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

[best-of-five.livejournal.com]

ahh but your aunt marge hypothetical still doesn't work because the players are all different - if the fic is the sweater, then presumably you (the recipient) are parading it around. by that logic, ONLY if/when the recipient posts the fic somewhere should the fic be available for critiquing. i won't be over here, holding my breath, for that day thanks to all the pesky "fic is writer's property" debates.

thank you for revalidating my mother's belief in my wisdom and discernment. but your condescending tone aside, while you may not agree with what's concrit or not, i think that when something is only rude i.e. if someone says "your story sucks" and leaves it at that, i fail to see anything constructive about it. that's my subjective take on it.

i agree with you that concrit tends to be an all or nothing affair. that is actually the precise reason why i think it should be permitted in gift exchanges/everywhere fic gets posted publicly. see, unlike gifts, fic still sorta belongs to the author and a concrit is a dialogue between a reader and the author. if you (author) don't want the dialogue, then the surefire way to ensure that is don't post it publicly. also, if you (author) want the dialogue but only want it to be "squee", then i'll just be over here rolling my eyes. if you(recipient) want everyone to squee over your gift fic, and can't handle anyone's concrit on it, then i suggest you don't read any of the feedback. or read it and respond to it. it's a free web after all.