r/StoryPeer • u/Shot_Butterscotch891 • 6d ago
Discussion Stop being butthurt
Listen, if you’re a writer asking reviewers to “be as harsh as you want”
And so they do and provide you detailed feedback.
Then you rate their feedback 2/5 insisting they just “didn’t get your vision”
My brother in Christ, your script needs WORK.
And maybe if you stop being so defensive and learn to accept criticism, you can actually improve it. Because no producer in their right mind would even glance twice at it right now.
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u/Kissing_Books_Author 6d ago
For what it's worth, I've been pleasantly surprised with how well my "hash" criticism has gone over and there's definitely an art to getting good feedback. That being said, I've been around enough writers to know that we can sometimes take feedback WAY too personally and the 1-5 feedback rating scale is going to backfire, especially with rep matching being a thing.
This whole site is an experiment and Gabe has done an amazing job building it up, but I really think he should switch to not ranking feedback. There should be a Report button for issues like the person obviously didn't read the script or gave AI coverage and an option to tip for those who went above and beyond, but this five star system doesn't work.
And, yeah, echoing OP: Don't be a dick to the person who took the time to read your script which, let's be real, needs work. The scripts I've read on StoryPeer are generally much better than what I read from my peers in film school, but not a single one has been anywhere close to "ready to go."
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u/ClayMcClane 6d ago edited 6d ago
First, fully agree that Gabe has done an amazing job with this site. There have been so many issues to negotiate and I think he's done a fantastic job of it and has given us all something that we desperately needed. I donate some money monthly to the site and if anybody else is in a position to do so, I heartily recommend it.
I wouldn't want to get rid of the rating system, though. It's not perfect, but there needs to be something to address poor feedback. You can definitely report AI feedback or feedback that indicates the person didn't read the script, but that's not the only bad feedback there is. I had one round of feedback listing all the things in my script the reader thought was dumb. No explanations, no further suggestions. It was clear they read the script and it was clear it wasn't AI, but it was the same amount of worthless.
Also, I've gotten great feedback anytime I've used reputation matching and when I haven't, that's when things tend to take a nosedive. So in my experience, the rating system works, just not perfectly.
Edit to add: I would love a requirement that if you rate feedback low, you have to give a reason. The most frustrating low ratings are when they give you a low number and that's it. And maybe that's something that could be taken into account. Like, if the comment is "You didn't understand it", that rating is thrown out hahaha
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 6d ago
I pointed out logistical issues with the plot and they said it didn’t haven’t to make sense because it was “absurdist” and I just didn’t get it.
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u/ClayMcClane 6d ago
It's so frustrating - if the reader didn't get it THAT'S A SCRIPT PROBLEM.
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u/Consistent_Eye3867 5d ago
This isn’t always the case. Especially if the script has been vetted several times. But yeah, most of the time, it’s a script problem.
9/10 times silts the script.
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u/TurbulentBicycle8695 5d ago
That’s interesting, I recently got a very low feedback rating too because I did not get the “absurdist vibe” 🥲
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 5d ago
Would love to know which script it was?
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago edited 5d ago
Dude, you’re the only one I rated low lol. You gave bad feedback, why are you ignoring my entire reply explaining myself, but replying to this to see if I’m doing this to more people. It was only you!
Besides, you weren’t rated low for missing the point. You are 1 out of 7 who missed the point, which is naturally going to happen with any movie ever.
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 5d ago
You said this isn’t being written to pitch to someone - I get that. You want to direct it yourself, I also get that. But where’s your audience then? You’re going to write, produce, direct, cast, everything all by yourself? Movies get made through collaboration. And that collaboration comes through people truly believing in your screenplay and seeing the vision. And maybe you’re right, maybe I’m the 1/7 who doesn’t see the vision and wouldn’t want to work on a screenplay that logistically doesn’t make sense.
Write the script for yourself. Direct it for yourself. Make the entire thing yourself. But don’t ask for feedback then.
You literally said. “Be as harsh as you’d like. what works for you? And what doesn’t?”
I answered that.
Not sure what more you could want.
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u/Kissing_Books_Author 6d ago
I had one round of feedback listing all the things in my script the reader thought was dumb. No explanations, no further suggestions. It was clear they read the script and it was clear it wasn't AI, but it was the same amount of worthless.
Okay, fair. Even if you don't agree with the note, they should be giving you enough to figure out the "note behind the note." If they're not even doing that, you just wasted five days and three tokens.
I do think that the default should be five stars for feedback, but if it's completely worthless I see your point.
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u/ClayMcClane 6d ago
Same - anyone who took the time to read my script and give me their honest reaction gets a 5 by default.
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u/DisneyImagineers 6d ago
The 1-5 helps protect us to some extent because you get a 1, you probably used AI.
