WIP challenge check-in: day 3!

[littlebutfierce]

I love all the cheerleading & commiserating going on in yesterday's check-in post! Yay! How's it going today?

Poll #6857 Day 3 May WIP challenge check-in!

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 15

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All right, how's the fic feeling today?

View Answers

I AM A GENIUS
1 (6.7%)

Not bad!
10 (66.7%)

SHUT UP SHUT UP
1 (6.7%)

...
3 (20.0%)

And what did you do today, fic-wise?

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Write
10 (66.7%)

Edit
2 (13.3%)

Send to beta
0 (0.0%)

Research
1 (6.7%)

Procrastinate
7 (46.7%)

Something else I will describe in comments
1 (6.7%)

3 words or less to describe your fic today:

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And in keeping with the fanfic flamingo theme, let's talk about comments. The flamingo has a lot to say about comments.

I think I can identify with all of those images, heh. My favorite might be this one, though:



[Background — a six piece pie style colour split in three shades of pink. Foreground — the long neck and face of a pink flamingo.

Top text: POUR HEART AND SOUL INTO FEMMESLASH EPIC

Bottom text: 5 COMMENTS]

So! Comments! Do you find them a big motivator? Do you find yourself working more on stories that you anticipate will get a lot of comments? Or maybe you're in a tiny fandom or your OTP is really obscure/unpopular: do you find that this means you don't worry about getting comments (maybe it just makes you really, really want the one comment from the one person who'll get the story!)? Are they icing on the cake, but not something you think about while you're actually writing a story? Do you not care at all (or try not to)? Be honest!

&, importantly, do you leave comments yourself?

Comments

[chibifukurou]

I've written nothing but I did run a couple word sprints earlier for Manowrimo, and I'll head back to the chatroom later.

Comments: If I was dependent on comments I'd have given up writing a long time ago.I always find it funny when I ask for plot advice and people say. 'Well you could write that if you're not worried about people reading what you write.' See the following chart for evidence as to why I find this so amusing.

1st BB - 1 comment
2nd BB - 0 comments
3rd BB - 1 comment (a few months after it was posted)
4th BB - 1 comment from my artist
5th BB - (had to post 6 different places before I could find a beta)
600+ Comment fics - Average of 1 comment per 4 stories
14 Yuletide fics - average of 2 comments per fic unless I wrote in the 'fairytale' fandom

It's not that I don't want comments, I absolutely love feedback. I've just gotten to the point where I'm a bit selfish about what I write. I write borderline tragic epics with rare pairings/gen in tiny fandoms. They're the type of stories I love to read, and wish more people would write. So I keep writing them even though I know most people won't bother to read them. I'm always hopeful that someone out there wants the same kind of stories and someday, maybe years down the road, they'll find my fics.

[dbskyler]

I'm always hopeful that someone out there wants the same kind of stories and someday, maybe years down the road, they'll find my fics.

I love this. I honestly can't think of a better reason for writing fic.

[glitteryv]

I don't know about most people not reading fics. To me, it seems like it's a case of most people not leaving comments. Example: I went to a fangirl con in early April and had the strange experience of having people I didn't know (because we didn't share a fandom or whatever) come up to me at different times and tell me that they like or loved this story or that story of mine. Not one of them had left any comments on the stories they mentioned--even though it was obvious that, for a few people, they'd really liked them as we had this conversation about the plot, etc.

I'm always hopeful that someone out there wants the same kind of stories and someday, maybe years down the road, they'll find my fics.

That's tremendously sweet. And you know what? You are TOTES right, Chibi. Because it's happened to me as a reader. I'll be over at AO3 thinking "dude, it'd be so cool if someone wrote a fluffy/gen/cracky fic in ABC fandom for XYZ pairing or characters". About half of the time, if I find the fic I'm looking for, it's a (relatively) old story.

[jagnikjen]

I had a similar experience with my epic. There were people who never left comments but who I know were reading because if I forgot to un-f-lock it over on LJ, *then* I got the comments. :)

So you just never know who's reading.

[littlebutfierce]

To me, it seems like it's a case of most people not leaving comments.

This is true as well. I mean, look at how many people in this post say they don't leave comments often, heh.

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, what it boils down to for me, & it sounds like for you, is to write the stories you want to see! And hopefully someday they will find their audience. In a way that makes every comment more treasured for me, heh. I'm glad it doesn't discourage you!

(I say this like I don't ever get any comments or don't have any friends in my fandoms now. I do! But compared to people in, say, Star Trek fandom, I am allllll aloooooooone. Hehehe.)