 What's shakin'? My name's Cam. Welcome back to another video. Being a writer is... it's tough. It's pretty rough, my dude. No matter what you write, no matter how well it's written, there are always going to be people that hate you for it. And I don't just mean like, hey, I don't think this is very good. So I'm gonna stop reading it. I'm talking about 100%, full blown. This is bad. You suck for writing it. You're a bad person for letting me read it, and you... you know what else? If you die, well, I think that would be pretty cool. That's reviewers. There's always going to be reviewers that will despise you for what you've written. So what do we writers do about it? We try to hone our craft. We practice. We try to minimize the amount of readers who are going to want to give us a left-right goodnight. We take courses. We read craft books. We watch creators on YouTube. And we request critiques. Now, you probably think that critiques are meant to be helpful, right? Provide a bit of constructive criticism. Give you some feedback to work with. Feedback you might not necessarily want, but feedback you need. That's what you would think, right? Well, yeah, that's... that's exactly... that's exactly what it should be. But like unprotected sex, things don't always go to plan. I recently found this thread on Reddit under r slash writing. What's the worst or meanest comment you've gotten back about a piece of writing? As I'm sure you can imagine, some of their replies here are, well, they're pretty bonkers. One thing's for sure, they're definitely not poggers. The meanest criticism I think I've ever gotten on my writing was years and years ago. It was when I was just starting on writing a fantasy series. I had a beta reader, not from YouTube, just from an online writing group. And they sent me back one sentence. I only gave them one chapter, and they sent me back one sentence. And I think they thought that I'd only written one chapter so far, but I'd actually written nearly more than half the book. Anyway, they sent me back one sentence and it said, please don't send anymore. It's not good. It hurt, but I only think about it like once a week now, so I'm practically over it. Let's see what the fine people of Reddit have to say. Nathaniel is a complete dumbass, and his actions make zero sense. He's terrible as a protagonist. The whole thing is horribly written. Try again. There was no Nathaniel in the story. The main protagonist was a woman. Still wonder what the reviewer was on. I mean, that's rough, but at the very least, it seems like it was meant for someone else. Still. Super mean, guy. My first novel rejection simply read, we thought the writing would be better. So did I, friend. The thing that hurts the most about that one is just that they sound disappointed more than anything else. You know, like when your parents aren't mad at you, they're just disappointed. If you have kids and you ever want to really scar them for life, if you want to give them something that they'll be thinking about, well and truly, until the day you die and beyond, just tell them that you're not angry, you're just very, very disappointed, or that you feel very let down. Parenting 101, you're welcome. Regarding a female serial killer project I did, no one will like her unless she's maternal. We don't like non-maternal female people. My husband read about two pages and then looked at me and said, I'm sorry, I can't read this. It stings. Ah, oh no. See, I'm torn because part of me would want my partner to be honest with me. But at the same time, if she gave me back my writing and said, I can't read this, I would probably slam my head in a car door. There's no actual plot, you're just hiding behind a lack of writing skills with emotion, literary devices and fancy words. I mean, I guess you can dig through that one for at least a bit of constructive advice. You'll be doing it with tears running down your face, but you can do it. Maybe you should consider a different career, my dear English teacher. The worst part was that I really looked up to him and I thought he was cool. And really, that's not even the worst part. The worst part is that I still want to show him wrong to this day. I actually had a really cool English teacher in school. Actually, I liked most of my teachers. I wasn't a pet or anything and I was by no means like one of the smartest people in any of my classes. But even back then, I thought the whole teacher suck and I rule attitude. I thought that whole attitude even back then was super cringe. But yeah, if my teacher had ever said that to me, I would have cried. I gave my best friend my magnum opus and she handed it back to me with these words. I don't understand it. It was is a love story slash adventure. Ugh, I've since edited it. But that was a kick to the nads. Here's the thing, I'm cool with my best friends like reading my stuff if they want to, but I don't really want to know what they think because only one of two things is going to happen. Either they'll like it or they'll pretend that they did and I'll just end up wondering if they're just being nice or they will be brutally honest if they didn't like it and it will be awkward as hell. I just, I don't really see the point. If I want criticism or feedback, I'll just get it from people who I don't have to see, you know, every couple of days. And luckily I'm not convinced my friends can even read. What do you think on that one? I'd be interested to know what you think about that. Let me know in the comments. Do you let your best friends read your stuff? Would you expect them to and how do you deal with that? I once had a reviewer somehow not understand the two of the characters talking were dead after the paragraphs beforehand detailed the sound of gunshots and their souls arguing as they floated above their bodies. I mean, to be fair, if I was reading a conversation between two characters, my first thought probably wouldn't be, oh, must be their souls hovering over their bullet-readled corpses having a yarn about last night's footy game. I'm just saying that that wouldn't be a thought that would immediately cross my mind. But I guess that comes down to how obvious you make the death. Either way, that one's not particularly cruel. Damn dude, people are mean. People are mean as hell. If you're on the fence about becoming a writer, just know that this is some of the fun stuff that you have to look forward to. There are a lot of good parts, but there is a lot of this. That reminds me, have you seen my mean book for reviews video as well? Those people were stone cold. I think the book reviews in that video were 10 times meaner than any of the criticisms in this one. I might actually, I'll leave a card for that video if you want to check that out. Look, all jokes aside, if you are providing feedback or a critique on someone's writing, please don't mix off being honest with being a dick. You can help someone become a better writer by giving them, you know, constructive criticism, and without giving them crippling feelings of insecurity and self-doubt. Unless the story is really bad, then go nuts. No, I'm kidding. Don't do that. Just be thoughtful, is all I'm saying, because this stuff really sticks with people through their whole lives. Not to say you have to sugarcoat anything necessarily, just be respectful, dude. I don't, I don't know. Just don't be a dick. Catchphrase. Don't be a dick. Anyway, that'll do it. Let me know in the comments below what your meanest criticism ever was, or the meanest review, you know, the meanest thing that anyone has ever said after reading your writing. As always, thanks for watching. Especially if you watched this far in the video, an extra special thank you to you. I appreciate you. I really do hope you have a nice day. Catch ya.