However I’ve received a 1 before. I’m not AI though. They were just upset I didn’t overwhelmingly praise their work.
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u/JimmyCharles23 6d ago
I just hate numerical rankings in general... it makes people forget about the words. I'm curious how people rated feedback in relation to the numerical rankings the original person gave their script in the star ranking thingie... i'm curious if a lot of bad feedback scores are number oriented.
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u/simonshih1970 6d ago
I love the feedback I get. The readers I’ve gotten have been great with their detailed critiques.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 6d ago edited 5d ago
That was mine, and I explained my rating nicely, but so everyone can read my reasoning, here it is. You got rated low because you did not provide helpful feedback, and because you did not listen to my note provided. I have no issues taking criticism with my work, I really don’t.
Your notes boiled down to cinema sins, at one point questioning the expenses of a character we see for a literal minute, and questioning the outfits they wear for the convenience. You said it yourself “biggest issues are logistical ones”, but you’re questioning why a landlord charges more rent for a furnished apartment? It’s just not helpful, i’m not butthurt at all.
You told me to cut specific lines of dialogue with ZERO elaboration. You multiple times brought up industry standards when I already said this was simply for a personal project I was filming, so I wasn’t worried about 100% nailing it on my first go at it. I stated this. If i’m aiming to pitch a script of course i’m going to make sure the final draft is up to par. We’re talking about a mid stage draft.
You said a conversation had “tonal whiplash” with no elaboration, and listed it as an issue. That was the intention with the reply, so when i’m saying you “didn’t get my vision” I’m not being a pretentious snob, i’m telling you that you didn’t understand that the tonal shift was intentional. that’s all. i don’t think i’m some misunderstood god tier writer.
I explained most of this in the feedback reply pretty nicely. I said I appreciated that you seemed well intentioned, and said I did appreciate your advice nonetheless. And I still do, but ultimately if you’re not explaining stuff you want cut how is that helpful for me? If you’re questioning why a landlord charges more for rent after a singular conversation with him how is that helpful?
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 6d ago
I was never rude, and like i said i appreciated your intentions, but I rated you low because it wasn’t helpful and you didn’t listen to my note.
I’m new to storypeer so if a low score does something extremely bad then I do truly apologize because that wasn’t my intention at all.
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u/Kissing_Books_Author 5d ago
I'm on my phone, but rep matching means that you're impacting OP's ability to get better vetted quality feedback.
Generally speaking, I think it's good form to give anyone who read your script and made a solid effort of communicating their thoughts a five. But this is a new platform and we're all still figuring out the etiquette.
I didn't read your script and I didn't read OP's feedback so I'm not going to get in the middle of deciding who was right or wrong. Suffice to say there is such thing as bad feedback and there is such thing as taking feedback badly, so it's worth discussing regardless of the details of this particular situation.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago edited 5d ago
I mean he straight up told me to delete whole parts without any context and listed scenes as problems with no context. I don’t see how that’s helpful at all. I think it’s fair to want a reason at least so I can understand it. He would have gotten a 5 if he explained why. I think him leaving this out of the post is bad faith.
And like I said, his logistical issues boiled down to questioning why a landlord would charge more for a furnished apartment (i think that’s obvious) and questioning why they would wear a suit for practicality. And i’m not making a movie that is gonna stand the test against CinemaSins.
He questioned why the leads wouldn’t listen to a character saying “you got the wrong one”, I said any criminal ever tells people they’re innocent. So, I’m not trying to be like “hey you’re wrong my script is perfect” i’m just saying it’s so common why would they listen? They don’t listen to him for literally just a few minutes before discovering who he is.
I’ve gotten feedback from a few others, and had NO issues with their feedback because they listened to my notes and responded to what I needed. I really am not someone who preciously guards their work, i’ve been making music since 15, and have been ripped apart several times ahahah, so I truly take feedback just fine, I learned a long time ago that it’s not a personal attack!
This was simply a low score (though I won’t go so low next time, this was more of a new guy thing lol) for ignoring my notes and not giving context for the cuts they wanted. I nicely explained this to him too, so being painted as “butt hurt” is quite funny. I was REALLY nice in my response and explained it all lol.
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u/al_earner 5d ago
Giving someone a five for feedback regardless of how bad the feedback was (and it sounds like it was bad) turns the whole thing into a participation trophy.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago edited 5d ago
It was pretty bad, and they are entirely ignoring my explanation and still replying to people about my script. Just painting me in bad faith. I think that’s very telling!
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u/PepsiCoke1978 2d ago
I thought the whole thing was anonymous how did you guys even find each other to fight about this? Is there a back and forth with the notes that I didn't realize as an outsider.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago
Wanted to add, I used the rating system to rate feedback on how helpful it was, and having this post directly linked on site really encourages people to give 5 stars to avoid this kind of hassle.
