[Gurdit]

Gurdit’s Guide to Commenting
(Because I couldn't resist naming one after myself. )

I know a lot of writers who, for some completely inexplicable reason, love receiving comments on their writing. O.o What’s the deal with that, seriously? I don’t know. Being a writer myself, I can tell you one thing…we love comments (or feedback, or reviews, or critiques…whatever you want to call them). Why?

1. Very few (if any) writers on SM are published and recognized professionals. That means we all would like to improve as writers. How do we do that? By having people let us know what they liked and disliked about our writing, and where and how they think we can improve.
   
   .
2. Sometimes, we experiment with a certain style or writing idea. In an ideal world, that experiment pays off. But since we live in a world where both your feet are not always the same size, you’ll probably need a lot of people to let you know whether or not your experiment paid off before you can decide whether or not it did.
   
   .
3. If you’ve written something nice, you want everybody to appreciate it. (This is my favourite reason for liking comments. I mean, come on, I know I’m an awesome writer, but it wouldn’t hurt you all to just leave a comment every now and then to let me know you’re basking in my glory.)

That being said, I know that a lot of the comments we would like to receive are not really “up to the mark” that we would like them to be, are they? The problem also is that some of us sometimes end up giving quite poor reviews, but expect really good ones in return. What I’m attempting to do here is to create a thread of guidelines on how to give (and receive) good comments.

Contents:

1. Basic Guidelines
2. Advanced Guidelines
3. How to Receive Good Comments
4. Miscellaneous Guidelines

Basic Guidelines

1. Remember karma—what goes around, comes around, and I’m not talking only of a boomerang. If you want to get good comments on your writing, remember that you have to start by giving good comments to others. The fact that you want good comments alone should be impetus enough to write good ones. This is lesson number 1. Go into a corner and reflect on it for a few minutes. Once you’re done understanding the importance of this lesson, stop standing in the corner like an idiot and get back to this guide!
   
   .
2. Good comments go beyond “good job!!!11”. They seriously do! There’s probably nothing more annoying than seeing in your User CP that something you submitted a couple of days ago just received a new comment, and then going to the thread and seeing that all it says is “good job, I like it!” (with the possible exception of going to the loo and learning after you’re midway through your sojourn that you’re out of toilet paper, but that doesn’t have anything to do with writing, so never mind that).
   
   .
3. Contrary to what others might say, I say “do not focus too much on your length”. And I say this because in your attempt to make a comment of an appreciable length, you may end up writing crap. Writing “good job, I liked your story” in ten different ways does not make a good comment. And besides, no comment can ever be too long, really. (I’m kidding, don’t go overboard with your comment—for instance, you might read a story that reminds you of an incident in your past, and then you might end up on a tangent explaining that incident, thereby writing another story in your comment. Though it may seem like a good idea to get two stories for the price of one, it can be annoying to the writer and to other people who have to trudge through your comment to try and find some sort of relevancy to the post. Notice how this parenthesized text is getting longer and longer? Is it annoying? Yes? Then good, I’m getting my point across. By the way, does anyone else like Metallica? I loved their last album, even though the sound quality…ok, you ought to have got the point by now)
   
   .
4. Your comment can be as simple as you want to keep it. But to make it a good comment, you need to flesh it out. Ask yourself the following questions:
   • What are your thoughts on the story/poem in general?
   • Were there any particular areas that you liked more than the others? Why did you like them, and how much?
   • Were there any areas that you thought were lacking, somehow? Why?
   • How would you have considered writing those areas? If you don’t have a clue, at least try venturing a guess as to WHY you didn’t like it, or WHY you don’t know how else you would have written it.
   • Ok, I don’t really have another question to put here, but it seemed auspicious to have a fifth sub-point to the fourth point, which is set to be followed by the fifth main point. *cough*
   .
5. If you have answers to those questions…what the hell are you waiting for? Write them down, because you, my friend, have made a pretty good comment! These questions focus on almost all the aspects of good commenting. By answering these questions, you’ve made sure that your comment:
   • Is of a good length.
   • Covers the positives of the written piece.
   • Covers its weaknesses.
   • Offers your holistic opinion.
   .
6. Even though this should probably not need saying, do remember not to make your comments too negative. Receiving a completely negative comment can be very discouraging, particularly to nervous newcomers. It can also be a blow to someone who had considered that what they had written was among their finest.
   
