How do you react to negative feedback about your stories?

[AG31]

If this makes sense, I'd be interested in your separate replies to these categories. And if you think of another category, please let us know.

I'll go first.

Legit catching of errors: Missing quotation mark, misspelling, It's a bit irrelevant whether the commenter is nice about it.
Thankfulness possibly coupled with chagrin.

Identifying points of confusion. I'm glad to get these because it's the hardest for me to spot myself. Sometimes it's hard to judge whether the commenter is representative of most readers, but it's worth exploring. They obviously can't be wrong about whether or not they are confused.

Declaring that my particular erotic taste is offensive/repulsive/immoral. Interesting from the perspective of "people are funny," But mostly like water off a duck's back. They're describing their own tastes, not my story. As I was composing this post I was reminded of my mother's advice (the only advice I can remember getting from her, although I'm sure that's my forgetfulness). "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I think of that more often than you'd expect from an 80 year old. It really took.

Criticizing my writing style. This is actually my favorite negative feedback because if done well it can shine a light on the things I like best about my own writing. The most common such feedback is "not enough plot and character". If done well it means they actually read what they're writing about and thought about their respose.

This brings me to an underlying theme in my invariably positive reactions to negative feedback. I just like to know that anyone thought anything at all about any of my stories.

 

[Seadog777]

If it's just mean or someone being a jackwang, I erase it.

If it's constructive criticism or something small, I leave it up.

If it's a death threat, and I've gotten a few, I turn them over to Laurel and Law Enforcement.

 

[MillieDynamite]

If the criticism is negative in a positive way, meaning it points out what's wrong with my writing, I'm okay with it. If it is a hateful attack on me as an author, I delete it. If the comments show what an idiot the poster is, I leave them.

EDIT: If they are one-word put-downs of the story, dreadful, awful, trash, or a few words strung together, I leave them. They amuse me.

 

[Bamagan]

Declaring that my particular erotic taste is offensive/repulsive/immoral.

This is the only one of the examples I personally consider negative feedback, although the others might shade into negative territory if they're accompanied by insults or something.
When commenters make declarations such as the above, I stop reading and delete it. There are a couple of people who have left multiple comments, and nowadays I don't even read theirs. If I recognize their name, I bin it sight unseen.

 

[MrPixel]

I don't get much in the way of comments, but one a couple of months ago amused me greatly, "Too many characters." Uh. It's a Group Sex story. What do you not understand about "Group"?

 

[AchtungNight]

I delete negative comments with which I disagree- all of them pretty much. Also ones where the commentator is talking about something irrelevant, being mean, or shaming me for my fantasies- that covers a lot of commentary here, I know. I don’t like trolls.

If the commentators do say something constructive- rare but it does happen- I consider it. Praise I leave up. I’m like mainstream authors this way.

 

[OverconfidentSarcasm]

I honestly don't really care that much.

I absolutely agree with being thankful for genuinely constructive criticism. Consequently, as far as I'm concerned, there are two kinds of actually negative comments: The ones that don't agree with my plot and the ones that are just nasty.

The nasty ones... well, they speak for themselves. No need to delete those, since everyone can see where these people are coming from. And the ones who don't agree with my plot are, in the end, just people who wish for more of something they enjoy, so I won't delete those either and, maybe, if one day I notice a theme in those comments, even decide to try it out.

 

[KeithD]

Literotica is the last stop for most of my stories. I post them here to broaden the reading audience. I don't really post them here for critique. I'm not going to do anything else with them once they're here. They are what they are going to be. Thus, I don't really pay much attention to negative comment. They're getting better than they are paying for.

 

[EmilyMiller]

How do you react to negative feedback about your stories?​

I think the word “negative” is unhelpful.

The “you’re a deviant who will burn in hell for lying with another woman” type of comment makes me smile and worry about the mental stability of the commenter.

Aside from that, most feedback is great.

The most valuable is from good authors. Miller’s Law states that the better the author, the more likely their feedback is to be helpful, even if pointing out a flaw, or area of improvement.

I’ve made an analogy with climbing here before. I used to be a good climber with respect to the general population, and an upper-middle-ranked one with respect to the climbing community. But I’ve met some world class climbers. The type who have people making videos featuring them. They have all been lovely and super stoked to talk to other people who also love climbing. I’ve seen them helping total newbies with kindness, patience and enthusiasm.

