mareel wrote:Kylah618 wrote
I would much rather have fewer comments with substance than a quick "loved it."
Of course, it's always a plus to have 'substance' in a comment - but I'm a bit worried that people might feel they have to say something profound or say nothing. This couldn't be further from the truth for me. I'd much much rather see a quick 'nice story' or 'I really liked this' than see no comments at all.
It's a bit like the AO3 kudos system. To me, both mean seeing that people have enjoyed a story even if they didn't have time or inclination to say too much about it. And I like that a lot. It's a welcome connection with the readers.
I'm pretty much grateful for any sort of positive comment, too. Love the kudos system at AO3. Have I mentioned how glad I am that you introduced me to that site, Mareel? Well I am. Lots of fandoms to check out. Not quite so overwhelming as ff.net. Nice people. I've gotten energized to write again. Thank you! And I do feel bad, Mareel, because when I comment on your stories I do keep saying the same thing.
When somebody asks for "constructive comments to help improve my writing" (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that request), what I hear is "tell me technical stuff to do better." I'm not qualified to do that. Yes, I have a BA and I had a teaching certificate, but not in English, not in creative writing and not in literary criticism. If there is something particularly striking about your story, I can tell you that I like it; or that it wouldn't have occurred to me to do it, but now that I've read it, it really works; or that I've never seen this done before and it's cool. Does that make you a better writer? I don't know.
Many times, "That's nice. Write more." is exactly how I feel, though with AO3, I just hit kudos. It's a genre/style I like. I've read lots like it before. I'll probably read lots like it again. It's nice, period, check, end of dictation. It's like empty calories in the snack food you love.
I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to check out anyone who has left a review or kudos. Do they write? Is there something else of theirs that looks interesting? What else did they like? Does anything there look interesting? Where are they from? How old are they?
One of the things I've noticed at ff.net is that a lot of the members seem to be young as in junior high/high school age. I'm not sure that expecting deep literary criticism from them is realistic, but their "Like it. Write more." is as honest and as good as anybody else's.