To make you completely give up on a fanfiction?

Despite the amount of reads you get on a story those readers kind of don't count cause you don't know how they feel or if they like your story since they won't talk to you with a review. The review system is kind of annoying to me in general because I can't help but see the comments like a reward for finishing a chapter with no other way to discuss the story with the readers, and when they are all negative what are you to do?

There is a natural reaction I want to have of just letting the fic join the others in the forgotten deadzone, but at the same time my mind wants to keep pushing forward as there is a story I want to tell and if I don't finish it wasn't it all for nothing?

I don't know I just feel so conflicted right now.

I think it depends on what you mean by negative. If the tone of the review feels like a personal attack and runs along the lines of 'You can't write for crap' etc. Than the recipient will see it as negative.

If the tone is more constructive as in 'I found several consistent errors in the text from spelling mistakes to punctuation and grammatical errors' etc. Than that could also be seen as negative, perhaps even as a flame.

I think for me, from experience, the most frustrating reviews I received were a combination of both. Either I wrote about something that was seen as negative, or interpreted the wrong way, or I misused a word or phrase that meant something else entirely. It was also often related to how I wrote a character too either as being too OOC or acting outside of the norm for canon within a fandom.

What I found negative about such reviews wasn't the content, or the context, it was that the reviewer would tell me what they thought I'd written wrong, but wouldn't explain why they thought so.

Too often I got was 'You shouldn't use that word like that it means something else', but they wouldn't explain what that 'else' was.

In the end it's trying to be constructive criticism but failing at the constructive part. 'Like gee you write this character so OOC', but they don't give an example from my writing that made that character so OOC.

So there's no reasoning behind their opinion that I can understand.

I find such reviews like this negative, because it's used more as a soapbox for the reviewer to state what's wrong without an explanation. A writer can't improve if you notice their mistakes, but don't explain why you noticed them.

It's like not telling a baker the cake is terrible because they subbed out sugar for salt by mistake.

Such reviews aren't constructive, or useful, they're just confusing.

~ Pyre

It's a situation where people are displeased with things that have been built up, and it's been built up over so many chapters now you can't fix it.

For example Dragonsbane has too many OC characters as opposed to canon characters (something I've addressed is a weakness of mine because it's easier just to create characters sometimes as opposed to rewatching the series I haven't watched in a long time to find canon characters to use and then worry about keeping them in character on top of that) These characters are of course in the story to service and fuel the plots of the canon characters. Had I known this would turn so many people off I would have rethought this, but it's too late now. You can't give backstory and development to characters and then never address them ever again.

I think the only thing I find attacking is a lack of trust. Lack of trust in me that these scenes and characters aren't building to something bigger and better.

Constructive Criticism is always welcome and does help, but sometimes it hurts because the suggestions and complaints is just too much too late or has me confused and I don't know what to do.

Not just Dragonsbane but every Sess/Kag fic I've written seems to have a Kagome issue I don't know how to fix. Sesshoumaru being the flawed character he is who has a tendency to not show empathy for others needs to bring out a reaction in Kagome. If Kagome doesn't call Sesshoumaru out on his actions she isn't a 'strong female character' and depending on the era of the story I'm writing if she involves herself too much in Sesshoumaru's affairs she is just being too much or unrealistic.

How to recover is the question.

How many negative reviews does it take to make you consider whether your story is even worth telling, or what does it take to recover?

I think every story is worth telling, despite the things I've done in response to negative reviews. I admit to having abandoned ideas and entire fics I spent months writing because of a negative review or a lot of them.

I also at times chose to continue writing a fic, or altering a chapter in terms of content over negative reviews too. Like changing how a character reacts or altering their lines. I'd never do it over the plot of a fic that's too large and would take hours of editing. Small scenes I could compromise over, I didn't mind doing.

As for recovery. I kept writing, but in other fandoms. That helped me get beyond the negative reviews, although I still often feel apprehensive about reading new reviews rather than being excited.

