I'm just not sure what you're trying to achieve. The badfic writers are going to ignore you, and the good writers already know this stuff.
I disagree. Yes, there are writers who are just flat out bad. At No Cookie, we have fun with them. We're not offering serious criticism. The writers of such stories usually show a basic inability to write anything; improving the creative quality of their writing is out of the question. It is not our hope that they will write better fiction; it is our hope that gifted and inspiring eductators will find these people and teach them the basic rules of grammar and sentence structure, so they may some day find gainful employment.
So I'd agree that there's a lot of bad fic written by hopelessly bad writers, and that no amount of criticism will be of help.
However, there are a lot of other fic writers who exist on the cusp of quality. Their spelling, grammar, characterization, prose, and imagery are all fine (or at least show potential), but a cliche here or a malapropism there makes the story at best tiresome, at worst unreadable.
Unfortunately, such writers often find a lot of positive reinforcement in their feedback. Of course, the sources of such feedback may not be the most discerning of critics ("Oooh. 'Orbs.' That means 'tits.' Faith's tits. Hmmmmmm....").
So I think there's a place in the fanfiction community for serious criticism. Most fic writers want to be good writers. More importantly, they want to become better writers. Criticism helps. Posting a story on the internet is going to bring criticism. If you only write for your own personal pleasure, fine. Keep it on your hard drive. But when you put out there for others to read, you invite feedback, and you have to take the boos with the bows.
no subject
There's also a hotmail group here.
I'm just not sure what you're trying to achieve. The badfic writers are going to ignore you, and the good writers already know this stuff.
I disagree. Yes, there are writers who are just flat out bad. At No Cookie, we have fun with them. We're not offering serious criticism. The writers of such stories usually show a basic inability to write anything; improving the creative quality of their writing is out of the question. It is not our hope that they will write better fiction; it is our hope that gifted and inspiring eductators will find these people and teach them the basic rules of grammar and sentence structure, so they may some day find gainful employment.
So I'd agree that there's a lot of bad fic written by hopelessly bad writers, and that no amount of criticism will be of help.
However, there are a lot of other fic writers who exist on the cusp of quality. Their spelling, grammar, characterization, prose, and imagery are all fine (or at least show potential), but a cliche here or a malapropism there makes the story at best tiresome, at worst unreadable.
Unfortunately, such writers often find a lot of positive reinforcement in their feedback. Of course, the sources of such feedback may not be the most discerning of critics ("Oooh. 'Orbs.' That means 'tits.' Faith's tits. Hmmmmmm....").
So I think there's a place in the fanfiction community for serious criticism. Most fic writers want to be good writers. More importantly, they want to become better writers. Criticism helps. Posting a story on the internet is going to bring criticism. If you only write for your own personal pleasure, fine. Keep it on your hard drive. But when you put out there for others to read, you invite feedback, and you have to take the boos with the bows.