The Etiquette of Holiday fics

[geoviki]

Like all the rest of you, I'm delighting in the reams and reams of new stories and art (and this year's art is especially terrific!). There's the granddaddy, merry_smutmas, and then others like harry_holidays, hd_holidays, smutty_claus, lupin_snape.... an embarrassment of riches!

As we are encouraging each other as writers and artists, I'm trying to leave feedback as well. One thing that caught my notice, though, has left me feeling uneasy, and I wondered what your views are: In your opinion, is it uncouth to leave concrit that's negative on a fest fic? (Disclosure: this is not anything that's happened regarding my own fic, just other folk's.)

I don't see the author requesting any, for one thing. Personally, I won't do it, but then I never leave anything less than praise unless I'm asked specifically and privately. If I don't like something, I just pass it by. Which unfortunately is the same response to something I've not yet read, so the writer is never sure if I'm unhappy or just behind (if the writer even cares what I think), but there you go.

But IMHO, these stories are gifts. And I can't see criticising a gift. Am I over-sensitive? What do you authors and artists think?

Comments

[sangochan.livejournal.com]

I haven't left what I would call negative feedback--just made a couple of points, one concerning a slight canon deviation and the other about pacing

Since when is fanfiction ever even remotely concerned with canon?

For the most part, fan fiction is taking canon characters and playing with them in situations that make the author (or, in ficfests, the recipient) happy. It's akin to small children playing with Barbie dolls or G.I. Joes... canon only vaguely applies, and then only when the author decides they want it to.

Sorry if I sound bitter here, but the entire idea of "canon" makes me snarf my coffee this morning, especially when inundated with H/D, Snarry, Snupin, and all the other decidedly non-canon smut and romance fic.

[ex-marcasit.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, and truthfully, canon deviation doesn't usually bother me. It's just in this case, it gave a specific example from movie canon, which was a huge change from what was in the book (PoA), and that's just a personal pet peeve of mine. Since I've never given FB on a gift exchange comm before this year, I had no idea that the comments section was the wrong place to voice that peeve. Mea culpa.