Hi, My name is David, I am a fiction author on this website, but I also classify myself as a professional critic and reviewer on this website.

I believe that as a reviewer, If one is willing to write a story and accept reviews from his readers, then the author should be willing to be open minded for constructive criticism, and not just take blind praise.

If I took the time to actually read a story to it's finish and actually enjoy it, then I obviously HAD to care enough about it to review it, and give the writer my opinion (Yes everyone is entitled to having an opinion, regardless how some may think not), so with that said, I tell it as I see it, without the blind praise, and thus give direct criticism and my opinion where it is due.

95 percent of reviewers on Fanfiction.net leave blind praise without giving advice to help the writer improve. I am not one of those individuals. as I said, I hope for each author to aspire and do their best and improve with the hopes they can become professional writers making excellent stories for their readers to enjoy. A very noble goal I hope for them to achieve.

Now I don't want to confuse anyone with the intent that praise and compliments aren't ALL pointless as that is not what I'm trying to say. But go to any story and look for a review and if you see 8 out of 10 times of something consistent of the following

"This story is teh awesome! moar!"

And that is what I'm refering to as blind praise in which the reviewer read the story, may or may not have seen any issues, and simply declare it as the god of fanfiction.

I consider a good review that one that acknowledges the good as well as the bad. After all we all want the author to make a better story right? So as a reviewer one should put in the effort to explain these aspects and help point them out to the author in a properly constructed review.

There is a difference between, open hostility and flames, blind worship and endless praise, just as there is a difference between open-minded constructive criticism with the hopes the author becomes something great other then empty praise without comments to the story itself regardless of who may have wrote the story.

There are people who don't realize that I simply tell it like it is. I respect any aspiring author to do their best and write the story they want to write. (If a author expects to improve his works and try to their best, then they should be willing to go that far and achieve such success. But to ignore criticism is just being close-minded and shows that they are insecure of taking criticism at face value.)

However I also understand that fanfiction is a hobby to some, and there are those that do this as strictly as a hobby and nothing else, and don't intend to become professional writers. This is fine as everyone is entitled to right of the time they spend on doing something they enjoy. However would you not agree to atleast put more then half hearted effort into writing a story so that not only does the author themselves get the satisifaction of creating an enjoyable story, but doubly make such a story in that the readers enjoy it and spread that kindness of enjoying such a story back to the original author.

Which brings me to...

The top 10 things that I HATE a great deal on FF.net

(in regards to reviews, names of authors have been omitted)

1) After commenting on a story saying it was decent despite some mistakes, the author goes out of his/her way to verbally assault me with derogative comments and profanity.

Attacking your readers for trying to HELP you is a very good way to alienate your fan base from reading future stories from you. Good luck writing stories to an empty audience, because you drove your fan base away from your immature attitude.

2) A story containing a super powerful Original Character or Self Insert that basically magically fixes everything making every conflict or issue in the story non-existent.

I think this is perhaps one of the worst things for a story. Not only does it crap all over the original source material but it's a cheap cope out to give less reason for the Author to allow the original cast to grow. Also it implicates the original cast of characters are not capable enough to handle their own problems, unwilling to learn by trial and error and also experience. I find stories with this sort of quality to become extremely boring rather quickly and is usually causes me to stop reading it entirely.

3) Using the Summary to list all the possible pairings in your fiction. And making a poor description of the story.

Going into a story knowing what is going to happen ahead of time, to ruin the potential suspense or surprise, simply spoils the story no matter how you what you may think otherwise. You might as well put the ending your summary if you want to give this information away without building up a plot to keep attachment to your readers. People are reading for the sake of an entertaining and good story, Not for the sake of a pairing (Or I would hope to think)

4) Simply pairing up every possible couple in the story for simply the sake of pairing everyone up, regardless of the lack of character romance in canon without an actual growth in characters or relationship.

I find this to be a poor excuse at creating extraneous character relationships without actual character growth or development, for the sake of making a story without substance or plot. I tend to avoid these stories because lack of creativity or inspiration.

