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.

If you're someone writing on Wattpad for fun, you are perfectly entitled to blocking people and deleting comments if you don't want to hear it. Run your profile how you want to.

In a way, we're a private business. Yes, we are on the internet and people are allowed to say whatever they want, but by blocking them and enforcing a rule that you don't want to hear it on your profile, you're not stepping on their rights in any way. You're not stopping them from talking, you're simply stopping them from talking to you, which is within your right.

And, readers, not every writer needs to know your opinion on their story. If you dislike it, just move it to your finished library and move on. Or maybe just remove it from your library altogether. It isn't that deep.

If you dislike a story and have no plans of rereading it, then why bother hating on it or moving it to a negative reading list? You do know writers can see your reading lists, right? So when you add a story to "bad" or "awful" or "disappointing," we know.

I mean, jokes on you, that still boosts us in the algorithm, so you're actually doing us a favor.

That story you hate? Yeah, congrats, you just boosted it 🤣🤣🤣

It's like the saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you." Us writers on Wattpad are working our asses off to give you free content you can read as much or as little of as you want, yet you decide to trash on authors anyway because... it's your "opinion?" 

Oh honey...

Believe it or not, sometimes you don't need to share your opinion. I know, that's shocking, but there is such thing as a time and place for an opinion. It's like if your best friend is super excited because their favorite artist released new music, then you say "But *insert artist here* is overrated, why do you like them?"

Dude. Just let your friend be happy. 

Let an author write for fun.

It's one thing if you're paying for a story or reading a story by an author who asks for criticism, but most writers here are writing as an escape from reality. They don't need to be reminded of the harsh world because you can't keep your opinion to yourself.

Maybe that sounds rude considering it's the internet, but just as you are entitled to your speech, the author is entitled to block you.

I very strongly believe that freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequence. You can say whatever you want, but don't be surprised when you get consequences for it.

Your "opinion" is not a barrier you can hide behind. Shouting things like "It's just my opinion" doesn't change how rude you look. Maybe you don't care, but don't act all surprised when an author blocks you. Especially when 9/10 times, the thing you're saying isn't an opinion or anything constructive, it's just you being rude.

Keep in mind there is a difference between criticism and being rude. If you're saying things like "I wasted my time on this story," that's not criticism, that's being a bitch. You absolutely 100% deserve to get blocked.

The way I see it is like this: If you are commenting negativity on a story, I do not think you are doing it to share your opinion. I think you are doing it to be rude.

The only thing you gain from sharing your negative opinion is hurting the author who is more likely than not a small writer who writes for fun. That is a majority of the writers on Wattpad.

I don't understand how so many people have forgotten the basic kindergarten rule of "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all." 

It doesn't make someone weak because they don't want to put up with your negativity.

And to anyone thinking "It's the internet, being on it means you're signing up to receive negativity now and again." You're right, that's true, but just because you expect it doesn't make it okay.

On Quotev, I received death threats for being a K-pop fan. I received death threats because Jimin was my pfp. There were people, people I never interacted with btw, who messaged me saying the worst things.

It's the internet, so I should expect those words, but does that mean I deserved death threats for simply being online? Does it being "the internet" make it okay for people to go around throwing hate and death threats at people for something as simple as liking K-pop?

The more you accept the toxicity on the internet, the more it grows. If someone doesn't want to put up with it, that's okay. There's nothing wrong with someone wanting to be on Wattpad for fun.

It is literally Wattpad. I hate to say it like this, but it's not that deep. If a writer is writing on here for fun and not improvement, there is nothing wrong with that, and if you think you should only write because you want to improve, then you are wrong. 

Believe it or not, not everything in life has to be done because you want it to be your career or because you want to improve. People are allowed to do things because they want to have fun. Life is already stressful enough, don't you think? What's wrong with someone hopping on and writing stories to make other people smile?

I don't think the people who have a problem with others writing for fun quite comprehend how few people on Wattpad are writing because they want to be writers. Most writers on Wattpad are in the 15-24 range. Many of these people have careers in completely different fields. I personally know a Wattpad writer who is a nurse, and another who is an engineer.

Incredibly long story short, it's okay for a Wattpad author to not want criticism. Most of us are writing for fun, have completely different career paths, and/or just don't want to put up with it. You don't need to have an opinion on everything. You don't need to tell an author their stories suck, or criticize the tiniest things, or point out every typo. You can simply stop reading the story and move on to something you might like more.

However, at the same time, if you're an author submitting to review shops and contests, don't act surprised when you get not-so-good feedback. You're going to get criticism if you apply for these things. No one writes a perfect story.

If the reviewer and/or judge is really vague and gets things wrong about your story, you're allowed to be upset about that, but that's different. I'm talking about authors who get not so great feedback then get upset about it.

There's this author I judged, I will not say who, who I heard great things about. They have a decent-sized following and get a lot of reads, so I was surprised to see them submit to a contest, but I was excited to see what their work was about seeing as it was so popular.

The story itself was fine, but the grammar made it hard to read. Out of fairness, I had to take off a lot of points for the story being unreadable at times. There were countless grammar errors that made the core of the story hard to understand. There was also a lot of telling over showing and repetitive word choice.

The book still got an overall good score, but I had to take off a lot in grammar. It was overall a fine story that needed cleaning up to the grammar, vocab, and telling over showing. However, the author never said anything about my review, unfollowed me, then when I confronted them about them unfollowing me, they just silently refollowed me and never said anything.

I don't know how long after my review they unfollowed me cause I wasn't really checking that contest to see who followed me and who didn't, but even if they just forgot I judged their work, why didn't they reply to me?

Maybe I'm looking too deeply into it, but I thought maybe they got offended by my review even though it wasn't really a bad review, it was just a few things I criticized.

When you're submitting to a contest, you need to expect criticism. Again, it's one thing if you disagree or think the judge got something blatantly wrong, but you gotta respect the rules.

The moral of the story is, it's fine to not want criticism, especially on a casual site like Wattpad of all places; however, if you're going to ask for criticism, don't be surprised if you... y'know... get criticized. Don't submit to review shops if you want to be praised endlessly. That's not going to happen.

~End~

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know if you have any questions or have a specific topic you want me to cover.

Plenty more topics are coming like characters, purple prose, nitpicking, etc.