sholio: sun on winter trees (SGA-young McKay pointing)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2008-02-23 02:19 pm

I need a life, part 495,746

Pertaining to the previous SPN post, a couple of links to interesting discussions on race and gender issues in SPN:

Letter to Eric Kripke
On fannish objections to race/gender discussions of SPN

What I should be doing at the moment is working on my graphic novel script, which is soundly kicking my ass today. Obviously, I'm having some trouble maintaining proper focus. Also, I just realized it's already the 23rd and I still owe [livejournal.com profile] stargateficrec two recs each in the Sheppard and Sheppard/McKay friendship categories before the end of the month. Oops.

Hey, a question for everybody: When you rec stories, do you feel compelled to point out the flaws in your rec (making it more like a review, I suppose), or do you try to remain positive?

I find myself taking a different approach when I'm reccing things on my journal vs. at a public rec site like [livejournal.com profile] stargateficrec or [livejournal.com profile] stargategenrec. In my role as "public" reccer, I really do try to do all-positive recs -- which sometimes means finding things to rec that I really don't have any complaints about, or sometimes forcing myself to avoid mentioning the issues that I might have had with something I'm reccing. (Spelling/grammar mistakes, an ending I didn't like, etc.) I suppose that it seems unfair to bias a reader against something beforehand, when the item that bothered me might not bother them at all.

On my journal, though, I'm usually a lot more honest -- I still wouldn't rec something I didn't feel was worthy of it, obviously, but I do tend to mention things that bugged me about the story as well as things I thought were brilliant. The difference ... I guess that it's a matter of my journal being my own private space, and because it *does* make me a little uncomfortable to rec things I'm not 100% positive about without mentioning the flaws, I'd rather preserve my own comfort in my own journal. On public rec sites, I'm less concerned about my own comfort and more interested in pointing readers at a fic without predisposing them to look for the flaws in it.

As a reccer, what about you? Or is it even something you've thought about?

As a reader, do you prefer an honest, "warts and all" review, or would you rather go into a story with a more positive impression in mind? Or do you even read a rec beyond simply finding links to click on? (Which is actually the approach I take, more often than not. I'll skim the summary part of a rec to find out if the story sounds like my cup of tea, but I don't usually read beyond that because I'd rather be unspoiled.)

As a writer, do you object to having recs of your stories that aren't all-positive? Would you prefer not to be recced at all rather than have your story memorialized for all time as "Great characterization, terrible grammar"? (Me, I don't mind a bit, just for the record. Well, I might gripe in private about a review that I thought was really, truly unfair, but mostly I'm just interested to find out what people have to say about my stories.)
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[identity profile] lunabee34.livejournal.com 2008-02-26 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
I do lots of recs on my journal and I tend to be honest. I don't rec anything I don't want to read again; in fact, my recs are a way of keeping track for myself stories that I like well enough that I'll go back to them in future. So I generally offer a teensy, mostly non-spoilery plot synopsis, what I liked, what didn't work for me, and quote or two. Rarely, I do a review of a fic that's a post in and of itself and I tend to go into more depth about what didn't work for me in those.

As a reader, I prefer honest reviews and as a writer as well. More often than not I find complaints about my work legitimate and have either revised or taken the issue under consideration for future works.
ext_1981: (SGA-dorks)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-02-27 05:19 am (UTC)(link)
[livejournal.com profile] stargategenrec kinda *is* my fanfic-tracking system for stories I liked ... which is why I have so much more trouble finding a story that's not gen and/or SGA!

Ironically, I tend to prefer honest reviews (and recs) as a writer, but I'm reluctant to give them as a reader. For one thing, I've upset people a couple of times by being TOO honest in my reviews. I know there's nothing you can do about how someone else is going to respond to something you wrote, but I still hate to make someone else's day a little worse if I'm honestly trying to pay them a compliment with my rec!