=Mech= Why won't anyone read my stories?


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11/15/2011 21:51:27

superjars
Member

I joined the L&L community shortly before the Approved Poets and Approved Authors titles were permanently disbanded and have been writing in it since then. Up until I started NaNoWriMo, I would say that I was in somewhat of a slump in writing. And a large part of that was due to the lack of feedback I have gotten, either negative or positive. There is nothing worse as a writer than to think that no one is reading your story.

And so, I ask the question in the topic: Why won't anyone read my stories?

I feel I'm at least a competent and somewhat interesting author, but there doesn't seem to be any interest in reading things that I write. Why is this?

Is it intimidating to write and comment on my stories because of the fact that I am a forum moderator?

Do my stories get no love because they are not under the guise of AE Fanfiction and everyone wants to read AQW, DF and HS stories?

Is my writing so atrocious that no one can read through it enough to even be able to comment? Or so good that no one knows what criticism to give it?

Why won't anyone read my stories? Do you feel the same way? Why don't we read stories in L&L and how can we get better as a community at supporting all of our members and not the ones who write the things we are used to?

Discuss why you do (or don't) read other people's works in here and what you think about this issue. In my opinion, reading is one of the most important things you can do as a writer: it broadens your horizons and can be a fantastic learning tool. So why don't we use it?

AQW

Epic

Post #: 1

11/15/2011 22:04:12

Mordred
Member

Your fears are certainly justified, my friend. I think a large reason, for me at least, is that there just isn't enough time. I too, joined the L&L just days before they did away with the AA systems, and since then, there's literally been a flood of new writings, as was the intent. With all of the new writers who no longer have requirements to pass, there's just so many things to read. My work-load/free-time list has been pretty full;

Schoolwork.
Community service at my local YMCA.
School lit-club.
Making time for my personal project, Mordred's Vengeance.
Trying to read up on Mortarion's, Teh Cataclysmic One's, Elryn's, Dwelling Dragonlord's, Mritha's, and others' L&Ls.
RL things like going on dates with my girlfriend or going to dances or performing in the band or baking for bakesales and watching plays and things.
Finding some time for release through games(both AE and others) and these forums.
Keeping the Book of the Rift project in the back of my mind and trying to make more long-time plans for its direction.

Really, despite my post-count, I'm quite busy. I probably should spend much less time on the forums.

So, I wouldn't worry about it superjars. I just think that *many* people have been quite busy lately. I've actually been meaning to read your poetry at some point; day by day, I get more and more behind on other people's L&Ls.

Post #: 2

11/15/2011 22:07:16

lordkaho
Creative!

Something I said to Argeus the Paladin a month back

quote:

Read your last post and here's my say on it. And I've learned this the hard way (I'm sure you are aware of this); one of the key compotents to ensuring that you have a steady amount of CC in your piece is to have reputation from outside the gaming community (most writers, unlike artists, frequent the main AE games forums), it is where they draw in their source of readers. Then the most painful part is that, your story must be set in AE's Lore. Try using other themes *cough Nasu cough* and your hard work is bound to gather dust. Just look at the Book of the Rift project. And lastly, one thing I noticed, is to have story tie ins and crossovers with other authors. You read and critique theirs, they do the same for you. Hope this helps.

Tis painful, but it's the truth. I tried to do the same thing as you, and I learned it the hard way.

But like what the great man said, what matters is that you had fun writing your story.

Post #: 3

11/15/2011 22:14:22

Razen
Member

quote:

Then the most painful part is that, your story must be set in AE's Lore.

Aha! Not entirely true, you see. I was capable of getting a fairly large amount of CC without having an AE Setting...although it technically BEGAN like it, it quickly changed. Ask Mordred, if you so desire. The only thing that caused it to gather dust was how I began to find myself at a block of how to move onto Mornica and describe the "War"...

AQW

Epic

Post #: 4

11/16/2011 2:28:38

Argeus the Paladin
Member

Personally, I have little shame on this matter. I do read other people's writing and do what I can to help so far as my time, attention span and occasional bouts of depression allows.

But like Mordred said: Too many things to do in real life, too little time. Not to mention my own commitments elsewhere. Simply put, between that and the unfortunate fact that L&L is no longer my primary learning and sharing ground and I could barely do any more than I have already did.

Post #: 5

11/16/2011 3:18:10

Glais
Member

Honestly, I usually try to make it a point to comment on galleries and stories with less comments, things have just gotten so busy lately <_>

Something that affects it for me is usually genre. For example, I will probably never read a HS story just because I don't care about HS. I'm much more likely to read something involved in either DF, MQ, or a standalone universe (because I LOVE original -verses, especially scifi). However, I guess the reputation thing plays in. I'd read Mordred's and Razen's simply because I knew them from DF GD, and that was what had gotten me into reading L&L's in general.

