Yet another ratings thread... or is it?

[Bamagan]

Thanks for the kind words

I don't know which scores you are seeing right now as the bombing is ongoing, but these were my scores prior to the bombing
View attachment 2264267
They aren't bad at all, I guess, but I would gladly settle for lower scores if that meant getting much more insightful comments. It is what it is.

If you want insightful comments, why aren't you posting your stuff to one of the story feedback threads in the forum? Or did you try that and not find the feedback insightful? There seems to be a fair amount of activity there, much of it from people who also write stories, and one would expect to probably be more insightful than a casual reader would have, which is likely to fall along the lines of "I (dis)liked this" or "wish it had more {preferred fetish}."

 

[Voboy]

Voboy said he isn't in all this to get feedback. I can understand that. I am not entirely sure why I am in all of this - for a variety of reasons, I suppose, but I think some nice feedback is one of them.

Well... no. Not really. I'm happy about feedback. I love comments, emails, and red Hs. Those things all clue me into the idea that people like my stuff, which is enormously gratifying.

But it's not the only reason I write. It might be a big part of the reason I publish, but it's not why I write. I was trying to put it into the perspective of motivation, which you're struggling with. When I've been de-motivated to do any writing, I've always just waited it out and my muse has returned: it's not like I've made myself write because I craved feedback here.

I do want some meaningful feedback about my story and my writing though. That is a big motivator for me. Ratings are a minor thing from that particular point of view.

The only on-point advice that came out of this thread, IIRC, was to write in LW. None of us gets very much feedback, truly. I've accepted that.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

If you want insightful comments, why aren't you posting your stuff to one of the story feedback threads in the forum? Or did you try that and not find the feedback insightful? There seems to be a fair amount of activity there, much of it from people who also write stories, and one would expect to probably be more insightful than a casual reader would have, which is likely to fall along the lines of "I (dis)liked this" or "wish it had more {preferred fetish}."

The problem with that place is that on average, you get some feedback from a few people at the most. The place isn't brimming with activity. More than that, as I am writing a very long series, to get some good feedback on my newer chapters, that commenter would need to read all of the previous chapters as well, to have the right idea about the world and characters I created. The place works somewhat for standalone stories, but not so much for long series.

 

[Voboy]

The problem with that place is that on average, you get some feedback from a few people at the most. The place isn't brimming with activity. More than that, as I am writing a very long series, to get some good feedback on my newer chapters, that commenter would need to read all of the previous chapters as well, to have the right idea about the world and characters I created. The place works somewhat for standalone stories, but not so much for long series.

But you can look for feedback in ways other than through comments. When I was writing a long-ish series, my main source of feedback was the view count. Which dwindled over time. Because that's what they all do. And when a chapter won a monthly contest or gained any other type of notoriety, the views rose.

The scores? Those were fine. The comments? Those were fine, too. But both (I suspect) were coming from the same cohort of people, and since most were complimentary (and coming from a self-selected group of readers predisposed to like the stories), they weren't really "feedback."

I told myself I'd keep writing that series so long as I gathered 2k views in the first three days. When that stopped happening, it was my signal that it was time to find an ending and bring down the curtain (which I'd been thinking about doing, anyway). It was still feedback, just not textual feedback.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I'm very sorry that some people can be so petty as to attack a writers other work over a story. To actually devote time and effort to that level of vindictivness. So sad.

 

[Bamagan]

The problem with that place is that on average, you get some feedback from a few people at the most. The place isn't brimming with activity. More than that, as I am writing a very long series, to get some good feedback on my newer chapters, that commenter would need to read all of the previous chapters as well, to have the right idea about the world and characters I created. The place works somewhat for standalone stories, but not so much for long series.

Yeah, I think you have set an unrealistically high bar for valuable feedback, and if it gets higher with every chapter published, you're probably doomed. So I guess I think you're doing the right thing by quitting?

 

[EmilyMiller]

@AwkwardlySet we don’t have enough lesbian and Sci-Fi stories. You don’t want to leave the field clear for me to run rampant all over it do you?

