I need a life, part 495,746

[sholio]

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 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 stargateficrec or 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.)

Comments

[luthien.livejournal.com]

When I rec, the most important element is "why I liked this." That's what I look for in other people's recs, too. If a reccer's taste differs from mine, it often comes through in the rec, and then I can work out whether I'm likely to enjoy the recced story or not.

I only rec stories that I can recommend without any major caveat. If I have to qualify my recommendation in any significant way in order to recommend a story... I don't recommend the story.

I should probably add that I'm not interested in being "objective" or "balanced" inmy recs. My enjoyment is a subjective thing, and it's that reaction that I'm trying to convey when I rec.

[sholio]

Thank you for the input!

That's actually the way that I tend to approach most of my recs -- what I thought was cool about it, what made me think it was worthy of a rec.

[emeraldsword.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where I stand on this, as the recs comm that I belong to are very brief - fandom, pairing, rating, link and, if the reccer is feeling expansive, a one-word summary like 'hilarious' or 'ouch.' So there I just trust the reccers completely - if X has recced this McShep then it must be worth reading.

I'm not a huge fan of spoilers so I don't sometimes find warnings annoying too - if the whole point of the story is that you don't know whether X is going to end up with Y or Z, then reccing it as a great XY fic kills the story for me (and I find that bookblurbs do this all the time, it's very frustrating!)

I feel that there's a difference between a review and a rec. I would love criticisms/comments in a review because then I've got the chance to fix the fixables and make notes for next time. Posting a con-crit review as a rec seems a bit mean - if I was doing that I'd quantify with 'personally' or 'in my view' or something, just so I didn't feel that I was attacking people.

People reccing my stuff - go ahead *g*. Even if you recced it as 'bit off more than she could chew but at least she tried' I'd be pleased. 'Standard cliches executed adequately' - now there's a rec I might be less happy with! But, it's still a rec. In the end, someone reccing something means that not only did they like it but they think other people would too, and no matter what reservations they have, that's still a compliment.

[sholio]

Yeah ... community rules make a big difference in what information I give in a rec. stargateficrec requires character death warnings, for example, so I'll put that in even if I wouldn't normally mention it because it's a spoiler. I *do* sometimes find warnings and even pairing notices are spoilery -- I can think of a couple of examples of stories that I really loved but wouldn't have liked half so much if I'd known whether or not someone was going to die, or which characters would hook up.

[tani.livejournal.com]

I have my own recs journal (tani_recs and that's mostly where I rec things, so my response is based on that. Just so you know. :)

I think that mostly I try to focus on the reasons why I liked a story. My first reccing impulse tends to be, "OMG, this was so amazing! Go read it NOW!!!" However, there are times when I feel like I have to warn people about something - usually if it's a story I've debated over whether I should rec it or not - and those times I will say something critical. I guess I feel like I have a responsibility to give fair warning for any big problems that other people might have with the story. Then usually I'll follow up the warning by saying that if you can get past this flaw, then it's a really good story, and this is why.

I don't know, maybe that approach scares off more people than it draws in. Maybe I shouldn't do it. But there are just some stories that I can't seem to rec without first warning about. For example, I can think of one story that starts out pretty bad grammatically that I still recced because I liked the idea and because the grammar improved a lot through the course of the story. I really thought the story was worth reading, but at the same time, I didn't want to send people into that early bad grammar without preparing them somewhat. Besides, with that warning, I'm also telling anyone who reads the rec that the grammar gets better, which I hope might keep them reading past the rough patch and allow them to enjoy the story as much as I did. I don't know if it actually works out that way, but it's definitely my thought process.

As a reader, I think I take everything that the reccer says with a grain of salt. Obviously, it's a really subjective thing to rec a story, and I know that the things that I like or dislike aren't necessarily going to be the same as the things that the reccer likes. So my technique tends to be just to find some stories that the person recs which look interesting to me, read them, and see where my opinion intersects with theirs and where it doesn't. There are times when I can kind of get a lock on what someone else enjoys and that helps me decide how much weight to give to what they say.

As a writer, any rec thrills me beyond belief. It's a rare enough occurrence that I'm not going to complain. ;)

[sholio]

Yeah ... I'm caught between not wanting to scare readers off from a story or predispose them not to like it, and wanting to give them all the information to make an informed decision about reading it.

I do feel more comfortable giving more balanced, slightly less squeeful recs in my own journal -- I think I'm more comfortable about being honest here. (I definitely still try to be tactful, though.)

[dreamflower]

Hmm...most of the time both my comments and my recs are pretty positive.

When I make public comments, I generally will send a private email to the writer if there were any problems I noticed. (e.g. "You may not have caught your mistake of using 'their' when you meant 'there'." or "You got Pippin's birth year wrong--it was SR 1390, not 1380.") They are generally appreciative, and usually fix the mistake.

Recs are a bit different. My favorite stories are pretty much free of the sorts of egregious mistakes that other people would see and say "What was she thinking to rec this story?" Still, if I find a story I like a lot, and it *does* have some of those mistakes, I may say something like "In spite of the occasional typo, this story really captures the characters well." (I prefer to give the writer the benefit of a doubt, and think they are typos rather than out-and-out spelling errors.) or "Even though it's not hard to tell that this was not written by a native speaker (or "by a first time writer") it shows a lot of promise, and I hope we will see more soon."

And if I'm not the beta, I'm not going to worry very much about occasional grammar or punctuation slips.

[sholio]

I think this is a good strategy -- and I *do* think that cricitism in recs ought to be phrased in a not-negative kind of way (because else, why would you rec the story?). So, thanks!

In my role as "public" reccer, I really do try to do all-positive recs

[ender24]

that is exactly my proceedure when i rec for my fandom (SV, clex).

if i find something that i might think is not positive, and believe the author might want to hear, I will tell them privately.
únless i know the author very well, i wouldnt include in my rec anything, that would negatively impact the potential reader.

Re: In my role as "public" reccer, I really do try to do all-positive recs

[sholio]

Thank you for the input!

This is the approach that I'm more comfortable with, I think, even though I'm sometimes concerned about not giving readers full disclosure of a story's flaws. But the whole point is to direct them to fic that I think is good enough to read, so I'd hate to predispose them not to like a story.

readers full disclosure of a story's flaws

[ender24]

yeah, but the thing is, and i onced talked with a friend about this, we are doing this on a fannish level. its not as if we are doing this professionally for a job or work. of course, that doesnt mean, we couldnt handle this professionally, but alas, most fanfic authors i know, write for fun, and they want positive feedback, and they are here with me in fandom to feel good. part of why I as a reader writing recs is, that it makes them feel good, and me too.
Its not my professional duty in fandom to give fellow potential readers this full disclosure, and anyway, what they could feel as flaws, are not necessarily what i consider a flaw. and vice versa.