Hey guys, it's Monday, and you know what that means! It's time for Gold to update! So I thought we should switch it up for this update and do a Rants, Rages and Reviews! It's been a while since when I did an actual Rant or Rage, so I decided, hey, why not? Let's talk about stuff.
This is the world of Fanfiction. And in this world...IT'S REVIEW OR GET REVIEWS! Reviews on FF are like a restaurant. The chef, or in this case, the author, puts in effort to make his best dishes to the public in return for his paycheck, and even more important, the praise he or she gets. The customers, or readers, eat their food and give them their opinion on whether it was amazing, terrible, or just...meh. Reviews are pretty alike to this scenario.
For authors, stuff like getting favorites and follows from people are pretty awesome things to get. Even people simply reading the damn story is amazing. But the most amazing thing an author can get is the reviews. Getting reviews means people put in the time and effort (or lack thereof, but that's for later) to make a review and give their opinion (or lack thereof, but again, later). Anyone can go to the bottom of the page and check those follow and favorite boxes. But it takes a little bit more effort to click that review button, type some stuff, and submit it. It also takes a certain amount of balls to leave a review, especially if the review is critical or just plain saying the story is bad. And trust me, there are times where reviewers just need to say "Yeah...this is reaaaaaaly bad. You need to fix A, B, C, etc". And that's a good thing! If you got no reviews telling you how to improve, how would you ever know your story is bad?
For the readers, reviews are kinda like a deal. You provide me with entertainment in the form of stories, I'll give you reviews. Because, I mean, let's be real, that little review number that's next to stories being nice and high is something authors really, really like. But what really matters is when you click on those reviews, how do they look? And that's the job of the readers. To give quality reviews that make the author explode with happiness. And a happy author is a productive writer, am I right?
The relationship between the author and their reviewers is a symbiotic relationship. They both gain something from it. Now, don't get me wrong, an author who gets no reviews whatsoever should still be writing. What's the point of writing if you can't enjoy it yourself? Reviews are like candy, it's awesome if you get them, but if you got a little, that's still good. And you can survive on no candy. OR CAN YOU?
Since I'm a OC user, reviews are SUPER DUPER important to me. I love reviews. I love them a lot. I love hearing how you guys think I did and I love when I hear you enjoyed yourself, whether it be because of a dark tragedy, an amazing fight scene, or any of the fluff or humor you can find frequently in my stories. As a OC user, reviews from the authors who own those OCs are pretty important. Not only do they tell if they are still reading the story, but it also tells me if I'm using their OCs right. Like, if Glimpse never reviewed, I would probably accidentally make Glimpse (the OC) into a pretty pink princess. BY COMPLETE ACCIDENT, DEFINITELY. Note to self, make Glimpse a pretty princess at some point in The GG Connection.
We need to talk about kinds of reviews. Some people tend to mix two particular kinds, especially if they don't know how to handle reviews.
Normal Reviews
These reviews are pretty broad. They can be good, bad, and anywhere in between. They can be a few words long (which isn't the best, but again, later), or thousands of words long. These are the typical reviews an author will get.
There's a special kind of review, or rather reviewer, I would like to talk about in this category. Loyal reviews and loyal reviewers. When you start writing, you will eventually get your first reviewers, and as you grow as a writer, these people may stick around for a long, long time. These reviewers are awesome and getting them is a blessing. For me, I can always count on CaptainAwesome-Long Name for awesome reviews. Keep these guys around, because they are very important. Loyal reviewers can also include those whose OCs are in the story and keep reviewing because of that fact. It's a relationship. The author uses your really cool OCs and you give them really cool OCs. Yeaaaaaaaah, cool. Like the Kool-Aid Man. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Critical Reviews
To be honest, I don't really know what it feels like to get a very critical but helpful review. IcyAngels is pretty critical of me, mostly my improper grammar, terrible redundancy and overall other things. But she's my beta-reader, so that's pretty different. Critical reviews are probably the most important reviews you will ever get, if you are blessed to get them. They tell you what to work on, what you are doing right, and overall, what a person would think if they wandered on Fanfiction with no past knowledge of fanfics or series of any kind. Most people who are on Fanfiction know a lot about how fanfics work, but outside people may have a neutral or negative outlook on Fanfiction. Critical reviews, even though they are by people used to Fanfiction writing, give a glimpse of how outside people would see your story.
Listen to critics. They are really important. Like, a lot. More important than Asriel in Undertale. And you should know how important he is.
...actually, scratch that. Asriel is more important.
Flames
THIS STORY SUX M8, GO GIT GUD. SONDASH IS WAY BETTER THAN SANIC BY HUMSELF! SHADLIGHT IS AMAZING, TENNE OUT OF TENNE.
