A Thought on Reviews

As fanfic writers we don’t get paid and we write because we love it.  Reviews and comments are a sort of “payment”, if you will, and as writers we love getting feedback, especially positive and glowing praise.  The other day I received this review on the Drarry fic I am working on, What the Room Required, and it has me scratching my head a bit.  

“Supremely well-written. I generally avoid all Harry Potter fics because they tend to strike me as being written by, well, let’s say *inexperienced* authors. The characterization was on point and the build-up of sexual tension was fantastic. Bravo! I’m off to read more of your work.“

It’s a glowing review and it made me feel extremely happy that not only did this person take the time to read my story, but to also leave a review saying how much they enjoyed it.  Let’s face it, most people don’t review or leave comments and any praise is life-giving to an insecure author, which I most certainly am.  

Here’s the problem I have with this; it builds me up while knocking others down. I don’t want to criticize this lovely reviewer who took time to tell me they enjoyed this story because I am so extremely grateful and I’m sure they are a lovely person.  However, I do have an issue with the generalization that most HP writers aren’t worth the time to read. 

As with anything in life there is bound to be both good and bad.  New writers are not going to have the polish of someone who has been writing for years.  I read some of my earlier stuff (which is so not seeing the light of day ever again) and I cringe.  I’ve been writing since I was 7 and even though I’ve been published, I’ve been a professional journalist, and I get positive feedback on most of my writing, I still think I suck.  And that’s on a good day!  This chapter this lovely reader is raving about was rewritten by me at least half a dozen times and went through TWO beta’s because I was struggling with part of it.  

There are some AMAZING writers in the HP fandom and I discover new ones every day.  One of my dear friends is one of the most talented writers I’ve ever read, fanfic or published, and she gets incredible abuse because of her popularity and her unwavering stance on what she (and I) considers appropriate reader behavior. It is so unmerited. She is so extremely talented and has written some fabulous stories and I know she is going to have amazing literary success with her original work, but the nastiness she gets is horrible.  It’s not fair and it isn’t right.  

Generalizing an entire fandom based on some “inexperienced” writers isn’t right either. Knocking others down to praise someone else leaves me feeling…twitchy. Of course it feels great when you receive praise and are singled out as being perceived better than others, but at the same time it is generalizing the largest and most popular fandom in fanfiction as being wholly inadequate because it has some stories and writers you don’t consider worth reading.  Of course it’s normal and absolutely fine to have preferences and think some things aren’t worth your time or that you simply don’t like them.  Insulting others to praise another just doesn’t sit well with me and seems wrong. 

Thank you so incredibly much to the lovely reviewer who praised my work because it means more than you can possibly imagine to my fragile little ego and I’m sorry if it feels like I’m condemning your review because it’s truly not my intent. I only want to help illustrate how it can be harmful and hurtful to others when critiquing in this way.  

**Steps off soapbox**

I think most people mean well and they actually think they’re doing you a favor, but they don’t put themselves in your place and ask, “How would I feel if something said this to me?”

Actress Emma Watson arrives for the Asian premiere of the Disney Movie The Beauty and The Beast in Shanghai on February 27, 2017

me: i like this thing! my brain: excellent, it’s your reason to live now. you won’t be able to think about anything else for a few days, weeks or even months. talking about virtually anything else will be a nightmare, but so will be talking about The Thing, because no one shares your level of enthusiasm. have fun!

@slytherinbunney Tell me this isn’t me right now with my current obsession?? **cringes**

me:  Hi!

you:  Hi!  OMG, kill me now!  You have to see this vid, OMG.

me:  *facepalm*

you:  What’s wrong with me??

me:  Double or single spaced?

#Bunneyspeakstruth #BunneyknowsJencala #Bunneyisabitch 

#drunkentart #obsessionisagoodthing

me: i like this thing! my brain: excellent, it’s your reason to live now. you won’t be able to think about anything else for a few days, weeks or even months. talking about virtually anything else will be a nightmare, but so will be talking about The Thing, because no one shares your level of enthusiasm. have fun!

@slytherinbunney Tell me this isn’t me right now with my current obsession?? **cringes**

me:  Hi!

you:  Hi!  OMG, kill me now!  You have to see this vid, OMG.

me:  *facepalm*

you:  What’s wrong with me??

me:  Double or single spaced?

