There is nothing more depressing than the ff.net Outsiders section.
While I understand a lot of young writers are trying their hand at fiction for the first time, it's the attitude that kills that place. You try and help someone with constructive criticism and you get bitched and whined at. Flamers make it worse, fanbrats don't care about anything but being in the book ... it's so sad. I feel sorry for Susie when she reads there.
I run an Outsiders fan fiction board at http://z3.zetaboards.com/outsidersfic and we're lucky that it's attracted a lot of good writers and encouraged a lot of writers to learn how to better their writing. It feels like SUCH an uphill battle when I waltz over to ff.net and see the crap outnumbers the good about ten to one.
Hopefully people will think more about what they're putting out instead of throwing crap and hoping it sticks lol.
I checked out the community--really cool. I can tell that people know what they're talking about, and a couple of names looked familiar from some of the good fics I've read on ff.net.
I understand about the being "bitched and whined at" part. I was just talking to aerodynamics (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1556904/) about the same thing, and we came to the conclusion that people who need/want criticism either don't listen to it or don't get it. And some are just too far gone to be saved.
I think that, on fics that are almost there or just have a few things wrong with them, supplying the link to this resource will maybe coerce them into re-writing what they messed up. I know that when I review, I always offer up my beta services. This'll just take it a step further.
I dunno how much it's going to help, but I'm staying hopeful.
That's a really excellent idea! I would love something like that. Now if only we had a way to get it to the people who needed it the most... I don't think there are that many ff.net Suethors who hang around here.
Great! I'm glad you'll get some use out of it. I explained in the reply to the comment above yours already, but I think I'm going to offer up the link to this journal when I review those certain bad fics.
Thank you! If I use it, I'll be sure to credit/link to you.
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While I understand a lot of young writers are trying their hand at fiction for the first time, it's the attitude that kills that place. You try and help someone with constructive criticism and you get bitched and whined at. Flamers make it worse, fanbrats don't care about anything but being in the book ... it's so sad. I feel sorry for Susie when she reads there.
I run an Outsiders fan fiction board at http://z3.zetaboards.com/outsidersfic and we're lucky that it's attracted a lot of good writers and encouraged a lot of writers to learn how to better their writing. It feels like SUCH an uphill battle when I waltz over to ff.net and see the crap outnumbers the good about ten to one.
Hopefully people will think more about what they're putting out instead of throwing crap and hoping it sticks lol.
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Sorry ... still not with it since the switch from invisionfree to zetaboards lol.
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I understand about the being "bitched and whined at" part. I was just talking to aerodynamics (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/1556904/) about the same thing, and we came to the conclusion that people who need/want criticism either don't listen to it or don't get it. And some are just too far gone to be saved.
I think that, on fics that are almost there or just have a few things wrong with them, supplying the link to this resource will maybe coerce them into re-writing what they messed up. I know that when I review, I always offer up my beta services. This'll just take it a step further.
I dunno how much it's going to help, but I'm staying hopeful.
Reply
Also, I made a timeline here:
http://community.livejournal.com/theoutsiders/109111.html
Feel free to pull information from it, reference it, improve on, etc. if it would be helpful to you.
Reply
Thank you! If I use it, I'll be sure to credit/link to you.
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