5) Replacing 1 for the word "one" or typing thx in place of "thanks", Or using chatspeak or other internet slang in the actual story itself for it's actual dialog. (LOL, J/K, ROLF, etc for example)

If you want to create an actual literary work, you better damn well be sure you take it seriously more then simple chat room conversation and actually write a "STORY". The amount of effort you put into a story will inevitably determine the amount of enjoyment readers will get out of it. Showing almost no effort such as this will assure the story is failure from the very begining.

6) Writing a story based on a series but having none of the characters act like they are from the universe they come from. The characters personalities being made up by the author, who didn't even bother to keep a semblance of personality from the original characters, Or rather tried to write a story after simply watching one episode / reading one page from the source material they came from and decided that was enough research to create a story based on these characters and/or universe.

It's one thing for characters to grow and evolve and change over time, or have them act a certain way because it is dictated for the story for a legitimate and logical reason behind it. But it's something entirely else to make up completely original personalities that are nothing like the original characters they are supposed to be based on doing things and acting out of character for no unexplained reason behind it. It's like the story is filled with nothing but actors, acting as the roles they are supposed to resemble but aren't truly who they are supposed to be. You could easily change the setting of the story, change the character names, and one would still be unable to tell the difference.

7) Because it happened in the original story, The same must also happen in the fanfiction.

While I do believe the original canon to a story is important, HOWEVER there is a reason why it's called FAN FICTION, well actually two reasons in my opinion. Reason One Fandom Fiction - The story is written by fans for the original series to create their own twist and interpretation on how it events happened, in the sake of a WHAT IF scenario. Reason Two Fantasy Fiction - Because Fantasy is something that comes from the imagination, given the writer free reign of creativity. However just because YOU have free reign of creativity does not give you an excuse to drive the original canon story into the ground. I feel that while Fan Fiction is a way to express personal feelings on "How I wished things would happen" I still think any author who writes fan fiction needs to also give respect to the original author they are basing their fiction on. Why bother writing a story on a universe If you cannot or will not appreciate the work that is the foundations and universe you are basing your story on. It's just something you should think about as a writer.

8) Author's who cannot accept any sort of criticism or review that is against their story, They think their story is perfect and can do no wrong. There is no difference between a FLAME and CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM in these individuals eyes. To them any sort of advice to improve is treated as a flame regardless how the advice was given.

If you are receiving a lot of reviews in your story about spelling errors, ruined plot line, characters doing things in the story for no explained reason or logic behind them, and other such messages. You should actually take time to evaluate what your reviewers are saying and actually realize that they are trying to actually HELP YOU. If you cannot take a contrary opinion or willing to help yourself improve as a writer then you will never be able to create an even better story. There is nothing good that comes from ignoring the reviews you are given that would only lead to your story being fleshed out and overall becoming an even more quality fanfiction.

9) Author's who constantly and repeatedly mix up their homophones, making their story rather annoying to read.

There, Thier, and They're are three different words with it's own unique definition. Just the same as Two, Too, and To. See and Sea. Hear and Here. Write and Right. Weather and Whether. Peace and Piece. Plane and Plain. Know, No, and Now. Knew and New. And I can go on and on with this. A Dictionary and Thesaurus are an Author's best tools at his/her disposal. It's one thing to write a quality story but when it's filled with similar sounding words that are don't have the proper meaning they are supposed to have, shows the lack of understanding of the English language. And having knowledge of the language is extremely important as it goes hand in hand with grammar and as well creative writing and literary works when writing a story or even fanfiction for that matter.

10) Author's who use polls to dictate the direction of thier story.

I find that most stories that do this feel rushed and uninspired. Meaning the author isn't writing the story in the direction he wants to but rather forcing it because of fanbase. While there is nothing wrong at keeping your fans happy, However I feel that the quality of a story should not be sacrificed for the sake of creating a story without a clear direction or eventual end planned. A story should be writen and directed as the author dictates it be. Which is the point of being an "Author" in that they have creative control on how the story takes it's direction.