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Dilemma - just recommendations or also comments with spoiler risk? [message #67666]

Sun, 14 April 2013 11:41

Kitzyma

Likes it here

Registered: March 2012
Messages: 215

There is a dilemma.

Unless one says simply something like 'this is good and I recommend it' then there is always the risk of a spoiler. Sometimes even just stating the genre, e.g. 'this is a great ghost story' could give away the twist at the end of a story. Even just mentioninng that there is an interesting twist at the end might spoil the surprise because then the reader will be expecting a twist.

On the other hand, if there are a series of posts saying only 'this is a good story' then reading all those posts won't be very edifying. One might say that if there are several posts recommending a story then it probably is worth looking at. However, looking at the number of posts of that nature could be misleading if, for example, some potential posters think: 'it's already been recommended by a few people, so there's no point in me posting just to repeat what others have said'.

As both a reader and an author, I can see both sides of this. I'd like to see how people interpret a story, how certain parts have affected them, and even what they felt didn't work for them. On the other hand, if I've worked hard to provide a twist or surprise in the story, I don't want to have that spoiled by plot details being posted as part of a discussion.

One suggestion:
Maybe the first post about a story should be strictly just of the 'good story - recommended' sort and any discussion of plot should be only in later posts, possibly after an explicit spoiler warning. Those potential readers who haven't yet read the story but are looking for a recommendation can read that first post and also see how many other posts there are about it, but shouldn't read those later posts. There's little point in discussing a story unless one has read all of it. Anyone who chooses to read later 'discussion' posts should be prepared to risk seeing spoilers.

Any other suggestions?

[Updated on: Sun, 14 April 2013 11:43]

Re: Dilemma - just recommendations or also comments with spoiler risk? [message #67667 is a reply to message #67666]

Sun, 14 April 2013 15:59

timmy

Has no life at all

Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751

I am inclined towards the view that a serial, once completely posted here, could have minor spoilers without too many drawbacks. I am not a fan of spoilers while the serial is not yet fully published. I would hope, however, that they would not exceed the type of plot summary one gets on the cover of a paperback.

With, for example, The Girl for Me, I think we got it right. People know that the story is different, interesting, and has unexpected paths taken. So today we might be content to create a blurb which says that "the story handles the T of LGBT in a very direct manner, and shows some of the awkwardness of acceptance both of and by the T person."

I'm not a fan of full critiques that give the plot away. This post refers to that, and it is a true challenge, perhaps caused by those who like us to view them as more erudite than we are ourselves. I feel fortunate that folk who post here exercise pleasant restraint.

Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School

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