an exercise of futility.

[izkariote]

Some feelings are going to get hurt in the process of reading this entry, folks, so do the world a favor and contact me privately if you're one of them.

Why is this post on public? It's public for a reason.

This is the result of a little talk co-writer and I had yesterday, before Japanese finals.



I've never been an avid fanfic writer. The reason why I write original fics today would be because my interest in anime and manga stirred up the creative juices, but I've never felt confident enough to write fanfiction. It's a world that I'm not keen on getting into again, and I think some of you understand why.

For those of you who aren't enlightened, let me list the reasons.

• The characters and world I'm toying with is not my own. I don't consider myself a writer of caliber, therefore I feel like I'm not capable of doing justice to the series I'm attempting to write something for. I truly admire fanfic writers who can put out decent stories for their favorite series... it's something that I wish I could do.
  
• Fanfiction, in my opinion, serves as a springboard to something else. Mind you, I'm not saying it'll lead to greater things, but either way it IS a step. A good number of fanfiction writers hope to make it in the creative world with their own stuff, and fanfics serve as an excellent venue for testing out their skills. In that sense, it's not something you stick with for the rest of your life.
  
• Take a look at FF.net. Is that enough of a reason to want to back away or what?
  

*ahem* Lots of you must be of the belief that the fanfiction world is riddled with incompetence and horrible pieces of work that some have the galls to call "a decent story"... I agree with you all totally on this. We're united in the long hours we used to spend (or still spend) combing archives, wasting our time trying to extract a nugget of gold from a pile of excrement. We've complained about the spelling, the grammar, the inconsistencies, the perversion, the Mary Sues... as readers, we're entitled to do this.

What we're NOT entitled to do, however, is name ourselves critics of class, put up a message board and rant to our heart's content as though it was our right to take someone's work and lambast it publicly for all to read and see. And no, even if we're fanfiction writers (or even fiction writers) ourselves with fans to back us up, we still don't have the right to do that.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't criticize, or that we should just put in half-meant, mindless praise in order to avoid hurting people's feelings. What I'm saying is that we all have to have a bit of COURTESY. That's the basic rule of writer's ettiquette, isn't it? COURTESY. Professionals don't lambast a work without acknowledging the author that they are criticizing it in some sort of manner. What gives us the right to do something that even they wouldn't try? Is it because we're not professionals? Are we that immature or bored or bitchy?

That's just it, folks. We don't have the right. No matter how brainless or even how constructive the criticism may be, WE DO NOT RESERVE THE RIGHT TO PUBLICLY CONDEMN ANOTHER'S WORK. The only time that we could possibly be allowed to do this would be between you -- the reader -- and the author of the work that you felt was dissatisfactory for whatever reasons you may have. Again, I repeat. You don't go off to some message board and write about "the story that pissed you off" for the world to see.

No, I am not defending the writers and feeding their incompetence. What I simply want you all to remember is that bad fanfiction is a reality, and it isn't something that you crusade against in the same fashion that one would go out to capture a serial killer or how crowds would rally for something that affects their country and their lives. You can't get rid of the other side of the spectrum no matter how you bitch and rant and moan and rave and write your reviews, petty or constructive as they may be. The hard truth is, some of these people don't want your reviews, in truth. When they say they do, they mean they want mindless praise.

You know what? If you still feel the need criticize works "because we are readers and it is our right to acknowledge what we didn't like in the story", remember that your rights only go as far as telling the author, not posting it publicly.

Oh, and a personal note to all of you. Everyone started out bad. You don't start out great in a world like fanfiction. We've all had our shares of personal Mary Sues or OOCness or any of whatever else you and I consider mortal sins in reading and writing fics. It's funny how you guys think that you're high and above that stage already as to criticize the way that you do on your message boards.

Do you think you're doing the authors a favor by putting their work for critiquing online for the world to see? Well, you're not. You're not doing the readers a favor either, because personally I find it exhausting to shuffle through a message board full of hate notes and rants and people who gather in little circles online, flaunting their exlusivity and whispering about whatever pissed them off this time.

One last thing. If those guilty of doing all that I have mentioned here above are angry enough to criticize my works, go right ahead. Be as nasty as you want. Post it on your LJs. Post it on your message boards. It'll only drive my point home.


Okay. Done.

*calmly prepares for the avalanche to come tumbling down*

Comments

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

I don't know the situation, so some of what I will be saying may or may not necessarily apply (and I do feel some of what I have to say you'll be disagreeing with).

First off, as a writer, it will be inevitable that you will receive criticism. Writers, after all, write for the public, and naturally, the public will make comments (whether it be praise or criticism). The same goes for a lot of people involved with the public, whether it be actors, politicians, and just plain celebrities. That's a fact. We may not like it, but that eventually happens (if we're lucky/unfortunate enough to get that kind of attention). My perspective (I'm not saying everyone should have this kind of outlook) is to get used to it and move on since it does come with the job (and to think that I would be an exception would be arrogant of me).

