State of the Fandom

Posted by SarahBella in State of the Fandom with Sarahbella | Comments Off

Glossary of words and phrases you must understand before partaking in the reading of this blog.

The Big 5 – These girls are the absolute elite in the world of Twilight fanfic, the cream of the crop (this has been voted on and approved by the owners of mvf.com).  They are, in no particular order:

1) AngryBadgerGirl

2) AngstGoddess003

3) TaraSueMe

4) Jandco & WTVOC (You guys are just a pair, sorry.  Trying to separate you would be like Bert with no Ernie or Bonnie with no Clyde.  It’s just wrong.)

5) tby789

snark⋅y /ˈsnɑrki/ [snahr-kee]

–adjective, snark⋅i⋅er, snark⋅i⋅est. Chiefly British Slang.

sar⋅casm [sɑrkæzəm] [sahr-kaz-uh m]

noun

I’m snarky, bitter and sarcastic.  We’ve covered that.  In all seriousness though, please read on.  This topic is very near and dear to my heart.

Today’s lesson, rant, tantrum, whatever is on reviewing.    As an author, I understand completely what those few little words mean to the person writing the story you love.  Therefore, as a reviewer, I am prolific.  I review 75% of what I read.  The other 25% is generally because I click the next button without realizing that I haven’t reviewed yet.  I’m going to cover two different aspect of reviews today, so grab a pencil and some paper and prepare to make some notes.  The first topic of discussion today is ‘Why authors love reviews’.  After that, we’ll cover ‘How to leave a good review’.

Part One – Why authors love reviews – There are actually several reasons why authors love reviews.  They are all fairly intertwined, but they still all matter individually.

1. They tell us what you do and don’t like.  This one will get brought up again later, but for now, if you don’t review, we don’t know why.  When you do review, we know that you either like or dislike the story, and in a good review, we know why.

1. They help us feel validated as writers.  They let us know that people are reading, that it’s not just our friend Beth clicking the button over and over again to make us feel better about no one reading our story.  It also lets us know that our blood, sweat and tears are not for naught!  Someone is paying attention to us!

1. They keep us motivated.  If we know that thirty people review each chapter, we know that thirty people are counting on us to post the next chapter.  Sometimes, it helps to know that we’re not only doing this for ourselves.

1. They make us feel loved.  Seriously, folks.  They give us the warm fuzzies like you would not believe.  To know that someone else has fallen in love with these characters that we’ve taken and warped to suit our own needs is the ultimate ego stroking!

1. They tell us if we’re getting our point across.  If we write something that we think is awesometastic, we don’t know that you don’t get it unless you tell us.  And we may just keep writing that same way, all the while losing our readers, if no one tell us that we don’t make sense.  Likewise, we may stop doing something that really is awesometastic if no one else tells us that they love it.

Part two – How to Leave a Good Review. There are several important things to keep in mind when leaving a review.

1. Always, always, always, make sure any criticism is constructive.  I told you this would come up again.  If you don’t like something, tell us.  But also tell us why you didn’t like it, and how we could do it better in the future.  Don’t say, ‘You shouldn’t have had Edward die.’  Say ‘If Edward hadn’t died, you could have had him marry Bella.’  It’s something that the author can keep in mind for the next fic.

1. Never, never, never, NEVER, threaten or insult an author.  In the ff community, we call this flaming.  It is the rudest thing you can do when leaving a review.  Like your mama used to say “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”  You may not agree with what the author wrote, but at least he/she had the guts to put their story out there.

1. Tell us your favorite part of the chapter.  Was it the humor, the hott kiss?  Was it the way she described his bulging biceps as he lowered himself over the heroine?   Tell us!!  We love it when our favorite part is your favorite part too!

1. Do not write your entire review in text speak.  Half of us can’t even read that.  And the other half of us have grammar so permanently engrained in our brains that it hurts to read words that are missing all of their vowels.   This is something I will continue to harp on about every chance I get.  Text speak is seriously ruining the WORLD!!!  Emoticons are the exceptions.  We LOVE to get a smiley face in a review!

1. Don’t yell at us in a review.  You can squee a bit if you especially love something, but please don’t leave the entire thing in all caps.  It’s hard to read.

1. Never forget that sarcasm can be difficult to read.  If you write ‘That was awful’.  The author likely thinks that her chapter suck, even if you typed it with your tongue firmly in cheek and a smirk on your face.  She can’t see your face, or hear your inflection.

The final ‘do’ is do review EVERYTHING!  Leave us a review for every single chapter you read (phoenixrising I love you for this!!)!  We may not always have time to respond to them, but I promise we read them!