It's a mixed bag.

I think you recover by continuing the write the story, or just in general. You won't get better without practice after all, and yes people will complain, and scream, and caterwaul. But that in itself is a compliment because they're reading your work. As for helping with OOCs or characterisation, I would suggest a beta or a friend reading your work, and discussing things that concern you.

If anything it could help you reaffirm your own opinions on why the characters are written a certain way too.

But in the end, never forget that your own perspective is always the most important. Yes the readers matter too, but you're the one telling them a story. Not the other way round. If you want to write a certain way than write it. Only then do you discover if you can do it and do it well. And every story is merely a stepping stone for the next one, where you can exercise new skills in writing and understandings of characters as you progress as an author.

If it doesn't work out the first time. Try again, but never give up.

Switch fandoms if you need too, but keep writing. Talk about the issues, and take courage from them. And keep writing. Use OOCs but find a way to make their integration into a canon setting more convincing. Practice doing so, once, twice, a thousand times if you need too. Frustrate your readers because that's what they came do to.

They came to read.

~ Pyre

I've had a few, though most have been very constructive. Most of the negative, if you can call them that, reviews have stated what the person didn't like, why, and ideas on how they think I could have written it better. That is most likely because I only write Sess/Kag and only post on Dokuga. (Everyone in this place is amazing.)

Aside from that, if I ever had one that didn't explain why even after I messaged them asking for more information then I'd probably ignore it. If the person who dislikes it can't at least tell me what they didn't like, and why then at that point I would just let them know that my story probably wasn't for them and move on. It's an odd thing but there are some stories I think are terrible just because the story as a whole doesn't work for me. So I don't read them, I don't post that the story is terrible because there have been a few really well written ones.

If I'm suddenly getting a lot of hate on a story then I'm probably going to write it in spite of the people who dislike it because at the end of the day I write for me first, readers second.

I have read a great deal of fanfiction, this is my weakness really. I only get peeved by grammar and sometimes writing style along with spelling. I have read many an abandoned story that suffered this reaction.when fandoms read a story many times they judge based on what they think should happened in a story or carry a preconceived thought about an character.when you write story a writer builds to something ,they can't see the final product so they critize and it really hurts your creative mind.I apologize for them they don't know what it is like to put you heart out in a creative endeavor to have it smushed.I have finished a fanfiction in my mind because of this it is sad really.

I've got most negative comments one time due to a certain plot twist in my story. It upset a lot of my readers, who didn't agree with the direction I was taking the story towards. It didn't make me want to give up, though, since the story direction was something that had been clear to me since I started writing the whole thing.
But I did feel the same way, I was hurt my readers didn't trust me enough to do the story justice.

That said, I think in my example above as well as with the whole OOC:ness thing as already discussed here, one of the underlying conflicts is actually a difference of opinion between the writer and the reader.
Knowing that, though negative reviews often hurt, it's also hard to give them much power over you. Because arguing over opinions is a waste of time more often than not. ...And I'm too stubborn to be easily swayed.

Personally, to me the lack of reviews is more discouraging than negative reviews. Maybe it's my temper, but negative reviews piss me off more than they upset me. But getting no response as all is like no one cares a bit. That makes it harder to keep writing for me.

Jane wrote:
I have read a great deal of fanfiction, this is my weakness really. I only get peeved by grammar and sometimes writing style along with spelling. I have read many an abandoned story that suffered this reaction.when fandoms read a story many times they judge based on what they think should happened in a story or carry a preconceived thought about an character.when you write story a writer builds to something ,they can't see the final product so they critize and it really hurts your creative mind.I apologize for them they don't know what it is like to put you heart out in a creative endeavor to have it smushed.I have finished a fanfiction in my mind because of this it is sad really.

You've got it in one. I think for me that was my main issue with OOCness. It was preconceived notions of how a character should act i.e from canon, versus to how as an author, I think that character would act. Mine and my readers interpretations sometimes didn't mesh, thus the conflict.

