Yeah, I always look at the reviews to see of there's any constructive comments. If not I tend to give it a pass or just say I liked it.
Sometimes I find mechanical errors. Like spelling, tense shifting (which drives me crazy if you hadn't noticed ;)) or putting two quotes from two different people in the same paragraph. I think sometimes this is something that gets a negative response to as being nitpicky sometimes. I may be wrong. It just a sense I get.
Other times it's characterization.
There are some things that I have a hard time explaining what I see as the problem and that makes it difficult too. I read a fic once where the author tended tell more than show. Actually she did both. I tried to tell her she needed to show instead of tell, but I couldn't figure out how to explain how to do that. Thinking back I think she did show, but told on top of that and if she just got rid of the telling she would have been fine.
no subject
Sometimes I find mechanical errors. Like spelling, tense shifting (which drives me crazy if you hadn't noticed ;)) or putting two quotes from two different people in the same paragraph. I think sometimes this is something that gets a negative response to as being nitpicky sometimes. I may be wrong. It just a sense I get.
Other times it's characterization.
There are some things that I have a hard time explaining what I see as the problem and that makes it difficult too. I read a fic once where the author tended tell more than show. Actually she did both. I tried to tell her she needed to show instead of tell, but I couldn't figure out how to explain how to do that. Thinking back I think she did show, but told on top of that and if she just got rid of the telling she would have been fine.