The thing about LJ and fanfic

[superbadgirl]

I just realized a major reason I don't like LJ as a medium for fanfiction: feedback. It's usually impossible to leave constructive criticism on a fic put out on LJ without looking like a complete jerk. How do you tell someone they've fucked up lose/loose (again, for the millionth time), typed empathize instead of emphasize and ask them what the hell an "emasculated hand" is supposed to be, anyway and hint that they might have meant revelled, not revealed? I've thought aobut doing it anonymously, but it's still out there for everyone to see...and even if the corrections are well-intentioned, it still looks mean.

It's very awkward, and there doesn't seem to be a way to send feedback privately, unless you go to the author's user info page and dig around for an email or something.

Another reason I don't like LJ - it's cumbersome. If you read anything of length, it has to be broken up into parts and you can't really go on to part whatever - you have to read, then go back and find part whatever. It's annoying.

So there.

Comments

[captain-tiv.livejournal.com]

I still can't figure out how to find fanfic on LJ. I'm not a very knowledgeable user on LJ. :(

[superbadgirl]

I can figure it out, but I find it wholly annoying. And even LJ communities have a disjointed feel to them, to me.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I usually don't leave feedback for someone unless it's just to say, "Thanks for the story" or something like that. Back in the day, often authors would misinterpret my comments of "I loved this story, especially this part: ..." to mean, "I hated the story and felt that your interpretation of the characters was all wrong and, obviously, I completely misread your intentions..." LOL

So....I just usually don't leave feedback at all, even for people that I know. I'm evil.

Concrit? I can't do it. I suck at it. When I was a beta reader, I scared at least three writers away from writing forever. I'm not kidding. One of them had so many grammar and spelling and punctuation errors in her fic that really wasn't bad otherwise, that I had to make about 10 corrections per sentence. I asked her to let me just fix it and only show her the ones that could possibly change the meaning, but she wanted to see every change, which I think was just too discouraging.

If I do want to send *real* feedback, though, I always send it privately. I search out the email whether it's on LJ or on a website somewhere. If I can't find the email, I don't send it. I'd feel weird saying anything beyond, "Great story" in an LJ comment.