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On commenting: A weirdo pessimist's tale?
Just thinking, I guess. It seems weird that I find the lack of commenting on Ao3 to be a feature not a bug.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I like comments. Spontaneous comments can make my day and make me feel like less of a freak for writing the stories I do, but I also do like the idea of being able to post something for people to read and not worry about the types of comments I'm going to get. Or not get. If I want a quick shot of attention for my works, I know what to do and where to go.
Comments aren't really a huge motivation for me, for quite a few reasons:
1. I write with the full expectation that I'm not going to get comments.
a) What I write tends to be both incredibly niche in appeal and incredibly varied in scope. Small fandoms, rare-pairs, femslash, etc, and I don't really appeal to specific niches consistently enough to get a following.
b) I fully acknowledge my mediocrity. Or rather, I actually believe I'm a good writer, but I lack the patience for self-editing and the inclination to regularly find people who can beta before I post, and I understand what even a basic revision can do to the quality of a fic. I consider myself fortunate to not be publicly held up as an example of the badfic writer who should just go away before she's killed by collective back-buttoning. =P
2. I'm actually incredibly picky about the feedback I want to receive.
a) I'm fine with constructive criticism, praise, squee, lone emoticons, etc. I like engaging over stories, and knowing people thought it was worth leaving feedback on.
b) But...at the same time, there's a lot of comments that either prove that the story has missed the target, or where a critical aspect to the premise of the story gets challenged (and not in a 'this doesn't make sense as you've written this' but an 'I like this completely opposite thing that isn't your story better'). Oh, and the faily comments. And then there are some where it feels like the reviewer is disclosing something about themselves that I don't really want to know.
c) I'm also really, really uncomfortable with "Why don't you do more x?" types of comments, even if 'x' is something I do on a regular basis.
3. At this point, I find the idea of having more fics to read be more motivating than comments.
a) No matter how good, comments don't make a community.
b) I want fic to read.
c) Liar Game fandom, I'm looking at you.
d) Please?
Oh, don't get me wrong, I like comments. Spontaneous comments can make my day and make me feel like less of a freak for writing the stories I do, but I also do like the idea of being able to post something for people to read and not worry about the types of comments I'm going to get. Or not get. If I want a quick shot of attention for my works, I know what to do and where to go.
Comments aren't really a huge motivation for me, for quite a few reasons:
1. I write with the full expectation that I'm not going to get comments.
a) What I write tends to be both incredibly niche in appeal and incredibly varied in scope. Small fandoms, rare-pairs, femslash, etc, and I don't really appeal to specific niches consistently enough to get a following.
b) I fully acknowledge my mediocrity. Or rather, I actually believe I'm a good writer, but I lack the patience for self-editing and the inclination to regularly find people who can beta before I post, and I understand what even a basic revision can do to the quality of a fic. I consider myself fortunate to not be publicly held up as an example of the badfic writer who should just go away before she's killed by collective back-buttoning. =P
2. I'm actually incredibly picky about the feedback I want to receive.
a) I'm fine with constructive criticism, praise, squee, lone emoticons, etc. I like engaging over stories, and knowing people thought it was worth leaving feedback on.
b) But...at the same time, there's a lot of comments that either prove that the story has missed the target, or where a critical aspect to the premise of the story gets challenged (and not in a 'this doesn't make sense as you've written this' but an 'I like this completely opposite thing that isn't your story better'). Oh, and the faily comments. And then there are some where it feels like the reviewer is disclosing something about themselves that I don't really want to know.
c) I'm also really, really uncomfortable with "Why don't you do more x?" types of comments, even if 'x' is something I do on a regular basis.
3. At this point, I find the idea of having more fics to read be more motivating than comments.
a) No matter how good, comments don't make a community.
b) I want fic to read.
c) Liar Game fandom, I'm looking at you.
d) Please?
no subject
I really get where you're coming from on #2 as well. I recently wrote a fic that got a spat of comments asking for a sequel and that was just really awkward. I get that they want more, but it felt invasive. IDK.
Comments aren't the end all and be all of writing and the focus on them always makes me feel odd. Like maybe I should care more, but if I did I wouldn't write half of what I do.
no subject
Same here. I wonder if all the complaints about comments come from people who started out getting a lot of comments, so they're not quite used to them coming in a trickle.
Course I think if I really cared about comments, I should have stopped writing a long time ago.
no subject
Course I think if I really cared about comments, I should have stopped writing a long time ago.
Exactly. Or at least I'd never had written in a lot of small fandoms.