But… look out for middle capability climbers, who are clearly stuck at a level below what they aspire to reach. I’ve seen them vent their bile on anyone below them on the ladder, while being totally sycophantic to those above (at least to their faces - and then bitching behind their backs).

Those types of climbers want to show others just how cool they are and how much better than other people. It’s rooted in insecurity of course. What they hate most is people who have got good relatively quickly and are already approaching their own mediocre ability. Such upstarts are a threat and this type of person loves to put them down. To criticize not to help, but to belittle and discourage. Maybe to neutralize a threat.

Sadly, I have found this paradigm also applies to authors. Beware those of modest talent with an over-inflated view of their own abilities. Inflated often by their own personal jerk circle. Those people can be poison. Don’t engage and ignore anything they say.

Emily

 

[EmilyMiller]

They're getting better than they are paying for.

I love this comment. Will have to plagiarize it.

Emily

 

[AwkwardlySet]

Negative feedback is often useful, even when it's exaggerated. I had some really useful insight even from those who were very negative about my stories, which was only a few comments in total. I really have no problem with any of it, except for one category only - Competition or forum members posting as anonymous, and pointing out how they saw some tiny positive things and they hoped for something better but then sadly realized how crap I am at writing. Now, those are only written to spite you or hurt you and there is nothing you can gain from such feedback because there isn't a shred of honesty in it, just the intention to put you down.

 

[writerzblok92]

Its feedback. If I ever hope to grow as a writer, I'm going to have to read it and accept it but I don't necessary have to agree with it.

 

[Bazzle]

Cry, rock backwards and forwards sobbing.

 

[Comshaw]

If this makes sense, I'd be interested in your separate replies to these categories. And if you think of another category, please let us know.

I'll go first.

Legit catching of errors: Missing quotation mark, misspelling, It's a bit irrelevant whether the commenter is nice about it.
Thankfulness possibly coupled with chagrin.

Identifying points of confusion. I'm glad to get these because it's the hardest for me to spot myself. Sometimes it's hard to judge whether the commenter is representative of most readers, but it's worth exploring. They obviously can't be wrong about whether or not they are confused.

Declaring that my particular erotic taste is offensive/repulsive/immoral. Interesting from the perspective of "people are funny," But mostly like water off a duck's back. They're describing their own tastes, not my story. As I was composing this post I was reminded of my mother's advice (the only advice I can remember getting from her, although I'm sure that's my forgetfulness). "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." I think of that more often than you'd expect from an 80 year old. It really took.

Criticizing my writing style. This is actually my favorite negative feedback because if done well it can shine a light on the things I like best about my own writing. The most common such feedback is "not enough plot and character". If done well it means they actually read what they're writing about and thought about their respose.

This brings me to an underlying theme in my invariably positive reactions to negative feedback. I just like to know that anyone thought anything at all about any of my stories.

Identifying points of confusion.
Most of the time the confusion is on the part of the one posting a criticism and they usually aren't open to listening to an explanation. A good example of that is the comments I get on my story "The Basement Widow" widow being a mistake as it should have been Window, but I'll address that down yonder. Several posters swear the premise of the story is rape. It isn't for any sain person. But I posted it in LW so what does one expect? Anyway for these comments I laugh and ignore them.
Declaring that my particular erotic taste is offensive/repulsive/immoral.
Like the ones above, I don't pay much attention to the "My kink is good, yours stinks" crowd. Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke.

Criticizing my writing style.
For these comments, if there is a registered name attached, I go check to see if they've ever published a work. I've never found a case where such a commenter ever published a story. Because of that the comment goes into the same category as the above, Fuck 'em.

Legit catching of errors
Here I get beat-up pretty good. Not by the posters or what they have to say, but by my own embarrassment and anger at myself. No matter how I try there are at least three or four mistakes in one of my stories. It ranges form misused words (form instead of from, a problem sausage figured two-fingered typist run into) or stuff like using the wrong historical facts or citing the name of a place and it's a different place altogether. Doing my own editing, most of my mistakes could be cured by accepting all of Grammerly's suggestions. but if I did that it would change my written voice and I ain't gunna do it so I end up with a lot of red underlined words and phrases. Some I want left. Some I don't but sneak by because of all those red ones I do want left. But sometimes I just get in a hurry, like the title of the above mentioned story. I was in a hurry and missed a "d" in one of the title words. Embarrassing as hell. But to fix it I'd have to take it down and resubmit it. I ain't a gunna do that.