This may be what a flame looks like. It may have proper grammar or spelling, but it generally has no reason behind it's criticisms. It's usually something like, "This sucks, this pairing makes much more sense". Obviously in a more obnoxious tone, but you get the gist. The thing is, they are a little important. Some flames be more coherent than that and give a quick, but insignificant look at what readers think. Most of them come in, review once, and then leave. They just say "You suck" and then move on. They don't stick around to see if you improve. This can make writers feel like they don't care. And generally, writers feel like that, they do worse.
Responding to flames is easy. You either ignore them if they are incoherent, or ask for a longer explanation if it is coherent. Shoot the person a PM since they may have already moved on from the story. If you want to, you can even ask them to review again next time to see if you improve. However, if they flame a pairing that you are using, don't really worry about it. It's your story, and your pairings that you are using.
The same can be said for reviews that are like "Here are my favorite pairings: blahblahblahblah". There's a reviewer named mMlpXSonic or something, and that's ALL THEY DO. C'mon, is your attention span that small that you can only think of stupid pairings? It's kinda an insult to the writer that you write that instead of some sort of opinion on the story.
Difference between Criticism and Flames
LOOK. JUST LOOK AT ME. RIGHT IN MY EYES. FLAMES DO NOT EQUAL CRITICISM. FLAMES DO NOT EQUAL CRITICISM. FLAMES. DO. NOT. EQUAL. CRITICISM.
I've seen my fair share of authors say "Plz nu fames" and then they get critical and true reviews and complain about them. It makes no sense to go against people who are trying to make you see the truth. Please, don't be that kind of person. Criticism is only there to help you.
Bad Reviews. Oh boy.
We need to keep in mind that not all reviews are amazing. Normal reviews can be bad for numerous reasons. Here are some of my pet peeves when it comes to reviews.
Ridiculously short reviews. Seriously, I get it if you are in a rush, but writing "Good job!" on a 10,000 word chapter is absolutely insulting. That person put a lot of work into that chapter for YOUR entertainment and all you can write is that?! I've seen this happen before, A LOT, the most notable being Cheezel1993. He wrote an amazing 12,000 word chapter and one of the reviewers basically said "Good chapter!" AND THAT'S IT! Look, I understand you have a Mexican cooking class, or a tar pit to clean up, or something, I don't know, but give something other than two words!
Reviews that don't have anything to do or little to do with the chapter. Look, I get it, you want to tell us about your amazing day where you met John Cena, Shia Lebouf, and Dio, but do it in a PM, please? Mentioning things about your life that connect to the story is perfectly good, but the whole review shouldn't completely consist of it. For example, IcyAngels puts some life stuff into her reviews to me, but a large majority of the review is about the actual story.
Also in this, we can include OC reviews. Many people who own OCs tend to put them in their reviews as a creative way to express their opinion and add some humor to their review. This is totally fine since it may make the writer enjoy their reviews more. CaptainAwesome is a very good example of this. He's my boi. Ayyyyy. I mean, c'mon, no one wants a review group consisting of really boring reviews. Gotta spice it up a little! But when the OCs completely take over the review to the point it's like a really tiny story featuring their OCs, it looks like you aren't really paying attention to the story and just picking some parts of it, and making a OC story out of it. Add a little bit of spice, but not too much. Too much spice, and you will be feeling that when you go to the bathroom. Ouch.
Request reviews. What's a request review, you may ask? I'll give you one really, really notable one.
Werewolf.
Yeah. Request reviews are a bit annoying when you aren't asking for them. Whether it be a request for an OC, a shipping, or some random situation, those reviews make reviewers look like they don't appreciate the story to the point they want to change it. What, you think you can write this? Okay, fine, here, take my pencil, and go ahead, write what you want to happen in the story. Go ahead.
"Sanic and ranbow Dash were in luv wit each other. But Sally, the batch, dadn't went that! So, she tied to broke them up! But the woman police rrested her! Hooray!"
Fantastic. Good job. Now, people's requests usually don't get as bad as this is, but it's still annoying nonetheless. Now, if you ask for OCs or ideas, then accept to get some plain OC requests or ideas with no opinion on the story on hand. Hey, you asked for it.
That's gonna be it folks. Reviews are pretty important in this world, without them, we wouldn't know what they are thinking of your work. It would be pretty quiet in this world. AND QUIET ISN'T FUN! Just as a little idea, I think people should be review responding more. Creating that bond between writer and reviewer is crucial and it makes you feel like you did a good job; that you are making people feel something when they read your work. Responding to their reviews makes the reviewers see that you can care about their reviews. It's why I do review responses. I care about every reviewer I have and I love you all.
Except for Werewolf, wherever he is. Wait a second...I said his name...I SUMMONED HIM, OH GOD RUN! RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
There you go guys, a nice talk about reviews and what I think of them. Maybe next time I can talk about how to make a proper review, especially for longer chapters since I know they are the hardest thing to review. Thank you all for reading and reviewing, leave a review with your thoughts on reviews, and, as always...
EOOOOOOOOON OOOOOOUT!