At the risk of being overly blunt, if you want to criticize the way I review, please reread my review first. Also, read
everything in this guide that I'm linking to right here.
First off, I never said he was terrible. Stating that again. I said he had potential, but there's a number of things that he needs to improve. It's against the point of reviewing to post nothing but praise and a tiny bit of criticism if you have something more to say than that. The entire point of reviewing is to state exactly how a reviewer feels about someone's work, and sometimes, it's not going to be completely positive. Sometimes, what you have to say in terms of criticism needs examples so your point is completely clear. Just because it's long doesn't mean I think he sucked. It means I think my point wouldn't have been clear if I didn't say a lot.
So, the size of my review has absolutely nothing to do with my tone. In no way was I snarky or attempting to insult him. Ever. Everything I had to say was an effort to teach him things I know about poetry.
This is an opinion. Personally, I feel that he could have executed theme better or that the theme just wasn't exactly there. As I've said about his Emolga poem, it was just talking about finding out about its name, and the last line went off-topic anyway. I was giving him pointers on how to avoid that because I thought he was an intelligent enough writer to figure out how to use them.
This was actually something I said wasn't that bad in my review. Please read what I have to say again.
This depends again. Another problem I had with the Emolga poem is that while it was a personal story, there wasn't much emotion to it. It didn't
feel personal. Same thing with the Deoxys poem, although I could see that he had a good idea that could be expanded upon.
Yes. And as I've said before, it'd be mean not to help him after that point with a bit of concrit on how to improve. Remember the bicycle analogy? Doing nothing but praising him or limiting the amount of concrit you give him now is the equivalent of just sitting by the side of the road and saying nothing while you watch someone fall off their bike over and over again.
Yes, everyone wants praise, but if you give people nothing but praise, they'll never improve because they don't know what needs to be improved. Put it this way. Say there was a little piece of spinach in your teeth, and you were walking around looking a little funny because of it. People could go up to you and smile and say you have pretty eyes and that's it, but you still won't know there's a piece of spinach in your teeth. If someone gave you a mirror or said that there's something in your teeth, then you'd know, and you'd be able to get the spinach out without a problem. The people on this forum who are giving concrit are the people with mirrors. The people like you who only offer praise are the people complimenting eyes instead. You might think you're making them feel better, but it's actually all the other reviewers who point out specifics that help shape writers.
You should be careful with what you say, MeerFall. You just told me you don't take concrit, and that kind of attitude generally doesn't go over well in writing communities.
But aside from that, I'd like to point out that every review you've made in this thread has been deleted due to a lack of content. My reviews, meanwhile? I've been thanked for them, and a few people have actually told me their English and writing styles have improved thanks to what I've told them. You can't sugarcoat what you have to say. You can say it as politely as you can (which I do believe I did because nowhere in my review did I attempt to offend him or be sarcastic to him), but if you don't tell someone how you think they can improve, they will never know what to work on. Period.
Come to think of it, I'd like to point out the fact that theowlmanlives actually
thanked me for my review himself and that we were actually getting along pretty well. I gave him some concrit, he accepted, I complimented him a little more and gave him encouragement, and we were going to go on our way. Then,
you stepped in to rip
me a new one (which you claim
I'm doing) over something that doesn't involve you in the first place. Chill out, back off, and let me do my work. I've been doing this kind of gig for a
very long time, and I don't take too well to people getting in my face about it.
Um, yes. Isn't that a good thing? :/ Because, you know, this means I think everyone has the potential for being an amazing, professional-level writer, but it takes some effort to bring out the best in them.
Actually, let me tell you again what the entire point of a writing community is. We're not here to post our work and pat each other on the back. A writing community is a place full of amateurs (every single one of us, including me) who hang around each other so we can give each other the help we need. No one here is perfect (and I never said I thought anyone was, especially me), but we can't just stay in one place and not help each other by offering up concrit to one another.
To be blunt, just because you don't want to read a long post doesn't necessarily mean that this is a point of improvement.
Also, so... let me get this straight. You want me to fail at being a reviewer by not submitting reviews at all because I should ignore fics and poems with problems because all the problems in them are "not my problem."
Look, if you want to tell me to shut up, you can come right out and say it. I really wouldn't mind. I'd probably have to put you on my ignore list if you did
and maybe also report you for flaming, but at least you'd get that off your chest.
Yes. That would be the entire reason why another author would sit down and offer up some constructive criticism. It's not to tear down someone (as I've said for the umpteenth time). It's to
help them improve by pointing out where that wiggle room for improvement is.
...Except if you're a newbie, you haven't really gone much of anywhere, which is why people like me attempt to teach you how to go further. This isn't to insult newbies. It's to state that it's rather early to admire your progress when even you realize there's a lot you can learn. It's the mark of a mediocre writer (at best) who wants to stay in one place and admire their work constantly instead of learn more about writing. Just saying, MeerFall, that it might be a bad idea to keep up that attitude. I'm worried that you see yourself as a writer who doesn't need to be better than what she already is, and that would be rather sad for someone who loves poetry.
Oh, darling, you've never seen a reviewer who was actually mean. Just be thankful for that. Trust me on that one.
I can only wonder what your teachers must be like if they never tell you how to improve on your methods. Did you ever make a mistake in class? Did the teacher pat you on the head and tell you good job over it or only tell you that your plus sign was pretty even though you tried to say that two and two are five? Same concept here.
Again. I've been reviewing for awhile. I know what I'm doing. People have thanked me for helping them, and I've only seen improvement under my methods. Example? Go read Mizan's work. He used to be one of the people I beta read for. Another example? theowlmanlives and I ended our conversation on decent terms.
It's only when I encounter people like
you who can't take concrit and get on my case for minor things (like the length of my reviews) instead of actually reading what I have to say that I start to have a problem and get blunt like I am right now. Maybe you should take some of your own advice, take a deep breath, and avoid snapping at people over things that don't concern you. It just doesn't really help either side. Picking a fight embarrasses the person you're trying to defend (because you're making a scene), and it only gets the person you're fighting angry. It's just not a good way to go about things, y'know?