C
+Chaos Blade+
Guest
// ADVICE FOR ASPIRING CRITICS II \\
// Redone and Revamped \\
// A Fanfiction Critique Guide by +Chaos Blade+ \\
// Redone and Revamped \\
// A Fanfiction Critique Guide by +Chaos Blade+ \\
Hi, everyone, I'm +Chaos Blade+
Audience: "Hi, Chaos Blade!"
I also go by many other names, like Selestius, Dragonfire, BE, and PMD, but you can call me Denny, okay?
Audience: Okay...HI DENNY!
All right, let's get settled. This "Authors' Helpline" is yet another way to help out the newbies of the forum. This can also help authors find which person scrutinizes every detail or just agrees with whatever they say.
Without further ado, here is the rewritten "Advice for Aspiring Critics".
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Part I ~ Critique and You
Part II ~ The Good
Part III ~ The Bad
Part IV ~ The Ugly
Part V ~ "What Have You Learned?"/Conclusion
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PART I: CRITIQUE AND YOU
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The average amount of members registered a day is about 100. Fifteen of those 100 want to become authors, and 50 new members often post in the Fan Fiction forum.
The average amount of reviews a fic gets per day is around twelve. Sadly, over half of those reviews are, "Likez OMG!111!!1!!!!111! This fic liek pwns over you! ;251;,net Rulez!!!11!! 100/10!1!!!" or something around the sort.
Others are half intelligent, yet there isn't good grammar, most of it letters representing words, or all-lowercase letters. An example would be, "this fic is going strong. i like the way u use the good descripshuns of pokemon in ur fics."
It's a bit under par. It's not too elaborate. Most reviews by, examples are, Evanarios, myself, Serpent Syra, Scrap, Breezy, Chibi, Burnt Flower, Renegade (especially Renegade), all use contructive, if not supportive, criticism to try to bring the author's fic prowess up.
In order to do that you need to know this commonly used phrase, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly..."
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PART II: THE GOOD
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The Good. What is "The Good"? What's it mean? Well, it means a 'good review'. What this segment is about is showing people the decent version of a review.
Most reviews need to consist of the elements that can help authors achieve their true potential: Construtive Criticism, Strict Ruling, and a Decent Judgment System. Using tons of smilies with chatspeak over and over won't help any author gain anything, except a ton of load time (if they have Dial-Up, which all newbies should take into consideration).
A good review is one that can help an author achieve. Yes, you may think it is mean, but it is actually being nice. Not helping anyone at all won't help you, nor will it help the author of the fic you are reviewing.
The key necessities to a clean, good review are:
1.) Organization - Organize your thoughts. Use little to none "btw"'s at anytime during your review.
2.) Judgment - Use a well-thought-out Reviewing System. One that finds all elements within a fic: Characters, Plotline, Description, Length, and any other aspects that you feel are important.
3.) Respect - If you think the fic is bad, don't say "OMG, this FIC SUX!" No, that's not right. All authors have potential. State to the authors why their fic was 'bad', use links to 'Advice for Aspiring Authors' and other Fanfiction "Helplines".
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PART III: THE BAD
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Inserting tons of smilies is a bad thing. Inserting Chatspeak is not good. Improper use of grammar and many misspellings do not make do to a good review.
Using smilies in a review shows a lack of criticism capability. You need to show the author that you can find any little tidbit in the novel, one-shot, poem, whatever, that needs definite improvement. Typo? Point it out. All the more for the writer to be more perfect.
Improper grammar shows improper maturity when reading. Read the novel as if it were the last readible thing on earth. Read it over and over again, to find any mistakes in spellings, plot holes, character indifferences, anything that you can find to help the author grow in potential.
Basically, be meticulous about everything and scrutinize every last detail. Reading a book is like a crime scene. Trust me, when reading the novel Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, I found a typo. On page 196, the word 'surprise' is spelled 'surpirse'. Sure, a tiny typo, but hundreds of thousands of readers probably didn't notice it.
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PART IV: THE UGLY
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"LiEk, OmG, tHiS iS tHe BeSt FiC i HaVe EvrE RdEa! u R dA BEST! I Liek, toTalyl Tihnk that ;025; Is, LiEKk, T3H 00bEr CutEz! WaT aBoT u?"
Is that even a review or just a post to make you a Pokémon Champion? People, you need to get it together, and quick, because being on a forum isn't about looking cool and being popular by posts. Most of us had to earn our popularity through rigorous posting effort.
Effort is the key to everything: Fics, Posting, Forums, Websites, Life. This may sound cliché, but when reviewing, reading, or writing Fanfics, or getting a job, give 110 percent. Do whatever you can to aid those around you. And criticizing them to better improve themselves is one great way to help.
Without proper criticism, no one can improve in their writing. When people are really keen in their writing skills, the people should understand everything they wrote. If they don't understand anything, even just one word, state to them "I don't understand this. What's it mean?" You can't achieve anything without asking questions first.
That's how we became writers.
That's how you become critics.
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PART V: CONCLUSION
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So what have we learned? It's essential that you need to criticize everything, even if it hurts. To quote Renegade's sig: "Did I reply to your fic/RP? Did it get closed? Tough. Flame me for all I care." Being that she deleted that part of her sig, she stated that Flaming her won't make up for a crappy fic.
Next time, don't use smilies, focus on all aspects of a fic (Description, Length, Characters, and Plot, Other Aspects if neecessary), and read if it was the last readible thing on earth.
Good luck and [hopefully] good reviews.
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