De-motivation and Opinion

[Lumen_Astrum]

Right now, some stuff I read about my VNs sorta made me feel bad. I feel so depressed I would have thought of cancelling WB and get over it. But guys, I know you've received critique more than me; I'm just an unpopular 14-year old VN maker trying to entertain herself and make an illusion that she's doing something productive by making VNs.

So I was wondering how you deal with critiques.

I don't necessarily mean those formal negative critiques that explain stuff why it is wrong. I pretty much know how to deal with those. What I mean are those "reviews" that get the monster inside you out (if you know what I mean). Those people that say bad stuff, and ONLY bad stuff, and without explanation or anything to improve it. I might have felt bad at some small things, but right now, it's been a chain of days I've been reading some people's negative comments about my works and I feel kinda down.

De-motivation's quite a big issue to me, so right now I feel like because of it, some big art block came over and I can't really concentrate well. It might be a small thing for you guys, but seriously. Being said your art sucks or my editing skills sucks won't pass good for ME. I'm not feeling mad; I just feel like the psychological version of the Great Depression came to me.

I'm sorry for ranting, I just wanted to know. I'm pretty depressed and as much motivational stuff I tried to do, it won't work.

[Ziassan]

Well, the right question is more "why is that bothering you ?".
You see, you will have forever some people to think terrible things of what you make, how you look, who you are etc etc.
Even in life, if you're at least interacting a minimum with people, you'll have in those people some guys thinking bad things of you, or even speaking in your back, etc. (after all you also hear things on others people when they aren't here). The difference on internet, it that this isn't hidden to you.

So, if you want your creations to be played by plenty of people (if not, just keep your project with yourself ahah), you'll have to deal with it.
See on VNDB or MyAnimeList, even the best anime/VN you can think of have some guys rating 1, 2 or 3. I'm not speaking about all those trolls or sputum people make on well know and quality creations.

A random person doesn't care about who you are and that you're a young creator trying and training. This person may want to just take something, mock about to relax, and then go on.

The very fact that this guy spent time to play and review what you done is already quite something to be happy with, hey, we're on the internet with so many things to see and talk about, and not only he played your creation, but talked about that to others people. Readers aren't stupid, they will see that it's an "only-bad-and-stupid" review, and may want to try your game.

Even if you make something looking perfect, you will have that kind of thing, so that's not because your creation may look "novice" that people are unfair to it, but because those people exist by default, and you're putting your creation in the sea where they wander.

[Anna]

Ask the person who reviewed to clarify if you don't understand something (you can PM or e-mail them!), then remember what their critique was (if it was valid) and make sure to improve on that next time. If it's bullshit, then just ignore it. Voila :)!

I guess the most important thing to remember and to do is to view these remarks as something you can improve on now that people have pointed out the flaws. You wouldn't want to remain ignorant right?

[Camille]

I don't necessarily mean those formal negative critiques that explain stuff why it is wrong. I pretty much know how to deal with those. What I mean are those "reviews" that get the monster inside you out (if you know what I mean). Those people that say bad stuff, and ONLY bad stuff, and without explanation or anything to improve it.

I'm the opposite... I can fully ignore the obvious troll "reviews" because I know they have nothing to back it up with. You only feel offended by something when it's at least partially true. For example, if someone on the street were to come up to you and say "Your green hair is so ugly!" you probably wouldn't feel insulted since you don't have green hair, right? But when someone says something more on the mark, you take offense.

So when someone says something about your project that makes you feel bad, take some time to evaluate why their words hurt. It's okay to feel bad about negative criticism, but don't dwell on it for too long. After all, no matter how good your project is, there will always be people who don't like it. Can you think of anything at all that has universal acclaim? People have different tastes in food, music, lifestyles, and VNs. I know people who don't even like drinking water and that's something you need to live! There's no point in focusing purely on dissenting opinions, especially if those people aren't being constructive. Take what you can and learn from a negative review if possible, dismiss the stuff that's off-base, and then move on.

