Review Replies - a rant

[aearwen2]

The Tolkien fandom has an aspect that is, frankly, both puzzling and frustrating to me: the insistence on a writer being obligated to respond to reader reviews. As you can tell, I'm not terribly fond of the whole idea.



Some of you know first-hand the work that goes into producing a story or novel: the hours of actually writing the thing, on top of whatever time was needed to do research; the time spent sending each story or chapter to a beta or posting it to a workshop for concrit and comment from fellow writers; and, finally, the time needed to format the chapter/story for posting (often multiple formats because one place uses the HTML "<>" tags and another uses [tag] and a third one will just plain pick up any formatting from the document file itself.)

Then, once a writer has done all that, and has started to receive reader reviews, SOME folks believe that the writer is obligated to spend even more time replying to each and every review written - and doing so immediately, if not sooner.

I'm sorry, but I think that's just bunk.

I would frankly much rather be spending my time working on a WIP than puzzling over just how to say "Thanks, I'm glad you liked that" a zillion different ways. I'd like to think that, when Real Life™ overwhelms me, as it has in the past couple of weeks (self-inflicted, but still overwhelming) I need not feel guilty about not replying to reviews.

But, today, I read a review from LOTRFF that chastized me for not responding to reviews - telling me that my replies are "important." Well, the consequence of this review will be that, after I finish posting "Second Chances", I will no longer be posting to LOTRFF. I will not post where the readers - who are getting free reading material, where I receive no pay for all that work whatsoever other than their very occasional kind words - feel they have the right to harass writers who don't answer the reviews in what the readers think is sufficient time.

Pardon my language, but who the frell do those people think they are? Do they honestly believe that their breaking down and writing between ten and fifty words expressing a little gratitude for the effort that went into crafting the story is such a HUGE benevolence that I as writer OWE them a response??? OWE them anything???

Who did all the work here? Certainly not the reviewers! If there is a comparative debt in the fanfic writer/fanfic reader equation, it sits on the readers' side because so few who read actually review.

But, you know, I'm OK with that. I personally have a policy that I review a story only when I feel it is either spectacularly good, or spectacularly awful. I try to respond to the reviews that ask me questions or which go out of their way to speak to elements of the story. Effort I will acknowledge. Personality I will respond to - and sometimes it wins me a new friend, which I deeply appreciate. But each and every "I like this"? No frelling way! I do not allow myself to be held hostage to the fandom otherwise; I certainly am not going to kowtow on this point either!!

I'm sorry, but there's a point where replying to reviews because it's expected stops being a case of politeness and it starts being a case of being forced into pandering. Do I answer reviews because I want to enter into a written relationship with all these folks, or because I that answering will garner me more reviews later on down the line? While I appreciate the reviews, and there are those folks whom I come to see as people I'd like to get to know better, I really do not want to expand the number of my online acquaintances exponentially, as I don't want to spend the greater part of every day answering emails. (No wonder professional writers end up having others answer fan mail!!) And I may disappoint some here, but I'm not all that attached to the number of reviews anymore anyway.

You see, when I was MMB, writing for The Pretender fandom, I walked away with my very successful novel from FFN and the hundreds of reviews there because of the vagarities of working with FFN at the time. I kept writing and posting to a personal archive - and in the process, got very used to getting few if any reviews. I wasn't writing for the reviews; I was writing because I had a tale to tell.

In the Tolkien fandom, that's still my motivating factor. I have a tale or two (or more) to tell. If someone reads it and feels like they want to comment or concrit, that's great; but I don't require it of them, nor do I feel obligated to respond to absolutely each and every one who reviews. My understanding of a review is that it is the one way a reader can "pay" the writer. If writing fanfic were a real job, would I as writer be expected to say "thank you" to my supervisor/boss everytime I get a payroll check for work I was expected to do? No!! If writing fanfic were a real job, I'd be getting few payroll checks to begin with, and they'd be far between at that - and expecting me to say "thank you" would be work done off the clock to boot.

