I was just wondering, outside of the general struggles of being a writer, that people treat writers so badly. But like, why? I'm genuinely wondering why some should suffer for their art. Fanfiction writers have to deal with their communities being too small to be noticed as an accomplished writer to begin with. Then fiction writers who create things out of nothing seem to get no attention outside of critics and naysayers. I could go on and on about the pros and cons of both, but my angst is still unanswered. Why does the human population feel the need to critique everything in writing?
I've found that many things attract positive and negative attention in equal measure, proportionate to their popularity. The writers who get accolades and millions of dollars also get horrific hate mail directed at their friends and family. By contrast, if you're writing in a tiny fandom, you might not get a ton of attention of either kind -- a few thoughtful comments and a few "this sucks." Of course, what I've just said ignores a lot of social factors. If you're in a hugely toxic fandom and writing an unpopular concept or ship you might get disproportionate hate. This applies on the professional scale too -- N K Jemisin wouldn't have received such vile harassment from people like Theodore Beale if she'd been white or male, for instance. I think critique is kind of how people respond to art in general. You look at a thing and you judge: "Do I like this or not?" If you find it uninteresting you might leave it at that. If you're a dick with an inflated sense of importance you might think that anybody who has a different opinion on the thing than you do is Objectively Wrong or Morally Disgusting. If you find it interesting, you might think more carefully about it and try to figure out what made you have that reaction. You might even write it down and tell other people about it. (Hell, you might set out to write something with the things you like in it and without the things you hate. I think that's a major engine of culture.) Of course a bunch of criticism is empty noise by bitter people only interested in hurting, but it's not as one-sided as you've made it out to be. I think you shouldn't give up.
There's something of a culture around insulting and making fun of shit online. I also find there is a sort of lack of understanding about the effort works take to make. Fan made or otherwise. Though fanfic and the like tends to get less respect. These things just kind of feed into each other a lot. Critique is important though. Critique and analysis are just...one of the big ways in which we interact with media. Even the things I love the most I like to critique. Hell there are some things where my primary enjoyment is in critiquing the work in question. I have a fierce hatred for Ocarina of Time for example. I honestly get very annoyed with kudos and responses to my stuff that are just "I like this". Ok but why. Did I fuck something up. Is there anything I could do better. Do you hate my wording. TELL ME MORE OR DO NOT SPEAK WITH ME AT ALL. That's just me though.
There's also this annoyingly prevalent idea that anyone can write and everyone's writing can be good. That just straight up isnt true. So when someone who has never written a fanfic in their life and who has definitely never had any of their writing critically read by someone who doesnt care about their feelings reads something even slightly imperfect they get the thought in their head that "this person made mistakes! They must be an idiot! I could do better than this. Anyone could. Time for hate."
I just wish, in general, that writers got more respect. It makes it hard to stay in this business. Personally, there's not a chance of me giving up. Because it's what I love and I don't love many things, as many things don't make me happy. At least not as happy as I am writing.
