As an author, are you more or less critical of others

[Gamblnluck]

I ask this because the more, I write, the more I am critical of stories I read. I hate half-baked, inconsistent stories. Even with mainstream books. I tend to travel and the wife and I listen to audio books. I'll point out where the author screwed the pooch. "He never answered why that character did that!" I'll tell where the author abruptly ended without even a decent finish. ai'm not talking just crap authors, but like the recent 'collaborations I ' of James Patterson and his 'extra' authors. They develop his plot ideas Patterson gives them.
Here I look at how the story is told. I look at plot holes. Grammar and eloquent prose is way on the back burner. I look for readability of a story that is well told.

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm the same as a reader as I am a writer. The grammar and technical aspects can be a little rough, but if the story is good and the characters well portrayed, I'm happy.

I find myself less critical of authors since I began writing because I've gotten to realize how much work it is and that its not easy to put your baby out there in the world to get shit on by rando's on the net.

 

[KeithD]

I'm less critical. I don't even surface "I could do better" thoughts. Writing doesn't provide my bread and butter. I don't compare or resent what anyone else is writing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I'm more critical, privately, to myself. The more I write the more I read other stories critically. But I'm also sensitive as a writer to not wanting to insult or hurt other authors, so if I give comments I try to do so in a way that's constructive.

 

[AG31]

I love analyzing writing. I always have, but publishing stuff here and, from there getting involved in AH has made me pay more attention to the stuff I read, with more tools to articulate what I see, thanks to AH conversations.

 

[XerXesXu]

Not critical, but I've fallen into the habit of rewriting as I read. I'm now a dysfunctional reader.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I'm not exactly less critical, but more inclined to go "Ooo, you messed that up, honey" when something doesn't work than I am to think, "This shit sucks."

 

[pink_silk_glove]

I'm not exactly less critical, but more inclined to go "Ooo, you messed that up, honey" when something doesn't work than I am to think, "This shit sucks."

Oops, sorry I messed that up. :s

 

[intim8]

I ask this because the more, I write, the more I am critical of stories I read. I hate half-baked, inconsistent stories. Even with mainstream books. I tend to travel and the wife and I listen to audio books. I'll point out where the author screwed the pooch. "He never answered why that character did that!" I'll tell where the author abruptly ended without even a decent finish. ai'm not talking just crap authors, but like the recent 'collaborations I ' of James Patterson and his 'extra' authors. They develop his plot ideas Patterson gives them.
Here I look at how the story is told. I look at plot holes. Grammar and eloquent prose is way on the back burner. I look for readability of a story that is well told.

I've imagined myself a writer for basically all of my life, so I can't really compare. I don't think I'm an overly critical reader, and I let a lot of shit slide if the story is good, but I do notice a lot of flaws, and always have. I don't think that has changed much since I got more serious about writing in the last couple of years.

Coincidental timing here, as I just started a thread about the book I am currently reading, and writing that is so remarkably bad that I had to write home about it. I might still finish the book, as the premise is interesting, but so far, both mechanically and story-wise, it is handled ineptly.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I'm definitely critical thanks to being a writer - mainly on a micro level. That is, if find prose flat, messy or uninspired, I am unlikely to continue for the sake of the story. Sometimes I can enjoy a bad story with beautiful language, but not the other way around.

But I'm also encouraging, if the time to be encouraging presents itself. Writing isn't easy, and it's never a bad thing to have another writer in the world. Even if they're making disproportionate amounts of money compared to the quality of their work.

intim8's answer just came in, and has a caveat I'd add for myself too: I've always been a writer, since I was 8 or 9 years old, so I don't know how critical I'd be as a non-writer.

 

[KeithD]

I've been a professional editor (slipping into that role in fact since working for a news agency starting in my late twenties, although not getting the formal training for it until my early fifties when switching to book publishing) for a good long time, so I can't help reading anything without a critical eye, but I've trained myself not to read with an editorial eye when I'm reading for pleasure (and, especially, when I'm not getting paid to edit it).

 

[Areala-chan]

I've trained myself not to read with an editorial eye when I'm reading for pleasure (and, especially, when I'm not getting paid to edit it.

This is the way. I try my best to only use my 'critical' eye when someone is asking me to read their work in that fashion. Otherwise, if I'm reading, I either want to be entertained or I want to learn something.