Em

 

[djrip]

Jeez Awkward, the comments on your new start series are so good. You've got pixieH in there like every time! I guess I'll try to see how much of this I can read before it comes down. Probably not much, I'm terrible at follow through.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I agree and I am quite aware of this. But I don't mind it. If I can get my writing motivation back, I am hoping to attract enough feedback and followers with my new stories. This is basically an attempt for me to continue writing rather than leaving all of my series unfinished, because I do feel an urge to get the stories out of my head, while still not having enough motivation to actually start typing. This is an experiment of a sort, I guess. I will let you know the results.
Also, I want to say that I truly appreciate the fact that so many people are trying to give me friendly advice. They are not falling on deaf ears even though I have always been a stubborn bastard.

Just thought I'd mention, that even if you wipe your account clean your stories will still be in your head.

Whenever I'm working on a contest, I always think about the other stories I should be working on. I'll often drop what I'm doing, go back and work on one or two, because I can't get them out of my head. I think its called writer's brain, and I'm pretty sure that we're all afflicted.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've been told he's gone. I haven't seen him, but I also haven't checked.

Tilan's story page is empty, but his account is still open. If the account had been purged, there'd be a 401 Error.

 

[Bamagan]

Tilan's story page is empty, but his account is still open. If the account had been purged, there'd be a 401 Error.

What number error is sulking?

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Tilan's story page is empty, but his account is still open. If the account had been purged, there'd be a 401 Error.

That's what I'd heard, but I didn't check.

Well, I could hardly call Stacnash "it" She identified herself as a woman, and thus I've always used "she" and never really bothered myself what her true gender is, nor do I think it held any importance.

To be fair, Stacnash never identified as any gender. She(?) signed one PM "Stacy" and all the Stacy's I know are girls, so I assumed, asked, received no answer, and just ran with the idea that SN was female.

 

[ElectricBlue]

To be fair, Stacnash never identified as any gender. She(?) signed one PM "Stacy" and all the Stacy's I know are girls, so I assumed, asked, received no answer, and just ran with the idea that SN was female.

Yep, that's what I picked up on. Mind you, one of their posts referred to "we", but context wasn't clear whether that was the royal "we" or her and a buddy.

From the review she left on my story, and in an exchange later, it was very clear to me that she had an American woman's visceral hatred of the word "cunt" - which I'd used eight times (and "ass" in the same story fifty times, go figure). So I got pinged some points for being "vulgar", while I rated her down for reading an Australian writer's story with an American sensibility.

We obviously shared a kink for anal, so that bit was fine. She liked my heroine, so that was even better .

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Yep, that's what I picked up on. Mind you, one of their posts referred to "we", but context wasn't clear whether that was the royal "we" or her and a buddy.

From the review she left on my story, and in an exchange later, it was very clear to me that she had an American woman's visceral hatred of the word "cunt" - which I'd used eight times (and "ass" in the same story fifty times, go figure). So I got pinged some points for being "vulgar", while I rated her down for reading an Australian writer's story with an American sensibility.

We obviously shared a kink for anal, so that bit was fine. She liked my heroine, so that was even better .

She loved Eldritch Pact, so I was on her side at first, but I didn't like the way she talked to my friends in the AH... buuut, some of the AH regulars were antagonistic to her too. Idk.

However she definitely was not American. She may have hated cunt, but she said "favour" and no self respecting American would ever misspell "favor" like that.

 

[Bamagan]

She loved Eldritch Pact, so I was on her side at first, but I didn't like the way she talked to my friends in the AH... buuut, some of the AH regulars were antagonistic to her too. Idk.

However she definitely was not American. She may have hated cunt, but she said "favour" and no self respecting American would ever misspell "favor" like that.

I know a lot of self-loathing Americans who might, though. And even more who are simply shitty spellers.

 

[Voboy]

However she definitely was not American. She may have hated cunt, but she said "favour" and no self respecting American would ever misspell "favor" like that.

