Oh noooo, with the unsolicited concrit -- I did that myself, at least a few times. way back when...because I was one of those with aspirations of "real writing" and fanfic was in part an exercise and I didn't see why people would be doing it if they didn't want to be getting better at it. Not realizing both that there are different reasons for writing fanfic, and also there is no reason for a writer to trust the advice of random reader #26. (And yeah published authors is a different category...)
...I haven't actually seen the concrit argument around in a while, though I'm sure it will come back sooner or later. But I've seen enough writers who have fully retreated because they can't take it to be against it now on principle (for the supremely selfish reason of the fic we miss when a writer quits, especially because whether a writer takes concrit well or not has surprisingly little to do with how good they are as a writer, I've found...) And ouch to my younger self. >.>
But to your larger point -- yes, the right forum is so important! And it doesn't help that many fandom spaces right now are less than conducive to this. A lot of tumblr being so...tumblr, I blame on the platform more than the people; when it's harder to curate one's own space, when it's hard to just stop seeing what someone else is doing, people are more likely to try to control what other people do, so they don't have to see it.
I think, too, that things are more fraught in a small fandom where everyone kind of knows everyone; not only are interactions more personal, but the line between public and personal spaces is blurrier when half the fandom are reading the same journals. It feels more like we're all in the same train car when someone starts complaining about their dislike of purple, as opposed to all of us in our own cars peering through the windows at each other and holding up signs...
...This metaphor is getting tortured; I maybe should let comments go for now...? ^^;
Re: finding the right forum for fannish venting
...I haven't actually seen the concrit argument around in a while, though I'm sure it will come back sooner or later. But I've seen enough writers who have fully retreated because they can't take it to be against it now on principle (for the supremely selfish reason of the fic we miss when a writer quits, especially because whether a writer takes concrit well or not has surprisingly little to do with how good they are as a writer, I've found...) And ouch to my younger self. >.>
But to your larger point -- yes, the right forum is so important! And it doesn't help that many fandom spaces right now are less than conducive to this. A lot of tumblr being so...tumblr, I blame on the platform more than the people; when it's harder to curate one's own space, when it's hard to just stop seeing what someone else is doing, people are more likely to try to control what other people do, so they don't have to see it.
I think, too, that things are more fraught in a small fandom where everyone kind of knows everyone; not only are interactions more personal, but the line between public and personal spaces is blurrier when half the fandom are reading the same journals. It feels more like we're all in the same train car when someone starts complaining about their dislike of purple, as opposed to all of us in our own cars peering through the windows at each other and holding up signs...
...This metaphor is getting tortured; I maybe should let comments go for now...? ^^;