I also got negative reviews of WIPs stories, where characters were often changing as I wrote them. The plotlines were dynamic rather than static as they would be in a finished fic. So the readers based their opinions on a chapter rather than the story as a whole which could take weeks to finish writing.

I did cut stories I lost hope for in situations like that too. They were deleted rather than continued.

And it doesn't take more than one negative review to shut a story down, it could be just one. Those kind of reviews I got came from FFNet not Dokuga. And on there, they can be horrible, and weird, and confusing, and merciless.

It's why I left.

If reviews of this nature are concerning, again get a beta involved. Discuss the issues, collaborate, and learn together. It'll help, or use a friend as a sounding board. That works too.

~ Pyre

I just don't know what people want in their Kagome's now-a-days and it's making me doubt everything.

Fans always seem to be more critical when the female characters are concerned...

Still, it's your story. What matters the most is sticking to your vision, portraying the characters in a way that agrees with your interpretations of them, in a way that suits your story.

TamashaToko wrote:
I just don't know what people want in their Kagome's now-a-days and it's making me doubt everything.


I had a few negative reviews in my fic and it was always about my portrayal of Kagome. People usually talk about how hard it is to write Sesshoumaru, but I think Kagome can be even more difficult sometimes. She's a character with a lot of personality and life to her, but I think some people exaggerate her 'sassy' characteristics and forgo kindness. Or vice versa.

The comments I received were stuff like - 'Gawd, can Kagome finally get over herself?' So I guess I made her too self-centred in the eyes of the reader. The thing is, in my mind, this was Kagome's story, about coming to terms with change, so it was very much focused on her thoughts and feelings. I don't know where the line between making a character sympathetic or whiny is.

It's made me more conscious of making Kagome complain too much, but then you have the worry of making her a doormat. It's difficult, but ultimately I think picking out pieces of criticism that you agree with, or can see where the reviewer is coming from and working on those criticisms is best. Any other nitpicks that would change the vision of your story if you listened to them aren't really worth worrying over in my eyes. Knight of Disorder said it before but, I agree with the sentiment that you should write for you first. Readers second.

TamashaToko wrote:
I just don't know what people want in their Kagome's now-a-days and it's making me doubt everything.

Oh, boy.

A strange or OOC Kagome is my #1 pet peeve, but, remember that you're writing for yourself first. It's your vision so neither you nor the reader should expect the writing to please every reviewer all the time. If they don't like it, they can stop reading. And I could be assuming too much of FF readers, but I assume the majority of them are female. I tend to think that readers see themselves as the female lead [Kagome for this fandom], so it's easy to be hyper-critical because they're personalizing her character.

^This is coming from a serial "negative" reviewer that tends to be very harsh with criticism, btw.

As for the question, that's up to you, right? Readers shouldn't take fanfiction so seriously [I'm guilty of this, esp when it comes to characterization], but writers shouldn't take reviews so personally either,

The reviews of DB aren't negative from my view. Keep in mind that I've been accused of being a harsh critic and appreciated flames on my own stories long ago, so I have a different threshold for it. The readers seem engaged enough to tell you what their issues are and most of them were very polite about it. No reviews would make me feel like I posted a story for naught more than negative ones.

Maybe there is a common thread in what I'm hearing in this post.

When I brought up Dragonsbane it wasn't about Dokuga reviews. It was about ff.net reviews and clearly I shouldn't be putting too much stock in them for it turned some of you off from posting there all together.

Dumb ff.net. Give me way more positive reviews than I ever deserve on Marriage of Convenience a story with bad grammar and really bad out of character moments then turn around and bash it years later not realizing a young idiot high schooler wrote it way more than a decade ago now and bash me > Jerks.

Your works are your own,I have learned that the only opinion you have to deal with at the end of the day that matters is your own. You should not give someone else the power over your own happiness. It is my own general rule for life really.

