>> No 'thanks for writing this' or 'I did at least enjoy this part' or even 'I hope you don't mind me saying but if I had been writing this, I would have focused on [whatever] more.' Just 'you did it wrong.' <<
That sucks.
>> I was vaguely baffled at how to answer this comment. <<
It's often best to ignore those.
>>I mean, my first instinct is that it's very rude to leave a comment that consists in telling me that I should have told my own story in a different way. It wasn't ever meant to be whatever this 15-year-too-late reader thinks it ought to have been.<<
It is rude. Good feedback may include possible improvements, but a lot of fanfic writers don't want constructive criticism and say so in their profile or story header.
>>Ugh, what is a comment like that supposed to achieve? Are they just venting their disappointment that they thought it was going to be one thing and then it wasn't? <<
Two prevailing possibilities:
* More likely, there's a large and growing sector of fandom that seems to exist for the purpose of complaining about things, whether canon or fanfic. They derive as much gratification from that as other folks do from squeeing over cool things.
* Less likely, it could simply be someone who thinks they're being helpful. Especially if they've taken writing classes which teach people poor feedback skills, and that's very common.
>>The comment sounds like it's writing advice but they don't know what I was trying to achieve, and we've never spoken before so I don't know what their assumptions are or indeed where they get off.<<
Thoughts
That sucks.
>> I was vaguely baffled at how to answer this comment. <<
It's often best to ignore those.
>>I mean, my first instinct is that it's very rude to leave a comment that consists in telling me that I should have told my own story in a different way. It wasn't ever meant to be whatever this 15-year-too-late reader thinks it ought to have been.<<
It is rude. Good feedback may include possible improvements, but a lot of fanfic writers don't want constructive criticism and say so in their profile or story header.
>>Ugh, what is a comment like that supposed to achieve? Are they just venting their disappointment that they thought it was going to be one thing and then it wasn't? <<
Two prevailing possibilities:
* More likely, there's a large and growing sector of fandom that seems to exist for the purpose of complaining about things, whether canon or fanfic. They derive as much gratification from that as other folks do from squeeing over cool things.
* Less likely, it could simply be someone who thinks they're being helpful. Especially if they've taken writing classes which teach people poor feedback skills, and that's very common.
>>The comment sounds like it's writing advice but they don't know what I was trying to achieve, and we've never spoken before so I don't know what their assumptions are or indeed where they get off.<<
Yyyyyeah.