I got a feedback letter a couple of days ago for a story I wrote last March. Now that was a lovely surprise, even more so because it pointed out what worked about the story and why it worked.

I've never actually been flamed for a fic of mine--yet--although I'm about to serve up a couple of sacred cows as barbeque in one of my fics. Is it wrong for me to admit that I'm actually looking forward to the flames?

See, this is what alarms me - yes, I'm a sensitive flower and Too Tender For Fandom - what if I didn't get it and the author thinks I'm stupid and I get a bad grade? (And then I remind myself that I'm being a nitwit.)

You think you're a sensitive flower? Everytime I see something in my in-box about a fic, I think "oh, god, they hated it. My god, look at the size of it, they must have analyzed it line by line and found every place where I utterly violated canon and common sense. And maybe they're right, maybe Xander would have thrown him out on his ear and never deigned to let him so close. I think I need to become a Trappist monk and never say a word again."

Yep. Issues.

what if I didn't get it and the author thinks I'm stupid and I get a bad grade?

General principle: If you've done enough thinking to realise that there's a bad way to send feedback, then you'll think enough about what you send that it's good.

Flames are an indication that you're pushing people's comfort zones. I'm all for them.

Unless you get them because you lied in the headers, which is misleading marketing.

I'm not that great at sending feedback...okay, I suck...but when I do I try to actually say what I liked, what makes me read the story again and again, stuff like that. I still feel weird about pointing out things I don't feel work but I'm trying.

I love constructive criticism, but mostly I get ... well, "I wish you hadn't used second-person pov, it's strange and alienating" or "I don't see what this has to do with the show you're ostensibly writing about." Only I'm paraphrasing, because I don't feel like looking up the exact wording. I don't think anyone has used the word "ostensible" in feedback to me, which is a shame, because I'm fond of it.

Granted, it's hard to write detailed feedback for very very short vignettes; I think people who write long stories probably get more of it.

And by "constructive" I do mean negative points as well as positive ones. I think the only bit I've gotten--aside from betas--is someone who disagreed with my Darla characterization and told me why.

I've been reading too much of the Bureaucracy thread. I want to offer a PROPOSAL:

That anyone who doesn't think Micole is a marvelous writer and her fic are gems of painful beauty should be sentenced to three weeks of playing kitten poker with Riley and Parker and Scott Hope.

Feh.

Aw, you're sweet. I'm not in a bad mood about fic feedback at the moment. (Very! Impatient! for the last remix stories to get in and the glorious and hardworking Victoria P. to put them up.)

Of course, I always want more, more, MORE feedback, but mostly it's all been very pleasant. That's the problem: I feel like it's not real unless someone can point out what I'm doing wrong.

The really wrong-headed stuff just amuses me at this point.

That anyone who doesn't think Micole is a marvelous writer and her fic are gems of painful beauty should be sentenced to three weeks of playing kitten poker with Riley and Parker and Scott Hope.

I think Micole is wonderful, but I'm up for kitten poker if it's strip poker for Riley (I like big guys) and I can smack Parker and Scott.

I have gotten really very little feedback on what I've written. Kinda made it feel like I was going out into a vacuum, but for most of it I was reasonably content with the exercise, so it was okay.