Fanfic Author Apperciation Week: Wednesday

[lls_mutant]

Just a short entry today, partly because today's author hasn't written much, and partly because I need to get back to work.

Today's favorite author is Alshain, from Fiction Alley.



Okay. So Alshain's really only got two pieces. I don't care. I'm putting her on spotlight because she's the one who won me over to reading HP fanfic.

The first piece of HP fanfic I ever read was The Never-Ending Diary of Remus Lupin, Aged 34 1.2. This is a wonderful account of Prisoner of Azkaban as told to Remus's diary.

What I love about this fic is it's not just "oh, Remus misses Sirius, etc. etc. etc." It's Remus coping with his feelings for Sirius, yes, but it's also Remus dealing with teaching, trying to learn the ropes of Hogwarts from the other side, and his interactions with his fellow professors- many of whom were his former professors. He's funny and likeable with a tired, dry wit and rather smoothly poetic, but he's also enchanting in his doubts and fears and mistakes and self-recriminations- many of which have nothing to do with Sirius.

This is a fic that all Remus-lovers should read. The slash is vague and in memory only, so it's a good starter-slash fic. The development of Remus is lovable and darling. The fact his entire life does not revolve around Sirius or Harry makes him even more believable.

The only thing I don't really like about this fic is Harry in a slash relationship. I just can't get my mind to slash Harry. But it's such a minor thing that it really isn't worth getting worked up over.

The only other Alshain fic I've found is Waiting for the Visitor, a Sirius/Severus fic. Now, normally I can't stand Sirius/Severus, because I DON'T believe there's a fine line between love and hate. I think I like this one because it's a short drabble where Sirius fantasizes about Snape (and there is acknowledgement of his relations with Remus, heh), and it's not long enough to destroy the mood it creates. This is just a short little ficlet, but it's powerful and an excellent look into Sirius's mind.

And if you REALLY want to depress yourself, make your mind think these two belong in the same universe.

Hey, don't say I didn't warn you about depression.



Another question though. (Obviously not related.) What do you do as a reviewer when you read a fic that truly offends you?



I was reading a fic today on Fiction Alley. I don't like to say which one specifically, because

a.) that's not nice and

b.) this is hardly the first author to do what she did.

It was a rape fic, but it was just drastically over the top and the characterization was so far off I read it because I couldn't look away. Do you leave a constructive, thoughtful review saying why you didn't like it? Or do you just ignore it?

On the one hand, I got a review the other day about AIL 5 from a woman who said I was WAY off in my characterization of Turkey. I appreciate her comments and plan to revise part 5 a bit as per her suggestion, because I never meant to offend. I also got a comment today that I obviously know nothing about snooker. I freely admit that my knowledge of snooker extends to a quick peek at a webpage, because from the books I've read snooker seems more popular in Britian than pool. These comments don't bother me so much in that people made them, but that they're RIGHT. They're constructive- I don't feel like either reviewer was flaming me- and hopefully that will show in my writing.

On the other hand, a lot of people don't appreciate unsolicited negative feedback, and this author had a "flames will be ignored" comment. Not that I would flame her. But I know it can be hard in the heat of the moment to distinguish between flame and concrit, especially if an author doesn't agree with your characterizations and a lot of your plot.

So if you see a fic that really bugs you, what do you do?

Comments

[momebie.livejournal.com]

I'd leave the crit. If she chooses to take it as a flame then she can ignore it per her statement. If she chooses to take some of what you would say into consideration then she can only grow as a writer. Since I'm sure you wouldn't leave the crit in a demeaning manner I don't think you have anything to worry about. But then again, this coming from someone who wants people to leave her harsh crit and hardly ever gets it. *shrug*

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the thought. I must debate and meditate.... ohm....

[moonanddogstar.livejournal.com]

Just want to say I agree with katilara completely. I personally love feedback especially the concrit that helps to improve my writing.

[minnow-53.livejournal.com]

I've read two fics that I've found very seriously offensive. But I decided to ignore them. What's the point in alienating people? It's their problem/lack of talent/lack of taste, not mine.

I've had one reviewer on FicAlley tell me that I was sick and needed psychological help: this was vis a vis a mild and fluffy R/S fic that was actually very popular with other reviewers on the site, and on LJ. Her comment was bewildering, not helpful, and only succeeded in upsetting me. I would hate to have that effect on anyone else, even if it was warranted.

^_^

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

See, I normally agree, and it's why I'm very picky about who I'll beta for. The thing that gets me is that

1.) I think this is a popular author

and

2.) She seems to have some talent. I only ever bother when there's some talent ;)

I don't want to alienate her or get started into something nasty, which is why I might not do it. I'll probably write the post and think about it for a bit, because if I'm gonna give crit like this, I want to have well-thought out arguments. I DON'T want to be one of those reviewers like you got.

Must meditate....

[aome.livejournal.com]

I agree with the person above. If she can't handle honest concrit, that's her problem, but you can at least feel like you made an effort to be helpful. And she can't report you or anything, because any mod with eyes will be able to tell the difference between concrit and a flame. Like you, I don't mind honest concrit, and I'll usually say so when I post a fic. Now, if this person had said "Positive feedback only," then I wouldn't leave concrit. But that's not what she said so - you should review as you see fit, as long as it isn't a flame. (Which I know you wouldn't do.)

