One of my favourite critiques of my stories...

[BiscuitHammer]

'You totally fucked up the portrayal of your own character you wrote! (Said character) would NEVER have done that!'

Goodness. I'm so lucky this reader pointed it out to me. What on earth was I thinking, allowing a character to behave in more than one way?

The person screamed at me in PM for a while longer, threatening to never read my stuff again if I repeated the error.

So I did in the very next chapter.

But y'know what?

I'll bet they're still reading.

To steal and twist a line from Ivan Drago, 'I write for me!'

And in my writing and universe, I am God. What I say goes, and how characters think, act, and react is canon. If I change my mind, well, I'm God. One could argue that this is simply less than exemplary writing, but I'm here to write out demons, and entertain. Apparently every other reader/reviewer I have is someone with a PHD in Literature, English, or Sexual Psychology, they tell me so. I suppose I should be flattered my paltry works garner so much attention from the elite.

Anyhoo, people screaming at me that they know my characters better than I do is my pet peeve, I guess. Well, that and bigots, Nazis, and incels.

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

'You totally fucked up the portrayal of your own character you wrote! (Said character) would NEVER have done that!'

Goodness. I'm so lucky this reader pointed it out to me. What on earth was I thinking, allowing a character to behave in more than one way?

The person screamed at me in PM for a while longer, threatening to never read my stuff again if I repeated the error.

So I did in the very next chapter.

But y'know what?

I'll bet they're still reading.

To steal and twist a line from Ivan Drago, 'I write for me!'

And in my writing and universe, I am God. What I say goes, and how characters think, act, and react is canon. If I change my mind, well, I'm God. One could argue that this is simply less than exemplary writing, but I'm here to write out demons, and entertain. Apparently every other reader/reviewer I have is someone with a PHD in Literature, English, or Sexual Psychology, they tell me so. I suppose I should be flattered my paltry works garner so much attention from the elite.

Anyhoo, people screaming at me that they know my characters better than I do is my pet peeve, I guess. Well, that and bigots, Nazis, and incels.

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

I'm sorry to hear that you don't know your character as well as your reader. That's somewhat tragic, after giving life to the character. I suspect that with that level of investment in the character and the story, that reader will continue to read and probably continue to let you know whenever you're wrong about what you thought you imagined happened in the story. I'd take it as a weird compliment.

I've been very fortunate and I don't have any readers that irk me, but your comment that the reader probably continues reading reminded me of a couple of funny ones.

One is just a repeat commenter. She's anonymous, but the style of her screed is definitive. She has told me on three occasions now that she is done with the series because of my male lead's obnoxious behavior. (For context, this is in the non-con category and the relationship is based on coercion.) Oddly, the most recent promise to stop reading was in response to one of his best-behaved chapters.

The other is someone who complained that she had read 80,000 words and still hated the story, and she didn't think she would bother reading the next chapter. I think she was up to Chapter 4, or perhaps 5. I can't say she didn't give me plenty of chances! She included a complaint I couldn't quite figure out about how I needed to either write a story or write sex. I suppose that after 80k words, she discovered I was trying to do both and had decided I suck at it.

I've got a couple of readers that go on for paragraphs about how they hate my male lead. They're not complaining. They enjoy the story, but they love bashing him, and they are hysterical. One of them has recently promoted him from human ashtray to toad. He originally achieved "ashtray" status when the reader felt that he was a failed lump of clay that, at best, might hope to be an ashtray one day. I look forward every chapter to hearing what they're going to say about him next. When that particular character gets under my skin while I'm trying to write him, I just imagine turning him loose in the comments section and passing out baseball bats to my regular commenters.

 

[lovecraft68]

'You totally fucked up the portrayal of your own character you wrote! (Said character) would NEVER have done that!'

Goodness. I'm so lucky this reader pointed it out to me. What on earth was I thinking, allowing a character to behave in more than one way?

The person screamed at me in PM for a while longer, threatening to never read my stuff again if I repeated the error.

So I did in the very next chapter.

But y'know what?

I'll bet they're still reading.

To steal and twist a line from Ivan Drago, 'I write for me!'

