Posted 08 February 2005 - 03:30 PM
So I'm talking to The SOC Puppet yesterday, really only about six or seven hours ago at this point, and he's talking to me about Bloodlines and flamers. I've read his LJ and seen what he's had to say about that.
I don't talk to SOC often, because I go low-tech for long periods of time and we don't even know one another's names, let alone converse in any other medium but electronic messaging. He's a very interesting person, to say the least, and one of the very few people I respect.
I've read Bloodlines, carefully, and I still think some of the kitten he's done is utterly wack. I mean, the Avatar is just... completely unexpected and I'm not sure I like it. I also know a thing or two about where this crazy ride is going (in general; we don't swap details and no, I'm not going to divulge) because I'm a sounding-board-cum-fresh-faced-newbie. But, remember that I respect him, and frequently the journey is as important as the end, and is more often than not the whole point of the endeavor in the first place. So I'll sit by and allow him to do what he wants and feels needs to be done.
I do not envy him in the least. Being still semi-anonymous, I've tried very hard to be unapproachable. I'm snide, arrogant, and blunt to the point of being rude. This is purposeful. It's an escape hatch for me, so that if I ever want to make a clean break from this identity that I've created, I can without creating too much damage. I can disappear in my relative anonymity. However, despite my attempts at being unapproachable, there are those who have sought me out and are very persistant. Tatsu doesn't let me come back from away without saying hello, and that's very nice of him. He is patient, in his own patently impatient way, and has never asked what my name is or what I've been doing when I don't come online. The poor guy let me explain orthogonality to him. Give him sympathy.
My point is, rambling though it may be, though SOC is well-known and widely-read, he's got a responsibility to not screw up Bloodlines. By setting a precedent of every chapter being worth reading, he's set himself up with a duty to see it through and do it well. He's got to prove, though he may not want to or even see it this way, that this wild new turn in the plot isn't just some mindless self-indulgence. (I can tell you it isn't, but in the same breath I'll also tell you not to listen to my opinions because I'm untrustworthy and fickle.)
So he got two negative reviews on chapter eighteen. This set him in a frenzy because he saw the accusations as baseless and imbecilic. The reviews in question were anything but friendly, basically telling him to pull chapter eighteen entirely and rework it because 'he's totally destroyed the mood' or 'taken a serious manga arc and crapped all over it.' I think those are close enough to verbatim to serve, so we'll run with it.
The SOC Puppet is a serious guy. I'm not. Sometimes I wonder if he understands the emphasis I'm putting on certain words or if he's catching the irreverent humor underlying in my commentary. AIM is so bad with intonation and sarcasm. So I try to be honest with him, because he deserves it and I don't think that he gets it often enough in regards to his work. (What with being on the top and all.)
It is very hard to discount a review that is properly written in the known conventions of the English language. So many reviews are just half-burbled thoughts and approval, making them mostly useless to the author. (Not me! Cause I love my ego and it loves reviews! 132 to date, 0 negative.) When two of these critical reviews that don't really say anything other than 'this is kitten, do it again' come down the pipe, it's hard to handle.
Do I think that Thermopyle and Dameus are jackasses? Yes. That's not the point.
Would I kill them in the street? Probably not. I'd entertain thoughts of violence, most assuredly, but I'm not one to stand up for others.
LackeyH, Alden-san, etc, etc, however, did stand up for him. I often wonder to myself why someone who has the approval of all the big names in Naruto Fanfiction cares about what some retard named Dameus thinks of his story? Especially when Dameus has never published a story of his own and has the audacity to sit in judgment on others, like an author with a proven track record. Then consider that The SOC Puppet is one of the biggest names in the Naruto Fanfiction.
I guess I don't see why he cares. Paying attention to the fans is important because it makes them feel as though they matter and the author isn't typing to see himself talk. But every Dungeon Master knows that there comes a point where you can't let the players do whatever the hell they feel like doing. The story is yours and you alone are the arbiter of that creative potential.
Smiter. Right now you could tell me that Something or Other was frivolous plot merged around sex, because honestly, that's what it is. I wrote the lemon scene (and the emotions/ideals I was striving to express, thank you very much) out first then built the plot around it. You could say my transitions suck, because they do, and that's why I can't write anything without scene breaks well. You should see my history papers and then you'd understand.
Blayze. You could say that Asinine Rationalizations was absolutely too long for the complete lack of plot expressed. That'd be a fair assessment. I'd even go one better and say my dialogue is weak in that one and the laundromat scene is disjointed and confusing. It's true. It's the freaking bridge to important things, but that's no excuse for shoddy bridge-making... bridgemakingness. That's not a word, but for the life of me I can't come up with a suitable replacement.
Alpha-san. If you told me, point-blank, that my characterizations of Itachi were far too generous, I don't think I'd be able to argue that. The way I write him is too open, his cards are far too exposed away from the vest and he's too talkative (nevermind emotive.) He's never given any reason to believe that he cares about anything and anyone who's been paying attention noticed I damned Goddess of Oblivion for pulling the same damn kitten. Ouch, I'm being a hypocrite.
I think the point I'm trying to express here is that accepting your faults as an author is the first step to removing them entirely. How can you fix them if you don't acknowledge them? Don't be shocked when someone has a complaint. Everyone is different and has their own, semi-unique, partially-informed opinion. You are not privy to the stuff that goes on inside my head. (You should probably feel lucky on that count.) Disagreements are a part of life, but letting them get you down and pushing you toward depression is not a good response.
Yelling back is satisfying, but then you get into the whole 'lowering to their level' thing and the moral high-ground is abandoned for pit-fighting.
Morals are cute and shiny but not practical. I'll generally fight back, and I sling mud.
No one should be more critical of a piece of work than its creator. As an author, I've agonized over minute word-choices so as to keep the flavor of the scene intact and I've sat sweating, waiting for my computer to load up the first set of reviews. Nervousness is something I cannot tolerate, so I make it a point to never get nervous. Sometimes I just can't help it. Being human after all sucks.
I have no idea where I'm going with this anymore, but I hope I'm getting across the confusion and the rambling and the 'running fingers through hair' feeling I'm going for. Let's see if I sputter out anytime soon.
There is nothing you can tell me that I haven't already considered and analyzed in my fiction. Go ahead. Try. I'm not challenging anyone, but I know what I wrote well enough to recite it from memory, mostly. When someone complains that the spirit of the fic or the mood has been betrayed, then I begin to question the sanity of the reviewer. After all, is not the author the final word on the construction of the work? You read what I write. If you feel the need to express your opinion, then you are free to, but don't expect it to have an impact.
... huh... this attitude is probably why I don't get a lot of reviews...
It is very hard to give constructive criticism on something you disagree with or hate. I don't review specifically for this reason. This may be a symptom of a disease I call idiocy, but it's a hell of a plague. If I can't read something, I'm not going to finish it. If I don't like the plot, I don't finish it. Nothing forces me to do it, so I don't. It's like those logic squares with the four subsections that you put check marks in back in middle school. I only read if these two conditions are fulfilled, meaning that, at most, there's only a 25% I'll actually read anything through to completion. (this of course assumes that all four choices have an equal probability of occuring given a truly random chance)
Anyway. I think I need to end this now. I have to go on with my life here in a minute, so I'll take a moment to think about anything I need to say in closing.
Nope. I'm done.
Guest_Aethos_*
( NaruSaku ) stories in the C2. 
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