A Word on Reviews

Thu Jun 9 00:01:27 UTC 2005

On one of the Yahoo Groups to which I belong, a fanfic reader asked 
a question about how to leave a review. Her question, paraphrased 
here, was basically, "I don't know what to say in a review, or how 
to be specific with my comments. I don't want to leave just a 
short, 'I liked this' sort of review because so many fanfic authors 
disdain those sorts of comments as being unhelpful. What should I 
say in a review? How important is a review, really?"

As this is a topic near and dear to my heart, I answered her, and 
then decided to post my 'essay' about here and there, as 'reviews' 
and the questionable 'importance' of them, is a common topic for 
discussion among many authors/artists and readers/viewers among 
fandom.

My answer then, is thus:

As a fanfic writer, I have to say I *love* */ANY/* review, even a 
brief, "I really enjoyed this chapter" or "This chapter seemed a 
little rough" or even "luv it, more soon plz!" Specifics HELP, but 
they aren't necessary.

As a reviewer, when I leave a review (and because of my own 
experience, I *ALWAYS* leave a review of anything I read) I try and 
comment on whatever still sticks out at me by the end of the 
chapter/story. If I notice a typo or something, I'll mention that, 
too, because I LOVE it when my reviewers catch something I've missed 
so I can fix it. A recent review I left for a Snupin I read was 
something like, "I really enjoyed this story. Snape was very in-
character and yet I could still believe him to have tender feelings 
for Remus, just good at hiding it."

If I'm in a hurry, I'll leave a very short review, but I do still 
review. "I really enjoyed this!" is often all I'll leave if nothing 
stands out as needing specific comment.

If I didn't enjoy the story I might say something about why I didn't 
enjoy it--nicely. Some examples of those reasons might be:

"This is a really well thought out story, but I don't like to read 
Severus as being that mean just for the sake of being mean--just my 
own interpretation."

Or:

"There seem to be a lot of grammar and spelling errors in this 
story, which really detracted from my ability to focus on the plot. 
You might want to look into a beta-reader to help you with that, it 
helps improve your writing."

Or:

"Wow, these characters were really quite a bit out-of-character from 
what we know in canon. You might consider putting "AU" warning in 
your story description so that the reader knows that you are taking 
wide liberties with the characters in question."

The reason I personally feel so strongly about reviews is because I 
am currently in the process of writing a very lengthy WIP myself. 
Every chapter represents literally /*HOURS*/ of work on my part, the 
time and effort of my beta-reader, then the time to re-edit after 
she has made her corrections and suggestions. I put all that time 
and effort into the chapter, post it, and if I am really, really 
lucky, I'll get two to three reviews on the chapter on each of the 
sites to which I post. This makes it almost impossible for me to 
gauge how my story is being 'received'. AFN even has a 'hit' 
counter, so I can see the story has been 'hit' 150 times with the 
new chapter--with 1 or 2 reviews. Does that mean that the other 148 
people thought the chapter sucked? If they did, WHY? I'd really LOVE 
to know! 

I don't want to hear something mean just to be mean, "This is the 
dumbest thing I ever read..." But something like, "Whoa, I think 
your Snape is way out of character because ______ and _____" would 
give me something to go on. Someone recently pointed out I'd 
misspelled 'Shirlock Holmes' (I'd put Sherlock) and I fixed it right 
away. Another reviewer helped me with some choppiness in 
my 'Southern' dialog. I really appreciate those sorts of 'catches'. 
They are not 'mean'--they are very HELPFUL.

By the same token, I love the people who take two seconds to leave:

"That was great, can't wait for the next chapter."

It's not terribly informative and doesn't help me /improve/ the 
story, but it does let me know that I'm not spending all this time 
and effort for NOTHING. 

Some fanfic writers say they don't care about reviews, "I'm writing 
this story for me, not the readers." I really admire that viewpoint, 
but it's not mine. If I was writing this only for ME, I'd leave it 
in my computer and never post it anywhere for anyone else to read--
it would remain just for my own enjoyment. I'm writing my story 
because I love writing, and I really do someday hope to write 
something of my OWN rather than a fanfic where I borrow so much from 
the 'world' of someone else. Comments of the reader help me to see 
where I can improve my style, where I have been unclear in the plot, 
and where sometimes I have gone too far off onto a tangent that 
really has nothing to do with the 'main' story.

I love it when my reviewers ask questions. I might not answer them 
right away, either in the story or in a return comment, but it lets 
me know what people are thinking and wondering as they read, so I 
can make sure to 'tie up' those strings along the way in the story.

In my opinion, reviews are the only form of 'payment' a fanfic 
author receives--and the same holds true, I think for all those 
talented fanart Artists. If there is no 'payment', then there is 
little incentive to continue to write. I can't even begin to tell 
you, at least for ME, how discouraging it feels to spend all that 
time and effort, post something that I feel good about (I wouldn't 
post it if I didn't) and then have little to no feedback on it.

One person told me once that the reason she never reviews is because 
she just doesn't have 'time'. She told me how busy she was with her 
kids, work, life, etc. Yet she found time to READ the story? I have 
four kids, two of whom just completed a very time-consuming ballet 
recital, two of whom are in little-league baseball, more dancing for 
the summer, boy and girl scouts, taekwondo, and a toddler who has to 
be dragged to all this running about that his older siblings are 
doing. AND I also work outside the home 24-36 hours a week. Do I not 
understand busy? Yet I can find the time to WRITE the story... is it 
too much to hope that the reader will take an extra moment at the 
end to review?

Another person told me that he/she only reviews once at the very end 
of the story--and maybe a lot of people are like that so I'll get 
more reviews when my story is done. I surely understand the 
frustration of reading a WIP that becomes abandoned, so I understand 
all those people who say they never read WIPs. For those people who 
DO read WIP's and don't mind the wait between chapters, the comments 
I receive often help 'polish' the story as I go along and are as 
cherished as gold.

This diatribe is much more than you were looking for when you asked 
your question, I know. I just thought I'd explain what I do from the 
position as the reviewer, and also why it means so much to me to get 
that feedback, as the reviewee.

I know I am not alone in this, but in my opinion, it is merely a 
courtesy. If you read it/look at it, it seems to me the only polite 
thing to do is to take a moment to 'feed' the author/artist. It 
really is the only "payment" that the author/artist receives. For 
the vast majority of us, reviews mean a great deal.

Sincerely,

Shanti
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1789723/1/
http://adultfan.nexcess.net/aff/story.php?no=25336 