Month Five, Day Three.

[wintergrey]

"We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
~e. e. cummings

Feedback is a big thing for a lot of writers—hell, a lot of humans. Sometimes, it's what keeps our heads above water when we're feeling terrible. Craving that little shot of approval is totally normal. Most of us aren't well-schooled in being impervious and self-sufficient. Personally, the more honest I am about seeking approval, the more I accept that need it, the easier it is to get by without it... the brain is an odd thing. Regarding the quote above, I do feel it's possible for that "someone" to be one's self, but it can take a real leap of faith.

How big a deal is feedback for you? Is a little enough or do you find that getting any at all makes you need more? Do you feel like your work is less valuable or less accomplished when you see that someone else is getting tons more approval or are you able to keep perspective, do you really know that the social forces behind popularity and "blockbuster" stories aren't necessarily about relative quality and value and validity? Would you be writing differently if feedback didn't matter?

Poll #10356

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11

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Today, in fanfic, I...

View Answers

wrote.
6 (54.5%)

edited.
1 (9.1%)

researched.
3 (27.3%)

outlined.
2 (18.2%)

plotted.
2 (18.2%)

daydreamed.
3 (27.3%)

read about writing.
2 (18.2%)

wrote about writing.
3 (27.3%)

talked about writing.
3 (27.3%)

did none of the above, and that's okay.
3 (27.3%)

did something I might share with you in comments.
0 (0.0%)

My goals for today...

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Mean: 6.09 Median: 7 Std. Dev 3.80

laughed in my face. 1		3 (27.3%)
2		0 (0.0%)
3		1 (9.1%)
4		0 (0.0%)
5		1 (9.1%)
6		0 (0.0%)
7		1 (9.1%)
8		0 (0.0%)
9		1 (9.1%)
cried for their mommy. 10		4 (36.4%)

Comments

[insignia]

"One of a hundred" - 213 words! That is marginally more than what I wrote the other day! *great success*

I can't deny that I like feedback, but I wouldn't say it's important. Maybe when I have more fics out there my perspective will change, but I'm not writing for approval at all. If I cared what other people might think, this would go even slower. X-D

[wintergrey]

Awesome work today. Your answer cracked me up because I am so guilty of that—holding back because WHAT WILL PEOPLE THINK. It's terrible! You're absolutely on the right track if you can enjoy the feedback but not keep it in mind while you're working.

[lullabymoon]

1600 words and rough draft achieved! Really really pleased with it too.

[roane]

Whoohoo!

[lullabymoon]

:DD

[lilly_c]

Day of research. I did hit a snag when I looking for info about California women only prisons and the different types there are. The only requiremnet is that it's in San Francisco.

For feedback I'm not bothered for it. I should be but I'm not, guess I don't feel the need any validation for the things I do.

[wintergrey]

I love that you're not fussed about feedback and I really envy you. :)

[crowdog66]

No writing today; I'm still in an emotional funk and have absolutely no confidence in my abilities, so... yeah, it sucks.

I tell stories to engage readers, not strictly for my own pleasure, so feedback is immensely important to me: it tells me that I'm reaching people, which is the point of all my hard work. No feedback = a very unhappy writer monkey, at least for me.

But oddly enough, if feedback didn't matter I probably wouldn't write any differently. When I'm writing a story I don't think about the readers in that sense: I tell a tale that I consider engaging in a way that makes sense to me, and trust my instincts to make it a decent one. That's what makes lack of feedback so unnerving: it suggests that my instincts are wrong, and without my instincts to count upon, where the hell am I?

[crowdog66]

I managed to write ~750 words in spite of feeling just godawful. So, go me!

[0jack]

\o/ Good for you!

[kayjayuu]

Whee!!

[wintergrey]

I understand about why you'd want the feedback, it's really necessary especially when you're developing as a writer. I want my stories to function, personally. I would be happy with "I hated this, but the author did XYZ really well." As long as XYZ was what I meant to do. My writing partner and I never say 'is that good?', we say 'does that work?' I think that's why we're so good together, we're really goal/function oriented.

When writing rare fandoms, it's hard, because in order to appreciate or critique a fanwork, a reader needs context. They need to know some of the canon. So getting no feedback on rare fandoms is an occupational hazard. This VOLUME of feedback people get on AO3 is bizarre to me. I've always posted privately and so 1 or 2 comments is plenty. I have no idea if I could deal if I started writing Avengers or something.

