Dragon Quill

“In the future, however, I would ask that you please refrain from leaving reviews that barely touch on the content, whether for my stories or for others. Your review here was 9:1 critique to content, with only that little bit at the end, which itself was even half about the writing itself rather than content. I’m open to critique (and it’s helpful when readers point out typos, plot inconsistencies, thematic problems, or whatever else since I’m only human and I make mistakes), though I may not agree with the concrit the way I respectfully disagree with almost all of yours. But I also think there’s an unspoken etiquette we should all try our best to follow on these sites regardless of whether concrit is sound or not. Reviews are great to receive and so is concrit, but when authors put in the work to produce stories, whether excellent or clearly novice and in need of improvement, it’s kind of nice to hear feedback about the actual content of the story. Everyone from professional writers to amateurs wants this when they share their work with the world. Even though this is just the first chapter and not much yet has happened, as you correctly pointed out, it’s still polite to try to follow that unspoken guideline as much as possible. As it stands, I have only the faintest idea of whether or not you even liked the chapter, if you are interested in where it could be going, thoughts on characterization, or any other number of content-related issues that are important for me to hear about as a writer. Whether or not you accept my suggestion is entirely up to you, of course. But just to be clear, if I get more reviews or PMs from you that are similar to this one, I probably won’t reply. To do so would waste even more time than I already have on this response.”

Another author makes a similar argument in this very batch. Were authors always this entitled, or is this a new thing?

We do get an author who’s genuinely interested in portraying pokemon as people, though, so that’s a plus.

(more…)

Someone discovers the SYOC Shadow War and gets pissy. Otherwise, nothing of note.

(more…)

Another PhD devalues their degree, but in a twist, it’s an engineer this time! Also, some discussion about the evolution of hate groups and bigotry.

(more…)

The dyslexic author from before informs me I’m terrible and tells me to do the exact same things people have told us a hundred times before that don’t work. They helpfully demonstrate why they don’t work by simultaneously complaining that I nitpick too much and also that I only nitpicked one thing on their story.

I’m tempted to make some sort of resource post I can point these people to, but FFN’s link stripper probably means it won’t be worth the effort.

(more…)

“I know from reading a bit of the thread that you look down on this and believe that SYOCs should be handled in a way where the author specifically tells his/her readers what he/she wants but then what’s the point in accepting OCs in the first place?”

(more…)

So remember that pokemon whisperer story?

“[Elves and dwarves] are humanlike. They look like people. Pokemon don’t. They are considered monsters (i.e., “Pocket Monsters”) and typically act more like animals, with the same kind of instincts to go along with it — particularly their fighting instincts. Also, elves and dwarves aren’t broken down into light and stored away in Poke Balls. The vast majority of Pokemon are not ‘talking creatures’ and only on rare occasions can they speak in a way that humans understand – either because the human and Pokemon have a very strong bond (i.e., Ash and Pikachu) or because they can use telepathy.”

How appropriate for October.

(more…)

Someone not only goes to the capitalization thread but actually ends up agreeing with it!

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Most authors are weirdly deferential today.

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“I did not want to include the family line of Cosmog, Cosmoem, Lunala, Solgaleo, or Necrozma, as they are partly responsible for making the Ultra Wyrmholes in the first place”

However, we also get a reasonable excuse for writing in a non-native language, doing it for a course at an English-speaking university.

(more…)

The manchild from a few months ago requested a review, apparently in some bizarre attempt at a gotcha. I chose to indulge him.

(more…)

“I suggest going to a library somewhere around you and finding the Warrior cats and Ranger’s Apprentice series to read. Those will help you with grasping many different forms of emotion and writing, and possibly help you to grow beyond what you currently are.”

(It’s funny because I actually have read Warrior Cats and it is… not good.)

(more…)

“OK then but you don’t need to give me a whole list of everything that you thought was terrible in my story. Not everyone can live p to this “perfect” expectations of yours. It’s just a story.”

I’m blaming the English curriculum for this.

(more…)

“But what truly amuses me is that the people on the Capitalization-Thread do not realize that you are actually the troll, the one who is attempting to rile them up over a petty argument, and seem to be succeeding, unfortunately. But that will not work for everyone, and sooner or later you run into a wall headfirst. You must have been lucky for the past 16 years on this site, nothing less, nothing more.

Just know this. Your attempts to toy with other authors will come back to haunt you, for even if you had written a thousand stories, it would negligible compared the great number already on this site, the ones written by the general populace. Banning others is not a solution, and neither is it an option one can use in repetition. Because sooner or later, you’ll run out of people to ban.”

Why are we getting so many people who have apparently never seen a real troll before?

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