[ SECRET POST #2814 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2814 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 029 secrets from Secret Submission Post #402.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[(Anonymous)]

Fandom-wise, a casual fandom friend sent me a fic someone had written and asked me to read it. I wrote her back that it was clichéd and OCC for the characters and their relationship.

Can you guess who wrote that fic?

Ya, the person who sent it to me. When she replied back that she had written it, it took a full hour to sufficiently remove my foot from my mouth and reply to her. My lesson was, 1) never to even crack the door open enough for anyone to ask me to read their fic ever again and 2) if I have to, I only say NICE things.

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[(Anonymous)]

I think that if she asked you to read it and didn't let on that she wrote it, she probably wanted to get an honest answer from you. Doesn't sound like you need to be embarrassed.

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[(Anonymous)]

Ouch. Yeah, I don't do read-throughs for people unless I know for sure they're not going to flip at constructive criticism. If you ever do this again, a few tips:

1) make sure your concrit is to the point without being snarky or personal
2) quote and cite examples of what you mean
3) sandwich your criticism between two layers of praise
4) but don't lie or blow smoke up someone's ass

Sometimes finding something nice to say is difficult. Try framing it as "I really liked your idea" or "I thought you did X well". And don't offer to do this again unless you know what the fallout can be. Frankly, I'd be annoyed if someone did that and didn't state it was their fic. It feels sneaky.

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[ketita]

The kind of unfair thing about this situation is that when I'm giving actual concrit I /am/ careful and I do balance it and make sure it's constructive and include mentions of what did work etc. etc., but I wouldn't necessarily bother if I was just talking about somebody else's random fic. I mean I just don't invest that much energy when talking about some random person's fic and why I liked/disliked it.
I have no problem giving honest, balanced feedback, and it may be that the OP doesn't either - the problem is they didn't know they were giving the author feedback as opposed to just talking about some random person's fic.

So the author did kind of put them on the spot...

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[(Anonymous)]

(anon from above)

One more thing. If your critique was honest, objective and not snarky or mean, you have nothing to apologize for. Sometimes people ask for critiques, but they don't actually want to hear negatives, they just want squee and kisses. That's their own damn fault.

Re: Moments that make you cringe looking back

[(Anonymous)]

Eh, if someone legitimately wants crit, then give it to them. Don't feel guilty about it, even if it's not a circle jerk of ass pats and squee.