Guidelines for Good Criticism

HectorBidon said:

I sometimes read the comments first to decide whether or not to read the story. I just wish there was a less clunky way to do it. (Scroll to end of page 1, jump to last page, scroll to end of it, click on show all comments. Sheesh!)

I also sometimes like to hang around the Feedback Portal. You can get a sense for what is going on in categories you don't usually read. And sometimes you can get pointed to a story you might never have otherwise come across. (Although you have to wade through a lot of lame comments too.)

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I sometimes have a look, but it's swamped by LW Ragers. Wasn't sure if there is a way to filter per category?

In recent weeks I've been busying myself by writing a story series in Incest/Taboo and in the process committed the terrible sin of attempting to make the readers in this category laugh.

Some of the comments are not exactly what you'd call constructive.

The classic advice for constructive criricism is to start with something positive. It's a good way to ensure the recipient feels it's not a lost cause to improve.

Here's the latest comment I received:

"Fuck you.

I just wasted a couple of minutes on this shit."

It's very positive, saying that they only wasted a couple of minutes on my shit. I assume the reader wants to encourage me to keep writing short stories.

RetroFan said:

In recent weeks I've been busying myself by writing a story series in Incest/Taboo and in the process committed the terrible sin of attempting to make the readers in this category laugh.

Some of the comments are not exactly what you'd call constructive.

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Definitely better to set expectations there, either with a preamble, or by putting the story in Humor & Satire, if the tone is predominantly humorous

tomlitilia said:

The classic advice for constructive criricism is to start with something positive. It's a good way to ensure the recipient feels it's not a lost cause to improve.

Here's the latest comment I received:

"Fuck you.

I just wasted a couple of minutes on this shit."

It's very positive, saying that they only wasted a couple of minutes on my shit. I assume the reader wants to encourage me to keep writing short stories.

Click to expand...

Obviously, this reader was influenced by this Guidelines thread. I feel gratified knowing that.

The story...

"One fish,
two fish,
red fish,
blue fish,
black fish,
blue fish...
This one has a little star.
This one has a little car.
My, what a lot of fish there are,"

***

Typical comments:

"Fuck you for wasting my time."

"Where are the unicorns?"

"Eye ont unduhstan wha culler is da fish, red ner blu ner black? Fuses me."

"This is crap, fish don't drive cars."

"You use too many commas."

"This is crap there are no red fish."

"Fuck you! You are obviously a Trump supporter because your fictional fish has a badge."

"You are a communist that favors unlimited immigration!!!"

"I loved the part where Clara seduced the professor! I look forward to your next chapter."

***

Meanwhile it has 87 likes and a score of 1.87...

Sorta why I stopped listening to commercial TV and radio 15 years ago...