So I will continue with my practice. I will review only the extraordinarily good or awful stuff I read, as well as the stuff written by folks I know, and I will respond to reviews as my Muse moves me - and when I have a free moment not involved in writing another story or actually living my Real Life™. I absolutely will not be bullied or humiliated into meeting anybody else's expectations of me in regards to replies.

And if folks stop reading me because I'm not at their beck and call through review replies, so be it. I post stories because I have stories to tell, NOT to get reviews.



Sorry. I just had to get that out. Hope I didn't offend anybody.

Comments

Review Replies

[(Anonymous)]

Aearwen,

I know of the person(s) you speak of on LOTRFF, matter of fact, I've seen one in particular, do that to more than one author of stories I enjoyed. I would read the reviews to see if anyone got a different viewpoint of the story, and get an even deeper understanding of the story that I may have missed, and thus, I would read the story again. You may be surprised to know, that when the reviewer would insist on the author answering replies, it would turn me off. I would no longer read the reviews, and so not get that other viewpoint - which is a shame, as the world is so much larger than we ourselves are, and we really ought to be expanding ourselves (to some extent), rather than being so insular. But that's just my opinion.

I certainly can't blame you for taking your stuff off of LOTRFF. (And I hope that I haven't done anything bad to you either. :D )

AND you have every right to get it off your chest. AND if you ever want me to beta (unless I already am doing that? NOT really sure what a beta does come to think of it) your works, you know how to find me! ;-) LOL

Hugs and Love,
Vanime

Re: Review Replies

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Vanime -

Sidh! Avo 'osto, meldis nîn!

You, my dear, are an excellent example of the kind of person that is an absolute JOY to respond to, and you can rest assured that I would never have extended the invitation to you that I did recently otherwise. I find myself feeling very lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know you better. As I said in my rant, from time to time I find new friends from my reviewers. You are definitely one of those.

That person - there are less diplomatic ways that I could lable her, but that accomplishes nothing positive for either of us - on LOTRFF actually had the unmitigated gall to write back and say "I didn't mean that as a negative review. Forgive me if I upset you."

Yeah. Right. As if that changes anything. The kind of commentary she gave me as a so-called "review" would have been better send in private email, AFAIC - and I'm on enough other archives that I'm truly not that hard to chase down. I've been looking for a reason to cut down on the number of archives I have to post to on weekends. This gives me a good (to me) excuse to drop LOTRFF. I'm also about ready to ditch OSA as well.

And be careful what you wish for. I now have you on a very short list of folks whom I might use as betas for things written for challenges that I can't necessarily post to LC or HoF.

BWAHAHAHAhahahahaha!!! :-D

Re: Review Replies

[(Anonymous)]

LMAO! I try to be very careful what I wish for... ;-)
LOL!

The feeling is mutual sweetie! I am too so very happy to make a friend, and a joyful one at that! :D

I do have to admit, I am trying to be better in how I review stories. Like Neylo (sp?) mentioned down there on the comments, I too have intentions of writing a great/good review, it comes out as "I really like this!" And it's so true, I am ashamed to say. AND the only reason I say "I really like this!" is because I really do, and not just trying to get brownie points, or stars or anything like that (although it's very tempting to get the stars and leafs on HoF or LC. But then, I could blame you for that - you DID invite me you know! :P LOL)

And the reviewer wrote back on top of it??? What the freaking hey! You've GOT to be kidding me!!

[Error: Irreparable invalid markup ('<shaking [...] eyes,>') in entry. Owner must fix manually. Raw contents below.]

LMAO! I try to be very careful what I wish for...<grin> ;-)
LOL!

The feeling is mutual sweetie! I am too so very happy to make a friend, and a joyful one at that! :D

I do have to admit, I am trying to be better in how I review stories. Like Neylo (sp?) mentioned down there on the comments, I too have intentions of writing a great/good review, it comes out as "I really like this!" And it's so true, I am ashamed to say. <hangs head> AND the only reason I say "I really like this!" is because I really do, and not just trying to get brownie points, or stars or anything like that (although it's very tempting to get the stars and leafs on HoF or LC. <grin> But then, I could blame you for that - you DID invite me you know! :P LOL)

And the reviewer wrote back on top of it??? What the freaking hey! You've GOT to be kidding me!! <shaking head, closing eyes, in disbelief> SOME people REALLY take the cake! LOL UNbelievable!

