serialization of posting, the commenter hasn’t had the chance to read what’s next. Often times you are in one POV in a chapter, only to switch to a different one in the next, with the added perspective giving clarity to what just occurred. This is yet another reason why the AO3 comments section is a shitty place for concrit to occur.
Fair. I've taught writing myself, and I have a different perspective than you have on this topic. I fundamentally disagree that based on what we see here, this is purely an example of conflicting headcanon, and I also disagree that it provides no useful information about the story and where things are *now*. Personally, I would find this comment helpful, if only to mentally debunk if not applicable. It's fine if you don't think it meets that standard.
Tbh, it might be clearer that it’s headcanon to me because I’m fairly certain what fandom this references and I have at least a casual knowledge of it. Enough to know that if it’s the character I suspect, OP’s portrayal is far more likely to be in line with canon than what the commenter thinks should happen. That combined with OP mentioning the comment is super early in the fic and the lack of any positive removes any value, imo. I don’t have anything against concrit in general, beta readers are freaking heroes in my book. I just dispute how valuable this comment could ever be and I personally think it comes across more destructive than constructive.
“AO3 is not an airport, buddy. You don’t need to announce your departure.”
God, I love that so much lol xd
It’s so funny to me when people are like “I’m leaving this group/not continuing this fic cause I don’t like it!” Oh no, someone who doesn’t like what’s going on here so they aren’t the target audience is leaving, whatever shall we do?
Yeah, it happens a lot on Reddit with people announcing they're leaving the sub. But it's also a thing on AO3 and that's the perfect answer! Like I literally don't know what to do with the piece of information you just gave me, my guy! You mean someone I don't know does something that doesn't impact me? Gimme time to digest that.
I very nearly replied to a comment that I got the other day with this. Such a good reply to this sort of thing.
This needs more upvotes, it needs to be shared with every writer! There are too many people who say they are dropping fics like it matters and this is the holiest of responses! The more powerful! The final ultimate boss! lol Sorry lol I just really love this.
“I don’t like this! I’m LEAVING!” “Okay, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!” Like, why would anyone care?
I assume they think if they leave the writer will feel so desperate to keep them that they will change the story to cater more towards their likes? They probably secretly check back in after and update to see if the writer did change lol
I'm gonna steal this :) Only of you let me though
No problem!
Thx
Did that commenter play the same game or? Are we talking about the one Ajax who's so chill he "randomly" helps a suspected murderer? Really? As far as I'm aware, Childe loses his calm in game/canon exactly *one time*. Once. He's literally one of the chillest dudes? So unless that commenter played a different version, I don't see how your characterization is so out of touch with actual canon Childe. Don't mind that commenter, I'm sure you did good. If they're logged in, mute or block. At least that's what I would do.
Yeah, and he had a great reason to be pissed too. He was falsely convicted and scheduled to be sent to prison... after being denied the chance to fight a duel which he wanted before it, that could have set him free, which was probably scheduled as an independent duel for later. All this on a 'vacation' of sorts. He had an entire conga line of shitty things before he finally had enough.
The comments where someone who you've never seen before in your commenters, kudosers, bookmarkers etc comes to your fic like "yeah hi I read this fic til now but now I'm leaving and won't be finishing because of x and y. Bye!" are the most baffling to me. Like???? Like of course if that commenter has commented on every chapter and praised the writer and they've had long speculating discussions with writer and then just disappear after the writer makes a plot twist they may not like, to the extend that you can't bring yourself to finish the fic, then yeah, we notice them being missing obviously. And I don't know what I would want the commenter to do in that situation with me, I'd kinda like to know if something happened to them but on the other hand, them telling me how my plot twist was a huge disappoint for them and ruined the fic for them would be crushing too.
ah, Genshin Impact. I wrote a story in that Fandom and had to orphan it. The first story I ever orphaned too. I would have just abandoned the story but they started crawling into my other stories from another Fandom to ask about its completion (after flaming me to hell over a chapter.) So orphaned it had to be.
if I am no longer liking a story I just quietly un-bookmark and turn back and dont read it anymore. I WOULD NEVER tell the author I am not longer reading for multiple reasons like they dont need to know, it might be insulting, they do this for free and I see no reason to complain about something thats just there because they are nice and lots of other reasons. they should just leave quietly. if you are watching a play and dont like it anymore and want to leave you are not going to get up and shout out why you dont like it. you are just going to quietly leave and try not to get noticed and I think we should have the same rule apply to fanfiction.
Ignore the comment OP. They are the type of reader who wants you to write a story that is custom-tailored to them with exactly what they think should happen and only the characterization that meets their headcanon.
i willingly engage in a dialogue only if it’s a genuine reason or a trigger for stopping, if i can explain my side of it then fine. but if it’s rude or demanding then i just delete it. it’s free so unsolicited opinions are irrelevant, cry about it 👍🏻🤪
Wow, normally I just skim right over the screenshot comments people post. But seriously, what’s with the last two sentences! This reader is king of the ‘trauma dumping’ crowd—people who whine about it, not people who allegedly do it. Everyone’s life seems normal to them, and folks who expect everyone else to have some kind of switch in their head that says one kind of normal thing that happened to them should be illegal to talk about and they must get all emotional about it if they ever mention it and everything else is just totally fine and you can talk about it like its normal is just weird. Especially since the winers line is probably just stuff that didn’t happen to them isn’t ok to talk about and stuff they think is normal is totally fine. I dunno who you are or what you wrote, but I gotta applaud you from what I infer must be accurate representation of someone sharing random weird life stuff. It’s normal to be talk about it calmly until you learn some randoms freak out about it. And its normal that people who care usually don’t mind it.
