#This feels so obvious in hindsight

[arialerendeair]

Constructive Criticism & The AO3 Comment Box

Seven years ago (almost to the month), I wrote a post about how to give Constructive Criticism - because I was tired of seeing friends get beaten down by criticism on their fics that had never heard the word ‘constructive’. 

I have passionately defended the idea that authors should NEVER get Concrit on fanfic unless they specifically ask for it - and that is a hill that I, as an author, will die on. 

Two and a half years ago - when I created the Fandom Playhouse Discord server, I updated all of my (at the time) 550 or so fics to have a specific set of notes at the bottom. 

Comments and Criticism welcome!

After a rather spirited discussion yesterday about the nature of constructive criticism, and I walked away from the conversation frustrated and upset (as did the other party), a point I’d made, and a question they had asked me stuck with me. 

Why WAS I asking for criticism? 

During the conversation, I’d had a glib answer, and dismissed the question.  But when my entire point circled around the fact that the AO3 comment box between two internet strangers who do not know each other is pretty much the WORST DAMN WAY to have a productive ConCrit discussion... why was I doing it? 

I didn’t have a good answer.

Pride as an author, maybe?  That I was willing to hear feedback, good or bad on my fics. 

An invite to haters, so they left other authors alone?  Because I would (and have) punch back if they came in with anon hate on my fics. 

Those are shitty answers.  I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, and I do this for fun, in my free time, and don’t plan on making massive edits based on feedback anyway.  So... why do I have it on my fics? 

Well.  Starting tomorrow, I won’t.  I’m going to do the work of replacing “Comments and Criticism welcome!” with “Comments and Keysmashing welcome!” on 632 fics. 

~!~

At the end of the day, AO3 is an archive, not a writing workshop.

The comment box is anonymous - whether you have an account or not.  So is the writer alias.  The author doesn’t have the ability to detail precisely what kind of feedback/criticism would be useful to them for improvement.  The commenter has no way of knowing how to provide feedback in a way that will actually help the author improve.

Authors - if you’re looking for ConCrit to get better - put out a call for a beta so you can work together on something.  I’ll happily help you find one. 

Commenters - if you’re looking to provide feedback - offer your services as a beta to folks who might be looking for help!  A good beta is worth their weight in gold.

~!~

tl;dr - The Ao3 comment box is one of the worst possible vehicles for a concrit discussion that actually helps (and I have 11 years worth of posting fics on Ao3 to confirm this, lol).  We should stop (collectively) trying to use it as one.

[sparklingcid3r]

I wanna take a second to analyze Darry and Johnny’s significance in GE because they’re so fascinating to me.

The theme of the song is obviously Pony having both great expectations for what his life could be AND going against people’s expectations of what mold they think he fits.

He picks Darry and Johnny to demonstrate the point (specifically the latter point), two people who exist on the completely opposite ends of the East Side spectrum.

Darry held the greaser equivalent of “golden child” in the sense that he had every advantage a greaser could have. Despite still living at/below the poverty line, he came from a home with two present, loving parents, was academically talented, athletically capable, and possessed a strong work ethic. He quite literally did everything right and by the book.

In comparison, Johnny is sitting on the lowest rung on the ladder. The complete opposite of Darry, with seemingly nothing going for him. His parents are physically abusive, he struggles in school, he’s one of the scrawniest in the gang, and is the target of extreme harassment and assault. Pony literally says that he has no chance in the world (but he could if he’d started from somewhere else).

Pony voiced previously before name dropping them that he worries about not being in control of his life. It’s because of what he saw happen to these two. It’s what they had no control over that determined exactly where they were to end up, a shared position: the bottom rung.

But ultimately, you’d have no idea the amount of sympathy and admiration that both garner from simply knowing their story if you don’t take the time to look under the cover. You’d lump them together as two poor greasers when they (and everyone else!!) are so much more than that.