The second point is whether the piece of work (i.e. the fanfic) itself was available publicly (i.e. posted on the Internet, in a nonprivate, unsecure server). If it wasn't available publicly, then obviously, those who did see/read it can't really make public comments about it unless they are at liberty to do so (i.e. the owner gave permission). If it was made available publicly, then people can make comments/criticisms about it. It is, after all, a free country (whether they're justified or not in doing so, I'll get to it in my third point), or at least cyberspace is. I mean we make comments/reviews about books, movies, music, and events we experience. I don't see how fanfics are any different since they are nonetheless distributed publicly. Not even the owner of the work has the right to forbid people from making comments (they can ask politely though) but at the same time, the owner of the work does not necessarily have to see/read the comments of other people nor believe them, in the same way that we can "warn" people about things, but in the end, it's up to them to decide whether to heed the warning or not.

I'm also unclear about it in your post but other people shouldn't copy your work and put them in a public place (i.e. a message board) without the author's permission. Even if the original work was posted in a public place, the owner should still have a say on how it is to be distributed (unless, fo course, the owner gave up the rights to do so in the first place, which I don't think happened in this case).

[izkariote.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting. It's good to see decent feedback. :D

Anyway, yeah... the board I'm talking about doesn't ask permission for their so-called reviews. They simply take the fic and bitch about it. Some members SAY that they tell the authors where to find them, but it's still a rather nasty breach, right?

Yeah, I acknowledge your point that everyone gets criticism. That's inevitable. What I'm a little perturbed by is their very self-righteous stand to it. That, and their methods of critiquing. Thing is, on fanfiction.net a lot of the authors there are barely mature enough to receive any sort of review. When they say "please review!" they're actually just hoping for mindless praise.

Of course, it's always sad to see authors who react with blindness rage to whatever negative comments they get. But it's also sad to see mindless criticism, right? That's what ends up happening most of the time.

Personally, I'm of the belief that you treat idiots as they are: idiots. Don't feed their incompetence, mind you... if you really want to critique, don't lambast. E-mail them personally, tell them that you wish to review and that it may be harsh. If they agree, then do it. If they don't, in the end it's their loss. They'll never improve as writers that way.

I'm not forbidding them from commenting; you really can't expect anyone to just say nothing, especially if you think their work was exceptionally good or bad. I agree with you on that one, and I also agree with your point on it being up to the owner's discretion to see and heed such comments.

What I wish the critics would do is have a little more decency about things. It's rather unnerving to see whole message boards devoted to lambasting fics... half of the posts on such message boards are actually mindless in their own, really. Mindless criticism for mindless fics. Now there's an interesting cycle.

[charlesatan.livejournal.com]

My third point is the comment/criticism itself. Obviously, there are various reasons why we comment or do a review of something. Some motivations are pure malice, to uplift ourselves at the expense of others. This is a wrong attitude or unethical, but since there is something called "freedom of speech", as long as it doesn't reach slander, it's legal. Another would be to praise the author, which is the opposite of the previous one. It's still not a balanced review or it's a review based on an agenda to uplift someone, and to me, it's also the wrong attitude and unethical, but again, no one can really stop the person (and strangely enough, this kind of behavior is more condoned than say, malice criticism, even though the motivations are identical, albeit exact opposites). The third would be a "balanced" review (but in the end, no criticism is 100% balanced because we're subjective people and have our own biases... the best we can hope for is to read a review of someone who resembles our own perspectives), with honest criticisms and praises. And so while the reviewer in this case may give negative feedback to the author, he/she is not being unethical about it (at least in my perspective) but merely stating a "balanced" criticism.

Of course whatever might happen in the third point, you as the author, is free to ignore it, or take the appropriate reactions. You can make a counter-agument, or take into consideration some of the valid points and throw away the invalid points (what is valid or invalid is up to you since even other people can't really know your motivations or agenda in writing whatever work you did).

And to the people who do malice criticism, well, we can't really do anything from stopping them, but it will reflect on their person, and of course, their kind of criticism will be taken les seriously. I mean if you knew a person was a liar, would you believe everything he/she said? Or put it in another way, if a pro-Erap supporter said flattering comments about Erap, would you believe everything he/she said?

Finally, to the critics, some consideration should be taken into account when reviewing fanfics. They are, after all, fanfics. Some criteria can be thrown out of the window when criticizing it (i.e. originality of concept, for example). But again, in the end, it reflects the style or opinion of the criticizer. Look at the three judges of American Idol. Simon's style is to be mean, while the girl (currently forgot her name) is usually generous about the compliments she gives. But that only adds to their styles, and when Simon does make praises, everyone applauds.

*prepares for a bigger avalanche*

[izkariote.livejournal.com]

I agree with you totally here. :D

This is why I like public posting.

[omnicresence.livejournal.com]

THIS is the avalanche.

Freedom of speech is at once a most beautiful and most terrible thing. It is unfortunate that an overwhelming majority of what is published today in whatever form amounts to vast, yawning wastes of space and energy. However, the fundamental reasons for such freedom, the untrammeled exchange of ideas and the recognition of the indispensability of human expression, far outweigh our disgust at the actual product that results from the exercise of that prerogative.

There are some boundaries, such as those prohibiting slander and obscenity, that must not be transgressed. Yet, the in-between space is impossibly wide, and these boundaries are themselves being challenged by society with each passing day.