I'm totally American, but for many years I used British spellings. I grew up on a steady diet of Tolkien and Lewis and then later I just thought it looked better. I still think that.

 

[Bamagan]

I like the ancillary U of Britspelling. But my favourite four letters are 'ough' because they basically have no rules. The ultimate rebel letters when they're a squad.
Bough like ow
Cough like off
Dough like oh
Rough like uff
Slough like uff OR ooh

And that's only about half the sounds.

 

[ElectricBlue]

However she definitely was not American. She may have hated cunt, but she said "favour" and no self respecting American would ever misspell "favor" like that.

You could be right. Her use of "vulgar" perhaps was another hint (who even uses that term, nowadays?) but Brits on the whole don't do the "cunt" fingers in ears la la la thing like Americans do. She certainly wasn't Australian, that's for sure!

Still, a more entertaining drive-through than most, and she sure put her opinions on the table, if a little recklessly. I still can't work out the motive - she let me know she had a private set of notes on each author, and gave me her previous.

I guess we'll just have to wait for the publishing offers, eh? Well, some of us, anyway .

 

[ElectricBlue]

I like the ancillary U of Britspelling. But my favourite four letters are 'ough' because they basically have no rules. The ultimate rebel letters when they're a squad.
Bough like ow
Cough like off
Dough like oh
Rough like uff
Slough like uff OR ooh

And that's only about half the sounds.

Don't worry - we have a Labor Party with a strong union interest to protect the rights of those who labour. In South Australia there's a Victor Harbor that doesn't actually have a boat harbour.

I keep saying to Simon that if it wasn't for the English "u", words like those in your list would be bogh, cogh, dogh, rogh, slogh, which sound like they're from a completely different etymological tree. Long live the English "u", I say .

 

[Bamagan]

You could be right. Her use of "vulgar" perhaps was another hint (who even uses that term, nowadays?) but Brits on the whole don't do the "cunt" fingers in ears la la la thing like Americans do. She certainly wasn't Australian, that's for sure!

Maybe she was mixed. I think Americans and British can still hybridize.

 

[Bamagan]

I keep saying to Simon that if it wasn't for the English "u", words like those in your list would be bogh, cogh, dogh, rogh, slogh, which sound like they're from a completely different etymological tree. Long live the English "u", I say .

Nah, for maximum confusion we'd have turned them into:
bow, so we can occlude whether we're talking about bending from the hips, the front of a ship, a tree branch, or (when spelling) a knotted ribbon, an antique projectile weapon, or any arched figure.
Coff
Doe
Ruff
Slew
Sluff

 

[alohadave]

all the Stacy's I know are girls

Stacy Keach

It's not that common, but not unheard of.

 

[MediocreAuthor]

Stacy Keach

It's not that common, but not unheard of.

I've never met that guy. All the Stacy's I know are girls.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Nah, for maximum confusion we'd have turned them into:
bow, so we can occlude whether we're talking about bending from the hips, the front of a ship, a tree branch, or (when spelling) a knotted ribbon, an antique projectile weapon, or any arched figure.
Coff
Doe
Ruff
Slew
Sluff

Excellent! Simon's head will explode

 

[lovecraft68]

I agree and I am quite aware of this. But I don't mind it. If I can get my writing motivation back, I am hoping to attract enough feedback and followers with my new stories. This is basically an attempt for me to continue writing rather than leaving all of my series unfinished, because I do feel an urge to get the stories out of my head, while still not having enough motivation to actually start typing. This is an experiment of a sort, I guess. I will let you know the results.
Also, I want to say that I truly appreciate the fact that so many people are trying to give me friendly advice. They are not falling on deaf ears even though I have always been a stubborn bastard.

Good luck and I hope this works for you, but I'll add one more thing. In the past, when I've had some issues writing, getting a comment or feedback email was a good feeling and helped get me back on track by telling me, hey, people like your work. Remove your stories you're kind of isolating yourself from that

But its your call an you know you better than we do.