On likes, comments and reviews

[Wesley8890]

1 minute ago, droughtquake said:

Too bad there’s not a Thank You emoticon available!  ;-)

That and I need to cool down one! 

[FormerMember4]

9 minutes ago, droughtquake said:

Too bad there’s not a Thank You emoticon available!  ;-)

There is one, just not a reaction. 

[Former Member]

1 minute ago, BlindAmbition said:

There is one, just not a reaction. 

Sorry, that’s what I meant!  ;-)

[ReaderPaul]

@Ronyx    Well, I for one wish you had not retired from writing.  I thought your story titled "Other Sinful Things" was one of the best stories I have ever read.  I am still hoping you might, someday, be inspired to write a sequel.

@BlindAmbition   @Timothy M   @droughtquake    I always appreciate your comments, and Tim, you are a favorite author here on GA.  For a considerable time I lost my posting password, and could not comment for a time.  Droughtquate, your comments are always insightful.

[x Trevor x]

It was pleasant to stumble across a post like this, I really agree that feedback is an important part of the process of creation because even if you are someone that writes for yourself and I think everyone that writes or has written always on some level did it for themselves but feedback is nice to have, it lets you know that deciding to do what you do is a good thing and at the same time it provides good learning experiences and can even be inspirational. I can say I've written things in my stories that have been inspired off of comments before and it provided a feeling of more interaction with the readers, the experience can be interactive in that way. Writers all have their own ideas and plans but it's really cool when a comment once in a while actually hits your creative button in a very powerful way and creates a hiccup where your brain turns it into an idea that changes even a small part of a story that without that feedback may not have happened and it's even better when it turns out good for the story and keeps it going.

 

For me, well I've certainly never had even a couple of hundred followers but I did have that one story that quite a few people liked and I guess my confidence bar was set much lower so that even just having around a dozen or so readers taking interest made a big difference for me and I had a great appreciation to have been able to create something that earned even that much attention, having a sense of stability in what I was doing and knowing that each chapter would get a couple of comments. See for me, that was suspenseful and it's amazing to find how much readers can have you, the writer, at the edge of your seat, it's fascinating to think about how the interactions between readers and writers can influence many different things.

 

By the end of that story, I was completely driven to keep going and while now I see that story for me as a one hit wonder in comparison to the ones that followed, I still feel like I did a good job on them because of that. I was definitely hooked and then one day it kind of just faded out, I highly suspect it was the grind writing, putting out as fast as I could with little to no breaks, even when one story ended, the next one practically began.

 

I made attempts but then I became my own worst critic and after that I figured, okay you're burnt out and like swallowing a bad pill the best thing was to stop and to have acceptance and yes lots of depression followed as I loved creating and like grinding through stories, grinding through TV every day had it's expiration date, that is just my experience and I'm just waiting to see where trying again after acceptance and after rest, seeing where it might take me.

 

Feedback is very important, it provides confidence and learning and interaction and it can really bring writers and readers together through out the experience of a story. It means so much more than just numbers, that is the least of it and I'm glad to see what that allowed me to do. Readers are a value and what they can teach you or inspire you to do makes it so important. It may be one story and one author but in a sense it's a team effort.

[Former Member]

28 minutes ago, x Trevor x said:

Feedback is very important, it provides confidence and learning and interaction and it can really bring writers and readers together through out the experience of a story. It means so much more than just numbers, that is the least of it and I'm glad to see what that allowed me to do. Readers are a value and what they can teach you or inspire you to do makes it so important. It may be one story and one author but in a sense it's a team effort.

At some point I decided that it was important for me to not only like a chapter, but also provide some feedback in the Comments.I definitely have opinions even if some people don’t agree with them. And i get lots of feedback when they don’t agree!  ;-)

 

 I have also been known for providing suggestions, some useful, others humorous, and still others just plain silly. I’m always suggesting that authors do crossovers between their different stories. The authors have various reactions to that: outrage, laughter, agreement, and most commonly, total confusion as to why I’d make the suggestion!

 

@Parker Owens included such a subtle cameo of two characters from a previous story, that I had no idea that we were supposed to realize who they were!  ;-)

 

With @Ronyx, I keep suggesting that earlier characters be edited in. One of his earlier stories included two characters who were student journalists. I keep suggesting that he mention their names as the reporters in his stories. But that’s almost as unlikely as his writing sequels to our favorite stories!  ;-)

 

@R. Eric refuses to do any more crossovers, but he does use suggestions and comments.  ;-)