Brokeback Mountain inspired Fan Fic recommendations

[MaineWriter]

Thanks, everyone, for this very interesting discussion.

What I have come to appreciate, in my 12 month career as a fanfic writer, is the opportunity to have a dialogue with my readers. For me, I have found the place I like it best is here at Bettermost, on the threads for my stories. I know other authors do the dialoging in their LiveJournals. These types of conversations assume a certain level of trust. Here at Bettermost, I have gotten to know many of my readers as people (not just names on a screen) and I have really come to appreciate their honest feedback and constructive criticism.

My 2 cents.

Leslie

[littleguitar]

I totally understand where you are coming from here.   

For me as a fanfic writer I may have put a lot of effort into writing something but there is always, always room for improvement and I really do want to know what people find wrong with my writing.  Because it is only then that I can look at what I've written, take in what the criticism is and either accept it or dismiss it.  Either way, I have learnt something. 

I feel really frustrated sometimes because I get so little concrit. I know I have limitations as a writer, but it's so difficult to work out just what those limitations are unless someone else points them out to me.  Some things I manage to work out myself but it is a very slow and discouraging process.  A little help from a few readers would be more than welcome.

Helen, you just put into words exactly how I feel about my own writing. That's really all I have to say, your past few posts have been spot on towards my own views and feeling on constructive criticism and my writing. 

[one_of_one]

I agree... positive feedback is amazing, but there seems to be a general rule in fan fiction that it's positive feedback or no feedback at all. But constructive criticism can be a really good thing and I think especially with a story like Nobody's Angel where the story is so good, somebody should point those things out so that they can be fixed and people don't drop it all together.

Lucky for me (or maybe unlucky, because I do consider historical accuracy important) that I didn't live in the 50's and I can read on blissfully unaware... because I do love this story so much.

I really dislike that rule!  I want to break it!  LOL  And who exactly made it?   

And I think we're extremely lucky not to notice anything amiss about NA!  I'd cry if I knew all the mistakes.

[one_of_one]

Also, just for myself, only getting positive feedback makes for really lazy writing, because I get in the groove of "everybody likes my story, yay!"

I so agree with this.  There times when I've known that something is amiss and because I also know that most/all commentors won't mention it then I just kind of squint past problem areas and post.

If a few people were to start mentioning things it would give me a well deserved kick up the arse.

[littleguitar]

If a few people were to start mentioning things it would give me a well deserved kick up the arse.

LOL You and me both 

[louisev]

I so agree with this.  There times when I've known that something is amiss and because I also know that most/all commentors won't mention it then I just kind of squint past problem areas and post.

If a few people were to start mentioning things it would give me a well deserved kick up the arse.

hey, whoa whoa whoa, I gave you hell on the washbag thing!

[one_of_one]

Actually, I agree with you, Marge.  I think in this day and age of Wikipedia and Google (although even they aren't 100% reliable  ), there really is no excuse for writers to make huge, glaring errors.  However, I think sometimes writers do make little slips, after all they are only human, particularly if they haven't lived in the particular time and/or place.  That's where it can be really handy to be able to leave comments on LJ - I found it really helpful to have readers leave me comments about time and place that I could take on board and use to shape future chapters.  So maybe rather than just ditching stories, readers could leave constructive feedback.

I made a huge (in my mind) error in Going Home regarding crofts and their sale.  When I was writing I made a mental note to check it out but forgot, only remembering again later on.  But it's the kind of thing that bugs me because I feel that I should be writing around the facts and not just writing things that fit the the story.  Nobody mentioned but who knows if someone noticed and it distracted them or put them off.

[littleguitar]

hey, whoa whoa whoa, I gave you hell on the washbag thing!

you mean the warshbag? 

Sorry, I remember that comment about "warsh" vs. "wash" on your story and just thinking to myself if Annie says people in Wyoming use it, then they use it.

[one_of_one]

hey, whoa whoa whoa, I gave you hell on the washbag thing!

You did!!  And I am really pleased you did, like you mentioned the letterbox/mailbox thing ages ago   But no one was able to tell me what I should have been calling a washbag which didn't help either!   

[coffeecat33]

WOW – I didn’t think my comments about N.A. would spark this much discussion – this is great!

At first I hesitated to give my opinion about N.A., but Mel asked in this thread and I gave her my opinion. Obviously the author is not too concerned with historical accuracy which is fine. Usually the story and characters in fan fic are more important than researched accuracy. However, with N.A., I recognized the inaccuracies and it distracted me because I grew up in the Midwestern U.S. during the 1950s. (Marcia: Romans calling each other, ‘Dude’ was just too funny – and spot on as to what I am trying to say.)

I didn’t leave feedback on LJ about N.A. because other people were enjoying the story and I figured if the author wanted authenticity, she would have done research or had a beta-reader. There’s so many stories out there that it was just as easy for me to leave this story and go on to another.

When I read Mandy’s “That Little Bit of Hope,” I felt she was striving for a professional tone so I sent her a PM . I gave her feedback about an element in her story I felt didn’t ring true. Mandy sent me a PM saying she appreciated my feedback which I felt was sincere.

And Helen – I’ll gladly help you with any American terms. For example, we say salt shakers here in the States, not salt cellars.