Helpful Hints to Avoid Negative Reviews and Flames

Have you been told that your original stories don’t belong here?

Why is it such a big deal to a lot of people if you post a non-fan fiction story here?

This site used to actually have categories for original stories. But since so many people were submitting them and clogging up the site, the site owner created FictionPress just for them. It’s a sister-site to this one and has a ton of great original works. I believe over there, the original stories are even copyrighted, while the fan-fic pieces here are not.

The TOS and Guidelines now specifically state that original works CANNOT be posted here. You will be reported by a lot of angry readers for doing so.

A lot of readers become upset at the number of original stories posted in their favorite fandom (especially in the MISC category). Please understand how disrespectful you are being to those readers when you use their favorite fandom as your personal posting ground. As I say in many of my reviews: it’s like waiting months for your favorite movie to come out, and when you finally go to the theater and buy the ticket, the theater owner decided to show home movies of his kids instead. You’d be pretty pissed.

Please have respect for the readers and authors on this site and DO NOT post your original work here.

Check out FictionPress here.

Have you received reviews calling your OC a Mary-Sue and have no idea what that is?

A “Mary-Sue” is an original character (OC) that is flawless in appearance and character, that has a mysterious background, has special powers and/or superior fighting abilities, and has all of the male characters of the fandom falling in love with her instantly. Most Mary-Sues are self-inserts, or the author's way of living out the fantasy of being bamf’d into their favorite book, movie, anime, etc.

Check out this helpful article on Mary-Sues here.

If you’ve received reviews/flames telling you your OC is a Mary-Sue, or you want to find out before you post your story, please Google “Mary-Sue Litmus Test” and take a few of them to check.

Check out this link for help on writing OCs and improving your fan fiction here.

The difference between a flame and constructive criticism:

Flames are personal attacks on the author that are meant to be offensive. Telling you to go kill yourself, calling you names, etc, are examples of flames, and are meant to make you react and pay attention to the flamer.

Constructive criticism (con-crit) are reviews which point out the ways in which your story can be improved. Many of them are harsh and may hurt your feelings, but they usually offer valid advice to help you. Saying that your spelling skills are that of a two year old or that your bolded text is making your readers’ eyes bleed are con-crits, not flames.

If you received a review with abbreviations or terms you've never seen before (like OoC, MST, n00b, etc) check out this fan fic glossary here.

Are you receiving flames and don’t know why?

Here are some helpful suggestions on how to avoid flames:

1. Never, never, EVER hold chapters hostage for reviews. This is one of the biggest mistakes newer writers make. Saying “I won’t update until I get 10 reviews” will earn you the label of “review whore” and send the flamers en masse. You should write because you want to share your story, not because you need your ego stroked. Having a high review count is good, but not at the expense of forcing it out of your readers. If you’re only here to get forced praise that doesn’t mean anything, you’ll earn the title “fanbrat” very quickly.

2. Never devote entire chapters or huge sections of a chapter to author notes. It is against the guidelines and can get you reported. It also feeds the egos of your flamers if you are specifically calling them out and making them a “celebrity” by devoting your chapters to them.

3. Never use “chat-speak”. Not in your summaries, not in your stories, not in your reviews. It will also draw in flamers and turn away readers very quickly. Take the time to spell out words, numbers, and symbols.

4. ALWAYS use spell-check. Putting an author’s note (A/N) at the beginning of your story telling people you can’t spell so don’t leave reviews saying that is another way to draw flames. There is NO EXCUSE for not using spell-check. Even if your computer doesn’t have a spell-checker in one of its word processing programs, this site offers one. Not using it is inexcusable.

5. ALWAYS proof-read your story. Don’t post it immediately after you finish. Ask a friend or sibling or teacher to read through it before you post. You can also get a “beta reader” which is just someone to re-read your stories for mistakes and plot-holes. Check out the forums in your fandom—almost all of them will have offers of beta readers.

6. Be very careful with canon. Canon is the background, characters, and events of a story that are inarguable. It is fun to play around with fan fiction and add new characters or create relationships between existing ones, but if your story is so warped that no one recognizes anything from the original work of the book (or movie, TV show, etc), that will draw in a lot of criticism and flames.

7. Do not post original stories here or post stories in the wrong fandom. That can and will get you reported and banned from posting anything at all for while.

What can you do to stop the flames?

Most importantly, figure out WHY they are flaming you first. If it’s for a reason above, correct it.

If someone is flaming you for writing about a certain pairing they don’t like, or for writing slash, etc, that’s THEIR problem. Some people have in mind that there should only be a certain pairing in their fandom, and they will flame any story that doesn’t have that.

If someone is flaming you for a ridiculous reason (like the pairing or because they are homophobic and want to take it out on you for writing slash) or just randomly (like spamming all the stories in your fandom), then BLOCK them. You can do this under your account and the menu to the left hand side that says “Blocks”.

Many people flame just for the attention. They know they will get you riled up. They bask in the glory at having chapters dedicated to how mean they are, at having whole profiles be a rant about them, at reading your review-replies (which some post on their own profile page to mock and have others laugh at).

Best way to deal with a flamer is to IGNORE them. They are attention whores. Ignore them, and they’ll move on to someone who won’t.

It’s hard NOT to take it personally, but you can either dwell on it, or move on. You can laugh at them, post their ridiculous flames in a forum for others to laugh at, vent about it, etc. But never give in and offer them more attention. And NEVER let them cause you to give up writing or posting stories. You’ll only hurt yourself by doing this. Sometimes you need to face facts that your writing needs work—EVERYONE can improve. Accept criticism, use it to better your writing, and ignore the attention whores.