Overly critical feedback from non-authors

[LWulf]

I've had a few funny comments from people who explained - in detail - how they'd change my story (to the point that it was a totally different story). If you want to read a totally different story, maybe go read a totally different story, not mine.

I've also had someone say they didn't like the title of my story and therefore gave it a 1 star rating.

From the reader side of things, I remember one writer who wrote about a professor at a college who was purportedly very strict with her students. That writer wrote some 10 to 15 chapters (five to seven pages each), about how she came down hard on her male students blistering them eleven ways from Sunday and warning how she was going to met out the same to her female students. After ten or twelve chapters she finally gets around to dealing with a female lead character, and what happens? Limp-wristed the rest of the story. I gave 4 stars up to the disappointing chapter(s) then gave a 2 stars.

My point is, that sometimes it's the writer who imparts that they are going to write a different story, then falls short of their goal. Foreshadowing what they intend to do, but then take a different turn. If someone went to the time and effort of writing a detailed comment, I'd actually give the common-tater some credit for in-depth analysis of the story and see if their comment had any basis.

Then again, sometimes people just have a different vision of what a story is about. Creatively, I'd still take note of what they said, for future reference.

/devil's advocate

 

[SimonDoom]

From the reader side of things, I remember one writer who wrote about a professor at a college who was purportedly very strict with her students. That writer wrote some 10 to 15 chapters (five to seven pages each), about how she came down hard on her male students blistering them eleven ways from Sunday and warning how she was going to met out the same to her female students. After ten or twelve chapters she finally gets around to dealing with a female lead character, and what happens? Limp-wristed the rest of the story. I gave 4 stars up to the disappointing chapter(s) then gave a 2 stars.

My point is, that sometimes it's the writer who imparts that they are going to write a different story, then falls short of their goal. Foreshadowing what they intend to do, but then take a different turn. If someone went to the time and effort of writing a detailed comment, I'd actually give the common-tater some credit for in-depth analysis of the story and see if their comment had any basis.

Then again, sometimes people just have a different vision of what a story is about. Creatively, I'd still take note of what they said, for future reference.

/devil's advocate

I think it's perfectly legitimate to be disappointed by, and perhaps downvote, a story if you genuinely -believe the author botched the plot. You are not required, as a reader, to accept every twist and turn the author writes into the story. If it's a great story and the author screws up the ending, go ahead and give the story a 4 rather than a 5 if you wish.

But judgment is required, and judgment shouldn't be confused with one's own whims. The author should be judged, IMO, on whether the author successfully carried out his or her vision, not the reader's vision.

For instance, I got a comment recently to a mom-son incest story where the reader felt it would have been a better story if the mother had been a widow, rather than divorced. It would have been a completely different story, one I didn't want to write. It's like saying Finding Nemo would have been better as a story about muskrats.

 

[gordo12]

Well here's a classic from LW: Reacting, no doubt, to the inclusion of the word Cuck in the story title. It's apparent he DIDN"T read the story.

"Vomit shit

by Anonymous user on 6 hours ago
Corona seems to have fried your brains...
Hope it ends another cuck shit writer...
This is gods way of ensuring our earth does not get polluted by non males who dilute our genetic make up!!!!
I truly pity u .... wanting desperately to be a female...but forced to remain male..this is the only way u get your rocks off ...and that’s sad!"

Here's a reader who read it:

by XXXXXXXXXX on 5 hours ago

Very good flash story.

Willing cucks are incredibly weird and completely delusional. I'm glad Susan ended up with a man who didn't fill her with revulsion.

The actual ANTI-CUCK story
https://www.literotica.com/beta/s/cuck-delusions

 

[Emirus]

I think it's perfectly legitimate to be disappointed by, and perhaps downvote, a story if you genuinely -believe the author botched the plot. You are not required, as a reader, to accept every twist and turn the author writes into the story. If it's a great story and the author screws up the ending, go ahead and give the story a 4 rather than a 5 if you wish.