And in my writing and universe, I am God. What I say goes, and how characters think, act, and react is canon. If I change my mind, well, I'm God. One could argue that this is simply less than exemplary writing, but I'm here to write out demons, and entertain. Apparently every other reader/reviewer I have is someone with a PHD in Literature, English, or Sexual Psychology, they tell me so. I suppose I should be flattered my paltry works garner so much attention from the elite.

Anyhoo, people screaming at me that they know my characters better than I do is my pet peeve, I guess. Well, that and bigots, Nazis, and incels.

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

None of them bother me, they're entitled to complain or spew whatever they want to. True freedom of speech is not caring for what someone says, but being fine with their right to say it, even if its ignorant and I reserve the right to not give them any room in my head.


But as to your example, I suppose in a sense its a compliment they're that invested in your character that they get upset when they step out of whatever image is they have of them.

I know I'm going off topic, but when you say you're the "God" of your stories, I get what you're saying, but where's the limit on that? You can just decide to write pure shit and no one should call it shit? Just curious.

As a reader I generally give a fair amount of leeway to a writer, maybe because I am one, but you can't be totally irresponsible and not expect to be called out.

Example, let's say you're four chapters into a story and your MC-male or female-has called out several times how they'd never cheat on their spouse, maybe even had some chances and never did...then in chapter five he/she decides to hit some hook up site when spouse is out of town and go fuck a stranger...the reader shouldn't comment on that?

There's being God, the omnipotent author in full command of your little world, and being lazy and inconsistent.

I'm not saying any of this applies to you, but it did make me think about the topic in greater detail than what you put out there.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I know I'm going off topic, but when you say you're the "God" of your stories, I get what you're saying, but where's the limit on that? You can just decide to write pure shit and no one should call it shit? Just curious.

As a reader I generally give a fair amount of leeway to a writer, maybe because I am one, but you can't be totally irresponsible and not expect to be called out.

Example, let's say you're four chapters into a story and your MC-male or female-has called out several times how they'd never cheat on their spouse, maybe even had some chances and never did...then in chapter five he/she decides to hit some hook up site when spouse is out of town and go fuck a stranger...the reader shouldn't comment on that?

There's being God, the omnipotent author in full command of your little world, and being lazy and inconsistent.

I'm not saying any of this applies to you, but it did make me think about the topic in greater detail than what you put out there.

When I say I'm God, what I mean is that what I say/write is canon, and that nobody knows my characters better than I do. One is always free to argue the quality of my writing, but that's different than screaming I got the character wrong.

And if I change/retcon something completely, there's probably a reason.

 

[lovecraft68]

When I say I'm God, what I mean is that what I say/write is canon, and that nobody knows my characters better than I do. One is always free to argue the quality of my writing, but that's different than screaming I got the character wrong.

And if I change/retcon something completely, there's probably a reason.

Trust me, you can get your character wrong, I feel I've done it here and in other works. Consistency isn't always easy, and I can do whatever I want isn't always the best attitude.

Because one way to see it is if you're bringing this to the forum it may have struck a chord with you to where you need to justify.

I know I'm sounding like a tool in a thread designed for people to post comments they don't like, but once in awhile a reader can be right.

When I said above none of them bother me, I'm talking about trolls, I wouldn't see that person as a troll, I'd see him as a passionate fan and at least sit back and think about if he has a point, maybe he didn't, but maybe he did and if I feel he did, I learned something.

The attitude of readers don't know anything unless they're heaping praise is never going to open yourself up for improvement.

Then again I need to realize not everyone takes it that seriously. The ones who do certainly don't need to me to say anything, and the ones that don't are tired of me.

Mock on.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

Trust me, you can get your character wrong, I feel I've done it here and in other works. Consistency isn't always easy, and I can do whatever I want isn't always the best attitude.

Because one way to see it is if you're bringing this to the forum it may have struck a chord with you to where you need to justify.

I know I'm sounding like a tool in a thread designed for people to post comments they don't like, but once in awhile a reader can be right.

When I said above none of them bother me, I'm talking about trolls, I wouldn't see that person as a troll, I'd see him as a passionate fan and at least sit back and think about if he has a point, maybe he didn't, but maybe he did and if I feel he did, I learned something.

The attitude of readers don't know anything unless they're heaping praise is never going to open yourself up for improvement.

Then again I need to realize not everyone takes it that seriously. The ones who do certainly don't need to me to say anything, and the ones that don't are tired of me.