   .
7. Remember never to end up bantering or chatting in a writing thread. Reserve all casual comments to the Little Café and/or Instant Messenger. It's not much of a comment if your comment is one line of "good job!!!11" followed by 12 lines of "How was band practice? Did the trumpet player step on your foot again? You know, my grandma always said that trumpet players have a bad tendency to step on your feet when they..." etc.
   
   .
8. Once you’ve done that, sit back, take off your shoes, listen to your favourite music…and stop dreaming, there is plenty of other writing for you to comment on. You’re on your way to fast becoming a reviewing legend. (Ok, not necessarily, but it doesn’t hurt to dream, does it?)

Advanced Guidelines

The following guidelines are for people who are looking to take their commenting to “the next level” (n00b, mai comment pwns urs n luks dwn on it!). Most of these are based on my personal opinions and yours might vary (of course, they’d be wrong if they do, but I understand that I might be perfect, but the world is not, I’m willing to grant you your imperfections).

1. If you’ve read any of the writer’s previous submissions or other stories/poems, try to figure out if the writer has a particular style that you either like or dislike. Then, comment on it, obviously.
   
   .
2. Again, another advantage of being acquainted with a writer’s previous work will help you figure out if they’re constantly making mistakes, or if they need help in one particular area. Don’t be afraid to point those out, in a positive, helpful manner. Nobody likes to get a “You suck at writing dialogues, n00b! Learn how to write dialogues better!!” type of comment, especially if it has a double exclamation mark. The same thing can be said subtly with suggestions on how to improve, if you have any suggestions. You needn’t be an accomplished writer to suggest. Your opinion holds water, you need to realize that. All writers benefit from any feedback (even “good job, I like it!!” type of comments, surprisingly, though on a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say their helpfulness is 0.001).
   
   .
3. Try looking beyond what you see on the surface. I can’t comment much about poems, but there’s a lot to see below the surface as far as prose is concerned. For stories, you can comment on:
   • Pace/flow, which is extremely important in such genres like action.
   • Style/tone. The author may have used sarcasm where a graver manner of writing might have suited better. Try suggesting that.
   • Characterization. You should know that it’s not important to be a master of human nature or have a terrific understanding of human values to be able to comment on characterization. The least you can do is to say what you thought of the characters. This will help the author in figuring out whether his characters are coming across as he wanted them to.
   • Beginning/ending. The beginning and ending of a story are vital to its success. Beginnings can suffer from being too boring, and endings can suffer from being dragged out unnecessarily. It wouldn’t hurt to comment on that.
   • There might be a sentence or two that you think didn’t fit in with the rest of the paragraph, or that would have been better written. How would you suggest writing it?
   • In certain cases, the writer may not yet have decided what more to do with this piece. You could possibly suggest what he can do with it, like continuing it as a series. You could suggest directions the story could take, and if the writer accepts your suggestions, you can tell people that you’re the spiritual co-author of that story (just kidding).
   .
4. You can use proper, professional language when commenting. It never really helps to go gushing into a review, except to make the writer feel really good. There are better ways of giving praise to a well-written piece of writing. Also, don’t be too anal. You’re allowed to show a little emotion in your reviewing.

How to Receive Good Comments

1. Always let people know that you’ve read and appreciated their comments. This is important.
   
   .
2. Always let people know that you’ve read and appreciated their comments. It was important enough for me to repeat it as point 2.
   The bottom line is that people have taken the time out to read your work, and then taken out even more time to write a good comment. Good comments can take hours to write, and I speak from experience. The least you can do is to thank people for spending that kind of time on your writing.
   
   .
3. If you don’t want to reply to every single comment in the story/poem thread, you don’t have to. You can perhaps reply once every 2-3 comments, or after a really in-depth one, but there are other ways of thanking people for their comments. You can send them Private Messages, or just send some nice happy positive rep their way.
   