I have to say, you showed a lot of class in how you handled the review and the temptation. I don't know how I would have reacted...I'd probably be stunned stupified to the point where I wouldn't know what to say much less what to do. Probably the only thing I would have done is not reply to her/him. Any thing else? Dunno. May I/We all be so wise as you have become in handling idiots like that.

Hgus and Love,
Vanime

PS. Trying to translate the elvish - I did get "Peace!" The rest I am not sure about - I think it's "Listen to me dear"?
LOL Why do I get the feeling that I'll need my handy dictionary soon for everything coming my way? :P LOL

Re: Review Replies

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Trying to translate the elvish - I did get "Peace!" The rest I am not sure about - I think it's "Listen to me dear"?

LOL. Not quite.

Sidh, like you said, is "Peace." Avo 'osto is "Don't be afraid" or "don't fear". Meldis nîn is "My friend" (literally "friend [female] mine".

We'll have you understanding bits & pieces of neo-Sindarin in no time, I wager...

[galantha-nivala.livejournal.com]

Um...I know you're really upset, but at the risk of making you even more upset, is it worth leaving an archive entirely because of one horse's rear end? (Is it just one? Because if a passel of them came calling, I'd agree it was time to go elsewhere.)

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

You didn't make me more upset. Asking me to re-think a decision is always a good idea.

However, I think my decision will stand, regardless it was only one reviewer. If one reader feels they can do that kind of thing in public with impunity, no doubt there are more. And frankly, this is the one non-flammatory manner in which I, as a writer, can take a stand against that kind of reader tyranny.

Besides, as I told Vanime up above, I've been looking for an excuse to start paring down the number of archives I post to anyway, especially now that (1) I have Bennas Aeärwen up and running; and (2) I've said in so many words in public that I don't write and post my stories merely to get reviews. If folks want to read my stories, that's great - that's why I post them: to share them. If they want to review, that's even greater; if they want me to respond to those reviews, then give me a reason to. Be personable, ask questions.

But for pity's sake, don't lecture, harass, or scold me for not meeting their expectations. Nobody, and I do mean NOBODY has the right to foist expectations on me unless they're bloody well paying me Real Life™ money.

[galantha-nivala.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. It's not worth the grief. We'd all lead very miserable lives if we insisted up to everyone else's expectations.

[randy-o.livejournal.com]

Er, that was rather pushy of said reviewer. She acted as if you're some teenager in need of being taught manners. No wonder you're annoyed.

Replying to reviewers is nice, but it's hardly required, any more than a review is required when you read an author's story.

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

I read said reviewer's bio. She states she's a (relatively) new mother, and must feel that she can deal with others in the online world the way she deals with her child/ren. What's more, she obviously never thought through how that "lecture" would sound on the receiving end, because now she's surprised and distressed that it made me upset. Maybe she'll think twice before playing "Mommy" so someone else. I may just reply to this latest "review" and tell her so in so many words.

[randy-o.livejournal.com]

She reviewed you again? Oy freaking vey!

There is a rather . . . officious crowd at LOTRFF, not unlike what you sometimes see a FFN.

Oh, and my mother still talks to me and other people as if we're children. And I'm almost into my dotage.

Edit: I just read it. *headdesk* Talk about clueless and thick!

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

After working for almost an hour to word an appropriately toned response to that, I decided to just delete the review altogether. Let's see how she responds to THAT.

There's no way that I can tell to send a private message through LOTRFF. Damn. Another good reason to get the heck outta Dodge.

[randy-o.livejournal.com]

Friendly advice to another author? "If you have the time to write, you have the time to bla-bla-bla . . ."?

It's a good thing there's no PM option. I was tempted to write her and ask her if she knew to whom she was speaking. You're not some fifteen year old nOOb.

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

I was a bad girl...

I went and saw that someone with her moniker is registered at FFN. No, I didn't leave her a PM - no idea if it's the same person.

