Scott Pollert <pollerts@hsonline.net> wrote:

Oh well, there's my feeble attempt at C&C on two great stories. Hope this
helps.

You did fine.

Now for the other problem I mentioned earlier, that of being intimidated by
an author's name. Maybe I simply lack chutzpah, but I find it hard to be
critical of a well-written author when I myself have produced so little.
How am I, Scott Pollert, author of no more than a half-dozen spamfics, none
of which were over 10k, suppose to criticize someone like *John Biles*,
who's written such well-known, liked, and *long* fics as Dance of Shiva,
Sailormoon Z, and PYHinRP/Furinkan Summer?

Well, you're supposed to criticize his *fics,* not *him.* :) And like I
said, your C&C was just fine. One of the most important things you can
tell an author is, how did YOU experience the fic? Did it make you cry?
Make you laugh? Make you want to pick up your chair and bash in your
monitor screen? Make you yawn and wonder if there might be anything good
on TV? Did you feel compelled to draw a quick sketch of the author and
burn it in effigy for the way he made your favorite character act? :-)
That's something anyone can do, writer or not.

(And don't let them fool you,
size *does* count! ;)

Size certainly makes a difference in the kind of C&C you're likely to
get. Most people probably wouldn't have the time and energy to do a
line-by-line critique of a 500 kb epic all at once -- but they should be
able to give a general reaction.

As for being intimidated by an author's name... don't be. The whole
point of posting to a list like this is because we all *want* criticism.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics