When I started posting my stories online a few years back, I only ever got comments of engagement in the story - e.g. reacting to/speaking to the characters or the situation. I LOVED these as I’d been writing offline my entire life and suddenly it felt as though my characters were coming to life.
Like Domi, I also love the long gushing comments at the end of the book where people tell me how much the enjoyed the story and how it made them feel.
I can never get enough of the above two because I only write as a hobby and I’m not really after unsolicited feedback from unknown amateur writers.
Line edits pointing out a typo/erroneous comma are useful if they’re correct. But I write in British English, so if I do get a comment like that it’s often a well-meaning non-British English writer telling me I’ve spelt (spelled!) something wrong when I haven’t.
I still want to improve though so the exception to the above is when I’ve asked a writer I know and respect, and who I know is good, to critique my work. Then I’d usually rather do it in Google Docs so we can have meaningful back and forth without others jumping in.
This idea is why I’ve shifted more to getting feedback off Wattpad from my writing circle or more vetted, targeted sources on Wattpad. I think I learned too late that there are a lot of people who think of themselves as writing experts and yet are clearly not, or who unabashedly claim to be amateurs yet insist their expertise be weighted more than others.
I get frustrated by the ones who can’t seem to understand there is more than one correct way to write and whatever method working for them isn’t the end all be all of writing.
I try to be open minded about different suggestions, because I know I don’t have all the answers, and getting feedback from other sources has actually helped me tighten my writing style. I’m also well aware that even the most off base of suggestions may actually help me by making me consider things outside of my experience, which often makes me do more research about certain aspects of writing mechanics.
As someone who also gives feedback on different levels, I also like to make it clear that it is my opinion based on what I’ve learned, and what I suggest may be taken or left without any rancor on my part.