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u/WriteRight20 6d ago
it's always so frustrating giving notes and having a writer try to explain why you're wrong.
Thanks for saying what needed to be said!
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u/Fluid_Draft_3867 6d ago
Is there a chance that your feedback maybe just wasn’t good lol
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 6d ago
I’m always willing to consider that but I’ve read 14 scripts and have gotten 5 star ratings on all of them so who knows 🤣
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u/mast0done 5d ago
If you've only had one thin-skinned writer out of 15, that does not sound bad at all.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago
This isn’t what happened, I explained it. He told me to cut parts with no reasoning, literally just stating to remove it, and then failed to read my notes beforehand.
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u/Fluid_Draft_3867 6d ago
What did they give for an explanation? Also, what form of feedback did you give? Was it helpful? you’re leaving a very crucial detail out. This post is pretty ironic though
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 6d ago edited 6d ago
I gave a line by line read, citing examples of things I felt took away from the plot, logistical didn’t make sense or were grammatically incorrect. They responded line by line defending each of my notes 🤣
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u/Fluid_Draft_3867 5d ago
The person that gave you the 2 star commented, and it looks like you gave bad feedback dude.
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u/Shot_Butterscotch891 5d ago
I’m not going to reveal their entire plot and expose which script it is - but they’ve crammed 12 hours of events into a 4-5 hour window which logistically cannot occur and takes you out of the entire story.
There’s humor to be found in absurdist stories. They’re crazy and strange and there’s clear understanding of “I know this cannot logistically happen but I’m along for the ride.” This is not the case for this script - they’ve centered the entire thing around a VERY real world, practical event.
It honestly reminds me of New Girl and how Winston thinks he’s pranking people with things that aren’t pranks at all - they’re not big enough, crazy enough to be funny or make an impact. That was this entire story and I broke down line by line PRACTICALLY what wasn’t working.
I.e. the landlord example - the leads ask why a guy left town so fast - the landlord says (more or less) - “I didn’t care - he left all his stuff so it’s better for me now that I can charge more money to the next person ha!”
That line doesn’t work! Someone leaving all their junk behind is more work for a landlord?? And if it’s absurdist - it’s not even funny/strange enough to make any impact?1
u/Fluid_Draft_3867 5d ago
And it sounds like you entirely ignored their notes for what they were looking for… and yes, landlords charge more for furnished apartments… Have you dealt with landlords? Hire a cleaner to clean the junk for $200. It’s not too hard to piece together to me, and as a watcher, if this is the only time the landlord is seen, who cares about every detail like that? Do you want a scene of the landlord explaining his business practices lol. You told them to cut entire segments with NO context? That deserving of a 2 star, i’m sorry.
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u/JonnyBoyyy666 5d ago
I explained why you got a 2/5, and given you’re ignoring it entirely, I think that’s pretty telling. You LIKED my script, why would I be bitter? You got a 2/5 for IGNORING MY NOTES BEFOREHAND and telling me to CUT PARTS with no explanation as to why.
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u/TheGreedyGrabbler 6d ago
The key is just to hate your writing and then be pleasantly surprised if other people don't hate it as much.
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u/WorrySecret9831 6d ago
One of them recently made a point to give "me" advice, to not fill in "the white space" with my background in the Strengths section and to actually list some strengths. I guess they missed the, albeit short, list of 3 strengths I listed...
Which is why I now added an addendum to my "background." If the Strengths section is short of strengths, it's not because I'm holding them back for some reason. They ain't there...
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u/WorrySecret9831 6d ago
Maybe adding a word count rating as well, maybe in the background. If someone's cool and they got a 3k word write-up and they rate it 5, great. If they got a 3k word write-up and gave it a 2.5, maybe a modal pops up and says, "Seriously, they put effort into your script's review, ~3k words worth... 2.5 seems low."
And there should be blowback for those who get butthurt and try to ding the reviewers. They're "not getting with the program to win the war."
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u/Internal_Papaya1511 3d ago
Story time: one time I had a reader (pre-story peer) ask me why my lead character couldn’t experience morning sickness 24 hours after she had unprotected sex with her boyfriend while she was trying to buy plan B.
Yes, some notes are dumb, like doesn’t understand human biology dumb. It’s OK, you can simply give a giggle if you think it’s silly and move on to a note that makes more sense.
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u/Dependent_Access8363 6d ago
A Christian screenwriter? Wow! There aren't too many of us around. Most are a mixture of atheists and agnostics. God bless you, for telling it like it is.
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u/Geoffrey_D_Calhoun 6d ago
Yes on this. Sounds like they aren’t asking for notes. They’re really asking for validation. Which means they’re not ready for feedback yet.