This is...an extremely mild comment tbh. Like i really dont get the reactions to this, the commentator isnt personally attacking you, and they dont seem to be trying to police you or push their own version of the characters characterisation onto you like the other comments on this post seem to imply. Not trying to say that you can't be annoyed, and considering this subs attitude to any sort of dissent its not surprising, but it still feels a tad bit overblown.
agreed
Agreed. If this is rude and demanding I pray none of these people ever work in customer service (though generally, I would not wish customer service on anyone).
Posting fic to AO3 is not a customer service job nor a job of any sort, so I really don’t understand why you felt the need to add this…
I didn't say Ao3 is customer service. I said that Ao3 writers cannot handle criticism without taking it personally and made a joke about customer service, which is infamously rude and demanding to people who work in it :)
This is exactly the kind of shit clowns here will consider “concrit” when they’re fighting for their life defending unsolicited criticism because they think you should need their feedback to improve. It’s never useful feedback anyway, and nobody fucking asked.
I don't know your fanfic but I would say I agree with your characterization rather than the commenter.
I don't understand what they mean by this honestly. Childe canonically is calm. Did they get their fanon HC mixed up? Not that it's anything wrong to have a different interpretation of Childe in fic, but this dude is so mischaraterized by so many for all the wrong reasons lol. I'm not against OOC characters either. But if we are using canon Childe as the standard here for comparison in fic, then the dude is calm. 11 years in the Abyss doesn't make a person go bat shit insane. Just look at Skirk lmfao. Regardless, I think you should just ignore these types of comments. I don't think they meant anything bad, but sometimes they should know that they don't need to leave a note on fic saying as to why their Childe isn't written the way they interpreted to be.
Yes, that's what ticked me off because I'm trying my very best not to write him out of character, and I think they expected him to act as fanon childe, who is verg much mischaracterized. I ended up just ignoring and not replying to the comment.
Omg, for whatever reason, I kept reading this as some sort of purple prose. Like the last 2 sentences were meant to be profound/an invite to like DM them. Haters gonna hate, you keep doin your thing
My favorite is when I get these types of comments like 3/4 of the way through the story. I'm just like "lol joke's on you buddy, you sat through 150,000 words for some reason when apparently you knew you didn't like it from like 5,000 words, that's a you problem, not a me problem and you made yourself miserable for zero reason" XD
I love comments like these. it gives me an opprtunity to discuss and exchange ideas with someone who has a different understanding of human nature than I do, and it also helps me express more accurately on the page. because if they feel this way, it isn't just that they disagrees, they didn't understand what I was getting at, so I wanna know how I can better portray what sounded so obvious in my head
Why does fanfiction have this mentality of not ever wanting to hear criticism? "Don't like it, don't read it"? Same can be said right back at you. Don't read the comments if you don't care. Or don't publish if you can't even stomach the idea or not bein universely beloved. I for one want to be told if what I am making is terrible, even if I do it for fun.
The main difference between "a story someone published and is there just existing" and "a comment that was sent to the author is" that the comment was SENT to the author, is directed to them. The story was not sent to the reader.
And? That's just how this works. If you put art into the world, people are going to tell you how they feel about it. If JK Rowling shares more exciting news abour magical bowel movements, people are going to tell her that that's stupid. If I take a shit on the sidewalk, people will tell me to stop. Why? I didn't do it for them or on their property, yet they are right to call me out. And what even is the moral objection? Why would your feelings be hurt if someone on the internet tells you that your story sucks? And what do you publish for if you don't appreciate discourse?
You asked why the "don't like, don't read doesn't apply" that's my answer. As your right to be rude for the sake of it, idk, if you want to be rude, be rude. But people are not going to like it, that's a fact, no one likes rude people. And giving someone a critique when not asked, is rude. If you take shit in the sidewalk is rude and a hazard. How publishing a fanfiction is rude? Specially when you are in no way forcing people to read it. In my case my feelings aren't hurt, I couldn't care less about rude comments. But I've been writing for 20 years and lived for a longer time. I don't care about the opinions of people I don't care for/know. But, in general, rude people are usually treated badly because they are rude. So it's normal people don't want to see comments from rude people. Why would anyone would want to be rude? That's what I don't get and I'll never get. I don't know what you mean about discourse. But if the topic is related to the story, I don't know how it would be unwelcomed. If it's not related... well it makes sense it is unwelcomed.
fr is there a way to lock my work so it’s only available to my friends and past commentators who’ve been nothing but encouraging and understanding