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Oct 2024

Troll comments can be hilarious sometimes. I used t have a little collection of the best ones, but I dunno where they went when my laptop died earlier this year.

@JoshRaed I think you might have gotten a little better, but it's a difficult thing to manage anyway. When I was learning to absorb critiques and even when I had editors looking over my work, I think it helped to take some time to absorb the feedback. Also, maybe take notes! That way you can go back over your story and keep the important bits in mind.

I have no problem with criticism, even blunt criticism. The type of feedback I don't like is when the person says something that doesn't pertain to the work at hand. Saying a romance has no action or the action comics has no drama. Complaining about what the creator tried to do is one thing, but complaining about what the creator never set out to do in the first place is disingenuous. I try to never complain about artwork unless that person should know better (just an example, not real: a professional like Jim Lee doing crap work compared to work he has down before). If you don't like the look of my artwork, that is fine. But it was done that way with intention. The last thing I dislike is criticism based on not offending someone. If you write a horrible person, which exist in the world, complaining how that person acts is not a viable critique of the work. It's a character. I've had this with some of my dialogue as the main characters make fun of each other. Their friendship is based on insults, which no one among them take seriously. This does happen. There is no reason it should not be in a story.

oh btw, I just realized, I was just joking, I do agree that promotions threads are for something and that Writing/Novels is for others. I also dislike those spammers.

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no, I came to my own post and realized that since I can't control how people can read the way I intent to write there's a big chance that if someone who doesn't know me reads it, and being this topic what it is and how some people are, they could interpret my comment as a genuine attack against them, of course, it most likely wouldn't offend them.
But regardless of if it does or not, it still plants the idea of me being a toxic person, and I don't want to appear that, at least not to OP at the moment.

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Constructive criticism is fine, in fact, I would like someone to review my comics and tell me what to improve as well as what worked, however, if you're gonna be insulting, then that's not a nice thing to do.

Well, I've never received trolling, but I do think I've gotten better at receiving criticism. I started writing professionally at 15, and back then I wasn't great at handling rejection, and critiques made me get really depressed. Nowadays, I can take most critiques with a grain of salt, notice the trends, and decide whether I think the consistent critiques I receive are actually a problem with my writing I should change or a matter of preference. My guiding line is usually that if things are confusing for people, they probably need to be altered unless the goal is to unravel an enigma over time with the story. if it has to do with my writing style, then it's okay if people don't like it. everyone has different tastes. I can only think of one time recently when criticism made me angry.

As for do I think I've gotten better? Definitely. It's been nearly 4 years now (will be 4 in like, November) and I've learned so much, and grown so much as a writer, developed my personal style, and learned more about properly structuring a story, moving it forward, building tension and climaxes, etc. I was basically self taught in the beginning, but since getting more advice and critiques, I've been able to use it to improve.

I learned to grow thick skin by trying to look at comments objectively and try to find the constructive feedback even if it may not feel like feedback. And if people write they don't like my writing with no other details, i try to remind myself that you just haven't found your people yet :slight_smile:

I use to be pretty bad at handling criticism and feedback. I got better about that over the years as I learned more about art and writing. And learning not to tie my self worth to my work.

Now a days I actively seek it out. In order to keep improving day by day. Ironically, I don't get much feedback these days unless I'm actively asking someone. And they happen to have time to check my stuff out.

Much better than I used to!

I used to take criticism very personally. It would really upset me, and I felt the need to argue back. It really prevented me from sharing my writing with people and made it much harder to improve. Now, I am really invested in improving and finding an audience for my stories, so I am seeking out new people to read and give their honest feedback all the time. If I don't agree with someone's criticism, it's easy to just... not follow their advice. But I try to honestly consider every bit of feedback that I get and trust that it was given in good faith.

I've also learned the art of waiting a day or two before responding to criticism lol.

I'd say I'm pretty bad. Not to the extent that I will argue with critics (god, how would I dare?). But criticism does cut me deep, especially if it's a criticism I agree with. I need to take a few days off for crying after receiving anything like that.

There is one person who gave me constructive criticism and if it wasn't for them, I don't think I would have had any idea how bad I was in many aspects of my comic. I appreciate that.

I usually take the good criticism to heart, which are usually questions about something I hadn't considered, or maybe the pace has been slow or frustrating to people. I've only time I was genuinely upset was a few months ago when a hardcore reader of another creator came over and accused me of something that could be like...cancel culture worthy and I was NOT having it. I blocked them and reported them to the Tapas manager who said they'd monitor my comments for that person again just in case. It was pretty horrid.

Trolling is just plain unhelpful or meant to irritate others; if I see that kind of stuff, I'm typically quick to block it because it's just someone attention seeking or trying to drag you down for no reason. It's less than deserving of attention most of the time, and I wish people would grow up in that regard.

Genuine criticism, though, I almost go out of my way to find and encourage from my readers; the best way to grow is to have all your plot holes, inconsistencies, and boring scenes pointed out for you, since you probably aren't viewing your story in the same way that the reader is.

Wait, you mean you didn't like the part where the main character drones on about an irrelevant topic that only they and the author are interested in? Even though it builds more to their character, despite having nothing to do with the ongoing conflict? Or their weapon is supposed to have XYZ powers, but it suddenly can do ABC as well when it's most convenient, even though I thought I dropped hints to it along the way? And I could have sworn that this side character always talked in this fashion/dialect, did I forget how they pronounce certain words?

Having other people edit/review for you is paramount to improving your story, and I wish at times I got more of it like I did back in my university writing workshop courses. I've currently only got one friend reading "The Herald of Death" to provide feedback, but even that has helped me phenomenally.