BlackShanglan
Silver-Tongued Papist
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2004
- Posts
- 16,888
The difficulty with PC's and feedback is, to me, summed up in these three basic elements:
(1) Some people primarily want encouragement. They would just like someone to say something nice to support their desire to write.
(2) Some people primarily want applicable information. They would like someone to tell them precisely what did and didn't work in the piece so that they can develop their abilities.
(3) These two sorts of people will ask for precisely the same thing. "Please give me some feedback!"
Neither of the first two impulses is a bad one, but sometimes I'm loathe even to pick up a story because I don't know what to do if I don't care for it. I would know, if I knew what the author was looking for. If encouragement is desired, I will - quite honestly - simply talk about the parts I liked, and not mention what I thought was weaker. If an applicable critique is desired, I will mention the areas that I thought could use improvement, as well. But when faced with no more guidance than a blank PC or feedback screen and someone I don't know well, I'm always torn on the topic of what to offer. That's made more difficult, as well, by the fact that for every person complaining on the AH about people who give low votes with no explanation, there's someone else whose response to one's best attempt at tactful and helpful suggestion is "who the hell asked you, you nitpicking snob?"
I don't suppose that there is an answer to this, other than telepathy. But it might be of some service to know how others handle it, and what the general feeling is on whether opening a story to PC's and feedback constitutes a request for encouragement, critique, both, or neither.
Any thoughts?
Shanglan
(1) Some people primarily want encouragement. They would just like someone to say something nice to support their desire to write.
(2) Some people primarily want applicable information. They would like someone to tell them precisely what did and didn't work in the piece so that they can develop their abilities.
(3) These two sorts of people will ask for precisely the same thing. "Please give me some feedback!"
Neither of the first two impulses is a bad one, but sometimes I'm loathe even to pick up a story because I don't know what to do if I don't care for it. I would know, if I knew what the author was looking for. If encouragement is desired, I will - quite honestly - simply talk about the parts I liked, and not mention what I thought was weaker. If an applicable critique is desired, I will mention the areas that I thought could use improvement, as well. But when faced with no more guidance than a blank PC or feedback screen and someone I don't know well, I'm always torn on the topic of what to offer. That's made more difficult, as well, by the fact that for every person complaining on the AH about people who give low votes with no explanation, there's someone else whose response to one's best attempt at tactful and helpful suggestion is "who the hell asked you, you nitpicking snob?"
I don't suppose that there is an answer to this, other than telepathy. But it might be of some service to know how others handle it, and what the general feeling is on whether opening a story to PC's and feedback constitutes a request for encouragement, critique, both, or neither.
Any thoughts?
Shanglan
Where it can be useful I hate doing anything to a completed work. So if completed, I save any critisim for really obvious things, like if a paragraph was 7" long