TamashaToko wrote:
I just don't know what people want in their Kagome's now-a-days and it's making me doubt everything.

I enjoy writing Kagome when she's not entirely canon. Canon Kagome is a Mary Sue and, for me, is exhausting to write that way. I'm not emotional. She is, however. I can read other works to better capture the spirit of her, even enjoy it, but there's no passion when I write her that way. So I just do what I want to do.

I enjoy writing Kagome when she's not entirely canon. Canon Kagome is a Mary Sue and, for me, is exhausting to write that way. I'm not emotional. She is, however. I can read other works to better capture the spirit of her, even enjoy it, but there's no passion when I write her that way. So I just do what I want to do.


Nah. I have to disagree on this one bit about Kagome. She's far from a Mary Sue especially with how RT treated her in the entire series in favor of Kikyo. If anything, Kikyo is the Mary Sue with her too-pure-despite-the-hatred-and-undead-status which is literally the epitome of uncleanliness in Japan. There is even a clear chapter showcasing how Kagome broke Kikyo's bowstring over feelings of jealousy while Kikyo was holding it since after her resurrection despite being an embodiment of all that is impure and negativity.

It's always a sore point for me that's why I get annoyed with fics that follow RTs Kikyo-worship and Kagome-bashing a great deal.

Maybe there is a common thread in what I'm hearing in this post.

When I brought up Dragonsbane it wasn't about Dokuga reviews. It was about ff.net reviews and clearly I shouldn't be putting too much stock in them for it turned some of you off from posting there all together.

Dumb ff.net. Give me way more positive reviews than I ever deserve on Marriage of Convenience a story with bad grammar and really bad out of character moments then turn around and bash it years later not realizing a young idiot high schooler wrote it way more than a decade ago now and bash me > Jerks.

All I want to see in Kagome is one that is free of the nonsense between her and Kikyo and if they were ever compared, should also have qualities highlighting what makes her the better one in ways Kikyo is not.

Oh and I want a Kagome free from the nonsense with the love triangle and putting up with Inuyasha's selfishness.

This is me as a reader saying this. Please don't feel bad about bad reviews. There will always be butthurts. Just know that your followers love your works.

You can't satisfy everyone. That's just plain fact. In my story I've had people side with Kagome in the conflict and others side with InuYasha. They all have their reasons and logic as to why which party is in the wrong or right. Myself, as the writer, see both parties as both wrong and right. If your readers are getting all worked up about something, then you're doing something right.

Now, with Kagome, I cringe when I see her throwing tantrums and stomping her feet. I know she had quite a temper in canon, but sometimes I feel people make her a little too whiny and childish.

I also dislike character hate in general. Aside from villains, each character had a redeeming quality to them. In all honesty, I even felt a twinge of sympathy for Naraku in the end.

Point being, everyone has their style and everyone has their preferences. If I don't like the way a character is portrayed in a story I ignore it or stop reading. But I don't leave hateful reviews. As was mentioned before, there's a difference between being outright rude and offering constructive criticism.

Also, ew. There's that dirty Mary Sue word. Kagome isn't a Mary Sue and I don't see Kikyo as one, either. A character has to be portrayed as absolutely perfect in every sense, in my opinion. Sesshoumaru is closer to being a Mary Sue than the ladies, in my opinion, and even he has his flaws.

kyoandyuya wrote:
I enjoy writing Kagome when she's not entirely canon. Canon Kagome is a Mary Sue and, for me, is exhausting to write that way. I'm not emotional. She is, however. I can read other works to better capture the spirit of her, even enjoy it, but there's no passion when I write her that way. So I just do what I want to do.


Nah. I have to disagree on this one bit about Kagome. She's far from a Mary Sue especially with how RT treated her in the entire series in favor of Kikyo. If anything, Kikyo is the Mary Sue with her too-pure-despite-the-hatred-and-undead-status which is literally the epitome of uncleanliness in Japan. There is even a clear chapter showcasing how Kagome broke Kikyo's bowstring over feelings of jealousy while Kikyo was holding it since after her resurrection despite being an embodiment of all that is impure and negativity.