Length is also a factor. It's far easier for me to read something brand new. Take AizenV3's "Trials and Havoc." Had I just discovered it I can guarantee I wouldn't be past chapter 3 now. Jumping into Mordred's story late made me take about half a year before I caught up with it, simply because I don't tend to read amazingly fast.
Which ties into the main problem:Time. It's just difficult to read and offer comments and ideas on so many different stories! I still have yet to venture to chapter 3 of the "Seeds of the Future" which I started a month ago. Things just get difficult :/

Post #: 6

11/16/2011 4:18:44

Shreder
Member

quote:

Is it intimidating to write and comment on my stories because of the fact that I am a forum moderator?

I think this, in combination with the fact that I write poetry (which many people find harder to comment on) is why I'm in a similar situation as you, superjars.

Personally, if I read a person's poetry on here (and I do try to do that every now and then...) I almost always leave a comment. Prose, well, I'll be honest and say I don't read much of other people's prose on here...

I just had an idea, though. Maybe we could set up some kind of "comment exchange" system, where people agree to read each others work and leave comments. We could even make a specific thread for it...

Post #: 7

11/16/2011 4:28:35

lordkaho
Creative!

quote:

"comment exchange" system

This is already happening though, usually out of courtesy on both authors.

quote:

Length is also a factor

Mhhm.

Sometimes it's pretty embarrassing to ask someone to critique your work when it's over 10 posts long and he/she has yet to read it.

quote:

occasional bouts of depression allows

That's either from reading too much Key or you're just sad you got outflanked in your last Total War: Medieval 2 match. Hehe

< Message edited by lordkaho -- 11/16/2011 4:37:59 >

Post #: 8

11/16/2011 4:37:24

Argeus the Paladin
Member

quote:

Maybe we could set up some kind of "comment exchange" system, where people agree to read each others work and leave comments. We could even make a specific thread for it...

Speaking as someone with some experience on the matter under his belt, I'd say that a comment exchange system is a good idea... on paper. In practice it has the tendency to backfire in more than a few ways, one of which I cannot explain without using a term that might not exactly be PG-13.

The nearest equivalent we had was Clyde's Need A Hand workshop, which after a while turned into this entire subforum.

Post #: 9

11/16/2011 4:39:47

Glais
Member

Honestly, I just thought something similar to that was just....common courtesy, or practice anyways. In the gallery, if anyone posts in mine I always try to make it a point to visit theirs. But A:The gallery is quicker to skim through so I'm likely to see their work anyways. 2:Similar, stories take much longer to process, it simply isn't possible for everyone to give legitimate critiques to fellow writers who comment :/ Not without great length anyhow.

Post #: 10

11/16/2011 5:01:08

Argeus the Paladin
Member

And that is exactly why critiquing a story is a huge favor you can't always expect all the time. It is a very time-consuming task that requires the commenter to have read the story more deeply than any other reader, pick out the good and bad points of the work, then communicate the finding back to the author. If this were the industry standard, the commenter would pretty well expect to be paid for that - hello there, professional editors.

Needless to say, not everyone have that kind of time, concentration, focus and altruism to comment extensively, especially on and internet forum.

quote:

That's either from reading too much Key or you're just sad you got outflanked in your last Total War: Medieval 2 match. Hehe

More like being burnt out from a combination of real life, NaNo and a few more things. But hey, let's go with the above. That is funnier.

DF	Post #: 11

11/16/2011 5:13:08

lordkaho
Creative!

quote:

A:The gallery is quicker to skim through so I'm likely to see their work anyways.

This is what separates the Creative Arts and the L&L. Not really credible statistics, but the CA has about twice as much posts as the L&L when the latter has marginally more thread topics (read 'Stories that need feed back')

quote:

It is a very time-consuming task that requires the commenter to have read the story more deeply than any other reader, pick out the good and bad points of the work, then communicate the finding back to the author.

Indeed, though I really sometimes wish I could make a whole TV tropes page out of my work (not sure if that's a good thing though).

Unlike art, where you can dish out some random comment at a glance, commenting on a story takes much time (picking out grammar issues, sentence construction, the plot, the use of words, etc.) But I guess this is only one of the reasons why you don't normally get spontaneous feedback from a wide variety of people.

Post #: 12

11/16/2011 7:56:34

Shreder
Member

quote:

Unlike art, where you can dish out some random comment at a glance, commenting on a story takes much time (picking out grammar issues, sentence construction, the plot, the use of words, etc.) But I guess this is only one of the reasons why you don't normally get spontaneous feedback from a wide variety of people.

I think this is really the biggest reason. Disregarding critiques that give advice or suggestions, just leaving a comment saying how much you liked the story is not easy, because even that requires that you've taken the time to read the story.

Post #: 13

11/16/2011 8:11:14

Argeus the Paladin
Member

Well, of course you can always go take a shortcut and post a "Awesome story! Luv it!" and saturate it with smileys. Such comment is, of course, also about as helpful as a sheet of blank paper. The point is not just comment, but useful and helpful comment.

Personally I think the old workshop was L&L's best bet for that matter - some dedicated critiquers, a lineup of requests, and everything just went smoothly like that.

DF	Post #: 14

11/16/2011 20:00:50

Anon Y. Mous
Creative!

