The classroom slowly filled with students. There were a few more people than last class, but not many. Everyone put out their name tags, a few of the more helpful ones telling the new students to make one. The classroom filled with idle chatter as everyone was a bit more familiar with each other and not feeling as shy. Quite a few of them were surprised at how alike they were.
Juliet was greeted by several students when she walked in. She smiled back at all of them. Not much time later, a new PowerPoint was on the screen: Reviews.
A teenager whose nametag read 'Star' raised her hand immediately after reading the topic, so Juliet called on her to speak. "What do reviews have to do with writing fanfiction? Aren't they something you get after writing?"
"Yes, but while you're writing I'm sure you're also reading other fanfictions and leaving reviews there. Not to mention you get reviews between the chapters you post, and there are different ways that writers deal with that. I strongly feel the need to go over some things." Juliet clicked the remote for the next PowerPoint slide. It said:
Great fic. Can't wait until next chapter!
"I don't see anything wrong with that!" Star protested.
"I never said anything was wrong with it. You didn't let me get to my point." Juliet tried to hide the irritation in her voice. "This is a nice review. Very common too, you'll see this on nearly every fanfiction. It's something that anyone can toss out to a story the like without thinking much about it. I do it all the time. But what if you loved a story so much that you wanted to go an extra step to make your review special?" Juliet clicked the remote again and another review slid out underneath the first.
I love this fic. My favorite part in this chapter was when Sakura had food spilled on her. I grinned like crazy when I read all those puns. I definitely need to try and remember some of those!
"So can anyone tell me how this is different from the other review?" She asked.
"It's longer?" Someone from the back of the room guessed. There was a scattering of laughter.
Juliet let out a chuckle. "Yes. It's longer. But it's also more personalized. The writer who receives this review knows it isn't something that can be copy and pasted for any story, and they know which part of the fanfiction people are liking. All you need to do is think for a second about what in particular you liked about the chapter, and mention it. You can also mention what you like overall about the story. Whatever you think is working for the author. Or," she clicked the remote, "you can also tell the writer what isn't working." The new slide said:
I really like this fic, and you usually make me smile, but I find it hard to believe that everyone would laugh at Sakura having soup spilled all over her. Wouldn't her friends at least try to see if she was okay before joking about it? Soup can be really hot!
"Constructive criticism is something a lot of people have trouble giving, and even more people have trouble taking. It doesn't necessarily need to be about big issues like gaping plot holes or impossible to read spelling, it can be about anything that might improve a scene. Keeping people in character, more realistic reactions, possible repercussions to actions, how first aid actually works, or really anything you can think of that you think the writer should consider. Sometimes when someone is trying to give criticism they might say something like, 'nobody's acting in character, you need to work on that! And there's a lot of spelling errors get a beta!' Instead of that, you should politely tell them how you think a character would react in that situation and remind them to reread their stories or try a beta. Always try to tell the author exactly where it was you saw the problem, and then try to give them an alternative just in case they have trouble coming up with one on their own. Notice how in the example up there, the reviewer points out where they didn't agree with the fic, and then suggested the idea of her friends checking on her before joking about it.
"Now when you first start posting fanfiction, a review like this might hurt. You could feel like someone is saying you aren't good enough. What it's really saying is that there is something that you could improve on. Of course, in some cases reviews can be wrong and you don't have to listen them. If you read over a scene again and decide it's exactly how you want it, feel free to ignore whatever a review said." The next slide came up with a list of reviews. The background was a picture of a fire. "What you really don't want is a flame."
You suck. This fic should be deleted.
This story is shit, I can't believe I wasted my time reading this.
Stop writing. You can't write at all, so just stop trying.
I couldn't read your spelling. Go back to school you retard.
You must be an idiot if you think any of the characters would act like this.
This is disgusting. Just go fucking die already.
Juliet let the class sit in silence for a minute. "Flames are when people, usually trolls, review a fanfiction just to tell the writer how terrible they find them. They are cruel, and you should never send something like this to someone, even if it is the worst story you ever read." She glared at her students. "These don't help anyone, they only hurt. Receiving one of these without being prepared has actually caused many people to abandon their stories. Other writers might post a rant about the flame instead of a new chapter. Nearly no one reacts positively to this. Flames are just terrible, however you look at them."
Juliet nodded to a blonde girl named Willow raising her hand. "Don't some people misinterpret constructive criticism as flames?"
"Yes, but as long as you read the review carefully and think about it, you should be able to tell the difference. Try not to let your emotions cloud your judgment. If the review points out anything to be improved, it's usually criticism. If it insults you or your fanfiction and doesn't give you anything helpful, it's a flame and should be promptly ignored. Sadly, ignoring it is the only thing you can really do. You can block their account and delete their comments, but it's hard to get rid of them completely. Don't let them have the satisfaction of your reaction."
Juliet went to the computer and minimized the PowerPoint. She then pulled up three bookmarked pages of fanfiction. Settling on the first fanfiction, she looked up at the class and asked, "How long does this chapter look to you?"
Rose was the first person to raise her hand. Looking at the side bar, she guessed about ten pages. A few other people agreed with her. Juliet hit page down on the keyboard four times before she hit a huge author's note and some replies to reviews. She went down another five pages before hitting the bottom of the chapter. The class was quiet, already seeing where this was going. Juliet went to the second fanfiction she opened, and this time the review replies were at the top of the chapter. The third fanfiction was the smallest of the three, but it also had less than a page of actual fanfiction, the rest replies to reviews and the author's ramblings.
"Can someone tell me the problem with this? Rose, what do you think?" She asked.
Rose took a moment to think. "They're tricking readers about how long their chapters really are. If you got an email alert with a really high word count it wouldn't be because of the story, and if you were looking at the side bar you would think you had a lot more to read than you actually do."
Juliet nodded. "If you saw a 30,000 word fanfiction, and it turned out that something like 9,000 of those words were dedicated to thanking reviews, you probably aren't too happy. It takes up time and space, and for what? So you can thank every single reviewer for liking your story and complement them on their username? Just please don't do this."
"What if someone asks a question?" Jenna asked.
"If someone asks a question and they don't have an account with PMs enabled, you can answer them in a chapter. But think about if their question is something worth answering. If it's not related to your fanfiction, you can probably ignore it. If it's something silly like a character's favorite color, it's not that important. If you plan on telling them that answering their question would reveal future plot twists, it'd be better to just ignore them so you don't give away any hints. I'd try to avoid answering more than five reviews every chapter, unless it's urgent. And if you feel some inexplicable need to thank all your reviewers, just list them all in a paragraph so it doesn't take up so much space. Although you might want to switch to just thanking your reviewers in general and not in a list if the paragraph gets more than half a page in length."
Juliet's watch beeped and she twitched. She logged off the computer and waited for it to shut down as the students took this as their cue to start getting ready to leave. "Hold on for a second, let me just say a few more things. When you're reviewing other fanfictions there's a few things you shouldn't say because of how useless they are. Don't tell them this chapter wasn't as good as their last chapter for no reason. Don't compare their story to someone else's story. Don't tell them their story is okay, but nothing great. Don't correct information in older stories that was only revealed in canon after the story was written. Don't promote your favorite pairing unless specifically asked. Don't tell them where to go with their plot unless asked. And remember to never flame someone. Alright, I think that's it. You can go now."