But I was tempted... O was I tempted!!

My response - which I also deleted from LOTRFF - included something on the line of "For your information, I've been at this fan fiction writing process a whole lot longer than you have - bet you didn't know that, did you? I'm also no teenager to be "mothered" into learning better behavior. I'm a heckuva lot older than you too - bet you didn't know that either." If/when I ever find out that this person on FFN is the same as on LOTRFF, and if/when s/he/it leaves me another review, I shall reconsider my options.

In the meanwhile, I was tempted... but I resisted.

May she be happy. May she be peaceful. May she be free from suffering. May she learn a little equinimity - and thus increase the previous three.

Rinse & repeat...

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Progress report:

She's deleted her original review. I wonder if she came over here and discovered what kind of reaction her review was actually getting? Maybe even read the rant?

One can only hope...

With luck, I'll never hear from her again.

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

And as for being in your dotage, I believe you and I are nearly of an age.

Ya know, I've been thinking that, in order to get the proper costume for when I attend ALEP2 next year, I need to figure out what a Gondorian dowager would look like. I've simply got too much grey hair and "booty" to even begin to pretend to be an Elf!! :-D

[randy-o.livejournal.com]

If ever called upon to dress up as an LOTR character, I'd probably go the Wizard route. Or maybe a dragon. LOL

[nelyo-russandol.livejournal.com]

OMG, that is just sooo unbelievable.

I am one of those readers who sometimes feel too lazy to write a review, because I would just not like to say "I really liked it" but write a lot more, and then I begin, but I end up giving up because I am too tired and/or lazy to write something meaningful. For that I am very sorry. I have begun to reform myself now that I have posted a few things and I enjoy getting a review. Unfortunately, I am not truly succeeding lately, with holidays, etc.

I am with you completely. You are the one who shares wonderful stuff with people. To be lectured in the way you describe by someone who just feels you are no better than one of her kids seems outrageous.

I would not worry about LOTRFF, those who know and love your stories will follow you to the other places where you post to. Looking on the bright side, it is one less archive to update! ;o)

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Looking on the bright side, it is one less archive to update! ;o)

LOL! Exactly!! I figure FFN, HASA, LJ & Bennas Aeärwen should be enough for just about everyone...

Rant

[(Anonymous)]

Yikes! Why did my comment get entered somehow twice???? How does one fix this??

Oh dear....

Hugs and Love,
Vanime

Re: Rant

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

Vanime -

LJ doesn't like the <> HTML tags used for anything but HTML, so when you marked "hangs head" and other stuff with them, it got real confused. Duping things is the way LJ tells you it's confused - by confusing YOU. :-D

No biggie. We've all done it.

[spacellama.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to respond to every review? Really? Eek. I've been doin it wrong for more'n a decade now. Bad me.

As a reviewer -- and at one time I was a great reviewer, in terms of volume -- having writers thank me for my thank you sometimes got tedious, and sometimes it was just embarrassing.

On the other hand, the balance of debt between writer and reader is a more complicated thing than all that, I think. I believe that readers are the generous ones, both in fandom and in the world in general. Writers are going to write their stories -- in most cases, we just have to in order to exist as ourselves -- but nothing compels strangers to read our work, or to pay for it with reviews and/or money. That people do so is humbling and awesome to me as a writer, and if I could write long letters to the handful of folks who've bought my fiction, I probably would. They have no idea what kindness they've given.

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, the balance of debt between writer and reader is a more complicated thing than all that, I think. I believe that readers are the generous ones, both in fandom and in the world in general. Writers are going to write their stories -- in most cases, we just have to in order to exist as ourselves -- but nothing compels strangers to read our work, or to pay for it with reviews and/or money. That people do so is humbling and awesome to me as a writer, and if I could write long letters to the handful of folks who've bought my fiction, I probably would. They have no idea what kindness they've given.

No argument from me on this.

My entire point is that when one obligates expressions of gratitude - not to mention the timeframe in which they are tendered - they are no longer valid expressions of gratitude. True gratitude comes directly from the heart without any help from anybody else, and each of us instinctually knows the difference.