It's always a sore point for me that's why I get annoyed with fics that follow RTs Kikyo-worship and Kagome-bashing a great deal.

Can’t agree on everything. It’s all good.

And I never thought about Kikyo enough to consider her a Mary Sue, but now that you mention it she sounds like one too.

I wrote Embrace the Silence ten years ago, I still stand by it.

I feel like some of the negative reviewers who hated the ending missed the point. Maybe I failed to express it properly.

However, I knew I was breaking some rules of writing and I had the ending in mind from the get go. I jokingly call it “pulling a Neil Gaiman.”

The last sentence of the fanfic was the first sentence I wrote at the bottom of the document, and then I scrolled up and wrote the rest.

Kagome is set on an emotional journey when Sesshoumaru unexpectedly reappears in her life, and the story ends when she fully understands what that journey meant. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. I ended where I did to let readers imagine what comes next after the textual fade to black.

I kept Sesshoumaru as an enigma on purpose because he is one. He isn’t going to look at time or distance the same way humans do. We aren’t privy to what he’s thinking unless he expresses it himself. A lot of the story is about what is unsaid as much as what is said. I knew what Sesshoumaru’s motives were because I’m the writer, but we are in Kagome’s head and not his. We are experiencing him through her.

He teaches her to be still, to live in this moment now.

But people want to be spoon fed every little thing and I find that frustrating.

Then I had a reviewer complaining about how I characterized Kagome that I just rolled my eyes at. They called her weak and too accepting. Anonymous, of course, so no way to reply. I wanted to tell them they must not understand trauma. Sess and Kag are both dealing with their traumas in their own way.

But what can you do? There are people who are never satisfied and I’m not going to break my spine for their sake,

I just want to throw my two cents in there for what its worth. Embrace the Silence is hands down one of my favorite - if not my absolute favorite - SessKag fic. And it's a favorite for the reasons you described in your comment here. All those elements you mentioned and touch on are what make the story what it is. I have issues with PTSD from some medical stuff I went through, and this story 100% triggered that but in a way that allowed me to process and go through what I had been through seeing it in a different light than I would have previously (and that wasn't a bad thing - it was cathartic). And that's because of the way it's written. I think everything you wanted to come across did, and it did it very well. Don't let readers who want to be spoon fed get you down. This story was so much more than the average fanfic, and it was more because of what was left unsaid and what could be read between the lines.

I never saw Kagome as weak in this. I saw her as someone who saw past a whole lot of trauma and crap and could still love someone regardless of it. And honestly, I think that is a hopeful message. Because we all have skeletons in our closet. They'll vary from person to person, but we all have stuff. And it would be a dark, unkind world for so many if there weren't people like your Kagome who could love imperfect.

So, for what it's worth, the story is in no way lacking. If there are problems had, those are personal to the reader and not because of the writing.

Thank you very much!

I recognize your name, you left the two reviews that are at the top right now, one of which mentioned making Sesshoumaru precious in a few scenes. That was harder than I imagined it would be, but I wanted to throw in a little humor to break up the darkness. It’s amusing that the first things I thought about were him thinking Kagome’s toilet was a well and when he’s chewing on a milkbone in the supermarket. Those were purely dog jokes.

My favorite part is still the moment Kagome holds his heart in her hands while it’s beating. I’ve done that before, although not for the same reason Kagome did it. It feels extremely intimate. That’s a part of the body someone’s spouse is never likely to see. Sesshoumsru blushed because she caressed and loved him in a way that literally no one else will ever be able to repeat. If I wrote that scene in his perspective, he would say that is the moment he realized he loved her, because she handled his broken heart with such tenderness. It feels weird now to spill some of the beans of what he was thinking but we weren’t privy to due to the POV belonging to Kagome.

