#im horrible at following story structures but this keeps me engaged

[ohboyfelix]

Felixs story writing tips:

Use adverbs only when they're the only option

Use as little apostrophes as possible

Don't start it with someone waking up (exception for groundhog day and others, in fact, if your character is depressed it would also work. It just has to relate to the character. If someone is just waking up it bores me)

Do not make movies called the Twelve Mighty Orphans or You Gotta Believe staring the same exact cast and crew. No one cares about inspirational orphan fort worth kid's sports movies with luke Wilson as the coach. Also luke Wilson will bail on you when you schedule him to go on the tonight show with Jimmy fallon because he has social anxiety.

Do not cheat on your wife for the head of the ft worth film commission and call yourself a virtuous man and that simply because her nephew is transgender should be cause for concern

If you think Jimmy Fallon would be interested in you stop and take a walk and breathe. He can't hurt you and his writing crew just cares about what is on the front page of tiktok. Aim for after midnight with Taylor Tomlinson.

VOICE TO TEXT is a game changer if you have a lot of ideas and are going to know the inevitable spelling mistakes

You are doing better than you think you are <3 people love you and car about you and absolutely want to hear about your stories. Share them joyously

[savvysass]

i promise you critiquing an irondad fic isn’t the end of the world chill out

Ok. Since this is an opportunity to explain the issue with what she did, I am going to give you a very detailed answer to why I flipped out the way I did.

What fromsiberia did was NOT a critique. It was HATE.

I am a professional artist with a bachelors in fine art, and one of the classes we had to take in school to get a fine arts degree in my major was called “media literacy”. In this class we examined the ethics of media and how to properly engage with media.

One of the things we learned was the ethics and structure of critiques.

The very first thing you learn about critiques is that a true critique is made for the betterment of the creator.

Fromsiberia broke this rule right off the bat by posting this critique without the author’s name, without the title of the work, and put it on a public forum in the template of a callout post. She then, and this is what my biggest issue is, put it in the fucking tag.

That would be like publishing a book, calling it “everything wrong with that one book, you know the one” and placing it right next to the original work with the intention of hurting the author and devaluing the work. It is HATE. Pure and simple.

Now, that is not to say that you can’t be displeased with a work. You absolutely can! I have tons of fics that i go to my friend and say “gosh this fic was fucking awful can you believe they did xyz? Total bummer.” And thats FAIR. You are allowed to read something and dislike it and vent about how much you hated it. You just dont do that PUBLICLY. keep it in the chat, bros.

Now i will move on to a helpful portion and how to learn from this situation: what defines a GOOD CRITIQUE.

The first thing you need to know about good critiques is that NOT EVERYONE IS ACCEPTING OF THEM. people are all in different stages in their journeys as creators, and sometimes these people are in a stage where they are simply building confidence, not skill. This does not mean they are not skilled, and some of the best creators in the world still go through confidence phases where they are simply looking for acceptance of their work, not advice to make it better even if it is well intentioned and maybe even completely valid. Its like when someone gets in trouble after something unfair happened to them. Sometimes they are not looking for solutions to make it better, and just want to vent about how sucky the situation is. They are not solution-oriented. Sometimes all an author is in the mindset to hear is that they did a good job, and often they request that is all you say, such as dont like, dont read. Those people are not in a position to accept critique, and if you are a good critiquer, you will accept that and leave them alone.

If your creator is asking for critique, such as saying “tell me what you think!” “Tell me your ideas!” “Constructive criticism welcome!”, you can then post a GOOD AND CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUE by following this format:

1) start with at least 2 or 3 positive points.

This is perhaps the most important part of a good critique because it establishes that you have the author’s best interest in mind and are not simply there to tear them down. If you can’t find it in your heart to say 2 or 3 nice things about a work, even as simple as “love the title” or “great sentence structure!” Then you are not here to help the author and need to move on and do something else.

2) Preface any critique with words such as “if it were me” or “in my opinion” so you make it clear that you are not saying your critique is perfect and the only correct way to do it. Follow it with an idea to fix it if you can.

People in my school would get horrible reputations for being bad critiquers when they would just come up and say “its better if you do this. You should do this.” Your opinion is not the law of the land. Just because you have an idea does not mean that is the best solution. A true critiquer lets the creator make their own content and offers solutions the creator can shape and mold in their own way to make their own creations. Do not shove your opinion down their throats.

3) being confused about a plot point or feeing like there is a plot hole does not mean it is wrong.

One of the things that pissed me off with that girl was she acted like that one plot hole that she decided must not have an answer made the fic completely unreadable and that it was her duty to make sure other people knew it sucked instead of politely asking the author “im a bit confused why the avengers didnt tell tony the truth. Could you explain your thinking?” THAT is the correct way to state that question (again with that being only part of ur critique) so that the author can EXPLAIN THEMSELVES or LEARN TO FIX IT.

4) thank the author for the content. Let them know you appreciate the hard work they did, even if you found places for improvement

This once again is one of the most important part of the critique and shows your true intentions to the author. It proves you are not simply here to break down their creation and whine about stuff you didnt like. A lot of work went into making the work, and you should acknowledge that.

Now, not every comment has to be a critique. I often dont have the time or energy to leave a critique on every fic i like, so i just keysmash and yell at the author for making me feel things. However, if you are going to tell the author things you didnt like or think they can improve on, follow a true critique format so you dont hurt the author and give yourself a bad reputation.

Now, for the creators, you are going to get bad critiques. You are going to get rude comments about how your work sucks or even call out hate like fromsiberia did to that story. Being able to handle it gracefully is hard, but you can learn from bad critiques and even hate like this. Look at what the point of their rant is. Is what they are saying, despite how mean and rude, a valid observation? Even after reading how awful fromsiberia’s post was, i agreed that it was a choice i didnt understand that the author did not explain why the avengers didnt tell tony who peter was. As i am forming my critique for the piece, i will include that in there. I may even offer a solution if i can think of one like fromsiberia did. You need to take your emotions away and try to learn from hate and bad critiques if you can handle it, and try to better yourself from them. If you improve despite the hate, then you have come out on top.

Tldr: good critiques are for the betterment of the creator. What fromsiberia did was not at all intentioned to help the creator make better content and was simply made to tear down the hard work that was put into it and posted on a public forum without giving the author a chance to learn from or even see their response, and that is why it is hate.