On Unsolicited Concrit on Fanfics, an editor’s perspective
So I’ve been watching this conversation play out for a few days, a few months now really, and struggling with how to throw my two cents in. I’m not going to get flowery with metaphors or long winded with anecdotes, y’all. I’m just gonna come right out and say that when you comment with unsolicited constructive criticism on a piece of any creative writing, that criticism is no longer constructive and is inherently wrong. And as an editor, I can tell you explicitly why.
An author is an author. An editor is an editor. There is a hierarchy in that. An editor for an authored work of creative writing performs a different function than an editor for say, a piece of journalistic writing or…I dunno, academic, whatever other kind of professional writing you can think of. If a journalist handed me a piece of work and I was to edit it, I would be beholden to a certain stylebook and would also probably have jurisdiction to make true edits, ie cuts or changes to the text.
But an editor cannot author a piece of creative writing that they are editing. The author, at the end of the day, is the one in charge. The author, at the end of the day, is the one to in fact direct the editing. The author directs the editor, “Please proofread for spelling and grammar,” the term “proof” here denoting a finished manuscript that will not change structurally but may still be in need of fresh eyes to catch errors in grammar, punctuation, or spelling. Or the author requests, “Please read for characterization and/or continuity.” Or even, “Please read for continuity, but I would not like any notes on characterization.” The author can even appear to be giving free rein to an editor and say, “Please send me any revision notes to be discussed.” But over the course of that discussion, it is still the author saying, “With this note, you describe a reaction to a scene that I did not want. How do I make that scene illicit this other reaction that I want from the reader?” And then the editor works to achieve the author’s intended purpose with that creative work, full stop, even if the editor liked the original reaction to the scene in question and thinks it weakens the piece or the character or the statement to change it to something else. It is the author’s work, the author’s purpose, and even in this era of death of the author, at the stage where criticism is helpful, the author has the final say.
As an editor, I can go to an author and say, “I believe the piece would be stronger if we changed x, y, and z, in such-and-such a way,” and the author, as my employer and the one actually authoring the work, can disregard every word I have to say. Realistically speaking, an author can even decide to ignore proofreading line edits and seek a publisher that will ignore its own stylebook to publish something experimental and counter to traditional grammatical correctness. The author is in charge.
Readers and commenters, authors of fan fiction are not your ghost writers. They are in charge of their creative works. And if they have not directed your edits, if they have not come to you and said, “This is what I would like you to look out for while you read this piece for me,” your criticisms can. Not. be. Constructive. Since you. Are not. Constructing. The piece. The author. Is working towards.
Do not give concrit unless something explicitly states, “Concrit welcome.” That is an author asking for help constructing the piece they are working towards, or maybe developing their style, or maybe scoping out their audience so they can think of what to work on next. They can paw through and use or discard criticism at will. But if it is unasked for, it is more than likely unwelcome and by definition unhelpful and unconstructive. That is all.
A note on critics: a critic fulfills a further function and that is to observe a finalized piece of whatever medium and then speak on it in technical terms, they analyze the techniques utilized by the maker and whether they were executed correctly in theory, since you can’t exactly judge “art.” Y’know that episode of whatever cooking show where the man who spoke English as a second language made a savory meat instead of whatever dessert they had assigned for the challenge because he misheard them, but the judges critiqued him on the dish he made so they could grade him on his technical performance? That’s a critic. Critics don’t step in until something is done. A critic cannot author a piece they are critiquing, nor can they edit it, because their job is to analyze it once it is complete, and furthermore a critic not educated and well-versed in the technical wisdom of the medium they are critiquing is worth about as much as an umbrella under water.
As for the audience, guys, I know we’re trying to build a community. I know it’s fandom, I know it’s free, I know it’s supposed to be fun. But even in the case of making things more accessible, don’t hit the author up in public. Shit, if a beta is listed? Hit the beta up! That’s their job anyway, if something’s misspelled or there’s a typo, that’s their job performance lacking, not the author’s. Or if the author has listed another method of contact, do it in private. Do it the way that fosters community, not the way that discourages people from creating. And if there’s no private method of contact, as much as it may suck to hear this, just don’t read that author anymore. There’s a bunch of us working hard towards accessibility. Find us. Prompt us. Or, write what you’d like to see yourself and bring it to us so we can help you make it exactly how you want it to be. After all, we’re editors. And that’s our job: to help you make things Exactly How You Want Them To Be.
andulkaphoto
tangentwithtanner
prguitarman
amandla
ellievsbear
gummygunk
gracieabrams
