I couldn’t stand the Giver. It was a waste of my time. The first two-thirds, more than half, was unbearably dull, and the idea, theme, and concept of the book had all been done before and much, much, much more successfully. It is not so much a bad book as a total waste of the trees that made the paper to print it.
Man, looking back on my first bit of fanfiction (which I rarely, rarely do, even though it’s in the server, or was, in uncomplete form), it’s just…cringe. I kinda want to start over with it though, since I kinda did like the idea. >.> Alas, no time.
Also, at least she’s taking your advice partly, better than nothing. Well done with helping a writer who at least wants to write. 
Meh. It’s ok. She was only writing fanfics anyway. Tell her it’s not important because if she wants to be a success, she should write real books instead.
Why would anyone who wants to be a success turn to writing? Supposing we use the life-style meaning of success. Otherwise a fanfic can be rewarding for its writer, even if it’s not a ‘real’ book.
Which reminds me that fanfics are a perfectly valid form of writing. Faust and Dr. Faustus (edit: both of them) are glorified fanfics based on the book of Faust. Milton’s Paradise Lost and a major part of Blake’s poetry are fanfics of the Bible and Bible-related books. Granted, there are countless lousy and worthless fanfics but then again there are countless abominable books, records, games etc.
You completely missed the point.
The point is that in fanfiction people write about characters from games or shows and make them do what they wished they could see the characters do, and it’s just really fucking cheap to read. If you can write at all, you can create your own original characters pretty easily and you should. I don’t read fanfics because I don’t like seeing characters ripped out of their context and thrown into the stupid fantasy of some amateur writer.
There’s only one kind of fanfic I approve of: the kind that interprets the same story in a new way or tells it from another character’s perspective. You don’t change the original story though and you don’t add on to it. And you don’t friggin put yourself into it. Those should be like, the three commandments of not screwing up your fic.
I have no problem with people putting themselves in an original story though, even as the main character. I actually think that’s pretty awesome 
Assuming the rest of the story is well written.
Is ‘The Giver’ the one where nobody sees in color? And they all take pills to suppress emotion ala Equilibrium? I somewhat enjoyed that book, but it was ruined by a retarded teacher who couldn’t stop telling us that it was about a “Eutopian society”.
Anyway, I confess I’ve never read any of Wiella’s stories. Hades and I share about the exact same opinion when it comes to fan fiction however, and I publicize it a lot. God I hate fan fiction.
As far as constructive criticism is concerned, when people attack me after giving maybe a scathing review I just look at them and say “hey, you asked me to do it, so here it is.” Constructive criticism is a part of life, and people who don’t know that and can’t accept it from others are the ones walking while we’re all running.