But judgment is required, and judgment shouldn't be confused with one's own whims. The author should be judged, IMO, on whether the author successfully carried out his or her vision, not the reader's vision..

I recently read a story and afterwards thought the writer hadn’t done justice to his imagination and said so in a comment. I also told him (I think) that’s why I’d given it a 4.

I never vote less than 4 because I don’t want to punish the writer, who obviously has tried his best, who’s best wasn’t good enough. In that case I leave a comment why I didn’t like the story and state I didn’t vote.

 

[Starscream_UK]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

 

[SimonDoom]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

That's annoying.

I write American English but have been reading books in British English all my life and it poses no problem for comprehension. All those extra "u"s seem unnecessary to my eye, but they don't slow things down at all. It's such a silly, not to mention provincial, complaint.

One of the strengths of the Site is that it draws so many readers and writers from all over the world.

I hope they don't end their comment with an all-cap chant USA! USA!

 

[sweetandeasy]

That's annoying.
I hope they don't end their comment with an all-cap chant USA! USA!

I'm happy that MEGA (make erotica great again) is already taken in the dictionary...

I grew up reading a lot of British writers as well, and especially as a kid I always found the alternative spellings and phrasings fun and exotic. (We didn't travel much.) Anything in a story that made the world seem bigger, and then brought me into that world, was going to make me happy.

Some people don't read to make the world seem bigger, and I wonder if there are just more erotica readers who want the opposite -- to feel as if they're reading something so familiar that they can imagine themselves in it without any effort at all. And they don't want anything too exotic, even a colour where a color should be.

 

[ShagTimes]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

The Queens English is the only English. Everything else is a bastardisation.

rolleyes:)

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I'm happy that MEGA (make erotica great again) is already taken in the dictionary...

I grew up reading a lot of British writers as well, and especially as a kid I always found the alternative spellings and phrasings fun and exotic. (We didn't travel much.) Anything in a story that made the world seem bigger, and then brought me into that world, was going to make me happy.

Some people don't read to make the world seem bigger, and I wonder if there are just more erotica readers who want the opposite -- to feel as if they're reading something so familiar that they can imagine themselves in it without any effort at all. And they don't want anything too exotic, even a colour where a color should be.

That's beautifully expressed.

 

[yowser]

I grew up in the US educational system, but a lot of the kid's books I read growing up were by British authors.

I was outraged in third grade when on a spelling test I was marked incorrect for spelling 'grey' instead of 'gray.'

But I had read that word hundreds of times and I knew that 'grey' was right and acceptable and a perfectly decent word and description and it was in books at home that I was prepared to produce.

My teacher was unimpressed and I still got it marked 'wrong.'

 

[SimonDoom]

I grew up in the US educational system, but a lot of the kid's books I read growing up were by British authors.

I was outraged in third grade when on a spelling test I was marked incorrect for spelling 'grey' instead of 'gray.'

But I had read that word hundreds of times and I knew that 'grey' was right and acceptable and a perfectly decent word and description and it was in books at home that I was prepared to produce.

My teacher was unimpressed and I still got it marked 'wrong.'

You knew better than your teacher, I think.

"Gray" is the more common American spelling, and it's the one I use, but "grey" is, I believe, accepted as an alternative spelling by most American dictionaries.

It can be frustrating when you know you're right and your teacher is wrong. But it can give you a little self-righteous zing of pleasure, too.

 

[Enchantment_of_Nyx]

I grew up in the US educational system, but a lot of the kid's books I read growing up were by British authors.

I was outraged in third grade when on a spelling test I was marked incorrect for spelling 'grey' instead of 'gray.'

But I had read that word hundreds of times and I knew that 'grey' was right and acceptable and a perfectly decent word and description and it was in books at home that I was prepared to produce.

My teacher was unimpressed and I still got it marked 'wrong.'