I know this is going to sound harsh, but in real life, nobody will give you a break just because of your age or because of how much hard work you've put in--the end result is what everyone looks at. So rather than making excuses or feeling overly offended by others' words, keep trying your best to learn and grow. You're only 14. You still have the rest of your life ahead of you. I think you're doing very well for your age, so don't be too harsh on yourself. I mean, whenever I look back on things I did or wrote when I was 14, I cringe. >_> So take your time to recover your inspiration and then keep at it. You can only go up from here!

[Auro-Cyanide]

I'll be honest and say I react to critique in different ways and sometimes it depends very much what type of mode I am in. Logically speaking everyone knows how you should handle critique, but your emotions are rarely logical. I get angry. Often. During the time when I feel emotional, I try and refrain from saying anything if I can because I'm just not going to reply logically. I let myself feel what I want to feel and deal with it later. It's a good chance to walk away from it for a bit and do something else. Then you can come back and look at exactly why you got angry and figure out if there is anything useful to take from it. I'm usually still angry at this point but I usually go from being depressed about it to going 'Well yeah? Well, I'll show you *shakes fist*' So I tend to turn it into motivation to improve. Probably not the ideal way to be, but I'm not perfect. I really do appreciate feedback, but my knee-jerk reaction is something I have to deal with because of how I feel about it.

After Nanoreno was pretty bad because I was dealing with negative feedback, feedback in general, stuff going on everywhere while hitting my burn out point pretty hard. I was in a grumpy mood for over a week XD So my advice is to let yourself feel what you feel since you are only human and everyone deals with it in different ways. Balance this with looking at the situation logically and trying to understand why people say what they say. Then remember why you did it all in the first place, remember what you love, and continue and grow from there

[HikkiPanda]

Do you love making VN? if you do, then don't give up now. Just take a break and try to remember those feelings when you started your project for the first time. Hope it can improve your fighting spirit

You're still 14 years a lot. You're young with 2 completed projects, that's not an easy feat. Being young also means that you learn faster and still have tons of room to improve. If you really love making VNs, this is not the right time to quit ^^;

Oh, and I can mention a lot of anime that receives harsh reviews by fans even though they're were created by a bunch of professional. So don't worry about getting harsh critique, even pros get them

[fleet]

Lumen_Astrum,
If the critique is only saying what is bad and no constructive criticism is offered, you're dealing with a troll. I'd suggest reporting the post to the site moderators.
Very respectfully,
fleet

[Sapphi]

What I mean are those "reviews" that get the monster inside you out (if you know what I mean). Those people that say bad stuff, and ONLY bad stuff, and without explanation or anything to improve it. I might have felt bad at some small things, but right now, it's been a chain of days I've been reading some people's negative comments about my works and I feel kinda down.

I would totally get depressed if someone made comments like this about my work too. But I realized that I make a lot of comments like this about others' work - not here on LSF, but in daily life, like "This show sucks, it is terrible, there's nothing good about it" or "This is the worst manga I have ever read" or "I hate this band/song soooo much" or "Why does this even exist? Who would buy this?"

The thing is, I never stop to think about the effort the creators put in. Obviously nobody wants people to hate their work. The thing is, consumers take a lot for granted. As a consumer, I despise certain music - but when I think about it as an artist, I know those people were trying their best. I guess the only thing I can tell you is that your stories will not be for everyone. A lot of people might say nasty things. But people's opinions can and do change. Some of it comes with maturity, some of it comes with experience - I know I said some really mean things about some games on the ren'ai database when I first found them. Now I'd like to kick myself because after trying to make a visual novel, I understand just how much effort the creators put in.

So, just try to think of those comments in that light, and try not to take them to heart.

[DaFool]

You're already far more accomplished than some VN makers twice or thrice your age. Your art is pretty decent. Your writing is technically good.

I think I only played one of your games, but the general feel is you can only write what you're familiar with, and some subject matter you really do have to be older with more experience in life to tackle it well.