Mock on.

I know what you're saying, I accept your point as truth, and I enjoy constructive critique. My comments are about the screamers who just don't like change.

I need to reboot/retcon an entire story because the original incarnation/vision no longer suits my needs due to inconsistencies that I created. But I still contend that no one will ever know my characters better than I do.

But yes, I do agree that it's possible to do things wrong and be inconsistent. I'm sure we've all done it at one point or another.

 

[RetroFan]

If you write a funny story that gets extremely negative reviews, these can be as funny as the story itself.

Last year I wrote an Incest/Taboo series called 'Body Swap With Sister's Boyfriend' where a nerd swaps bodies with his bossy twin sister's jock boyfriend. The story is full of slapstick comedy and immature toilet humour, jokes about Uranus and the like.

The IT crowd absolutely hated it and attacked it with vitriol usually reserved for Loving Wives stories. It was like the critical reaction to movies like 'Freddy Got Fingered', 'Dirty Grandpa' and 'That's My Boy'. One area of the story that came in for most criticism was that the twins' mother - who is an absolute Karen - had her period. I never thought that people who wanted to read stories about related people having sex would be so offended by menstruation, but there you go.

The negative reaction and comments somehow served to make the story even funnier.

 

[johnnieblue44]

The best critique I ever got on one of my stories was when a waitress in a strip club in Arkansas agreed to fly up and fuck me. Whiskey Chick. Now that was a compliment.

 

[NotWise]

One area of the story that came in for most criticism was that the twins' mother - who is an absolute Karen - had her period. I never thought that people who wanted to read stories about related people having sex would be so offended by menstruation, but there you go.

I don't think they are, necessarily. At least, that isn't my experience. I wrote a rather long story (part 3 of "A Valentine's Day Mess," containing five chapters) that centered around the sister's period. Her period started the story, catalyzed it, and drove the climax. It spent a long time as my highest-rated story, including months in pretty rarified air.

 

[gunhilltrain]

The best critique I ever got on one of my stories was when a waitress in a strip club in Arkansas agreed to fly up and fuck me. Whiskey Chick. Now that was a compliment.

That story is so good that I'm having a hard time believing it. But maybe I'm just envious. How come these things never happen to me?

 

[johnnieblue44]

That story is so good that I'm having a hard time believing it. But maybe I'm just envious. How come these things never happen to me?

Yeah, I couldn’t believe it, either. But I’m not smart enough to make it up. My only regret was never going down there for the threesome.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

Not irks as such, but category police, for amusement. I had one joker moan that one chapter in a long shaggy dog story got nasty in ways he didn't like (in Erotic Horror, for fucks sake), so in the next chapter (I was writing on the run) I deliberately upped the ante by writing something I figured would squick him even more. I have no idea if he ever read it, but after the next chapter, where I resumed normal transmission, someone commented, "Good. You're back on track, thanks." I thought that was rather sweet, my loyal reader.

I still find it amusing, on a smut site with the widest range of kinks, that some folk are so vocal expressing what they don't like. What bit of, "Don't read it then," don't they understand? Marshmallows.

 

[BiscuitHammer]

I still find it amusing, on a smut site with the widest range of kinks, that some folk are so vocal expressing what they don't like. What bit of, "Don't read it then," don't they understand? Marshmallows.

Everyone's a critic with a PHD on the internet.

*snerk!* Marshmallows... got that right. Whiney, uppity marshmallows.

 

[MelissaBaby]

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

I've been more irked by other writers than I have by readers. But at least the irking is literate.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The best critique I ever got on one of my stories was when a waitress in a strip club in Arkansas agreed to fly up and fuck me. Whiskey Chick. Now that was a compliment.

Read my stories..they're good and good for ya!

Would be nice to have a link to your stories in you sig.

The most I get is either a long dissertation on how fucked up my characters are or just a simple sentence - 'Just some more cuck shit.'

 

[Javahead]

Would be nice to have a link to your stories in you sig.

The most I get is either a long dissertation on how fucked up my characters are or just a simple sentence - 'Just some more cuck shit.'

I think that may be the same ... gentleman ... that has commented and 1-voted on some of my stories.

