"OK, this is bad. What do I do now?" by Ghost in the Machine.

Yet another rambling opinion piece of questionable usefulness by little ol' me.

I'm sure all of us, at one time or another have read a piece of fanfiction that was just so bad, it hurt. Things that make you think, "I want the portion of my life that I wasted on this refunded RIGHT NOW!" Some of you may have had a few obscene words mixed in there, but the general idea is the same.

But what do you do when this happens? Or worse, what if you were the one who wrote it? (Which will be covered in chapter 2.)

Using the report abuse feature, you can send the powers that be at a message indicating that a work's spelling, grammar, et cetera, is so horrendous, the work should be deleted. I don't think I've ever actually done that. I've reported a wide variety of TOS violations, but never just for bad spelling and grammar. (Although believe me, I have been tempted.) As a way of handling truly awful stuff, I'm not that fond of the concept. If you just delete the things, the authors involved aren't likely to learn from it.

Some people just like to break out the marshmallows and throw flames. Just for the record, this is not a good idea. I don't think I've ever truly flamed anyone, although there are people (and authors) that disagree with me. Flames are very much in the eye of the beholder.

To me, there's one major difference between a flame and a negative review: Making it personal. "You suck!" doesn't tell anyone anything useful. "Yuo suk!!1!" only shows everyone the reviewer can't type. Either one also guarantees the author won't take any other points made by the flamer seriously, no matter how accurate they might be.

Besides, flaming often leads to flame wars. Those are a waste of bandwidth and can result in criminal prosecution when carried to extremes.

I do, when the occasion merits, review harshly. I'm much more likely to leave a harsh review on a story with a good idea and lousy execution than a story where both are bad. I think good ideas deserve good execution. When I see a good idea done poorly, I can't help but think what the story might have been like if the author had put more effort into it.

What do I mean by harsh? I mean saying exactly what I think about a story's problems while also saying why. It's also important to mention what I did like. Because if I don't like some aspect of a story, it's not really worth my time to leave feedback in the first place. Plus, at the same time, harsh reviewing means not really caring if the author likes me afterwards.

I don't leave reviews to make friends. I don't leave reviews in the hopes that authors will then review my works. (It happens, and I'll admit I don't mind when it does, but that's not why I click on the review button.) I leave reviews because something in a given piece calls out for a response. If that response isn't what the author wants, too bad. Ghost takes a few seconds to calm down. Sorry, didn't mean to start ranting.

Next up on the responding to bad fanfiction scale: Nothing. A lot of people do nothing when confronted with bad fic. I can understand that, I frequently do that myself. Some stories are just bad, you click on the back button and try something else. Or you read it anyway and don't make any comment. There's no law that says feedback is mandatory and I wouldn't hang out at any site that tried to make it so. But since this essay is about doing something, I've nothing more to say about nothing.

Now we get to the more 'useful' things. Or what I like to call, 'putting your money where your mouth is'.

Constructive criticism is often considered the most useful thing an author can get. I consider it third after money and sex. Joke! Joke! Put down the axes! It's actually second after money.

To me, the major difference between constructive criticism and harsh criticism is being nice about it. Contrary to what some folks think (and boy have I got them fooled), I'm not that nice a person. Not all the time anyway. The process is pretty much the same: You point out the problems and go into what you did like. But there is also an element of hope in constructive criticism.

"Maybe this would be a good story if the author just ." Filling in that blank can take anything from one word to several pages. From one second, to multiple years. What makes it hopeful is that you think it's worth your time and effort to tell the author. That hopefully, they will LISTEN and even more importantly ACT on what you say. So to make it more likely that they will listen, you say what you have to say in a polite manner.

There are times that I simply can't do that. The social skills required aren't ones that I've obtained in any quantity. But if you can do it, and think it's worth the effort, please do so. Maybe it will make up for my more caustic approach.

The last thing on the list of reader responses to bad fanfiction is easily the most labor intensive: Showing the author that you can do it better. This does not mean writing your own fanfic based on their idea. That's tacky. It means editing, line by line and word by word, the work in question. Pointing out the errors while explaining why they are errors.

This is not a process for the faint of heart. Or for anyone who doesn't take writing seriously. It's time consuming, difficult and frequently heart breaking. If you have any doubts about your ability to tear a work into pieces and put it back together in better shape, -without altering the plot-, don't even think of trying this.

It's the plot that makes a story a story. Almost everything else is mechanics. Fixing poor mechanics is time consuming, but it's just error correction. But the plot, no matter how cliched or just plain silly, is the author's. Not yours. If you change the plot, then you're not editing, you're rewriting. If you disagree with a plot point, feel free to point out why (with explanations), but do not try to 'correct' it. Some authors appreciate seeing their work cleaned up for grammar, spelling and style. But I've yet to meet one who wanted unsolicited plot changes to the story itself.

One last piece of advice: If you attempt an edit, work by email. Doing this via the review system makes public what should be private.

Now we get to a rather unfortunate fact. Some authors, no matter how nicely you phrase yourself, no matter how much effort you go to, DON'T CARE. For whatever reason, good (rare) or bad (very common), the author does not care about what others think about their work. It happens and there is little you can do as a reviewer or editor to change that fact. So, for sanity's sake, if you go to the trouble of constructive (or even harsh) criticism or editing and are ignored... Let it go.

Yes, all the work you've put in becomes wasted effort. So don't waste more worrying about it. You'll find another bad story soon enough.