When Little Timmy gets dragged by the ear by Mom over to Aunt Marth to "say thank you for the jammies she gave you for Christmas," do you really think Timmy is feeling very grateful as he growls out the "thank you"? No. The interference by a third party - interested or not - makes it an empty, meaningless gesture. What's more, unless Aunt Martha is also a mindless slave of social conventions, she KNOWS the gratitude to be lacking. Were I in her place, I'd feel more thanked by seeing Timmy running around in said gift jammies without a word being spoken; at least I'd know they were being used!!

That's why I'm not addicted to reviews or crushed when the number of reviews isn't going through the stratosphere. I actually more watch the page hits than the reviews numbers, if truth be told - and even at that, I'm not obsessive about it.

My main gripe in the vent, however, was not merely that this reader was lecturing me on how I was supposed to respond, but that she felt entitled to lecture me on the timeframe of said responses. After not checking to see if I normally respond to reviews (and I do/did at LOTRFF, rather religiously) she chided me for having lapsed for the two weeks I was swamped in Real Life™. And then she presumed to lecture me on how "important" those responses were.

I am grateful to all who read my stuff and make the effort to review. One has to know where to find me and actually make an effort on the Internet to read my stuff. When they review, it is a gift. I just refuse to be bullied into meeting somebody else's expectations as to when or if I respond to said gift - and I absolutely resent someone presuming themselves entitled to lecture me on the subject in public.

[tracey-claybon.livejournal.com]

I ended up having to state that I was on 'hiatus' quite some time ago along with some disclaimers about not posting new fics recently on both ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth, which has some of my crossover fic posted - I had a couple of "reviewers" make snide comments about long periods between new postings, and tore some new orifices after explaining WHY I'd taken the hiatus (especially when I was caretaking my grandmother... {raises eyebrow})

You could hear the virtual crickets chirping in the silence after that. RL has to take precedence, especially since real jobs pay for net access, and you can't sustain real world relationships or do real life responsibilities if you spend 100% of your time on line.

The only ones I know that have the "time" to do that are independently wealthy people, children/teens living in Mom and Dad's house, or college students. No one else I know has the time OR the money. I definitely don't juggling two jobs and full time college... I spend too much time on the computer in "recreation" as it is (FB is evil - especially in the Games area)

Your critic needs to come back to reality - or grow up - or some combination thereof.

A review on revieing.

[(Anonymous)]

That was interesting. I am looking for those snipits you told me about, and now I'm confused as to whether you want reviews or not. But you view is a good one, reviewing just to tell the author 'I like this' isn't exactly productive. But then there's all those people who put notes up about not getting enough reviews... All very confusing. I still post to LOTRFF, and read there a lot, but I find it slightly harder to use. And it really bugs me when people suddenly stop posting there in the middle of a story. I wasn't reading yours at the time you stopped posting there, but I get your problem about owing the reader. That doesn't make sense. Going to look for my original quest now...
Calil Gadien

Re: A review on revieing.

[aearwen2.livejournal.com]

If by your "original quest" you mean finding the review that sparked this tirade, I'm afraid it was deleted by the reviewer when I lashed back at her - and then deleted her reply to me because I don't suffer condescension at all. I'm not a child, and I don't appreciate being treated like one by someone probably young enough to be MY child.

FWIW I don't miss LoTRFF at all. Nor do I miss OSA. I'm "out there" enough that my work can be found if one searches for it.

And yes, I enjoy reviews. I'm not going to lie about it. I even enjoy the "I liked this" reviews. Just don't expect a reply to each and every "I liked this". You might get one - maybe two - but you won't get one every time.

FWIW, there are some writers who not only write because they have a story to tell, but getting the reviews mean that they're actually getting attention. And like many attention-deficient people, the quality of the attention is the least of their problem; quantity is what they're after. They feel like failures (or their stories somehow are sub-par) if the number of reviews isn't what they see as sufficient.

Me... I prefer reviews with "meat" to them over the empty banality of "Oooo! Nice!" Especially if anybody wants consistent responses from me.

Good to see you here.