Project Educate: How To Critique Fan Fiction

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TheMaidenInBlack's avatar
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Fan Fiction Week


Welcome to the next installment of projecteducate 's efforts, a whole week about fanfiction! :la:

One of the biggest misconceptions about the fanfic community is that fanfiction is written just for the writer's own pleasure, to appease a fantasy, and so on; implying that fanfiction writers don't really care about growing as a writer and improving their skills.

That's not only generalizing and offensive, but flat out wrong. Like for any other types of writing, a big part of the community will not care for feedback or critique (for any reason, from fair to plain childish), but there is always a niche of writers who thrives on constructive criticism and actively seeks it.

So the real question is, how do you critique fanfiction?

(note: this article does not teach you how to critique - just how critiquing fanfiction works, in simple terms)

Does Fan Fiction Need a Different Approach


The quick answer is: not necessarily. You can give good critique without knowing the fandom you are critiquing - you can critique a Harry Potter fanfiction without having ever read the books or watched the movies: your focus will just be different.


So What Do I Talk About in my Critique?


If you don't know the fandom, you can still critique the quality of the writing itself. For example:


  • paragraph division
  • dialogue
  • descriptions
  • grammar/spelling
  • character building (not in relation to the fandom, of course, just how well they are portrayed. Do they feel flat? Are they well constructed?)
  • plot building
  • conflict?
  • and more that my brain isn't thinking of right now.

You don't need to know the original fandom for any of these.

But if you do know the fandom, then you can go deeper and consider other aspects too!

  • how do the OCs fit into the universe?
  • how do they affect the plot?
  • is their interaction with the fandom characters believable?
  • how are the fandom characters portrayed? Are they true to themselves?
  • how does the fanfic plot fit into the universe's plot?
  • and so on.

In short: you don't need to know the fanfiction's fandom to give good critique, so don't use it as an excuse to say "sorry, but I never read/watched/studied XUNIVERSE so I wouldn't be able to critique."

There's a lot of fanfiction writers out there who don't really get much feedback because other writers either don't think they can help, or don't think they should since "it's fanfiction." Let's change that!


A Few Good Things to Keep in Mind



Fanfiction rubs a lot of people the wrong way, especially when they are not FF fans and they read about a really disturbing pairing idea. Well, being unhappy about a pairing doesn't give you a right to destroy another person's work - that's not critique, that's being an asshat.

Critique for fanfiction should really follow the same rules as critique for anything else - be respectful of the other person's skill level, get off your high horse, don't critique if you are not ready to follow-up, and keep in mind the difference between actual errors and subjective preferences. 

If you are not sure whether critique will be appreciated by the writer, ask! There is nothing worse than wasting a full hour writing a well-thought critique and have the writer be like "Actually, I'm not looking for critique right now. :shifty:

And last thing: fanfiction attracts a lot of younger writers. I know that on the internet you can never really tell someone's age, but when I read very elementary writing, following a pattern of errors and cliches that does seem to fit the I'm-13-years-old bill, I personally do an extra effort for helpfulness and nicety. You never really know the other person's story, and just because they are asking for critique, they don't necessarily know 100% what they are getting into. In the end, it always is about respect: if you can take the time to write a critique, you can take the time to be a little considerate too.




Is there anything you'd like to add to this article, or do you have a different opinion? Did you think there would be gifs and I betrayed your trust forever? Comment away! :D

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IamNoHere's avatar
I wish people ditched the whole "don't know - can't critique" mindset, and not only regarding fanfiction.