Making Negative Comments

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our powers of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.
Friedrich Nietzsche

I'd love to receive constructive comments on the stories I write. I tend to wonder, if all comments are 'nice' whether the story is lacking in fibre.

So, I have a question if I may change things for a brief moment in time.

Does everyone think a comment should indicate whether someone likes the story? I have always felt that if I comment it shows I read and appreciated the story and that was enough. Some stories I have commented on I thought were too much this way or that way, but I appreciated the effort the writer made.

But maybe I am wrong. Should one always say whether they liked or did not like the story, or is a comment on the story enough? On some of my comment responses I get the feeling some think I did not like the story, but that is not true. I have read stories I have not commented on, which speaks for itself. Wording here can change but you all get the idea of what I am asking. Thanks

CS

If you liked the story, say so. It's not required,though. It may be you liked some element of the story but not all of it. Perhaps the last time you read this author you noted his/er characters were not well developed, but were on this particular story, say so. I am always delighted when someone mentions what they particularly liked. I don't mind if another reader disagrees. They are opinions, not truths.

In a word: no.

In more than a word: Say what you want to say. You MAY want to say you liked it. I almost never (or maybe never) say I DIDN'T like a story "If you can't say something nice..." Constructive criticism is different from saying you didn't like it. You can analyze the events or characters in the story. You can point out what an author did well. You can point out something unusual. I think ic got it right, so perhaps I should have just said "ditto."

I fully agree about the reverse.

I know I mentioned this to you the other day and the reason was simple... I was being incredibly lazy and sending virtually the same message to people who had been kind enough to read and comment on my latest (insert plug here). When I got to your comment though I had to delete the bit that said 'I am so pleased that you enjoyed it' simply because I realised that I couldn't tell from your comment...

I don't like giving constructive criticism in a comment. Some may not care, but to me telling someone they should have put a 'comma here' this and that there, the grammar is not top form.... I would rather tell them in a private pop-up, and only if it's worth their while, not mine.

One useful comment I've received recently was that I had written too long of an intro to the story. It was set in a published world and I felt that I had to either give enough info in a foreword or spend thousands of words setting the scene - and in the eyes of at least on reader I made the wrong choice. Yes, other readers have chimed in to say they enjoyed the story, but the constructive criticism of "the intro was too long so stop reading" means that I may structure future stories differently.

One of the things I sometimes have to work on is getting to the action faster - or at least set the scene with fewer words.

Goodgulf

I appreciate and learn how to write stories that are more concise and explain the action from well thought out comments. I agree that comments that offer constructive criticism are valuable.