Hello Dokuga!!

Recently, I was contacted by one of my readers on AFF. She is a lovely person who has been reading my stories almost since I started writing and has been very supportive. She even listed my stories in her recommended reading section.

She contacted me because she wanted me to read one of her stories and tell her what I thought. The story was a Sess/Rin paring, (which I don't care for) but I was willing to overlook that in order to offer her some of the same support she has offered me.

I went ahead and read like the first two chapters and... frankly I was...

It was not good.

There was probably every kind of spelling, grammar and sentence structure error I could think of, not to mention poor characterization and dialogue. I really wanted to tell the author something encouraging, but from what I was able to read, there was nothing encouraging I could honestly say!

Has this ever happened to any of you? Do you have any advice? It put me in a really awkward position because even if I wanted to give her an honest critique, I could hardly begin to list the mistakes she made and my honest opinion would have been to suggest that she choose a different hobby; it was that bad. Really, I am not a mean person, and I don't say any of this to be so. Honestly, it was not the paring I had a problem with (I didn't even get to that part) it was the writing itself! I have said many times before that I am a really picky reader, but I was willing to try for someone who had been so kind to me. Now, I don't know what to say to her!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

She asked for your honest opinion so I would give it to her. But make to word it nicely, make a list of the major problems. Then write something that will help improve on that.

If this is her first story, it would be best to tell her now, before someone who is rude and won't take her feelings into account tells her the things wrong with the story.

Even if someone says certain parts of your story are bad, if they give critique that can help you fix it, the truth isn't so bad.

She can't get better unless she knows what she is doing wrong. So yeah, like I said before. Tell her, but also give her a way to fix it. (I usually just tell people also that I'm not trying to be mean but helpful) Because if she asked for you to read it over, she probably does want to know how you think it is. So Hopefully she won't get to offended by your response. But If she does, then what can you do? At least you could say you tried to help her(XD Sorry if this response wasn't any help ^^

You try to soften the blow by using words like 'interesting' or 'unique' to describe how you feel about the plot, first of all. Those two words can mean such a WIDE variety of things, y'know? Then you get into the meat of the problems, still trying to come up with the softest euphemisms you can find. Tell her repeatedly that you don't often do this, and you're sorry if it comes across as harsh. Encourage her to find a beta that would be willing to discuss story ideas as well as fix the mechanics of her writing.

That's about as far as I'd go, if I were you. If you get too detailed about the problems, you're just asking her to request that you help further with the specifics. In the end, you find you've been unwittingly sucked into trying to help the poor thing when the best idea would be for her to walk away from it NOW.

If/when she asks what more she can do to improve, you tell her that you'd love to be able to help but that you are truly so busy in real life, as well as with your writing, that you really wouldn't be able to be helpful. I find it incredibly difficult to walk away from people like this but, at the same time, incredibly frustrating to try coming up with ways to say "You SUCK" without actually saying it. You have my UTMOST sympathy in this situation!!!

~~Wiccan~~

Ahh this reminds me of me ^_^


Several years ago, I had a favorite author, who now changed her penname and I lost contact with her.

She is with me, as you are with your supporter. I asked her to give me her opinion of my first fanfiction (the original is up at FF.net... it's kind of a horrible read... Nothing to Live For)

Well she was really really kind, but to me. No matter how you sugar coat something, the truth hurts. I still remember what she told me. She said my grammar needs a little help (as always and still do), I need to be less specific on certain things, and adding detail on where it counts. And, she said that my plot was going into two different directions. That it's breaking away from my original plan.

Which is all true. She said it nicely, but like I said... the truth hurts.

From a personal experience, I can safely say; Just tell her. My author made me a better writer by telling me her opinions. It's never too late to improve creative writing.


And you might wonder did I get angry with her? Yes, I did. I was selfish to think that my story could ever match up to hers, and when she told me... I was heartbroken. Which made me give up on fanfiction for a while, but hey I made a comeback.


Enough of my stupid story, the point is. If you really want to see your supporter improve her creative writing, tell her the truth does wonders.

You might get a bit of a bad response that might make you feel a little guilty on the inside. But tell her don't give up on writing, keep trying, find new ways of interpreting ideas.

I bet, she'll come back and thank you when comes to her senses.



Good Luck Lady Sianna!



For me, I never got the chance to thank my author for telling me the truth =( She's made me the author I am today, and I'm still trying to look for new ideas on interpreting details.

Well, one hopes not to overwhelm her or thoroughly discourage her. She might say she wants honesty, but a rare few people really do.

I'd say pick one thing that should be easy to fix like advising her to use a spell check to make it easier to read. Have her fix it and then say you'd be willing to go over it again. If this sort of investment is exactly what you don't want to do then simply leave it at that.

As for the positive aspect, praise her on being willing to put herself out there and post her story. It takes a lot of nerve to do that and if she's not confident in her skill then it is doubly true.

I've had a few similar experiences, so I understand

I thank you all for responding to this thread!!

PRVN, I think you are right. As someone the author has supported me for such a long time, I actually care about her feelings and don't want to hurt them. Other's might not feel the same way so it might be easier to hear the truth if it comes from me.

Wiccan, your wisdom knows no bounds!! I found your advice very helpful and I think that is exactly what I will do. I really don't want to hurt the author's feelings, but I would like to help her if I can. She seems like such a nice person, and I just hate the idea of hurting her feelings! Sometimes it's hard communicating emotion through written words, but I will be as gentle as I can while still being honest.

MiserablySweet, I found your account especially interesting and helpful because you were on the other side of the story, so to speak. Your insight helped a lot!! I think that my supporter might have a similar reaction even if I explain gently, but I hope that she too will become a better writer because of it!

ladybattousai, I agree with you as well. I think that when people say "honest," they probably only mean it when they think they have done a good job on something. Most people don't want to know the truth when it's not so pretty! Your advice is appreciated as well. It really does take a lot of courage to put a part of yourself on display for everyone to judge. I will surely make mention of that when I respond to her!

Thanks again you guys!!

this sounds sticky hun. I would have to say tell her she needs to work on editting a little more. suggest a beta or something. it took a teacher in my creative writing class to tell me to edit more before i realized the mistakes i made. I hated her for it at first but i came to realize that she was right. If you can't sugar coat it tell her straight out that she needs to improve on the story a little. Betas are life savers.