There are teachers who really should be doing something besides trying to teach. When my sister was in first grade, she had a teacher who always "corrected" the spelling of her name. The name on her birth certificate is "Christi." The teacher would not stop changing it to "Christina" or "Christy." Even after being given a note from home, explaining that "Christi" was the correct spelling, the teacher wouldn't stop this.

Eventually, my sister started writing "Christy," even though it was incorrect. To this day, she uses "Christy" even though her legal name is "Christi." I can't understand why she let an ignorant, know-it-all teacher rename her.

 

[KeithD]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

Just ignore them. A lot of Americans are, unfortunately, insular to the point that they have no idea anyplace else exists.

 

[KeithD]

The Queens English is the only English. Everything else is a bastardisation.

rolleyes:)

And, obviously Americans aren't the only ones who are hopelessly insular. I suspect if we went with majority vote we'd all be writing South Asian English.

 

[SimonDoom]

And, obviously Americans aren't the only ones who are hopelessly insular. I suspect if we went with majority vote we'd all be writing South Asian English.

I assume it's tongue in cheek. But if not, you're right.

Anyone who talks about one version of a language as the "only" correct version of that language does not understand the whole concept and history of language -- how it's written, how it's spoken.

The concept of the "Queen's English" as a fixed and universal standard doesn't even make any sense, because RP, the manner of speaking of choice for upper crust English, didn't even exist until relatively recently -- certainly well after America gained independence. Upper crust English people spoke quite differently in 1800 from the way they speak now. Spelling was different then in some respects from what it is now.

 

[KeithD]

I assume it's tongue in cheek. But if not, you're right.

I thought it might be tongue in cheek as well, but there are British users here who seriously take that exact same arrogant position on an American-based Web site, which itself uses American style in what it posts to the Web site.

I have no trouble reading British style or problem with it being here--nor do I agree with demanding that British style doesn't legitimately exist or have a place here--but I do have a problem with nose-in-the-air "British style is the only correct style" on an American-based site.

 

[Emirus]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

English English or American English? As long as the meaning is clear and not completely the wrong word it doesn’t matter.

As examples of the wrong word I’ve several times read American writers say something similar to, “he drug her across the room” instead of “he dragged her across the room“ and, with one recent exception, I was thanked for mentioning it. The other one that occurs is referring to testicles as being in a “sack” instead of “sac” but I think that applies to writers of all nationalities.

I’ve read many books by American writers and the fact that some words are spelled differently, and wanting to purchase a rubber in a stationery store in the USA gets an entirely different reaction from wanting to purchase one in the UK, doesn’t usually make much, if any, difference. It doesn’t take a degree to work out that a sidewalk is a pavement or a boot is a trunk. If you’re unsure there are plenty of search engines where you can find the answer in seconds.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the US over the years and spent many hilarious moments in respect of the different ways of pronouncing the same word.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I had someone provide feedback saying that I should only write in American English and that I had spelt the word colour wrong throughout my work...

I would have thought my username would have given them a hint...

I don't mind reading things in English as opposed to American. What gets me is when I'm reading a great story I assume is written in American and suddenly out of nowhere there is an decidly non american spelling/word/phrase. It's like hard stop for me.

I was reading a great story the other day and 3 lit pages in, the phrase I took off my kit. I know the phrase but everything up to that point was American. I just couldn't get back into that story.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I don't mind reading things in English as opposed to American. What gets me is when I'm reading a great story I assume is written in American and suddenly out of nowhere there is an decidly non american spelling/word/phrase. It's like hard stop for me.

I was reading a great story the other day and 3 lit pages in, the phrase I took off my kit. I know the phrase but everything up to that point was American. I just couldn't get back into that story.

Isn't that more about you than the story?

It never occurs to me to think, "Gee, I wonder how 'name reader from another country' will read this."

If someone can't wrap their head around other cultures, another country's nuances, that really is on them, not me.

 

[SimonDoom]

Isn't that more about you than the story?

It never occurs to me to think, "Gee, I wonder how 'name reader from another country' will read this."

