That one reviewer who said my pacing was the problem, not the story

Got a comment on my fanfic last year that basically said my fight scenes were dragging and the real tension was in the dialogue, which I totally ignored at first. After 3 rewrites I finally cut two whole episodes worth of action and let the characters just talk, and suddenly the engagement tripled. Anyone else ever get criticism that felt wrong but turned out to be exactly right?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver5233d ago

Three rewrites feels like a lot, but I've seen people nuke their whole outline over one comment and end up with something worse, so who knows. I'm always suspicious when someone says "just let them talk" because I've read plenty of fics where it's nothing but banter and nothing actually happens. But you got tripled engagement, so the numbers kind of speak for themselves. My thing is, what if the next reviewer comes along and says the dialogue is now the problem and you gotta add action back? You can chase that dragon forever. Take the win, but maybe don't make it your whole personality.

brookepark3d ago

The whole "chase that dragon" thing is exactly why I stopped letting random comments run my story. One person said my action scenes were too short, I padded them out, then three people said it dragged. You can't win with everyone. I usually read the comment, take the one thing that makes sense for the story I want to tell, and ignore the rest. The tripled engagement is a nice sign, but it doesn't mean you gotta keep doing backflips for the next person who types something. Fix it if it feels right, leave it if it doesn't, and move on.