[roane]

Wellll. I finally strayed far enough from my original outline/synopsis that today I needed to go back in and regroup a bit. Got some plotting done, and laid the groundwork mentally for a truly spectacular (I hope!) problem for my heroes a few chapters from now. Now I'm off to try and get some actual WORD words.

I... am kind of a feedback freak. I mean, I doubt I'd stop writing without it, but one of the biggest reasons I think I post so often is because I get a little sad when that initial post-posting river-stream-trickle of feedback dries up. ;) And if there's one thing the Sherlock fandom is all over, it's giving feedback. :)

I don't think about it when I'm writing, really--unless I'm cackling evilly as I plot terrible things for my characters, but when I do finish, it's all about hanging it on the virtual fridge and making my friends stand and look at it. :)

[wintergrey]

I"m always conflicted about feedback. I wrote a book once, in a very short period of time, and was shocked it got published. It was a bit of a hit in the right circles, including getting the attention of an academic studying the genre. Freaked me right the fuck out. Seriously, I lost my shit. Fanmail? Weirds me the fuck out. That people buy my books? Always surprises the shit out of me. (I do like a good review, though, especially a really deconstruction-y one that gets what I was trying to do. One per book is plenty. No more.)

But I also want attention. And love feedback on my fanfic. SO CONFLICTED HI.

[roane]

I get that too. The first time I got published it was a total shock, like, what? Even now, I'm getting some really good feedback on my fic, and it's... wonderful but also very very very weird. Which is why I keep walking around going, "HOW IS THIS MY LIFE?" :)

[wintergrey]

I get messed up to where I can't write. Which is horrible. :( I really want to write in some of the popular fantoms but the idea of all that freaks me out. I'd be happy with like, five fans. That would be okay.

[electric_butterfly]

Did some reasearch, but on things that had little
to do with what I actually want to write.
Want to leave more prompts for some communities,
but have difficulty describing what I want.
Talked/daydreamed about things, but have written nothing.

As for feedback, it's very nice to have and CAN be motivating, but it doesn't always make a difference in terms of what I want to write.

[gramarye1971]

Work-writing wiped me out today, so I'm giving fun-writing a miss for tonight, alas. Hoping to make it up on the weekend.

Feedback is not such a crazy-big deal for me, though I do get greedy for it once I've been given some. (Writing for kink memes, with their instant gratification of anon-comments, has been making me more greedy than I ought to be, to the point where I start to feel paranoid if I don't get as many comments to current fills as I have on previous ones.) Most of the fic I write is mainly to please myself and get silly ideas out of my head, but I do love it when other people enjoy what I've written. So I post, and see what comes of it.

[bay_alexison]

So, haven't been able to check in the last couple of days due my computer not working anymore. D: Just right now I have a new laptop, LOL. I had been writing a bit of one of my help fics in my notebook and am going to be typing it after checking my laptop a bit more.

I love feedback on my fics. There might be times I'll be disappointed if my story doesn't get comments, but in the end I'll still keep writing.

[psyco_chick32]

\o/ Today (well, yesterday for me, because Weird Work Schedules, Yay) I totally wrote a random Avengers drabble in anticipation for the movie. :D

I love feedback, but it's a good thing I don't require it because I write some weird stuff that generally turns people off. However, if I'm flagging on a story, and manage to post, that first couple of reviews can usually motivate me to work harder/faster/etc.

[kayjayuu]

Feedback... interesting. Without getting too belly-button-gazing-ish, I've been learning the I Ching a bit this week and in particular reading about one of the symbols that means Exhaustion, which is a dry lake above a well. One of the discussions actually referenced writer's block, which made me think about my writing issues, and that my lake may be a bit dry but I just have to dig deeper into the well that sits below and inside me. Plenty of water there.

Feedback would add to the dry lake and feed into the well. But my sustenance is inside of me.

Okay, totally failed at not gazing at my belly button. Perhaps I'll set a timer and write for a few minutes.

[the_rck]

Whoops. Forgot to check in yesterday.

I did no writing. Instead, I chopped out three to five hundred words that weren't doing what I needed them to. I'm starting that scene over with a different location. Maybe I can use some of the dialogue in the new scene.

I like feedback. I've never written anything that's gotten a vast amount of feedback. Mostly, I write in small fandoms, so I keep my expectations low. A story that gets half a dozen comments is wildly popular by my standards.