^are you talking about the pre-approval workshop from the old AA system? because that was a great forum for discussion, but only really before you got approved. back then, the general kind of gossipy culture was what drove most of the discussion in the L&L

quote:

Personally, if I read a person's poetry on here (and I do try to do that every now and then...) I almost always leave a comment. Prose, well, I'll be honest and say I don't read much of other people's prose on here...

this is pretty accurate for me as well

DF	Post #: 15

11/16/2011 20:56:15

superjars
Member

I can see the reasoning behind a lot of these comments, and I can completely relate, as time and things like that also rule my own life. And so i understand why these, as well as some other rather important, but not really discussable reasons, are why people don't generally comment.

So, consider this: As a writer posting on the forums, I am not looking for help with my grammar or spelling, or some in-depth commentary about what I've written. I've been around here long enough to know that really no one gets that. As for CA, I've been spending a lot of time over there recently (:P) and I can see the differences.

My issue then is this: When there are no comments for a story, it makes the author feel as if they are not writing something that people enjoy to read. What I want to know from a reader, in any of my works, is: Did you like it? What about it did you like/didn't you like? And that's about it. You wouldn't even have to read the whole thing. I know that I can sit down and read the first chapter of a person's story and tell if I will like it or not, and can give them some ideas of why that is the case.

As for all the technical stuff, I will go to professionals or close friends who are editors to go through that stuff. Or really, work on it myself in the revision process.

AQW

Epic

Post #: 16

11/17/2011 3:54:10

Mortarion
Member

Heh, the same happens to me super, and tbh I don' have too many things in an order and I guess I may have developed a fear for certain AK's, but not you, it's just that I quickly forget things sorry, but if you want, you could try to read my storie, and I could try to do the same :D

AQW

Epic

Post #: 17

11/17/2011 7:17:44

demolitiondragon
Constructively Friendly!

Like others have said here: my main problem is time (work starts at 8:30am, finishes anywhere after 6:30pm; usually ends up being between 7:30pm and midnight). When I critique, it takes several hours. About 3 hours for a moderately-sized chapter. Generally speaking, that's time I don't have and on the odd occasion when I do, I tend to want to chill out and do something braindead rather than take on more work. Sometimes I have time to write a bad Book entry, but that about sums up the writing time I've got once everything else is done.

If there are way too many spelling/grammatical errors, I look elsewhere for a read because it simply takes too long and feels like the critique gets nowhere. Many stories here tend to bomb out around chapter 3*... author goes away, loses interest and abandons the story, starts something new, many valid reasons. When your critique gets ignored or this happens, you wonder why you bothered spending the time. Generally speaking, that means I don't tend to critique anything before 5 chapters have been written.

I don't tend to read the fanfics because I haven't had time to play the games in years... so they may as well be written in another language for all I understand regarding what's going on. A short introduction of what the story is about in the comments thread is also good. When you're mousing over the titles it helps you find something that interests you.

I'm more likely to give further critique to someone I've already critiqued once they add more to the story, because the story is actually /going/ somewhere and not getting bogged into 64 rewrites of the first 2 chapters*, which I've already read. I always leave a message to let the writer know I've read something even if I don't critique, because I consider that to be courtesy. If someone critiques my stuff, I tend to go looking at their stuff to see who they are and what they're like (*curious little ferret*).

Discussion threads lack discussion... If you're stumped at a certain point, why not flag it in the title somehow and attempt to throw ideas around with people after explaining the situation? Talk about why you've decided to do things this way or that way... where you got the idea for ____ from. Sure, you may want to preserve the 'mystery', but that's what spoiler tags are for. Locking people out usually doesn't inspire conversation.

Just my 2c.
* As guilty of this as anyone else.

Post #: 18

11/25/2011 4:01:06

Cataclysm
The fanciest of moustaches

I completely get this. Actually, I think this the vast majority of the time. I've got what's probably one of the longer stories on these forums (DF, relating to the conclusive events of Chapter One). It's some hundred-twelve pages, and got a grand total of three non-TCO comments on there - not one of which said anything remotely useful (in order - "I'm going to read this," "I'm going to read this," and "you should continue"). I even made cracks about it in my sidenotes (usually something along the lines of how it's pretty much exclusively HS stories getting the love recently). My currently running story is getting more love (though I question how much the AQ tag is holding it back), though not as much as I'd like to see (in order again, "I'll read it soon," "Argus massive wall-of-text-that's-actually-awesomely-helpful [if you read this, thanks a million, gave me food for thought]," "I'll read this," "Dwelling Dragonlord bringing in valid insight," "More valid insight from DD," "see previos comment").

I'm mostly just interested in how people react to my story - good, bad, better, worse, constructive criticism, confusion... Whatever. Commentary's good, and I'd love some. I even try what demolitiondragon suggested - throwing around a few queries with each post I make in regards to the chapters under the guise of "Sidenotes" intended to elict some kind of discussion from whomsoever may have the [mis]fortune (your opinion) of reading my not-so-short-stories.

Post #: 19

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