#Bunneyspeakstruth #BunneyknowsJencala #Bunneyisabitch 

me: i like this thing! my brain: excellent, it’s your reason to live now. you won’t be able to think about anything else for a few days, weeks or even months. talking about virtually anything else will be a nightmare, but so will be talking about The Thing, because no one shares your level of enthusiasm. have fun!

@slytherinbunney Tell me this isn’t me right now with my current obsession?? **cringes**

me:  Hi!

you:  Hi!  OMG, kill me now!  You have to see this vid, OMG.

me:  *facepalm*

you:  What’s wrong with me??

me:  Double or single spaced?

jencala replied to your post “Rebuilding”

But, Jen, I have potential.

It’s been a hell of a 48-hours.  Get defamed by another popular writer in a dramione group on FB, find a review giving your longest and most popular story only 2 out of 5 stars.  Things come in threes, so I expect a troll to swing by and leave a bunch of guest reviews any moment now…

You are already an amazing writer and unbelievably every story gets somehow better than the last, so the only potential in question here is the one where you lose your shit and start smacking some of these weirdos with nothing better to do than talk crap.

Oh my lovely @colubrina, if I had to deal with as many batshit crazy twat-waffles as you do I would be taking more Zoloft than I already do. 

I want to wrap you in bubble wrap so the ass-hats can’t hurt you and go smack some sense into those fools.  I may have to bring some bubble wrap with me to Misti.  You can take it home with you because all of our Misti people are lovely. ;-)

No fucking lie, I hate your readers.  HATE. THEM.  I know that this doesn’t represent them all, only a small fraction, but because I am small and petty, I hate them because they’re like dogs that may or may not maul your face off unless you have a T-bone in your hand to give them.

You are so talented.  So fucking talented.  And funny.  And sweet.  And you are a bad ass at lacing a fat chick into a corset.  You have the kind of talent I can only aspire to and I can’t tell you emphatically enough how much you don’t deserve this treatment from these colossal, rude, evil cunts.  

I hate them.

Copyright of Derivative Works: a very quick overview

In the United States, copyright law allows for what are called derivative works. A derivative work would include, but not be limited to, translations, adaptations of a book to a screenplay, or fanfiction.

New material in the derivative work may be copyrighted by the new creator. What this means with regard to fanfic is that while the original author retains full copyright of the characters and world she created, the fanfic writer has copyright of the specific storylines she writes. To give a specific example, JKR owns the characters of Blaise, Draco and Hermione, but I own the plot of The Diary We Carry.

The original creator must authorize the creation of derivative works for copyright to apply to the derivative works. JKR has given permission for people to create fanworks in the Harry Potter universe.

Many fanworks could also be protected under fair use, in which the use of original and copyrighted material is permissible for purposes such as criticism or comment regardless of the preferences of the original copyright holder. This area of US law is adjudicated on a case by case basis, but a case to look at for precedent would be Campbell, aka Skyywalker et al v. Acuff Rose Music, Inc.

Tl;dr: According to US copyright law, you do have partial copyright of your fan fiction, and thus just as much legal right to control distribution as any other copyright holder. The practical difficulties of controlling distribution of electronic media on the Internet does not change your legal ownership of your stories, or the legal/ethical lapses of people who violate your wishes.

I provide a link to the U.S. government publication covering this: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ14.pdf

Summaries of Fair Use cases: http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/cases/

Read and learn, children.

Posted this on a dramione facebook group (many of you will surely recognise which one I’m talking about) not even half an hour ago. Very surprisingly, it has been deleted. Apparently democracy and freedom of speech offends them. Well, I too like to make a point. @jencala @mrbenzedrine89

Not surprised, this unfortunately 9k strong group gives the rest of the fandom a bad name, and think thats legitimate because their ring leader is a well known author

I’m the ring leader? Haha. That’s so funny. You give me far too much credit. I’m actually the person who goes in at the 11th hour and tries to see if common ground can be reached. I rarely motion to remove people. I’m the one who shields your wanky asses and try to convince the other admins that you’re not just trying to cause dissent but can be valuable members.

Talk about alternative facts.

I think someone mentioned us getting rid of “evidence”? I’m not the best screenshotter, but if you reach out to Des or Isis they have all deleted posts well-documented. We don’t care about your stance or you disagreeing with us. We just don’t want it continually flooding our group when it’s not up for debate.

