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emmagrant01There's something interesting about getting criticism for fic, IMO. If it's my fic, I'm incredibly thick-skinned. If it's a flame, I tend to brush it off like a bit of sweat, and if it's concrit, I eat it up. I love it when people have looked so closely at my writing and have taken the time to tell me what didn't work for them. Even if I don't agree with them, I almost always learn something from their feedback, and it ultimately makes me a better writer.
But this system just breaks apart when a writer I adore and respect gets dissed. Nay, insulted.
I'll be the first to admit I'm biased when it comes to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jedirita. She's been my friend (in RL and fandom), beta, and PiC for a year and a half. She was the first person who sent me feedback on the first fic I ever posted anywhere, and she's lovingly mentored me as a writer. Rita is almost entirely responsible for my making it through the twelve steps of Adverb Abusers Anonymous, for example. Rita is the kind of friend and beta who can pinpoint exactly what's missing in my fic. She's not afraid to tell me when something sucks, and reminds me I can do better. I don't have to tell you writers how valuable that is!
Rita is responsible for my entering the HP fandom, BTW. She convinced me that I simply had to read the books, and I finally did last summer. I think I was the one who dragged her kicking and screaming into the world of HP fanfic, but that's another story! ;-)
I've had the privilege of beta-ing for Rita during the time I've known her, as well. Last year, she started working on a beautiful series called Rebel Apprentice. Now as you Star Wars fans know, there was a fabulous series of young-reader novels published by Scholastic called Jedi Apprentice, which told the story of how Obi-Wan Kenobi, from age 13-18, learned to be a Jedi. There's another series called Jedi Quest about Anakin's training, which fills in the time between Episodes 1 and 2.
Rita's idea was brilliant: she would write a series, in the same style, about Princess Leia's teen years. After all, we know from canon that Leia learned to be a Rebel Leader from her father, Bail Organa. Rita wanted to create a series that followed Leia through her teen years and showed us how she came to be the feisty grrl-power princess we see in Episode 4. The first (of what I hope will be many) fic in the series is here. If you haven't read it, you should. It's a wonderful gen story, and it's so perfectly canon, so perfectly in the style of JA and JQ!
Rita decided to submit this fic to an archive hosted by TheForce.net, hereafter referred to as The Evil Empire of the Star Wars Fandom (EESWF). This is a somewhat picky archive, sort of in the same sense that Fiction Alley is picky. Your fic is reviewed by three people, who check it for grammar, characterization, etc. They all vote on whether to accept or reject it, and the majority wins.
The first time Rita submitted her fic, it was rejected because the reviewers thought she used too many "earth" terms. The slashy end of the SW fandom is certainly less picky about that sort of thing than the EESWF is, and Rita, amazingly, rewrote a little of her fic to meet their arbitrary stylistic standards. She took out all references to "paper", for example, since its presence was so horribly offensive and OOC. She then re-submitted it.
And was again rejected. She quotes the rejection letter in her post here.
The thing is, they rejected her fic because of the following:
-- cross-overs with other media and/or Earth
-- grammar and/or spelling errors
-- characterization problems
Now I was one of her betas, and I swear to you, on a stack of holy books of your choice, that fic was NOT riddled with grammatical errors. It was damn near perfect, in fact. I have no idea what language these "reviewers" were using to judge her fic, but fuck me if it was English.
The cross-over issue makes me want to scream! I mean, there is a level of earth-based stuff you try to avoid, but it is often carried to a fucking ridiculous extent in fan and pro fiction, to the point that it distracts from the story in the worst way. I thought Rita did a fabulous job of maintaining a balance of believable story and "realistic" GFFA universe. I argued against making some of the changes she made in the second draft. What did they want her to do, change the word "tree" to something unrecognizeable as an earth object??? Give me a fucking break!
And then, the real kicker is characterization. I just don't know what to say! Did these reviewers even SEE the original Star Wars films? Rita's Leia was spot-fucking-on. You could completely imagine this spunky, yet insecure little girl growing up to kick Imperial ass across the galaxy. Were they offended by having a strong female character portrayed in the Star Wars universe, FOR ONCE?
Okay, I'm a little upset, as you can tell. I just don't understand how something that I regard as a phenomenal story could be rejected by an archive that hosts a shitload of mediocre Padme/Anakin fic.
And then I thought, wait a sec: is this a slash thing? RA isn't slashy, but most of Rita's stuff is, of course. Did the reviewers check her out? Did they look at her website? Did their little homophobic minds recoil at the sight of Bail/Obi lovin'?
It's the only logical explanation. Tell me if you disagree. Shit, tell me if you agree. I want to go and throw fucking rocks at the EESWF right now, though. Onjedirita's behalf.
End fucking rant.
But this system just breaks apart when a writer I adore and respect gets dissed. Nay, insulted.