   .
4. If someone’s posted a negative comment on your writing, there’re two things about that:
   • That person is probably an idiot only for focussing only on the negatives, and writing a scathing review without mentioning the positives. The fact is that there is almost no writing that is ALL bad. If you look enough, you can easily find something positive in any writing.
   • That being said, if you’ve received a negative review, then you should consider that the reviewer may be right about at least a few things. Try going through his points, just in case you end up realizing he’s actually right about a few points, if not all or most.
   .
5. Do NOT start bantering with people in your thread. We have the Little Café to do that, or even MSN Messenger or any other IM client of your choice. You do not want to have 14 comments, 8 of which are a discussion between you and another member about your common dislike of red-coloured underwear.

.

Miscellaneous Guidelines

1. I would highly recommend not reading others’ comments before posting your own. This serves to make sure your opinions are your own and not anyone else’s. Also, if more than two people comment on one particular aspect of the piece, then it just reinforces that point, doesn’t it? I mean, if more than one person said that “I think Mr. Bubbles is not really a very good name for your vicious, man-eating monster”, then it might be worth considering that point.
   
   .
2. To conclude, I would just like to say one final thing—the most important tool you have at your disposal when writing comments is your common sense. I say this because none of the guidelines I’ve mentioned here are steadfast no matter what. They are just guidelines, so use them as just that. It may be that you need to mention a certain incident in a reply, which actually conveys something to the writer, then don’t hesitate to put it in.

Thank you for reading and staying awake through what is 4 pages on MS Word. I commend you for having done so. Pat yourself on your back, young commenter (I don’t care how old you really are, as long as you think you’re young). You have received all formal lessons, and I hereby declare you ready to go out into the brave world of commenting/reviewing/critiquing. Be not afraid to send other young pupils here to learn the secret code of good comments.

Godspeed.

*Bonus secret, unlisted section:*
There's actually nothing left to say. I just liked the idea of giving you more than you expected. Hence the bonus section. Yee-haw!

Disclaimers:

• Feel free to replace "he" with "she" anywhere in this post, except the obvious areas.
• I do not claim to be the greatest thing ever to happen to the world of commenting or critiquing or reviewing, except in jest, so if you disagree or have suggestions to offer about any of the points I've listed, do it.
• Everything is up for debate, as long as I win the debate. No, just kidding. Everything really is up for debate. As I said in the last point, use your common sense when commenting.
• Certain points are bound to be edited or changed as I get newer ideas. I'm sure I forgot quite a few things I had wanted to mention. Consequently, I'll be adding more points.

[Storiesmaniac]

you suck noob learn how to write a real helpful post...LOSER

[Gurdit]

What's the non-Australian translation of that? Let me guess:

"Wow, this is such an awesome and helpful post. You are awesome, Gurdit, and I shall be your biggest fan forever. Please autograph my chest!!??"

[thelma&louise]

lyk oh...mi...gawd. dis wuz so awesome!!!111 good job gurdit kthxbi

...

Oh wait...Sorry. I just read this guide (which happens to be a commenting guide), thus I must put my new-found knowledge to good use, yes? Okay. I loved it, all joking aside. It was funny as hell, but helpful at the same time. I was giggling all the way through. I cannot believe you spent hours on this, I wouldn't personally lol, but you deserve a pat on the back because people new to the reviewing/critiquing world are going to find this really useful.

-Chris.

[Nupur]

God, you're nuts. Hahaha, but this is actually helpful. Very nice guide, Tiddy Bear!

[Gurdit]

Chris, I'm glad you spelt my name right, despite misspelling "kthxbai", even though you claim you spell it "bi"

And Nupur, of course I'm nuts.

[Rain]

Originally Posted by Storiesmaniac

you suck noob learn how to write a real helpful post...LOSER

Originally Posted by Gurdit

What's the non-Australian translation of that? Let me guess:

"Wow, this is such an awesome and helpful post. You are awesome, Gurdit, and I shall be your biggest fan forever. Please autograph my chest!!??"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Nice guide, buddy.

[ea_blue]

Very nicely done, Gurdit! I like the way you injected humor into it as well.

But now I'd like to discuss my dislike of red-coloured underwear...

[Gurdit]

I agree, Superman is so passé.

[Beagle]

Good job!!!1