[collieii]

one line in trimax that's always stuck with me is from chapter 65, right after wolfwood's death. when vash is sticking the punisher by his grave and he says "it was part of his life". that phrasing is so interesting to me. the neutrality of it is one thing that gets me, i think. it was part of his life. for better or worse, whatever it was, the punisher was wolfwood's.

It's pretty easy to think that the punisher might represent violence, the eye of michael, the role of assassin that was forced onto wolfwood, the loss of childhood. but it's not really presented that way, not overtly anyways. we never see wolfwood shun the punisher, he's not conflicted by his use of it. he never considers abandoning it for some other weapon. it's his weapon. he doesn't discard it when he eventually decides to take a more vash-like approach and actually let people live. he pretty easily accepts it as his own, a tool he can use. (to be fair, at least part of that is probably because the punisher is a very good gun.)

the punisher can still represent the harsher aspects of wolfwood's character, the violence he's committed, that he's capable of. that's an important part of his life! and the idea of it as representative of his violent adolescence, childhood that was stripped away, goes along with this - it's literally a cross to bear. but besides showing his past as a burden, i think of the punisher as being a cross of responsibility. when you have a gun you have power, agency - you have a responsibility to make a choice. that's what wolfwood tells vash in chapter 4.

the ability to take a life, the burden of it, is literally his cross to bear. that ability - and that responsibility - was given to him by the eom, literally in terms of the gun, and in terms of his skills. but the eye doesn't think twice about killing people. for them it's not really a choice, a responsibility, it's just a given. but wolfwood can't accept that. he's constantly considering the choices he makes.

so the punisher isn't only a symbol of the eye of michael, of the path that he was forced onto. it's also a way of expressing autonomy. the eye gave wolfwood the gun, but he decides how to use it and what it means. for much of the story wolfwood struggles to decide what to do, he's a very conflicted character. but eventually he resolves to use it against chapel, against knives, to help vash, and protect the orphanage. the gun gives him agency.

so the punisher was part of his life. it was the tool that he used to commit acts of violence, acts that he was forced into, but also the tool he used to break free.

it's heavy for vash, too. he's not exempt from that idea, the idea of responsibility. as wolfwood said much earlier in the story, vash has always been able to sidestep the question of "what do i choose?", because he's only ever given himself one option - everybody lives. and he's always succeeded. but as wolfwood says, "the day will come when you'll have to choose". one day, it's not going to work.

and of course the story progresses, the stakes ramp up, and vash learns more, goes through more, and is pushed to his limits. i think by this point, by wolfwood's death, and maybe because of it, vash has realized that he might have to make that difficult choice in the near future. that's one reason why he wants to "do him proud". he has a lot of reasons to say this of course - to not let wolfwood's sacrifice go to waste, for example. but if we're thinking of the cross as responsibility, then vash is saying he doesn't want to forget the lessons he learned because of wolfwood. wolfwood has always grappled with responsibility, with what the right thing to do is. and the right thing is often not easy. vash hopes that when the times comes for him to make a choice, he'll make a good one, one that does right by wolfwood's memory.

[anxietycheesecake]

People love to call me a hater but if you go way back in my blog you'll notice I was the most excited fan, like I genuinely had love for this show and defended every decision they made like "don't worry, girlies, it's all going to make sense in retrospective". One day I realized what was going on and tried to put it out there so we could all prepare and everyone got big mad at me. Now they're all "are you happy now?" LIKE WHAT OF EVERYTHING I'VE SAID OVER ALL THESE YEARS MAKES YOU THINK I WANTED THE QUALITY TO DROP AND THE ENDING TO SUCK JUST SO I COULD IDK FEEL LIKE THE MOST BASED GIRL AT THE BALL OR WHATEVER????? Wild concept, but I like to be wrong about bad things happening. The L I would have taken would've been so little Jamiroquai would copyright strike me.

[freakinator]

me when i see swagdoons on tumblr: 🥰

me when i see swagdoons on twitter: 😡

[fullmoonfireball]

head in my hands. i feel like i've just discovered some grand conspiracy.