One other thing I like to toss around is the unseen stuff in chapter 21, when he doesn’t do what Kagome expected. Let’s just say he paid some monks a visit and repaid their cruelty a thousand fold. Then he turned around and decided he was tired of it. Ironically, I wrote the last sentence of that chapter on an Easter morning.

ETS would not have happened if I hadn’t read Resmiranda’s “Fugue” fanfic. It gave me the idea to run off and write my own “Sesshoumaru wakes up in modern times” story but I swore to make it different enough to not be a carbon copy. That pretty, snobby demon is an enigma and I wanted to crack him like an egg and see what was inside. The hypnosis scenes alone took almost three months to write and shape because having Sesshoumaru full on boohoo cry is surprisingly hard to pull off believably.

Sorry about the ramble. There is a lot I could say about Sesshoumaru in certain scenes that nobody is privy to except me.

I’m very glad the story helped you through your struggles, it helped me with mine also.

Creating a strong reaction, whether positive or negative, is still better than a meh, lukewarm non-reaction. Why? Because it means you impacted the viewer on some level. For eg, Twilight is hated by many people -BUT - it owes its popularity to the author connecting with its readers on the right levels.

The best advice I was given I still use to this day. Throw out your best review, and throw out your worst review. The remaining ones in between are the ones that contain the really useful feedback for you.

topazann wrote:
Creating a strong reaction, whether positive or negative, is still better than a meh, lukewarm non-reaction. Why? Because it means you impacted the viewer on some level.

100% agree with this. If you don't get any interaction as a fic writer, it makes you feel like you did something wrong.
And having any interaction does work. I wrote a story in another fandom, and a review I got was composed of crying emojis and the reader trying to write through tears. You know what though? I was genuinely happy by the fact that my story had moved and impacted this reader enough that they thought to review in the manner they had.

Just going off of this, fic writers need support too. I've seen complaints from quite a few fic writers lately, here in this fandom and others, about not getting support or reviews. Fic writers complain about it, but I don't really see a lot of Dokuga writers/artists supporting their fellow community members too. I've been guilty of that in the past, and I'm trying to change, but I think it's unfair of fic writers to complain about a lack of reviews when they don't support their fellow community members.

During the beginning of my story. I once had a review that was not necessarily bad but they felt so strongly about why they didn't want to read my story because it was too violent...or that it was a trigger warning for them because I had tagged it as a romance when there was some violence that happened between the two characters. I tried to be thankful for even a little critique but it ended up discouraging me for a week and a took the story down. Until I realized #1 there must have been something that intrigued them about my story to comment and maybe they would change their mind once they read more. #2 my brain was nagging me to complete the story because it had a beginning, a middle, and the end. I may have writers block but I knew my end goal. #3 My genius can not be stopped. Lol jk. As far as a reviewers go, some c of the greatest stories I have ever read *i mean I bawled my eyes and reread... I never reviewed. So if someone just takes the time to click on my little chapter...i am so happy...that is a reward in itself especially since I am now up to 40 something chapters. So don't let it discourage you...I would love the reviews but I'm never going to let a negative or critical reviews stop me from my personal project. I love SessKag fanfic writing and no one should not be able to take that away from me or anyone else because of their opinion or lack of opinion.

I'll say this and leave it for now. There are a lot of writers who are either outright leaving or discussing behind the scenes with other writers how discouraging producing fanfiction has become. And it is due to a lack of feedback/ interaction with readers.

If you read something, it goes a long way to keep writers writing to leave them a note. No one likes to feel like their efforts are for nothing. So, while leaving comments is absolutely not a requirement, they do help the fandom thrive. Because that's what keeps a lot of writers writing. I can't even say how many times I've seen encouragement on a fic bring someone back to the fandom or trigger an update when there hasn't been one in a while. The power of commenting cannot be underestimated.