I think I've also encountered several games here which only resonate with people in full time employment.

If you keep at it, I believe even in 6 years time you might just be one of the best EVN creators around.

14 years. Damn. I'd hate to show you what I made when I was 25 years old.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I'm sorry for ranting, I just wanted to know. I'm pretty depressed and as much motivational stuff I tried to do, it won't work.

I would direct you to the latest page on the "Get Things Off Your Chest Now" thread for my posts about criticism and dealing with it, but I'll say something now directed to you personally.

Your artwork shows great promise for someone as young as you are. I can tell by the way you make pencil marks that you have tremendous potential. Take from that what you will, but I got my degree in art and I've worked at professional studios, so just know that I can tell these things. Your line work is certainly more confident that mine was at your age.

Have a good day!

[Razz]

For negatives I'll see if there's a valid point to it, or is the reviewer just full of vitriol and looking to set something on fire? I have a thick skin with artwork but I'll admit i'm pretty sensitive about writing. In art I can usually see my errors and how to fix them, but writing that's much harder for me.

Weirdly enough the one thing with art critiques that irks me is nitpicking. Unless it's a big error or something I do over and over again I don't really find it helpful.

[lepapillonrouge]

Missy, you can draw, write, and make two VNs, which is much better than this girl, who is your senior by six years, has done for the three years she's been on this forum.

'sides that though, when I got a critique for workshopping fiction, I didn't actually look at it for a while. And then I did, and really all you can do is ignore the bad comments with no basis, take the constructive comments, apply to your next work, and move on.

A good thing to do with the bad comments is to just talk it out like you just did in the forum , or in real life. You get a lot of good comments on your work because you actually completed something. You get a lot of troll comments because...you know, they're assholes and probably want porn or something. Or they don't like your work. But like people said, people have different tastes.
If you can learn this now, it'll be helpful when you get older

[Applegate]

So I was wondering how you deal with critiques.

If someone is excessively negative, or negative with poor explanation, I PM or post to ask for clarification. Someone here said that you'd be "dealing with a troll", but not everyone who posts harsh negative comments are really just aiming to troll. Some just have no clue just what they are doing, and engaging a dialogue is often times helpful.

If I find the comments have no merit to begin with, I'll ignore the person. Sure, it's unhappy to have someone be unjustly negative, but not everyone's going to like what I do. There's a tiny number of people who enjoy my VNs and provide feedback, and I consider that feedback more important; I'll cater to the audience I have and then consider if I could get new readers in. Those who have no wish to read what I write are simply not my audience.

At the end of the day, what matters is if you are satisfied with your work - and satisfaction should come from within. If you leave your job-satisfaction in the hands of another, you're letting someone else dictate your feelings.

[sciencewarrior]

Every creator is criticized. You should see what they said about the Eiffel Tower when it was built. You've already released two visual novels, so clearly "not creating" isn't an option for you, just like Stephen King says "not writing" isn't an option for him, in spite of all the flaming, caustic criticism he receives.

[papillon]

I'm the opposite... I can fully ignore the obvious troll "reviews" because I know they have nothing to back it up with. You only feel offended by something when it's at least partially true. For example, if someone on the street were to come up to you and say "Your green hair is so ugly!" you probably wouldn't feel insulted since you don't have green hair, right? But when someone says something more on the mark, you take offense.

I dunno, I tend to feel less bothered by things that are trueish. Perhaps because I'm a gloomy self-critical sort anyway, so it's nothing that I haven't heard before... and I'm always thinking 'I could do better next time' anyway.

Site bashing the art in Cute Knight? Well, DUH. I *know* how bad it looks, I drew it myself and I'm not an artist. I only eyeroll there when they post that as an 'example' of my games and imply they all look that bad.

But when people say really horrible things about art that I hired, that makes me quite angry even though I completely disagree with their opinion and think they're idiots. I guess because I know I can't respond (responding angrily to flamebait is never a good idea) so I have to sit there knowing that someone on the internet is wrong.