Tips & Tricks to Writing on Wattpad

Everything You Need to Know about Critiquing

Interview with the lovely RachelDesireeOoi :)

JJ: Alright, so I know you do a fair bit of critiquing. I've seen a couple of your threads around the SYS and I've seen bits and pieces from Notifications, because I've fanned you. Roughly, how often do you give a critique and get a negative response back? (As in the author not accepting it, saying it's a bad critique, etc)

Rachel:I give a critique whenever I stumble upon a story or when I do a comment for comment. Most people accept it and say thanks, while most people think of it as an insult to their story even if they clearly stated that they wished for a critique.

I critiqued one's work recently, and in that one short page of a prologue was all errors. I pointed out some errors, and I told her that it was "cliché" (because it was) and that it wasn't at its peak (meaning it can be better). But some other commentator (who's not the author herself) and the author responded not so pleasantly.

Ungrateful, much? It's not that I'm mean, but I wanted to punch her stupid face over and over again at the time. Can't you frickin' take a critique? CRITIQUES WEREN'T MEANT TO BE NICE!  There's no such things as nice critiques, unless you're talking about sugar-coating or a comment on a genuinely good story. There was another one, but I must be going on and on. So this is the last one I'm going to share in fear of getting over-depressed: Someone did with me a fan for critique and when I critiqued his story, he deleted the comment, and unfanned me. Bloody frickin' hell! Ah, I'm blabbering. If you want more ranting, I still can continue. :P

JJ:  Oh wow, those are some pretty bad reactions. I guess some people don't take criticism very well... Or are too embarrassed to do anything except defend themselves. O.o
Can you give us an example of your typical critique? It doesn't have to be for a specific story, just tell us what you normally comment on and stuff.

Rachel: Normally, I'd base it off of their grammar, punctuation, plotting, pacing and character development. The longest critique I did was a four-thousand character one, but sadly, my darn iPhone deleted three quarters of it, leaving me with only the character development part. The irony of it all was that the girl was a harsh critic herself. The two of us started a thread called Spicy Tacos (her idea - not mine) and the "client" can choose from levels of Easy, Medium and Hard for critiquing. Honestly, J don't really listen to what type they want, because I'm so used to giving a bang-on critique that I can't really give a nice one (Confession right there) unless I'm commenting normally for a friend's. I do listen to them - sometimes.

JJ: Oh my god, I hate the iTouch delete your comment when your a thousand something characters in. It's seriously annoying. Okay, anyway, whoa. If anyone needs a critique, or wants a taste of how Rachel does her critiquing, external link. Go now.
In your opinion, what distinguishes a critique from a downright nasty comment? And what are some tricks a defensive, sensitive (or normal) author can use to tell the difference?

Rachel:  Nasty? I've seen those. They usually consist of, "This is crap. Edit it and for goodness' sake, be more original!" or "I hate fan fiction! Be more original."  It's actually quite obvious, really. Unless most people are over-sensitive.... Seriously, some people are really getting on my nerves.

Why are they against fan fiction? Sure, I get annoyed if the fan fiction has a crap-load of errors and is completely unoriginal, but let me use the trending One Direction as an example:

The cliché title (which tells the whole story!): I met One Direction and fell in love with Harry.
The unique type: (my example. I'm not saying it's awesome. Copy my idea and it's unoriginal already.) Harry Hates Me See?
Isn't that better than saying: I met this guy in a bar and it turn out that it was Harry! Like, OMG!
That's utter BS.I'm getting off-topic, aren't I? :P