 

[Erozetta]

I don't think it's possible for me to be more critical of someone else than I am of myself, particularly when it comes to writing. I would have to literally loathe a person for that and I just don't.

That's not to say I don't criticize other writing, I'm just much more lenient toward other writers than I am toward myself. Particularly if they are new to writing.

 

[Britva415]

As an author, are you more or less critical of others

No, I was always a critical reader, it has nothing to do with writing or not-writing.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I've found that as I got older, and really before I started writing seriously, I did start to look at movies and books with a more critical eye - at least I'd be less 'lost' in the story and more interested in why the writers/directors made the choices they did. I've also been giving a fair bit of feedback here to various people, both on the forums and as a beta reader and I'm often in that mode when I'm reading - it's not so much 'this writer is terrible' as it is 'if I'd have read this, I'd have suggested losing this paragraph' etc.

With professional writers, and especially Hollywood, though, I have little patience for badly told stories. Sure, there are external pressures during the filming of a movie and if, say your star died halfway through filming, I'll cut some slack, but its still amazing how many films go into production with shoddy or even unfinished scripts.

Mostly though its a case of 'I can see what the writers were going for - why isn't this quite landing?'

 

[ElectricBlue]

No more, no less than I ever was. I'm more forgiving of some writers than I am others, because if their heart's in the story, that shines through clunky prose. My back-click to read ratio is fairly constant, I think.

 

[shelleycat1]

I’ve always read and it’s been a major hobby for sixty years. I have only started trying to write fiction in the last four months. No change in my reading for pleasure except that I look for good descriptions, good characters and also how sentences are put together. I don’t do this all the time, and I am very aware I am doing it.

I started reading or rereading good authors. I like Nevile Shute, read a new one of his ‘So Disdained’. A very light touch for a love scene. Just a bare mention of the scent of her hair….

I read Hemingway for the first time. What was he doing that made him great? How do you write such a long and well crafted sentence?

I reread Dreamclouds novella’s here. How do great authors manage it?

I’m not sure how, and I want to, be able to recognise ‘good’ better. Then write better.

 

[StillStunned]

One reason why I started writing was out of frustration at so much poor writing in the mainstream. Nowadays I barely read fiction at all. If I want a story, I'll tell it to myself.

 

[Plathfan]

If I pay the roots of the heather
Too close attention, they will invite me
To whiten my bones among them.

 

[onehitwanda]

I'm more forgiving but less tolerant.

No, I don't know how that works either.

 

[TheLobster]

Most people here write better than I do so it's hard for me to be (more) critical.

The one difference I noticed since I started writing is that I'm often catching a particularly smooth turn of phrase or wording, and trying to remember it for possible future use in my own works.

 

[Tomh1966]

I look at effort.

Unless the story absolutely offends the crap out of me (rare) I simply wont vote down a story I think the author writes well and put effort into. Even willing cock cage cuck and hotwife stories which I hate. I pass by and leave them alone.

Examples of something I will 1 bomb. there was a story that was pulled that had a bad guy injecting a woman's sex parts with nerve agent to kill her nerves in those areas. Oddly, Ive rated more of that authors stories as 5s, but that one just offended the shit out of me.

 

[FifthEstate]

I tend to be a critical reader because that’s how I am with myself and my own writing. However, I typically won’t leave a negative comment unless it’s clear the writer doesn’t care about me and is just wasting my time. Luckily I read very few of those stories as I believe the Literotica scoring system typically weeds them out for me. Aside from an occasional LW tale, I rarely look at anything below 4.0. I always leave positive comments for the really good work I am fortunate to come across.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I'm both more critical and more likely to review my criticism before posting.

I'm more critical of grammar and sloppy formatting/paragraphing in stories, and less accepting of one-dimensional characters as props in a story.

But I also noticed the critiques of my stories, when someone assumes things which are not there in my words or misses the details which I included to assuage those concerns. So, before posting a criticism of a story, I look back to see if there was something I missed earlier which would address that point.

 

[THBGato]

I used to be a complete snob - in my late teens and early twenties I mostly read the so-called classics. You know, the kind you'd find on a Literature degree reading list. I started to relax a bit more when I moved abroad and books in English were harder to come by.

...and now here I am probably reading two or three stories on Literotica per day. I've definitely become less fussy.