from the pen of icarus blake

Working through the editing process brings some of the more esoteric practices of creation into focus.  One of those is critique.  The editing process is a self-critique of your own work, a preparation for showing it to the wider world in an attempt to share your own vision.  Presenting your work to the world is the main test of your skills as a creator — did you convey what you intended to convey?  Are your readers catching your meaning?  And spending time working through this process for yourself makes you realize something important:

Most criticism is meaningless.

It’s the favorite passtime of idiots online, giving you opinions you didn’t ask for and claiming they’re providing constructive criticism.  They’re not.  I’ve noticed a few different trends in these folks.  Usually, they’ll point out something they don’t like.  This is a trope you’re using, a motif for your characters, a plot point that builds into something else.  Like a producer on a movie set, they’ll act like they can throw around their money.

“This would be better if they were wearing leather.”

I did not put my character in leather, because it did not suit the plot.  I didn’t respond to that comment, and they never commented again.  Presumably, because I didn’t coalesce to their demand to make the story some kind of leather-kink centric porno.  Sometimes, they’ll give you something that sounds like it could be criticism, but then leave the useful part off.

“The pacing of this is kind of jarring.”

This is a valid critique, but lacks any actionable information.  This person might think they’re helping you, might give themself a gold star, but the fact of the matter is that they’ve left a nothing comment.  I don’t know what about the pacing is jarring, they’ve given me no examples, they haven’t provided any textual evidence for their claim.  This is not a helpful comment because I have no way to act on it.  Congrats on your gold star, though, you delightful reader.

The only purpose these kinds of comments serve is to add engagement to your work.  There is nothing else you can do with them but remember that a hateread is still a read, shrug, and move on.  If you’re really concerned about something a comment says, pass it along to someone who can provide proper technique.  Amateur critics in your comment section are, by and large, not worth the time it takes to read their username.