To review, or not to review...
Aug. 12th, 2002 07:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
graculusSo, there's this website (can't remember the name or url and I can't be bothered to search for it... ) that's posting reviews of SG fanfic and they finally got around to me...
[Please note this isn't a rant along the lines of 'how dare they review my work of creative genius, who do they think they are????' - I really can't be bothered with all that. This is more a 'huh?' post...]
Back in the mists of time, when the fandom was young (summer 1999), I got suckered into co-writing a story that kind of took on a life of its own. 690kb or so later we finished it, and no matter what anyone (critics included) might think of it, Price of Knowledge is a piece of SG slash history.
So, what's the point of reviewing it?
That's what I'm trying to figure out - it certainly doesn't help me as a writer, three years and a few hundred thousand words down the line.
I'd be the first person to say that there are things I'd do differently now if I was writing PofK in 2002 instead of 1999. I learned a lot writing that story, working with Jen, and in the fic I've written subsequently (with the help of some outstanding editors in a variety of fandoms) I've learned even more.
Am I ever tempted to go back to old stuff with a blue pencil? All the time. I don't do it, though (and not just because of threats of physical violence over that idea from some of my friends..*g*).
Because where do you stop with that? Where do you draw the line and say that you're going to leave a particular piece of fic alone? That you're going to stop tinkering with it? You have to stop somewhere, otherwise your overall output would be zero as you languish amongst piles of fic that are almost but not quite perfect enough to be shared with the readership.
Does this review help people coming into the fandom? I'm not convinced - after all, you have to find said review first. And don't most of us go through that thing when we get into a new fandom anyway, where we hoover up everything that's ever been written indiscriminately and then it's only after the first blush of newness is over, that we start to be a lot more picky?
How about people who've been in the fandom for a while? Well, I still get mail on a regular basis from people about PofK, some of whom tell me that it's one of their favourite stories, and it even won an award in the fic awards thing last year. So I guess a lot of people must have read it already, right? The story in question having been around since there were only a handful of stories over on Area 52, I find it hard to believe that anyone who's been in the fandom a while hasn't either a) read it or b) made up their mind they're not going to read it.
So who does that leave? Oh, of course, it leaves the reviewers. Well, I hope they got their jollies, but I'm still not at all sure what this review was meant to achieve for anyone else other than them.
It doesn't change the story, flaws and all. It's not going to change how I write now, since I'm not the writer I was when I co-wrote PofK anyway, not any more. It doesn't change the fact that people like the story and will probably keep on liking it. I doubt somehow that reviewing it's going to make more people (or less) read it.
It might be more interesting for me if the site in question actually ever gets around to reviewing something I wrote this millennium - that way their comments might be helpful for me as a writer in terms of feedback.
Personally, though, I'd rather someone dropped me a line.
[Please note this isn't a rant along the lines of 'how dare they review my work of creative genius, who do they think they are????' - I really can't be bothered with all that. This is more a 'huh?' post...]
Back in the mists of time, when the fandom was young (summer 1999), I got suckered into co-writing a story that kind of took on a life of its own. 690kb or so later we finished it, and no matter what anyone (critics included) might think of it, Price of Knowledge is a piece of SG slash history.
So, what's the point of reviewing it?
That's what I'm trying to figure out - it certainly doesn't help me as a writer, three years and a few hundred thousand words down the line.
I'd be the first person to say that there are things I'd do differently now if I was writing PofK in 2002 instead of 1999. I learned a lot writing that story, working with Jen, and in the fic I've written subsequently (with the help of some outstanding editors in a variety of fandoms) I've learned even more.
Am I ever tempted to go back to old stuff with a blue pencil? All the time. I don't do it, though (and not just because of threats of physical violence over that idea from some of my friends..*g*).
Because where do you stop with that? Where do you draw the line and say that you're going to leave a particular piece of fic alone? That you're going to stop tinkering with it? You have to stop somewhere, otherwise your overall output would be zero as you languish amongst piles of fic that are almost but not quite perfect enough to be shared with the readership.
Does this review help people coming into the fandom? I'm not convinced - after all, you have to find said review first. And don't most of us go through that thing when we get into a new fandom anyway, where we hoover up everything that's ever been written indiscriminately and then it's only after the first blush of newness is over, that we start to be a lot more picky?
How about people who've been in the fandom for a while? Well, I still get mail on a regular basis from people about PofK, some of whom tell me that it's one of their favourite stories, and it even won an award in the fic awards thing last year. So I guess a lot of people must have read it already, right? The story in question having been around since there were only a handful of stories over on Area 52, I find it hard to believe that anyone who's been in the fandom a while hasn't either a) read it or b) made up their mind they're not going to read it.
So who does that leave? Oh, of course, it leaves the reviewers. Well, I hope they got their jollies, but I'm still not at all sure what this review was meant to achieve for anyone else other than them.
It doesn't change the story, flaws and all. It's not going to change how I write now, since I'm not the writer I was when I co-wrote PofK anyway, not any more. It doesn't change the fact that people like the story and will probably keep on liking it. I doubt somehow that reviewing it's going to make more people (or less) read it.
It might be more interesting for me if the site in question actually ever gets around to reviewing something I wrote this millennium - that way their comments might be helpful for me as a writer in terms of feedback.
Personally, though, I'd rather someone dropped me a line.
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Getting your jollies...
Date: 2002-08-14 04:21 am (UTC)As a fan who reviews fanfic, I can assure you that I don't do it for the writers. I'm not out to change the writer's style or educate them or anything so lofty. I just enjoy discussing how fanfic affects me, and dissecting my emotional responses. And I like reading other people's reviews too. It's fascinating to get another person's perspective on a story, especially if it wildly differs from mine. What saddens me is that there isn't enough reviews and discussion of stories. Aren't you ever curious as to why people write characters the way they do? Why some scenarios work and others don't? Ideally, you'd get such answers in a good discussion.
So I see reviewing fic as a way of entertaining myself. Much like any other fannish pursuit.
Re: Getting your jollies...
Date: 2002-08-14 07:19 am (UTC)I've never said reviewing per se is Bad or Wrong or Stunts People's Creative Flow (all of which I've seen as comments around fandom as a whole).
Does the site in question initiate a dialogue between reviewer and writer (or other members of fandom)? Dunno. I haven't really been engaged enough by it to try and trawl through to see.
Should there be more reviewing of fic? Probably, though there seems to be a conspiracy of niceness in a lot of fandoms that means it's unlikely to happen. The whole 'if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all' approach, which means cheerleading and feedback get confused, as do criticism and flames.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.