If someone can't wrap their head around other cultures, another country's nuances, that really is on them, not me.

I think I get what Salacious Scribe is talking about. He's not opposed to a story written in British English. But if it's written one way and then all of a sudden there's a phrase written in another way it's jarring. I completely get that. It's not a matter of intolerance. If I was reading a story about working class American characters and suddenly one of them said "Sod Off" I'd be terribly put off, because no American ever says that.

 

[KeithD]

I would imagine I do some of that mixing in my stories. I'm American but have lived extensively outside of the United States, sometimes in former British colonial areas. I imagine that many of the references I live with and write into my stories are British, not American--and that I don't know all of which is what.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

Isn't that more about you than the story?

If you had actually read my comment you would notice I said it was my issue.

I don't mind reading things in English as opposed to American. What gets me is when I'm reading a great story I assume is written in American and suddenly out of nowhere there is an decidly non american spelling/word/phrase. It's like hard stop for me.

I was reading a great story the other day and 3 lit pages in, the phrase I took off my kit. I know the phrase but everything up to that point was American. I just couldn't get back into that story.

It never occurs to me to think, "Gee, I wonder how 'name reader from another country' will read this."

It never occurs to me to think, "Gee, I wonder how ANY READER' will read this." I write for me and me alone. I posted my first story here because I wrote it for a friend and she wanted others to read it. I shared it, got positive feedback which encouraged me to write more.

If someone can't wrap their head around other cultures, another country's nuances, that really is on them, not me.

Again, never blamed anyone. Never said it was the authors fault. Not sure why you thought that.

I love literature. I've read Les Miserables Unabriged, Tolkein, Lewis, Adams, Shakesspeare and other British works. I have no issue with The Kings English. Hell to this day I prefer the Kings James bible to other versions.

When it's unexpected and comes out of left field I lose the ambiance of the story and most times I can't get back into it.

 

[SisterJezabel]

It's an interesting discussion re cultural sayings and spelling. I've received emails from people telling me I should learn to spell certain medical words including foetus and haemorrhage! I fear in Australia we get caught in the middle of US and UK usage and that can come across in some of the ways Aussie authors write things.

I was conscious in my Summer Lovin entry to explain that a cyclone is the same as a hurricane or typhoon and I would like to think that when I do use certain turns of phrase it is in a context that makes the definition obvious. It can be hard with syntax- 'dickhead' for instance is often used a s term of endearment in Australia along with cunt, it just depends on the way it is said.

 

[sweetandeasy]

It can be hard with syntax- 'dickhead' for instance is often used a s term of endearment in Australia along with cunt, it just depends on the way it is said.

I think dickhead as a term of endearment is sort of delightful. And I'm imagining an Australian coming to America and picking up a baby and saying in front of the horrified parents, "Who's a sweet little dickhead? Who is? Who is?" And the baby just giggling away, because babies totally get it.

 

[saddletramp1956]

English English or American English? As long as the meaning is clear and not completely the wrong word it doesn’t matter.

As examples of the wrong word I’ve several times read American writers say something similar to, “he drug her across the room” instead of “he dragged her across the room“ and, with one recent exception, I was thanked for mentioning it. The other one that occurs is referring to testicles as being in a “sack” instead of “sac” but I think that applies to writers of all nationalities.

I’ve read many books by American writers and the fact that some words are spelled differently, and wanting to purchase a rubber in a stationery store in the USA gets an entirely different reaction from wanting to purchase one in the UK, doesn’t usually make much, if any, difference. It doesn’t take a degree to work out that a sidewalk is a pavement or a boot is a trunk. If you’re unsure there are plenty of search engines where you can find the answer in seconds.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the US over the years and spent many hilarious moments in respect of the different ways of pronouncing the same word.

Personally, I've never had a problem with this. Maybe it's because I've been exposed to a lot of people from a lot of different places, both in the US and abroad. I've heard that the English and the Americans are two peoples separated only by a common language... Maybe there's something to that.