Postive or Negative Comments?

I made a post on similar lines a while back in regards to a tendency to interpret wholly fictional accounts as real events. Personally, I enjoy reading fiction in which the events described are totally unlikely or impossible to have happened just as much as fiction which aims at total plausibility. For example, I don't have a problem reading a story in which some unfortunate schoolgirl has had her bare bottom caned in class... so it's not ever going to happen for real nowadays.. so what, reading about things that are fantasies that are not going to happen for real is half the fun, well it is for me anyway.

I am one who reads and comments on many stories, my above comment excepted, my question becomes WHY can not one comment based on his/her feelings about the story, why do we have to be very careful? We all know it is fiction and every author in reading the comments should in my opinion, give every commenter the credit for realizing it is not a true story.

If I have to start commenting and be constantly aware I may feel one way about a story but cannot say it, then I have to re-consider if commenting is worth it. I know Blimp is a big enough man mentally and emotionally to not think too much what I say so I do not include him in writers I would worry about hurting.

As you read this please be aware I am trying to provoke comments here and I am willing to change my POV if somehow and in some way can change my mind. However at the same time I am very stubborn at times and do the darnest things (which usually gets my butt smacked but that is another story)

Worth what? You do it anyway to one degree or another, whether you realise it or not... In your last twenty comments (a small number I know but I am short of time tonight) you have used one of three phrases in every comment...

Well written, Well described, Well done...

You do this whether your comment is negative or positive...

This to me is you wanting to say something nice at the end of your comments so they end on a good note. Maybe I am wrong but that is how it seems and to me says you want the author to think well of you and themselves...

Just my thoughts...

Obviously, you should be spanked!


This tells me that Canadianspankee is a nice person. I try to do much the same, always trying to balance any critical comment with something positive.

When I first started writing, I had a style that was all my own (read Inner Desires), but then I read some of Mike From London's stories that were posted to the old a.s.s. newsgroup and decided I wanted to do stories in that style. I sucked. Horribly. [See pretty much any story of mine with a caning involved.] Mike pointed out to me that my canings, though wonderfully described, shattered the bounds of realism so badly that a willing suspension of disbelief was pretty much impossible. And he was right. My canings were heavily excessive and would never have been allowed to happen. Ever. I realized that even though the caning of schoolgirls probably did happen on the odd occasion (which is what allows us to flood the story market with schoolgirl canings and paddlings], my particular scenes would have never taken place except in the rare event that everybody in the school went insane.

These comments from him were enormously helpful and I rewrote most of those stories to be a tad more realistic...at least realistic enough for the reader to say to himself/herself, 'yeah, I can see that happening somewhere at sometime.' Unfortunately for me, all of those rewrites have long since been lost to either technology moving beyond the media or simply me being stupid and discarding old floppys and zip disks. Laura Werner's site had the originals in their terrible glory and that is what has been brought over to this site. I'm not ashamed of those stories because I did write them and they are still good stories, if a tad excessive, so I'm not knocking on Februs's door every day to have them rewritten.

I suppose my rambling has this point. The comments I had received from Mike From London were a tad hurtful in one respect, but my writing benefited from it in no small amount. I am grateful to him for his comments and have reaped the rewards of listening to his advice. I've read comments about some of my earlier stories, particularly stories that were written for a particular individual and to their particular tastes, that have been somewhat mildly flaming. But I know the weaknesses of those stories and I don't mind the comments and I respect their right to like or dislike any particular story of mine. As a previous poster stated, "I write for me."

Thomas Bruns

Goodgulf, please note that my message was entirely in reference to voluntary choices to rewrite portions of stories, not to any kind of concept that readers have a right to demand rewrites, and was directed entirely at situations where stories come across differently from how authors intended, not at situations where readers' responses are results of differences in tastes. Also note that problems of stories coming across differently from how writers intended and causing negative reactions as a result do not have to bother every single reader for fixing them to be worthwhile if an author is willing to take the time and can find a good way to do it. My actual wording, "readers' enjoyment," did not specify a particular number or percentage of readers, and certainly did not imply every single reader.

If two's the limit, perhaps 'positive' and 'negative' are not the most helpful adjectives to describe the comments readers leave for our stories. I have never seen a comment here that could be described as wholly negative. Mostly everyone's really gentle and sweet (funny, that).

A comment is an opinion, to which the reader is entitled; the writer can take it how they choose, but of course we love approbation.

Comments are fun to read - the best ones add something to the text: an unusual perception, a joke, a snippet of information. Mati's, for example, I think are often brilliant.

Comments tend to be on either Content or Style, with many including both. Style comments require more knowledge of the writing process, and some readers don't feel confident to make those on a story; indeed, some readers don't care how it's written so long as the spankings are upfront, long and hard.

We are a broad church: some are up with the bats in the belfry, some in the dark of the crypt, and others prostrate at the bottom of the altar ... or perhaps that should be ...

Judging by some posts, I do as a lot of you do. I comment only about stories I like. If a story doesn't strike my fancy, or is poorly written (in my opinion) I simply don't comment on it. I recognize the effort invested in writing and I don't think that I know enough about writing in English to give someone advices.

I do comment when a story is superbly written (once again, in my opinion) or it is creative or it gave me something to think about.

For that reason you won't find negative parts in my comments. With very few exceptions I don't point out obvious mistakes (I did it recently about Katie B's story that I liked but it carried some plot inconsistencies) and I never point out grammatical or orthographical errors.

I am very happy to get comments on my stories, so I think that other authors like to have their stories commented as well. But as I wouldn't like to get a flame "you shouldn't be writing at all" or similar, like I saw on other forums, I and in my opinion most of the commenters on LSF refrain from negative comments.

Finally, it's much easier to comment favorably about a story. A good negative comment, one that would help an author to better his writing, is much more difficult to compose.

Just a few thoughts:-

1. As a writer I value all comments but I especially appreciate those that offer a well thought out criticism of my work; I recently had a comment posted on one story mentioning an inconsistency, and when I sent a pop up asking for further details (which the commentor provided, and they were quite correct in their analysis) they offered to remove the comments in case I considered them inappropriate. Of course I asked that they remain; if something in a story doesn't work I prefer to know, in order to (hopefully) improve.

2. This may make me deficient in the comments that I make, but if I just don't care for a story I won't leave a comment; if there's something that bugs me about a story that I otherwise like I will comment on both the positive and the negative. I think that, to a degree, comments lose their validity if you don't point out areas where you think there could be improvement.

3. I would never post a story just to provoke a strong reaction; in fact I nearly didn't post Part 2 of my Mean Streets serial as I didn't much like where it was going, and I didn't want to offend anyone. The next part would be even harsher and I am not sure I want to write it. Having said that, sometimes, as a writer, you want to push your own boundaries and try something new, and that can sometimes get you into trouble. I've recently had a story rejected because I overstretched, and did not convey what I wanted to, and thereby produced something considered to be offensive. Probably rightly, and it's not an avenue I intend to travel again.

There is a lot of really good work here but, with over 16000 stories, not all are going to be as well written as we might like, and even the best writer has the odd off day.

Tim