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?

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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

[glitteryv]

Another 400 words today because I had to do some timeline research about cellphones, SD cards and a detailed My Chemical Romance's timeline from 2008 through 2010. *shows Post-It notes* Yay research?

Honestly, I don't write for comments at all. What's more, I think that ficwriters who work a fic thinking that comments will pop up all over the place once the fic is posted are going to lose in the long run. Because writing for the audience often turns into diminishing returns. People's tastes change, fandoms's popularity ebb and flow, etc. And so, the writers can end up feeling burned out (if the demand is big for their fics) or resentful (if there are little to no comments.)

Having said that, I'll admit that, like anyone who posts fic, I love getting comments. Who doesn't?

OTOH, I remember reading some meta about ficwriting (including comments) in which the post's author said that for every person who posts a comment, there are AT LEAST ten people who don't. Whether this is because the non-commenters feel awkward about replying, feel that they don't have anything clever to say, think that the writer won't like getting a simple "I loved your story", don't have enough spoons that day (etc.), it's anyone's guess.

I'm always surprised by which fics get a higher number of comments vs. my own expectations as to the fics I think people will go crazy over.

FWIW, my fics get comments (not, you know, mountains of it.) I appreciate and reply to each one. Considering the majority of my fics are:

* usually not rated higher than PG-13;
* AUs (usually with a cracky premise);
* an even mix of popular pairings as well as rare ones;

it feels awesome when someone says anything about any of my fics (or gives me kudos over at AO3.)

Also, I do leave comments (filled with squee) to fics I really like. As it happens, I read a lot of fic. So, I feel that my enthusiasm for XYZ fic will come through in my comments if I'm really meaning it. Rather than leave a string of "YAYS!" for every fic I read that won't have any depth to them.

[jagnikjen]

400 words is better than no words, so keep going.

Do you realize if you only wrote 100 words a day, you'd have a 300K+ word novel at the end of a year??

[glitteryv]

Yeah, I intend to write, write, write tonight. :) It's funny, you know, when you look back after x amount of time and realize that you've gotten all these words down.

[littlebutfierce]

Hahaha, I was thinking of having a discussion question about research on today's check-in post! (We shall see... I might not have energy to dig around the fanfic flamingo for an appropriate one.)

I definitely take your point about diminishing returns if you write for comments, as fandoms fluctuate. I wonder if writers in those situations would tend to float along w/the stream to the next big fandom, though? I don't know (as I'm not one of them, heh).

I reply to comments, too--although I wonder if that might paradoxically make some readers less likely to leave them? Out of shyness since they know to expect a return one from the author. Hm.

[glitteryv]

I wonder if writers in those situations would tend to float along w/the stream to the next big fandom, though? I don't know (as I'm not one of them, heh).

*ponders* I don't know either. *g* My best guess is that some stop posting and others start putting up "gentle" demands on their readers (example:"I'll only continue this story if I get X amount of comments."<---imho, that's so tacky I don't even have words for it.)


I wonder if that might paradoxically make some readers less likely to leave them? Out of shyness since they know to expect a return one from the author. Hm.

I wouldn't think so. But then, I leave comments because I know how challenging it is to take a plot bunny and turn it into something readable. Also, I'm not shy about squeeing for a fic I really like.

With the exceptions of my close friends, I don't expect to get a reply from the author (especially if it's an older--meaning 5 years or more--fic OR if there are pages and pages of comments. That said, I've been more pleasantly surprised than not in that most authors will reply to every single comment.)

[littlebutfierce]

Oooh, I feel like I would be more likely to reply to comments on my fics that are older (not that I have anything approaching 5 years' worth of fic!), just because I know some people are less likely to leave comments on fic that isn't new, y'know? & especially if it already has a lot of comments. Heh. Although I've never had a fic that had so many comments that this would be potentially onerous for me. ^^;;