Thoughts on Reviews/Reviewers
Things I wished reviews shops would do. Instead of focusing on grammar and stupid stuff about how long a title is and stuff like that, they should focus on characters, plot development, and writing style. Because grammar/spelling can be easily improved with the use of a beta or just practicing it in general, but character development and plotting is much harder to get better at than grammar.
And often times, I don't care about what this person says about my grammar. I seriously don't care if I like to use lapslock for stories sometimes or that I said something in the past tense here instead of using the present tense. I don't care about that because I already know where I fail when it comes to grammar. I know my faults there, but when it comes to wanting feedback on my stories, somehow, everyone ends up marking stuff down for stupid stuff and not spending any quality time on the good stuff.
Like one sentence should not be enough for you to explain what you think of my characters. Like seriously, dig a little bit deeper and tell me what you really think. For real, my commenters give better comments than a good amount of the reviewers out there. I'm not asking for much here. All I want to know is what you genuinely think and liked about my characters and how I developed them instead of you saying 'Oh, they were written good or something like that.' If I get full points for something, explain why I get full points for something. (The point system is BS, but seriously, tell me why I got full points.) Or if I miss a few marks tell me why I missed it.
And you know the sad thing about this is that when people nitpick in reviews, it's always about the grammar. So while all the other components of the review are 1-2 sentences. the grammar section can be 10+ sentences long. Seriously, grammar is cool and all, but when people ask for their stories to be reviewed, they don't want you nitpicking their grammar, they want you to focus on stuff that matters... LIke freaking character development and plotting, not the fact that you decided to use lapslock as a stylistic approach (Like what the is wrong with lapslock, if you don't like it, don't read it. tell me you don't like it before you mark me down for doing something different so I can go to someone that will actually focus on my story instead of telling me off for using lapslock and making look as if I'm stupid for doing so. Like for real, focus on that matters, not something stupid like me using lapslock instead of capitalizations. I know how to capitalize, but that doesn't mean I have to do it. I know grammar rules, so don't ing patronize me for doing something different.) (But seriously, why is k-fandom so resistant towards people who want to use lapslock. I've never had that problem anywhere else.)
Like for real. Focus on the stuff that matters, not the stupid that no one cares about. If I wanted my story to be nitpicked on grammar, I would have gotten a beta reader.
Reviewers are not Beta Readers. Yes, you can do both jobs, but does that mean you have to do both jobs at once? Not exactly. Reviewers are supposed to review the whole piece of work, not nitpick on 1-2 things like Betas can be used for instead. So when I get my review, I expect feedback, not you telling me off for using lapslock and having too long of a title. (Like seriously, if the title fits and works well with the story, then it should be a-okay and I shouldn't have to see crap like 'the title's too long' or 'I dont' like long titles, so I marked you down.' What the , stop please, you make me want to puke.)
Seriously, I just get so mad when people review stories and make it seem like they're helping when they're not. Yes, I've had good reviews here and there, but sometimes, some of them are not that great and just make me want to throw my computer at a wall. (I shouldn't get reviews where one spends the whole review nitpicking stupid stuff instead of the stuff that matters.)
(And why do people dislike long titles? Seriously, I know some can be bad, but when you have titles like 'the taste of iron is starvaration' or 'sleep in a coffin made of glass' (this is the title for my seokjin fic for smolder), I think having long titles are okay. They're unique and they mean something and yeah, I could have easily went with something shorter, but sometimes, longer titles just work. I mean, if I had used something like 'OMG, I'm married to this person and we did it and we did this, etc...' I can see why you would hate that title and litereally want to poke my eyes out. But when you have titles that are long, but obviously had quite a bit of thought put into them, it just makes me angry when people are like 'I dont' like long titles, so it ' and then proceed to tell me one word titles that make my story sound horrendous. Just stop right there, because yes, short titles can be the bomb, but long titles can be great as well.)
Be opinionated with reviews, but don't be biased. Back up your opinions with facts and actually sound like you want to help instead of trying to make it seem like you're obviously better or just didn't want to put a lot of effort into what was actually going on in the fic, so you decided to stick with the grammar since that's the easiest thing to point out. (Especially when some of my fics probably have text-selection on them.)
Ugh, I'm just disappointed with reviewers and how some barely realize that grammar may be good and all, but what's important is the meat and potatoes of the fic, not the stupid side dish that no one likes.
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