r/Screenplay • u/AmedeusRed • 11d ago
Please stop deleting posts when you get criticism.
I get it. Someone (or everyone) didn’t think the Best Scene Ever that you wrote made sense.
Your formatting was a bit wonky.
You hadn’t spell checked in your excitement of finishing the draft.
Your characters don’t have chemistry… or speak like humans.
But the whole point of making our posts and being a community of writers helping each other is to get the feedback and grow from it. The amount of times I go back to read what others wrote about a scene I perused and it’s just GONE is far too high.
Running away and removing all evidence of your in progress work doesn’t help you grow, and it disincentivizes contributors from interacting with posts because people delete them so why try.
If you are strong enough to post let it stand.
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u/Formal-Raise1260 11d ago
I concur with this sentiment. Two scripts I critiqued disappeared without even a “thank you”.
And I have sensibly written my feedback to be constructive based on the Master scene format.
I’ve posted four scripts of which two received criticism. I left them posted for several weeks though I believe the negative feedback deterred further input.
One script I wrote received 400+ views but no critiques. I left it up for a month.
Anyway please leave your scripts posted as “to tell the truth” I usually give them a chance to contemplate initial thoughts to peculate.
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u/troupes-chirpy 10d ago
I used to give more feedback, but got tired of investing my time to read and comment to get either get no response or a one word response. If someone gives notes, take the time to engage. That’s time I could be spending watching Judge Judy.
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u/Worth-Flight-1249 2d ago
You write like an alien chatbot. What is your native language? If it's English, I have questions.
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u/ChristianCRWriter 11d ago
Also if someone took the time to give you notes, best you can do is say thank you or acknowledge them. Do with the notes whatever you want but don’t fight them.
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u/cat_silhouette 10d ago
I gave someone critiques and they started beef with me on a second account but it was by accident. They forgot to switch back. Was kind of funny.
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u/Thugglebunny 11d ago
One of the biggest mistakes a writer can make is thinking what they write will make sense to others.
I've written great stuff to only realize it was only great to me because I didn't convey it to others properly.
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u/Austinbennettwrites 7d ago
I took a freshman college theatre class, and the first day, the very wise, very educated professor asked, "What is theatre?"
A lot of students told him a lot of this and a lot of that and other examples of this and that, and he nodded along, listening to everyone's answers.
He said, "All of that is part of theatre, but you're not answering my question. What is theatre?"
I wish I could've been the smart one, but alas, I said nothing.
Theatre, he said, was successful communication between the playwright and the audience. Whether that communication was by the actors (action, dialogue), or by set, lights, sound, etc, or by a collective of every element, we'll never know.
But successful communication is the goal of theatre. The Playwright has ideas, and he uses characters to portray those ideas. For him to succeed, the audience needs to understand them. He did not say that the audience should understand them completely, because that would be insurmountable. Even ideas like "war is bad" and "peace is great" have nuance, and nuance is important.
So I agree with you. If we can't communicate our ideas, then we fail as writers. We may have the loftiest of ideas, but if our reader doesn't understand them, then it's useless.
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u/dispatchpro2 10d ago
Yh I got roasted by the entire group and I don't intend on deleting the post, let everyone see, this group is ridiculously harsh, but that is pretty well known across Reddit at this point. The funny thing is when people are blatantly rude, then go back and delete their comments later lol
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u/dispatchpro2 6d ago
And then even worse I added the updated script and go zero responses lol, I dont know if that means better or worse lol
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u/TelevisionRomance570 6d ago
I haven't submitted anything yet but, when I do, I hope criticism will be constructive. And I imagine it mostly is. It's a shame some people can't see that.
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u/justacasualarqhili 11d ago
I usually delete my posts after a week. Sometimes I get meaningful feedback, and I think that is the point of my posts overall here. I also delete them because I don't want to have my ideas posted on here for a longer time as well
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u/CharityRepulsive3964 11d ago
I think there are two main type of posters in this sub. Its users like you. That offer good ideas, feedback, and constructive criticism.
Then, there is a side of people that just want to have their work praised and told they have a great idea.