Don’t you worry, @dramione84. You can’t be right when arguing with these people! Look at her; her words and actions just speak for themselves. Even when she is trying to prove that we are somehow the bullies and the troublemakers, she keeps insulting members of the fandom. @akashathekitty, you think you are promoting politeness and peacefulness? You started dragging dulce de leche into the mud the moment her actions did not fit into your personal conception of the fandom. And that is despicable, especially since most of the writers who take down their works accept to send them to their readers if asked. You just decided to toss their request away and follow your own rules. And when people point out how this behavior is disrespectful, you refuse to listen.

I’ll throw you a bone here. We don’t actually think it’s optimal to put the fics on the group either. Personally I can’t be arsed to do it because I consider pullers of fics traitors that should just be ignored.

However, to some of us it’s about attempting to preserve fandom gifts. We lost Coloured Grey. We lost Granger Enchanted. We lost a lot of mature fics on FFnet when they went on a delete spree.

It’s one file section in one group. Yes, it’s a big group but 99% never even realise it’s there or have any desire to use it. If there hadn’t been this debacle, people would already have forgotten about the dulce fic being backed up.

We’ll never see eye to eye so I’ll leave you to your fun task of cussing me out and calling me names. Take care of yourself and watch your blood pressure. Have a nice weekend!

And that’s the one calling people “wanky asses” and “traitors” talking… Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a fine instance of reputation building! I’m off to watch my blood pressure! I’m afraid it’s a bit high from the laughing fit I just had… 😂 Nice weekend to you too, oh gracious bone thrower!

Reblog this and put the fandom that you first read fanfiction for in the tags.

I’m curious about where people started out!

#thexfiles #mulderscully #mulderskinner #scullyskinner

Dramione Ficlets for Ladie Phoenix ( @ladiephoenix007​ )

A Dowry of a Single Galleon *SPOILERS*

http://dramione.org/viewstory.php?sid=541 Rating: F, but D+ for effort

Now, this review is going to be short and sweet. Actually, scratch the “sweet,” because there’s nothing sweet I can say about this fic. It was AWFUL.

In my eyes, it was essentially a PWP, though it was clear the author was making an effort to give it plot. It was written for a challenge, and the guidelines for it seemed interesting enough. But the way it was written? Disastrous.

Both Draco and Hermione were so incredibly out of character, it almost hurt. The worst part is, they were UNCONSISTENTLY out of character- it seemed as if they had multiple personality disorder, switching from disposition to disposition on the author’s whim. Draco was an abomination and an insult to J.K. Rowling, along with every other fanfic author out there. He wasn5 charmingly sly, or snarky, or Slytherin at all- he just acted like a big, fat, horny baby most of the time.

Speaking of horniness: AAHHHHHHHHSAODNSJXSNIENSABDPLMVSWAO!!!!!!! WHAT was going on with the sex and the love and what what whaaaaat??? From what I gleaned from the fic, this was Hermione’s thought process through the story: 1. Ew, Draco Malfoy. I hate him. 2. Haha, I am going to tease him and be super sexual around him to drive him crazy. 3. Actually, fucking him seems like fun. 4. I LOVE HIM

Wwhaaat the fuck. So, so, so incredibly unbelievable. The “relationship” happened so fast, and the fact that it was non consensual drove me insane. (FYI: NOTHING BOTHERS ME MORE THAN NONCON) Hermione seemed like a total… cock tease? Yes, that. And it made me unhappy.

This fic was bad. ‘Nuff said.

(Oh, sorry about the two negative reviews in a row- a positive one is coming up soon!)

This has to go down in history - the LONG history - as the worst review I've ever received. And I can count those on one hand. Clearly, the reviewer hasn't been reading Dramione fanfic for long or she would know the history of this story. When you read something out of context, you lose understanding of how a fic written years ago fits into Dramione fanon. But, then, she promised to be brutal, so maybe I shouldn't feel extra special after all ;)

If you write dramione, you probably know LadiePhoenix007. She reads voraciously in the pairing, and leaves the kindest, most supportive reviews a writer could hope for. She is everything that is right with fandom.

Without going into details, she’s having a tough time right now and @slytherinbunney, author of Dowry of a Single Galleon (among many others), and I are trying to encourage as many people as possible to write dramione one-shots for her to brighten her days.

If you wish to participate, please just send me a link to any dramione you write for her (be sure to note in you A/N it’s for her) and once we have a passel of fics, Bunney and I will give her the list of links, and all your love and good wishes. She tends to stay off tumblr so we might even be able to pull this off as a surprise.

Boosting the signal!