“My life as a writer began when an English teacher decided to take my sappy teenage work seriously. Writing is a journey of constant improvement.“
I started writing fanfiction at eleven–and you can imagine how terrible that was–which my dad found and read.
Despite the fact that it was terrible, thinly veiled Mary Sue self-insert, my dad took it seriously. He told me that it was amazing and imaginative and he never would’ve thought to do the thing I did in that one story, etc, etc.
It was terrible writing, but he only ever encouraged me to write more. He only ever gave me compliments.
You’re right, writing is a journey of constant improvement, but nowhere is it written that that journey must be made on a road where random passersby throw rotten fruit at you under the guise of helping you.
I am the writer I am today not because my dad criticized my work or because of snotty, holier-than-thou comments on the internet. I’m the writer I am today because I’ve been practicing for over fifteen years.
Year after year, fic after fic, fandom after fandom, I have gotten consistently better at crafting stories and it’s not because of so-called “constructive criticisms” on fanfiction that I’m already done writing.
It’s because I got encouragement when I needed it and silence when I needed that.
I’m not saying that everyone’s story is mine or that people even grow the way I do and I’m not saying that criticism is never warranted.
I’m saying that constructive criticism is a beta’s job and that it useless after the fact, which is when the author gets your comment–after the story is posted, after it is done being written–and that are there enough writers out there that DO learn and grow just by practicing that perhaps you should be mindful of what you comment on a fic.
That is literally the entire argument.
How many screenshots of messages and tags have to be posted before people get that they’re hurting writers instead of helping them?
annaxmalina
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izzy806
