Guilt Trip

[kriadydragon]

Yep, another question, this one simple.

Do any of you feel bad when you read a story by an author whose stories you always read, always enjoy, always comment on...and don't leave a comment? Not because the story was bad, but because A) you didn't personally agree with the statement being made/the way the situation was handled/felt it needed or didn't need this thing or that B) the story was of a type you usually don't like reading, or you have to be in the right mood to read it or C) You simply didn't know what to say or wasn't sure if you had read and interpreted the story correctly.

Though A and B are reasons I may not fully enjoy a story, C is usually my main reason for leaving no comment. I'm not a very articulate person, and it sometimes takes me hours (depending on what I'm responding to) to formulate a written response that I feel comfortable with (i.e. won't offend anyone or make them feel put down). But I always feel bad if I don't leave a comment on a story after reading every other work - or at least most of the work - by the author. I want to show support, but that sometimes means giving praise to a story that had something in it I didn't feel right about, or was the kind of story I usually don't like reading. If it's a story with something I didn't like, I will sometimes review - pointing out the good while (hopefully) pointing out my issue as mildly as possible... aaaaand end up feeling guilty about that, too.

The thing is, a while back I read a story by a favorite author, in which a situation was resolved in a manner I didn't wholly agree with. I commented anyways - pure praise - since I'd had yet to not comment on a story they'd written. Leaving the review, however, ended up not sitting well with me. Since then, I've been a little more stingy about reviewing. I try to leave a review, even if it sometimes includes the mention of a few personal issues I had with the story, but more often than not I'm never sure what to say (or if I may have interpreted the story wrong, or missed something even after reading it more than once), so won't review at all.

Comments

[sholio]

Personally? I doubt if I'd notice or care if someone who normally reviews my stories doesn't review something I've written. For one thing, my writing is all over the map with regards to characters, rating and fandom. I expect that most of my readers won't read everything I write for that very reason.

Similarly, there are very few authors for whom I enjoy *every* story they write. Even some of my favorite authors have done a story or two that wasn't to my personal taste. If I run into something I don't like by someone whose work I normally like, I don't feel any obligation to review; the thought honestly never occurred to me that someone MIGHT notice. I find that a little bit uncomfortable, to tell you the truth. Of course, I'm also made slightly uncomfortable when I friend someone on LJ and they friend me back within hours or minutes -- the idea that someone is paying THAT much attention to who friends them is just ... very alien to my way of thinking, I suppose.

Having said that ... for people with whom I have an offline relationship, I usually feel compelled to say *something*, even if it's just a mention in the next time I drop them an email -- "hey, by the way, read your latest story, I'm not really on board with transformation fic but I LOL'd when you turned them all into stuffed animals" ... etc.

It used to be that I rarely reviewed unless I could sit down and write an unabashed paragraph or two about how much I liked the story. Since I've been making more of an effort to leave reviews over the last couple of years, I've also been getting a little more ... er, honest in my reviews, since I've been reviewing more stories that I have mixed feelings about, and more willing to point out flaws even in the stories I liked. :D Even now, though, I'd say I only leave comments on about a third of the stories I read, even the ones I liked. It just takes so long to sit down and compose a comment that, often, I'd like to move on instead. I will try to leave comments on stories that have very few of them, or ones that I would like to encourage the author to write more of (for example, there's not much Ronon-POV fic out there, so if I run into a good one I'll try to make a special effort to comment and rec it so that they'll be encouraged to keep writing). But really, I'm a haphazard reviewer at best.

[kriadydragon.livejournal.com]

Heh, I tend to notice too much. Not because I'm hyper-aware, but because I'm very routine/pattern oriented, so when the routine/pattern is altered (someone who had been reviewing every story I wrote suddenly no longer reviewing) I do notice (after a while.) But I'm not offended by it or anything (thought I do sometimes wonder if I could have written the story better, or had something happen that squicked the reader.) Not every story is going to be liked and even the most avid fan is going to have a story or two they're uncomfortable with.

Since I've been making more of an effort to leave reviews over the last couple of years, I've also been getting a little more ... er, honest in my reviews, since I've been reviewing more stories that I have mixed feelings about, and more willing to point out flaws even in the stories I liked.

That does seem to be inevitable. I used to leave reviews on every story I read for the sake of providing the author with support, even if there were things in the story I didn't like or agree with all that much. I think, after a while, you have to be at least occasionally honest. For one, it helps an author a lot more than praise alone (I've found that even if the issue a reviewer had was more a personal opinion than a flaw in my story, it still got me thinking about future stories more carefully). For another, you'd go insane otherwise ;).