King Boo only actually appears in the Luigi's Mansion series and Mario Kart Tour. his "main series" appearance is literally just some other guy using the same name.

[tonkysexist]

Ooooo would you care to explain on Scott being autistic?? I'd love to hear

Scott Summers is a character who cares a lot and means well, but his desire to express that often unintentionally falls flat in a way that really resonates with me. He has a tendency to very literal and he often seems to miss the subtext of a conversation.

It comes out a lot in the juxtaposition between how other people view Scott versus what he’s thinking and feeling. When we’re privy to Scott’s internal monologue, it’s very obvious how much he cares, how strong his sense of justice is, and how much he wants to serve the people around him. Often those people around him don’t always see it, and they tend to criticize him for being overly serious, or never wanting to have fun.

Scott also often references being really good with patterns, puzzles, and repetitive problem solving. His sense of justice is very strong and central to the decisions he makes. His powers are also very autistic with the “he literally can’t maintain eye contact”. He requires a sensory filter to make it through day to day life (lol same). I always think of when he played horseshoes for 27 hours straight and only stopped when Bobby made him (All New X-Men Vol. 2 #14).

If you haven’t read Snapshots I would HIGHLY recommend. This version of Scott is autistic and written by an autistic author. Here’s an interview with that author.

[veilk]

completely fair if you don't want to answer this but . does your self realization mean i was wrong about your disorder or am i still the excellent guessmaster

nope! you're still correct on that. thumbs up emoji

[byanyan]

new headcanon just dropped: while reading just about anything, byan will tend to read aloud to themself. quietly, of course, usually in a whisper or soft mutter, but it's something you're bound to notice if you spend any real amount of time with them. it's a largely unconscious thing too, it just helps them keep their concentration and actually process & understand what they're reading - something they struggle with in general but so much more while reading silently due to their dyslexia and adhd. it doesn't always work perfectly, you'll definitely hear them rereading the same sentences over again or struggling with pronunciation here and there, but it does help them significantly and it makes the task more bearable for them. ...better if you don't point it out though, because they're also incredibly self-conscious of the habit.

[aviangrian]

thank god chappell roan didn’t release good luck babe in summer 22!

[melonnade]

TGCF novel spoilers!!!

I CANNOT BELIEVE I DID NOT PUT THE E’MING/HUA CHENG EYE CONNECTION TOGETHER EARLIER. Dude is literally missing an eyeball and carries a sentient sword with an eyeball embedded in it. Their eye colors actually match, and here I was thinking it was all just for the aesthetic. The sword likes the people he likes and dislikes the people he dislikes and this whole time I thought it was just a cool sword???

[jeritzalamine]

If I had a nickel for every time one of my childhood heroes was written to be nonbinary in 2023, I would have two nickels. Which isn't a lot but its weird that it happened twice.

[backpackingspace]

How does one even go about having feelings about escaping being murdered?

[rebornrosess]

currently writing a report on the pilot episode of the bear for my screenwriting class which has been so much fun and i’ve made some fun new discoveries!!! i feel dumb for only just now realizing this but god the way this show uses music is even more effective than i initially even though because “new noise” by refused is immediately associated with carmy (and note that it never builds to the to the lyrical breakdown, there is no resolution or catharsis to the chaos) but then “old engine oil” by the budos band becomes associated with the beef/chicago as carmy lights up the stoves and then we get launched into a montage of chicago, baby pictures, and photos of chicago...literally NEW vs OLD...and the sound supervisors remix these two together TWICE during the pilot to signal carmy’s re-integration into the history of the beef/chicago (1. carmy beginning the morning prep 2. carmy telling everyone to try the new sandwiches) like!!! they used popular music as leitmotifs!!!

[the-voice-of-night-vale]

social anxiety can be really funny in retrospect bc it will have you saying shit like 'is it weird to call a doctor's office and schedule an appointment?"with 100% sincerity and panicking about it as if that's not the silliest thing in the world

[introvert-celeste]

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