Don't Shoot the Messenger! (Adventures of a Critic)

When Authors do NOTHING

EVERYBODY ON WATTPAD KNOWN TO MAN HAS COME ACROSS THIS, whether they know it or not. There is a story out there that has asked for, if not begged, for hundreds of critics. 

The critics go and tell them what's wrong with the story, constantly repeating the same mistakes. 

...and the authors. 

Do.

Nothing. 

AT ALL. 

The same exact mistake is put into probably EVERY critique, and they haven't changed it. Among other things that these critics have said, this author has not changed ONE thing-and still is getting rising critiques. 

I understand a few days, heck, I understand a couple months-because I try to look back at least once a month but I don't always get back to it-but I've gone back to see a book I critiqued MULTIPLE MONTHS AGO and the most BASIC of grammar mistakes isn't taken into account. Nothing has been changed, at all. Now, I don't just look to see if my critique was put into their mind-because they may have disagreed with what I said and you know what, fine. But, I look at what other people are saying, and I look back at their novel, and if I see ABSOLUTELY NOTHING CHANGED, I am just flabbergasted. 

Now, even so, I give the author a little credit. Even I sometimes get lazy with fixing up my stories right away-but I ALWAYS do it eventually. Sometimes though, an author maybe is just going to avoid these mistakes in the future and wait till the novel is done to re-edit the very beginning. Fine. Whatever makes you comfortable, at least you are trying to improve.  

Then you get the authors like this, where you read more chapters, RECENT chapters, and still they're making the same mistakes. The plotholes you mentioned SIX chapters ago have not been fixed or at least taken note of. The author has not changed a damn thing. 

Excuse me? What do you think we're doing?

The least you could do is acknowledge that we have spoken. Acknowledge the fact that you're ignoring us. Acknowledge that you've read it and that you're going to work on it after the novel is finished, or even tell me that you blatantly disagree, I don't care, but I HATE being just brushed off. 

It's like being ignored. Dozens of people are telling the author the same problems, or different problems, whatever, and the author has turned a blind eye. 

What you doin? Huh?

Is it fun for you? 

I've begun to figure out what these people are doing. Now, this happened before this event, but, ever since the SYS club has been taken down (which is so fucking stupid, but whatever) this is the way people get comments and votes. They ask for CRITICS to come in and HOPE TO GOD they like their work enough to vote. This is how they do it, it's the only way they can. 

But still, really? REALLY? I understand being desperate, but is it so low that you won't even take into regard what we're telling you?

And sometimes this isn't the case. Sometimes the story is blessed with being very popular and THEY STILL HAVE DONE NOTHING. They haven't done anything, no change at all, in their writing-maybe subconsious stuff (sometimes grammar is slightly improved) but not enough to really make me go "wow, they're trying". 

That drives me nuts. Why are you calling upon me to take up two hours of my time (yes, that is the pretty much the average time it takes me to critique only two to three CHAPTERS of someone's work), if you're just going to disregard it? There's nothing that makes me more annoyed. I don't even know if I can call it anger-at most it just pisses me off, but it's not an angry feeling. It's just this nagging frustration that makes me want to shake the author and go "LISTEN TO ME, HEAR THE WORDS I AM SAYING TO YOU, GET THIS INTO YOUR HEAD-WE'RE HERE AND WE'RE TRYING, JUST LISTEN!"

Sometimes I get really bitter. I can't help but think "wow, I spent more time and put more thought in my critique then they did in the entirity of the chapter-maybe even the book!"

Would I tell them this-no-but I can't help but think it. 

Authors, please, for the love of all that is in Critic Land, please just acknowledge us. You know how it feels to post a work and it gets ignored, and no one's reading it. How do you think we feel? We're trying to help you so those word counts go up, and you can't even give us two minutes of your time? You can't go back and at least tell us that at this time you're not changing it? Or even better, you actually DO change it? It's just really not kind. 

C'mon authors. Do something with what we give you. We tell you, then you tell us, it's a wonderful way of doing things. 

Again, this is "Don't Shoot the Messenger", and from Critic Land this is Samantha. We're not the Whos of Whoville on a tiny speck-we're here and we can be seen and heard easily and we can hear you. It's a wonderful thing. Please take advantage of it.