Just my take on it.

Comshaw

 

[32aa]

The most valuable is from good authors. Miller’s Law states that the better the author, the more likely their feedback is to be helpful, even if pointing out a flaw, or area of improvement.

Totally agree. Good author feedback is the best.

It's kind of funny (IMHO), i like to look at 'comment-posture's' profile to see how many stories they have authored. The answer is 99.9% NONE. That inspires me to take whatever, I'll call it "Non-Constructive" comment with a grain of salt, or just flush it.

 

[32aa]

Totally agree. Good author feedback is the best.

It's kind of funny (IMHO), i like to look at 'comment-posture's' profile to see how many stories they have authored. The answer is 99.9% NONE. That inspires me to take whatever, I'll call it "Non-Constructive" comment with a grain of salt, or just flush it.

And I forgot to ask, "Are the sub-axioms" to Miller's Law?

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Personal attacks get deleted. Negative comments about style or grammar generally get left up and I try to see if they contain anything which might improve my style (once or twice I have taken a cue to resubmit due to a major typo series).

 

[AllenWoody]

I will leave up the negative feedback, especially when it’s exaggerated or otherwise reflects poorly on the person who submitted it. I like to think that when other readers see that type of comment they’ll have a sympathetic reaction to me and will be less likely to write their own negative comment or rate my story poorly.

I have deleted a few negative comments that I was worried would mislead other readers.

 

[EmilyMiller]

And I forgot to ask, "Are the sub-axioms" to Miller's Law?

Getting math and physics muddled methinks .

Emily

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I never delete comments, and fortunately, I receive very few that would deserve deleting.

The only comments that ever irk me are related to the use of grammar "by the rules" when the commenter is mentioning a section of character dialogue. If they can't recognize and respect quotation marks, I don't recognize or respect their comments.

 

[SimonDoom]

1. I don't mind. I'm long past the point where I can be offended or wounded by negative feedback.
2. I almost never delete negative feedback, even if I think it's stupid.
3. Even when I think it's daft, I find it interesting to see how readers respond to my stories. It's fascinating how our stories can affect people, even in ways none of us expect or intend to.
4. I pride myself on being attentive to grammar, punctuation, and spelling, so if I have made a mistake of this sort, I don't mind being called out on it, even if the response is pedantic.
5. I appreciate when readers have read carefully enough that they detect something they regard as a narrative or logical flaw in the progression of the story, even though sometimes I disagree.
6. If somebody's going to criticize my writing style, I would like them to be specific. It's not helpful to be told that I made errors but not be told what they are.
7. The one sort of criticism I have no time for is criticizing me for the subject matter of my story. If you don't like it, read something else. It's a totally unhelpful sort of criticism.

 

[ShelbyDawn57]

Legit catching of errors, Identifying points of confusion, Declaring that my particular erotic taste is offensive/repulsive/immoral, Criticizing my writing style, a comment is a comment and I can find value in pretty much anything one of my readers has to say.

I make grammatical errors and get names wrong from time to time like most authors, and I've made some decisions that have flat out pissed off some of my readers. Again, all good feedback I can learn from.

The only comments I have ever deleted were a few from people that tried to hold a political debate in my comment section because the disagreed with my use of the term 'Socialist' in a story taking place in a dystopian future as if I were referring to the current day, real world government in their country. There's still a comment along that vein there because the person that posted it wasn't part of the argument.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Got one recently declaring that I clearly didn't know anything about (two things I know a reasonable if not huge amount about). Not on this site.

I'd love to know what exactly they were referring to, but I suspect it was at least partly just objecting to how I'd characterised the main character (perils of fanfic) and another character who was based on a real person, but you know how reality is often more unbelievable that fiction... There's other flaws in the story (my first ever novel-length piece) that some people picked up on, which I've tried to learn from, where relevant to other works.

 

[intim8]

I take it for what it's worth, which ranges from less than zero to a lot.

 

[MillieDynamite]

I had a self-proclaimed gun expert call my Beretta 96 in .40 S&W handgun in one of my stories bullshit that Beretta doesn't make anything larger than a 9 mm. I found that quite amusing as I have two of them.