I had one a day or so ago that was more interesting. One of my older stories has done quite well in voting, and most of the comments particularly loved the ending twist. The Anonymous commenter absolutely hated it for that same reason “any character development I’ve committed to emotionally is bullshit.” You can’t please everyone, apparently. At least the commenter explained their reasoning.

 

[johnnieblue44]

Would be nice to have a link to your stories in you sig.

The most I get is either a long dissertation on how fucked up my characters are or just a simple sentence - 'Just some more cuck shit.'

There is a link to my stories on my profile page.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Yeah, I couldn’t believe it, either. But I’m not smart enough to make it up. My only regret was never going down there for the threesome.

Pardon me for being nosy, but did you consider a longer-term relationship with this lady? Yeah, I know, it's a long way from Pennsylvania to Arkansas.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I know what you're saying, I accept your point as truth, and I enjoy constructive critique. My comments are about the screamers who just don't like change.

I need to reboot/retcon an entire story because the original incarnation/vision no longer suits my needs due to inconsistencies that I created. But I still contend that no one will ever know my characters better than I do.

But yes, I do agree that it's possible to do things wrong and be inconsistent. I'm sure we've all done it at one point or another.

I mentioned elsewhere that I don't always recognize constructive criticism until some time passes. I did experiment with rewriting a story based on one critic's ideas, and he seems to have been right.

I have rebooted other stories, but I usually place them on another site.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There is a link to my stories on my profile page.

Ah... but why not have one in your sig like almost everyone else. I usually, almost never, click on a or go to a profile.

 

[johnnieblue44]

Pardon me for being nosy, but did you consider a longer-term relationship with this lady? Yeah, I know, it's a long way from Pennsylvania to Arkansas.

I considered flying her up to fuck her again, yes. Although I never did. Wasn’t really looking for a long-term relationship with a cocktail waitress in a strip club in Little Rock, silly me.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I considered flying her up to fuck her again, yes. Although I never did. Wasn’t really looking for a long-term relationship with a cocktail waitress in a strip club in Little Rock, silly me.

I get it. I guess I'm some sort of romantic. I can't have sex with a woman without imagining I'm falling in love with her. "Imagining" is the operative word here.

 

[davion2308]

I woud love this

'You totally fucked up the portrayal of your own character you wrote! (Said character) would NEVER have done that!'

Goodness. I'm so lucky this reader pointed it out to me. What on earth was I thinking, allowing a character to behave in more than one way?

The person screamed at me in PM for a while longer, threatening to never read my stuff again if I repeated the error.

So I did in the very next chapter.

But y'know what?

I'll bet they're still reading.

To steal and twist a line from Ivan Drago, 'I write for me!'

And in my writing and universe, I am God. What I say goes, and how characters think, act, and react is canon. If I change my mind, well, I'm God. One could argue that this is simply less than exemplary writing, but I'm here to write out demons, and entertain. Apparently every other reader/reviewer I have is someone with a PHD in Literature, English, or Sexual Psychology, they tell me so. I suppose I should be flattered my paltry works garner so much attention from the elite.

Anyhoo, people screaming at me that they know my characters better than I do is my pet peeve, I guess. Well, that and bigots, Nazis, and incels.

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

I agree with a number of commentors here. I would love this. You have people emotionally invested in your characters, the readers feel they know the characters at a level that would allow them (the readers) to anticipate actions and thoughts by said characters.

That's a gold star for development of a personality and a character. That means people CARE about what you're typing on the keyboard and they want you to know their feelings were hurt when so-and-so did such-and-such.

What a compliment! You have control over them and you impacted someone's life for long enough for them to yell at you.

I wish I could generate that amount of love/hate with my readership.

 

[SimonDoom]

'

How about ya'll? Who amongst your readership irks you?

The only readers that really irk me are those that savage and/or downvote the story just because they don't like the subject matter. My belief is that authors should feel free to create whatever erotic worlds they want to, and that we should criticize how they do so, not which worlds they choose.

My reaction to criticisms of character motivation and behavior, however, are quite different from yours, BH. I think I've learned some things from critics who don't like what I've had my characters do. I'm more mindful about the issue of character motivation and plausibility than I used to be. In my story world I'm a God, but I'm a fallible and certainly not omniscient God. I don't like criticism but I try to glean something from it.