I'll be the first to admit I'm biased when it comes to
jedirita. She's been my friend (in RL and fandom), beta, and PiC for a year and a half. She was the first person who sent me feedback on the first fic I ever posted anywhere, and she's lovingly mentored me as a writer. Rita is almost entirely responsible for my making it through the twelve steps of Adverb Abusers Anonymous, for example. Rita is the kind of friend and beta who can pinpoint exactly what's missing in my fic. She's not afraid to tell me when something sucks, and reminds me I can do better. I don't have to tell you writers how valuable that is!Rita is responsible for my entering the HP fandom, BTW. She convinced me that I simply had to read the books, and I finally did last summer. I think I was the one who dragged her kicking and screaming into the world of HP fanfic, but that's another story! ;-)
I've had the privilege of beta-ing for Rita during the time I've known her, as well. Last year, she started working on a beautiful series called Rebel Apprentice. Now as you Star Wars fans know, there was a fabulous series of young-reader novels published by Scholastic called Jedi Apprentice, which told the story of how Obi-Wan Kenobi, from age 13-18, learned to be a Jedi. There's another series called Jedi Quest about Anakin's training, which fills in the time between Episodes 1 and 2.
Rita's idea was brilliant: she would write a series, in the same style, about Princess Leia's teen years. After all, we know from canon that Leia learned to be a Rebel Leader from her father, Bail Organa. Rita wanted to create a series that followed Leia through her teen years and showed us how she came to be the feisty grrl-power princess we see in Episode 4. The first (of what I hope will be many) fic in the series is here. If you haven't read it, you should. It's a wonderful gen story, and it's so perfectly canon, so perfectly in the style of JA and JQ!
Rita decided to submit this fic to an archive hosted by TheForce.net, hereafter referred to as The Evil Empire of the Star Wars Fandom (EESWF). This is a somewhat picky archive, sort of in the same sense that Fiction Alley is picky. Your fic is reviewed by three people, who check it for grammar, characterization, etc. They all vote on whether to accept or reject it, and the majority wins.
The first time Rita submitted her fic, it was rejected because the reviewers thought she used too many "earth" terms. The slashy end of the SW fandom is certainly less picky about that sort of thing than the EESWF is, and Rita, amazingly, rewrote a little of her fic to meet their arbitrary stylistic standards. She took out all references to "paper", for example, since its presence was so horribly offensive and OOC. She then re-submitted it.
And was again rejected. She quotes the rejection letter in her post here.
The thing is, they rejected her fic because of the following:
-- cross-overs with other media and/or Earth
-- grammar and/or spelling errors
-- characterization problems
Now I was one of her betas, and I swear to you, on a stack of holy books of your choice, that fic was NOT riddled with grammatical errors. It was damn near perfect, in fact. I have no idea what language these "reviewers" were using to judge her fic, but fuck me if it was English.
The cross-over issue makes me want to scream! I mean, there is a level of earth-based stuff you try to avoid, but it is often carried to a fucking ridiculous extent in fan and pro fiction, to the point that it distracts from the story in the worst way. I thought Rita did a fabulous job of maintaining a balance of believable story and "realistic" GFFA universe. I argued against making some of the changes she made in the second draft. What did they want her to do, change the word "tree" to something unrecognizeable as an earth object??? Give me a fucking break!
And then, the real kicker is characterization. I just don't know what to say! Did these reviewers even SEE the original Star Wars films? Rita's Leia was spot-fucking-on. You could completely imagine this spunky, yet insecure little girl growing up to kick Imperial ass across the galaxy. Were they offended by having a strong female character portrayed in the Star Wars universe, FOR ONCE?
Okay, I'm a little upset, as you can tell. I just don't understand how something that I regard as a phenomenal story could be rejected by an archive that hosts a shitload of mediocre Padme/Anakin fic.
And then I thought, wait a sec: is this a slash thing? RA isn't slashy, but most of Rita's stuff is, of course. Did the reviewers check her out? Did they look at her website? Did their little homophobic minds recoil at the sight of Bail/Obi lovin'?
It's the only logical explanation. Tell me if you disagree. Shit, tell me if you agree. I want to go and throw fucking rocks at the EESWF right now, though. On
jedirita's behalf.End fucking rant.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 08:01 pm (UTC)what they gave was not criticism, it was a summary rejection.
I know, and that's what screams bullshit to me. I can't help but think there's something more going on here, even if it isn't the anti-slash bias I mentioned above. (I was angry, I'll admit...) It just feels personal, somehow. Like I commented somewhere above, I can't help but take it a little personally. It feels like a slap in the face to me that they rejected a fic I think is so amazing. It's like they're indirectly saying I don't know good fic when I see it.
Their loss, ultimately. I just wish your fic could be on a big archive where more people could read it and see how amazing it is!
no subject
Date: 2004-08-18 08:20 pm (UTC)I understand how much better it makes a
person feel to get a personalized
letter with reasons for rejection specifically
detailed, but you should see
our list of submissions right now. We're just
too backed up. This kind of
letter is what you get from a literary magazine
if you're lucky. Most of the
time in the pro world all you get is a form post
card saying, "thank you for
submitting but your story does not meet our needs
at this time." They don't even
give you a clue what they didn't like, and they
definitely won't write you
back about it if you ask. But I think the two
TFN staff reviewers will.
Isn't that generous of them? Don't you feel sorry for them because they have SO MANY stories to read? Don't I feel honored to have had them even consider my story in the first place?
In a word, NO.