Most Common Writing Errors (ONGOING)

It's Okay To Not Want Criticism

Read the disclaimer if you haven't already.

This chapter talks about why it's fine to not want criticism.

I've talked about this in the past in the criticism chapter, but I'll talk about it more here.

On Wattpad, I don't apply to review shops for a variety of reasons. 1) All the review shops I see score a book out of ten, and I never believed a number system was a good way to score a source of media because of how subjective it is. 2) I don't know these reviewers and don't know if they are in my target audience for my stories (target audience is VERY important when it comes to getting reviews; look at the Barbie movie, for example). 3) I don't need the feedback.

I get scared people are going to say, "You can't take criticism" simply because I don't want or need it for my Wattpad stories. I do need criticism because I am a writer. But I don't think anyone realizes just how much criticism I face on a daily basis.

My full-time career is writing. I'm pretty sure everyone knows it is much harder to receive criticism in-person than it is online (in most cases) because online you can always ignore, block, and delete. While it may stick with you forever, at least you have the comfort of being able to let yourself feel the emotions alone. In-person, you have to sit there and take it no matter how harsh the criticism is.

And yes, in-person criticism can be just as harsh if not more harsh than online criticism.

That's what I deal with on a daily basis. In-person criticisms from bosses, clients, classmates, professors, etc. I have to sit there and keep a straight face no matter how harsh, blatantly wrong, or weird the criticism is. And, honestly, it's easier to ignore online hate because you don't know them. Irl, you do know them, and some of them are people you highly respect, and receiving harsh words from people you know and admire is significantly harder than receiving it from internet strangers. In my opinion, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, I get a lot of great criticism that helps me grow as a writer, but that doesn't change that I receive criticism on a daily basis. Regardless of how much it helps, it can still be exhausting to hear.

Maybe with that added context, you can understand why I don't want to deal with it on Wattpad. On Wattpad, I write fanfics that I think are above average, but they have flaws that I recognize. Adrift is one of my most beloved works, but it's also one of my most flawed. I do my best to improve myself for my next fics by self-evaluating, re-reading, re-editing, etc., but I still want to do it for fun.

For my fanfics, I really don't want criticism or negativity, and I ignore it whenever I get it. I don't try nearly as hard for my fanfics as I do my original stories. Just for reference, I'm working on a huge original story, and I haven't even done half of the second chapter yet because I've been editing the first for months.

I need it to be perfect. Every word needs to be to my standards. That is a story I'll happily take criticism for because it is something I'm writing seriously. For my fanfics, I do a basic outline, some chap outlines occasionally, write them, give them one edit, then post them. I can finish multiple chapters in a day, and when compared to my original story's first chapter taking me months, I think you can understand why I don't care much for criticism on my fanfics.

I'm not nearly as precise because I just want to have fun. I try so hard with my original work and at my job that I want fanfic to be my escape.

So does it make sense why I don't want to put up with criticism or negativity on Wattpad?

Don't get me wrong, I work my ass off to write these fanfics, but it's a fun type of work. I get to write and know that there are flaws, whether I notice them or not, but not worry too too much about them. I try my best to make sure there are few flaws, but since I'm writing these stories relatively quickly, they're naturally going to have flaws whether they be story-related or technical flaws like typos and grammar errors.