7h agoWell, yeah, I can understand your point there, and I do agree with you. I just sort of wanted to set a scene and tone for the story, and show the direction it would go in. And these characters that have been introduced aren’t exactly side characters. Although we do get introduced to a different character that’s focused on a little more in the actual first chapter, I didn’t want to just shove over five characters in someone’s face like that. You’ll learn all about the organization and the monsters in the first chapter when it actually begins. Could it have been a bad idea to start off with a prologue? I’m not opposed to thinking that, and I can accept when I’ve screwed up. In this case, I sort of have, but I’d at least like to think there’s some redeeming quality to all of this, and that’s the fact that I’ve gotten five characters and the situation of the story introduced. The mosters, what the organization is about will be covered in the first chapter. But I do see the appeal of having covered that in the prologue as well, but then we get back to my personal take on it, which is I’m showing too much of the story in one go.

For the OCs, you have a point. It is pretty much a crapshoot, and it could quite possibly deter a lot of people from submitting. Which I don’t necessarily mind in this case, since I don’t need too many of them. While I know what I need, I’m not necessarily the best at creating. If I have a solid template of something to run with, then I can do that. But I’m just really not that great with coming up with a ton of characters for a story. At least not by myself, anyway. I agree, not every character is suitable for all roles, but I’ve yet to get a character that’s pretty unsuitable for what I’m going to do. Like I said, I really don’t ever have this many restrictions with an SYOC, but this situation is different.

You have very valid criticisms, and I’ve never been one to shy away from criticism when it’s valid. But the way you picked apart the first chapter of my other story, Be Somebody, and seemingly haven’t come back to it makes me think you only picked it apart just to pick it apart. Now, I can understand completely if as the story progressed with chapters 2 and 3, you lost interest. That’s fine. But you were somewhat critical of the entire basis and structure of the story, and then just sort… left and never exactly reviewed again, not even to say “Hey, I’m glad you took my advice on something” or “Hey, this still needs work” or even a simple “Yeah, no, sorry, I’m not interested in this story anymore for this and that reason.” Though, that’s mostly just a courtesy thing in my opinion, and you don’t have to do it.

You reminded me a bit of Farla, how when she essentially picks apart the first chapter of a lot of stories and uses copy and paste paragraphs, telling everyone the same exact thing with no personalization. I’m not saying in any way that you’re like Farla, as you strike me as someone who only wants to see people improve. But to me personally, at times it just feels like you’re picking them apart JUST to pick them apart. You haven’t exactly given me areas I need to improve on, just pointed out flaws. Now, I can understand why you haven’t done that, as its only the first chapter of a story and thus a little hard to identify a running problem someone has, or let’s say someone’s inability to properly structure a plot or write a character. But even so, I’m someone who does better with criticism when someone flat-out tells me what I’m good at and what I need to improve on.

I once looked at one of Farla’s stories after she tore apart a chapter of one of mine. I can’t remember which one, but it was a long time ago, and I went to go review a chapter. Once I reviewed, I decided to look at other people’s opinions to see what they were saying. I can’t say I was surprised to see people copying and pasting her reviews and just spamming her stories with them. It even got to the point where she put a link on her profile where you could ban her from reviewing any of your stories, and that just struck me as a little messed up. Then, I went to one of your stories after you reviewed mine, but I didn’t read it. I went to the reviews, and people were calling you all sorts of names and just spamming it with hate. Whether or not the hate was deserved, if it wasn’t, if you were just trying to help, or if you were genuinely being overly-criticial or just a jerk is not my place to say.

What I’m saying is, I feel as if you should work on your delivery. Like I said earlier, you have very valid criticsms of my story, and I’m not saying your criticism is unwanted, and nor am I saying you’re going too far. But you haven’t told me what I can improve on, or what areas I’m doing good in. All you’ve done is picked apart my chapter and kind of made me feel like there isn’t anything good to it. I think when a review is all criticism and the reviewer doesn’t even bother to say “Hey, you’ve got a decent thing going on here,” or “I think this has potential” or even just flat out say “Listen, I don’t think this is a coherent idea and I think you should take some time to really analyze and think critically about what you want this story to be” can just deter someone from wanting to respond to you. While I do appreciate the fact that you respond and hold a discussion with someone, unlike Farla, I just felt like you came across as just a little too critical. Everyone is different and everyone responds to feedback differently, and I’m sure you know that. I’ve read your profile, and I know you aren’t trying to be critical, but to me personally, you came of as being a little critical. I know how someone can interpret your review is entirely out of your power, but I’ve just been taught to do the “Review sandwich” and when I review or critique a story, I find that it’s worked better for me personally, rather than just have it be all criticism. I like to hear what I need improvement on, but I also like to hear the areas I’m good, or at least decent in. But that’s just me, I suppose. Some people could work really well with the criticisms you give them, and improve exponentially, while others might struggle and need something more outright that can sum up what they’re having trouble with and need to improve on.

Tl;dr: I appreciate your reviews and criticism, but I just felt you were a little critical, and never painted me a solid picture of what I could improve on, and what I was doing at least halfway decent in. I’d rather not see you amass the amount of hatred Farla has, but that’s up to you and the way you conduct yourself.

34m agoWell, with the way Farla conducts herself, it can be a little hard to believe she genuinely wants to see people improve and become better. For me, that kind of gets lost among the things she does like copy and paste paragraphs into reviews. I mean, I can on one hand understand why she does that because a lot of people do things that she doesn’t necessarily agree with, or are objectively wrong, but to a lot of people it just seems to come off as rude, lazy, or just kind of mean.

It kind of sucks that you think I’m being a concern troll when I say I don’t want to see your stories get spammed by idiots taking out their frustration on you.

There isn’t too much more I can say about your next two points about a story not being your thing and about how giving people specific things to improve upon because for the most part, I agree with you.

I’m by no means saying people required to put praise in every review. I’m just saying in a community where a lot of people know about Farla and hate her, perhaps a little praise every once in a while can sometimes go a long way. Show people that they’re doing stuff that’s good too, because maybe they don’t know. Like me, for instance. While I’ve been around on the site for a long time, I’m still a pretty inexperienced writer. Sure, it’s great to know what my weaknesses are, but I’d like to know my strengths as well. That and at the end of the day, writing is more of a hobby for me than anything else. It helps me feel better, and it isn’t something I’m necessarily too serious about (if I were, I probably wouldn’t be doing SYOC stories to be completely honest). The fact that I can write is great, but of course I do want to get better.

I think I got a little off track at the end there. But I agree, putting praise in every review you write can create a situation where you’re unsure if the praise is genuine. As you can probably tell, I don’t exactly have a good rebuttal to most of your arguments here. That’s because when it all comes down to it, you’re right. I’m just saying maybe this critical approach you have could been done better is all. I guess I was just mostly disappointed by the fact that I didn’t get a clear layout of what’s good and what needs work with me, because you seem like a pretty knowledgeable person and you know what you’re talking about, and it could have really helped me out. But like we’ve both said, that’s not always possible. That and it’s interesting to see your take on things as a critical reviewer who actually responds, unlike Farla.