Much as I despise criticism in my hubris, I do acknowledge in the end that, constructive or no, all criticism contributes to the growth and maturation of one's craft. Even the most insipid comments by people with the intelligence of paramecia push us to strive, to hone our works, and to try harder. Or ideally, they should. Ultimately, criticism is a test of one's strength of character. The best among us in any field have walked through countless fires to be what they are today, bar none. Nobody truly memorable becomes that way without a ton of rejection slips, failed auditions and nasty words.

The need to simply grow a tougher hide and shrug off the unkind statements becomes even more critical when the work in question is one that is made available to the general public. It's far too much to expect that EVERYONE will be kind and decent and courteous enough to take you aside and tell you that what you're doing isn't all that hot. That's what friends, and to a certain extent colleagues, do. From anyone else, it's fair game what they want to say. Harsh, but true. If you don't know the creator of the work from Adam or Eve, why waste time mincing words or politely informing the maker? Not everybody is nice, or can afford to be. If you can't handle the heat, then get out of the oven, is the philosophy that must ultimately prevail. (continued)

[omnicresence.livejournal.com]

Sadly, public condemnation happens all the time. When someone makes a movie, good or bad, people write about it and lambast or praise it, as is their wont. As is their right, since freedom of speech exists. Same goes for any public performance, like a book or an article or a story written and posted on the internet. It's only to be expected. There may be some mindless slugs fancying themselves writers who want nothing more than dishonest praise, but just because they want it doesn't mean they'll get it. They don't deserve it in the first place.

And the criticism doesn't just come from fellows in the same profession; it comes from everyone, from whatever source, and that's just the way things are. People who've never written anything of value in their lives criticize books all the time, and nobody gives them a hard time for being mean. Same goes for movies, or even outside the realm of art and literature, with practically anything anyone does. People say a lot of bitchy things about our President, for example. Have any of these people been presidents before, or even considered running for public office? Probably not. But that doesn't make their comments, no matter how scathing, any less valid. Stephen Spielberg still makes movies. George Lucas, more surprisingly so. A lot of people hate J.K. Rowling's work and manifest it very publicly, and nobody gets sued for it. You just can't please everyone. And life goes on.

I'm sorry, but speaking as someone who's taken a lot of crap for a whole bunch of things I've done publicly, at least some of it undeserved, I nonetheless stand by my opinion that WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUBLICLY CONDEMN ANOTHER'S WORK, insofar as it is a RIGHT. If you're a writer and you believe in professional courtesy, that's excellent. It really does make you a better person than most, and I'm not being sarcastic. But you can't expect the rest of the world to comply with the standards you set for yourself. "Writer's etiquette", as far as I'm concerned, can easily become a shield to hide behind, and that's when it becomes dangerously stifling.

I suppose a lot of these "high and mighty" critics really are a bunch of shallow fuckwits. But, just as the sun shines on erudite and fuckwit alike, you have to let even the stupids get their two cents worth in.

And really, in the end it's all opinion, only as valuable as the people who make it. I mean, would the American Idol contestants care shit if their judges' comments were made by some nobody instead of Paula Abdul and Simon (who's a record executive in London)? Even then, it's opinion. Bad opinion, maybe, but still, opinion. Even in fanfiction. So it is a reality that lots of fanfiction sucks. Why is it wrong for people to write about reality, or their differing perceptions of it?

Let them criticize. Let them rant. Let them post on their message boards. It really is their right. But it's like crap merchandise in a store -- you don't have to buy it, no matter how flashy the packaging is.

Why am I so strongly opposed to the "sensitivity" paradigm? Because in the end, all it creates are substandard works and cowardly individuals. I've had my debating torn apart in public countless times, and I can say at the end that it only made me better. I'm SC Moot Court National Champion and Jessup World Champion because of it. Conversely, I had 3 pathetic excuses for debaters as teammates who never improved because they always wanted the comments to be laced with sugar and the criticisms kept clean. I don't speak to them anymore, because of many personal reasons, one of them being their envy and inability to understand why I was so much better than them, modesty aside. I CAN'T stand mediocrity. This is something very near and dear to my heart that I've been fighting to beat out of myself and my school. I cannot endorse a stance in ANY forum that would inadvertently encourage it.
(continued)

[omnicresence.livejournal.com]

I think these people who rant and bitch about bad fanfiction do the WORLD a favor, in two ways:
1) they show us that they're a bunch of brainless twats who can't criticize something intelligently to save their worthless hides, so we can calmly ignore them in the future.
2) they separate the deservingly good writers (such as you, Pam) from those who, dear God in heaven, should be banned from posting anything on the net again unless they take a few writing seminars or get a degree, at least.

If you get exhausted by these message boards, remember, they're public message boards. It's like walking into a mall expecting to see only good-looking people.

Oh, and remember that this comment is, too, a criticism of a sort, and a mere statement of opinion, to be taken as one wishes.

So leave them to their masturbatory comments. If we rant about them, we run the risk of becoming as small-minded and petty and exclusive as they are, perpetuating the vicious cycle.