Btw, it would be great if you provided a title and a link to Alshain's first fic. Is this the "Neverending Diary of Remus Lupin, age ..." whatever it is? The plotline sounds a bit familiar, but I don't recall the author, so I'm not sure.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Heh. I goofed up in the posting syntax- thanks for pointing it out. You definitely have read it- I went back to get the link and found your name. (Amusingly, you'd found your way there through me.)

That's two for the concrit and one not. I shall meditate and draft a post... and see if I get lazy or not! :) Thanks.

[minnow-53.livejournal.com]

It makes it even worse when it's a popular author. One of the fics that really got to me is on several rec lists and most people seem to adore it: all the more reason for me to keep my mouth shut!

On the other hand, nobody is above criticism, even JKR, for goodness' sake! (Those awful giant sections with Gorp, or however you spell it...) I think it depends on how confident you are, to be honest. But as you feel this author deserves criticism, and you can do it authoritatively and constructively, go for it.

^_^

PS

[minnow-53.livejournal.com]

Sorry, the post above came straight from 'read only' and has gone down the page as a comment: it's actually a reply to your reply!

[cristix.livejournal.com]

I really don't know what to say. You should probably ignore it. If it has offended you so deeply, this means that the person who wrote the fic thinks so differently from you that you shouldn't bother to try to change her/his opinions. It would be useless.

it depends on the review, I guess. I think that people may decide to change some things which are not at all important to the plot. Tiny things. But they would never agree to change bigger things: like the way they describe a character for example.

Would you change the rape plot in your fic? No. Although i consider that you could have achieved your goals without that plot- so many other ways- and that it is very cruel without reason. I would never be capable of doing something so bad to a character just because I can; because I am the author and I do whatever I want. I mean, why not? I don't actually witness the rape and I don't actually know how it is to get raped, otherwise I would probably feel horrified and never again do that to a character. It's just a character, why not make her get raped?

But you wrote it like that and the rest of the fic was wonderful, so what choice do i have? I totally disagree with you on this aspect, but there is nothing i can do to change it. And I like the fic too much to stop reading it.

It happened to me with another fic. it was quite wonderful. Very original, long and MWPP era. No slash. but at some point in the story I started to get annoyed. In the fic J and S were the stars, the best in school, the most popular, the ones everybody talked about. The brilliant ones. Meanwhile Remus was just on the eight place at grades- he wasn't so talented and smart as J/S and he was ill quite frequently( author explanation) would not get a girlfriend- Sirius will, because Remus was shy and didn't want anyone near him- and was not at all appreciated by his teachers. McGonagal only talked about how brilliant J/S were and the other teachers only saw Remus as a sick child.

I tried to convince the author to change a little her version. Better grades for Remus and more appreciation from the teachers. She simply didn't want to. So. i stopped reading the fic, because it was too disturbing for me and she didn't want to change a thing, even if in my opinion I didn't ask such big things.

So i think there is no way you could convince a fic author to change anything other than tiny details that don't match.

Moreover, the author will probably explain why she/he did what she/he did and in the end it will make you feel like the one who doesn't see things clearly. it happened to me more than once.

Better not read the fic!

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

That's probably the answer right there. Just don't read. it was a one-shot anyway, and I'm not that fond of the author's style, despite her popularity.

I guess the reason I think it would be worthwhile is because there ARE some things I would change in my fic. I won't change the rape plot, because I do have my reasons for it, but the Turkey/women aspects? Yeah- those I'll change when I get a few minutes. Of course, that doesn't really affect the overall plot....

::Sigh:: Actually, more than anything I was kind of hoping to get an interesting discussion going about reviewing, because realistically I'll be too lazy to type it up! ;)

I do agree though that people write what they want to write. Sometimes you can see why; other times it's quite baffling.

Thanks for the thoughts!

[jazzypom.livejournal.com]

So if you see a fic that really bugs you, what do you do?

I'll say something about it. I have done. I actually went off on a writer for her fic called 'Falling in Deeper' and it was a Snape/Hermione thing and Snape was so unrecognizable- handsome, Sirius and Remus were both in lurve with him, Sirius was a bad teacher (huh? in GoF he showed patience and skill in explaining stuff to Harry and friends) and the rest of it. I thought the teacher/student relationship (Granger and Snape)in terms of how the school treated it was just strange. Don't get me wrong, she was a decent writer, but seemed to have problems with the canon. In retrospect, I probably should've emailed her privately but *shrug*.

Alshain eh? She gets props from me for writing her stories in a forigen language (English isn't her first language), may I be able to write fanfic in Spanish just as well. I do remember liking the story at that time, but not enough to reread.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Snape was so unrecognizable- handsome, Sirius and Remus were both in lurve with him, Sirius was a bad teacher (huh? in GoF he showed patience and skill in explaining stuff to Harry and friends) and the rest of it.

::GAG:: Sorry. There's not much more to be said there! (You know how I feel about Snape and sexual attractiveness.)

I'm thinking I'm just going to skip commenting. Too much to do and not enough time and all that.

Alshain eh? She gets props from me for writing her stories in a forigen language (English isn't her first language), may I be able to write fanfic in Spanish just as well.

That amazes me, too. I could never do it in Chinese!